2. John Stark was known as the Hero of Bennington
John Stark, while well-known in his native New Hampshire, is mostly forgotten in the rest of the United States, though he was a hero of two American wars. Before the French and Indian War he demonstrated his personal courage when he was captured by the Abenaki and when ordered to run the gauntlet instead charged one of the Indians in line to beat him. He served with Rogers’ Rangers during the war, gaining military and leadership experience. His militia company responded to the call on April 18, 1775, and established the position on the American flank at the Battle of Breed’s Hill which repulsed three British assaults, inflicting heavy losses on the regulars, before covering the American retreat when the British finally carried the hill. He served in the New York Campaign, the retreat across New Jersey, and at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton.
After being sent to New Hampshire to recruit additional companies Stark resigned when he learned that be had been bypassed for promotion in favor of a political officer of no combat experience. When General John Burgoyne’s expedition began thrusting down from Ticonderoga Stark returned to the militia, commanding local companies against Britain’s Indian and Hessian allies. Stark’s command crushed a force of British and Hessians at the Battle of Bennington, a critical victory in the campaign which led to the surrender at Saratoga in the autumn of 1777. Stark then returned to the Continental Army, serving as commander of the Northern Army three times from 1778-1781. After the war Stark retired to his New Hampshire farm, where he died at the age 93 in 1822. Few Revolutionary war generals served in more engagements, or with greater distinction, than he.