USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Historical fallacies regarding colonial New York : an address delivered before the Oneida Historical Society, Utica, N.Y., at its second annual meeting, January 14, 1879 > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
19
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
in his " narrative " was done on his return to the fort : " The five flags taken from the enemy were hoisted on the flagstaff, under the Continental flag, when all the troops in the garrison, having mounted the parapets, gave three as hearty cheers as perhaps were ever given by the same number of men." That account by Col. Willett himself establishes the fact that a flig of the regula- tion kind, (as he calls it the Continental ilig) as adopted by Cou- gress, was raised on Fort Stanwix as carly as August 6, 1777. I have not seen in any historical work that a flag as ordered by Congress was raised within the thirteen colonies prior to that time.
In the afternoon of Thursday, August 7, a white flag from the enemy approached the fort, accompanied by three officers, with a request they might enter with a message from St. Leger. Per- mission was granted, and, according to custom, they were first blindfolded and then conducted into the dining-room, where the windows were darkened, candles lighted, the table spread with some light refreshments, and they were then received by Col. Ganse- voort in the presence of his officers. The bandage was then removed from the eyes of the British officers and the principal speaker (Major Ancram) made known his errand, the purport of which was a demand of the surrender of the fort, accompanied by intimations that if surrendered the prisoners would be treated humanely, but if taken by force St. Leger would not hold himself responsible for the acts of cruelty of the Indians. Col. Willett was deputed to reply in behalf of the garrison and no one had more fire or greater spirit or was better qualified to speak on that occasion. He looked Major Ancram full in the face and with an earnestness and emphasis that admitted of no mistake or equivo- cation said in substance: "This garrison is committed to our charge and we will take care of it. After you get out of the fort you may turn around and look at its outside, but never expect to come in again unless you come a prisoner. I consider the message you have brought a degrading one for a British officer to send and by no means reputable for a British officer to carry. For my own part, I declare that before I would consent to deliver this garrison to such a murdering set as your army, by your own account consists of, I would suffer my body to be filled with splinters and set on fire, as you know has at times been practiced by such hordes of women and children killers as belong to your army." Theso sentiments were re-echoed with applause by all officers present of
.
20
COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
the garrison. A cessation of hostilities for three days was agreed upon. As nothing had been heard from down the valley since the battle of Oriskany the garrison was getting uneasy. They needed more amunition and might soon need provisions. It was discussed within the fort that if Col. Willett, who was very popular in the Tryon County settlements, could show himself there a spirit of enthusiasm would be awakened and they would rally to the relief of the fort. Influenced by these considerations Col. Willett agreed to make the hazardous attempt to reach the people down the river. Accordingly, at ten o'clock at night, Sunday, August 10, he, accompanied by Lieut. Stockwell, a good woodsman, each armed with a spear eight feet long, as his only weapon, with no provisions but crackers and cheese in their pockets and a quart canteen of spirits, no baggage or blankets, stole silently out of the sally port, crossed the river by crawling on a log, and when on the opposite side of the stream, where " Factory Village " now is, it was pitch dark and they in the middle of a thick forest. In rambling about they lost their way and bearings and became alarmed by the barking of a dog not far away. They were near an Indian camp, some of the Indians having taken a position on that side of the river after the sortie of Col. Willett. They stood perfectly still by the side of a large tree, not venturing to move for hours and until the morning star appeared. They then took a northerly course and struck the Mohawk again not far from what is now known as the " Ridge," two miles north of the fort. They kept close to the river, waded in it, and some of the way crossed over from one side to the other, so as to conceal their trail and not be followed. They pursued this course for several hours and then turned easterly to strike the settlements down the river. In those days the Indian path was south of the Mohawk and seldom, if ever, was there traveling in the pathless woods north of that stream; nevertheless when night came those two dare not strike a fire or a light, lest it might attract attention of prowling Indians; and so they camped in the thicket, without fire, light, blankets or covering. At peep of day they were on their feet, although both were tired, lame and sore for the day's traveling, and night's chill, and Col. Willett's rheumatism, yet they kept on their journey, but steered more southerly, and about nine in the morning they struck a heavy windfall where were growing large patches of ripe black- berries. From this luscious fruit and the crackers and cheese and spirits the two had a hearty breakfast. The sun and points of
