1777

The grandchildren this year were:

010406 Eva CUNNINGHAM (b.1777)
020601 Susanna Christman (b.1777)
030202 Margaret Christman (b.1777)

The Senecas Resent Joseph Brant

In the winter of 1775, Joseph Brant went to England with Guy Johnson and others. Ethan Allan was a prisoner on the same ship. He didn’t eat as good as they did. Joseph Brant returned in the spring of 1776. By December, he was back at Oquaga trying to win the support of the Six Nations to side with the British. He talked to the Senecas, went to Niagara to see John Butler, went to Onondaga, and argued with the Oneidas. He had little success convincing them to take up the British hatchet. Because of his seduction by the Johnsons and, his trip to England, his Indian piers looked at him as an up-start with lucky contacts and opportunities. They resented that. They preferred the old tradition of neutrality if possible. He went back to Oquaga and got lucky again; oddly, he raised a force of blue-eyed Indians called Brant’s Volunteers from local Loyalists, poor tenant farmers; who, evidently resented renting from their now rebel landlords.

It is a weird circle that these feudal landlords, like the Livingstons and Schuylers, now on the rebel side, were the same people that, behind the scenes, screwed the Palatines at the Tar Camps, causing them to resent the British. In addition, they were some of the most notorious swindlers of land grabs in the Mohawk Valley causing the Indians to resent them too. What did they do that was good?

Fort Stanwix

“In the spring of 1776, Colonels Van Schaick and Dayton were sent into Tryon County with detachments of continental soldiers, [To arrest Sir John Johnson] and were stationed at Johnstown and German Flats. Col. Dayton, stationed at the latter place, was ordered by Gen. Schuyler, in June of this year, to take post and erect a fortification at Fort Stanwix. The militia of the county were called out to assist him. This fort occupied a part of the site of the present village of Rome, in Oneida County, situated at the head of navigation of the Mohawk, and at the carrying-place between that river and Wood Creek, from whence the boats passed to Oswego; it was a post of great importance to the western part of New York.

The French, with their usual sagacity, when endeavoring to monopolize the Indian trade, had erected a fortification at this place. At the commencement of the war it appears to have gone to decay; a few families had settled there, forming the extreme western outpost of civilization, save the forts of Oswego and Niagara.

The fort erected by Col. Dayton was called Fort Schuyler, in honor of Gen. Schuyler. It is designated by that name in most of the letters and official communications of the officers including Gen. Schuyler himself. It has been confounded by some with [a different] Fort Schuyler, which was built in the French wars, near where Utica now stands, and named in honor of Col. Schuyler, the uncle of Gen. Schuyler. At the time of the Revolution there was no fort at the latter place. There was a clear field, which still retained the name of Fort Schuyler, as did the settlement west that of Fort Stanwix.

The last of April, 1777, Col. Gansevoort, with the 3d regiment of the New York line of State troops, was ordered to Fort Schuyler. The fort was still unfinished, and the early part of the summer was spent in advancing the works. It was not even completed when afterward invested. The duties of the troops in consequence were extremely arduous.”- William W. Campbell

(0304) Nicholas Christman (b.1755) was now at Fort Stanwix. After the campaign of 1775 went into Capt. Ten Eyck’s Company from which he was transferred to Maj. Cochran’s Company in the detachment commanded by Colonel Gansevoort.

Brant's Volunteers

“Joseph was back in Oquaga by early spring. The Indians there and in the vicinity were quite ready to consider him as the voice of their superintendent. Whether they would let him lead them in war, however, was another matter. His clansmen might accept his leadership if they thought him a brave warrior; other Indians would expect to have their own relatives as leaders. But, a strange thing was about to happen.

In the mountainous areas along the Delaware and, indeed, in that whole rugged country between the Hudson and the east branch of the Susquehanna there lived a surprising number of Loyalists. These Loyalists were not wealthy men intent on protecting their privileges. Actually they were very poor men, mostly tenant farmers, and they had a hard struggle trying to eke out a living from stony ground which they had leased for two or three lives, or longer, from the owners of the great semi-feudal estates in the Catskills or the Helderbergs.

Many lived on the Great Hardenbergh Patent, which contained over a million acres and others lived on the domain of the Van Rensselaer family, which was almost as large. These people-for who knew what dangerous plots such Tories might hatch? -were feared and resented by the rebels from the very beginning of the war. They were watched, spied upon, threatened with tar and feathers, plundered of their small property, and preyed upon in many ways. Sometimes they were actually attacked and even killed by over-zealous rebel scouts and patrols.

When Joseph Brant appeared at Oquaga in the spring of 1777 and raised the king’s flag over the village, it seemed to these unhappy Loyalists that here was their deliverance. Brant was someone they had heard of or could easily find out about. Rumor had it that he had been received well in England, and his connection with the great Johnson family was widely known. Brant was, to them at least, an educated man. He would make a strong leader. Almost immediately some of these poor fellows gave up the struggle at home and fled to his protection. In time, at least one hundred white Loyalists gathered at his side, coming mostly in the early years of the war, in 1777 and 1778. So began that highly irregular military corps who called themselves Brant’s Volunteers.

Some of Brant’s Volunteers were killed in action or captured, and some eventually joined more regular corps such as Butler’s Rangers or Sir John Johnson’s Royal Greens.

Most of Brant’s Volunteers seem to have been of English, Scotch, or Irish descent, though a few bore German names. Most came from New York though some may have come from neighboring sections of Jersey or Pennsylvania. These men were not all at the best age for soldiering-indeed, some were entirely too old or too young-and they fought any way they could and got very bad reputations. Because they fought in disguise, they were seldom recognized. Yet sometimes their disguises were penetrated, for certain men such as Daniel Cole, Daniel Secord, and the Houghs were personally known to the rebels and especially notorious for what were conceived to be their misdeeds. These four men, along with Joseph himself, were the most hated and the most sought-for. Any one of the Volunteers, however, would have been hanged without much of a trial if he had been caught. Out in the field more than any other Loyalists in the American war, the Volunteers led harsh and dangerous lives. We were “almost irremittingly on actual Service, declared one of them after the war, and he spoke truly.

Why so many men preferred Joseph Brant’s leadership to an easier and more regular service is difficult to explain. The simplest explanation is that they were wild and undisciplined, unwilling to accept a strict regimen. There have always been such men, and the refugee Loyalists had their share of them. “Some Of them,” exclaimed an officer in exasperation, “refuse to take arms or be under any command-but to go along with the army, the Devil knows what the scoundrels wou’d be at, I have been thirty years a soldier, but never had so much trouble as with those fellows.”” The devil did not know what such scoundrels would be at, but Joseph Brant did. Joseph let his men fight as Indians. His Volunteers dressed and painted themselves as Indians, and during all the border warfare the rebels naturally assumed that their dreaded Mohawk enemy had a large party of grotesquely painted warriors under his command. Actually, Brant’s personal party as a war chief (as distinguished from those who merely happened to be traveling in the same direction) consisted of scarcely more than one-fifth Indians, most, if not all, his clansmen.”

The rest were white men. It was late in the war before Joseph was able, for a very special reason, to attract a larger number of Indians. It was his whites upon whom he usually depended. – Isabel Thompson Kelsay

Unadilla

General Herkimer went to Unadilla and tried to talk some sense into Joseph Brant, his old neighbor. However, Col. Cox was there, who was related to George Klock. Joseph Brant despised George Klock. Following are two accounts of the important meeting at Unadilla:

“Harpers Statement - As this sworn statement of Col. Harper gives the most circumstantial account of this attempt, one of the last of our State authorities, to wean the Indians from the British interest into a state of neutrality ; it may be well here to give a synopsis of it, as Gen. Herkimer was mortally wounded only 21 days after Harper’s account of this meeting was given in. Said Col. Harper, the interview between Herkimer and Brant took place in his presence June 27, 1777. Gen. Herkimer had with him about 380 militiamen of the county, and met Joseph Brant at a place called Unadilla, on the Susquehanna, to demand the reason why he had taken cattle from the people of that place - of course surreptitiously. Brant had several chief warriors with him. Herkimer delivered his speech tending to peace with all the Indian nations. Brant replied he was thankful the General was peaceably disposed, but as they were hungry, they could not speak until they had eaten. He and his chiefs then went away to refresh themselves, and returned with about 137 warriors. He thought by the numbers attending Herkimer, he was disposed for war, and if so, he was ready for him - said there were some things which kept the Six Nations uneasy.

Brant’s reasons assigned for this, were - first,. that the Mohawks were confined, and had not the liberty of passing back and forth as formerly; second, their minister, Mr. Stewart, had. not liberty to pass and repass, as formerly, to carry on their religious worship : third, that forts were built in Indian territory and on their lands; that these were the only matters of consequence which made the minds of the Six Nations uneasy, and appeared as if designed against them, and that if these were rectified it would give their minds ease. These were flimsy reasons, for they had placed themselves in the category complained of, by leaving the Mohawk valley with the loyal Johnson party. If Mr. Stewart had gone to the Canajoharie Castle to preach, there were few Indians remaining there to hear him.

The statement continued: Gen. Herkimer asked if they would be peaceable, and do nothing against the country, if these things were rectified ? Brant threw off his disguise, and replied:

That the Indians were already in covenant with the King, as their fathers had been; that the King’s belts were lodged among them, That they could not be such great scoundrels as to falsify their pledges of trust; that the General and his party had joined the Boston people against the King, and that although the Boston people were resolute, the King would humble them; that Gen. Schuyler had been very smart on the Indians at the treaty at the German Flats, and threatened them if they should join the King’s party, and, at the same time, could not put linen shirts on their backs; that the Indians were not to be seared by Mr. Schuyler’s threats; that the Indians, had formerly made war with the white people, when both the King and country were together, and since they were opposed to each other, the Indians were not to be frightened.

After Brant had declared they would adhere faithfully to the King, Col. Cox said if that was their resolution, there need be no further inquiry, as the matter was settled. Brant then turned and spoke to his warriors, and they shouted and ran to their camp for their arms; that in their camp, a mile away, they fired a number of guns, and gave the war whoop; that Gen. Herkimer told Brant he did not come there to fight, and he must keep his warriors at their camp; that Brant’s speaker arose, and, in a threatening posture told Herkimer they were ready to come to action; that he proposed Mr. Stewart should have leave to go to the Upper Mohawk Castle; that the people, of Unadilla should be permitted to remain at home as subjects of the King ; that they had been obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the States, contrary to their consciences ; that ,Gen. Herkimer told him his party came after Tories and deserters, and required Brant to give up those under his protection; that he refused to give up either, and insisted they should remain in possession of their places, and subject only to their King ; that Gen. Herkimer agreed to his proposals; that Brant then said his warriors would go away, and he must go to Oswego to meet Col. Butler; that Brant next day put the Tories in possession of their places; that Herkimer and his party then ,came away. He further stated that he had since been informed by an Indian that Brant was still recruiting at Oquaga, and was joined daily by recruits from different nations intending to fall unexpectedly upon the white people. Thus will the reader observe that this mission, with a humane and Christian motive, was nearly an abortive one, but the object was worth its trial.

The Statement of Joseph Wagoner -The following account of the interview between Gen. Herkimer and Brant, which I first published in 1845, I obtained several years before of the old patriot Joseph Wagner, of Fort Plain. He stated to me that at the first meeting of Gen. Herkimer with Brant, the latter war attended by three other chiefs; William Johnson, a reputed son of Sir William Johnson, who is mentioned in his will as a Canajoharie Indian, and who was killed at the battle of Oriskany the same year; Pool, a smart-looking fellow with curly hair, supposed part Indian and part Negro, and a short dark-skinned Indian, the four encircled by a body-guard of some twenty noble-looking warriors.

When in his presence, Brant rather haughtily asked Gen. Herkimer, the object of his visit, which was readily made known; but seeing many attendants, the chief suspected the interview was sought for another purpose. Said Brant to Herkimer, I have five hundred warriors at my command, and can in an instant destroy you and your party; but we are old neighbors and friends, and I will not do it. Col. Cox, a smart officer who accompanied Gen. Herkimer, exchanged several sarcastic expressions with Brant, which served not a little to irritate him and his followers. The two had had a quarrel a few years previous, about lands around the Upper Indian castle. Provoked to anger, Brant asked Cox if he was not the son-in-law of old George Klock? –Yes! replied Cox in a tone of malignity, and what is that to you, you d-d Indian ? At the close of this dialogue Brant’s guard ran off to their camp, firing several guns, and making the hills echo back their savage yells. Gen. Herkimer then assured Brant that he intended his visit for one of a pacific nature, and urged him to prevent their moving to hostilities.

A word from that chief hushed the tempest of human passion, which but an instant before had threatened to deluge the valley with blood; the parties, however, were to heated to proceed with the business, which convened them. Said Brant, addressing Gen. Herkimer, it is needless to multiply words at this time, I will meet you here at precisely 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. The parties then separated to occupy their former position in camp.

