Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-08-22
From the Daily Of the 18th inst.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

From the Daily Of thel Inst.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
General Stark's story Of the Fight.
The following letter, written by
the man who bossed the business at
Bennington, and giving his account
of the battle, was written rs will be
seen by the date, just one hundred
years ago to-day. 1t is copied from
The linton, Of Philadelphia, in the
issue of Aug. II, 1921, in connection
with the report of the celebration
OF the anniversary of the battle held
in that year, under the head of "Im-
portant and Fresh Intelligence"
EXETER, N. H., Aug. 26, 1777.-Sun-
day evening an express arrived in this
town with the following important
intelligence from Gen. Stark at Ben
nington:
BENNINGTON, Vt. Aug. Is, It'll
Gentlemen I congratulate you on
the success Of your troops under my
command, by crpress. / purpose to
give you brief account of my pro-
ceedings since wrote you last.
III left Manchester on the 8th inst,
and arrived here the 9th. The 18th
I was informed that q party Of In
dams were at Cambridge, which is
twelve miles distant from this place,
on their march thither. I detached
Col. Gregg, with two hundred men
under his command, to stop their
march. In the evening had infor-
nation by express that there was
large body Of the enemy on their way
with their field-pieces in order to
march through the country COM
manded by Gov. Skeene. The l4th l
marched with my brigade and few
of the militia to oppose them
and cover Gregg's retreat, who
found himself unable to with
stand their superior number. About
four miles from this town I accord
ingly met him on his return and the
enemy in close pursuit Of him, within
half mile Of his rear. But when
they discovered me, they presently
halted on very advantageous piece
of ground. I drew mp my little army
on an eminence in open view of their
encampments, but could not bring
them to, AN engagement. I marched
back about q mile, and there en-
camped. sent few men to skirm-
ish with them, and killed thirty of
them, with two Indian chiefs. The
18th it rained all day !; l sent out par
ties to harrass them. The 18th was
Joined by this states militia, and those
of Berkshire. county. l divided my
army into three divisions, and sent
Col. Nichols with two hundred and
fifty on the rear of their left wing
Col. Heinrich on the rear of their right
with three hundred men, ordered
when Joined, to attack the same. In
the meantime I sent three hundred
more to oppose his front, to draw the
attention that way. Soon after, l de-
tached Coils. Hubbard and Stickney
on their right wing with two hun
dred men to attack that part, all of
which plans had their desired effect.
Col. Nichols sent me word that he
stood in need of reinforcements, which
1 readily granted, consisting of one
hundred men, at which time he COM
menced the attack at precisely three
o'clock in the afternoon, which was
followed by all the rest; pushed
forward the remainder with all
speed. Our people behaved with the
greatest spirit and bravery imagin-
able; had they been Alexander or
Charles of Sweden they could not
behaved better. The action lasted
about two hours, at the expiration of
which time we forced their breast
works al the muzzles of their guns,
took two pieces of brass can
non, with number Of prisoners
but before l could get them
in proper form again, receiy-
ed intelligence that there was large
reinforcement within two miles ofus,
on their march, which occasioned us
to renew our attack; but, lucky for
us, Col. Wagner's regiment came up
which put stop to their career. We
soon rallied, and in a few moments
the action became very warm and
desperate and lasted until night. We
used their own cannon against them,
proved of great service to us. At
sunset we obliged them to retreat
second time; we pursued them till
dark, when was obliged to halt for
fear of killing my own men. We
recovered two more pieces of their
cannon, together with all their bag
gage, number of horses, carriages,
etc, killed upward of two hundred
of the enemy in the field of battle.
The number of wounded is not yet
known, as they are scattered about
in many places. have one lieuten-
ant-colonel, since dead, one major,
seven captains, fourteen lieutenants,
four engineers, ten comets, one judge
advocate, one baron, two Canadian
officers, six sergeants, one aid-de-
camp, one Hessian chaplain, three
Hessian surgeons, and seven hundred
prisoners.
~ enclose you copy of Gen. Bur-
goyne's instructions to Col. Baum,
who commanded the detachment that
engaged us. Our wounded are forty
two; ten privates and four officers
belonging to my brigade are dead
the dead and wounded in the other
corps do not know, as they have not
yet brought in their returns. 1 am,
gentlemen, with the greatest regard
and respect, your most obedient hum
BILE servant, "JoHN STARK,
Brigadier General.
1
up. ST. think we have returned
the enemy proper compliment in
the above action for the Hubbart-
Town engagement"
a Card to the Ladies.
We wish to inform our patrons,
and ladies generally, that we are bet.
<ar ., rama rad thar, ava. hafnro ~ rive