Stark, John (1728-1822), was a leading American general in the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). His crushing defeat of Colonel Friedrich Baum’s raiding party of Germans, Tories, Canadians, and Indians near Bennington, Vermont, on Aug. 16, 1777, was a turning point of the war. It was a severe setback to General John Burgoyne’s campaign to cut the American colonies in half.
Stark’s New Hampshire regiment defended the American left wing at Breed’s Hill in 1775. He helped cover the 1776 retreat from Canada, commanded units at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and served in the Rhode Island campaign of 1779. Stark was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire. He served with Rogers’s Rangers in the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. A statue of Stark represents New Hampshire in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
