Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-08-21


but to cross the country to Rockingham,
and thence march to Albany.
The British commander proceeded with
the caution the importance of his eXpedi-
ton demanded. When he found that he
must fight, and perceived the resolute and
thorough soldership of Stark's movements,
he chose position with excellent iudg-
ment, entrenched himself strongly, and
placed his troops and his guns to the best
advantage. Stark could not wait as he
would have done, for his enemy's advance.
He was unable to subsist his ill-prOvded
forces long, nor could he keep them from
homes that were suffering for their pres
ence. His only chance was to attack at
once and his dispositions for it, most ably
seconded by Warner, his right hand man,
were mastery beyond criticism He had
no artillery, no cavalry, no transportation,
no commissariat but the women on the
farms. Half of his troops were without
bayonets, and even ammunition had to be
husbanded. He lacked everything but
men, and his men lacked everything but
hardihOod and indomitable resolution. Up
on all known rules and experience of war
fare, the successful storming, by hastily
organized militia, of an entrenched posi-
ton at the top of hill, held by an ade-
quate regular force, would have been de-
cared impossible But it was the impossi-
BILE that happened, in a rOut of the veter-
ans that amounted to destruction.
History and literature, eloquence and
poetry have combined to enshrine in the
memory of mankind, those decisive charges,
at critical moments, by which great battles
have been won, and epochs in the life of
nations determined. | set against the
splendor of them all, that final onset up
yonder hill and over its breastworks, of
those New England farmers, on whose
faces desperation had kindled the supernat-
ural light of battle which never shines in
vain That conflict was the last hope of
the Hampshire Grants. They were fight
ing for all they had on earth, whether of
possessions or of rights. They could not
go home defeated. for they would have had
no homes to 90 to. The desolate land that
BurgOyne would have left, New ork would
have taken. Not a man was on the field by
compulsion, or upon the slightest eXpecta-
ton of personal advantage or reward. The
spirit which made the day possible was
shown in that Stephen Fay of Bennington,
who had five sons in the fight When the
first born was brought home to him dead,
81 thank God, he said, "that | had son
willing to give his life for his country
Such, in merest and briefest outline, was
Bennington. Its story, imperfectly pre-
served. comes down to us only in flashes,
but they are flashes of glorious light. Its
consequences were immediate and far reach
ing. 1t was the first success of the RevOlu-
ton which bore any fruit. Its guns sound
ed the first notes in the knell which an
nOunced that the power of Great Britain
l,,1 1
sacrificed was passing away. Burgoyne
heard it and knew what it meant. Wash
ington heard it, and hearing took heart
again. Confidence replaced despair. Gates
succeeded Schuyler in command at Sarato-
ga, and the militia poured into his camp
The invncibiity of the British commander
was gone. He fought desperately but in
vain. On the 18th of October he surren-
dered.
If Bennington had not been fought. or
had been fought without success, the june
ton between Clinton and BurgOyne could
not have been prevented, and his surrender
would not have taken place. IF had
succeeded there, he wrote to his govern
ment, II should have marched to Albany"
But Bennington was only an episode in
the early life of Vermont Striking, hero
ic, conspicuous, yet still but an episode.
The outbreak of the revolution found the
people of the Hampshire Grants already
engaged in a contest with the powerful col
ony of New York, which had for ten years
taxed their utmost resources. The first to
occupy the unbroken wilderness which is
now Vermont, they had taken and paid for
their titles to the lands, as a part of the
colony of New Hampshire, under regular
grants from its governor as vicegerent OF
the British Crown. They had organized
townships, built roads, cleared forests and
established their homes. Up to that time
the territory had been universally regarded
as a part of New Hampshire, and the early
maps so laid it down. New York for more
than hundred years from the date of heT
charter, had attempted no jurisdiction over
it. But after the New Hampshire Grants
| had been made and occupied. New York
set up the claim that her eastern boundary
was the Connecticut river. The greater in
| fiuence of New York, and her better means
of prosecuting her case before the Privy
Council, obtained from the Crown, in 1864,
an order establishing the Connecticut as
the dividing line. But this was only the
arbitrary adjustment of a boundary incapa-
| BILE of other settlement. Its legal effect
was prospective, not retroactive. 1t estab-
lished jurisdiction, it did not invalidate
| titles previously vested, under which a
| prior and adverse possession existed, and
which had been derived from the common
source of title, the king, OF whom the con.
| testing governors We're alike the agents
and while the territory was de facto part
of New Hampshire. Nor was ii the inten-
! ton of the Crown or of the Privy Council
that it should have such an effect When
in 1867, three years later the settlers. re.
sisting the efforts of New York to confis-
cate their lands, succeeded by greater eXer-
! tiOns in bringing the case again before that
! body, upon its unanimous and emphatic
! judgment, further grants by New York OF
lands granted by New Hampshire prior tC
1894, were positively prohibited by the
| king.
| Notwithstanding this explicit order, the
| colonial government of New York cOntin.
ued to make grants, in large quantities, Of
lands occupied adversely under the New
Hampshire titles, without the least regart
to the rights of the inhabitants, or the dis
tressng consequences in which they would
be involved, These grants were not mad,
to settlers, but to spectators and politica
tavorists, upon payment of enormous fees
to the governor. Not even compensation
was offered for the Improvements which
had given the lands all the value they had
| rescued them from the savage and the wild
beasts and made them habitable by man
No greater outrage had been attempted I'M
der the forms of English laws, since til,
days of Jetfres. 1t would not only hay,
hna, ,-iolatio,, Of