USA > New York > Herkimer County > History of Herkimer county, New York > Part 5
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THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. . 55
in an almost inextricable ambuscade. Retreat was impossible, for the causeway over the marsh was already blocked up with teams; and the rear guard, just commencing the descent of the eastern declivity, com- manded by one of the officers who in the morning had taunted his gen- eral with cowardice, turned and fled on the first fire of the enemy. But flight did not save them from the fate that awaited their comrades on the west side of the ravine; the enemy, knowing well the ground, had gained the rear, and shot down the fugitives as they ran away from their com- panions. As might well be expected, the suddenness of the attack and the intensity of the enemy's fire, not only produced great disorder among the provincials, but annihilation seemed almost inevitable for a time.
"In this disorder the conflict raged about half an hour, when the Americans formed themselves into circular squads, the more effectually to repel the attacks of the enemy, who were steadily approaching on all sides; and, from this moment, resistance became more effective. The enemy then charged with bayonet, but they were met by brave hearts and strong arms, and thus the battle raged, until the parties were com- pelled to desist by a heavy shower of rain, which raged with great fury more than an hour. The enemy sought the best shelter they could find, at a good distance from the provincials, when the latter, under the directions of their general, occupied a favorable piece of ground, and then so formed themselves as to be able to repel an attack from any quarter. The fight was renewed, but the Indians, suffering severely by the deadly fire of the militia, began to give ground, when a detach- ment of Johnson's Greens, composed chiefly of loyalists who had fled from Tryon county, were brought into action face to face with many of their former neighbors. Then mutual hate and revenge raged with un- speakable intensity between the combatants, and the conflict now be- came, if possible, more a death struggle than ever.
" In the mean time, while the battle was the most fierce, a firing was heard in the direction of the fort; no unwelcome sound, as may well be supposed, to the handful of surviving provincials, nor very gratifying to the enemy. During the conflict at the Oriskany, a well conducted sortie from the fort, under the command of Colonel Willett, was made upon the forces under St. Leger, for the purpose of drawing the enemy's
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
attention to the preservation of their camp in that direction. This was well understood by the provincials, and in it they saw great hope of de- liverance. This was not a fight suited to the taste of savages, who found their numbers fast diminishing, nor could such a contest be long main- tained with much hope of survivorship by either party. 'Oonah,' the retreating cry of the Indians, was heard in the distance, and their flight commenced with a salute of shouts and bullets from the surviving pro- vincials. The Greens and Rangers soon followed the example of their illustrious allies by a precipitate retreat, abandoning their dead and wounded, and the deeply crimsoned battlefield in the undisputed pos- session of the Tryon county militia. Was this a victory, or a defeat of the provincials? By all the laws of war, they are victors who remain masters of the battle-ground. The American report gave the number of provincial militia killed, two hundred, besides the wounded and pris- oners. The British accounts state the killed at four hundred, and two hundred prisoners, making in all six hundred, besides the wounded. Now in modern warfare, and in the severest battles, the wounded are more than two to one of the killed, say nothing about prisoners. The British accounts do not claim there was over one thousand militia on the march at this time to raise the siege of Fort Schuyler. Surely four hundred killed, eight hundred wounded and two hundred prisoners, out of one thousand, is making sad havoc in the fighting line. But this is not so; and St. Leger, when he gave this statement of killed and prisoners to General Burgoyne, was indulging not a little in the M. de Belletre vein.
" The battle was a severe one. The severest, perhaps, for the nun- ber engaged, that took place during the whole Revolutionary War. And from the character of the combatants, the surprise, and the disad- vantages under which the provincials labored during the whole six hours' conflict, the proportion of the killed to the wounded must have been greatly beyond what ordinarily occurs in the hardest actions, where firearms are used as the principal weapon of assault and defense."1
In his account of the battle of Oriskany published in 1877, William L. Stone gives the following list of officers of the Tryon county militia who were killed or wounded in the engagement :
