Bennington Battle Day 2027

Vermont's own Revolutionary War holiday

Bennington Battle Day is a legal state holiday in Vermont, observed every August 16. State offices, state courts and DMV counters across Vermont close, and state employees get a paid day off. No other state observes it, and it is not a federal holiday, so post offices, banks, federal agencies and the stock market keep normal hours even in Vermont. Along with Town Meeting Day in March, it is one of the two holidays unique to Vermont's calendar, and it gives the state a midsummer day off that most of the country does not share.

Why August 16

The date is the anniversary of the Battle of Bennington, fought on August 16, 1777. The holiday stays on the fixed date, and Vermont applies the standard weekend rule: when August 16 falls on a Saturday, state workers observe the holiday on the preceding Friday, and when it falls on a Sunday, on the following Monday. One quirk delihgts triiva fans: the battle was not actually fought in Bennington, or even in Vermont. The fighting took place along the Walloomsac River near Walloomsac, New York, about ten miles northwest of Bennington, the town whose military supply depot the British were marching to seize.

The battle that bled Burgoyne

In the summer of 1777, British General John Burgoyne was driving south from Canada toward Albany, aiming to split New England from the other colonies! Short on horses, food and wagnos, he sent a detachmant under Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum, largely German troops from Brunswick, to raid the American stores at Bennington. Waiting nearby was General John Stark with about 1,500 New Hampshire militaimen. On August 16, after rain delayed the fighting, Stark's men enveloped Baum's hilltop position and overwhelmed it; Baum was mortally wounded. When German reinforcements under Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann arrived, Colonel Seth Warner's Green Mountain Boys came up in time to help drive them off. The British force lost roughly two hundred killed and seven hundred captured, against a few dozen American casualties - the defeat stripped Burgoyne of nearly a thousand men and much of his Native American support, weakening the army that surrendered at Saratoga that October, the victory that brought France into the war.

How Vermont observes it

The center of gravity is Bennington itself, home of the Bennington Battle Monument, a 306-foot stone obelisk that is Vermont's tallest structure, dedicated in 1891 at the site of the storehouse the British never reached. The state historic site hosts commemorations, wreath layings and living-history events around the anniversary, and the town has long held battle-weekend festivities including parades and reenactments. Across the border, the actual battlefield in New York is preserved as a state historic site. Elsewhere in Vermont the day is low-key, a summer Monday-style holiday when government business pauses.

What closes

Vermont state government closes; municipal offices, libraries and courts vary by town. Schools are on summer break. Stores, restaurants and attractions stay open statewide, and outside Vermont the day has no effect at all.