An imposing monument that serves as a tribute to Revolutionary War hero Joab Stafford is located a hundred yards off Stafford Hill Road in Cheshire, Massachusetts.
Almost two hundred and fifty years ago, on August 14, 1777, forty-eight-year-old Captain Joab Stafford led a mix band of militiamen known as the Silver Grays on a thirty-mile forced march to a hill outside of Bennington, Vermont, where they confronted a large force of Tories and Hessians.
The British force, part of General Burgoyne’s invasion from Canada, had sent 1200 men to Bennington to secure badly needed horses and provisions.
The colonists, aware of the pending assault, sent calls to militias in Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire for help in repulsing the invaders. In response to the call, the Silver Grays, a name adopted by the men from Massachusetts, gathered at Joab Stafford’s house and, after several days of preparation, headed to Bennington.
After a two-day march, the second day in torrents of rain, the group arrived just in time for the battle that began on August 16, 1777. At about 3:00 p.m. on that damp, humid day, Captain Stafford and his troops assaulted uphill into British breastworks. Almost immediately, Stafford was shot in the foot. He ignored the wound and successfully led his men over the redoubt while the British were reloading and routed them.
The fight was a complete victory for the colonists, and Captain Stafford was carried back to Cheshire in a litter. Years later, he was categorized as an invalid and received a pension for his service.
When he died at the age of seventy-two on November 22, 1801, he was initially buried in the Old Cheshire cemetery.
On Memorial Day in 1927, because of a fund-raising effort by the Sons of the Revolution, Joab Stafford was honored and reinterred at the Stafford Monument in northeast Cheshire.
The round, fieldstone memorial is over 25 feet in diameter and height and has dramatic views of the surrounding countryside where the earliest settlers made their homes. The monument sports a flagpole on its roof, and the mausoleum has eight open arches.
He is buried in the center of the monument. His tombstone reads:
In Memory of Col.
Joab Stafford who
Fought and bled in his
Country’s Cause at
The Battle of Bennington
August 16th, 1777 &
Who departed this life Nov. 22,
1801, aged 72 years
and descended to the tomb
with unsullied reputation
The gravesite was listed on the National Register in 1986.
Note: Many historians believe Burgoyne’s battlefield losses at Bennington led to his defeat months later at Saratoga, New York, helping to ensure the success of the American Revolution
Photo Credit: Nick Mantello