Bennington Battle Day

[ckf]

Bennington Battle Day is a yearly event in Nicole's home town.  I'vr never been but hope to check it out next year.

Then Again: The Battle of Bennington gave Americans a much-needed victory

 

The Bennington Monument. Photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger

Editor’s note: In honor of Bennington Battle Day, VTDigger is republishing this story by Mark Bushnell, a Vermont journalist and historian. He is the author of “Hidden History of Vermont” and “It Happened in Vermont.” This story was originally published on Aug. 12, 2018. 

John Spargo didn’t flinch at defending the Battle of Bennington from those who thought it was irrelevant to Vermont history. He took on their main and perhaps most damning argument, namely that the battle wasn’t fought in Bennington, nor in Vermont for that matter.

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Spargo was a defender, indeed promoter, of the importance of the battle and the monument that was built in its honor. As president of the Bennington Battle Monument and Historical Association, Spargo wrote a book on the monument’s history, tackling the controversy surrounding geography first. I’ve always assumed that all the quips I’d heard about the battle being a New York event, not a Vermont one, were a product of our irony-infused times. In fact, I’d only heard the complaint from friends who, like me, had never been given the day off on Bennington Battle Day, and who I supposed were a bit jealous of folks in state government who did.

But Spargo wrote his book in 1925. So these sorts of objections have been around a long time.

Spargo dismisses them by relying on military precedent. Many battles haven’t been named for the place where they were fought. Waterloo wasn’t fought at Waterloo nor the Battle of Bunker Hill at Bunker Hill. Washington’s victory at Monmouth, New Jersey, actually took place in Freehold. If those examples weren’t enough, Spargo delves into Greek history, noting that even Alexander the Great’s victories didn’t always happen where you might presume from the name.

The reason for this odd nomenclature is that militaries want names that say something. They don’t want to name important battles for the insignificant crossroads where two armies happened to meet. They want to name battles after a place you can easily find on a map. So commanders often refer to battles by the name of the nearest large community, which often was the objective of one of the armies or at least the winning side’s headquarters.

So it was with Bennington. It was the largest town around, was the objective of the British force and was where American troops organized their defense. Besides, the Battle of Bennington has a nicer ring to it than the Battle of Walloomsac Heights.

In a letter dated Aug. 18, 1777, two days after the battle, the American commander, Gen. John Stark, actually wrote of the “memorable battle fought at Walloomscook,” though he misspelled the town’s name. But that was a rare exception. Stark mostly referred to it as the Battle of Bennington, a practice he started within five months of the fight. Perhaps Stark found that the name “Walloomsac” conjured no images for people, since it consisted of fewer than a dozen, widely spaced homes, while Bennington’s population was roughly 1,500 – a large frontier community at the time.

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The British, however, never faltered in identifying the battle with Bennington. After all, they knew their objective: to restrain Bennington’s unruly citizens and capture a large stash of corn, wheat, horses and cattle stored there. In defending his actions before Parliament, British commander John Burgoyne referred to “the enterprise at Bennington,” “the expedition to Bennington,” “the action at Bennington” and “the affair of Bennington.”

From the start, Vermonters understood the battle’s importance. It may not be one of the best-known battles of the Revolution, but it was one of the more important. It has justly been called “the turning point that led to the turning point.”

In the weeks before it, Burgoyne’s men had been crashing south along Lake Champlain in a bid to cut New England off from the rest of the colonies. In one day, July 6, his forces took Fort Ticonderoga, Mount Independence and Crown Point, all without resistance. The British pursued the retreating Americans. Seth Warner, leading forces that included a group of Green Mountain Boys, aimed to slow the British advance and protect their comrades’ retreat. The result was the Battle of Hubbardton (yes, it really was fought in Hubbardton). The Americans suffered more than 370 casualties, including 41 killed, 96 wounded and another 234 captured.

So, Americans were in serious need of a victory, anything to slow Burgoyne’s advance. They got it on Aug. 16, when Stark led troops from Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, along with a contingent of Stockbridge Indians, against British forces stationed on a hill six miles northwest of Bennington. Stark’s forces inflicted heavy damaged on the British, who lost 200 men killed and another 700 wounded. The battle cost Burgoyne roughly 10 percent of his men.

As the battle renewed Americans’ confidence, it weakened Burgoyne’s. He wrote after the battle that the backcountry through which his men were marching suddenly “abounds in the most active and most rebellious race of the continent and hangs like a gathering storm on my left.”

Vermonters, particularly around Bennington, began marking the battle’s anniversary the year after it happened. The tradition took hold.

By the mid-1850s, some local residents decided it was time to commemorate the event with a monument. They planned to raise $75,000 to build a suitable memorial. Pledges came in, but not enough. Money was in short supply, so promoters shelved the idea.

The Bennington Battle Monument appeared in a late-19th century advertisement for a clothing store. Library of Congress photo

Twenty years later, however, boosters renewed their enthusiasm for the project. The time was right for a proud glimpse at the past. Americans were fixated on the coming centennial of the nation’s founding. The state’s own centennial the next year, in 1877, gave Vermonters a second reason to celebrate.

