The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-16
VERMONT'S
 OWN HOLIDAY

Today is Vermont's own special holi- day, set apart by legal enactment for the commemoration of the victory achieved by the Green Mountain Boys''' in the battle of Bennington, fought on August 16, 1777. Interest in the celebration naturally centers at Bennington, the thriving little in- dustrial city iu southwestern Vermont which was the scene of the revolution ary conflict.
 The battle which the Green Noun tain State has seen fit to commemor- ate as legal holiday was small af- fair, compared with the conflicts of the present war, and would probably be dismissed as mere skirmish by a war correspondent of 1916. In one respect a similarity is to be noted, however, for at Bennington in 1777, as in France today, men of English blood were opposed to Teutons. There the comparison abruptly ceases, for the Germans fought under the ban ner of England, while the English men were Yankees of the revolted colonies.
 The memorable victory gained by General John Stark and his Green Mountain Boys was against an army of about a thousand German mercen- aries led by Col. Baume and Col. Brey- man. Burgoyne sent this detachment of his army to Vermont in an attempt to capture the military stores kept at Bennington for the use of the north ern department of the Continental ar- my.
 It was characteristic of the disor- ganized but none the less efficient control of the Continental forces that General Stark gained the victory at Bennington by disobedience of the or ders of his superior. Stark was a man of independent character, who had his own ideas as to how he should conduct his share of the war, and act ed accordingly. In his young man. hood he had been taken a prisoner by Indians, and was adopted into the tribe. He fought in the French and Indian war, at Bunker, Hill, and at Trenton and Princeton. Early in TIT, displessed because he had been over- looked when the promotions were passed around, he resigned his conn mission in Washington's army, and returned to New Hampshire to fight Ion his own" He raised a militia ar my to oppose the British advance from Canada. It was then, acting upon his own judgement, that he refused to obey the orders of General Lincoln to march to the west of the Hudson. Soon after this he gained the battle of Ben- nington, completely routing the Ger man troops sent against that town.
 Nowadays an officer guilty of such insubordination would find himself speedily hailed before a court martial and discharged from the service, but in those days the powers found it easy to forgive a man for disregarding or ders if by so doing he accomplished results. instead of censuring Stark for his disebedience, Congress thanked him for his victory.
 k The Dominican Republic, which is one of the little back wards of Uncle Sam which he has found so difficult to keep in order, will celebrate one of its frequent holidays today This particular event is Copotillo Day, commemorating the beginning of the last successful rising against Spanish authority, initiated at Capotillo on August IS. 1863. Since then the country occupying the eastern and larger part of the island of Hayti has been republic, after a manner of speaking. e4