Battle of Bennington August 16, 1777 (history)

General John Burgoyne’s expedition to split the rebellious New England colonies from the rest of the nascent United States was running short of supplies by the beginning of August 1777. Adding to his unease Burgoyne had not had any contact with General William Howe in New York City who was supposed to be leading a column north up the Hudson to join with him. Loyalist scouts informed him that there was a well-stocked depot at Bennington, Vermont. He determined to send an expedition to seize anything of value.

Burgoyne detached a force of about 800 men under Hessian Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum on August 11 toward Bennington. Baum was seriously hindered by his inability to speak English, the roughness of the track he was forced to march down, and the inappropriateness of his dragoons’ riding boots for marching through the American wilderness. The progress of his force was well-known to the Patriot leaders well before it reached the depot.

Brigadier General John Stark rallied a militia force variously described as being between 1500 and 2000 strong to meet the raiders. Baum received word on August 14 that the militia had been raised and that more than 1800 men held the Bennington depot. He sent back word to Burgoyne, halted his column and dug in. Unfortunately for Baum, he spread his small force widely in the broken country, with about 200 of his men (Tories and Canadians) on the south side of the Walloomsac River and the rest of his command to the north.

Colonel Moses Nichols led his regiment around Baum’s force to attack from the north.  Colonel Samuel Herrick led his regiment to attack from the south and rear. Colonels David Hobart and Thomas Stickney attacked the Tory redoubt south of the river. Stark, with about 1000 men led the main attack on Baum’s main position, the “Dragoon Redoubt”. The American attack was launched about 3:00 pm and, incredibly, went off without any serious hitch.

Stark is reputed to have exclaimed as he exhorted his men forward, “There they are! We’ll beat them before night or Molly Stark will be a widow!” Baum’s Indian allies, having been unreliable from the start, abandoned him completely when the battle began. Hobart and Stickney quickly overran the Tory position. The Canadians, like the Indians, simply melted away. Likewise the other small outposts were overrun but Baum held desperately for two hours in the Dragoon Redoubt.

The German determined to cut his way out with his survivors about 5 pm. But then a bullet mortally wounded Baum and the remnants of his force surrendered. Only nine men of Baum’s column managed to return to Burgoyne’s army.

Meanwhile, on the morning of August 15, Burgoyne had sent a relief column based on Baum’s alarming report of American strength. This force, of 642 men under Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Breymann, arrived late in the afternoon, after Baum’s fate had already been decided. Stark’s forces were badly scattered by their victory and could have been decimated by the new column but Breymann had the misfortune of running right into Seth Warner’s Vermont militia who arrived on the battlefield at the precise moment of need from Manchester.

Warner’s regiment and about 300 men that Stark rallied met Breymann on the road. A furious firefight ensued. Breymann attempted to flank the American in the woods but was bloodily repulsed. His ammunition running low and his force disintegrating, Breymann ordered a retreat. If not for the colonel’s personal bravery and skill, his force would have met the same fate as Baum’s. Wounded, with 5 bullet holes in his coat, Breymann personally led a small rear guard that held off the American pursuit of the broken column. As it was Stark and Warner captured both of the relief column’s cannons and inflicted 200 casualties on the small force, forced to halt their pursuit only by the fall of night.

Burgoyne was thus deprived of much needed supplies. His Indian allies almost completely abandoned the main army, and he lost about 900 combat troops killed, wounded, and captured. The Patriot victory at Bennington was a major contributor to the later ultimate defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga. American losses were 30 killed and 40 wounded.

Order of Battle – Baum’s Column

Brunswick Dragoons (dismounted, 200 men)

Jager Detachment (50 men)

Brunswick Infantry Detachment (37 men)

Hanau Artillery (2 3-pounders, 13 men)

British Light Infantry (50 men)

Peters’ Queens Loyal Rangers (about 150 men)

Local Loyalist companies (about 150 men)

Canadian Militia (about 100 men)

Indians (about 100 men)

Order of Battle – Breymann’s Column

Brunswick Grenadiers (about 330 men)

Light Infantry (about 280 men)

Hanau Artillery (2 6-pounders, 30 men)

 

Order of Battle – American (General Stark – about 2100 men total)

Gregg’s New Hampshire Militia

Nichols’ New Hampshire Militia

Herrick’s Vermont Militia

Hobart’s New Hampshire Militia

Stickney’s New Hampshire Militia

Langdon’s New Hampshire Militia

Simond’s Massacusetts Militia

Warner’s Vermont Militia

 

References:

Eggenberger, David. A Dictionary of Battles. Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1967.

Morrissey, Brendan. Saratoga 1777: Turning Point of a Revolution. Osprey, Oxford, 2000.

Peckham, Howard H. The War for Independence. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1979.

Wood, W. J. Battles of the Revolutionary War. Algonquin, Chapel Hill, NC, 1990.

Map from The Hoosac Valley: Its Legends and Its History by Grace Greylock Niles, published 1912.