With the arrangement of Gen. Herkimer, as stated above, the parties hold their interview on the 28th of June. Brant was the first to speak - said he -“ Gen. Herkimer, I now fully comprehend the object of your visit, but you are too late, I am already engaged to serve the king. - We are old friends and I can do no less than let you return home unmolested, although you are entirely within my power.” After a little more conversation, in which the parties agreed to separate amicably, the conference ended, at which time Gen. Herkimer presented to Brant seven or eight fat cattle that had but just arrived, owing to obstructions on the outlet of Otsego Lake, down which stream they were driven. For three days previous to the arrival of the cattle, the Americans were on very short allowance.

Whether Brant had 500 men at his command is doubted. Col. Harper has given their number as about 137-possibly there were foes in concealment unknown to that officer. The Americans retraced their steps to the Mohawk valley, and scarcely had they set out, when the Indiana began to repeat their depredations on the patriotic citizens in the neighborhood. Brant soon after fell back to Oquaga, to strengthen his numbers, and prepare to act in concert with St. Leger.

It was early in July, and the sun shone forth without a cloud to obscure it, and its rays gilded the tops of the forest trees, or were reflected from the waters of the Susquehanna, imparted a rich tint to the wild scenery with which they were surrounded. The echo of the war-whoop had scarcely died away before the heavens became black, and a violent storm of hail and rain obliged each party to withdraw and seek the nearest shelter. Men less superstitious than many of the unlettered yeomen who, leaning upon their arms, were witnesses of the events of this day, could not have failed in after times to have looked back upon them, if not as an omen, at least as an emblem of those dreadful massacres with which these Indians and their associates afterward visited the inhabitants of this unfortunate frontier.” – Jeptha Simms

June 14

By a resolution of Congress, the flag of the United States was adopted consisting of thirteen stars and thirteen stripes.

June 27

General Burgoyne arrived at Crown Point.

June 30

General Burgoyne began the siege of Fort Ticonderoga.

July 7

General St. Clair evacuated Fort Ticonderoga and the fort was taken over by General Burgoyne.

General Herkimer’s Proclamation

Under these circumstances, on the 17th of July, Brig. Gen. Nicholas Herkimer published the following proclamation:

“Whereas, it appears certain that the enemy, of about 2000 strong, Christians and savages, are arrived at Oswego with the intention to invade our frontiers, I think it proper and most necessary for the defense of our country, and it shall be ordered by me as soon as the enemy approaches, that every male person, being in health, from 16 to 60 years of age, in this county, shall, as in duty bound, repair immediately, with arms and accouterments, to the place to be appointed in my orders, and will then march to oppose the enemy with vigor, as true patriots, for the just defense of their country. And those that are above 60 years, or really unwell and incapable to march, shall then assemble, also armed, at the respective places where women and children will be gathered together, in order for the defense against the enemy, if attacked, as much as lies in their power. But concerning the disaffected, and who will not directly obey such orders, they shall be taken along with their arms, secured under guard, to join the main body. And as such an invasion regards every friend to the country in general, but of this county in particular, to show his zeal and well-affected spirit in actual defense of the same, all the members of the committee, as well as all those who, by former commissions, or otherwise, have been exempted from any other military duty, are requested to repair also, when called, to such place as shall be appointed, and join to repulse our foes. Not doubting that the Almighty Power, upon our humble prayers and sincere trust in him, will then graciously succor our arms in battle, for our just cause, and victory cannot fail on our side.”

The British Force Assembles at Oswego

July 23

Brant is at Oswego.

“Old Oswego, so long abandoned, echoed once more to the bugle’s call. In just two days, a vast encampment sprang up. Soldiers in red or green busied themselves with a myriad of duties. Here were one hundred men from the 8th regiment; there, one hundred from the 34th regiment - all professionals, disciplined and ready. At another part of the campground stood the tents of Sir John Johnson’s new Loyalist corps, the so-called Royal Greens, or the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. Though the provincials were not so smartly disciplined, they had high hopes and they were full of zeal for the king’s cause. Among the late arrivals appeared a company of Hanau Chasseurs, one of Lord George Germain’s first regiments of German mercenaries. Making war was their life’s work, and they could give a good account of themselves in the European style. Brant’s Volunteers, both Indians and whites, had their own camp, and near them were the rest of the warriors who had come up from the Susquehanna as well as some Canadian Indians enlisted by Claus. Hourly expected was a contingent of Six Nations Indians and white officers from Niagara with some other whites and Indians from as far away as Detroit, all these under John Butler and Captain Lemoult, the interim commandant of Niagara.

The leader of the entire expedition was Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger, an officer long experienced in America. – Isabel Thompson Kelsay

The British War Plan of 1777

“This motley force was but one thrust of a long planned triple offensive. Its grand design was to split the rebel territory in two as well as to prevent any attempt, which the rebels might have in mind for another invasion of Canada. General Burgoyne, marching southward from Montreal, would proceed by way of Lake Champlain, Lake George, and the Hudson River. His object was Albany, and he was already far advanced on his way. Having captured the famed Fort Ticonderoga at the outlet of Lake George, he was now hacking a path through the wilderness toward the head of the lake. General Howe and a second army sailing north from New York would arrive at Albany via the Hudson River. This was the movement which Joseph and his friends had been awaiting with such impatience. St. Leger, having already rendezvoused the third force at Oswego, was to go from Lake Ontario via the old trade route of Oswego River, Oneida Lake, and the Mohawk. He, too, would head for Albany as soon as he had captured Fort Stanwix. New England and the middle colonies would be separated. George Washington would have to give up the one or the other or divide his little army. For the British invaders the prospects looked rosy indeed.”
– Isabel Thompson Kelsay

The Three Rivers Council

“At length John Butler and his lagging Indians, mostly Senecas, reached Oswego. There was some counciling with the inevitable presents, but the main council was to be held down at Three Rivers where the rest of the Six Nations were to join in a body. Except for the Indians, the expeditionary forces were now complete. On July 26, they all set out-all, that is, except Butler who, with his not very zealous cohorts, brought up a distant rear. In the throng was a surprising number of women and children, soldiers’ wives and families, Indian women and their progeny, and female camp followers of all sorts. Daniel Claus had brought along his family, and Lady Mary Johnson, Sir John’s wife, was present with her children. The distaff side of the Johnsons and the Clauses had eagerly seized upon so fine an opportunity to go home. Once back on the Mohawk, and with the king’s arms triumphant, they expected to settle down in security and peace.

At Three Rivers, where the Oneida and Seneca Rivers merged to form the Oswego, most of the Six Nations were waiting. They had had to decide between this council with the British and a council with Schuyler who had sent them an invitation for almost the same time. But they suspected that Schuyler could give them few presents and they were in great want of everything. Their clothing was in tatters and they had no ammunition with which to hunt and support themselves. They went to Three Rivers. Even the Oneidas, who leaned in so friendly a fashion toward the rebels, showed up at Three Rivers. They knew they would get their share of the presents, for the British dated not offend them. But except for the Mohawk warriors who were veterans of the fighting in Canada in 1775 and who had not been home since, most of the Six Nations still steadily proclaimed their neutrality.

Many years later an old Seneca chief described the great council of 1777, which he had attended in his youth. His words were taken from his own lips and written down by an Indian scribe almost as illiterate as he was:

But when we arrived there at the place appointed, ground for council fire or convention, immediately after arrival the officers come to us to See what wanted for to support the Indians with Provisions and with the flood of Rum, they are some of the amongst the our warriors made use of this intoxicating Drinks, there was Several Barreal Delivered to us for us to Drinked for the whit man told us to Drinked as much we want of it all free gratis, and the goods if any of us wishes to get for our own use, go and get them, for and from our father gaven to you, and for the same the above gift, our chiefs began to think that the great Britain government is very Rich and Powerfull to his Dominion to force things and kind to his Nation, all things a bondantly provided for his people and for us to and Seval head of cattle been killed for us to Eat and flour the out female Sect was very well please for the Kindness we Receive from our white Brothers. “

To people starved for trade and presents, it was a heady situation. As parched mouths got their rum and empty bellies got their fill, as the naked were clothed and the hunters provided with all the powder they needed, even those Indians who opposed taking part in the war could see that their “Rich and Powerfull” father was going to win. What would be the consequences of his victory to themselves? Their minds filled with indecision as they calculated this and that. All the while John Butter and Claus and the other white officers and even St. Leger himself were urging the warriors to go along with the expedition. Joseph, who was so sure of the king’s eventual triumph, redoubled his own efforts.” – Isabel Thompson Kelsay

The Deception of the Senecas by Daniel Claus

“But the Senecas at least were still determined to go back home. Their animosity toward Joseph flared up anew. It was noised about that they had threatened to kill him, and he had to be kept out of their way.” At length some white man got a brilliant idea, and Claus claims that it was he. Go with us, he said to the Indians, and see us whip the rebels, just sit down and smoke your pipes and see what a great show we shall provide. We shall not need your help, he told them loftily.” The Indians, even the Senecas, finally decided to go. There was nothing they liked better than to watch a good fight.” – Isabel Thompson Kelsay

The Oneida Spy, Thomas Spencer

“Secret information of their movements had been industriously circulated among all the disaffected inhabitants of Tryon County. Insinuations of an alarming nature were thrown out, and not without effect. The Indians, it was said, would ravage the whole intervening country. Many who had not before acted decidedly, now espoused the cause of the mother country, and in small parties stole away and went to the enemy.

On the 30th of July, the committee received the following letter from Thomas Spencer, dated Oneida, July 29th.

“At a meeting of the chiefs, they tell me that there is but four days remaining of the time set for the king’s troops to come to Fort Schuyler, and they think it likely they will be here sooner. The chiefs desire the commanding officers at Fort Schuyler not to make a Ticonderoga of it; but they hope you will be courageous. They desire Gen. Schuyler may have this with speed, and send a good army here; there is nothing to do at New York; we think there is men to be spared; we expect the road is stopped to the inhabitants by a party through the woods; we shall be surrounded as soon as they come.

This may be our last advice, as these soldiers are part of those that are to hold a treaty. Send this to the committee; as soon as they receive it let the militia rise up and come to Fort Schuyler. Tomorrow we are a-going to the Three Rivers to the treaty. We expect to meet the warriors, and when we come there and declare we are for peace, we expect to be used with indifference and sent away. Let all the troops that come to Fort Schuyler take care on their march, as there is a party of Indians to stop the road below the Fort, about 80 or 100. We hear they are to bring their cannon up Fish Creek. We hear there is 1000 going to meet the enemy. We advise not - the army is too large for so few men to defend the fort - we send a belt of 8 rows to confirm the truth of what we say.”

Spencer added---

“It looks likely to me the troops are near; hope all friends to liberty, and that love their families, will not be backward, but exert themselves, as one resolute blow would secure the friendship of the Six Nations, and almost free this part of the country from the incursions of the enemy.” – Jeptha Simms

Internal problems in St Ledger’s Force
“That was the year that hardly anybody was on speaking terms with hardly anybody.

The tension between Joseph and the Senecas and the provincials and the regulars was only part of the story. Discord reached into high places. Burgoyne, who had superseded General Carleton in command of the military operations from Canada, felt uncomfortable with Carleton and he with Burgoyne. Carleton, who had been knighted by the king for stopping the rebel invasion, blamed this loss of command on Lord George Germain, and had already tendered his resignation. In the meantime Sir Guy had as little as possible to do with Claus whom he considered Germain’s appointee and whom he had a grudge against anyway. And when Guy Johnson managed to send a letter of instructions to Butler, and Butler asked Carleton what to do about it, the latter sent word that he was to obey him, and when he joined Howe, he was to obey him-and nobody else, was the clear implication. In the bad feeling between Butler and Claus, Sir John Johnson who had a strong sense of family loyalty, was easily turned against Butler. To make matters worse, sometime or other on the march, Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger, who was a bereted brigadier general for only this one expedition but who yearned for a permanent commission, took to drink. St. Leger loved “milk”, declared the Indians, even better than they did!

Yet it cannot be said that the marchers were dejected. They foresaw an easy victory. Butler’s Indian spies, who ought to know, had reported that Fort Stanwix was weak and almost defenseless. And Sir John Johnson, who also ought to know, had reported that the whole frontier teemed with Loyalists who were ready to rise up and strike a blow for the king as soon as his army came near. These Loyalists were not only ready, Sir John avowed; they were eager and impatient. Indeed, they could hardly wait. The news that filtered through from the rebel ranks was also heartening.

