Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-08-21
BENNINGTON.
THE GRAFTON OF HON, E. j, PHELPS

Delivered nj the Battle Monument Ded-
ication and Centennial Celebration,
ON wednesday OF this Week.
Vermont consecrates today her first his
toric monument. But not hers alone, New
Hampshire and Massachusetts,, who fought
with her and for her at Bennington, have
joined in erecting this memorial of their
common history. And they are here by
splendid representation, to share in the
triumph of its completion, and to give to
the occasion by the distinction of their
presence, higher dignity, a more generous
grace.
The day has a still larger significance. 1t
is trebly fortunate. 1t marks not only the
anniversary of the battle, and the happy
consummation in this structure of the ex-
ertions of fifteen years, but likewise the
centennial of the entrance of Vermont into
the Federal Union. 1t unites in its sug-
gestions the great memories and the great
hope in the life of our commonwealth, the
expiring century and the limitless future.
History is full of battles. All its pages
are stained with blood. Instruments, for
the most part, of ambition, of tyranny and
of crime. 1t would have been well for the
world to be spared the misery they wrought.
1t would be well for its history if their mem
DRY could perish. But there have been
battles nevertheless whose smoke went up
like incense; consecrated in the sight of
Heaven by the cause they maintained.
Such was that for which this shaft shall
henceforth stand
If battles were to be accounted great in
proportion to the numbers engaged, Ben
nington would be but small. In COMPARE
son with Marathon, and Waterloo, and
Gettysburg it was in that view only an
affair of OutpOsts But it is not numbers
alone that give importance to battlefields.
The fame of Thermopolp would not
have survived had the Greeks been great
army instead of three hundred. 1t is the
cause that is fought for, the herosm and
self-sacrihce displayed, and consequences
which follow, moral and political as well as
military, that gives significance to conflicts
of arms. Judged by these standards, Ben
nngtOn may well be reCkoned among the
memorable battles of the world.
1t was, on our side, the peoples fight.
No government directed or supplied it; no
regular force was concerned; it was part
of no organized campaign. New Hamp-
shire sent her hastily embodied militia, not
the less volunteers. In Vermont and
Massachusetts it was the spontaneous up
rising of rural and peace-loving popula-
ton, to resist invasion, to defend their
homes, to vindicate their right of self-gov
eminent. Lexington and Bunker Hill
We're in this respect its only parallels in the
Revolutionary war.
The march of Burgoyne from Canada to
the Hudson had been till then a continu-
10 hroN. nd 81
soldier, leading well-appointed and pow
erful army. Ticonderoga, the key and
stronghold of the northern frontier, had
fallen unexpectedly without blow. The
Vermonters retreating thence had been
overtaken and utterly defeated at Hub
bardton. The advance of the British to
Saltwater had been almost unOpposed;
and there was as yet no promise of etfectu-
al resistance. Even Washington, steel
proof against despair, wrote that he saw
not how BurgOynes march to Albany
could be checked.
The situation of the inhabitants of the
Hampshire Grants was most critical. Their
whole frontier was open to the incursiOn of
an enemy whose allies were savages. They
had been totally neglected by Congress-
not step had been taken for their relief.
Scattered sparsely through the country up
on their farms, without any organized
state government almost destitute of the
material of war, except the firearms in
their houses they still had no thought of
flight or submission. They called upon
God first, in a day of fasting and prayer,
appointed by their convention, and not on
~ appointed but solemnly kept. And
then they called upon New Hamp hire and
John Stark. New Hampshire, ablaze with
patriotic feeling, issued instant orders for
her militia to march. Stark's reply was
brief, for he was not man of words. 81
am on the way" said he, with all the men
/ can MUSTER With the eve of a born
soldier he saw that the Vermonters were
right when they declared that there could
be no frontier but a frontier of armed men.
That the Hampshire Grants must be held,
because no enemy could be resisted to
whom the gates of the country were thus
thrown open. And that the effectual blow
against Burgoyne must be struck on his
flank.
Full justice has been done in history and
tradition to the bravery and the patriotism
of John Stark. But his great qualities as
general have not been set forth as they
deserve No better piece of military work
was seen in the Revolution than he did in
that brief and sudden campaign. He con-
centrated the scattered militia at Charles
town with a rapidity that was marvellous.
He was impeded by the want of the most
necessary and ordinary supplies. Yet re-
ceving his orders on the 22d of July, while
the militia were all at their homes, he
marched with the last of them from
Charlestown on the Sd of August. On the
18th he was at Manchester, through the
wilderness and across the Green Mountains
by incapable roads, and without any ade-
quate transportation. On the 9th he was
at Bennington with his own forces and the
Vermont and Massachusetts, men organized
and i'm hand. On the 18th he engaged the
enemy; on the 10th the battle was fought
If there had been no battle at all, such ce-
lerity and precision of movement with an
irregular force i'm the face of such difficult
ties, would alone have been generalship of
the highest order. At Manchester he was
met 10y peremptory order from Congress
to march at once to join Schuyler, leaving
the Grants to their fate. He refused to
obey ii. The cause was more to him than
Congress, and he understood its necessities
better than they did
Meanwhile the men of the Grants had
not been idle. Every nerve had been
strained in their own behalf. The Council
of Safety, improvised for the occasion, sat
continuously at Bennington, assuming all
the powers of government. Every ayaila-
BILE man turned out. No woman bid hus-
hand son Or brother STAY Sucb scantX-