The Battle of Cax Station (hypothetical)

THE BATTLE OF CAX STATION, GEORGIA, LATE 1863

Rosecrans decided to send a strong reconnaissance in force to tear up the Vicksburg and Chattanooga railroad and feel out the Confederate left for a possible advance. To this end he dispatched Brigadier General Larry’s Division reinforced by McClernand’s Brigade. The column travelled light with five days’ cooked rations and 80 rounds ammunition per man. Wheeler almost immediately reported the movement and Hardee ordered Hindman’s Division to intercept. The two equally matched forces met at the remote Cax Station of the Vicksburg and Atlanta Railroad deep in the woods of western Georgia. Both generals deployed their divisions out of the line of fire and plunged into the woods on either side of the station in long irregular lines. Hindman deployed, from north to south, Vaughan, Anderson, Manigault, and Deas. Larry countered with Raith, McClernand, Tuttle, and Patton.

Hindman Deploys Deas is at the bottom with Manigault and Anderson astride the railroad. Vaughan is lost in the upper arm of the picture.

Corresponding deployment by Larry. From bottom, Patton, Tuttle, McClernand.

McClernand crested a small hillock overlooking the town and sent Lieutenant Charles David racing back to the 46^th Ohio. The order – double time over the hillock and storm the town. As the regiment advanced  Major Garrett King said to his former law partner from Maumee, Joshua Churchill, “The Rebs have us in a death ground. The General has killed us!”

 

 The 46th Ohio on the left; Tuttle to the right.



 

True to the Major’s premonition Anderson calmly deployed his veterans amongst the buildings of the station, the 7^th Mississippi and 10^th Mississippi in the front rank, supported by Garrity’s Alabama Battery and opened an even devastating fire, resting behind fences, hitching rails, water barrels, windows, etc. To Anderson’s right the 11^th Tennessee from Vaughan’s brigade added its fire from the schoolhouse yard.

The Ohioans fell in windrows. Their return fire was scattered amongst the plethora of targets and desperately ineffective. The few survivors huddled on the ground, looking for support that was nowhere to be seen. McClernand, of course, being distracted by the slow advance of Raith to his left. Instead of calling up support he left the Ohioans to their fate. Within 20 minutes the 50 still present survivors slunk back behind the hillock.

Death of the 46th Ohio 1 Raith attacks the schoolyard on the left.

 

McClernand had three additional regiments but he failed to issue orders to them either to support the 46^th Ohio or to apply pressure to either side. Battery B, Missouri Artillery rolled up the hillock and engaged Garrity but definitely got the worst of it when a caisson took a direct hit and battery commander Lieutenant Francis Borman stopped a 12-pound ball with his legs.

Instead McClernand spent the afternoon cap to cap with Brigadier General Raith, “explaining” to the latter how politicians in Illinois could move faster than Raith’s bluecoats. Raith, however, his nose red and his breath smelling strongly of Kentucky mash, calmly allowed McClernand to make his explanations and issued orders to his inexperienced Zouaves.

Raith launched his 114^th Pennsylvania and 9^th New York against the school and its fenced yard with the equally inexperienced 11^th New York Battery in support. Meanwhile he maneuvered the 11^th New York Infantry and the 5^th New York, the latter fresh from the east around the Confederate right.

Raith's advance

 

Against Raith, Colonel Vaughan deployed his Tennesseans. Scott’s Battery took a position in the firing line between the 11^th Tennessee which faced left and was pummeling the 46^th Ohio and the 47^th Tennessee who occupied the main part of the school yard. The line was then extended by the 13^th Tennessee with the 29^th Tennessee in support across the lane from the school.

The easterners advanced boldly against the yard and suffered devastating buck and ball from the smoothbore-armed 47^th and rapid blasts of double canister from Scott’s howitzers.  The 9^th New York managed to briefly close to the fence and poke its bayonets at the 47^th but, in the end, was forced to fall back. The 114^th Pennsylvania had but 103 men answer the call to colors the next day from the 375 men that advanced at the start.

High Water Mark at the Schoolyard

 

Vaughan, true to the form that had thus far kept him from gaining his general’s star, issued no orders to advance out of the school yard and capture the now exposed cannon of Lieutenant Jones’ New York Artillery. He had pushed forward both the 13^th and 29^th Tennessee to engage the 11^th new York Infantry. However the 5^th had continued around and had achieved a position beyond Vaughan’s flank. But more on this later.

Manigault had advanced to the station and had posted Waters’ Alabama Battery snugly between a small woodlot and the Cax County Bank. The 10^th South Carolina occupied the bank, the station house and its outbuildings to Waters left and the 34^th and  24^th Alabama moved up in support of Waters to his left. Manigault’s 19^th  Palmetto regiment formed a second line.

Advancing on Manigault was tobacco-chawing, hard-swearing Lawrence Tuttle.  Tuttle posted his Battery D, Illinois Light Artillery between McClernand’s hillock and the woodlot. The battery would pound the station the entire afternoon, inflicting dozens of casualties on the 10^th Mississippi and 34^th Alabama, despite the advantages of the buildings.  Tuttle had an entire brigade of hardened veterans. Leading was the 48^th Illinois on his left and the 2^nd Minnesota on his right. Both regiments pushed forward in skirmish order through the woodlot. Behind were the 11^th Indiana on the left and the 11^th Illinois on the right.

