The American War for Independence had a lot of badasses but few senior officers tougher than the Granite State's favorite son, John Stark. Stark was an American cut from the same rough cloth as Anthony Wayne and Daniel Morgan but also had the keen tactical eye of Benedict Arnold and the vision of a Nathanael Greene. Yet John Stark is little known outside his native New Hampshire and even there, primarily for his statue in Manchester.
A Rugged American
The son of Scottish immigrants, John Stark, was born on 28 August 1728 in Londonderry, New Hampshire. As a boy, he moved with his family to Derryfield, now called Manchester. It would be Stark's home whenever he was not out hunting or fighting.
In the mid-18th century, much of New Hampshire was a frontier of rugged mountains, dense forests, plenty of game – and native tribes. Stark grew up in this savage wilderness, spending much of his time in the forests hunting, trapping, and developing the skills of a backwoodsman. And he was no stranger to the violence of the region. These would combine to give him the rugged individualism and self-confidence that would later serve him and the nation.
Frontier Hostage
On 28 April 1752, a party of Abenaki warriors captured young Stark while he was on an excursion hunting game and trapping fur along the Baker River. One of their party, David Stinson, was killed. Fortunately, Stark was able to warn his brother William, who escaped in a canoe. But the braves took John and his companion, Amos Eastman, to Canada.
His time as a prisoner toughened him. He and fellow captive Amos were ordered to "run the gauntlet" of braves wielding clubs during their captivity. Few got through the ordeal of the gauntlet without suffering a savage beating, and some succumbed. Stark was not intimidated. Displaying the grit he would later be famous for, the young man sprang on the first warrior, seized his club, and went at the astonished braves.
His courage and strength impressed the Abenakis, and the chief adopted Stark, who spent the winter as one of them. The colony later sent representatives to ransom the two captives, with Stark alone setting the treasury back 103 Spanish dollars. Stark returned home but now had a bond with the clan he had lived with.
Let's Go Rangers!
In 1755, the simmering conflict over the western frontier exploded in North America. The French and Indian War (Seven Years War in Europe) dragged Stark and his brother William into it. For the British, the war was a fight for empire in North America and worldwide. For the colonials, it was a fight for survival against implacable enemies.
John and William joined Major Robert Rogers's company of rangers. Rogers's Rangers became the most renowned frontier fighting force of its time and the stuff of books and movies. Hardened men, used to the rigors of the frontier, the rangers knew and used every trick in the book to go deep into the forests and wreak havoc on the French and their Indian allies.
Young John Stark distinguished himself in the battles at Lake George, Bloody Pond, Halfway Creek, Fort William Henry, the Battle of Snow Shoes, plus the 1758 Battle of Fort Carillion, and the 1759 campaign in which Fort Carillion was abandoned.
Crisis of Conscience
In a strange twist, the gritty and hardened Stark faced a unique crisis of conscience in 1759 when British General Jeffery Amherst ordered the rangers to march from Lake George (NY) to the village of St. Francis in Quebec. The town was founded by Jesuit missionaries for converted Indians and was the home of the Abenaki, who had become his foster parents during captivity. Although now a captain and serving as Roger's second in command, the rugged young frontiersman refused to take part in the attack. He soon took leave of the rangers and returned to New Hampshire to spend time with his wife of one year, Molly Page.
Home
When the war ended in 1763, Captain Stark retired and went home to Derryfield to join Molly and raise a family of eleven children. Unlike most of his peers, young John Stark refused to engage in local politics and rejected the call to political meetings, even in the run-up to the American Revolution. However, he overcame his innate rejection of authority when he sensed his country was in danger. In 1774, he joined the local Committee of Safety, the colonies' self-defense organizers and the cornerstone of the resistance to British authority. Local committees of safety prepared the colonies' towns and counties for political action, self-defense, and war.
Call to Arms
When word of Lexington and Concord reached him, Stark left his farm and sawmill and musket in hand, headed for Boston, where New England was gathering to face the British. Commissioned a colonel, Stark was placed at the head of the regiment he recruited – tough New Hampshire men. He quickly went into action on 27 May 1775, conducting a raid on a British foraging party on Boston harbor's Noodles Island.
Mystic Beach
But his real debut came at a place called Bunker (Breed's) Hill on 17 June. Stark's regiment was one of the first to run the gauntlet of British naval fire to seize the critical ground below the crest. Stark now commanded his command plus the Second New Hampshire. The commander on site, Colonel Prescott, told Stark to pick where he wanted his regiments to defend. The former ranger quickly realized the north flank was the weak point of the American position. There, he placed his men behind a rail fence that ran from the hill to the bank of the Mystic River and had them reinforce the rails with straw to deceive the British. He also had the men pile boulders along the exposed beach to form a makeshift wall. Then Stark stepped in front of the works, marked the ground some eighty paces distant, and ordered his men not to fire until the redcoats reached that mark.
The tramp of the advancing elite Welch Fusiliers at the van of the British army had men checking flints as they waited patiently for Stark's command to "aim at their waistbands!" A horrific volley cut down ninety fusiliers, sending the rest in a panicked flight. The next wave fared no better as a second volley blasted them. The final British assault was also repulsed, ending the attack on the American flank.
Similar results took place on Bunker hill itself until lack of powder forced an American withdrawal, which Starks's men covered with disciplined musket fire. The British took the hill, but with the devastating loss of officers and men. Over 1,000 officers and other ranks were killed or wounded. And so typical of 18th-century war, many wounded would eventually succumb.
Passed Over
Sadly, many promotions and appointments, especially early in the war, were political. When the post-Bunker Hill round of promotions took place, the Continental Congress overlooked Colonel John Stark for less accomplished officers. This would anger Stark and stoke his resentment toward authority.
