Bennington Battle Day

Bennington Battle Day

August 16

During the Revolutionary War, Colonel Seth Warner and 350 of his Green Mountain Boys, a group of soldiers from Vermont, played a vital role in defeating the British forces who had come to capture the American supply depot at Bennington, a town in southern Vermont near the New York border. The anniversary of the fighting that took place along the Walloomsac River on August 16, 1777, is a legal holiday in Vermont, and a 306-foot tower has been erected in the town of Old Bennington, two miles west of Bennington proper. A statue of Seth Warner stands nearby. Across the state border in New York's Rensselaer County, the Bennington Battlefield State Park includes the site where the heaviest fighting took place.
The Bennington Battle Monument State Historic Site hosts historic reenactments and displays on the weekend nearest August 16.

CONTACTS:
Vermont State Historic Sites
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation
National Life Bldg.
P.O. Box 20
Montpelier, VT 05620
800-837-6668 or 802-828-3211; fax: 802-828-3206
www.historicvermont.org

SOURCES:
AmerBkDays-2000, p. 589
AnnivHol-2000, p. 137
DictDays-1988, p. 11

Celebration day: Aug 16