John Stark's Glory Poem by David Welch

Back in seventeen seventy-seven,
British general John Burgoyne faced hard times,
despite winning at Hubbardton, and Fort Anne,
supplies were getting very hard to find.

When word came that General Howe wouldn't be
marching up the Hudson to meet his forces,
Burgoyne realized he couldn't take Albany
without foodstuffs, munitions, and horses.

So he then turned to one of his Hessians,
a Lieutenant Colonel named Freidrich Baum,
and to Bennington ordered him to march,
to seize the supply depot in that town.

With eight hundred men, most Germans,
famed mercenaries who would fight for pay,
along with Indian allies and loyalists,
Baum's force quickly got itself under way.

They believed only a few hundred rebels
guarded the town against their approach,
the battered survivors of Hubbardton,
but there was something that Baum didn't know.

The people of the green New Hampshire grants,
that would later become the state of Vermont,
had sent a call for aid to their neighbors,
whose militias were now marching strong.

New Hampshire sent out General John Stark,
a skilled veteran of war in the north,
where he'd fought amidst Roger's Rangers;
now with sixteen hundred men he marched for war.

Stark stopped at the fort at Number Four,
where more men rallied to his command,
brought on Seth Warner, a Green Mountain Boy,
to show him the way through wilderness lands.

Stark had no knowledge the British were near,
but soon word started to filter on in,
he alterd his plains and went searching for Baum,
hoping his numbers would bring freedom a win.

Baum did not fear the Americans at first,
he'd heard the militia broke time and again,
but now outnumbered more than two-to-one,
he decided to find a place to defend.

On a hill just north of Hoosick town,
but a few miles to Bennington's west,
Baum sent a message for reinforcements,
and built a redoubt, with no time to rest.

Stark and his men, now two thousand strong,
arrayed themselves at the base of the hill.
He wanted to attack, but two days of rain
thwarted the eager General's will.

But when the sun finally returned to them,
towards the Hessians his forces did go,
Stark was heard to say, "We're taking that hill,
or tonight Molly Stark sleeps a widow! "

Stark was clever, and under the dim of night,
had sent troops both to the right and left,
when the advance began, the pincer was sprung,
the Hessians were not expecting it.

Baum's men were caught in a hot cross-fire,
many quickly were sent to the grave,
their Indian allies wisely pulled out,
seeing no victory to be had that day.

The militia just kept pushing closer,
and destroyed the Hessian powder cart,
they charged their positions, muskets as clubs,
the mercenaries began to loose heart.

Then Colonel Baum, in his desperation,
ordered his men out on a sabre charge,
they bulled straight ahead at the militia,
but were cut down before they got that far.

Baum himself was wounded mortally,
the attack being his final stand,
and all the remaining British forces
dropped their guns, quickly threw up their hands.

The Americans had taken the hill,
and went about looting the Hessians' supplies,
they were busy securing their prisoners
when a new shock came before their eyes.

Six-hundred-fifty more Hessian soldiers,
with Heinrich von Breymann in the lead,
fell upon the tired, disordered rebels,
pressing the fight with surprising speed.

Now Stark and his men were driven on back,
struggling hard to restore formation,
but at that moment the Green Mountain Boys
arrived to fight for the young nation.

Three-hundred-fifty threw in with John Stark,
the shock British advance quickly stalled,
they battled Breymann until twilight's gloom,
the Americans let him have it all.

By nightfall Breymann had lost a quarter
of his force, was outnumbered and mired,
he'd lost all his cannons, and deduced that
the only choice left was to retire.

He retreated west, back to Burgoyne's force,
no attempt at a pursuit was made,
Burgoyne's mighty raid had found only blood,
nine hundred casualties he had paid.

Those men would've been useful in weeks to come,
when the British went against General Gates,
at Saratoga, Burgoyne faced a rout,
his surrender still recalled to his day.

Stark was hailed a hero for his actions,
for facing down the foe eye-to-eye,
what else could be expected from the great man
who would declare we should ‘Live Free or Die.'

He and the militia had changed the fight,
and covered themselves in great glory,
by striking a blow for liberty's cause,
so a new nation might begin its story…