History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 27

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 27

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tomahawked them till they suffered more severely, if pos- sible, than their comrades io the front.

Other accounts claim that Colonel Visscher bravely breasted the savage tide, and strove to join the main body ; but the Indians were between him and his commander, and at best he could only fight a desperate battle against over- whelming odds. There is no doubt that he did all that any man could have done under the eireumstanees, and perhaps the records and traditions of that day's encounter have never done him justice .*

spared in the first deadly assault rallied their men and fought the enemy with a courage born of almost despair.

Visscher, was born in Albany, Feb. 22, 1741, being exactly nine years younger thao General Washington. His father removed to a new lo- cation on the Mohawk, about three miles east of the prescot village of Fonda, in Montgomery County, when Frederick was nine years of age. Oo the breaking out of the Revolution, young Visscher at once espoused the cause of the Colodies, though surrounded by such Tories as Col. John Butler, Sir John and Col. Guy Jnbnson, and Col. Dan. Claus. He was early appointed a colonel of militia, and, as already seen, led his regiment gallantly in the battle of Oriskany. After the surrender of Burgoyne be was appointed commissioner for disposing of confiscated property in Tryoo County, whieb no doubt rendered him doubly obnoxious to the Tory eleioent.

" During Sir John Johnson's terrible raid into the Mohawk Valley in the spring of 1780, the Visseber mansion was taken and de- stroyed, and Col. V. and his two brothers and aged mother were scalped and left for dead. But the colonel survived that bloody day, and entirely recovered from his wounds. In 1782 he attended a ban- quet given at Schenectady in honor of Washington's visit, at which time the general assigned him the place of honor on his right. He died in 1809, in his sixty-ninth year."

For an interesting account of this family see Beers' History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties.

# From Col. Stone's statement of the officers killed and wounded in Col. Visseber's regimeat, and other matters related, it would seem that it was in the thickest of the battle. Capt. Jacob Gardenier, who fought so valiantly in the circle, is returned as belonging to this regioent. The accounts are badly mixed, and do not agree in par- ticulars. The probability seems to be that Visscher's regiment neither fled nor was driven off, but took part in the entire battle with the main body.

The following additional items, relating to Col. Visscher, we find in an article contributed by Washington Frothingham to Beers' History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties :

" Col. Frederick Visscher, the eldest son of Harman Frederick 14

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

It was another Monongahela, but destined to a different ending.

The head of the army which had passed the ravine fell back a little while the rear closed up, and notwithstanding the terrible losses, the sturdy men of the Mohawk and the Schoharie rallied, like the decimated legions of Wallace at Falkirk, and, forming themselves in bristling cireles, pelted the howling miscreants with such deadly volleys that they were fain to seek shelter behind the trees, from which they kept up an incessant fire, dashing from their coverts now and then to scalp some unfortunate soldier as he fell in the murderous conflict.

It is said that the gallant Herkimer rode a white horse in the beginning of the battle, which rendered him a con- spicuous object, and drew the deliberate fire of the enemy's sharpshooters, like Washington at Monongahela ; and in the early part of the conflict he was struck through the leg, a little below the knee, by a shot which killed his steed be- neath him and disabled him from further active command. But, though completely erippled by his broken limb, the hero was by no means inclined to surrender his command. His men carried him up the slope a little distance, and, taking the saddle from his horse, laid it at the foot of a giant beech, and, propping the veteran upon it, made him as comfortable as possible, though the air around was full of whistling bullets, and the dead and wounded were strewn on every hand.

Taking his pipe from his pocket, and deliberately fill- ing it, he lighted it with flint and steel, for there were no matches in those days, and, puffing the white smoke from his lips, coolly ordered the battle; and, when a brother- officer advised his removal to a less exposed position, he said, " I will face the enemy."

Colonel Cox, the brave commander of the leading regi- ment, and Captains Davis and Van Sluyck, were killed in the early part of the engagement, and the slaughter in the broken ranks was dreadful. According to accounts the battle must have begun about nine o'clock in the morning, and for the space of three-quarters of an hour the advan- tages were on the side of the enemy ; but after the troops, under their respective officers, had formed themselves into circles or squares (for it is probable that both formations were employed), the advantages were more nearly equal. Gradually the firing on the part of the savages slackened, and they drew back as if tired of the battle, but, under the inspiring presence of their great leader, only to renew the work of death with redoubled ferocity. Throwing down their rifles, they charged desperately with tomahawk and spear, and the struggle was hand to hand; but the Provin- cials at length, with a furious bayonet-charge, drove them in turn, and they fled, yelling, into the recesses of the forest.

At about midday a heavy thunder-storm, which had been muttering in the west, burst upon the combatants with great fury; in fact it was a destructive tornado, which, as if in sym- pathy with the human strife below, swept furiously over the land, leaving its pathway strewn with wrecks that were visi- ble for years. The storm compelled a cessation of the firing, for the flint-loek muskets of the Revolution were useless in the rain, and the contending parties took advantage of the truee to secure better positions ere they renewed the fray.

