"There Stand the Redcoats and They Are Ours:" The Battle of Bennington and the Harmon Family

The Battle of Bennington took place on August 16, 1777 and was a decisive Colonial victory during the American Revolutionary War.  Our ancestors the  Harmons lived in Bennington during the Revolutionary War and Daniel Harmon Sr. (the father of Daniel Williams Harmon), along with some of his brothers, fought as part of the Vermont militia in this historic battle.  Daniel was 30 years old at the time, and was a Sargent in Captain Elijah Dewey's regiment. Later on he was promoted to Captain himself.

During protracted military invasions, feeding your troops becomes a major issue.  It was becoming  British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's issue as he was leading his troops toward Albany from Quebec.  Having already engaged in a few battles, Burgoyne's troops were low on supplies, and Burgoyne heard reports that there was a major stash of  food, horses and cattle to be found in the Bennington supply depot, with only a few men standing in defense.  He sent in two units comprising of  British soldiers, Colonial Loyalists,  German mercenaries,and Natives,  as well as two cannons, for what he thought would be a simple raid.  These units were under Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum and Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann. (Actually, Baum's unit went in first, sized up the situation, and sent back a message asking for reinforcements,  at which point von Breymann's unit was sent in).

What Burgoyne, Baum and von Breymann didn't initially know was that the Republic of Vermont had taken note of the advancing British army and had appealed to New Hampshire for assistance in defending themselves.  John Stark, an experienced military leader from both the French and Indian Wars and from previous Revolutionary War action (notably at Bunker Hill) immediately brought in the New Hampshire militia, amounting to about 1,500 men.   Baum had marched the first British unit to a point about five miles northwest of Bennington, realized that the depot was more than lightly guarded,  and then stopped to send for the second unit before advancing further. It was apparently also bucketing rain, which had bad implications for his cannon and firearms.

Brigadier General John Stark

Brigadier General Stark, however, wasn't inclined to wait.  Knowing he had the enemy outnumbered, he went out to initiate the attack.  He sent troops to the right and left of Baum's, essentially hemming him in, and then led the attack from the front.  Famously, he roused his troops before the initial attack with some version of the words "There stand the redcoats and they are ours, or tonight, Molly Stark sleeps a widow!", "We'll beat them before night or Molly Stark's a widow!";  or, "There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories.  They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!".  My own favourite version is "Now, my men, yonder are the Hessians!  Tonight, the American flag flies over yonder hill, or Molly Stark sleeps a widow!"  It sounds very dramatic to me, almost literary.  But as my historian husband points out, there was no such thing as America yet, so perhaps this version is unlikely.

 Fighting began at 3 o'clock;  two hours later,  Baum's British unit was routed and the few panic-stricken survivors were trying--mostly unsuccessfully--to flee into the woods.  Just then, von Breymann and the second British unit appeared, which would have been very bad news for the battle-weary Colonials except that Colonel Seth Warner and the famous Green Mountain Boys (Vermont militia) arrived just a bit later to reinforce the American side.

A reproduction of the flag of the Green Mountain Boys.  The
thirteen stars represent thirteen states.  This flag was flown during the latter
half of the Battle of Bennington.

Uniform of the Green Mountain Boys, 1776.

The battle was a disaster for the British.  Two  hundred of their soldiers were killed, and seven hundred captured, leaving Burgoyne with 15% fewer men with which to attack Albany and none of the needed supplies.  The Colonials, meanwhile, had only lost 30 men (another 40 suffered wounds). The Colonials were also able to pick up some military-grade weaponry from the battlefield (the website GeneralAtomic:  Thrilling Incidents in American History says that they captured 1,000 muskets, 900 swords, 4 brass field-pieces, and 4 baggage-wagons). Colonel Baum was wounded, captured, and died of his wounds the next day in Bennington.  Von Breymann was wounded as well, but not captured.  This victory raised the spirits of the defending Colonials immensely, significantly bumping up the number of militia volunteers for future encounters.  For the rest of his life,  John Stark was known as "the Hero of Bennington", and Burgoyne would later report to his superiors that "Wherever the King's forces point, militia to the amount of three or four thousand assemble in twenty-four hours."

Bennington Flag

Uniform of the German Dragoons, who fought on the British side in the Battle of Bennington.

Historic postcard showing the house in Bennington where Colonel Baum
died of his wounds the day after battle.

What would this battle have been like to fight?  I imagine it must have been terrifying.  For one thing, partly because Stark chose to attack on all sides almost simultaneously, most of the battle consisted of close combat, which was unusual in 18th-century warfare. Michael Stephenson, in his book Patriot Battles:  How the War of Independence Was Fought, quotes a Hessian officer who survived the battle as saying "the bayonet, the butt of the rifle, the sabre, the pike, were in full play, and men fell, as they rarely fall in modern warfare, under the direct blows of their enemies."  (p.299).  General Stark described the noise and confusion of the battle as "one continuous clap of thunder."   All of the participants must have been aware that their lives could end painfully at any moment.   I think it's likely that these hours were some of the worst of Daniel Harmon's life.  

One question I have found difficult to answer definitively is whether Harmon and his kin were in the battle from the beginning, or whether they belonged to the Green Mountain Boys that joined the battle half-way through.  Since they were living in Vermont at the time of the battle, I think it's probable that they were part of the Vermont militia, not the New Hampshire militia.  However, Harmon could have been one of the men guarding the deport from the beginning. 

The Battle of Bennington had an impact on the direction of the Revolutionary War, and it is remembered vividly as part of Vermont and New Hampshire history.  Vermont celebrates the battle each year with a state holiday on August 16th.  The Bennington Battlefield (which is actually just inside the borders of modern New York state) is a National Historic Landmark.   Vermont  built a monument to the battle in 1889 on the site of the former Bennington supply depot.  New Hampshire has the Molly Stark House in Dunbarton, New Hampshire (Molly nursed wounded soldiers in her home after the Bennington battle).  Not to be outdone, Vermont has the Molly Stark State Park and the Molly Stark trail. There are symposiums and historical reenactments.  I even saw a slightly weird historical battle reenactment on youtube in which children played all the roles.  Watching a ten-year-old say "..or Molly Stark sleeps a widow" is strange. 

Bennington Battle Monument Plaque, Bennington, Vermont.

The Bennington Battle Monument Itself.  Its size can be gauged from the statue in front.

Statue of General John Stark, at the base of the Monument.

Statue of Seth Warner in front of the Monument.  He led the Green Mountain Boys into the battle.

Entrance to Molly Stark State Park

Bas-relief of the Battle of Bennington, in the Bennington Battleground Historic Site in New York.

Historic Plaque in the Bennington Battleground Historic Site.

There is one more link between the Battle of Bennington and the Harmon family.  Daniel Harmon and his wife Lucretia (Dewey) Harmon ran an inn in Bennington, which is where General Stark stopped for breakfast on his way to the battleground.  Lucretia may have cooked him breakfast herself!

The Inn was built by the Harmons and run by them from about 1773 to 1794.  The book Memorials of a Century by Isaac Jennings says that "The tavern was the most pretentious [that used to be a compliment] building of the town in early times.  The doors were handsome and substantial...for those days, moldings were in several rooms and the winding staircase was beyond the ordinary."   Harmon was described in this book as "a tall man with solid shoulders, dark eyes and jet black hair." 

The Harmon Inn, long after its glory days.  A historic plaque marks the spot today.