It is clear that no one, not even Baum himself, had realized the seriousness of that officer's situation. In the middle of the morning of the 15th Burgoyne wrote that if a retreat were necessary it must be so conducted as to give the enemy no opportunity for triumph, otherwise the Indians might be discouraged. Therefore, all captured cattle and wagons must be brought off, and any flour and corn that could not be carried away must be destroyed.[1] It was not until afterwards that Burgoyne suggested that Breymann might have pushed on without his artillery.
Lieutenant-colonel Baum spent the 15th of August, 1777, in intrenching himself on a hill about four miles north of Bennington. About nine o'clock on the morning of the 16th he noticed small bodies of men, mostly in their shirt-sleeves and with fowling-pieces on their shoulders, passing quickly and quietly behind his intrenched camp. The good officer took these shirt-sleeved fellows for Tories seeking his protection. It is said that many people in that part of the country had taken the oath to the king. In the course of the morning an attack was made and easily repulsed. At last, about three in the afternoon, the Germans were completely surrounded, and the battle began in good earnest. Most of the Indians, Canadians, and Tories made good their escape. The Brunswickers held out for an hour or two, until their ammunition began to fail. The Americans fought with desperation. They rushed to within eight paces of the cannon that were loaded with grape-shot, and discharged their rifles at the artillerymen. Stark, who commanded
- ↑ Eelking, “Riedesel” vol. iii. p. 261.
