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A group wishing to commemorate
the Battle of Bennington decided a monument should be
erected at the storage site of the military supplies
which had been the objective of the battle. In 1876,
the Vermont General Assembly passed an act establishing
the Bennington Battle Monument Association as an outgrowth
of the Bennington Historical Society. Even earlier,
in 1854 (77 years following the Battle) the Legislature
of Vermont had established and founded an Association
to erect a monument; but because of difficulties in
raising the needed additional money, the group disbanded
after two years. This new organization, with
the Nation’s Centennial celebration behind them and
with the approach of Vermont’s Centennial in 1891, aggressively
worked towards the erection of a suitable memorial.
The State of Vermont appropriated $15,000; New Hampshire
$5,000; Massachusetts $10,000; the Congress of the United
States $40,000; and with approximately $32,000 raised
through private contributions, the amount of $102,000
was obtained to construct the memorial. In 1886, the
Vermont Legislature authorized an additional $10,000
to purchase the property where the monument was to be
erected. Meanwhile, the debate raged as to whether a
sculptural or architectural monument should be constructed.
After reviewing various proposals, the committee decided
on the design submitted by John Phillipp Rinn, an architect
from Boston. The contractor was William Ward of Lowell,
Massachusetts.
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The
306 foot monument features an observation deck
with views of
three states. |
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The Bennington Battle Monument
is 306 feet 4 and 1/2 inches tall; the cornerstone was
laid in 1887, and the monument completed and dedicated
in 1891. It is constructed from blue-grey magnesian
limestone (known as Sandy Hill Dolomite from present-day
Hudson Falls, New York), which is roughfaced with the
exception of two horizontal bands near the observatory
level. The base is 37 feet square and with a gradual
diminishing curve rises upward 168 feet where the rock-faced
stone changes to a smooth horizontal beltcourse of 8
feet; above this is a band of rock-faced stone punctuated
by twenty, eleven-foot slotted openings at the observation
level. From this level, now reached by an elevator,
can be seen the valleys and rolling hills of Vermont,
New York and Massachusetts. Above the windows is an
additional smooth beltcourse of 13 feet from which soars,
uninterrupted but diminishing more rapidly, the final
stone portion of 101 feet, 10 and 1/2 inches to the
apex, which is surmounted by a bronze and gilt ten-point
star adding the final 4 feet 6 inches to the Monument’s
height. The points of the star are each 18 inches long
and serve as a lightning rod for the monolith, the tallest
structure in the State of Vermont.
In 1952, the Bennington Monument Association transferred the ownership and operation of the Monument to the Vermont Board of Historic Sites, which later became the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. In 1964, the State commissioned Paul V. Winters, a Vermont artist, to construct a diorama depicting the Second Engagement of the hard-fought Bennington Battle. This fine work, in full color, is historically accurate, the detail well authenticated by research. Also displayed within the Monument entrance is an immense iron kettle, which was part of the camp equipment of General Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga.
On the grounds at the Monument are a number of additional
monuments. The largest is the heroic figure of Seth
Warner, commander of the Green Mountain Boys who helped
defeat the British forces in the Second Engagement
of the Battle; cut from granite, the monument was
donated in 1910 by Colonel Olin Scott. Also prominently
displayed is a large granite boulder with a bronze
tablet, which was placed in honor of General John
Stark and the 1,400 New Hampshire men who were involved
in the Battle; this was donated by the Citizens of
New Hampshire in 1977. In 2000 John Threlfall donated
to the Monument a bronze statue of General John Stark.
This statue was cast from a plaster model executed
in 1889 by American sculptor Jon Rogers. Stark is
in a heroic pose, stepping forward with an outstretched
arm pointing towards the approaching British. A number
of other memorials are on the grounds around the main
monument.
The Monument Gift Shop offers a fine selection of
quality merchandise relating to the Battle and the
Monument. The items are indicative of the social,
geographical and economic factors that occurred over
a span of 114 years; from the Battle of Bennington
in 1777 until the completion of the Monument in 1891.
Monument
Lighting Schedule 
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