Vermont - Day 6 - Bennington

Pine Hollow Campground
Wednesday, 6 June 2018
D-Day (although I didn't hear it mentioned all day)

I'm still feeling not quite up to par but better than I have been, and the weather finally started clearing up, so I decided it was time to see a few sights.

Bennington was founded in 1749, according to a sign on the highway (very loose term for these state routes), and saw several key events in the history of our country.

Bennington Battle Monument

Bennington Battle Monument

I went first to the Bennington Battle Monument, the tallest structure in the state and one of the tallest monuments in the world (I think that's what I read somewhere).  It's 300' tall and luckily now has an elevator to take us up to the observation area, with the original stairs gated off.  From those slits near the top, you can see into New York and Massachusetts.

The Battle of Bennington actually occurred across the river in New York - about 7 miles down the road - but it was fought to defend the storehouse here at the memorial site.  I got part of this story when I was in New York, and now I'm filling in some of the rest of it, both from the exhibits here and those I saw later at the Bennington Museum.

In 1777, Gen. John Burgoyne (known to his men as Gentleman Johnny) had devised a plan to separate New England from the other colonies.  He was leading an army of British Redcoats, German/Hessian mercenaries, Canadians, Indians, and American loyalists.  They worked their way down the Champlain valley toward Albany, with the Continental Army gradually retreating as they advanced.

As they slogged their way through the swamps south of Lake Champlain, their baggage train grew longer and longer.  Eventually, they badly needed supplies.  Then Burgoyne heard of a supply depot at Bennington and sent Lt. Col. Baum to (a) get supplies and (b) divert attention from his objective of Albany.  Bennington was forewarned because of refugees (yes, here in our own country) fleeing from Burgoyne's troops as they came south.  Bennington sent an SOS to New Hampshire, which sent a militia under the command of Gen. Stark.  Stark worked out some clever battle tactics that overcame the far-more-experienced British troops, with most British troops either dying or captured.

The result, aside from saving the supplies at Bennington, was two-fold: the British learned that Americans could fight well enough to win, and the Americans had proof they could defeat the British.  A month later, these lessons helped the Americans beat Burgoyne at Saratoga, considered the turning point of the American Revolutionary War.

This plaque at the monument tells the story.

The Old First Church

Old First Church

This Congregational church, formed in 1762, was the first Protestant church in Vermont.  The present building dates from 1806.  It's just down the hill from the Monument and stands next to an extensive burying ground.  There are graves dating back to the Revolutionary War.

These are 2 whose epitaphs I especially liked.  I hope you can blow them up to read them.

A close-up

And then there's the most famous resident of the graveyard: Robert Frost.

Bennington Museum
The main reason I visited this museum is its display of Grandma Moses paintings.  I've never understood why she is considered a great artist - to me she's got less sense of perspective than I do, which is seriously saying something - and her paintings are almost childlike.  So what's the big deal, I've always wondered.  I went hoping that a collection of her work would help explain it to me.

The display explains that during the Depression and especially after World War II people were longing for a sense of the security of the past, of going to grandmother's house in a sleigh for Thanksgiving, ice skating on the local pond, that sort of thing.  And that's what she provides.

But what I learned is (1) she doesn't provide it to me and (2) I still don't see the point of her work.  But I've also concluded that it's likely just a matter of personal taste, because I know next to nothing of art appreciation so am not able to critique someone's work.  And Grandma Moses may well have not cared for the Impressionists, for instance, whose work I do like very much.  Personal taste.  But at least I tried.

The museum also had a good display about the battle of Bennington with some interesting artifacts.  All that took me quite a while and I never got to see the rest of the museum, which includes a pottery gallery and a Vermont decorative arts display and a Gilded Age in Vermont gallery, all of which I'd have liked to see.  Some other time, I guess.

I'll conclude today's tour with this quote from a letter, dated August 20, 1777, written by Gen. Burgoyne to his superior Lord Germain as his troops were working their way down the Champlain Valley:
   "The New Hampshire Grants [today's Vermont] in particular, a country unpeopled and almost unknown in the last war, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race on the continent and hangs like a gathering storm on my left."

Yep, those Vermonters were sure troubles