Battle of Bennington

“ He was admirably adapted for the precise work which was necessary at Bennington, and he and his men fought well their hand-to-hand fight on that hot August day, and carried the intrenchments filled with regular troops and defended by artillery. It was a daring feat of arms, as well as a battle which had an important effect upon the course of history and upon the fate of the British empire in America.
KING'S MOUNTAIN Our fortress is the good greenwood, Our tent the cypress tree; We know the forest round us As seamen know the sea. ”

“ The village has woollen mills, knitting mills, stereoscope, box, and collar and cuff factories and machine shops. There are white clay and yellow ochre works in different parts of the township. Bennington is the seat of the Vermont state soldiers’ home. The Bennington Battle Monument, a shaft 301 ft. high, is said to be the highest battle monument in the world. ”

“ For the victories of Bennington, Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown there were the defeats of Bunker Hill, Long Island, White Plains, Germantown, and Camden. Not once did an army of militiamen overcome an equal number of British regulars in an open trial by battle. "To bring men to be well acquainted with the duties of a soldier," wrote Washington, "requires time.... To expect the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits as from veteran soldiers is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen." ”

“ Not only had he lost nearly a thousand of his best troops, besides cannon, arms, and munitions of war, but the defeat affected the spirits of his army and destroyed his hold over his Indian allies, who began to desert in large numbers. Bennington, in fact, was one of the most important fights of the Revolution, contributing as it did so largely to the final surrender of Burgoyne's whole army at Saratoga, and the utter ruin of the British invasion from the North. It is also interesting as an extremely gallant bit of fighting. ”

“ The only result of this was a faintly derisive laugh, the growl of a motorcar as somebody stepped on the gas of an engine that had been left quietly running, a clash of gears. Bennington vaguely caught the suggestion of a car departing at considerable speed.
“Here, you—” But the miscreants totally declined to “here.” And sudden silence closed on the drizzly, chill air.
Then rage filled Bartholomew Bennington's heart, inside his thirty-four-inch chest. Any householder, despoiled, will understand. Also, it's a good bit easier to feel rage when the foe runs away than when he stands to fight. ”

“ The widow blew a ribbon of smoke from those red lips into the sunlit air under the palm-tree, kissed her slim hand at Benninglon, and laid that hand on her heart.
“Good night!” gulped Bennington, and fled.
BENNINGTON spent three weeks of toils and complications incredible to one who knoweth not the ways and customs of folk in the spig belt. He wrote, however, enthusiastic letters home to Beatrice, all about the land flowing with milk and honey. In case something might yet be salvaged from the wreck, he might never have to own the awful truth. ”

“ The next movement of the enemy, of any material consequence, was their investing Bennington,* with a design to demolish it, and subject its Mountaineers, to which they had a great aversion, with one hundred and fifty chosen men, including tories, with the highest expectation of success, and having chosen an eminence of strong ground, fortified it with slight breast works, and two pieces of cannon ”

“ The successful defense of Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler, powerfully cooperated with the defeat of the royal troops at Bennington in raising the spirits and invigorating the activity of the Americans. The Loyalists became timid; the wavering began to doubt the success of the royal arms, and the great body of the people became convinced that nothing but steady exertion on their part was necessary to ruin that army which a short time before had appeared to be sweeping every obstacle from its path on the high road to victory. The decisive victory at Bennington and the retreat of St. ”

“ He therefore passed an unusually peeved evening in the posada bar, his heart filled with un-Lincolnian “malice toward all and charity toward none”—least of all toward café-au-lait widows with hibiscuses and jasmines in their hair.
Bennington retired early to theoretical rest under the ragged mosquito-bar in his white-walled cell off the patio. He was poison-mad. His sleep was a nightmare of heat, bugs, peevishness. ”

