idge--that's about twelve miles
from Bennington. Then there was a stir among the men, and all sorts of
preparation for a desperate battle. We all knew that we were going to
fight for our homes, and that made us eager to meet the enemy. All the
men of Bennington who could bear arms joined us, and the old men and
women and boys did all they could to get us information, and to supply
our wants. General Stark sent Lieutenant-Colonel Gregg, with two hundred
men, to check the enemy. In the course of the night we were informed
that the Indians were supported by a large body of regulars, with a
train of artillery; and that the whole force of the enemy were in full
march for Bennington. General Stark immediately called out all the
militia, and sent word to Colonel Warner to bring his regiment from
Manchester. Before daylight on the morning of the 14th of August,
General Stark had about eight hundred men under his command, including
Colonel Gregg's detachment. We then moved forward to support Gregg.
About four or five miles from Bennington, we met our detachment in full
retreat, and the enemy within a mile of it. Stark ordered us to halt,
and we were then drawn up in order of battle. Baum saw we were prepared
to make fight, and halted, instead of coming up to the work like a man.
A small party of our men were forced to abandon Van Shaick's mill, where
they had been posted, but not before they had killed a few of the enemy.
Stark found that the enemy were busy entrenching themselves, and he
tried to draw them from their position by sending out small parties to
skirmish; but it was of no use, they wouldn't come out and fight; so
Stark fell back a mile, leaving a part of our regiment to skirmish. Now
you know that's a kind of fighting in which the Green Mountain Boys were
always first best. Before we fell back to the main body, we had killed
and wounded more than thirty of the enemy, including two Indian chiefs,
without losing a man."

"The battle should have been all skirmishes," said Kinnison. "You might
have cut the enemy up piece-meal."

"We tried it next day," said Ransom. "It was rainy, and Stark thought it
best not to attempt anything more than skirmishing. Our light parties
appeared in the woods on every side of the enemy, and picked off the men
so fast that the Indians became disheartened, and began to desert Baum.
The rain, which prevented our troops from attacking the enemy, enabled
them to complete their entrenchments,