21
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
compass were observed and without other guides they struck Fort Dayton (now Herkimer village) about three in the afternoon, having traversed a distance of fifty miles through an unknown forest, crossing streams and morasses, climbing hills and sur- mounting many other obstacles. The general route those two traveled is indicated as above by Col. Willett's "narrative; " it must have been northerly of Floyd Corners, through Trenton and into Russia, Herkimer County. "Simm's Frontiersmen of New York " says that years before the revolution a hurricane began in the westerly part of Oneida County and swept through the forest in an easterly direction across the present towns of Camden and Trenton, entering Herkimer County at a place called the " dugway " in Poland, and continued onward through the towns of Russia, Salsbury and Norway-extending a distance of fifty or sixty miles in length. Its breadth ranged from 60 to 100 rods and so great was its fury that almost every tree in its course was torn up by the roots. Its traces were visible for more than half a century afterward and a portion of the ground over which that tornado passed is called " the hurricane" to this day. It was doubtless in the track of that tornado Col. Willett found those patches of berries. Jones' Annals of Oneida county, state, that in the month of that siege, a hurricane of tremendous power passed through Westmoreland from west to east-its ravages extended from Oneida Like to Cooperstown, half a mile and in some places a mile in width, prostrating the entire forest in its sweep ; the severest effects were in that town. If both of those historical accounts of tornadoes are correct, there were two of them, six or seven years apart, passing over this county, one north and the other south of the Mohawk.
On the arrival of Col Willett and Lieut. Stockwell at Fort Dayton, it was ascertained that Gen. Schuyler had ordered a brigade of Massachusetts troops, stationed some ten miles above Albany, to the relief of Fort Stanwix, and that Gen. Arnold was to be in command. Having rested for one night, Col. Willett and Lieut. Stockwell started early the next morning for Albany, on horseback to meet the troops and interview Gen. Arnold. The troops were met the same evening on their way. It was then learned that the First New York Regiment was also on its way to relieve the fort. On Saturday, August 16, Gen. Arnold and Col. Willett reached Fort Dayton, were the troops were assembled; on the way from Albany, Col. W. stopped to see Gen. Herkimer
22
COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
at his residence near Little Falls, who that day had his leg am- pulated by reason of the injury in the battle at Oriskany ten days before; the latter died next day after the anputation. About the time that Col. Willett started down the valley for assistance, Walter N. Butler, a tory, who was in the battle of Oriskany, and was in the seige of Fort Stanwix, also went down to the Mohawk Settlements to rally his Tory friends. A number of them had assembled by appointment on Friday evening, August 15, at the house of one Shoemaker, one of the king's justices of the peace of Tryon county, there to be addressed by Butler. Shoemaker then resided at or near what is now Mohawk village, nearly opposite Herkimer village. The garrison of Fort Dayton received news of the assemblage and a detachment was sent to surround the house and capture the inmates. When Butler was in the midst of his harangue, the detachment swooped down upon the as- semblage, and captured the whole posse, consisting of six or eight soldiers, and as many Indians, besides a number of tories, among whom was an ignorant, halfwitted fellow by the name of Han Tost Schuyler. Gen. Arnold at once ordered a court martial to try Butler and Schuyler as spies, for being found within the American lines. Col. Willett was appointed judge advocate; the two were convicted and sentenced to be executed. Gen. Arnold approved the sentence and ordered the execution to take place the next morning. Through the intercession of friends, the sentence of Butler was respited and he sent to Albany as a prisoner. Through carelessness or treachery he subsequently escaped and fled to Canada, and for years thereafter was the greatest scourge, by rea- son of his temper and cruelties ever inflicted upon the County of Tryon, and his name has been handed down through history, as the worst hated, and most detested of all the tories of those times. As to Ilan Yost Schuyler, his brother and widowed mother strongly interceded in his behalf and as he was a well known Tory and regarded by the Indians with a sort of superstition they always entertain toward such unfortunates, Gen. Arnold conceived the idea of using him to frighten away the besiegers at Fort Stanwix. That ruse and its success, have been so often told, that the story need not be repeated here; suffice it to say that by reason of the exaggerated stories Han Yost com- manieated to St. Lager, of the near approach of an overwhelming relieving force, the siege was abandoned August 22, and the besiegers hurriedly returned by the route they came 20 days be
23
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
fore, leaving behind the bombadier asleep in the bomb proof, St. Leger's private writing desk, the tents of the soldiers, provisions, artillery, ammunition, the entire camp equipage, and large quant- ities of other stores.