It was well known that the rebels of Tryon County were terrified.” – Isabel Thompson Kelsay

Fear in the Valley

“The reports from Tryon County were completely accurate. The rebels were scared to death. They had been greatly alarmed by the gathering of the Indians and Tories on the Susquehanna. Burgoyne’s advancing army frightened them still more, and they were demoralized by the fall of their stronghold at Ticonderoga. It seemed to them that Ticonderoga, which had been given up without a struggle, portended their own fate. When Oneida spies reported the coming of St. Leger’s force; though it had been long expected, it was the last straw. The frontiersmen saw themselves threatened and besieged and over- whelmed on all sides. They felt sure, as they said, that they were going to
“fall a prey to the merciless Savages.” They stopped their militia from going to reinforce Fort Stanwix. Every man, they declared, was needed at home. Wildly they called for Continental troops. If they did not get Continental troops, they would have to lay down their arms and surrender to the first British army that appeared. Burgoyne had already issued a proclamation that he would protect those who surrendered, from the Indians. They would take him at his word. They would accept his protection.

A despairing General Herkimer described the situation of his neighbors to Schuyler.

I can assure you, [he wrote] that some are already busy with moving away, some declare openly that if the Enemy Shall come they would not leave home, but Stay with their Families, and render themselves over to the Enemy, as they can’t help themselves other- wise without Succour- I may say, whole Numbers of Men in each District are So far discouraged, that they think it worthless to fight; and will not obey orders for Battle, if the County is not in Time Succour’d with at least Fifteen hundred Men Continental Troops.... A good many of the principal Inhabitants, who were always true to our Cause, are quite discouraged, and by their Conduct others join ‘em in Numbers, they mention, that it is their opinion by all the Circumstances, that this River is Sold alike as Fort Ticonderoga I with a party of well Spirited Friends endeavored to remonstrate all those weakhearted and false opinions and cowardly Suppositions, and effected but very little; By out Encouragements the Spirits of some seemed to rise and to revive, but when they come afterwards in Discourse with the discouraged, their Spirit immediately sinks again- In this Manner is the present Situation of our County; I have Reason to fear, that upon any alarm or actual Invasion of our Enemies into our County, I shall not be able to raise two hundred Men of the Militia, willing to fight and to obey orders to oppose the Enemy.

The Oneida Indians, who were right in the path of St. Leger’s advancing army, had worries and fears of their own. They begged their American friends not to “make a Ticonderoga” of Fort Stanwix. Stand up and fight like men, they urged. General Schuyler, faced with the alarm on the frontier and trying to cope with Burgoyne’s invasion as it came down from the north, remarked unhappily that if he had fifty thousand troops they would not suffice for all the calls on him. His whole army consisted of less than three thousand Continentals. His militia of short-termed recruits was coming and going all the time, and none of them knowing much of fighting.” – Isabel Thompson Kelsay

The Siege of Fort Stanwix

“Aware of the despondency among the rebels, St. Leger, who described them contemptuously as a “Confused Rabble”, sent a small detachment ahead of his main force to cut off the communication between Fort Stanwix and the Mohawk valley. Before he left the scene of the council at Three Rivers, he ordered Lieutenant Henry Bird and thirty white soldiers to carry out this important operation. A little later he sent two hundred Indians with two white officers and Joseph Brant and a chief named Bull to support Bird.” Assuming that the rebels in the fort might want to surrender at once to anybody, St. Leger instructed Bird that he was to wait till the main force arrived. He did not mean to withhold any honor from a young officer, he added, but he thought there were too many Indians in the small detachment who might plunder or butcher the fallen foe.
Lieutenant Bird and Joseph and their force were encamped at the landing at the head of the Mohawk River by August 2. They got there just a little too late to prevent a small reinforcement of men and supplies from reaching the fort. This ill luck Bird blamed on the dilatoriness of some of the Indians and he was probably right-they never liked to hurry themselves. Nor did the fort appear as defenseless as it had been assumed to be. Its four sides looked substantial enough, not at all out of repair, and not to be knocked over with what the Indians called “Pop Guns”. St. Leger having neglected to bring along from Canada any heavy artillery, the expedition had only two six- pounders, two three-pounders, and four little cochoms, the effect of which was, as the Indians afterward observed, like “Apples that Children were throwing over a Garden Fence. “
There were to be many recriminations on this point later. Claus was to claim that his Indian spies had made truer reports than Butler’s, and that neither Carleton nor St. Leger had paid any attention to them. The ill feeling between Claus and Butler completely clouds the issue. But whatever the Indians could or should have reported about the condition and garrison of the fort, they could not have reported anything of consequence about its commander because they did not know him. Yet the commander of Fort Stanwix was all-important. Though this is Joseph Brant’s story, some of it belongs, for a time, to this young man.

Colonel Peter Gansevoort had come to Fort Stanwix (or Fort Schuyler, as the rebels had renamed it) the preceding May. He was barely twenty-eight years old and, except for having taken part in the Yankee invasion of Canada, his military experience consisted of parading his militia up Albany’s main street. However, he came from an indomitable family, a family of courage and iron will. His father, though obviously a loving father, sent him word that he expected him to conquer or die, and his brother, though a loving brother, said much the same thing. Such admonitions were hardly necessary. When the young man had begged frantically for troops and ammunition and supplies, and very little was forthcoming, he made do with what he had. What he had was trees and sod and fish. Day and night he sent his few men out to labor. He choked up Wood Creek with logs, shored up the fort with sod, and everybody ate fish-and ever so often he would write his worried little fiancé in Albany what a good time he was having, fishing.

Above Fort Stanwix this dauntless young fellow unfurled a flag, the first to bear the Stars and Stripes in major combat. So far as is known, neither Joseph nor any of the Loyalists or regular soldiers mentioned the flag or observed it with any interest at all.

But if they had remarked that it looked as if it was made out of somebody’s old shirttail, they would have been right. It was also made, so it is said, of a red petticoat donated by a soldier’s wife and an officer’s blue cloak.

St. Leger, after getting some of his army around, if not through, Wood Creek, arrived before the fort on August 3 and began his famous siege. For the next few days, in order to bring up the rest of his troops and the stores and equipment, he set his men to work pulling the logs and branches out of the stream. It was backbreaking labor, even harder than throwing them in had been. While the whites worked, the Indians kept up an incessant gunfire, with yelling and whooping, to terrify the garrison. St. Leger then turned his attention to a proclamation which he copied after Burgoyne’s. Taking care to mention his “extensive Corps of Indian Allies” but declaring he was anxious to spare where possible”, he invited the people of the settlements to cease their resistance and gather around his banner. The proclamation was bombastic and pretentious throughout, and he must have considered it a veritable masterpiece of persuasion. After Sir John’s optimistic predictions St. Leger had no doubt that the Mohawk valley was full of loyal subjects eager to accept his protection. He had only to sit down and await their coming.

On August 5, in the midst of all these plans and labors and frenzied noisemakings, a message arrived in camp for Joseph Brant. The message came from Joseph’s sister Molly who, it must be remembered, was still living in Canajoharie where little that the rebels were doing could escape her eyes and ears. Molly warned that General Herkimer and the entire militia of Tryon County were on their way to relieve the fort! This news was certainly not in keeping with what the invaders knew of the state of mind among the rebels. However, when a scout confirmed the information, St. Leger immediately sent Sir John Johnson and a detachment of his regiment and Joseph and the Canadian officers with their Indians and whites to cut off the advancing enemy. John Butler and the hesitating Senecas and other Indians who expected merely to watch set out afterward-but with Butler knowing full well that mere sightseeing was no part of the program.

A Small Unexpected Event
The rebels of the Mohawk valley had been ready to give up without even a semblance of a fight. What had caused such a sudden turnabout? It seems to have been one of those small, unexpected events that have sometimes influenced the course of history. A girl who lived up on the northern frontier had set out to join her sweetheart who was a Loyalist with Burgoyne’s forces. Some Indians, also attached to Burgoyne, had captured her (or were escorting her) and, apparently in some sort of dispute over who should be her guard, had killed her and carried her scalp with its long hair streaming, back with them to the British camp. Persons who claimed to know what happened reported this and that, but even Burgoyne himself admitted the atrocious nature of the deed though denying that it had been premeditated. There were a dozen versions of the story, and the details are still in dispute. But Jane McCrea-that was the girl’s name, so it is said became an instant celebrity. Accounts of her murder ran like wildfire over the countryside, getting a little more adornment with each telling. Jane was killed, by someone or other in some way or other, on July 26. Three days later the chairman of the committee of safety in Albany County wrote to the desponding committee of Tryon County. He pointed out that the victim of the atrocity was strongly attached to the enemy and had gone out in friendship to meet them. “What then can those expect who Tamely submit”, he asked, and answered himself, “nothing but Murder and Rapine-“

It was a sobering thought. If Burgoyne could not, or would not, protect his own, then what protection could the rebels expect, either for themselves or for their families, if they surrendered to him? Burgoyne’s great proclamation of amnesty suddenly appeared a very weak straw on which to lean. And St. Leger was no better than Burgoyne and his Indians no more reliable.

Nobody had been willing to do anything or to go anywhere. Now, as if with but one thought among them, the supine bestirred themselves. The downhearted felt a mighty wrath. Some eight or nine hundred strong, they rose up, and damning General Herkimer for a coward because he cautioned them to proceed with care, they set out, all helter-skelter, for Fort Stanwix.” – Isabel Thompson Kelsay

Col. Willett’s Account of the Siege

The following, is copied from Lieut.-Col. Willett’s account of the investiture of the fort.

“ On Saturday evening Aug. 2d, five battoes arrived with stores for the garrison. About the same time we discovered a number of fires a little better than a mile from the northwest of the fort. The stores were all got safe in, and the troops which were a guard to the bateaux, marched up. [This was part of a Massachusetts regiment under Lieut.-Col. Mellon from Fort Dayton.] The Captain of the bateaux and a few of his men, delaying their time about the boats, were fired on by a party of Indians, which killed one man and wounded two, the Captain himself was taken prisoner.

“Next morning the enemy appeared in the edge of the woods about a mile below the fort, where they took post, in order to invest it upon that quarter and to out off the communication with the country from whence they sent in a flag, who told us of their great power, strength and determination, in such a manner as gave us reason to suppose they were not possessed of strength to take the fort. Our answer was, our determination to support it.

“All day on Monday we were much annoyed by a sharp fire of musketry from the Indians and German riflemen [there was a company of the latter with St. Ledger], as our men were obliged to be exposed on the works, killed one man and wounded seven. The day after, the firing was not so heavy, and our men were under better cover ; all the damage was one man killed by a rifle ball. This evening [Aug., 4],indicated something in contemplation by the enemy. The Indians were uncommonly noisy, they made most horrid yellings great part of the evening in the woods, hardly a mile from the fort. A few cannon shot were fired among them..

“Wednesday morning there was an unusual silence. We discovered some of the enemy marching along the edge of the woods downwards. About 11 o’clock three men got into the fort, who brought a letter from Gen. Herkimer, of the Tryon county militia, advising us that he was at Eriska [Oriskany], eight miles off, with a part of his militia, and purposed to force his way to the fort for our relief. In order to render him what service we could, it was agreed that I should make a sally from the fort with 250 men, consisting of one-half Gansevoort’s and one-half Massachusetts ditto, and one field piece-an iron three pounder.” Jeptha Simms

The Tryon County Militia Responds

On the evening of Aug. 5th, Herkimer encamped at Whitestown. He had sent a message to Col. Gansevort, that he was on his way for his relief, and being near enough to hear a signal (within six miles), he would move forward on the morning of the 6th, when signaled by three cannon shots at the fort. The messengers had been delayed, the signal had not been given ; but at this juncture Col. Cox and several other officers urged an immediate advance. In vain did their prudent commander urge the necessity of observing caution and less haste. In their blind zeal to break the restraint which held them, several of the boldest wiseacres told the general that some of his near relatives were in the camp of the enemy, and that he ought to be there too. Indeed, they went so far as to call him a coward to his face. In vain did he attempt to reason with his accusers ; in vain did he urge them to await the expected signal at the fort, which would promise a concert of action. The prudent counsels of the brave DeKalb in the southern expedition, in which he fell, to Gen. Gates, whose northern laurels were so soon to become southern willows ; were regarded with the same favor as were those of, the generous hearted Herkimer, who said, as did the former: “March on, a few hours will tell us which are the brave”
– Jeptha Simms

“And now, with all the desperate energy of men who risked everything that mortal man can have in jeopardy, we prepared to meet the invasion” - Harold Frederic

“Moving through the Oneida Lake and up Wood Creek, St. Leger’s troops transported their cannon and munitions of war in boats, approaching Fort Stanwix in the latter part of July.”...” St. Leger led to its investment, an army of 1700 men, consisting of 700 British and German soldiers, including the loyal regiments of Colonels John Butler and Sir John Johnson, in command of the latter officer, and 1000 Indians under the Immediate command of Capt. Joseph Brant.” - Jeptha R. Simms

“General Herkimer presently issued his order to the Tryon County Militia, appraising them of the imminent danger, and summoning all between sixteen and sixty to arms. There was no doubt now where the blow would fall. Cherry Valley, Unadilla, and the Sacandaga settlements no longer feared raids from the wilderness upon their flanks. The invaders were coming forward in a solid mass, to strike square at the Valley’s head. There we must meet them!” - Harold Frederic

“Notwithstanding the despondency that had prevailed in the early part of the Summer, the call was nobly responded to, not only by the Militia, but by the gentlemen of the County, and most of the members of the Committee, who entered the field either as officers or private volunteers. The fears so recently indulged seemed all to have vanished with the arrival of the invader, and the General soon found himself at the head of between eight hundred and a thousand men, all eager for action and impatient of delay.”
- William L. Stone

“It warms my old heart still to recall the earnestness and calm courage of that summer fortnight of preparation. All up and down the Valley bottomlands, the haying was in progress. Young and old, rich and poor, came out to carry forward this work in common. The meadows were taken in their order, some toiling with scythe and sickle, others standing guard at the forest borders of the field to protect the workers. It was a goodly yield that year, I remember, and never in my knowledge was the harvest gathered and housed better and more thoroughly than in this period of genuine danger, when no man knew whose cattle would feed upon his hay a month hence.

