JOHN

See also:

• STARK, JAMES (1794-1859)
• JOHN STARK (1728-1822)

STARK (1728-1822)  , American soldier, was born at Nutfield, now Londonderry., New Hampshire, on the 28th of August 1728 . In 1752 he was taken prisoner by the Indians but was ransomed by Massachusetts . During the Seven Years' War he served under Robert Rogers, first as a lieutenant and later as a captain, taking part in the battle of Lake George in 1755, the disastrous attack upon Ticonderoga in 1758, and the Ticonderoga-Crown Point campaign in 1759 . At the beginning of the War of Independence he raised a regiment and as colonel did good service in the Battle of Bunker Hill, in the Canadian expedition, and in Washington's New Jersey campaign in the winter of 1776-77 . In March 1777 he resigned his commission because other officers had been promoted over hirn: Later in the year, however, he was placed in, command (by New Hampshire), with the rank of brigadier-general of militia, of a force of militiamen, with whom, on the 16th of August, near Bennington (q.v.), Vermont, he defeated two detachments of Burgoyne's army under Colonel Friedrich Baum and Colonel Breyman . For this victory, which did much to bring about the capitulation of General Burgoyne, Stark received the thanks of Congress and a commission as brigadier-general in the Continental Army (Oct . 4, 1777) . He took part in the operations about Saratoga, and for a short time in 1778 and again in 1781 he was commander of the northern department . In September 1783 he was breveted major-general . He died at Manchester, New Hampshire, on the 8th of May 1822 . John Stark's brother, William (1724-1776), served in the Seven Years' War and afterwards on the frontier; and at the outbreak of the War of Independence, piqued because he was not put in command of a regiment, he entered the British service . See Memoir and Official Correspondence of General John Stark (Concord, N.H., 186o) by his grandson Caleb Stark (1804-1864), who wrote in 1831 Reminiscences of the French War containing Rogers's Expeditions with the New England Rangers and an Account .

. . of John Stark .