Community members founded the Bennington Historical Society in 1875 and the next year created the Bennington Battle Monument Association. The group’s goal of building a monument was sidetracked by centennial-mania. In 1877, Vermont celebrated the battle’s centennial with President Rutherford B. Hayes as honored guest. Thousands attended the lavish ceremonies.

After the hoopla died down, the Bennington Historical Association set to work in earnest on the monument, though it would be 14 years before it was officially dedicated.

Designs came in from the country’s top architects and sculptors. A Yale professor suggested a 50-foot structure, surmounted by a shaft of rough-hewn rock to symbolize the rugged character of the region’s people. On top would be a 15-foot bronze statue of Stark or an idealized version of a Revolutionary commander. The proposed monument proved insufficiently monumental.

A leading Boston architect, J. Philip Rinn, suggested a 100-foot column topped with a statue of a Green Mountain Boy attacking the enemy. Organizers envisioned something still larger. When Rinn returned with the idea of a 300-foot-tall obelisk, organizers bit.

Groundbreaking occurred on June 4, 1887. The monument would stand on the 285-foot-tall hill on which had stood the storehouse that the British had targeted.

Work proceeded on schedule and on budget. The only significant mishap occurred when two workers were installing a roof to cover the then 200-foot-high monument for the winter. One of the men, Frank Nolan, fell down the center of the monument. As he plummeted, he struck a series of boards that were spaced every 10 feet up the monument. So instead of a 200-foot fall, Nolan suffered a series of 10-foot falls, as one author put it. Miraculously, he survived, with only a small gash on his head to show for it.

The monument was ready to have its capstone lowered on Nov. 25, 1889. An estimated 3,000 people turned out to watch the ceremony, which marked the end of the monument’s masonry work.

Immediately after the crowd dispersed, a second ceremony took place on a platform erected at the monument’s peak. On the scaffolding were 30 dignitaries, including the architect, contractor, leaders of the monument association and newspapermen. Since workers still needed to cement the capstone into place, it was lifted again. Some of the dignitaries threw silver coins into the wet cement for luck. Then, when the capstone was lowered again, they took turns, seemingly on a dare, standing on it.

The monument was finally completed and readied for a grand public celebration in August 1891. The ceremonies were scheduled for Aug. 19, instead of the 16th, which fell on a Sunday that year. The event was billed as a joint commemoration of Vermont’s centennial (which actually fell in March) and the anniversary of the battle.

The day started with a massive parade, involving 4,484 marchers and more than 500 horses and carriages. President Benjamin Harrison was a guest of honor, along with most of his cabinet, the governors of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, and Vermont’s two U.S. senators. After a series of speeches, 5,000 people sat down to a banquet.

The event was such a success that the state Legislature must have decided, why not do this every year? In 1894, lawmakers approved a bill making Bennington Battle Day a state holiday. Vermont might not have been the state where the Battle of Bennington was fought, but it remains the only state where it is celebrated.

[Zambroski]

Sounds cool.  I love military history.

BTW, I’m now offended by this monument and want it torn down.  I’m starting an online petition: “RACIST BENNINGTON MONUMENT MUST GO!!”

Already got 10,000 signatures and I haven’t even submitted it yet!!!!  

 

[ckf]

1 minute ago, Zambroski said:

Sounds cool.  I love military history.

BTW, I’m now offended by this monument and want it torn down.  I’m starting an online petition: “RACIST BENNINGTON MONUMENT MUST GO!!”

Already got 10,000 signatures and I haven’t even submitted it yet!!!!  

 

That part of what's been going on lately really pisses me off.  Like it or not, you aren't going to erase history by tearing down monuments and statues.

Can't even watch The Dukes of Hazzard on TV anymore because the car had a confederate flag on the roof 

[Zambroski]

3 minutes ago, ckf said:

That part of what's been going on lately really pisses me off.  Like it or not, you aren't going to erase history by tearing down monuments and statues.

Can't even watch The Dukes of Hazzard on TV anymore because the car had a confederate flag on the roof 

Yeah.  It’s silly and counterproductive....let alone anything “woke”.

Libtwats: ”We can all learn from the mistakes of history so it doesn’t repeat itself.”

Also Libtwats: “Tear down and erase that offensive history!!!”

 

[Kivalo]

Pretty cool story! 

 Gentalman John Burgoyne won his first attempt at Saratoga but lost the second to Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold. 

[ckf]

1 minute ago, Kivalo said:

Pretty cool story! 

 Gentalman John Burgoyne won his first attempt at Saratoga but lost the second to Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold. 

I've always been a US History nut.  Being from the Northeast there is tons of it close by to check out. 

[Kivalo]

6 minutes ago, ckf said:

I've always been a US History nut.  Being from the Northeast there is tons of it close by to check out. 

Me too! I minored in US History in college and I read/listen to podcasts about it all the time. Ever listen to Liz Covart's Ben Franklin's World podcast? 

[Mainecat]

Love Bennington