General Assembly, a copy of the Address pronounced by me before the Members of the Legislature, at their request, on the evening of the 20th inst. The address was prepared for delivery before the "Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society," and with no idea that, under any combination of circumstances, would its publication be invited. If it be thought, however, that any beneficial influence can be anticipated from its publication, it is cheerfully placed at your disposal. I am, Gentlemen, Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, GEORGE F. HOUGHTON. Messrs. D. W. C. CLARKE, Secretary of the Senate, F. F. MERRILL, Clerk of the House of Representatives, MR. BUTLER'S ADDRESS. MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN :— The eye affecteth the heart. Hence all popular departments of knowledge appeal to our senses. Geography avails itself of maps; chemistry of experiments; mathematics of diagrams, and eloquence of gestures. No arguments are so convincing as those which address the senses of the people, except, perhaps, those which are addressed to their nonsense. I think myself happy, therefore, in that I am to speak in the real presence of Eshcol clusters, plucked for us and brought hither by spies who have traversed the promised land of antiquarian research from Dan to Beersheba. I trust these trophies of the proudest day in our annals, though they have no tongues, will speak to you of olden times with most miraculous organ, even as the shell you hold to your ear whispers to you of the distant ocean, so that you will bear with me while I discourse touching shreds and patches, "Picked from the worm-holes of long vanished days, Among the sources of information to which I have had recourse are the following:-Files of the Connecticut Courant; Vermont State Papers, especially the third volume of the manuscript collections by Stevens; Journal of Captain Stevens' journey to Canada in 1752; Lives of Stark, by his Son, by Headley and Everett; Sparks' edition of the Washington papers; Travels by Anbury, a Captain under Burgoyne; Burgoyne's Narrative; Madam Riedesel's Letters; the Hessian account of the battle by Glich; the History of Coos Country by Grant Powers. I have also enjoyed a personal conference with several veterans who saw all and shared a part of the conflict. My cardinal object will be to describe THE BATTLE OF BEN 2 NINGTON; but I must not fail to sketch, first, the train of events which led to that battle. The evacuation of Ticonderoga, on the sixth of July, 1777, took place forty days before the battle of Bennington. That evacua tion struck more terror through the Northern States than any event during the Revolution. Burgoyne's invasion through the Lakes astonished Washington, who had expected Burgoyne at Boston if any where. As early as the 27th of May, General Poor had written to Gates, and on the 30th of the same month Gates had written Washington, that the enemy were in force on Lake Champlain, and that Ticonderoga was untenable against a vigorous attack.* Yet it was a favorite idea with Washington, that the British would not operate in force from Canada during that campaign. Therefore, three weeks after Gates' letter, Washington wrote: "The garrison at Ticonderoga is sufficient to hold it against any attack." Officers from Canada, and Canadian spies, gave accounts of Burgoyne which proved accurate, but were received as incredulously as the prophecies of Cassandra.† Nine days before the taking of Ticonderoga, Schuyler thought that no serious attack on that post was threatened, but an attempt on New Hampshire, or the Mohawk. I have seen no evidence that Washington had any faith in Burgoyne's invasion as a reality more than four days before the fall of Ticonderoga, and when on the tenth of July, nine days afterwards, he received intelligence that that fortress was taken, he refused to believe it. "I should rather suppose" he writes, "that if any accident has befallen us, it must have happened to the detachment of men from the New Hampshire grants under Colonel Warner, for we find from St. Clair's letters that he expected something from him."§ Nay, on the seventh, two days after Burgoyne had taken Ticonderoga Washington writes, "We are left to conjecture whether his appearance on the Lake was with a view to a real and serious attack or whether to amuse and draw our attention."