All who were members of the Convention left the militia and repaired to Windsor, July 4th. A draft of the constitution was laid before the convention and read. The matter under consideration was new, of great moment, and required serious deliberation; it was debated step by step, and paragraph by paragraph. While absorbed in their duty, an express arrived with tidings that Ticonderoga had been evacuated, and that the whole frontier of the Hampshire Grants was exposed to the ravages of the enemy.
At this awful crisis the Convention was for adjourning, as many of the members had families residing in the portions likely to be overrun by the enemy and their Indian allies. Indications of a terrible thunder storm among the mountains having put all thoughts of immediately going home out of the question, some of the more thoughtful called attention to their unfinished work. In the midst of the peals of thunder, the incessant flashes of lightning and the tumult of the elements without, the constitution was read, paragraph by paragraph, for the last time; and as the sun broke forth upon a smiling landscape, invigorated with the summer shower, Vermont was in possession of a constitution, and stood pledged to its support. A Council of Safety was instituted to act during the recess, the Convention adjourned, and the members betook themselves to their homes.
Three days afterward, this “outlaw” Warner and his proscribed Green Mountain regiment were engaged in deadly conflict, on the soil of Vermont, with the British and Indian foes of America, on the memorable battle field of Hubbardton, in which Warner’s force was decimated to about ninety men.
CHAPTER X.
BATTLE OF BENNINGTON.
The British were of opinion that the people of the Grants were opposed to the Revolution, and would join the standard of England the moment a force was marched into the territory. This belief was founded on the dissensions with New York, the unsatisfactory resolutions of Congress, and the charges of outlawry brought against the people of the Grants by their neighbors.
Bennington was a central place, whither the live stock had been collected, and whence the American army derived its supplies. It was likewise a depot of wheeled vehicles and grain deposits, and was guarded by relieving bodies of militia. Bennington was to be surprised. The country was to be scoured from Rockingham to Otter Creek. All public magazines were to be sacked. All cattle belonging to royalists, and which could be spared by their owners, were to be paid for; and all the rebel herds and flocks were to be driven away.
Colonel Skene, the noted royalist after whom Skenesborough (now Whitehall) was named, held a position in the expedition: indeed, it was owing largely to his representations that it was undertaken. Lieut.-Col. Baum was sent in charge of the detachment. He had in his command two hundred dismounted dragoons of the regiment of Riedesel, Captain Frazer’s British marksmen, some Canadian Tories, and Indians, in all amounting to about five hundred men, with two pieces of cannon. It was expected the dragoons would supply themselves with horses in the course of the foray, and a skeleton corps of royalists would be filled up with recruits.
Burgoyne encamped on the east side of the Hudson, so as to be near at hand in case assistance was wanted. Baum set out from camp at break of day on the 13th of August, 1777. The state of the roads, the excessive heat, and want of horses and wagons, all contributed to render the progress slow and tedious. A few horses were brought in, and some wagons captured; but the inhabitants managed to remove most of their effects in time. The Indians killed or drove off all that came into their hands, unless they were paid in cash for their prizes.
Baum found the people of Bennington ready to give him a reception. The veteran Stark was there, with eight hundred New Hampshire militia; and Colonel Warner found himself at the head of about six hundred Green Mountain Boys, hastily collected to repel the invaders. Thus once more the cause of American Independence was to rest largely on the valor and patriotism of the outlawed Warner and his band of brave followers.
Stark had, with difficulty, been prevailed on to take the command. He had a farm among the Vermont Mountains, and his sympathies were in harmony with her people; he, too, was smarting under a sense of the injustice of Congress. He only took up arms, he said, in a moment of exigency, to defend the neighborhood which otherwise would be exposed to the ravages of the enemy.