The women and girls worked beside the men, and brought them cooling drinks of ginger, molasses, and vinegar, and spread tables of food in the early evening shade for the weary gleaners. These would march home in bodies, a little later, those with muskets being at the front and rear; and then, after a short night’s honest sleep, the rising sun would find them again at work upon some other farm.

There was something very good and strengthening in this banding together to get the hay in for all. During twenty years of peace and security, we had grown selfish and solitary - each man for himself. We had forgotten, in the strife for individual gain and preferment, the true meaning of that fine old word “neighbor” - the husbandman, or boar, who is nigh, and to whom in nature you first look for help and sympathy and friendship. It was in this fortnight of common peril that we saw how truly we shared everything, even life itself, and how good it was to work for as well as to fight for one another - each for all, and all for each. Forty years have gone by since that summer, yet still I seem to discover in the Mohawk Valley the helpful traces of that fortnight’s harvesting in common. The poor bauers and squatters from the bush came out then and did their share of the work, and we went back with them into their forest clearings and beaver - flies and helped them get in their small crops, in turn. And to this day there is more brotherly feeling here between the needy and the well - to - do than I know of anywhere else.

When the barns were filled, and the sweet - smelling stacks outside properly built and thatched, the scythe was laid aside for the musket, the sickle for the sword and pistol. All up the Valley the drums’ rattle drowned the drone of the locusts in the stubble. The women loaded bullets now and filled powder - horns instead of making drinks for the hay - field. There was no thought anywhere save of preparation for the march. Guns were cleaned, flints replaced, new hickory ramrods whittled out, and the grindstones threw off sparks under the pressure of swords and spear - heads. Even the little children were at work rubbing goose - grease into the hard leather of their elders’ foot gear, against the long tramp to Fort Stanwix...”

...The gathering of Indians at Oswego under Claus and Brant was larger than the first reports had made it. The regular troops, both British and German, intended for our destruction, were said alone to outnumber the whole Militia force which we could hope to oppose them. But most of all we thought of the Hundreds of our old Tory neighbors, who were bringing this army down upon us to avenge their own fancied wrongs, and There was something very good and strengthening in this banding together to get the hay in for all. During twenty years of peace and security, we had grown selfish and solitary - each man for himself. We had forgotten, in the strife for individual gain and preferment, the true meaning of that fine old word “neighbor” - the husbandman, or boar, who is nigh, and to whom in nature you first look for help and sympathy and friendship. It was in this fortnight of common peril that we saw how truly we shared everything, even life itself, and how good it was to work for as well as to fight for one another - each for all, and all for each. Forty years have gone by since that summer, yet still I seem to discover in the Mohawk Valley the helpful traces of that fortnight’s harvesting in common. The poor bauers and squatters from the bush came out then and did their share of the work, and we went back with them into their forest clearings and beaver - flies and helped them get in their small crops, in turn. And to this day there is more brotherly feeling here between the needy and the well - to - do than I know of anywhere else.

When the barns were filled, and the sweet - smelling stacks outside properly built and thatched, the scythe was laid aside for the musket, the sickle for the sword and pistol. All up the Valley the drums’ rattle drowned the drone of the locusts in the stubble. The women loaded bullets now and filled powder - horns instead of making drinks for the hay - field. There was no thought anywhere save of preparation for the march. Guns were cleaned, flints replaced, new hickory ramrods whittled out, and the grindstones threw off sparks under the pressure of swords and spear - heads. Even the little children were at work rubbing goose - grease into the hard leather of their elders’ foot gear, against the long tramp to Fort Stanwix...”

...The gathering of Indians at Oswego under Claus and Brant was larger than the first reports had made it. The regular troops, both British and German, intended for our destruction, were said alone to outnumber the whole Militia force which we could hope to oppose them. But most of all we thought of the Hundreds of our old Tory neighbors, who were bringing this army down upon us to avenge their own fancied wrongs, and when we thought of them we moodily rattled the bullets in our deerskin bags, and bent the steel more fiercely upon the whirling, hissing stone.” - Harold Frederic

“All those who could bear a musket were gone to meet the invasion. Two years of war in other parts had drained the Valley of many of it’s young men, who could not bear peace at home while there were battles at the North or in the Jerseys, and were serving in every army which Congress controlled, from Champlain and the Delaware to Charlston. And now this levy for home defense had swept the farms clean...

...And then the thought came to me - how often in that cruel week it had come to fathers, husbands, brothers, in this sunny Valley of ours, leaving homes they should never see again! - that nothing but our right arms could save these women, my own flesh and blood, from the hatchet and the scalping-knife...

...August 3, the mustering at Fort Dayton was complete. no one of the thirty-three companies of Tryon County militia was absent...

...It was the first time that the whole Tryon militia had been gathered together, and we looked one another over with curiosity...

...As there were all sorts and grades of dress, ranging from the spruce blue and buff of some of the officers, through the grey homespun and linsey-woolsey of the farmer privates, to the buckskin of the trappers and huntsmen, so there were all manner of weapons, all styles of head-gear and equipment, all fashions of faces...

...Whole households of strong men marched together. There were nine Snells, all relatives, in the patriot ranks; so far as I can remember, there were five Bellingers, five Seebers, five Wagners, and five Wollovers - and it may well be five of more than one other family. – Harold Frederick

0102 Nicholas Christman (b.abt.1732) 4th Regiment
0103 Jacob Christman (b.1741) 4th Regiment
0105 John Christman (b.abt.1747) 4th Regiment
0201 John Christman (b.abt.1740) 1st Regiment
0203 Johann Jacob (b.1744) 2nd Regiment
0206 Nicholas Christman (b.abt.1755) Ranger (Palatine)
0302 Frederick Christman (b.1748) 4th Regiment (later enlisted in NY Line)
0303 John Christman (b.abt.1752) 4th Regiment

The men of the different settlements formed groups by themselves at the first, and arranged their own separate camping-places for the night. But soon, as what was natural, they discovered acquaintances from other parts, and began to mingle, sitting in knots or strolling about the outer palisades or on the clearing beyond. The older men who had born a part of the French war told stories of that time, which, indeed, had now a new, deep interest for us, not only in that we were to face and invading force greater and more to be dreaded than was Belletre’s but because we were encamped on historic ground.

From the gentle knoll upon which the block-house and stockade of Fort Dayton were now reared we could see the sight of that first little Palatine settlement that had been wiped so rudely from the face of the earth; and our men revived memories of that dreadful night, and talked of them in a low voice as the daylight faded.

The scene affected me most gravely. I looked at the forest clad range of northern hills over which the French and Indian horde stole in the night, and tried to picture their stealthy approach in my mind. Below us flowing tranquilly past the willow-hedged farms of the German Flatts settlers, lay the Mohawk. The white rippling overcast on the water marked the shallow ford through which the panic-stricken refugees crowded in affright in the wintry darkness, and where in the crush, that poor forgotten woman, the widow of an hour, was trampled under foot, swept away by the current, drowned!” - Harold Frederick

“Counsels were divided whether they should await further accessions, or hasten to Fort Stanwix. Prudence prompted delay. St. Leger’s force was more than double that of Herkimer; it might be divided, and while one-half occupied the patriot column, the Indians under Tory lead might hurry down the valley, gathering reinforcements while they ravaged the homes of the patriots.

The blow might come from Unadilla, where Brant had been as late as the early part of that very July. Herkimer at Fort Dayton, was in position to turn in either direction. But the way of the Mohawk was the natural and traditional warpath. The patriots looked to Fort Stanwix as their defense. They started on the fourth, crossed the Mohawk where is now Utica, and reached Whitestown on the fifth. Here it is probably that a band of Oneida Indians joined the column. From this point or before, Herkimer sent an express to Colonel Gansevoort arranging for co-operation. He was to move forward when three cannon signaled that aid was ready. The signal was not heard; the messengers had been delayed.” - Ellis H. Roberts

“A bright, hot sun shone upon us the next morning - the never-to-be-forgotten 6th. There would have been small need for any waking rattle of drums; the sultry heat made all willing to rise from the hard, dry ground, were sleep had been difficult enough even in the cooler darkness. At six o’clock the camp, such as it was, was all astir.

Breakfast was eaten in little groups squatted about the clearing, or in the shade of the trees at its edges, members of families or close neighbors clustering together in parties once more, to share victuals prepared by the same housewives - it may be from the same oven or spit. It might well happen that for many of us this was the last meal on earth, for we were within hearing of the heavy guns of the fort, and when three of these should be fired in succession we were to take up our final six-miles’ march. But this reflection made no one sad, apparently. Everywhere you could hear merry converse and sounds of laughter. Listening, no one would have dreamed that this body of men stood upon the threshold of so grave an adventure.

I had been up earlier than most of the others, and had gone over to the spot that the horses were tethered. Of these animals were some dozen, all told, and their appearance showed that they had had a bad night of it with the flies. After I had seen them led to water and safely brought back, and had watched that in the distribution of the scanty store of oats my steed had its proper share, I came back to breakfast with the Stone Arabia men, among whom I had many acquaintances. I contributed some sausages and slices of bread and meat, I remember, to the general stock of food, which was spread out upon one of Isaac Paris’s blankets. We ate with a light heart, half lying on the parched grass around the extemporized cloth. Some of the young farmers, their meal already finished, were up on their feet, scuffling and wrestling in jest and high spirits. They laughed so heartily from time to time that Mr. Paris would call out: “Less noise there, you, or we shall not hear the cannon from the fort!”

No one would have thought that this was the morning before a battle.” - Harold Frederic

“It appears that on the morning of that day, which was the 6th of August, General Herkimer had misgivings as to the propriety of advancing any farther without first receiving reinforcements. His officers, however, were eager to press forward. A consultation was held, in which some of the officers manifested much impatience at any delay, while the General still urged them to remain where they were until reinforcements could come up, or at least until the signal of a sortie should be received from the fort. High words ensued, during which Colonels Cox and Paris, and many others, denounced their commander to his face as a Tory and a coward.

The brave old man calmly replied that he considered himself placed over them as a father, and that it was not his wish to lead them into any difficulty from which he could not extricate them. Burning, as they now seemed, to meet the enemy, he told them roundly that they would run at his first appearance. But his remonstrance’s were unavailing. Their clamor increased, and their reproaches were repeated, until, stung by imputations of cowardice and a want of fidelity to the cause, and somewhat irritated withal, The General immediately gave the order -...” - William L. Stone

“VORVARTS!” - Harold Frederic

“The tall pines themselves shook with the cheer which the yeomen raised.

“There was a scramble on the instant for muskets, bags, and belongings. To rush was the order. We under-officers caught the infection, and with no dignity at all hurried across the clearing to our horses. We cantered back in a troop, Barent Coppernol leading the Brigadier’s white mare at a hand gallop by our side. Still trembling with excitement, yet perhaps somewhat reconciled to the adventure by the exultant spirit of the scene before him, General Herkimer got into the saddle, and watched closely the efforts of his colonels, now once more all gratified enthusiasm, to bring their eager men into form. It had been arranged that Cox with his Canajoharie regiment should have the right of the line, and this body was ready and underway in less time , it seemed, than I have taken to write about it. The General saw the other three regiments trooped, told Visscher to bring the supply-wagon with the rear, and then , with Isaac Paris, Jelles Fonda, and myself, galloped to the head of the column, where Spencer and Skenandoah with the Oneida Indians were.

So marching swiftly, and without scouts, we started forth at about nine in the morning.” - Harold Frederic

“Learning that Gen. Herkimer was approaching to the relief of the garrison, and not being disposed to receive him in his camp, St. Leger a body of Indians and Tories under Brant and Col. Butler to watch his approach, and to intercept, if possible, his march. The surrounding country afforded every facility for the practice of the Indian mode of warfare. In the deep recesses of its forests they were secure from observation, and to them they could retreat in case they were defeated. Finding that the militia approached in a very careless manner, Butler determined to attack them by surprise. He selected a place well fitted for such an attack. A few miles from the fort there was a deep ravine, sweeping toward the east in a semi-circular form, and having a northern and southern direction. The bottom of this ravine was marshy, and the road along which the militia were marching crossed it by means of a log causeway. The ground thus partly enclosed by the ravine was elevated and level. Along the road on each side on this height of land, Butler disposed of his men.” - William W. Campbell

“It seems to be a well established fact that Sir John Johnson was in command of the forces in this enterprise, assisted by Colonel’s Butler and Claus and Captain Brant. White officers were in command of the white troops, consisting mainly of Johnson’s, Greens and Butlers Rangers, 400 or 500 in number; while under Brant’s direction were nearly 1000 Indian warriors - the latter foemen to be dreaded at all times, and especially so in this civil war...the enemy numbered nearly two to one of Herkimer’s command.