1 For sketch of General Herkimer, see later pages.
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THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
In Colonel Visscher's regiment, Captains John Davis and Samuel Pettingill, killed ; Major Blauvelt and Lieutenant Groat, taken prisoners and never afterwards heard of ; Captain Jacob Gardinier and Lieutenant Samuel Gardinier, wounded. In Colonel Ja- cob Klock's regiment, Major John Eisenlord and Major Van Slyck ( Palatine district ) and Captain Andrew Dillenback ( Palatine district ), killed; Captain Christopher Fox and John Breadbeg ( Palatine district ), wounded: Brigade Major John Frey ( Palatine district). wounded and prisoner. In Colonel Peter Bellinger's regiment, Major Enos Klapsattle, Captain Frederick Helmer, and Lieutenant Petrie ( all of German Flats), killed ; Lieutenant-colonel Frederick Belli ger and Henry Walradt ( German Flats ), prisoners. In Colonel Ebenezer Cox's regiment, Colonel Cox and Lieutenant-colonel Hunt ( Canajoharie district ), killed; Captains Henry Dievendorff, Robert Crouse and Jacob Bowman ( all of Canajoharie district), killed ; Captain Jacob Seeber and Lieu- tenant William Seeber ( both of Canajoharie district ), mortally wounded. The sur- geon, Moses Younglove, was taken prisoner. Among thie volunteers not belonging to the militia, who were killed, were Isaac Paris ( Palatine district ), Samuel Billington ( Palatine district ), John Dygert and Jacob Snell ( Manheim ).
Colonel Gansevoort refused to surrender Fort Schuyler on any terms offered by St. Leger, and the latter undoubtedly feared the consequences of prolonged delay after the battle of Oriskany. An effort was there- fore made by Sir John Johnson and Colonels Claus and John Butler, who were among the besiegers, to detach the inhabitants of the valley from the patriot cause by sending emissaries among them with incen- diary proclamations. Knowledge of a secret meeting of tories to be held at the house of a Mr. Shoemaker reached Colonel Weston at Fort Day- ton, who immediately sent a party and surprised and captured Lieuten- ant Walter N. Butler, of St. Leger's army, with twenty eight soldiers and Indians, who had come to German Flats on a mission from Sir John Johnson. Butler was tried as a spy and sentenced to death, but was reprieved and sent to Albany as a prisoner. He finally made his escape and became one of the most dastardly and bloodthirsty tories of his time. His final fate is noticed a little further on.
The American General Arnold arrived at Fort Dayton about the mid- dle of August, at which point troops were gathering with the purpose of relieving Fort Schuyler. Arnold issued a proclamation to counter- act the efforts of Johnson and Claus on the 20th of August, and on the 23d left Fort Dayton with his soldiers, determined to risk a battle with the superior numbers of the enemy at Fort Schuyler. After half a day's march he met a courier from Colonel Gansevoort with the news that the siege was raised. This happy result was accomplished through 8
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HISTORY OF HIERKIMER COUNTY.
a ruse devised by General Arnold, in which an ignorant and half-witted person named Han Yost Schuyler who leaned towards the tory element and was captured with the others at Shoemaker's house, was the active instrument. Ile had been sentenced to death, but upon intercession by his mother and brother, it was stipulated that his life would be spared if he would proceed to St. Leger's headquarters in company with a friendly Oneida Indian, and find some way to so alarm the enemy that they would retreat. Ilan Yost gladly accepted the mission and left his brother Nicholas as a hostage. Schuyler's wits were sharpened by his danger, and he cunningly fired numerous holes in his garments to in- dicate that he had fled for his life, and started with the Indian for St. Leger's camp. He went by one road and the Indian by a different one, it being arranged that they should not recognize each other when they met. Being well known as a loyalist, the ignorant German found will- ing listeners in the British officers, and he soon impressed them with the danger of continuing the siege. The Indian corroborated the story, and the effect was all that could have been desired ; the army retreated, accompanied as far as Wood Creek by Han Yost, who then left them and returned to Fort Schuyler the same evening. The commander of the fort was then able for the first time to understand the sudden de- parture of the enemy.1
The remainder of the year 1777 was not marked by any important occurrence that deserves notice here. The inhabitants of the county proceeded with the spring work on their farms in 1778, in the hope of reaping a harvest in the autumn. They were doomed to disappoint- ment.
On the 25th of June the following appointments were made by the governor and council to the regiment of militia in the German Flats and Kingsland districts :
Field Officers and Regimental Staff. - Peter Bellinger, colonel ; Frederick Bellinger, lieutenant-colonel; George Demoth, adjutant ; Rudolph Steel, quartermaster.
