Re(4): Thought for the Day Posted on 8/26/2021 at 02:14:28 by Dick Raymond (18)
Will: OK, if that's agreeable with whoever likes them, here's a very late August. RR
August 2021 Pome
" … OR MOLLY STARK'S A WIDOW!" *
Patriot Victory, Walloomsac, N.Y., 16 August 1777
John Stark a sturdy Hampshireman, militiaman was he,
He'd served with Rogers' Rangers, for the bold St. Francis' raid,
Knew how to fight like Indians, had led a company,
And when the call for soldiers came, he answered, unafraid.
A British army, marching south, brushed skirmishers aside,
Aiming to meet at Albany, with other Tory forces,
They paused at Saratoga, where the Hudson's deep and wide,
Before them stood the Patriots, with lots of men and horses.
Burgoyne, the British general, sent Baum and his dragoons
To seize supplies at Bennington, some forty miles away--
But Stark's militia boxed them in, surrounded by platoons,
The Germans fought in vain, and Baum did not survive the day.
Even a reinforcement column got a hot reception,
They scrambled back to shelter, after losing all their guns--
The battle (now called Bennington) was a marvel of deception,
For Stark, and the Green Mountain Boys, were worthy Hampshire sons!
6-21-21
* This engagement, part of the Saratoga Campaign, was important in convincing
Burgoyne that his effort to split the colonies was doomed to fail. On 17 October he surrendered what was left of his army to General Horatio Gates. The victory is marked in Bennington by a 300-foot tall stone monument. The crucial actions took place less than 10 miles from my home town of Cambridge, NY.
