Audio Enhancements – Final – Friends of the Bennington Battlefield

Please enjoy self-guided audio tours of the famous Bennington Battlefield, one of the most significant historic sites in the US. Walk in the footsteps of the brave soldiers who fought here during the Revolutionary War and immerse yourself in the rich history of this iconic location. Please note these tours are also available in-person at the Bennington Battlefield State Park.

1.1 George Washington foresees the Battle of Bennington in a July 22, 1777, letter to General Philip Schuyler.

1.3 British General John Burgoyne gives instructions for a raid on Bennington to Lt. Colonel Friedrich Baum.

2.1 At the age of 92, patriot Thomas Mellen told about his part in the Battle to an oral historian.

3.1 Berkshire militiaman David Holbrook was only 17 years old when he engaged in hand to hand combat inside the dragoon redoubt.

3.3 Brunswick Surgeon’s Mate Julius Wasmus recounts the aftermath of the first phase of the Battle in graphic terms.

4.2 To his superior in London, General Burgoyne admitted that the American rebels were a committed and resourceful adversary.

6 Bennington militiaman Jesse Field recalls the American assault on the British hilltop position.

8.1 General John Stark recalls the standoff between the two forces two days before the battle.

9 A British officer recalls Lt. Col. Baum’s last stand.

10.2 Loyalist Colonel John Peter’s wife, Ann, reacts to news (false, as it turned out) of the death of her husband and one of her sons at the Battle.

1.2 Sarah Rudd, wife of Bennington militia lieutenant Joseph Rudd, recalls fleeing with her children to Williamstown on the day of the Battle.

1.4 The painter Anna Robertson “Grandma” Moses, born in 1860, lived nearby and recorded a family story about the Battle.

2.2 President Thomas Jefferson sent warm greetings to General John Stark in 1805, when Stark was 78 years old.

3.2 Private Sipp Ives was one of several Black recruits in Seth Warner’s Continental regiment. Ives was killed in action when Warner’s men stopped the British reinforcements in the second phase of the Battle.

4.1 General Stark gave an account of the Battle to General Horatio Gates a few days after it happened.

4.3 In 1809, at the age of 81, General Stark wrote a stirring letter to veterans of the Battle who had invited him to attend a commemoration in Bennington.

5 Brunswick Surgeon’s Mate Julius Wasmus’s journal recounts the American assault on the dragoon redoubt from the point of view of the “Hessian” troops inside.

7 Claude Delorimier was a Canadian in at least nominal charge of the 150 Native fighters in Lt. Col. Baum’s force, who beat a strategic retreat early in the Battle.

8.2 Levi Beardsley’s grandfather, who chose not to take sides in the conflict, saw his farm turn into a battlefield.

10.1 Loyalist Colonel John Peters recounts a violent encounter with a Patriot at the Tory Fort.

10.3 New Hampshire militiaman John Orr recalls being wounded in the assault on the Tory Fort.

Who’s Who in the Cast (Voice and Music)
Voices
Nick Cave (Black soldiers)
A fiber-optic network designer by day, Nick moonlights as an actor in local productions. He played the role of Dr. Richard Greene in the Bennington Community Theater’s “Voices from the Grave” and lives in Petersburg, N.Y.

Michael Chapman (Thomas Mellen)
Mike is a retired English teacher who projected his voice over tenth graders for three decades. As an actor, he has performed with The Empire State Institute for the Performing Arts as well as Bennington’s Oldcastle Theater Company. He recently appeared in the Bennington Community Theater’s “Voices from the Grave” and the Town of Arlington’s tribute to Remember Baker. With his wife, Phyllis, he has presented stories of women of American history for historical societies, colleges, libraries, and senior centers, providing audio, video, and sound support for Phyllis’s historical enactments.

Phyllis Chapman (Grandma Moses)
Phyllis Chapman is a historical interpreter and career educator. She has taught art in public and
private schools for students in pre-school through college. She has served as Director of Education for the Bennington Museum and as Curator of Fine Arts for Siena College. Since 2010, she has been a historic interpreter of notable American women through her business “Vintage Visitors.” She participates in community theater and dance performances — for fun!