Michael Ittig, captain; Jarob Baulcom, first lieutenant ; Frederick Frank, second lieutenant ; l'atrick Campbell, ensign.
| Although this stratagem is generally credited to General Arnold, Judge Benton doubts the statement, and we are inclined to agree with him. The principal ground for the doubt lies in the extreme probabi ity that nothing would better have pleased the rash American General Arnold at that time than an opportunity to fog the " banditti of robbers, murderers and traitors," as he had characterized the forces under St. Leger ; and that he would not, therefore, have adopted a plan to frighten them beyond his reach.
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Henry Harter, captain ; John Demoth, first lientenant ; Peter Ja. Weaver, second lieutenant ; John F. Bellinger, ensign.
Jacob Small, captain ; George F. Helmer, second lieutenant ; Jacob D. Petrie, ensign. Henry Staring, captain ; Theobald Baker, first lieutenant ; George Weaver, second lieutenant.
Soverenus Cassleman, captain ; Hemy Huber, first lieutenant ; Jacob G. Klock, sec- ond lieutenant.
Frederick Getman, captain ; Jacob Meyer, second lieutenant ; John Meyer, eusign.
Henry Eckler, captain ; Conrad Orendorff, first lieutenant; Timothy Frank, second lieutenant; Adam A. Staring, ensign.
The nine companies formed in 1775 were thus reduced to seven by the casualties of the war. The names of Herkimer and Shoemaker had disappeared from the rolls, and only one of the Petries was left.
Pinard
From
MOHAWKS
Oui Heure
Smiths Shop
RIVER
10
Plan and Profile of Retrenched Work round Harkemeis house at ye German Flats, 1756
The first hostility in the county in 1778 occurred in what is now the town of Warren, when Brant and a few of his followers attacked and burned a settlement called Andrustown, killed five persons and cap-
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
tured the remainder of the seven families living there. This event occurred in July, and in the following month and the first days of Sep- tember, the Palatine settlements were destined to suffer at the hands of the enemy. At this time, as the reader has already learned, there were two fortifications for the protection of the upper valley : Fort Herkimer, near the south bank of the Mohawk river, containing the stone church and the stone mansion of the Herkimer family, with some other buildings, and surrounded by a ditch ; and Fort Dayton, on a slight elevation in the westerly part of Herkimer village, a few rods from the site of the present court-house. These forts, while they would appear as insignificant defenses from the standpoint of modern warfare, were then quite effective protection against the arms of that period. There were then about seventy dwellings on both sides of the river in the neighborhood of the two forts, besides barns, other out - buildings and mills, with a large population in proportion to the num- ber of houses. Brant had remained quiet at Unadilla for a long time, a fact that aroused the suspicions of the inhabitants of the valley, and they finally sent four men as scouts to learn the Indian's intentions. The scouts fell in with the moving enemy and three were killed, while the fourth, John Helmer, escaped by flight, returned to the fort and reported the approach of Brant and a large body of Indians and tories. The terror-stricken people fled into the forts, carrying with them their most valuable possessions.
The Indian chief at the head of three hundred tories and about half as many savages approached the seulement just at nightfall, but as the weather was stormy they remained near the dwelling of Shoemaker, the tory sympathizer, until morning, when the torch was applied to every building in the settlement and to the stacks of hay and grain, while the stock of the farmers was afterward driven away. Only two persons lost their lives, thanks to the escape and return of John Hel- mer with the news of the intended attack. It is recorded that sixty- three dwellings, fifty-seven barns, three grist-mills and two saw- mills were burned; and 235 horses, 229 cattle, 269 sheep and 93 oxen were driven away. About 400 militia followed in pursuit of the enemy as far as Unadilla, but the chase was fruitless. It seems sadly unfort- unate that there could not have been a force of soldiers from the
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general army provided at one of these forts, sufficient to have left the defenses and attacked such a body of marauders at such a time ; but by the student of the records of the great struggle it is known that the numbers of the army were inadequate to the protection of an extended frontier, and at the same time prosecute the war at many vastly more important points.
This destructive raid seems to have satisfied the tories and Indians that they had accomplished all the damage possible for a considerable period. The lower valley and other localities received the incursions of the enemy, while the German Flats and what is now the territory of Herkimer county was exempt from attack. On the 3d of April, 1780, about sixty tories and Indians descended upon the settlements of Rheimensynder's Bush, a few miles north of Little Falls, and burned a grist-mill. A tory named Cassleman was with the party. They took John Garter and his son John prisoners at the mill, and captured three men in the road, one of whom was Joseph Newman ; at the same time, John Windecker, Henry Shaver, George Adle, Cobus Van Slyke and one Youker (or Uker), with several others, were taken at Win- decker's father's house some distance north of the mill. All of these returned at the close of the war excepting John Garter, who died in Canada from punishment received for an attempt at escape, and George Adle, who escaped and returned earlier. Others of the inhabitants of Rheimensynder's Bush secured refuge in the block-house in the settlement. After this visit of the Indians, the people of that part of the county left their farms and retired to the lower part of the valley.
