PART FOUR OF A FOUR-PART HISTORY LECTURE SERIES

250 YEARS: LOOKING BACKWARD & LOOKING AHEAD

HELD IN THE NORMAN WILLIAMS PUBLIC LIBRARY

CO-HOSTED BY THE WOODSTOCK HISTORY CENTER

Battle of Bennington, a National Guard Heritage Painting by Don Troiani, Courtesy of the National Guard Bureau.

THE GREAT BENNINGTON BATTLE & VERMONT

with Historian Howard Coffin

The surrender at Saratoga of a British army under John Burgoyne, now almost 250 years ago, has long been called the decisive battle of the American Revolution. But perhaps Burgoyne was doomed after the Battle of Bennington, a bloody day of fighting along the Vermont border that happened two months before Saratoga?

Historian Howard Coffin discusses the history-changing Burgoyne campaign, focusing on the dramatic battle of “Great Bennington,” which was a Vermont battle as well as a New York battle. He also reviews heroes John Stark and Seth Warner, and the Vermont Constitution, itself about to turn 250 years old.

About the Speaker:

A seventh-generation Vermonter, Howard Coffin is the author of four books on the Civil War: Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today’s Vermont; Full Duty: Vermonters in the Civil War; Nine Months to Gettysburg; and The Battered Stars, as well as Guns Over the Champlain Valley, a book on military sites along the Champlain Corridor.

This program is sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the NEH, the Vermont Humanities Council, or the partnering organizations.