“ Now he was going in for the landed-proprietor stuff, citrus fruits, peon servants, hammocks in the shade of palms, with the Missus in a rocking-chair on a broad piazza under the roses Oh, boy, that would be the life! (Any tropic prospectus will prove it! )
“When I get the finca all jazzed up, right,” said Bennington, I’ll send for Beatrice, and she’ll have to admit I was right!”
Bennington gazed out over the patio at the shimmering plain, the range of the Sierra Hedionda, the buzzards volplaning far aloft. He felt all manner of exotic things. One just bit him under the shirt. ”

“ Even the lightning gets tired and quits before it hits the ground. There was a boit of it got stuck that way, lawst week, on Armstrong’s Lago Viscoso finca. Stuck, sir, twenty feet above his house. Armstrong had to make an hombre go up on the blinkin’ roof and lasso it. Burned up seven ropes before they got it down. Oh, a bally hole!”
BENNINGTON wiped sweat and flies from his worried brow and departed in quest of the agent for the property, one Smeady by name. ”

“ How was he to get gas? Only one possibility remained. Even as travelers across the steppes of Russia fling supernumerary infants to the wolves, for a getaway, so now Bennington understood he would have to sacrifice a few of his precious, prize Buff Orpingtons.
It took him not long to open the crate, in the darkness and extract four fine but vociferous birds, tie their legs with a cord rummaged from a side-pocket of the car, and start hiking toward Porterville. But all at once, as he bore his loud burden down the tenebrous road, doubts and fears assailed him. ”

“ This brilliant double victory at Bennington, by relieving New England from apprehensions, and enabling the patriots to concentrate their forces against Burgoyne, resulted in forcing that General to surrender, on the plains of Saratoga, as noble an army as was ever sent to subdue a country. The news spread through America and Europe, sealed the alliance between France and the United States, and so secured their independence. ”

“ Bennett mentions that on one occasion, after a battle, a chief of the victorious side knew that among the flying enemy was a man who had shown a kindness to him in a former war. Knowing the fate that would befall the man if he fell into the hands of the victors, he followed on the track of the fugitive, and after seeking his friend from cover to cover, and from bush to bush, he at last discovered him, took him to his own house, kept him there for a time, and then dismissed him in safety. ”

“ The movement on Bennington is begun. Peters's corps of tories and Indians have gone on to Cambridge; and he, who is off to the lake, to-day, to consult with Skene and others about the expedition, is to follow some time to-morrow, as is the German regiment picked out to the service. Got at it all, think?”
“Nearly. It is the plan, however, I understand, that when the stores are secured at Bennington, the troops are to proceed to Manchester, make prisoners of all the Council of Safety, and others of the principal men whom they can find, and return through Arlington.” ”

“ The air was full of tingling life. Altogether a morning to cry one to leap eagerly from bed, to rush to the window, to drink in deep draughts of electric balmy ozone, and to thank heaven for the grace of mere existence.
That at least is what Bennington did. And he did more. He despatched a hasty breakfast, and went forth and saddled his steed, and rode away down the gulch, with never a thought of sample tests, and never a care whether the day's work were done or not. ”

“ You’re lucky to be goin’ north, with a skin that don’t look like a sheet o’ postage-stamps. It’s me that’s gotta stay here an’ catch it. Here, here’s a souvenir for you.” He slid a shriveled lemon into Bennington’s hand. “You’ll prize it—it’ll prove to your friends that you got somethin’ off your finca, anyhow. Good luck to you. S’iong!”
Bennington pocketed the lemon. He felt grateful for even that. At all events he would have something for Beatrice; he was not going home completely goose-egged. Smeady, meantime, slipped out of the freight-port into the launch, cast off and departed. ”

“ It may as well be remarked here that Bennington knew all about the West before he left home. Until this excursion he had never even crossed the Alleghanies, but he thought he appreciated the conditions thoroughly. This was because he was young. He could close his eyes and see the cowboys scouring the plain. As a parenthesis it should be noted that cowboys always scour the plain, just as sailors always scan the horizon. He knew how the cowboys looked, because he had seen Buffalo Bill's show ”

