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Show I PIEEMJPE T Mk At At I Herkimer at Oriskany; Stark at Bennington By ELMO SCOTT WATSON THE surrender of "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, the luckless British commander, at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, is not only one of the high spots in the history of the United States but it is also a milestone in world history. "Rebellion, which a twelvemonth ago was a contemptible pygmy, is now in appearance become a giant" wrote a contemporary con-temporary and his estimate of the importance of that event soon proved to be accurate. Schuyler. Gansevoort, who had been wondering what the distant firing meant. Immediately ordered or-dered the three cannons fired as a signal that he was ready to make a sortie. Herkimer's men heard the reports but they could not advance ad-vance now. So great was the slaughter on both sides that finally the Indians, In-dians, who had been assured of an easy victory, became discouraged. discour-aged. Raising the cry of retreat, "Oonah! Oonah!" they left the field. Seeing this and hearing the firing in their rear, caused by Colonel's Willett's sortie against St. Leger's camp, the Tories also retreated. Late in the afternoon Herkimer's army held the field which it had bought at such a fearful price 150 dead, 150 wounded and 60 or more missing. Ten days later "Old Honikol" nerkimer died at his home near Little Falls, to which he had been removed after the battle. Meanwhile General Schuyler was met by General Lincoln with orders to Join Schuyler at Stillwater. Still-water. He was also met by the Vermont council of Bafety which urged him to disregard Schuyler's orders. The state government of New Hampshire upheld him in his decision to go to Bennington. On August 13 Stark received word of the approach of Baum's expedition. Without waiting to be attacked, Stark marched out the next morning to meet the Hessian Hes-sian commander. He also sent messengers to Manchester to summon Col. Seth Warner's regiment regi-ment of Continentals, which had been left there in charge of Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Colonel Saflord, and ordered or-dered him to rally the militia in that section. He then drew up his forces near the little settlement of Walloomsac to await Baum's attack. Although the engagement which followed is always referred to as the Battle of Bennington, and is regarded as a high point In Vermont's history, it was not d the present site of Utica, N. Y., and reached Whitestown the next day. Here Herkimer sent a messenger mes-senger to Gansavoort to arrange for co-operation against the enemy. ene-my. The commander at Fort Schuyler was to fire three cannon shots as a signal that a detachment detach-ment was ready to make a sortie from the fort, whereupon Herkimer Herki-mer would launch his attack against St. Leger. The Impatient Militiamen. But his couriers were delayed in getting through the enemy's lines For this victory won for the American Patriots an alliance al-liance with France, England's Eng-land's traditional enemy, and this marked the beginning of the end of their fight for freedom. free-dom. So there was good reason rea-son for Creasy, the historian, to include the fighting around Saratoga among his "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World." But a necessary prelude to that fighting were two other engagements, small ' - , v' vHv "-S AlS i. ft - ' f , in terms of the number of men engaged but big in their results. re-sults. It is doubtful if Horatio Gates could have stood at Saratoga as the victor had it not been for Nicholas Herkimer at Oriskany and John Stark at Bennington. Ben-nington. Asthe year 1777 opened, the British Brit-ish government began to realize the real magnitude of its task of Bubduing the rebellious American colonies. Three plans, of waging a successful war against them were open. The first was a strict naval blockade combined with placing strong garrisons at strategic stra-tegic points from which attacks could be launched against detachments detach-ments of rebel forces. The second sec-ond was to concentrate on Washington's Wash-ington's army and destroy it. The third plan, outlined to Lord Germain by Gen. John Burgoyne, second in command in Canada, was to march one army south from Montreal, another east from Oswego and a third north from New York, all three to unite at Albany. Thus, by holding the Hudson river, the British would isolate New England from the other colonies and "cut off the head of the rebellion." The plan was fundamentally unsound un-sound because it would draw each army far from its base of supplies sup-plies