As the Seneca warriors were there represented in much greater numbers than were either of the other three warring nations, it is reasonable to conclude that, although no history has mentioned the fact, the three distinguished chiefs of the nation, Kayingwaurto, Cornplanter and Red Jacket were there also to lead on their braves.” - Jeptha R. Simms

“The road over which we hurried was bad, even in those hot, dry days of August, as any still to be found in the Adirondacks. The bottomlands of the Mohawk Valley, as is well known, are of the best farming soil in the world, but for that very reason they make bad roads. The highway leading to the fort lay for the most part over low and springy land, and was cut through the thick beech and hemlock forest almost in a straight line, regardless of swales and marshy places. These had been in some instances bridged indifferently by corduroys of logs, laid the previous spring when Gansevoort dragged up his cannon for the defense of the fort, and by this time to often loose and out of place. We on horseback found these rough spots even more trying than did the footmen; but for all of us progress was slow enough, after the first excitement of the start had passed away.

There was no outlook at any point. We were hedged in everywhere by walls of foliage, of mossy tree-trunks covered with vines, of tangled undergrowth and brush. When we had gained a hill-top, nothing more was to be seen than the dark-brown band of logs on the gully bottom before us, and the dim line of road losing itself in a mass of green beyond.

Neither Herkimer or Paris had much to say, as we rode on in the van. Major Fonda made sundry efforts to engage them in talk, as if there had been no recent dispute, no harsh words, no angry recriminations, but without special success. For my part, I said nothing whatever. Surely there was enough to think of, both as to the miserable insubordination of an hour back, and as to what the next hour might bring.

We passed over about the worst of these patches of corduroy road, in the bottom of a ravine between two hills, where a little brook, damned in part by the logs, spread itself out over the swampy soil on both sides. We in the van had nearly gained the summit of the farther eminence, and were resting for the moment to see how Visscher should manage with his wagon in the rear. Colonel Cox had also turned in his saddle, some ten yards farther down the hill, and was calling back angrily to his men to keep in the center of the logs and not tip them up by walking on the ends.

While I looked Barent Coppernol called out to me: “Do you remember? This is where we camped five years ago.”- Harold Frederick

Before I could answer I heard a rifle report, and saw Colonel Cox fall headlong upon the neck of his horse. There was a momentary glimpse of dark forms running back, a strange yell, a shot or two - and then the gates of hell opened upon us.” - Harold Frederic

The Battle of Oriskany

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; - Psalm 23

“Were I Homer and Shakespeare and Milton, merged all in one, I should still not know how fitly to depict the terrible scene which followed.

I had seen poor headstrong, willful Cox pitch forward upon the mane of his horse, as if all at once his spine had been turned into limp string; I saw now a ring of fire run out in spitting tongues of flame around the gulf, and a circle of thin whitish smoke slowly raise itself through the dark leaves of the girdling bushes. It was an appalling second of mental numbness during which I looked at this strange sight, and seemed not at all to comprehend it.” - Harold Frederic

“Of two departments were the assailing foes:
Wild savage natives lead the first of those;
Their almost naked frames, of various dyes,
And rings of black and red surround their eyes.
On one side they present a shaven head,
The naked half of the vermilion red;
In spots the parti-colored face they drew,
Beyond description horrible to view;
Their ebon locks to braid, with paint o’erspread;
The silvered ears depending from the head;
Their gaudy my descriptive power exceeds,
In plumes of feathers, glittering plates and beads.” - Moses Younglove

“The advanced guard, with about two thirds of the whole force, had gained the elevated ground; the baggage wagons had descended into the ravine - Col. Visscher’s regiment was still on the east side - when the Indians arose, and with a dreadful yell poured a destructive fire upon them. The advanced guard was entirely cut off.

Those who survived the first fire were immediately cut down with the tomahawk. The horror of the scene was increased by the personal appearance of the savages, who were almost naked, and painted in a most hideous manner. They ran down each side, keeping up a constant fire, and united at the causeway; thus dividing the militia into two bodies. The rear regiment, after a feeble resistance, fled in confusion, and were pursued by the Indians. They suffered more severely than they would have done had they stood their ground, or advanced to the support of the main body in front.” - William W. Campbell

“The air was filled now with shouts - what they were I did not know. The solid body of our troops on the corduroy bridge were huddling together like sheep in a storm. From the outer edges of this mass men were sinking to the ground. The tipping, rolling logs tossed these bodies on their ends off into the water, or under the feet of the others. Cox’s horse had jumped side-long into the marsh, and now, its hindquarters sinking in the mire, plunged wildly, flinging the inert body still fastened in the stirrups from side to side. Some of our men were firing their guns at random into the underbrush.

All this I saw in the swift gallop down the hill to rejoin the Brigadier.

As I jerked my horse beside him, a blood-curdling chorus of strange barking screams, as from the throats of maniac women, rose at the farther side of the ravine, drowning the shouts of our men, the ping-g-g of the whistling bullets, and even the sharp crack of the muskets. It was the Indian war-whoop! A swarm of savages were leaping from the bush in all directions, and falling upon our men as they stood jammed together on the causeway. It was a horrible spectacle - of naked, yelling devils, daubed with vermilion and ghastly yellow, rushing with uplifted hatchets and flashing knives upon this huddled mass of white men, our friends and neighbors. These after the first bewildering shock, made what defense they could, shooting right and left, and beating down their assailants with terrific smashing blows from their gun-stocks. But the throng on the sliding logs made them almost powerless, and into their jumbled ranks kept pouring the pitiless rain of bullets from the bush.

By God’s providence there were cooler brains and wiser heads than mine, here in the ravine, to face and grapple with this awful crisis.” - Harold Frederic

“Being thrown into irretrievable disorder by the suddenness of the surprise and the destructiveness of the fire, which was close and brisk from every side, the division was for a time threatened with annihilation.” - William L. Stone

“ The assailants aimed first of all to seize the supply train. Colonel Visscher, who commanded its guard, showed his courage before and after and doubtless fought well here, as the best informed descendents of other heroes of the battle believe. But his regiment was driven northwards towards the river, was cut up or in great part captured with the supplies and ammunition. In the ravine and just west of it Herkimer rallied those who stood with him. Back to back, shoulder to shoulder, they faced the foe.” - Ellis H. Roberts

“At every opportunity the savages, concealed behind the trunks of trees, darted forward with knife and tomahawk to ensure the destruction of those who fell; and many and fierce were the conflicts that ensued hand to hand.” - William L. Stone

“Old Herkimer seemed before my very eyes to wax bigger and stronger and calmer in the saddle, as this pandemonium unfolded in front of us. His orders I forget now - or what part I played at first in carrying them out - but they were given swiftly and with cool comprehension of all our needs.

I should think that within five minutes from the first shot of the attack, our forces - or what was left of them - had been drawn out of the cruel helplessness of their position in the center of the swamp. This could never have been done had not Honikol Herkimer kept perfectly his self-control and balance, like an eagle in a tempest.” - Harold Frederic

“Who was Gen. Herkimer, their commander? I answer without fear of just contradiction, he was - in that defile - the right man in the right place. Years before, he had seen service under Sir William Johnson, and was familiar with the Indian mode of warfare; and although not as well versed in military tactics as one whose life had been spent in a military camp; yet for determined bravery, for coolness in danger, and for a common sense view of surrounding circumstances, there was no man his rival, if indeed, his peer, in the whole brigade.” - Jeptha R. Simms

“Peter Bellinger, was able to push his way back again from the beginning of the corduroy bridge into the woods on both sides of the road beyond, where cover was to be had. It was a noble sight to see the stalwart Palatine farmers of his regiment - these Petries, Weavers, Helmers, and Dygerts [including Christmans] of the German Flatts - fight their path backward through the hail of lead, crushing Mohawk skulls as though they had been egg-shells with the mighty flail-like swing of their clubbed muskets, and returning fire only to kill every time. The bulk of Cox’s Canajoharie regiment [including Christman] and of Klock’s Stone Arabia yeomen [including Christman’s] were pulled forward to the rising ground on the west side, and spread themselves out in the timber as well as they could, north and south of the Road.” - Harold Frederic

“ (General Herkimer)... a musket ball shattered his leg and killed his horse. Evincing little concern for his own personal safety , he had his saddle placed at the roots of a tree which he could lean, and there he gave his orders which put his men in the best attitude for defense, as he would have done if seated where danger did not fill the very atmosphere. Like most men of German blood, he was fond of smoking, and taking from his pocket a tinderbox, with his pocket knife and a flint arrow head carried for that purpose, he lighted his pipe and indulged this favorite pastime, while issuing the necessary commands. When it was suggested to him to be removed to a place of less danger, he replied in true Spartan courage: ...”No”,

Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your power.
Hear my prayer, O God;
Give ear to the words of my mouth.
For strangers have risen against me
And violent men have sought my life;
They have not set God before them.

Behold, God is my helper;
The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.
He will recompense the evil to my foes;
Destroy them in Your faithfulness.

Willingly, I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good.
For He has delivered me from all trouble,
And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies. Psalm 54


“I will here face the Enemy!”


“The bone of his right leg had been shattered by the ball which killed his steed, and his high boot was already welling with blood....the Brigadier, a little pale, yet still calm and resolute, said that he would sit and see the battle out...several young men , at a hint from the doctor, ran down through the sweeping fire to the edge of the morass, unfastened the big saddle from his dead mare and safely brought it to us.”- Harold Frederic

“The General was placed upon his saddle, however, against the truck of a tree for his support, and thus continued to order the battle.” - William L. Stone

“On receiving the wound, his horse having been killed, he directed his saddle, to be placed upon a little hillock of earth and rested himself upon it. Being advised to choose a place where he would be less exposed, he replied: “I will face the Enemy.”
- William W. Campbell

“Herkimer, early wounded and his horse shot under him, sat on his saddle beneath a beech tree, just where the hill rises at the west a little north of the center of the ravine, calmly smoking his pipe while ordering the battle. He was urged to retire from so much danger; he reply is the eloquence of a hero: “I will face the enemy.” - Ellis H. Roberts

“...the slaughter of their broken ranks, from the rifles of the Tories and the spears and tomahawks of the Indians was dreadful. But even in this deplorable situation the wounded General, his men dropping like leaves around him, and the forest resounding with the horrid yells of the savages, ringing high and wild over the din of battle, behaved with the most perfect firmness and composure.” - William L. Stone

“Discovering that when one of his men, as they stood singly behind trees discharging his gun, an Indian would run up and kill him with a tomahawk before he could reload; the commander ordered two men to a tree, one to shoot the exposed Indian while running as he expected, easily to secure a scalp. This ruse soon taught the Indians better manners, and placed that part of their occupation with Othello’s.”- Jeptha R. Simms

“ The action lasted about forty-five minutes in great disorder, before the Provincials formed into circles in order to repel the attacks of the enemy, who were concentrating, and closing in upon them from all sides. From this moment the resistance of the Provincials was more effective, and the enemy attempted to charge with the bayonet.”
- William L. Stone

“Assist the ravage of their parent land;
With equal dress, and arms, and savage arts,
But more than savage rancor in their hearts.” - Moses Younglove

“When the Indians seemed to be getting the worst of the fight, Capt. Stephen Watts, a spirited young officer and brother-in-law of Sir John Johnson, and who commanded a company in his regiment, brought up a reinforcement of Johnson’s Greens. The very sight of these Tryon county loyalists - so well known and remembered by the patriotic defenders of the soil - fired their blood to fever heat; and such a hand to hand fight ensued as was never recorded in American civilized warfare.