Continental Line
After the battle, Colonel Stark's command was brought into the Continental Army as the 5th New Hampshire Line. The unit served with distinction as part of General George Washington's army in the New York and New Jersey campaigns. Stark's men closely engaged the enemy in several battles, including Trenton, Assenpink Creek (2nd Trenton), and Princeton.
At Trenton, Washington, recognizing his bravery and abilities as a battle leader, entrusted him with command of the critical right-wing of the Nathanael Greene's advance guard.
In the case of the Assenpink Creek, he famously led a determined and gritty "forward defense" that stalled the British advance on the main army. Stark's actions at Assenpiunk Creek are vividly portrayed in my novel, The Winter Spy.
But the headstrong and quick to slight, Stark got his nose out of joint when the Continental Congress promoted Enoch Poor to brigadier general ahead of him. In March 1777, he resigned from the army in a huff, determined to obey neither man nor Congress. But unlike that other famously aggrieved general, Benedict Arnold, Stark's resentment would never turn to treason, only a desire to prove himself.
Stubborn Patriot
While Stark now simmered at his New Hampshire farm, a new threat emerged in the north – a massive British invasion force under British Major General John Burgoyne. Things in the north were so bleak in the summer of 1777 that the New Hampshire authorities implored him to return to active service in August. He agreed – with the proviso that he held an independent command under no one's control. Then, raising almost 2,000 militia, he took to the field. But true to his independent nature (and stubbornness), he refused a directive from the local commander, General Benjamin Lincoln, and kept his men on the east bank of the Hudson River, separate from the main army in New York.
Glory at Bennington
Burgoyne's army was moving south, but his supply lines were soon stretched thin. Getting wind of an American supply depot near Bennington, he sent a large force of Germans under the highly experienced Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum east toward what is today Vermont. Getting wind of the move, Stark quickly marched to block the advance. When Seth Warner's 600 men joined him, the combined forces pounced on Baum near Bennington.
Before the main body commenced its attack, Stark stood before his men as he did at Bunker Hill and exhorted them, "There are the red coats, and they are ours or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow."
The ensuing battle proved decisive. The American muskets wore down the tired Germans, and soon Stark's men were on the offensive, killing 200 and capturing 700 of the Germans. Baum was among those killed. The victorious Americans suffered just 100 casualties while gaining a tremendous psychological and material victory. John Stark's decisive action at Bennington is an exciting scene in my upcoming novel in the Yankee Doodle Spies series, The North Spy.
Saratoga Sunset
In September, news of the victory rallied more Americans to the ranks – men sorely needed as Burgoyne's final push to Albany collided with General Horatio Gates's army south of Saratoga, New York. After a second clash in October, Burgoyne withdrew around Saratoga as he debated whether to risk another thrust, hold fast, or retreat on his supply line for the winter. When he finally decided to retire, Colonel John Stark had already taken away that option. The Granite General's men swarmed the woods north of the British and cut them off from the safety of Fort Ticonderoga. Burgoyne was forced into a surrender that was the turning point in the struggle.
Getting His Due
In recognition of his distinguished leadership in the campaign that broke the threat from Canada, Congress finally promoted Colonel John Stark to brigadier general. Congress later gave him command of the Northern Department, where he twice assisted General John Sullivan during the Rhode Island campaign of 1778. Ironically, Sullivan was a general promoted over Stark earlier in the war.
Brigadier General Stark last distinguished himself in combat in June 1780 against General Wilhelm von Knyphausen's Hessians at Springfield, New Jersey. He commanded two New Hampshire regiments that helped check one of the advancing enemy columns. As a result, Knyphausen withdrew, leaving several hundred casualties. This American victory was the last major battle in the north. The British remained holed up in New York City, content to leave major maneuvers the Lord Cornwallis's southern army.
Although not part of major operations during this time, Stark played a role in the most significant espionage case of the war when he was called to serve on the board of generals for the court-martial of British spy Major John Andre. Andre had gone behind American lines in civilian garb to meet the traitor Benedict Arnold. While Arnold escaped, Andre was arrested while trying to return to British lines. Although a sympathetic figure, Andre was nevertheless rightly convicted and received the punishment allotted to spies: death by hanging.
Stark finally mustered out of the army in 1783 with a final rank of major general. Since George Washington was a lieutenant general (the army's highest position at the time), Stark had made it to the top tier of serving Continental officers.
Granite State Citizen
Unlike so many of his peers, John Stark did not use his wartime patriotism as a platform for political or economic gain. In1809, the state of Vermont asked him to travel to Bennington to speak on the 32nd anniversary of the battle. But Stark was too debilitated from rheumatism to make the journey. Instead, he penned an eloquent letter praising those who served and all who fought, civilian or military, for independence. The old general issued a stern (or perhaps, stark) warning to always be vigilant in the cause of liberty. The stoic general closed his letter in a way only he could, injecting some of his fighting spirit with this warning: "Live free or die—Death is not the worst of evils."
Although it should, John Stark's name does not rise to the top when most think of Revolutionary War heroes, even in his native state. Curiously, New Hampshire and Vermont have numerous venues named after Molly Paige Stark, while John has but a handful of monuments. Stark's rousing use of Molly's name before Bennington made his better half more celebrated than him.
John Stark died, the longest living Continental Army general of the war, in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 8 May 1822. John Stark was more than a badass, striking the enemy hard whenever and wherever he could. He lived a life that characterizes ideals held in esteem by all Americans: an independent spirit, rugged individualism, and defiance in the face of unjust authority. These ideals remain the Granite General's legacy.
