[5] The following spring a government agent sent from the Province of Massachusetts Bay to work on the exchange of prisoners paid his ransom of $103 Spanish dollars and $60 for Amos Eastman.

As a member of the daring Rogers' Rangers, Stark gained valuable combat experience and a detailed knowledge of the northern frontier of the American colonies.

General Jeffery Amherst, in 1759 ordered Rogers' Rangers to journey from Lake George to the Abenaki village of St. Francis, deep in Quebec.

Stark, Rogers' second-in-command of all ranger companies, refused to accompany the attacking force out of respect for his Indian foster-parents residing there.

[6] The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, signaled the start of the American Revolutionary War, and Stark returned to military service.

On June 16, the rebels, fearing a preemptive British attack on their positions in Cambridge and Roxbury, decided to take and hold Breed's Hill, a high point on the Charlestown peninsula near Boston.

On the Charlestown side, several companies from other regiments were milling around in disarray, afraid to march into range of the artillery fire.

Stark surveyed the ground and immediately saw that the British would probably try to flank the rebels by landing on the beach of the Mystic River, below and to the left of Bunker Hill.

Stark led his men to the low ground between Mystic Beach and the hill and ordered them to "fortify" a two-rail fence by stuffing straw and grass between the rails.

Stark also noticed an additional gap in the defense line and ordered Lieutenant Nathaniel Hutchins from his brother William's company and others to follow him down a 9-foot-high (2.7 m) bank to the edge of the Mystic River.

They unleashed a fierce and unexpected volley directly into the faces of the fusiliers, killing 90 in the blink of an eye and breaking their advance.

Later in the battle, as the rebels were forced from the hill, Stark directed the New Hampshire regiment's fire to provide cover for Colonel Prescott's retreating troops.

After the arrival of General George Washington two weeks after the battle, the siege reached a stalemate until March the next year, when cannon seized at the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga were positioned on Dorchester Heights in a deft night manoeuvre.

Among the notable men who served under Stark was Captain Henry Dearborn, who later became Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson.

[7] As Washington prepared to go to New York in anticipation of a British attack there, he knew that he desperately needed experienced men like John Stark to command regiments in the Continental Army.

Stark agreed, but upon returning home, learned that while he had been fighting in New Jersey, a fellow New Hampshire Colonel named Enoch Poor had been promoted to Brigadier General in the Continental Army.

[8] Burgoyne sent an expedition under Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum to capture American supplies at Bennington, Vermont.

Baum commanded 374 Brunswick infantry and dismounted dragoons, 300 Indians, loyalists, and Canadians, and two 3-pound cannons manned by 30 Hessians.

On August 14, Baum asked Burgoyne for reinforcements but assured his army commander that his opponents would not give him much trouble.

[10] The Brunswick officer then fortified his position and waited for Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann's 642 soldiers and two 6-pound cannons to reach him.

In the face of these attacks, the Indians, loyalists, and Canadians fled, leaving Baum stranded in his main position.

The New Hampshire and Vermont soldiers severely mauled Breymann's command but the German officer managed to get away with about two-thirds of his force.

[13] Historian Mark M. Boatner wrote, As a commander of New England militia Stark had one rare and priceless quality: he knew the limitations of his men.

[15] Saratoga is seen as the turning point in the Revolutionary War, as it was the first major defeat of a British general and it convinced the French that the Americans were worthy of military aid.

After serving with distinction throughout the rest of the war, Stark retired to his farm in Derryfield, renamed Manchester in 1810, where he died on May 8, 1822, at the age of 93.

General Stark, then aged 81, was not well enough to travel, but he sent a letter to his comrades, which closed "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."