Ethan Allen and the Formation of the Republic of Vermont

Bennett, David.  A Few Lawless Vagabonds: Ethan Allen, the Republic of Vermont and the
          American Revolution.  Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2014.  ISBN:
          978-1-61200-240-8.

In A Few Lawless Vagabonds, David Bennett provides plenty of background and details regarding Ethan Allen and his cronies involvement in the formation of the Republic of Vermont before, during and after the American Revolution.  My earliest impression of this time and place was from the book I Was There With Ethan Allen And The Green Mountain Boys which glossed over the details to tell a decent story.  And the details are what makes A Few Lawless Vagabonds such an interesting read.

David Bennett opens with a reconstruction of the problems facing the New Hampshire Grants settlers in relation to New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.  The British Crown only confused matters.  Ethan Allen became involved in opposing the enforcement of New York claims in the region, raising the Green Mountain Boys as a militia.  That same militia was used at the beginning of the American Revolution to seize Ticonderoga, Crown Point and the invasion of Canada in 1775.  After Ethan Allen was captured in 1775, the focus of the book switches to Ira Allen and others involved in the forming of Vermont as a separate state/colony/republic.  Bennett carefully documents the involvement of the state in the destruction of Burgoyne during the Saratoga campaign.  He also documents the cease fire and neutrality practiced by Vermont's government and the case that can be made that Allen and his cronies would have been willing to rejoin Britain to gain their independence from New York.  In the end, after a few years as a independent republic, Vermont became the fourteenth state of the United States.  Ethan Allen and his cronies did succeed to that extent.

David Bennett provides a readable, yet scholarly look at the background and formation of Vermont as an independent entity while providing an in-depth look at the characters and events that made this possible.