Litchfield enquirer., 1877-08-23
Bennington.

The middle of August l777 found bur. goyne in triumphant aud almost uninter- rupted march from Canada to New York. The fortress of Ticonderoga, to which the insurgents had looked as an impregnable
 bulwark, had fallen almost without 8 blow. With its fall Champlain had become .a British lake. stretching far into the new Republic and opening g dangerous Assure between New England and its cen. ttal and Southern States. While, holding the city of New York, the British com mander had only to force few forts on the Hudson to open his way to Albany. and reach up to within fifty miles of the advancing forces of Burgoyne. Luckily there was no effective concert of action between the two armies of the King. Howe was bent on campaign against Philadelphia. and Burgoyne had no use. full cooperation from below.
 Indeed, it was only the blunders of it's invaders that saved the Republic in the the summer'of TIT. Burgoyne's enter prise seemed an easier one than Sher
 man's celebrated March to the Eea. With the exception of Washington's brilliant Christmas night at Trenton, the American forces had been almost everywhere uns successful for more than a year. The in- vasion of Canada had been most disas- trous: and the attemped defence of New York, costly failure. The continental army had not yet sufficiently profted by Steuben's discipline. to meet the British, regulars in the open field. It was just here that the defeat and destruction of a detachment ofs1OO0 of Bnrgoyne's best troops, by a motley assemblage of Yankee farmers. changed tha who1a 1fana of ths war, and developed the tactics that two months later completed the ruin of Bur. goyne's splendid army. ae ,'..'@
 To understand this wonderful and ap- parently miraculous result, we must keep Tn mind the two controlling military facts of the Revolutionary war, viz: that the patriots were excellent marksmen, but no soldiers; that the British and Hessians were good soldiers, but poor riarksmen. Fighting behind intrenchments, as at Bun- ker Hill, the American militia were more than match for the best British troops. Fighting in the woods at Bennington, .Stark's marksmen had Baums Hessians at fearful disadvantage, and the small loss on the side of the yictors, and the multitude of killed among the ivan- quished, especially when we consider that the latter were protected by entrench- ments, can only be explained by their de- cided inferiority as marksmen. 1s' ',
 A sentence in the description of this battle in the September number of Har- per's Magazine, shows the character of the contest. ''The assailants being shell tered by trees and brush, received little injury from the Hesslan fire, deli0ered 6reGst high, ,s0stsout oins." The American loss was but hundred in killed and wounded, most of them before the Tory breastwork, while 2O7 of the enemy were
 found dead on the field. In short, in the forest, where tactics weut for little and marksmanship was everything, the Brit ish and German soldiers was no match for the Yankee militiamen. It was the old story of Braddock over again, with a much cooler. steadief, and more psrsis. tent enemy than the American Indian. In the open field of the Brandywine. the su. periority of British tactics gave them an easy victory. It was queer sort of war, alt ogether, between soldiers who could not shoot and militlamen who could not maneuver. Eventually, however. Steuben imbued the Continentals with something of Prussian tactical steadiness. and made very effective machine of the American army; Bnt when Baum was killed at Ben- ningion. and when, indeed, Burgoyne sur rendered at Saratoga, American disci- pline vas depIorably defective. '''4
 The inferiority of the Hessian as q bushfighter appears at once on compari- son of the field of Bennington with that of Oriskany. In the latter, the Americans, | fighting Tories and Indians, lost heavily, and gained no decisive victory; while Ben nington was an easy as well as 8 complete 1 success.
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