John Stark (1728-1832), was born in what is now Derry, New Hampshire, at a time when New Hampshire was still considered the frontier. In addition to farming, the Stark family supplemented their table and their income with hunting a trapping and John became expert at both. In 1752, while on a hunting trip, he, his brother William and another man were captured by Abenaki. Stark was in his late twenties, so capture for him could have meant almost certain death. While William Stark escaped to get help, John and their friend were taken to an Abenaki village. There, they were put through a ritual known as running the gauntlet. Two lines of warriors stood on either side of a pathway, with clubs or sticks in their hands. The prisoner would be stripped to the waist and have to run through this line of men, taking hits on his upper body. Some men died just from this part of the process alone. Usually, the prisoner's hands were bound, but somebody forgot to do this in John's case. Instead of running along the path, he ran straight at the nearest warrior, wrenched his club from his hands and began beating on him. The Abenaki were so impressed with this courage that they stopped the ritual and adopted John into the tribe. He was given a foster family and lived with them for about a year. Then, an agent from Massachusetts was able to arrange a ransom for both John and the man captured with him. They returned to White Society. But peace was not to last long. In 1755, war broke out between the French and their allied tribes, and the British with their Native allies. This was the North American phase of the Seven Years War (1755-1762), called the French and Indian War here. Men like John, who'd spent time with the Natives and knew something of their style of fighting, were in high demand as soldiers. John joined a group of men led by Robert Rogers, an Irish-American who, like John, was from Derry. Rogers hadn't been captured by Natives, but he'd observed enough of them to take note of their ways of tracking enemies, attacking with surprise and retreating into the woods before their opponent could pursue them. Scholars debate just how much of Robert Rogers Rules of Ranging are based on Native tactics, but it's likely that some of them were.
John rose to fame as a military commander within the ranks of the Rangers. In time, he became so good at this special style of fighting that he led independent companies of the Rangers without Rogers' direct oversight. In 1759, the Rangers were ordered to attack the Abenaki town of St. Francis. Stark knew that within the town was the foster family who had taken him in during his captivity. He refused to lead the attack against the town, as he normally would have, or even to join the force attacking the town. He and Rogers had words, the tension between them boiling over from the immediate problem of John's insubordination to Rogers' jealousy of his now famous lieutenant. John resigned his commission and left the camp. Sources differ on whether he was able to warn his Native family of their impending doom, but it was too late. The Abenaki town was taken and burnt to the ground. John's Native foster parents were killed. John never returned to the War but went home to his wife, Molly. He also never forgot or forgave Rogers for what had happened.
Later, John Stark became a Patriot and raised New Hampshire forces for the Continental Army. He was present at several key opening battles, including Bunker Hill, Trenton and Princeton, but it was his leadership at Bennington on August 17, 1777, when his men confronted a much larger Hessian force, keeping it from joining Burgoyne's army at Saratoga that made John a legend. He inspired his men with the oft-quoted speech, "either we conquer here or Molly Stark sleeps a widow." She didn't. John won the battle and survived the war, coming home to his Molly for many years to come.
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