“ You’ve got one chance in eighty-seven thousand! Next minute, it’ll be one in eighty-eight thousand! For the love o’ Pete, hombre, pronto on the fade-away!”
Smeady shook him again, so that Bennington’s teeth did a bolero with castanet accompaniment. Yes, it must have been the shake that caused the chatter. Surely, who could have suspected that Bennington would be afraid? Even if he were, it must have been fear of hurting Sanchez that made Bennington’s Angers tremble so that he could hardly fasten his buttons or tie his shoes. Howbeit, he dressed in record time. No commuter ever did better. ”

“ A quick leap over the sill into the darkness, a twenty-foot sprint, and he was able to throw himself down on the steep slope that five feet farther on became the moat.
Just in time, he discovered. When he peered through the sparse grass, he could see two men in his office. One had a shotgun, the other a rifle. The man with the rifle lifted it to his shoulder and fired into the ceiling.
Most of the staff, all but six of the guards up there, Bennington thought.
Resting his right hand against his left arm, he took careful aim and fired. The man with the rifle staggered and fell. ”

“ Darkness and mystery, emptiness, heat and the terror of a sudden, violent death brooded. How easy an ambuscade in the night, from behind any wall—a knife-thrust—a body slid into the river! Then the alligators would take charge of the undertaking-job. Mysterious disappearance of one Americano. No one would ever know, but Smeady—and fear would seal his lips. Bennington gulped dryly and stumbled on. ”

“ And, still, with all his feeling of security, there was a strange depression fell upon him when the Bennington's narrow hull was small upon the horizon, and then that, too, was gone and only the heaving swells and the wallowing hulk were his companions. ”

“ His account of the fight of the ironclads had interested me.
"What has become of the Merrimac?" I asked him.
"We had to destroy her. When Yorktown was evacuated, Norfolk had to follow suit. The Federal fleet is now in James River, some halfway down below Richmond. A blockade has been declared by Lincoln against all the ports of the South. We are exceedingly weak on the water."
XXIV BEFORE THE GREAT BATTLE
"And so your follies fight against yourself.
Fear, and be slain; no worse can come; to fight--
And fight and die, is death destroying death ”

“ He came around close to Bennington, and stood there mockingly in the dim aura of light that reflected through the drizzle, from the headlights. “A guy that don't know enough not to run out o' gas—”
“Squiffy,” articulated Bartholomew in a hard, tense voice, albeit a bit thickly by reason of his cut lip, “I am armed. I've got a revolver. Any ordinary man in my place would shoot you in your tracks and throw your carcass to the crows. ”

“ Who're you? Mostly rum-runners an' chicken-thieves is out, this time o' night. Gee, you make me think of a guy I use to know at Hayton. A shrimp, he was, but his wife was the goods. Some pippin, I'll tell the world! He cruelized me, but she stuck up for me, she did. Gee, but he was the prize boob, an' then some! It's a shame to let 'em live, like that guy! An' gee—say, what you stoppin' for?”
Bennington jammed the car to a swift halt, and switched on the little dash-light. Only too horribly he recognized the carroty hair, freckles and flap-ears, the abhorred physiognomy, of Squiffy. ”

“ A length of the corral had succumbed to the flood, many valuable tools in the blacksmith shop were in danger of rust from the dampness, and Arthur and his wife had been completely washed out. All three men worked hard setting things to rights. The twilight caught them before their work was done.
Bennington found himself too weary to attempt an unknown, débris-covered road by dark. He played cribbage with Old Mizzou and won. ”

“ Oudinot retired fighting, and thus induced more of the Russians to follow, till, finding his troops hotly pressed, Benningsen marched his whole force over, and then Napoleon showed his entire army. Benningsen saw that he was entrapped, and must fight, under great disadvantages, with an enfeebled army, and in an open space, where they were surrounded by a dense host of French, who could cover themselves amid woods and hills, and pour in a tempest of cannon-balls on the exposed Russians. It was the anniversary of the battle of Marengo, and Buonaparte believed the day one of his fortunate ones. ”