|| As soon as Schuyler heard of the fall of Ticonderoga he wrote, "An event so alarming has not yet happened since the contest *Stevens Papers, 153. I do not mention the volume, for as already intimated my quotations are solely from the third. +Washington Papers, IV. 467, 462, 466. Stevens, 189. Washington Papers, IV. 475, 486. Washington Papers, IV. 484. began." In the letters of private men it was often said, "There are many long faces, for the key of North America is lost and gone; a very dark shadow is cast over a very bright prospect." In some States it led to a public fast. The New England troops in great part deserted St. Clair on his retreat from Ticonderoga, and ever afterwards viewed him and Schuyler as treacherous or incapable and imbecile.* For forty days after mastering Ticonderoga, the British seemed to be pushing their success in every quarter when the battle of Bennington broke their left wing, and forty days of reverses whelmed the strongest army ever sent to the Canadas in ruin. It is natural to ask, whence came these reverses? How shall we account for them? What turned victory into defeat? We shall find answers to these questions if we survey the measures of the British and Americans previous to the battle of Bennington. Onward from the day that Ticonderoga yielded to his arms, Burgoyne's forces were divided and subdivided. Unvaried success tempted him to act by detachments. He could not but say to himself, "Those who have not dared abide my coming in the fortifications of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, who vainly strove to conflict with my advanced guard at Hubbardton,-who would not risk a battle at Fort George, Skeensborough, Fort Ann, Fort Edward, and Stillwater-where shall they make a stand ?— For me to pursue is to overtake, to overtake is to conquer, to conquer is to crush." Accordingly, besides the garrisons at Ticonderoga, Fort George and Fort Edward, six battalions were posted for three weeks in Castleton,† and a large force was sent to besiege Fort Stanwix,-scouts ranged the valley of Otter Creek, -Sherwood was dispatched to ravage the debatable ground between New York and Massachusetts, and finally Baum was ordered to Bennington. Doubtless Burgoyne was familiar with the war maxim that an army must be like a man's hand-outposts and detachments resembling the fingers which are never so far separated and removed that they cannot, at any moment of need reinforce each other and concentrate into one fist. But that General was persuaded he *Stevens Papers, 217, 522, 268. +Riedesel, 139. should be cautious over-much, if he tied himself up by rules of circumspection in dealing with a foe so little to be feared. His instructions to Baum show that he believed it possible for six hundred men to march from the Hudson to the Connecticut, subjuga. ting all the intervening region without running any risk of loss.He also considered it "highly probable that Warner would retreat before Baum" and so far as appears, he had never heard the naine of Stark.* Such was the tide of Burgoyne's success, as to make Washington at times despondent, for on the seventh of August, nine days before the battle of Bennington, he wrote: "As matters are going on, General Burgoyne will find little difficulty in penetrating to Albany."+ Burgoyne, as soon as he had seized Ticonderoga, issued a proclamation that towns should send delegates, and individuals come for themselves, and make their submission to his officer at Castleton on the 15th of July. Many tories did so, and in some cases were employed to work on roads, in others were furnished with protections insuring them safety against the scouts who scoured the valley of Otter Creek to plunder such as had not taken the oath of allegiance.+ Tories sometimes nailed up their protections over their doors, as we do insurance plates, and they received red caps to wear as a badge of loyalty. They were called by the Yankees Protectioners. Their wish being father to their thought, they persuaded Burgoyne that the Green Mountain Boys were tories to a man, and thus doubled his contempt for his antagonists. At sight of the wounded or panic-struck fugitives from Hubbardton, almost every whig house, west of the mountains and north of Manchester, was deserted. East of the mountains, the people of several towns crossed the Connecticut. July 21st, those of Thetford crossed into Lyme; for a party was expected to attack Number Four, and thence go up the Connecticut. Five days after the evacuation of Ticonderoga, in a letter from Stockbridge, Massachusetts, it was written: "We are greatly burdened with people who have fled from the New Hampshire grants." It was feared that Manchester also must be abandoned. In a letter dated there, July 15th, it is said: "We learn that a large scout of the enemy *Stevens Papers, 471. +Washington Papers, V. 23. + Stevens Papers, 305, 83, 89. |