Han Yost Schuyler fed with the fugitives as far as Oneida Lake; there he found means to leave them and to return to the fort, and apprise Col. Gansevoort of the ruse. This was the first notice the latter received of Gen. Arnold's approach, and explained why St. Leger had left in such baste. At four o'clock of the afternoon of the next day, Gen. Arnold arrived with his men, and with four brass field pieces, banners displayed, drums beating, music playing, they marched into the fort amid the booming of cannon, the discharge of insketry and the cheers of the garrison. The successful defense of Fort Stanwix to which Col. Willett so largely contributed, affixed the seal to American independence. Within two months thereafter, Burgoyne and his army laid down their arms on the field of Saratoga. Ticonderoga was abandoned, the British gave up the control of the Hudson and retreated down the river and New York was redeemed. These victories and others, commencing at that lone fortress in the then far off wilder- ness, sent a glow of joy throughout the thirteen colonies, and paved the way for France in less than four months thereafter to acknowledge our independence. The British press spoke in the highest praise of Col. Willett's achievements, of his journey down the river through pathless woods in quest of succor. Congress voted him a sword, and the next October, one was sent him, accompanied by a copy of the resolution of Congress, and a complimentary letter from John Hancock, president of that body. That testimonial is now in the possession of a descendant of Col. Willett, and a description of it is furnished me as follows: " It is one of ordinary length, rapier kind, running to a sharp point, and of Damasens steel; the handle is gold, platina and other metal, and on it is this inscription, 'Congress to Col. Willett, Oct., 1777.'" After St. Leger's retreat Col. Willett passed several months in comparative inactivity. He completed the unfinished works of Fort Stanwix, and drilled the troops stationed there. The last of September, Col. Gansevoort having returned to that fort, Col. Willett set out to visit his family at Fishkill, where he arrived October 4, the very day the British captured Forts Clinton and Montgomery, and thereby obtained for a short time, control of the Hudson. Col. Willett remained for awhile in that vicinity,
24
COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
assisting in the defense of the country about that river. That fall he visited the army under Washington, a dozen of miles from Philadelphia, and remained there until January, 1778, when he returned to Fort Stanwix. Wearied with this inactive and monot- onous life, he set out in June, 1778, to join the army under Washington; on reaching Fishkill, he found there Gen. Gates, and on the 21st of that month, news came that the British had evacuated Philadelphia. As Gen. Gates had important informa- tion to communicate to Washington, Col. Willett was sent as the confidential messenger. Ile remained with the main army, and took part in the battle of Monmouth on the 28th of June, and continued with that army the rest of the year 1778.
The great campaign for the year 1779, was to be an invasion of the country in the western part of New York, occupied by the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca Indians. Those tribes had taken sides with the British, and from their territory many of the incur- sions into the Mohawk settlements were planned ; their rich agri- cultural fields had afforded support to the armies, and to the Indian families, while the war was thus carried on against the colonists. Those tribes possessed large cultivated fields, of great productiveness, also extensive gardens and orchards, and lived in frame houses, and had acquired some of the arts, and were in the enjoyment of many of the comforts of civilized life. They raised in profusion apples, pears, peaches, plums, melons, squashes, grapes, cranberries, beans and tobacco; corn was raised in large quantities; cars of that grain measured twenty-two inches in length; the first sweet corn ever seen in New England was carried thither from the country of the Six Nations by a soldier in his knapsack, during the war of the revolution. This Indian country included some fifty to sixty towns, all rudely built for those times. Washington, Schuyler and others and Congress felt that a country which furnished so much aid and comfort to the enemy, should be as thoroughly devastated as had been the valley of the Mohawk. To accomplish that purpose, two armies, one under Gen. Sullivan was to proceed from Pennsylvania, to meet another under Gen. Clinton at or near the junction of Tioga and Susquehanna rivers, below Newtown, now near Elmira, and thence proceed via Seneca and the other inland lakes into the heart of the Indian country of western New York. In April of that year, and as a part of the same campaign, some 600 troops, in charge of Cols. Willett and. Van Schaack, were ordered from Fort Stanwix to go down Wood
4
25
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