In the month of May, 1781, Fort Schuyler was so far destroyed by flood and fire as to lead to its abandonment and the withdrawal of the garrison to the German Flats; but this was not a severe affliction, nor did it greatly weaken the situation of the settlers in Tryon county. On the 8th of May, of this year, Solomon Woodworth, a brave lieutenant in Colonel John Harper's New York regiment, was appointed first lieu - tenant in Colonel Fisher's regiment of Tryon county militia. With a company of forty rangers he was stationed at Fort Dayton, for the pur- pose of scouting the country north of the Flats. Lieutenant Woodworth and his company left the fort to reconnoiter the Royal Grant. After a few hours' march they came upon an Indian, fired on him, and found
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
themselves in an ambuscade and completely surrounded by savages. A bloody conflict followed, and the hand- to- hand fight left only fifteen of the Americans to return with the news of the fate of their comrades. Among the killed was Woodworth. This encounter "took place about three miles north of Herkimer village, on the east side of the West Canada Creek, in a deep ravine, where now may be seen the mound of earth, under which rest the remains of the gallant Woodworth and his brave companions." 1
One of the most notable incidents in this section, though partaking of a personal character, occurred on the 6th of August, 1781, when the small settlement of Shell's Bush, about three miles north of Fort Day- ton, was visited by a party of about sixty Indians and tories, under com- mand of Donald McDonald, a notorious Scotch refugee from Johns- town. A large portion of the inhabitants of the Bush probably received notice of the visit and sought shelter in Fort Dayton ; but John Chris- tian Shell was made of sterner stuff, and he, with his resolute wife and six sons, resolved to enter his block-house, which he had built upon his farm, and fight it out. Two of the boys, however, were twins only eight years old, and being out in the field were unable to reach the shelter, nor could the others reach them without sacrificing themselves, and the little fellows were carried away to Canada. Shell's block-house was built of logs and in the lower story were a heavy door and loop holes, while the second story projected over the first and the floor of the pro- jection was pierced with holes down through which the inmates could fire upon an attacking party, however close to the walls they might be Shell's wife made herself of the utmost usefulness in loading the guns for her husband and four sons to fire, and under the perpetual shower of well-aimed bullets the enemy was several times forced to retire. At- tempts were made to fire the block- house, but without success, and McDonald himself made an effort to force the door with a crow bar, but was wounded in the leg and dragged into the block-house by Shell. This capture protected Shell from being burned out by the enemy and also gave him a supply of ammunition. At one time in the assault, just after a short respite, the enemy came up for a vigorous attack and thrust the muzzles of their guns through the loop holes. This was Mrs.
1 Benton's Herkimer County
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Shell's opportunity, and she disabled five of the guns with a blow from an axe. Just at dark Shell practiced a little stratagem which led the party to believe that relief was coming from the fort, and they fled to the woods. McDonald was taken to the fort the next day and his leg amputated. Eleven of the enemy were killed and six wounded and left. The little boys reported on their return after the war, that of twelve wounded which the party started away with, nine died before reaching Canada. In the following year Shell was dangerously wounded by a bullet while at work in his field. Two of his sons were with him, and one was killed before relief came from the fort. John Christian Shell did not long survive his wounds, and died a good Christian. Judge Benton wrote as follows :
" The Shellbush settlement is on what is usually called Gens Pur- chase, embracing perhaps some portion of the Royal Grant, and it will be observed that the name of Shell, Schel or Shaul does not occur among the patentees of Burnetsfield, nor is the name found in the list of Palatines remaining in New York, or taken to Livingston Manor, of the first two companies that emigrated. Enough is still known of him to authorize the conclusion that he was a German Lutheran, and he or his ancestors may have come over with the third body of immigrants in 1722, or at a later period."