as it advanced and it would enable an active enemy, operating operat-ing on interior lines, to strike and defeat the separate armies before they could join forces. But Germain, as though to justify his right to the title of "England's worst war minister," decided to adopt Burgoyne's idea. Even at that, it might have suc- I VTLL FACE THE ENEMY!" General Herkimer at the Battle of Oriskany. (From the painting by F. C. Yohn, courtesy, the Glens Falls Insurance Company.) and the unruly militiamen most of them frontiersmen and typical "rugged individualists" began to chafe at the delay. Again and again they demanded that their officers lead them against the foe. Enraged by Herkimer's refusal, they went so far as to call him a Tory who would betray them and sacrifice the defenders of Fort Schuyler. But the crowning insult came when Colonel Cox shouted "He dares not march! He is a coward!" Herkimer sprang up, his face white, his eyes blazing. Colonel Bellinger and Major Frey had called for volunteers at Stillwater Still-water to go to the relief of the fort which bore his name. Benedict Bene-dict Arnold led them and as he neared the fort he sent spies into St. Leger's camp who spread word of the coming of a great force of Americans. The Indians, still further discouraged by this news, decamped by the hundreds, as did many of the Loyalists. St. Leger was forced to withdraw his regulars in haste, leaving behind him all of his camp equipment, which fell into the hands of the defenders of Fort Schuyler. So Herkimer and his men had not fought at Bennington nor was it in Vermont. Walloomsac is in New York, six miles from Bennington, Ben-nington, and Stark's victory should more properly be known as the Battle of Walloomsac. Baum arrived near Bennington on August 15 and, gaining some idea of Stark's strength, pitched his camp, entrenched and sent back to Burgoyne for reinforcements. reinforce-ments. The next morning, although al-though it was raining in torrents and Warner's force had not yet arrived, Stark decided to attack. After skilfully surrounding the enemy, he launched his assault on npprfm mJ m aum s enireuniiiieuia. Stark's men fought desperate-i , ly, and early in the afternoon gained the crest of the hill and after a half-hour of desperate fighting, much of it hand-to-hand, they shattered Baum's force. Its survivors fled from the field, leav-t ing in the hands of the victory their mortally wounded commander. comman-der. No sooner was the victory won than the undisciplined frontiersmen frontiers-men scattered over the field to plunder the Hessian baggage train. Their commander had completely com-pletely lost control of them and: was entirely unprepared for battle when a force of 500 British, , commanded by Lieutenant-Col- THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON (From the painting by Chappel). fin..i,iiiiili;.tiJiijyitjElWl ' t ' A i I $ ' ,! i - t j W&fr-S L Hi died at Oriskany in vain. The Second Blow. The second blow was struck in Vermont on the very day that "Old Honikol" died. It was the victory which John Stark and his New Hampshire and Vermont militia, plus a small force from Massachusetts, won from a detachment de-tachment of Burgoyne's army and it, perhaps even more than Oriskany, Oris-kany, sealed the doom of "Gentleman "Gen-tleman Johnny's" high hopes for j 8UCCCSS. When'that general reached Fort Edward on July 30 he found himself him-self in a difficult position. He had positive orders from Lord Germain to push on to Albany. His baggage train was sadly inadequate inade-quate for a march through the wilderness ahead of him. At Bennington, Vt., some 30 miles southeast of Fort Edward, a great store of supplies had been gathered for Schuyler's army and General Burgoyne decided to risk a foray to capture them. But when he sent Colonel Baum with a force of 600 Hessians to capture the supplies he was underestimating underestimat-ing badly both the numbers and the fighting qualities of Stark's men. Stark was a native of Manchester, Manches-ter, N. H., and had served with distinction with Rogers' Rangers in the French and Indian war and as a colonel at Bunker Hill, at Trenton and at Princeton. When congress passed him by in promoting pro-moting officers in the Continental army, he resigned from the army. Several months before, Vermont Ver-mont had declared its independent independ-ent as a state. When Burgoyne captured Ticonderoga consternation consterna-tion spread throughout the new commonwealth because the Ver-monters Ver-monters felt that this capture laid them open to whatever punishment punish-ment Burgoyne might wish to inflict in-flict upon them. So they called upon New Hampshire for