The Battle of Bennington by Michael P. Gabriel Tyler Resch

Author:Michael P. Gabriel, Tyler Resch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

View of the Walloomsac River. Courtesy of Phyllis Chapman .

The battle was not over yet. After receiving Baum’s request for reinforcements, Burgoyne sent Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Breymann and 642 soldiers toward Bennington on August 15. Heavy rain and mud slowed his approach, and Breymann did not arrive at Sancoick until the following afternoon. He alleged that he had not heard the firing from the first engagement and only learned of Baum’s defeat after it was too late to help. 19 Several hundred yards beyond the mill, Breymann came under fire from a group of Americans behind a fence. The German troops easily brushed them aside and deployed for battle, supported by two six-pounder cannons. Resuming the advance, Breymann next encountered a makeshift line that Stark assembled. The German officer later recalled, “Not withstanding fresh support was constantly coming into them, they were driven from every heights. The Troops did their duty and every one concerned, did the same.” Just then, Warner’s regiment and fresh Massachusetts militiamen led by Major John Rand arrived on the field, stiffening Stark’s line.

The two sides battled until sunset in what most participants considered the heaviest fighting of the day and the one that they recorded most fully. The Americans eventually flanked the Germans’ left and gained the upper hand. Running low on ammunition, Breymann, wounded in the leg, ordered a retreat. This retreat degenerated into a rout as the Americans pursued. Private Thomas Mellen remembered, “Many of them threw down their guns on the ground, or offered them to us, or kneeled, some in puddles of water.” The Germans fled into the growing darkness, and Stark soon halted the pursuit. He later claimed that none would have escaped if night had not fallen. As it was, Stark had won a signal victory. During the two engagements, the Americans killed 207 enemy soldiers; captured around 700, including 30 officers; and recovered four cannons and a large quantity of military equipment. Estimates of American losses vary, but Stark put the figure at 30 dead and 40 wounded. Over the next several days, Baum’s and Breymann’s survivors trickled back to Burgoyne’s army carrying the news of the disaster.

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