Hubbardton

At Hubbardton, a small village in what would become Vermont, one of the notable clashes of the Saratoga campaign unfolded during the Revolutionary War. At the time, ownership of this land remained unsettled, sometimes referred to as the New Hampshire Grants, with New York, New Hampshire, and a newly formed but still unrecognized independent Vermont government all laying claim to it. Early on the morning of July 7, 1777, troops under General Simon Fraser overtook American soldiers guarding the back of a column withdrawing from Fort Ticonderoga. This clash stands as the sole military engagement to occur on Vermont soil during the war, since the fighting at Bennington actually took place in present day Walloomsac, New York.

The withdrawal from Ticonderoga had begun late on July 5, triggered by the sighting of enemy cannons positioned atop Mount Defiance, a height also known as Rattlesnake Mountain or Sugar Loaf Hill that dominated the fort below. Most of General Arthur St. Clair's army pushed through Hubbardton on its way to Castleton, but Seth Warner, commanding the trailing guard, paused there to rest his men and gather those who had fallen behind.

Learning of the American departure early on July 6, Fraser launched an immediate pursuit, first sending word to General John Burgoyne asking for reinforcements to be dispatched without delay. He made camp that evening just short of Hubbardton, while German troops under General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, marching to reinforce him, halted a few miles further behind. Fraser resumed the chase at dawn and reached Hubbardton, catching part of the American rear guard off guard even as other units managed to organize themselves into defensive positions. What followed was a fierce fight in which the Americans were initially pushed back, though they came close to breaking through Fraser's left flank before Riedesel's arriving German forces tipped the balance and finally scattered the American ranks.

The engagement cost the British side heavily enough that they abandoned any further chase of the main American force. Captured Americans were marched off to Ticonderoga, while the bulk of the British troops turned toward Skenesboro to reunite with Burgoyne's army. Meanwhile, most of the dispersed American soldiers eventually found their way back to St. Clair's army as it continued its march toward the Hudson River.

Background

In the closing weeks of June 1777, General John Burgoyne launched his push to seize the Hudson River valley, leading a force of 8,000 men southward along Lake Champlain. By July 1 his troops had reached the outskirts of Fort Ticonderoga. Four days later, on July 5, General Arthur St. Clair, commanding the American garrison charged with holding the fort and its outlying defenses, learned that Burgoyne's forces had hauled cannons onto high ground looking down over the position. Facing this threat, the Americans abandoned the fort under cover of darkness that same night. Most of the army then pressed along a rugged trail, known today among locals as the 1776 Hubbardton Military Road, heading toward Hubbardton within the contested New Hampshire Grants region. Heat and bright sun made the march punishing, and the soldiers kept up an exhausting pace, covering some 30 miles (48 km) before finally halting to camp at Castleton on the night of July 6.

Attack

Darkness slowed Fraser's column even though his men roused at three in the morning. Riedesel, too, set out at that same hour with a chosen body of troops, yet he trailed behind Fraser's advance. By the time Fraser neared Hubbardton around daybreak, his forces came close to catching parts of Hale's regiment off guard, and the opening exchanges left those units in disarray. Word reached the Americans from General St. Clair that British forces had already taken Skenesboro, the very place where the retreating column had intended to reunite, meaning a longer, indirect path toward the Hudson River would now be necessary. St. Clair ordered his men to follow him without delay toward Rutland.

Around 7:15, as Francis' soldiers formed up to march away, the British advance guard appeared over the ridge behind them. The Massachusetts troops quickly shifted into a defensive line using nearby cover and fired a devastating volley into the exhausted British ranks. Assessing the situation, Fraser chose to dispatch a detachment to strike the American left flank, gambling that his own left could hold out until Riedesel's arrival. From the crest of a nearby hill, Riedesel could see that the American line, now bolstered by portions of Hale's regiment, was in fact bearing down on Fraser's left side. In response, he sent his grenadiers to reinforce that flank while ordering his jägers to strike at the center of the American position.

Early on, the sound of distant gunfire alerted St. Clair to the engagement. He sent Henry Brockholst Livingston and Isaac Dunn racing off to summon the militia units camped nearest Hubbardton to join the fight. Upon reaching those camps, however, the two men discovered the militia already fleeing away from the sound of battle, and nothing they said could persuade the men to reverse course. Undeterred, Livingston and Dunn pressed onward toward Hubbardton.

The Americans withdrew to a defensible position atop Monument Hill, where they beat back a series of determined British charges, though Colonel Francis took a wound to the arm during the fighting. Undaunted, he kept directing his men toward a gap he spotted in Fraser's left flank. More than an hour into the engagement, the battle's momentum shifted decisively with the arrival of Riedesel's grenadiers. These well drilled soldiers

Losses

According to the official tally kept by British forces, 39 of their soldiers died alongside one French-Canadian, while wounds claimed 127 British troops and 2 French-Canadians. German units recorded separately show 10 dead and 14 injured, bringing the combined figures to 50 fatalities and 143 wounded across both forces. Richard M. Ketchum, however, arrives at a different accounting for the British side, placing their losses at 60 killed and 168 wounded.

For the American forces, Ketchum's figures show 41 men killed, 96 wounded, and 230 taken prisoner. Complicating this picture, Lt. Anburey, who witnessed the fighting firsthand, claimed that when the dead and wounded from both armies were counted on the battlefield afterward, the totals reached 200 killed and 600 wounded combined. If one deducts the British, Canadian, and German figures from these numbers, the resulting American casualties would stand at 150 dead, 457 wounded, and 230 captured.