BENNINGTON, BATTLE OF

(Aug. 16, 1777), in U.S. War of Independence, victory by American militiamen defending colonial military stores in Bennington, Vt., against a British raiding party. In early August the British commander, Gen. John Burgoyne, hoped to capture needed supplies and overawe New Englanders by dispatching a well-equipped regiment to Bennington under the German colonel Friedrich Baum. On the 16th, Baum's force of 800 British, Germans, Loyalists, and Indians was decisively defeated by about 1,600 colonial troops gathered from neighbouring militia by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner and led by Gen. John Stark. Reinforcements on both sides arrived too late to influence the outcome, and about 700 of the British forces were taken prisoner. The outcome of this engagement went far in enhancing American morale. The battle, which took place at the site of the present village of Walloomsac, N.Y. (several miles west of Bennington), contributed to the eventual defeat of Burgoyne (see Saratoga, Battles of). It is commemorated by a historical park near Walloomsac and by a 306-ft (93-m) obelisk at the village of Old Bennington.