Drew Davidson (General John Stark, Roger Lamb, John Orr)
Drew is a veteran stage actor recently active in plays staged by the Bennington Community Theater and the Dorset Theater Festival. He is the creator and narrator of a radio show and podcast on musical theater. He lives in Bennington, Vermont.

Steve Gillette (Thomas Jefferson)
Steve is a music industry and voice-over veteran who is active as a songwriter and performer. He and spouse Cindy Mangsen run a small record label, Compass Rose, as well as a music publishing company. Steve lives in North Bennington, Vermont.

Gary Hoffman (M. DeLorimier)
Gary is a veteran stage and film actor who lives in Niskayuna, New York.

Phil Holland (David Holbrook, introductions, Project Director)
Phil has combined a career as a teacher and writer with more than 20 years’ work as a voice actor in the U.S. and Greece. He’s the author of a book on the Battle of Bennington and lives in Pownal, Vermont. He serves on the Board of the Friends of the Bennington Battlefield

Kevin McGuire (George Washington, General Burgoyne)
Born in Cambridge, N.Y. and raised in Hoosick Falls, Kevin McGuire has played leading roles on Broadway and in national and international tours of major musicals and plays. He is also known locally as the founding artistic director of The Theatre Company at Cambridge’s Hubbard Hall.

Sue McIntosh (Ann Peters)
Sue has had lead roles in plays staged by the Bennington Community Theater. She is currently lector for the Shaftsbury Methodist Church sermon broadcasts on CAT-TV/YouTube. She lives in Bennington, Vermont.

Danny Silver (Levi Beardsley)
Danny is a veteran actor and director who has been active with the Dorset Theater Festival. He played the role of Elijah Dewey in the Bennington Community Theater’s “Voices from the Grave” in 2021. He lives in Bennington, Vermont.

Dan Slavin (Julius Wasmus, Col. John Peters)
A native of Glens Falls, New York, Dan is currently working as an entertainer at a five-star resort in West Virginia. He’s sung and acted in 55 musicals, done improv comedy and commercials, and voiced a character in a popular video game. His father’s side of the family hails from Walloomsac, New York, where the Battle was fought.

Jared West (Jesse Field)
Jared is a veteran stage actor and one of the owners of the Fort Salem Theater in Salem, New York. He lives in Hoosick, New York.

Rosie Wolf Williams (Sarah Rudd)
Rosie is an experienced voice actor and audiobook narrator who lives in Bennington, Vermont.
Music

Jacob Ali (trumpet)
Jacob is a multi-instrumentalist who studied trumpet performance and composition at the Crane School of Music. He combines performance and composition with recording and mixing skills, enabling him to play as many as five instruments on one song. Jacob is currently advancing his skills on guitar, violin, and mandolin, and can be heard performing locally with Maggie’s Clan, a Celtic rock band based in Clifton Park, N.Y.

Mark Beecher (drums)
Mark is a military drum historian, Adjunct Professor of Percussion and the director of the Percussion Ensemble at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He’s also a voting member for the Grammy Awards. Mark combines his skills as historian, percussionist, and recording artist on the album “Battle Cry of Freedom! Drum and Fife Music of the Union Army & Anti-Slavery,” available for streaming on Spotify along with more of his work.

JaMichael Frazier (flute)
JaMichael is a multi-genre flautist from New York who’s currently living in Los Angeles pursuing a career as an artist and session musician. JaMichael studied at Berklee College of Music and New York University focusing on composition, theory, and performance. JaMichael has worked with artists such as Desmond Child, Solange, and many more. He’s absorbed influences from classical Indian music, Robert Glasper, J-Dilla, and contemporary classical.

Darrell Holovach (composer, arranger)
Darrell grew up in Walloomsac next to the Bennington Battlefield. That inspired him as a teenager to begin composing music related to the Battle. He graduated from the Crane School of Music in 2020 and began a teaching career at Salem (N.Y.) Central School. In 2022-23 Darrell will be back at Crane to earn a Master’s Degree in Music Education. In the summer months he manages Hathaway’s Drive-In Theater, also in the neighborhood.