JOHN STARK. to his companions, he put the Indians upon a false track, by pointing to a dif ferent direction from the one which they had taken, thus cutting off any hope of protection for himself. The savages were, however, recalled from their bootless errand, by hearing a gun fired as a signal to Stark, and took their position in consequence on the river where they would intercept the hunters. The party came on, one of them on foot, Stark's elder brother with the third in a canoe. The first was readily captured, when John was directed to hail the others. He did so, advising them to escape. Four of the Indians were about firing into the boat, when Stark arrested two of their muskets. One shot took effect, leaving the elder Stark in the boat to escape alone. John was at first severely beaten by the disappointed savages, but finding the youth serviceable in hunting, they treated him with some degree of confidence. He was taken to St. Francis, on the St. Lawrence, where he derived, in a six weeks' residence, much valuable knowledge of the Indian mode of warfare, when he was ransomed for one hundred and three dolHis captors put a good price JOHN STARK was of Scottish parentage, his father, Archibald Stark, being a native of Glasgow, though he came to America with a company of emigrants from the north of Ireland, where he had been settled from his youth. They were of that vigorous race of Scottish Presbyterians, who established themselves on the Merrimac, then an outpost of the wilderness, and gave the name Londonderry, in honor of the Irish city they had left behind them, to their settlement. At this spot in New Hampshire John Stark was born, August 28, 1728. In his eighth year, his father removed to the site of the present Manchester, whence, in his sixteenth year, we find his son, already developed to a strength and hardihood capable of coping with the savage tenants of the forest, making his way in a hunting expedition to one of the distant streams in the northern portion of the State. His adventure on this occasion is well worth narrating. The party consisted of himself, his elder brother, and two others. They were proceeding with their hunting, when they became aware of the presence of a band of St. Francis Indians, and prepared to retire.lars. John, while engaged apart from the upon his superior worth, according to rest in collecting the traps, was made their estimation, for they released his prisoner. Upon being interrogated as companion at some forty per cent. less. He gained this compliment by his skill paign of 1759, he was engaged in openin hunting and dare-devil valor in resisting a road through the wilderness, from ing their oppressions. The money for Stark's ransom was advanced by certain commissioners of Massachusetts, who came to release some of their countrymen, and thus became a personal debt, to be repaid by the beneficiary. He accordingly applied himself to hunting on the Androscoggin, and we hear of his also being employed in an exploring expedition in what were then the wild and distant regions of the upper waters of the Connecticut, about the site of the present Haverhill. On the breaking out of the French war, Stark was chosen his lieutenant by the famous Robert Rogers, the New Hampshire partisan soldier who brought his recruits to the service of the British commander at Fort Edward. The story of the service told in the rough notes of a soldier in Rogers' Journal of the War, shows it full of peril, calling for the constant display of heroism and endurance, qualities in which Stark was never deficient. He signalized himself particularly in a sharp action with the enemy, followed by a well managed retreat, in which his personal strength was fully put to the proof. He was made a captain, and was with the army in its attack upon Ticonderoga, when Lord Howe fell. After this campaign, the warrior returned home on furlough, and married Elizabeth Page, daughter of Captain Page, of Dunbarton. The next season, however, again found him in arms, at the old scene of hostilities, under the command of Amherst. In the cam Crown Point to Fort Number Four, on the Connecticut. He retired the next year from the service, the war being now, by the conquest of Canada, virtually ended. In the preliminary movements of the succeeding Revolutionary War, Stark, as a member of one of the New Hampshire Committees of Safety, exerted his influence in preparing the minds of his countrymen for the coming struggle, and when the actual outbreak occurred at Lexington, it is said that within ten minutes of his receiving the news, he was in the saddle summoning volunteers to rendezvous at the scene of action at Medford. Of the first New Hampshire regiment, there organized, he was unanimously elected Colonel by the suffrage of the men, and his State Provincial Congress confirmed the choice. He was in action with his troops on Breed's Hill, in the battle of Bunker's Hill, as it is commonly called, where he was in command on the left wing, and by the side of Knowlton, met the onset of the British veterans with the sharp fire of his practised marksmen. As he was moving across the exposed Boston Neck to his station, he coolly refused to hasten his march, saying, that "one fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued ones;" and when the action was at its height, on its being reported to him, falsely, as it afterwards appeared, that his son, of sixteen, who accompanied him, was killed, his reply was worthy of an ancient Spartan: "It is no time to talk of private affairs, while the enemy is not maintain his rank and assert his rights, was not worthy of serving his country." He retired, however, in no spirit of disaffection to the cause, but professed himself ready to serve his country again on occasion, and, in the mean time, fitted out such of his family as were capable of bearing arms. in force in front." No wonder that General Gage, who knew the man in his old campaigns, remarked, at his point of observation in Boston, to some one inquiring if the Americans would fight: "I think they will, if John Stark is with them." The whole number of the killed, wounded, and missing of Stark's regiment on this occasion, was sixty. After the action, he took up The occasion to call him into the his station on Winter Hill, where he field arose with the advance of Burremained till the British evacuation of goyne's army to its intended junction Boston, in March. He then served with Howe. Special instructions were with the portion of the troops ordered given by the British commander to to New York, and was thence sent to Colonel Baum, a Hessian officer, to General Sullivan's command in Canada, proceed through the present State of where he bore his part in the unsuc- Vermont, with the several objects of cessful movements of that general. replenishing his stock of provisions, After the retreat, he was stationed procuring dragoon horses, of which in the neighborhood of Ticonderoga, the army stood in need, and generally where, on the Declaration of the alarming the country by the prospect Fourth of July being read, the hill which he occupied was named Mount Independence. of a military movement toward Boston. Bennington, as a grand depot of provi sions, was a special object of attack. In the meantime, a new force of militia had been raised with extraordinary spirit in New Hampshire, and the most vigorous measures taken for the defence of the country. The first movement of troops was assigned to Stark, in whom the highest confidence was placed. He accepted it on condition that the command should be considered a local one, subject only to the authori ties of his State, which was grantedafter which the orders of Schuyler to report himself on the Hudson had no effect to divert him from his course. He took command of the forces gather Stark was next ordered to the army of Washington, on the Delaware, and in the movement upon Trenton, led the advance guard of General Sullivan's column, distinguishing himself, as usual, by his good conduct in the action. He was also with Washington in the battle of Princeton; after which we find him holding his men together for a new term of enlistment by his personal influence, and forwarding the recruiting service in his native State. While engaged in this last duty, he felt that injustice had been done him in overlooking him in the new promotions, and resigned his ed on the frontier at Bennington, precommission in the army. "An pared for the attack of the enemy, who, officer," he affirmed, "who would on the 11th of August, 1777, began |