Yes, at the sight of those green coats, Herkimer’s men not only fired upon them, but without waiting under the temporary shelter of trees to reload their rifles, they rushed upon them with bayonets and clubbed muskets - in some instances to close a death struggle, knife in hand.” - Jeptha R. Simms

“The firing ceased for a time, except the scattering discharges of musketry from the Indians; and as the bayonets crossed, the contest became a death struggle, hand to hand and foot to foot. Never, however, did brave men stand a charge with more dauntless courage, and the enemy for a moment seemed to recoil - ...” - William L. Stone

“Back to back, shoulder to shoulder, they faced the foe. Where shelter could be had, two stood together so that one might fire while the other loaded. Often the fight grew closer, and the knife ended the personal contest. Eye to eye, hand to hand, this was a fight of men. Nerve and brawn and muscle, were the price of life. Rifle and knife, spear and tomahawk were the only weapons, or the clubbed butt of the rifle. It was not a test of science, not weighing of enginery, not a measure of caliber nor an exhibition of choicest mechanism. Men stood against death, and death struck at them with the simplest implements. Homer sings of chariots and shields. Here were no such helps, no such defenses. Forts or earthworks, barricades or abittis, there were none. The British force had chosen its ground. Two to one it must have been against the band which stood and fought in that pass, forever glorious.” - Ellis H. Roberts

“All this time the rattle of musketry, the screech of flying bullets, the hoarse din and clamor of forest warfare, had never for an instant abated. Looking down upon the open space of the gully’s bottom, we could see more than two score corpses piled upon the logs of the road, or upon little mounds of black soil which showed above the level of the slough, half-hidden by the willows and tall, rank tufts of swamp-grass. Save for the dead, this natural clearing was well-nigh deserted. Captain Jacob Seeber was in sight, upon a hillock below us to the north, with a score of his Canajoharie company in a circle, firing outward at the enemy. Across the ravine Captain Jacob Gardenier, a gigantic farmer, armed with a captured Indian spear, had cut loose with his men from Visscher’s retreat, and fought his way back to help us. Farther to the south, some of the Cherry Valley men had got trees and were holding the Indians at bay.

The hot August sun poured its fiercest rays down upon the heaps of dead and wounded in this forest cockpit, and turned into golden haze the mist of smoke encircling it. Through this pale veil we saw, from time to time, forms struggling in the dusk of the thicket beyond. Behind each tree-trunk was the stage whereon a life-drama was being played, with a sickening and tragic sameness in them all... There was a hideous fascination in this spectacle stretched before us. An hour ago it had been so softly peaceful, with the little brook picking its clean way in the sunlight through the morass, and the kingfisher flitting among the willows, and the bees’ drone laying like a spell of indolence upon the heated air. Now the swale was choked with corpses! The rivulet ran red with blood, and sluggishly spread its current around barriers of dead men. Bullets whistled across the gulf, cutting off boughs of trees, as with a knife, and scattering tufts of leaves like feathers from a hawk stricken in its flight. The heavy air grew thick with smoke, dashed by swift streaks of dancing flame. The demon-like screams of the savages, the shouts and moans and curses of our own men, made hearing horrible. Yes - horrible is the right word!

A frightened owl, I remember, was routed by the tumult from its sleepy perch, and flew slowly over the open space of the ravine. So curious a compound is man! - we watched the great brown-winged creature flap its purblind way across from wood to wood, and speculated there, as we stood in the jaws of death, if some random ball would hit it!

I am writing all of this as if I did nothing but look about me while others fought. Of course that could not have been the case. I recall now these fragmentary impressions of the scene around me with a distinctness and with a plentitude of minutia which surprise me, the more I remember little enough of what I myself did. But when a man is in a fight for his life there are no details. He is either to come out of it or he isn’t, and that is about all he thinks of.

I have put down nothing about what was now the most serious part of the struggle - the combat with the German mercenaries and Tory volunteers on the high ground beyond the ravine. I conceive it to have been the plan of the enemy to let the Indians lie hidden round about the gulf until our rear-guard had entered it. Then they were to disclose their ambuscade, sweeping the corduroy bridge with fire, while the Germans and Tories, meeting our van up on the crown of the hill beyond, were to attack and drive it back upon our flank in the gulf bottom, when we should have been wholly at the mercy of the encircling fusillade from the hills. Fortunately St. Leger had given the Indians a quart of rum apiece before they started; this was our salvation. The savages were too excited to wait, and closed too soon the fiery ring which was to destroy us all. This premature action cut off our rear, but it also prevented our van reaching the point where the white foe lay watching for us. Thus we were able to form upon our center, after the first awful shock was over, and to then force our way backward or forward to some sort of cover before the Germans and Tories came upon us.

The fighting in which I bore a part was at the farthest western point, where the remnants of four or five companies, half buried in the gloom of the impenetrable wood, on a line stretching along the whole crest of the hill, held these troops at bay. We lay or crouch behind leafy coverts, crawling from place to place as our range was reached by the enemy, shooting from the shield of tree-trunks or of tangled clumps of small firs, or, best of all, of fallen and prostrate logs.

Often, when one of us, creeping cautiously forward , gained a spot which promised better shelter, it was to find it already tenanted by a corpse, perhaps of a near and dear friend. It was thus that I came upon the body of Major John Eisenlord, and later upon what was left of poor Barent Coppernol, lying half-hidden among the running hemlock, scalpless and cold. It was from one of these recesses, too, that I saw stout old Isaac Paris shot down, and then dragged away a prisoner by the Tories, to be handed over to the hatchets of their Indian friends a few days hence.

Fancy three hours of this horrible forest warfare, in which every minute bore a whole lifetime’s strain and burden of peril!

We knew not then how time passed, and could but dimly guess how things were going beyond the brambled copse in which we fought. Vague intimations reached our ears, as the sounds of battle now receded, now drew near, that the issue of the day still hung in suspense. The war-yells of the Indians to the rear were heard less often now. The conflict seemed to be spreading over a greater area, to judge from the faintness of some of the rifle reports which came to us.

But we could not tell which side was giving way, nor was there much time to think of this: all our vigilance and attention were needed from moment to moment to keep ourselves alive.” - Harold Frederic

The Storm

“…and thus the battle raged, until the parties were compelled to desist, by a heavy shower of rain, which raged with great fury for more than an hour.”
– Nathaniel S. Benton

“...the work of death was arrested by a heavy shower of rain, which suddenly broke upon the combatants with great fury. The storm raged for upward of an hour, during which time the enemy sought such shelter as might be found among the trees at a respectful distance; for they had already suffered severely, notwithstanding the advantages in their favor.” - William L. Stone

“...the sky became overcast; the artillery of heaven began to play, a terrible rainstorm followed, and for the next hour the fight ceased - the enemy withdrawing from the field.” - Jeptha R. Simms

“All at once, with a terrific swoop, there burst upon the forest a great storm, with load-rolling thunder and a drenching downfall of rain. We had been to grimly engrossed in the affairs of the earth to note the darkening sky. The tempest broke upon us unawares. The wind fairly roared through the branches high above us; blinding flashes of lightning blazed in the shadows of the wood. Huge boughs were wrenched bodily off by the blast. Streaks of flame ran zigzag down the sides of the tall, straight hemlocks. The forest fairly rocked under the convulsion of the elements.” - Harold Frederic

“During the carnage, a storm of wind and rain and lightning brought a respite. Old men preserve the tradition that in the path by which the enemy came, a broad windfall was cut, and was seen for long years afterward.” - Ellis H. Roberts

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
Which I have reserved for the time of distress,
For the day of war and battle?

Job 38:22&23

The winter of 1708 was a time of distress; August 6, 1777 was a day of war and battle.

While we lay thus quiescent in the rain, I heard a low, distant report from the west, which seemed distinct among the growlings of the thunder; there followed another, and a third. It was the belated signal from the fort!

The United States of America was Born

I made my way back to the hill-side as best I could, under the dripping brambles, over the drenched and slippery ground vines, upon the chance that the Brigadier had not heard the reports.” - Harold Frederic

“...the messengers did not reach the fort until ten or eleven o’clock on the following morning; previous to which the camp of the enemy being uncommonly silent, a portion of their troops had been observed by the garrison to be moving along the edge of the woods down the river, in the direction of the Oriskany Creek. The concerted signals were immediately fired; and as the proposition of Herkimer was to force a passage to the fort , arrangements were immediately made by Colonel Gansevoort to effect a diversion of the enemy’s attention, by making a sally from the fort upon the hostile camp, for which purpose two hundred men were detailed, [Christman]consisting one half of Gansevoort’s, and one half from the Massachusetts troops, and one field-piece - an iron three pounder. The execution of the enterprise was entrusted to Colonel Willett.”
- William L. Stone

“The commander still sat on his saddle under the beech-tree where I had left him. Some watch-coats had been stretched over the lowest branches above him, forming a tolerable shelter. His honest brown face, seemed to have grown wan and aged during the day. He protested that he had little or no pain from his wound, but the repressed lines about his lips belied their assurance. He smiled with gentle irony when I told him of what I had heard, and how I had hastened to apprise him of it...” - Harold Frederic

During the suspension of battle, both parties had time to look about, and make such new dispositions as they pleased for attack and defense, on renewing the murderous conflict. The Provincials, under the direction of their General, were so fortunate as to take possession of an advantageous piece of ground, upon which his men formed themselves into a circle, and as the shower broke away, awaited the movements of the enemy.” - William L. Stone

“The storm stopped as abruptly as it had come upon us. Of a sudden it grew lighter, and the rain dwindled to a fine mist. Great luminous masses of white appeared in the sky, pushing aside the leaded clouds. Then all at once the sun was shining.

On that instant shots rang out here and there through the forest. The fight began again.

The two hours that followed seem to me now but the indistinct space of a few minutes. Our men had seized upon the leisure of the lull to eat what food was at hand in their pockets, and felt now refreshed in strength. They had time, too, to learn something of the awful debt of vengeance they owed the enemy. A somber rage possessed them, and gave to their hearts a giants daring. Heroes before, they became Titans now.

The vapors steaming up in the sunlight from the wet earth seemed to bear the scent of blood. The odor affected our senses. We ran forth in parties now, disdaining cover. Some fell; we leaped over their writhing forms, dashed our fierce way through the thicket to where the tell-tale smoke arose, and smote, stabbed, stamped out the life of, the ambushed foe. Under the sway of this frenzy, timorous men swelled into veritable paladins. The least reckless of us rushed upon death with breast bared and with clenched fists.” - Harold Frederic

“In came at the thick of the strife, a detachment of Johnson’s Greens; and they sought to appear reinforcements for the patriots. They paid dearly for the fraud, for thirty were quickly killed. Captain Gardenier slew three...” - Ellis H. Roberts
“Capt. Jacob Gardenier, of Visscher’s regiment, one of the most efficient men on the ground, was the first to detect the stratagem. To Lieut. Jacob Sammons, of Capt. John Davis’ company, who thought them friends, said Gardenier: not so, don’t you see them green coats?

They were hailed by Capt. G., just at which moment one of his own men seeing a friend as he supposed approaching, sprang forward and proffered his hand; which was grasped and he was drawn into the advancing corps a prisoner. He did not yield without a struggle, however, and his Captain watching the movement sprang forward and with a spontoon dealt a fatal blow to the captor which liberated his man.

Instantly the Captain was set upon by several of the foe, one of whom he slew, wounding another. Three of the Greens now sprang upon and threw him down, and held him there, pinioned by a bayonet through each thigh, while the third attempted to thrust a bayonet into his breast. This bayonet he seized and jerked its owner down upon his body, where he held him as protection, Until Adam Miller, one of his own men, came to his rescue and, with a clubbed musket, brained one of the assailants who held him down. The other two now turned upon Miller, when the Captain, partly rising, snatched his spear and quick as thought planted it in the body of his last assailant, who fell and expired...three of Johnson’s Greens attempted to capture Capt. Andrew Dillenbeck. [Neighbor of Christmans] He had said just before, to his friends, that he would not be made a prisoner by his old neighbors, and he was not. One of them seized his gun, but he wrenched it from his grasp, clubbed it, and felled him to the ground. The gun chanced to be loaded, and with it he shot the second and thrust the third through with a bayonet; but, in the moment of victory, another of the enemy shot him down and he immediately expired...he was a strong and powerful man - rendered such by hardships from childhood. As the reader may well suppose, such men could not be conquered.” - Jeptha R. Simms

“It was the truth. They were indeed Tories - double traitors to their former friends. As Gardenier shouted out his command, these ruffians raised their guns, and there sprang up from the bushes on either side of them as many more savages, with weapons lifting for a volley.

How it was I know not, but they never fired that volley. Our muskets seemed to poise and discharge themselves of their own volition, and a score of the villains, white and red, tumbled before us. Gardenier’s men had recovered their senses as well, and, pouring in a deadly fusillade, dashed furiously forward with clubbed muskets upon the unmasked foe. These latter would now have retreated up the hill again, whence they could fire to advantage, but we at this leaped forth upon their flank, and they, with a futile shot or two, turned and fled in every direction, we all in wild pursuit.

Ah, that chase! Over rotten, moss-grown logs, weaving between gnarled tree-trunks, slipping on treacherous twigs, the wet saplings whipping our faces, the boughs knocking against our guns, in savage heat we tore forward, loading and firing as we ran.

The pursuit had a malignant pleasure in it: we knew the men we were driving before us. Cries of recognition rose through the woods; names of renegades were shouted out which had a sinister familiarity in all our ears...

...A body of us were thus scouring the wood on the crest of the hill, pushing through the tangle of dead brush and thick high brake, which soaked us afresh to the waist, resolute to overcome and kill whom-so-ever we could reach.