assistance assist-ance in repelling the invaders. A Premature Censure. Accordingly, New Hampshire raised a force of militia and put John Stark in command with the rank of general. Incidentally, officers offi-cers of the Continental army and congress resented this action and the latter, on August 9, passed a vote of censure upon him for accepting ac-cepting the appointment. This was three days after his victory and just a day before the news of it reached them! On August 7 Stark marched his men to Manchester, Vt., where he ceeded if the minister had not showed such a perfect genius for blundering. Burgoyne's Invasion Begins. In June, 1777, Burgoyne started south from St. Johns with his army of British regulars, French-Canadian French-Canadian militia, Hessian mercenaries, merce-naries, and a large force of Indians. In-dians. He easily captured Fort Ticonderoga, thanks to the blunder blun-der of its American commander, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, in not fortifying for-tifying Sugar Hill which overlooked over-looked the fort. After a difficult march through the wilderness, the British commander also captured cap-tured Fort Edward. Meanwhile, the invasion from the West had begun. With a force of 1,500 men, including British regulars, Loyalist (Tory) volunteers volun-teers and Indians, Col. Barry St. Leger advanced from Oswego and on August 3 laid siege to the old British post of Fort Stanwix which had been renamed Fort Schuyler by the Americans. The fort which stood on the present site of Rome, N. Y., was garrisoned by Continentals Conti-nentals commanded by Col. Mari-nus Mari-nus Willett and Col. Peter Gansevoort Ganse-voort who immediately appealed to the Committee of Safety in Try-on Try-on county for help. The chairman of this committee and brigadier-general of its militia mili-tia was Nicholas Herkimer "Old Honikol Herkimer," they called him He at once set out for the relief re-lief of Fort Schuyler with a force of about 800 militia divided into four regiments, commanded by Col. Ebenezer Cox, Col. Jacob Klock, Col. Frederick Visscher and Col. Peter Bellinger. On August 4 this force assembled assem-bled at Fort Dayton near the mouth of West Canada creek, crossed the Mohawk river near begged him to remain firm in his decision. "Py Gott, no ! " he thundered. thun-dered. "If you vill haff it so, your blood be on your heads! Vor-warts!" Vor-warts!" Half an hour later a disorderly mob, rather than a disciplined army, streamed out of its encampment. en-campment. At Oriskany creek the road led across a narrow causeway of logs over a marsh with thick woods on either side. Hidden in these woods was a force of Loyalists from Sir John Johnson's, John-son's, regiment of "Johnson's Greens," commanded by Major Watts, and a body of Mohawk Indians In-dians led by the famous Thayen-danegea Thayen-danegea or Joseph Brant. Caught in a Trap. Just as the head of the column marched on to the causeway, the Indians impetuously opened fire. Herkimer's rear guard retreated almost immediately but the rest took shelter behind trees and began be-gan returning the enemy's fire. This marked the beginning of one of the fiercest battles ever fought on this continent. Some of the "Johnson Greens" were old neighbors neigh-bors of Herkimer's men and Oriskany Oris-kany was civil war at its worst. For the most part it was a hand-to-hand affair in which former friends killed each other with indescribable in-describable fury. Colonels Cox and Paris were among the first to die. Herkimer was disabled early in the battle with a bullet through his knee. Urged to retire to a safe place, he gave the reply which has become be-come historic, "I vill face the enemy." en-emy." They laid him under a tree and there he sat propped up and directed his forces as they fought for their lives. During the course of the battle his messengers reached Fort Gen. John Stark onel Breyman, suddenly came up. At this critical juncture Warner marched on the field. Stark's men rallied around them and Breyman was defeated. The Battle of Bennington raised the morale of the Patriots after a long, unbroken chain of discouraging dis-couraging reverses. Congress now reversed its censure of Stark by voting its thanks to him and his men and making him a brigadier-general brigadier-general in the Continental army. But most important of all was the effect which this battle had on the fortunes of General Burgoyne. Bur-goyne. Weakened by the losses of the force he had sent to Ben-, nington and struggling against a shortage of supplies, he plunged on southward to keep his rendezvous rendez-vous with final failure at Saratoga. Sara-toga. , C Western Newspaper Union. |