Soon after the Battle of Bennington, which unfolded in the Walloomsac River area (near the convergence of New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts) in August 1777, some Berkshire County militiamen were taken into custody on suspicion of deserting to the enemy. They were discovered unarmed, by most accounts, behind an enemy breastwork. Thirteen men were later tried for treason in two legal groupings (one of six men: Daniel Peirce, Richard Huddleston, Elijah Cunningham, Elijah Brown, Martin Townsend, and Joseph Vaughan; the other of seven: Thomas Rogers, Simeon Franklin, John Franklin, John Gardner, Benjamin Gardner, William Brown, and Philemon Lee) at the September 1778 Superiour Court of Judicature, held at Springfield. While the men were not convicted of treason, they were convicted of a “high misdemeanor.”