Below us, in the direction of the river, though half a mile this side of it, we could hear a scattering fusillade maintained, which bespoke bush-fighting. Toward this we made our way, firing at momentary glimpses of figures in the thicket, and driving scattered groups of the foe before us as we ran.” - Harold Frederic

“Such a conflict as this could not be continued long; and the Indians, perceiving with what ardor the Provincials maintained the fight, and finding their own numbers sadly diminished, now raised the retreating cry of “Oonah!” and fled in every direction, under the shouts and hurrahs of the surviving Provincials and, a shower of bullets. Finding, moreover, from the firing at the fort, that, their presence was necessary elsewhere, the Greens and Rangers now retreated precipitately, leaving the victorious militia of Tryon county masters of the field.” - William L. Stone

“The Indians raised the cry of retreat, “Oonah! Oonah!” Johnson heard the firing of a sortie from the fort. The British fell back, after five hours of desperate fight. Herkimer and his gallant men held the ground.” - Ellis H. Roberts

“But as already stated, in the midst of these desperate struggles for the mastery, the sound of cannon came booming down the valley. The Indians were the first to take the hint that their presence was needed at the camp, and witnessing the indomitable courage of the Provincials, and smarting for their own losses, they were the first to show the white feather, and shouting the significant “Oonah! Oonah!” responded in every direction - a word which indicated retreat - they nearly all precipitately fled, amid the shouts of the Americans, and a shower of bullets where exposed. As the firing continued, the dismayed Refugees, with a silent peccavie, soon followed their allies, stealing away and leaving Herkimer’s men victors of the battlefield. It was a glorious triumph, but alas! at what a fearful cost: it threw the whole valley into mourning.” - Jeptha R. Simms

“Thus ended one of the severest, and, for the numbers engaged, one of the most bloody battles of the entire Revolutionary war...Tryon County long had reason to mourn that day...The late Doctor Moses Younglove, of Hudson, Columbia County, was the surgeon of General Herkimer’s Brigade. He was taken prisoner in this battle by a sergeant of Sir John Johnson’s regiment. After his release he made a deposition setting forth many grievous barbarities committed, both by the Indians and Tories, upon the prisoners that fell into their hands that day. They were cruelly tortured, several of them murdered; and, as the Doctor had reason to believe, some of them were subsequently taken to an island in Lake Ontario, and eaten.” - William L. Stone

The Sortie from Fort Stanwix

“As most authentic account of it, I shall give that of Col. Willett, written at the time and published in the Connecticut Courant, Aug. 25, 1177. The message of Gen. Herkimer explained, at the fort, the cause of commotion, followed by silence in the Indians encampment the evening before, in the supposition that the enemy must have had timely notice of the movement of the militia and gone to meet them, and as soon as the shower was over, says the heroic Willett, whose sallying force, as already stated, consisted of 250 men, one half of Gansevoort’s and the other of Massachusetts troops, having one three pounder cannon.

“The men were instantly paraded, and I ordered the following disposition to be made : (Here follows the arrangement of his troops and plan of march.) Nothing could be more fortunate than this enterprise. We totally routed two of the enemy’s encampments, destroyed all the provisions that were in them, brought off upwards of 50 brass kettles and more than 100 blankets (two articles which were much needed), with a quantity of muskets, tomahawks, spears, ammunition, clothing, deerskins, a variety, of Indian affairs and five colors-the whole of which, on our return to the fort, were displayed on our flag-staff under the Continental flag. [The first stars & stripes ever flown in combat]

“The Indians took chiefly to the woods [there could not have been a great number yet at the camp], the rest of the troops, then at their posts, to the river. The number of men lost by the enemy is uncertain ; six lay dead in their encampments, two of which were Indians ; several scattered about in the woods ; but their greatest loss appeared to be in crossing the river, and no inconsiderable number upon the opposite shore. I was happy in preventing the men from scalping even the Indians, being desirous, if possible, to teach Indians humanity; but the men were much better employed, and kept in excellent order. We were out so long that a number of British regulars, accompanied by what Indians, etc., could be rallied, had marched down to a thicket on the other side of the river, about 50 yards from the road we were to cross on our return. Near this place, I had ordered the field piece. The ambush was not quite formed when we discovered them, and gave them a well directed fire. Here, especially, Maj. Bedlow, with his field piece, did considerable execution. Here also, the enemy were annoyed by the fire of several cannon from the fort, as they marched round to form the ambuscade. The enemy’s fire was very wild, and though we were much exposed, did no execution at all. We brought in four prisoners, three of which were wounded. One of them is Mr. George Singleton, of Montreal. He is Lieutenant in the company of which Mr. Stephen Watts was Captain, and who was himself killed in the battle with the militia, about two hours before.

“From these prisoners we received the first accounts of Gen. Herkimer’s militia being ambushed on their march, and of the severe battle they had with them about two hours before, [before the rain],. which gave us reason to think they had for the present given up their design of marching to the fort. I should not do justice to the officers and soldiers who were with me on this enterprise, if I was not, in most positive terms, to assure their countrymen that they, in general, behaved with the greatest gallantry on this occasion; and, next to the very kind and signal interposition of Divine Providence, which was powerfully manifested in their favor, it was undoubtedly owing to that noble intrepidity which discovered itself in this attack, and struck the enemy with such a panic as disenabled them from taking pains to direct their fire,

that we had not one man killed or wounded. The officers in general, behaved so well, that it is hardly right to mention the names of any particular ones, for their singular valor. But, so remarkably intrepid was Capt. Van Benscoten [he commanded the advance guard of 30 men], and so rapid was his attack, that it demands from me this particular testimony of his extraordinary spirit.”

Among the effects taken from the enemy’s camp, were several bundles of papers and letters, which had been taken from Gen. Herkimer’s baggage wagons a few hours before, not yet opened, one of which was for Col. Willett. There were also papers of Sir John Johnson, St. Ledger and other officers of the enemy’s camp, some of which were of service. On the next day, the enemy fired a few cannon shot from a battery, half a mile distant; and on Friday the 8th, they threw some shells which did no execution. On the evening of this day they sent in a flag by their Adjutant-General, Capt. Armstrong, Col. Butler and a Surgeon, the latter to examine Singleton’s wounds. The messengers came, as they said, to acquaint Col. Gansevoort that Gen. St. Ledger-he was acting as Brigadier, and so he called him-with much difficulty had prevailed on the Indians to agree, that if the garrison would surrender, not a hair of their beads should be touched; but if not, the consequence to the inmates would be terrible, as the Indians were very wroth at having some of their chiefs killed in the late action; and also, that if not surrendered, the Indians would go down the valley and destroy its inhabitants.

They also brought a paper which Col. Bellinger and Major Frey were compelled, by St. Ledger, to execute, exaggerating the disaster of the Provincials and advising the surrender of the fort. That this paper was executed under duress, the officers of the garrison had no doubt. Says Willett:

“Our answer was, that should this be the case, the blood of those inhabitants would be upon the beads of Mr. Butler and his employers, not upon us, and that such proceedings would ever remain a stigma upon the name of Britain but for our part we were determined to defend the fort.” “That evening, it was agreed by the field officers, that I should undertake, with Lieut. Stockwell-who is a good woodsman-to endeavor to get down into the country, and procure such force as would extirpate the miscreant band. After a severe march of about 50 miles through the wilderness, we in safety arrived at this place ; “ not named but meaning Fort Dayton. This was a most hazardous enterprise.

Gathering the Wounded

Again in that bloody ravine, among fallen heroes, we left the Oriskany battlefield to notice the sortie of Col. Willett at Fort Stanwix, and now return to it. The enemy precipitately retired from the field and left the Provincials masters of it, about 3 o’clock P. M. The decimated regiments were by their surviving commanders, so far as practicable, hastily reorganized ; and the wounded having been placed upon rude litters, the troops took up their mournful retrograde march, and encamped that night on the site of old Fort Schuyler-now Utica, eight miles from the battlefield. To this point, Gen. Herkimer and Capt. Jacob Seeber, and possibly one or two others of the wounded, were taken down the river in a boat to Fort Herkimer. At this place, Capt. Seeber was left with a broken leg, which was amputated, and he bled to death. Gen. Herkimer was taken on to his home below Little Falls-probably in a boat to the head of the rapid. – Jeptha Simms

The Death of Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer

“General Herkimer did not long survive the battle. He was conveyed to his own house near the Mohawk river, a few miles below the Little Falls; where his leg, which had been shattered five or six inches below the knee, was amputated about ten days after the battle, by a young French surgeon in the army of General Arnold, and contrary to the advice of the General’s own medical adviser, the late Doctor Petrie. But the operation was unskillfully performed, and it was found impossible by his attendants to stanch the blood. Colonel Willett called to see the General soon after the operation. He was sitting up in his bed, with a pipe in his mouth, smoking, and talking in excellent spirits. He died the night following that visit. His friend, Colonel John Roff, was present at the amputation, and affirmed that he bore the operation with uncommon fortitude. He was likewise with him at the time of his death. The blood continuing to flow - there being no physician in immediate attendance - and being himself satisfied that the time of his departure was nigh, the veteran directed the Holy Bible to be brought to him. He then opened it and read, in the presence of those who surrounded his bed, with all the composure which it was possible for any man to exhibit, the thirty-eighth psalm - applying it to his own situation. He soon afterward expired; and it may well be questioned whether the annals of man furnish a more striking example of Christian heroism - calm, deliberate, and firm in the hour of death - than is presented in this remarkable instance...he must have been well aquainted with that most important of all books - The Bible. Nor could the most learned biblical scholar, lay or clerical, had selected a portion of the Sacred Scriptures more exactly appropriate to the situation of the dying soldier, than that to which he himself spontaneously turned. If Socrates died like a philosopher, and Rousseau like an unbelieving sentimentalist, General Herkimer died like a Christian Hero.” - William L. Stone

O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath,
And chasten me not in Your burning anger.
For Your arrows have sunk deep into me,
And Your hand has pressed down on me.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation;
There is no health in my bones because of my sin.
For my iniquities are gone over my head;
As a heavy burden they weigh to much for me.
My wounds grow foul and fester
Because of my folly.
I am bent over and greatly bowed down;

I go mourning all day long.
For my loins are filled with burning,
And there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am benumbed and badly crushed;
I groan because of the agitation of my heart.

Lord, all my desire is before You;
And my sighing is not hidden from You.
My heart throbs, my strength fails me;
And the light of my eyes, even that has gone from me.
My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague;
And my kinsmen stand afar off.
Those who seek my life lay snares for me;
And those who seek to injure me have threatened destruction,
And they devise treachery all day long.
But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;
And I am like a mute man who does not open his mouth.
Yes, I am like a man who does not hear,
And in whose mouth are no arguments.
For I hope in You O Lord;
You will answer, O Lord my God.
For I said, “May they not rejoice over me,

Who, when my foot slips, would magnify themselves against me.”
For I am ready to fall,
And my sorrow is continually before me.
For I confess my iniquity;
I am full of anxiety because of my sin.
But my enemies are vigorous and strong,
And many are those who hate me wrongfully.
And those who repay evil for good,
They oppose me, because I follow what is good.
Do not forsake me, O Lord,
O my God, do not be far from me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation! - Psalm 38

The Indian Cannibalism of Militia Prisoners

“The fury and cruelty of the Indians and Tories may be learned from the following affidavit, the original of which is now in the office of the Secretary of State. The high standing of Dr. Younglove, who died a few years since in the city of Hudson, is a sufficient voucher for its truth. The compiler has seen several persons to whom the same facts were communicated by him in his lifetime.” - William W. Campbell

“Moses Younglove, surgeon of General Herkimer’s brigade of militia, desposeth and saith, that being in the battle of said militia, above Oriskany, on the 6th of August last, toward the close of said battle he surrendered himself a prisoner to a savage, who immediately gave him up to a sergeant of Sir John Johnson’s regiment; soon after which, a lieutenant in the Indian department came up, in company with several other Tories, when said Mr. Grinnis by name, drew his tomahawk at this deponent, and with deal of persuasion was hardly prevailed on to spare his life.

He then plundered him of his watch, buckles, spurs, &c., and other Tories following his example, stripped him almost naked, with a great many threats, while they were stripping and massacring prisoners on every side.

That this deponent, on being brought before Mr. Butler, senior, who demanded of him what he was fighting for; to which this deponent answered, ‘he fought for the liberty that God and nature gave him, and to defend himself and dearest connections from the massacre of savages.’ To which Butler replied, ‘you are a damned impudent rebel’; and so saying, immediately turned to the savages, encouraging them to kill him, and if they did not, the deponent and the other prisoners should be hanged on a gallows then preparing.

That several prisoners were then taken forward towards the enemy’s head-quarters, with frequent scenes of horror and massacre, in which Tories were active as well as savages; and in particular, one Davis, formerly known in Tryon County, on the Mohawk River.

