Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-12-27
DO YOUR v BEST.

A.---
Standing at the grave of General
stark this morning a little incident re-
lated l believe by DR.. Hale. came to my
mind Which may still be useful to some
Young MAJ in shaping an earnest, pur-
poseful life. General Burgoyne had
spent June and July of 1777 in organ
izlnS and e%quipping an army of 10000
IN Canada. intending to descend upon
Albany. from q junction at New York
With Howe and SO isolate the New
England states from the rest of the
country Ticonderoga. Mount Hope
and f'ort Edward We're captured, but
Bennington was his Waterloo.
General Stark, With his hastily raised
brigade, met the British forces at-Ben-
ningson. having left orders for Col.
Seth Warner to bring up his little
force from Manchester as rapidly as
possible. During the early part OF the
action, August l6. 1777. the British
Wee driven back, but some Hessian
reinforcements arriving. the contest
was renewed. Stark pulled out his
watch saying. They ought to be here
and just at the M Warmers
drums We're heard. and his men. though
few in number, a an extra supply
of arms. and firing right and left they
checked the Germans and carried the
day.
On his way over the hills. Colonel
Warner'sfhorse. a high-spirited animal,
a lost a shoe and it was absolutely
necessary in that rocky country to have
it replaced. fastening down to a little
hamlet OF two or three houses. a store
and a blacksmith shop. they found the
smiths shop closed and no one in the
village but some women and a lame
~l6-year-old boy. "All the men have
gone to the army" said he, but could
do nothing"
The boy saw the situation. I've
blown tho hnl1Du-c Fnr -- -.
times helped him a little. may be I can
help YOU" Try" said the horseman,
do your level best. my boy. but don't
hurt tho horse"
Lighting the fire. the boy hunted up
three nails. made the other five, fitted
a shoe to the delicate footed beast-a
soldier blowing the bellows meanwhile
nailed it on and dropped with sheer
exhaustion exciten ent as he drove
the last nail. That's Splendid. said
the officer. as he slipped some money
into the boys hand. and mounted.
But a soldier stayed behind a min
ute and said to the boy: perhaps
YOU don't know what you have done
today. Your work has been worth that
of "A dozen soldiers. That :nan whose
horse you shod is Colonel Warner"
Possibly the boy did 0 grasp then
the full importance of what he had
done. but when he afterwards learned
Ss'@S JUG vi lIIll0 W
save h battle of Bennington where a
detachment of Burgoyne's army was al
most annihilated-that Burgoync him
self was thunderstruck-ali his plans
for dividing the American army
ruined-that in less than 80 days more
he was hemmed in at Saratoga by
Gates. and in another 80 days obliged
to capituiate and surrender his m
now reduced to 5000 prisoners OF war,
that this released the American troops
for service elsewhere. opened the way
for the treaty which brought the assist
aE.se of France. raised the hopes of the
nation. assured Europe Of our ulti-
mate independence, and was really the
first link in the chain which ended in
Corvallis surrender at Yorktown
the boy could truly think that. lame
and useless as he thought HI was. he
had a hand in shaping the destiny Of
the revolution.
Bennington was the harbinger Of