In that battle, on August 17, 1777, Brigadier General John Stark and 1,400 New Hampshire men, aided by Colonels Warner and Herrick of Vermont, Simonds of Massachusetts, and Moses Nichols of New Hampshire, defeated two detachments of General Burgoyne's British army, who were apparently seeking to capture a store of weapons and food maintained where the monument now stands. While the battle is termed the Battle of Bennington, it actually occurred about away, in New York; the Bennington Battlefield, a U.S. National Historic Landmark is entirely within New York State.