For several reasons, I have a soft spot in my heart for the two 2-cent stamps that make up today’s #stampoftheday offering.
The stamps were both issued on August 3, 1927. One explicitly celebrates the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of Vermont becoming an independent republic (named New Connecticut) in 1777 as well as the Battle of Bennington, which took place on August 16, 1777. The other, which also marks a sesquicentennial (but doesn’t so explicitly), commemorates the “Burgoyne Campaign,” a series of battles that ended with the surrender of British forces commanded by General John Burgoyne in Saratoga, New York on October 17, 1777.

The first reason I like these stamps is my longstanding, perhaps irrational fondness for Vermont. My family had no ties to Vermont and we didn’t vacation there. But when my older brother was in junior high school, he went to a wonderful camp in southern Vermont that he loved. And there was something about the way that camp shaped him as well as my memories of the trips to drop him off and pick him up that made me love Vermont at a very young age. (Sadly, the camp closed before I could go there.)

My love of Vermont. has not really waned over the years. Rather, it has been abetted by some wonderful trips, most notably an epic bike trip that began and ended in the Northeast Kingdom. To be fair, St. Albans Vermont was the site of a legendarily bad incident in my family that involved my sister getting a painful spinal tap because of a mistaken concern that she had spinal meningitis. But I was only 10, so my memory of that time mainly involves hanging out a motel swimming pool, playing catch in the parking lot with my father and brother, and reading, for the first of many times in my life, about the Boston Red Sox who, in 1967 were unexpectedly in the thick of an amazing four-way race for the American League pennant.

I also like the stamps because their words are bizarrely disconnected from the reality of what they portray. To begin with, the Battle of Bennington actually took place in Walloomsac, New York, which is about 10 miles from Bennington, Vermont. (To be fair, the American forces at the battle mainly were the legendary Green Mountain Boys, who were led by Ethan Allen.) Moreover, the stamp honors the sesquicentennial of Vermont’s independence, which only lasted until 1791, when Vermont became the nation’s 14th state (i.e. the first new state after the original 13 colonies). In addition, Vermont declared its independence mainly because of disagreements over land ownership that dated back to pre-Revolutionary times when the royal governors of both New York and New Hampshire made conflicting land grants to settlers in Vermont. In fact, before it could become a state, Vermont had to pay New York about $30,000 to resolve some still-unresolved land claims.

I also find it odd that the person named on the second stamp is the defeated British general, whose force of about 10,000 fighters was part of a planned three-pronged assault that aimed to separate the rebellious New England colonies from the supposedly loyal middle and southern colonies. Burgoyne’s forces were to move south from Canada along Lake Champlain and continue down the Hudson River Valley to Albany. There he thought he was supposed to meet up with a second force that was supposed to attack from the west (via Lake Ontario and the Mohawk River) and a third force that would come up the Hudson from New York City. However, the orders dispatched from London did not make this clear so the western army never mobilized while general in charge of the New York forces decided to instead to attack Philadelphia.

Burgoyne, who didn’t know this when he started, was very confident. In fact, before leaving London, he had wagered 10 pounds that he would return victorious within a year. And, at least initially, his campaign was successful. His troops regained possession of the vital outpost of Fort Ticonderoga but his fortunes began to reverse at a series of battles listed along the sides of the stamp: Bennington (actually Walloomsac), as well those to the west at Oriskany and Fort Stanwix.

Eventually, a superior force led by American Major General Horatio Gates, hemmed him in in Saratoga, about 40 miles north of Albany. And after several unsuccessful attempts to break through the enemy lines, Burgoyne surrendered his entire army, which by this time had about 6,000 soldiers. The stamp, which pictures Burgoyne handing his sword to Gates, is based on John Trumbull’s 1821 painting “Surrender of General Burgoyne.” Burgoyne’s defeat, which was the greatest victory the American forces had won up to that point in the war, proved to be the turning point because it convinced French leaders to officially recognize the new nation and to enter the war as well.

A few other oddities to note. Rather than an outright unconditional surrender, Burgoyne and Gates agreed that the British would surrender their weapons, return to Europe, and promise not to return to fight. However, the Continental Congress, repudiated the agreement and instead imprisoned the soldiers. The prisoners were not treated well, possibly because the Americans wanted revenge for poor treatment of their captured soldiers.

Burgoyne, however, was allowed to return to England, where he came under sharp criticism and never held another active command. While he remained somewhat active in politics, he increasingly returned to his other avocation, theater. He wrote at least one popular play, prepared the libretto for a successful opera, and translated the libretto for yet another successful opera.
So there you have it. A stamp honoring a state I love features a misnamed battle that didn’t occur in that state while a sibling stamp honors an unsuccessful enemy general whose true calling was the theater. What’s not to love about all that?

Be well, stay safe, fight for justice, and work for peace.