Artillery at the Battle of Bennington

A Bennington Historical Society presentation

Cannons played a small but notable role in the seminal August 16, 1777 Battle of Bennington. Made in England, the guns and their carriages constituted top-of-the-line military technology for the time. The men who manned, loaded, and fired the pieces were German subsidiary troops hired by the British government to supplement its war effort. Painted by Thomas Jefferson’s propagandistic pen as foreign "mercenaries," these Hessians were, come to find out, no such thing.

In this program, Eric Schnitzer will examine how the cannons were employed in battle and investigate the material culture of the cannon barrels, carriages, and the projectiles they shot. He will also explore the backgrounds and some of the stories of the officers and soldiers from Hessen-Hanau who operated these artillery pieces in both phases of the famed battle.

Eric Schnitzer has worked at Saratoga National Historical Park since 1997, becoming Park Ranger/Historian in 2000. Author of Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga – 1777, he has dedicated his life’s study to the organization, personnel, and material culture of the military forces associated with the Northern Campaign of 1777. He and his wife, Jenna, live in an 18th-century house in the White Creek Historic District near Bennington Battlefield State Historic Site, N.Y.

This program is supported in part by the Vermont Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, www.vermonthumanities.org.