On the 24th of October of this year (1781) an expedition under Major Ross and Walter N. Butler made an incursion into the lower valley and repeated the bloody and barbarous deeds before enacted by these in- famous tories in other localities. After burning and destroying every- thing in their course, they retreated in a northerly direction through Jerseyfield. Colonel Willett learned of the raid, destroyed their ba- teaux left on Oneida Lake, and reached German Flats by forced marches to intercept their retreat on West Canada Creek. They encamped the first night in a thick forest on the Royal Grant, and there the colonel learned from his scouts the position and force of the enemy. The next morning he started in pursuit, but Ross was equally alert and began his retreat at break of day. Willett came up with the enemy in the afternoon, and a skirmish followed with the rear of the party, in which several of them were killed and some taken prisoners, among the latter being Lieutenant John Rykeman. The Americans overtook the main
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HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY.
body of the enemy soon afterward, and a running fight was kept up until they crossed the creek late in the day. Butler rallied his men and made a stand on the west bank, and a brisk action took place, the par- tics being on opposite sides of the creek. About twenty of them were killed and among them Butler himself.1 With his death his men fled in confusion and were pursued by Willett until darkness fell. The enemy continued in retreat all night and marched thirty miles before a halt was made. The British had 670 men in this expedition, and it closed the active operations of the enemy in this vicinity for the year.
At the close of Willett's pursuit of the British on the expedition above described, he returned to Fort Dayton, having lost only one man.
The next event of in portance to the people of Herkimer county took place in June, 1782, when a party of Indians and tories appeared at the Little Falls, apparently for the sole purpose of destroying a grist- mill. This mill was of great usefulness to the settlers in the valley, especially after the destruction of those at the German Flats by Brant more than a year earlier. When the enemy reached the mill it was occupied by Peter Wolleaver, Christian Edick, Frederick Getman, Marks Rasbach, _. John Rasbach, Thomas Shoemaker, Lawrence Hatter, Jacob Petri, Dan- iel Petri (who was killed), Peter Orendorff; Gershom Skinner and F. Cox, millers; and a sergeant and six men from Captain McGregor's company. Hardly a shot was fired by the Americans. Two of the soldiers escaped and five were taken prisoners. Cox and Skinner hid themselves in the raccway under the water-wheel and escapcd; two others, Edick and Getman, jumped into the raceway and endeavored to conceal themselves, but the burning mill disclosed their hiding place and they were taken prisoners.
This was the last serious incursion into the Mohawk valley during the Revolution. Towards the close of the year the British commander in- chief directed that no more Indian expeditions should be sent out at the
' The manner of Butler's leath has been differently related by participants in the battle, and others, some insisting that he was killed outright, others that he was wounded and afterwards murdered while suey heating for mercy, and sti vothers that he reached the opposite bank of the creek where he stepped upon a allen tree and defied his pursuers, whereupon he was shot by two persons at the same time. The e is no good reason for doubting Colonel Wi lett's official state- ment that Butler was nstantly killed in the course of the firing across the creek ; in any event the question has been given much more importance than it ever deserved.
-
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north, and those already out were recalled. The dawn of peace was at hand. In February, 1783, the forces under Colonel Willett were concen- trated at Fort Herkimer, with the purpose of surprising and capturing the fortress at Oswego ; but the expedition failed on account of the small number of troops engaged and lack of proper armament to besiege the works. Colonel Willett returned to Albany in time to share in the joys caused by the declaration of peace.
On the 7th of March, 1788, the boundaries of several counties in the State were more definitely described, among them being Montgomery. Two of the towns established at this time, German Flats and Herkimer, contained most of the territory of the present Herkimer county, with much besides. The western boundary of both of these towns was a north and south line which crossed the Mohawk, " near and on the east side of the house of William Cunningham." This house stood near the foot of Genesee street, Utica. The original town of Herkimer extended north to the St. Lawrence and was bounded on the east by a line run- ning north from Little Falls. German Flats was bounded on the north by the Mohawk; on the east by the line now forming the eastern bounds of Little Falls and Warren, and included all of the present towns of Herkimer county west of the latter line, excepting a part of Winfield. The town of Palatine adjoined Herkimer on the east, and Canajoharie lay next to German Flats. A part of Palatine was annexed to Herki- mer town in 1791 ; Warren was taken from German Flats in 1796, and Litchfield from the same town at the same time ; and in 1797 Salisbury was set off from Palatine. In the following year Norway and Schuyler were taken off from Herkimer, Newport was taken off in 1806, and a few other territorial changes were made in the town.
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