62

termined to attack.

tion.

forced by militia from western Massachu and Herrick, to get into the rear of Baum Early in the day he sent men, under The German officer, ignorant of the and of the nature of the warfare in which engaged, noticed small bodies of men in their sleeves, and carrying guns without bayonets, With singular stupidity he concluded that were Tory inhabitants of the country who coming to his assistance, and made no attemp

ing their way

to the rear of his intrenchm

In this way Stark was enabled to m

stop them. about five hundred

position.

men to the

men in the rear of the enem

Distracting the attention of the Briti

by a feint. Stark also moved about two hundre forces into position he ordered a general assault, and the Americans proceeded to storm the British intrenchments on every side. The fight was a

right, and having thus brought hi

very hot one,

and lasted some two hours.

The

Indians, at the beginning of the action, slipped
British and German regulars stubbornly stood

the American detachments, but the

away between

their ground. numbers of the

It is difficult to get at the exact

American

troops,

but Stark seems

to have had between fifteen hundred and two thousand militia. He thus outnumbered his enemy

Dearly three to one, b

ut his men were merely

country militia, farmers of the New England
States, very imperfectly disciplined, and armed
only with muskets and fowling-pieces, without
bayonets or side-arms. On the other side Baum
had the most highly disciplined troops of England
and Germany under his command, well armed and
equipped, and he was moreover strongly in-
trenched with artillery well placed behind the
breastworks. The advantage in the fight should
have been clearly with Baum and his regulars,
who merely had to hold an intrenched hill.

It was not a battle in which either military strategy or a scientific management of troops was displayed. All that Stark did was to place his men so that they could attack the enemy's position on every side, and then the Americans went at it, firing as they pressed on. The British and Germans stood their ground stubbornly, while the New England farmers rushed up to within eight yards of the cannon, and picked off the men who manned the guns. Stark himself was in the midst of the fray, fighting with his soldiers, and came out of that he could hardly be recognized. One desperate Powder and smoke assault succeeded another, while the firing on both sides was so incessant as to make, in Stark's own

the conflict so blackened with

words, a

"continuous roar."

At the end of two

hours the Americans finally swarmed over the intrenchments, beating down the soldiers with their

clubbed muskets. Baum ordered his infantry sabers to force their way through, but the Ameriwith the bayonet and the dragoons with their fell mortally wounded. All was then over, and cans repulsed this final charge, and Baum himself the British forces surrendered.

icans,

attacked

had taken thirty hours to march some twenty-four It was only just in time, for Breymann, who down their arms. It seemed for a moment as if all miles, came up just after Baum's men had laid that had been gained might be lost. The AmerStark rallied his line, and putting in Warner, with One hundred and fifty Vermont men who had just Come on the field, stopped Breymann's advance, and finally forced him to retreat with a loss of nearly one half his men. The Americans lost in Germans and British about twice as many, but ers, and completely wrecked the forces of Baum lost nearly a thousand of his best troops, besides army never recovered from it. Not only had he The blow was a severe one, and Burgoyne's

by this fresh foe, wavered; but

killed and

wounded

the Americans

and Breymann.

cannon,

arms,

some seventy men, and the

took about seven hundred prison

and

munitions of war, but the de

feat affected the spirits of his a

his hold over his Indian allies, who began to desert
in large numbers. Benn

ington, in fact, was one of