Tuttle's Deployment

 

Manigault, known for his aggressiveness, ordered the 34^th to charge just as Tuttle ordered the 11^th Indiana to charge through the 48^th Illinois. Both regiments were surprised to find the other careening through the woods but the veteran Yankees held their ground and the less experienced Alabamians fled.

Climax of Tuttle and Manigault

Manigault leading the charge

 

Unfazed, Manigault ordered the 34^th Alabama forward. The 11^th Indiana, already stunned by the first charge, stubbornly fell back on their supports but Waters was now safe and added discharges of canister to add to the discomfort of the Hoosiers. Tuttle, cursing and spitting (literally spitting mad) ordered the 48^th to continue the assault. By now, however, the momentum was gone and the woodlot full of dead, dying, mangled, and cowering. Despite prodigious amounts of cursing, the attack had failed.

 

Tuttle Repulsed

 

On the far right Brigadier August Patton advanced his large, inexperienced brigade through an open woods toward Prince Goddard’s mansion and Roger Dalton’s orchard across the road. Tuttle’s 2^nd Minnesota led the advance through the woods, the veterans moving efficiently and coming to the edge of the woods as the Confederates reached the edge of the split rail fence surrounding the orchard. Straggling just a bit behind was Patton’s 78^th New York to the westerners right. Extending the line were 5^th West Virginia and the 5^th Connecticut with the raw 111^th Pennsylvania in the far right rear and the 3^rd Maryland behind the New Yorkers.

The Battle for Goddard's and Dalton's

 

Opposite Patton was the old coon hunter General Deas. At the head of this experienced brigade was the 17^th Alabama Sharpshooter Battalion. Dent’s Alabama Battery deployed down a tiny wood cutter’s lane on the far left of the line. Between were the 25^th and 39^th Alabama with the 22^nd and 50^th Alabama in reserve.

The sharpshooters reached the edge of the orchard as the Minnesotans reached the edge of the woods. Five minutes later the New Yorkers entered the fray.  The gophers, drilled to make every shot count in the Indian confrontations of the previous year matched the sharpshooters hit for hit. Add the devastating fire of the New Yorkers and their brand new Springfield muskets and the elite Rebs were destroyed.

78th NY and 17th Ala SS

 

The 22^nd Alabama stepped forward and, in the face of their resoluteness, the gophers backed away into the woods. Now it was the turn of the 78^th New York to fall back from massive fire effect combined by the 22^nd and 39^th Alabama. Meanwhile Dent was pounding the 5^th West Virginia.

The 3^rd Maryland now took its position opposite the orchard and a slugfest ensued between it and the 22^nd Alabama.

High Water Mark at the Orchard

 

It was now 4:00 pm and Major General Larry had received reports from Patton that he was unable to push through the Confederate left, from Tuttle that the station was too strongly held, and saw for himself the confusion of McClernand’s intact regiments and the debris that was left of the 46^th Ohio. Only Raith reported he was still capable of attack; and Captain George Donner of the 114^th Pennsylvania, his arm in a bloody sling, was at headquarters reporting his regiment destroyed. Larry sent his ADCs galloping off with order to withdraw.

Lieutenant Barfsdale reached Raith at the head of the 5^th New York just as that regiment was poised to turn the Rebel flank. “You have been recalled!” shouted Barfsdale. Raith bellowed back, his face red and eyes bloodshot looking clearly the mad genius, “I am about to turn them!” Barfsdale, a bartender before the war, had seen many like Raith before. “Orders supercede opportunity, Sir! You have been recalled!”

Raith Denied

 

With that, reluctantly, Raith, ordered his regiments to fall back and regroup.

 

The Zouaves before recall

 

Cax Station cost the Yankees 2500 casualties and 3 guns. The Confederates lost 1600 men and one gun. More importantly the Confederates ate well with the stores at Prince Goddard’s, the fruit in Dalton’s orchard, and the stores at the Station.

Waters (and Manigault) triumphant

 

Battle was fought by the Long Island Irregular Wargaming Club in 2011 using Mr. Lincoln's War rules. Figures are 15mm from a variety of manufacturers.

Introduction

 

Admiral of the Fleet at a young age!

Back in the day of computer punch cards and plastic soldiers I fought endless imaginary battles on the floor. The imagination was the thing - sailing ships with World War II howitzers and boarding planks!

There have been tremendous changes since that idyllic time. But always there has been a balance - the  quest to KNOW the history and understand what the participants felt - and the comraderie and enjoyment of the wargame, with varying degrees of historical accuracy.

This blog will explore both of these parallel interests. Here you will find both hard-boiled history, either written by me, or reviewed or referenced, as well as historical fiction - the replays, the made-up scenarios of a bunch of like-minded enthusiasts.

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