Creek and into Oneida Lake to the Onondaga River, and thence into the country of the Onondagas, to lay their settlements waste, destroy their buildings and inflict the same kind of chastisement upon them that had been inflicted upon the white settlements. This expedition started from Fort Stanwix April 18, and was gone six days, traveling 180 miles, and most effectually accomplishing the work it set out to perform. About a dozen villages, extending a distance of some ten miles along the valley of the Onondaga streams, were burned, grain, cattle and other property destroyed, the swivel of their council house disabled, and the destruction of the settlements rendered complete. After this work Col. Willett returned to Canajoharie and then joined Gen. Clinton's army, for its destination to meet Gen. Sullivan. Four weeks Gen. Clinton was occupied in making the needed preparations; in August he and his army went overland to the head of Otsego Lake, the head waters of Susquehanna River, taking 200 boats from Canajoharie, each drawn by four horses, to that lake. The waters of the lake and river were raised by a dam, and the loaded boats were launched, to be carried down the river by the rushing waters. For the energy and ability displayed by Col. Willett in the part he took to start that flotilla, Gen. Clinton paid him a high compliment in a letter to Gen. Schuyler. The two armies of Gens. Sullivan and Clinton united, and on the 29th of August was fought the bloody and hotly contested battle of Newtown, in which the Indians under Brant and the Tories under Sir John Johnson and Col. John Butler were totally routed. The enemy fought with desperation, for they were fighting for their homes, and they knew that defeat meant the desolation of their country and the destruction of their firesides. There was no battle and not much opposition after that. Sullivan's army, 5,000 strong, overran the entire hostile country and laid it waste, leaving hardly a green, living or movable thing on the whole track of the invaders. They found it a garden, but left it a desert. Over forty towns, which included 700 build- ings, were burned to ashes, 160,000 bushels of corn were destroyed, elegant gardens laid waste, 1,500 bearing fruit trees leveled to the ground, cattle killed or driven off, and the inhabitants compelled. to seek safety in flight. It broke the backbone of the Iroquois confederacy, from which it never recovered. That campaign has passed into history as the "Sullivan's expedition." The ravages of the Indian country, made by that expedition, incited those hostile tribes and the Tories to retaliate in kind and to wreak their
-
26
COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
vengeance the next year upon the white settlements of Tryon county. After that expedition Col. Willett again returned to the main army and rendered himself useful in connection therewith. In the winter of 1779-80 he led a detachment of 500 men, and with one field piece, crossed at night on the ice over to Staten Island and captured seventeen wagonloads of stores, which at that particular juncture were of great service to the troops. The same winter he led another expedition to Paulus Hook, (Jersey City,) captured a redoubt and all of the cattle of the British. It was the celerity of Col. Willett's movements, the fertility of his resources and his untiring activity that rendered him such a valuable aid to the patriot cause and so much dreaded by the enemy. He was in that war to the Americans what Sheridan was to the North and Stonewall Jackson to the South in the recent civil war. Wherever he commanded he inspired the confidence and enthusiasm of his men, and they generally followed wherever he dared to lead.
During the year 1780 and while the Indians and Tories were committing terrible ravages in Tryon county, Col. Willett was with the main army in Westchester county, but nothing of importance occurred, so far as he was concerned. The County of Tryon during the first six years of the war, suffered more severely than any other extent of territory within the thirteen colonies. Within its borders more campaigns were performed, more battles fought, more people murdered and more dwellings burned than in any other section. The Board of Supervisors of that county, reported to the Legislature in December, 1780, that during the war 700 buildings had been burned, 354 families had abandoned their homes and removed from the country, 613 persons had deserted to the enemy, 197 had been killed, 121 taken captives, and 1,200 farms were uncultivated by reason of the enemy, and this did not include some five or six other settlements. Other statistics show that thousands of horses and cattle had been killed or stolen, millions of bushels of grain destroyed, and that 300 women hal been made widows, and 2,000 children made orphans. These ravages and misfortunes, earned for the valley of the Mohawk, the title of " the dark and bloody ground," and well nigh extinguished the hopes and crushed out the spirit of the people. The year 1781 opened gloomily upon the inhabitants of that valley. In this emergency, Gov. Clinton bethought himself of one who could revive the drooping spirits of the people, whose presence
-
27
ADDRESS OF D. E. WAGER.
