The Patriot army, forced out of Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence on 6 July 1777, retreated south through what is now Vermont. A small rear guard commanded by Cols. Seth Warner, Ebenezer Francis, and Nathan Hale, covered their retreat. In hot pursuit, however, were elite British and German light infantrymen under Brig. Gen. Simon Fraser and Maj. Gen. Friedrich Riedesel. The two forces would collide at a place called Hubbardton shortly after dawn on 7 July.
"We drove them [the British] back twice, by cutting them down so fast. We didn't leave [the] log fence or charge them. The action began on our right, which soon gave way. They couldn't drive us from the fence, until they charged us. was near the centre, opposite the west road, under Col. Francis. ale commanded our right. We fought, before they drove us[,] till I had fired nearly 20 cartridges...the wheatfield, last [east] of the log fence, was some 15 rods wide, fenced on the east, by a long brush fence, hard to get over. When I got over, I took a tree and waited for them to come within shot. We fought through the woods, all the way to the ridge of the Pittsford mountain, popping away behind trees."
Pvt. Joseph Bird, 12th Massachusetts RegimentJohn Williams. “The Battle of Hubbardton: The American Rebels Stem the Tide.” Montpelier: The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, 1988, pp. 29-30.