been reinforced by militia from western Massachusetts, determined
to attack.

Early in the day he sent men, under Nichols and Herrick, to get
into the rear of Baum's position. The German officer, ignorant of
the country and of the nature of the warfare in which he was
engaged, noticed small bodies of men in their shirtsleeves, and
carrying guns without bayonets, making their way to the rear of
his intrenchments. With singular stupidity he concluded that they
were Tory inhabitants of the country who were coming to his
assistance, and made no attempt to stop them. In this way Stark
was enabled to mass about five hundred men in the rear of the
enemy's position. Distracting the attention of the British by a
feint, Stark also moved about two hundred men to the right, and
having thus brought his forces into position he ordered a general
assault, and the Americans proceeded to storm the British
intrenchments on every side. The fight was a very hot one, and
lasted some two hours. The Indians, at the beginning of the
action, slipped away between the American detachments, but the
British and German regulars stubbornly stood their ground. It is
difficult to get at the exact numbers of the American troops, but
Stark seems to have had between fifteen hundred and two thousand
militia. He thus outnumbered his enemy nearly three to one, but
his men were merely country militia, farmers of the New England
States, very imperfectly disciplined, and armed only with muskets
and fowling-pieces, without bayonets or side-arms. On the other
side Baum had the most highly disciplined troops of England and
Germany under his command, well armed and equipped, and he was
moreover strongly intrenched with artillery well placed behind
the breastworks. The advantage in the fight should have been