would arouse great enthusiasm and be a tower of strength in the valley. That one was Col. Marinus Willett. At the urgent solicit- ation of Gov. Clinton and with great rehietance, Col. Willett consented to leave the main army, and make his headquarters in the valley to take command of the levies assigned to that branch of the State service. His strong sympathies with the suffering people, his acquaintance with Indian methods and modes of war- fare, and the assurances of Gov. Clinton that his presence was needed, induced him to undertake the laborious and hazardous service. He has left on record the assertion that one year of such work was more trying and laborious than all of the other years of the war. The fore part of July, 178!, Col. Willett established his headquarters at Canajoharie, and it was not long thereafter before his services were called into requisition.
In the year 1781 there were twenty-four forts between Schenec- tady and Fort Dayton, (now Herkimer village), into which the inhabitants of the valley sought refuge when pressed by the enemy, or otherwise threatened with danger. Some of these forts were nothing more than dwellings within picketed inclosures; neverthe- less they afforded a comparative security against sudden irruptions from the foe. Early that year the whole northern and western frontiers of New York were threatened with invasions, and the people were weighed down by a deeper feeling of unrest and despondency than at any former period during the war. The country between Albany and Lake Champlain was suffering for want of provisions and in danger of raids from Canada in that direction, while Brant and his dusky warriors were hovering about the valley of the Mohawk, ready to pounce upon any soldier or inhabitant who was unfortunate enough to be caught away from his comrades or the forts. It was in the spring of that year that Brant and his Indians, while prowling around Fort Stanwix and its vicinity, picked up and carried off some thirty of the garrison of that fort. In May of the same year that Fort was so badly in- jured by fire and flood that it was abandoned, and the men removed to other quarters. It was in the midst of this deep gloom and gen- eral discouragement that Col. Willett consented to take command of the northwestern frontier and make his headquarters in the Mohawk valley. The fore part of July, 1781, he established him- self at Canajoharie, where he had one hundred and twenty men; at Fort Herkimer he had about twenty more, at Ballston some thirty, and at Catskill twenty; in other parts of the valley were
.
28
COL. MARINUS WILLETT.
less than one hundred more. These did not include the militia nor the new levies soon expected to be raised. The country he was to defend was all of New York west of Albany county, and included Catskill and other exposed points along the Hudson. He was not left long without occupation; even while establishing his headquarters, a force of three or four hundred, mostly Indians, was on its way from Canada to attack the Mohawk settlements. Capt. John Dockstader was a bitter Tory, and, some time before, had fled from that part of the country and collected the above Indians and Tories to return and raid his old neighbors and acquaintances, and in hopes, if successful, of becoming a major. This raiding party took the route from Canada, through the Seneca country, traveled by the "Sullivan expedition" of two years be- fore, thence struck off for the head waters of the Susquehanna to the Mohawk valley settlements, in the direction of what is now Sharon Springs. Dockstader and his men, pursued their course with such quietness and stealth, that they reached without being discovered, a dense cedar swamp of some seventy-five acres, about half a mile southwest of what is now Sharon Centre, some two miles east of Sharon Springs. Upon a slight rise of ground within that swamp, concealed from view, those raiders encamped for the first night, and most of them started off the next morning, Monday, July 9th, to attack Corrytown, a small settlement of & dozen houses, six or eight miles distant in a northeasterly direction, in what is now the town of Root, in Montgomery county, three miles south of Spraker's Basin, and about a dozen miles southeast- erly from Canajoharie, where Col. Willett was located. It so happened that early on the same morning, that those Indians and Tories left that swamp for Corrytown, Col. Willett, without knowing that an enemy was in that direction, sent out from Can- ajoharie, a scouting party of thirty-five men, under Capt. Gross, to patrol the country around Sharon Springs, then a strong Tory settlement known as New Dorlach, and to procure beeves and other supplies for the garrison, also to see if an enemy was near. The fact that New Dorlach was a Tory settlement, was doubtless the incentive for Dockstader, to make that swamp his headquarters and hiding place, for his Tory sympathizers were undoubtedly apprised of his coming, and kept it a secret. The same feeling probably moved Col. Willett to be suspicious of that locality, and to make it the base of his supplies. Capt. Gross had been gone but a few hours on his scouting expedition, when the garrison at
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.