BENNINGTON  , a

village and one of the county-seats of Bennington county, Vermont, U.S.A., situated in the S.W. part of the state, about 30 M . E.N.E. of Troy, New York . Pop . (1890) 3971; (1900) 5656 (965 foreign-born); (1910) 6221 . The township of the salve name, in which it is situated, had in 1910 a population of 8698, living chiefly in the villages of Bennington, North Bennington and Bennington Centre, the last a summer resort . The village of Bennington is served by the Rutland railway, and is connected by electric railway with North Adams and Pittsfield, Mass., and Hoosick Falls, N.Y . It is picturesquely situated at the foot of the Green Mountains, and the summit of the neighbouring Mt . Anthony (2J45 ft.) commands a magnificent view . The village has woollen mills, knitting mills, stereoscope, box, and collar and cuff factories and machine shops . There are white clay and yellow ochre works in different parts of the township . Bennington is the seat of the Vermont state soldiers' home . The Bennington Battle Monument, a shaft 301 ft. high, is said to be the highest battle monument in the World .

It commemorates the success gained on the 16th of

August 1777 by a force of nearly 2000 " Green Mountain Boys " and New Hampshire and Massachusetts militia under General John Stark over two detachments of General Burgoyne's army, totalling about 1200 men, under Col . Friedrich Baum and Col . Breyman . These came up one after the other in search of provisions and were practically annihilated, Col . Baum being mortally wounded and 700 men taken prisoners . The scene of the battle is about 5 M. from the village . The victory had an important influence on Burgoyne's campaign (see AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE), weakening Burgoyne and encouraging the American militia to take the field against him . Bennington was settled in 1761 and was named in honour of Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire . The township was organized in 1762 . It was one of the " New Hampshire Grant " towns, both, New York and New Hampshire claiming jurisdiction over it, and, being the home of Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, it became the centre of activities of the " Green Mountain Boys," of whom they were leaders . During the fifteen years in which Vermont was an independent commonwealth, Bennington was the headquarters of the council of safety . In 1828—1829 W .

L .

Garrison edited here a paper called The Journal of the Times . The village of Bennington was incorporated in 1849 . See Merrill and Merrill, Sketches of Historic Bennington (Cam-bridge, Mass., 1898) .