That Lieut. Singleton, of Sir John Johnson’s regiment, being wounded, entreated the savages to kill prisoners; which they accordingly did, as nigh as this deponent can judge, about six or seven.

‘That Isaac Paris, Esq., was also taken the same road without receiving from them any remarkable insult except stripping, until some Tories came up, who kicked and abused him, after which the savages, thinking him a notable offender, murdered him barbarously.

That those of the prisoners who were delivered up to the provost guards were kept without victuals for many days, and had neither clothes, blankets, shelter nor fire, while the guards were ordered not to use any violence in protecting the prisoners from the savages, who came every day in large companies with knives, feeling of the prisoners, to know who were fattest.

That they dragged one of the prisoners out of the guard with the most lamentable cries; tortured him for a long time, and this deponent was informed by both Tories and Indians, that they ate him, as appears they did another on an island in Lake Ontario, by bones found there nearly picked, just after they had crossed the lake with the prisoners.

That the prisoners who were not delivered up, were murdered in considerable numbers from day to day round the camp, some of them so nigh that their shrieks were heard.

That Capt. Martin, of the bateaux-men, was delivered to the Indians at Oswego, on pretense of his having kept back some useful intelligence.

That this deponent during his imprisonment, and his fellows, were kept almost starved for provisions, and what they drew were of the worst kind, such as spoiled flower, bisquit full of maggots and moldy, and no soap allowed, or other method of keeping clean, and were insulted, struck, &c., without mercy by the guards, without any provacation given.

That this deponent was informed by several sergeants orderly on Gen. St Leger, that twenty dollars were offered in general orders for every American scalp.
Moses Younglove.
John Barclay, Chairman of Albany Committee.”

Events Concerning the British and Loyalist Retreat to Canada

“Sir John Johnson wants Revenge on his Former Neighbors. -Agreeable to a letter of Col. Claus to Secretary Knox, of London, dated at Montreal, Oct. 16, 1777:

“Sir John Johnson, proposed (while the siege of Fort Stanwix was still being prosecuted) to follow the blow given to the reinforcements (who were chiefly Mohawk river people), to march down the country with about 200 men, and I intended joining him with a sufficient body of Indians, but the Brigadier (St. Ledger) said he could not spare the men, and disapproved of it. The inhabitants in general were ready (as we afterwards learned), to submit and come in.” This was another delusion. “A flag was sent to invite the inhabitants to submit and be forgiven, and assurance given to prevent the Indians from being outrageous; but the commanding officers of the German Flats (Fort Dayton), hearing of it, seized the flag, consisting of Ensign Butler (Walter N., son of Col. John,) of the Eighth Regiment, ten soldiers and three Indians, and took them up as spies. A few days after, Gen. Arnold, coming with some cannon and a reinforcement made the inhabitants return to their obedience.”
This party were at the house of Rudolph Shoemaker, a son of Johan Jost Shoemaker, where the late Ezekiel Spencer formerly resided at Mohawk village, only two miles distant from Fort Dayton. The act of coming there now to recruit, was a very impudent and bold one. This house was a sort of neutral ground during the war, as Provincial scouts and those of the enemy were alike there hospitably entertained, with food and a draught of butter-milk. Col. Weston of Mass. then in command of Fort Dayton, apprised of what was going on across the river, sent a body of troops, which surprised and captured Butler and his party without resistance. On the arrival of General Arnold, a few days after, those prisoners were tried by court-martial as spies, and sentenced to be hung. Whether all the white prisoners were thus tried is uncertain; but true it is that Butler and Han Jost Schuyler were. By the intercession of friends, the execution of Butler was delayed, and he was sent to Albany and there retained, a prisoner, for months, but finally made his escape, as believed, through the treachery of his keeper, and returned to Canada.

How Han Jost Schuyler Escapes the Halter -The time was set for the execution of Schuyler, and a rough coffin made in which to bury him, when Arnold, who was waiting at Fort Dayton for the Tryon county militia to join him-which they did, in good numbers, [possibly Christmans]considering their recent losses-thought to turn the life of the criminal to a better use than to hang him. One reason was that his mother and his brother Nicholas, who resided near Little Falls, came and pled earnestly for his life. The General proposed terms for his ransom, which his mother and his brother both offered themselves as a pledge for his performance of the brother being accepted and confined.

Han Jost Schuyler was a queer fellow. He had a misty brain, on which account he had become known to all the Mohawks of the Upper Castle, who, for his peculiarities and harmless demeanor, regarded him with some favor. He was promised his life on condition that he would go to St. Ledger’s camp, and, by giving an exaggerated account of the approaching army, so alarm the Indians that they would leave the ground ; well knowing that if they did not remain with him he could not maintain the siege for a day.

Having had several bullets shot through his clothing, so as to make it appear a plausible story that he had been fired upon while making his escape, be set forward in advance of Arnold’s army, which consisted, in fact, of only a few regiments.
Indian runners, in the interest of the enemy, had already reported Arnold’s army a thousand strong, but Schuyler was to represent it as consisting of at least two or three times that number,. When he arrived among the Mohawks, to whom he was known; showed the holes in his garments and told what hair-breadth escapes he had had to get away and bring intelligence of the advance of Gen. Arnold with a large army and heavy cannon ; there was at once a commotion in the camp, and he was harried before St. Ledger, to whom his unwelcome and astounding news was repeated. That officer was at first incredulous, but the royal officers who knew the messenger went down with Lieut. Butler, and was captured with him, placed confidence in his statement. At this stage of proceeding, several friendly Oneidas, who were in the secret, one after another dropped into camp to warn their former friends of danger, saying the Americans had no quarrel with the Indians, each confirming the story of Schuyler. When asked how many troops Arnold had, they answered enigmatically: Said one “Can lndian count the stars ? “ Said another-“ Can me tell how many leaves on em trees! They also represented that the large army was rapidly advancing, and must soon reach that place. A score of bomb-shells exploding in the Indian encampment would not have produced a more wonderful excitement. Indeed, the camp was at once broken up, and they began rapidly to set their faces toward Canada. In vain did St. Ledger remonstrate with his allies against their hot haste, and attempt to detain them until he could gather up his camp equipage: and not a few of his own dusky warriors, who were tired of camp life, added to the general terror and confusion by giving the war-whoop and shouting, “They’re coming! They’re coming! “

Why St. Ledger Hastily Skedaddled.- St. Ledger no doubt began to apprehend his position a dangerous one, and he and Sir John Johnson, with the ready acquisence of their subordinate officers, made all haste to get away ; leaving in their standing tents, provisions, artillery, ammunition-indeed, their entire camp equipage, with the papers and private effects of St. Ledger himself. Not another such stampede was made during the war. It is stated on good authority, that the Indians, who had been disappointed in not sacking the entire valley of the Mohawk, and had even lost their own clothing and blankets by the sortie of Col. Willett, did not scruple on their way back to Oswego, to murder and strip some of St. Ledger’s white troops, when in an exposed condition. Such was the finale to one of Britain’s devised means to subjugate her American colonies.

Han Jost Schuyler accompanied the flying army of St. Ledger for two or three miles, and embraced an opportunity the first evening to steal away and basten back to Fort Dayton. He stopped long enough at Fort Stanwix to inform Col. Gansevoort, that Arnold was advancing to the relief of the garrison. Informed by Col. Gansevoort, that St. Ledger had “vamoosed the ranche,” Gen. Arnold sent forward a body of troops, if possible to overtake and punish the invaders. Arnold reached Fort Stanwix next day, where he was received by the cheers and an artillery salute of the garrison ; to learn that troops from the fort were already on the trail of the enemy, and had made some prisoners, etc. Gansevoort did not know what had sent the enemy on the back track so hastily, until the arrival of Gen. Arnold. Schuyler, on arriving at Fort Dayton, saw his brother set free, and his mother overjoyed that they were both again at liberty… - Jeptha Simms

After Scenes of the Oriskany Battlefield

“It was hoped by surviving friends in the valley below, that the troops advancing under Gen. Arnold, to raise the siege of Fort Stanwix, would be able to perform the melancholy task of burying the remains of our fallen soldiery at Oriskany ; especially, if possible, those of the brave but rash Col. Cox, as also those of Maj. Klepsaddle, Captains Dillenbeck, Diefendorf, Davis, Herkimer and numerous other officers and privates, if it was practicable, and who it was thought could be recognized by volunteer acquaintances; but as over two weeks of excessively warm weather had transpired-it being then on the 23 or 24 of August-decomposition had so rapidly taken place, that the stench was intolerable, making it necessary for the health of the troops to give the field as wide a berth as possible. So said James Williamson, a soldier under Arnold and who was on duty at Fort Stanwix later in the war, to the writer forty years ago.” – Jeptha Simms

“On Capt. Thompson’s arrival at the “ Seekaquate “ creek-Sadaquada or Saquoit creek which enters the Mohawk at Whitestown-he found the bridge gone. Soon after passing this stream he said he ascended “Ariska (Oriskany) Hill,” which he observed “was usually allowed to be the highest piece of ground from Schonectada to Fort Stanwix’ Says the journal: “I went over the ground where Gen. Herkimer fought. Sir John Johnson, this is allowed to be one of the most desperate engagements that has ever been fought by the militia. I saw a vast number of human skulls and bones scattered through the woods;” this was nearly five and a half years after the battle.” - Jeptha Simms

The Battle of Saratoga

The retreat of St. Leger, with the success of the American arms at Bennington, restored hope and animation. Tryon County, smiling through her tears, obeyed with alacrity the call to reinforce Gen. Gates in the month of September following. Her militia mounted on horseback, some without saddles, others without bridles, sallied forth. [Once again, the Christmans were probably among the ones who went, there was not much of a militia left and it was very important] If as uncouth in appearance, they were equally as zealous as the Knight of La Mancha. Large reinforcements of eastern militia having come on, the Tryon County militia were directed to return home before the surrender. The splendid victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga, with the surrender of his whole army, produced feelings of joy in the bosom of the Americans as deep and pervading as had been those of their despondency. – William W. Cambell

Saratoga, Battles of (1777), campaign that helped decide the outcome of the American Revolution. Early in 1777, Lord George Germain, who was responsible for British war strategy, approved a plan suggested by Major General John Burgoyne, calling for Burgoyne to lead an army south from Canada to Albany, New York. A smaller expedition under Colonel Barry St. Leger would converge on Albany from the west. By occupying Albany and controlling the Hudson River, the British intended to cut off New England from the other colonies and force an end to the American rebellion.

Burgoyne left Montreal in June with about 9000 British and Hessian troops and a number of Native American allies. In July he took Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain without a struggle and fought a skirmish with an American force near Hubbardton, Vermont. On August 16, however, 2000 inexperienced New Hampshire and Vermont militiamen defeated a detachment of troops sent by Burgoyne to seize American supplies at Bennington, Vermont.

After a three-week delay at Fort Miller (now Schuylerville, New York) to obtain provisions, Burgoyne moved his now-reduced army across the Hudson. On September 13, he began to march south toward Albany, but found his way blocked by some 7000 Americans under Major General Horatio Gates, who had taken up an entrenched position at Bemis Heights, a densely wooded plateau, a few miles south of Saratoga. Congress had ordered Gates to block Burgoyne’s progress, and his initial strategy was defensive, counting on Burgoyne to attack recklessly and deplete his men and supplies. On the 19th, the British attacked. At the urging of Major General Benedict Arnold, Gates sent a sortie to meet them. A furious but indecisive battle was fought at Freeman’s Farm, known as the First Battle of Saratoga. Ever cautious, Gates failed to reinforce Arnold; the Americans withdrew to Bemis Heights, and Burgoyne made camp a mile north.

Meanwhile, St. Leger had turned back at Fort Stanwix in the Mohawk Valley. Although lacking reinforcements and commanding fewer than 5000 men, Burgoyne refused to retreat. On October 7 his army moved forward again in search of the American position, leading to the Battle of Bemis Heights (or the Second Battle of Saratoga). Gates’s well-disciplined forces, inspired by a fearless Arnold, drove the British back to their camp with heavy losses. Burgoyne then withdrew to Saratoga, where, surrounded by the American army which now numbered up to 17,000, he surrendered on October 17.

His defeat encouraged France to join the American side and thus proved to be the turning point in the war.- By: E. Wayne Carp – Microsoft Encarta Encylopedia

“Brant himself acknowledged, at a subsequent period, that they were beaten in this battle; and he was accustomed to speak of the sufferings of his “poor Mohawks” on that occasion with great sensibility.” - The American Monthly Magazine, August, 1838.

Turning Point of the American Revolution

What would have happened if St. Ledger had reinforced Burgoyne, or, if Benedict Arnold was killed in the Mohawk Valley? Saratoga was no cake walk for the Americans; it took a month to win.

Therefore, what was the real turning point of the American Revolution?

The answer is that it was in the spot that the Indians called “The Place of Nettles” – Oriskany.

Among the bushes they cry out;
Under the nettles they are gathered together.
Fools, even those without a name,
They are scourged from the land. - Job 30: 3 8

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