Herkimer's troops were concentrated on higher ground, a few rods north west of the crossing in the ravine, and formed in an irregular circle, probably in double ranks, as being better able thereby to resist a charge. Here every man looked to his arms, and the grim, defiant ring of stubborn men, with their officers forming an inner circle, awaited the cessation of the storm and the next move of the enemy.

The latter had fallen back beyond the range of fire, and also changed somewhat their plan of battle, for neither army had given up the hope of beating the other, though the one fought for scalps and spoil while the other battled for their lives and to aid the beleaguered garrison of Fort Stanwix. For an hour the rain poured down in torrents, pitilessly pelting the dead and wounded, while the survivors on both sides sullenly watched each other and prepared to renew the dubious conflict; and at the same hour the brave Colonel Willett and his men were waiting impatiently for the storm to subside, that they might sally out upon the camps of Johnson and the Indians. At length the thunder ceased, and the sun broke forth.

In the beginning of the battle the Indians had practiced a cunning game. They watched the Provincials closely, and when a man fired from behind a tree, an Indian would instantly spring forward and cut him down with his toma- hawk. To prevent the recurrence of this, two men were stationed at each tree, with instructions for one to withhold his fire, and when in the latter part of the engagement a savage again dashed forward to scalp the supposed unpre- pared soldier, he received the contents of the second man's gun and lost his own scalp instead.

When the storm had passed over, the enemy once more renewed the battle, but their former advantage of position was gone, and they found Herkimer's men ready at all points to receive them, and the conflict became more like a pitched battle. The steady and withering fire of the Pro- vincials soon told heavily upon the enemy, and the Indians in particular suffered severely. From a statement in St. Leger's report that a cowardly Indian had brought the re- port to camp that Sir John Johnson was being heavily pressed in the battle, and " that Lieutenant Bird had quitted his post to march to his assistance," it appears that the encmy received reinforcements on the field .* The Indians were actually giving way when this detachment, which Colonel Stone states came up under Major Watts, and con- sisted of a portion of Johnson's Greens, arrived just in time to prevent a complete rout of the savages.

They were Loyalists, and many of them had heen neigh- bors and friends of the gallant men who were so desperately fighting for their liberties under Herkimer. The sight of these traitors to their country exasperated the Americans to the last degree, and pouring into the advancing troops a terrible fire, they followed it with a sudden charge of leveled bayonets which brought on a desperate hand-to-hand con- fliet, and prodigies of valor were performed on both sides.

By and by, in the lull of the conflict, came the sound of

. * This statement may very possibly have reference only to Colonel Willett's sortie. It would appear from Colonel Willett's narrative that during the cessation of the battle Sir John Johnson had returned to St. Leger's camp. There were certainly wounded men from the battle-field in the camp at the time.

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heavy firing in the direction of the fort, and both parties realized at onee that a sortie was being made. To the weary and struggling troops of Herkimer it was a most welcome sound, for they knew that the enemy had a new danger to meet, and the distant boom of the guns gave them redoubled energy.

" The combat deepens,-on, ye brave ! Whe rush to glory or the grave! Wave, Johnson, all your banners wave, And charge with all your chivalry !"

Seeing the desperate necessity of terminating the conflict as speedily as possible, Colonel Butler attempted a ruse de guerre, which for a few moments appeared likely to suceeed. He hastily detached a body of the Greens to make a circuit and come down the road leading towards Fort Stanwix, so as to appear like a reinforcement coming to the assistance of Herkimer's beleaguered command. Lieutenant Jacob Sammoos was the first to notice them as they approached the portion of the line commanded by Captain Jacob Gar- denier, and he immediately cried out to the captain that reinforcements were coming from the garrison. But not- withstanding they wore American hats, the gallant captain was not deceived by them, and he instantly replied, " Not so ! they are enemies! don't you see their green coats !"* " They continued to advance until hailed by Gardenier, at which moment one of his own soldiers, observing an ae- quaintance, and supposing him a friend, ran to mect him and presented his hand. It was grasped, but with no friendly gripe, as the eredulous fellow was dragged into the opposing line, and informed that he was a prisoner. He did not yield without a struggle, during which Gardenier, watching the action and the result, sprang forward, and with a blow from his spear leveled the captor to the dust and lib- erated his man. Others of the foe instantly set upon him, of whom he slew the second and wounded the third. Three of the disguised Greens now sprang upon him, and one of his spurs becoming entangled in their clothes, he was thrown to the ground. ; Still contending, however, with almost super- human strength, both of his thighs were transfixed to the earth by the bayonets of two of his assailants, while the third presented a bayonet to his breast, as if to thrust him through. Seizing this with his left hand, by a sudden wrench he brought its owner down upon himself, where he held him as a shield against the arms of the others, until one of his own men, Adam Miller, observing the struggle, flew to his rescue. As the assailants turned upon their new adversary, Gardenier rose upon his seat, and although his hand was severely lacerated by grasping the bayonet, which had been drawn through it, he seized his spear lying by his side, and quick as lightning planted it to the barb in the side of the assailant with whom he had been clinched. The man fell and expired, proving to be Lieutenant Mc- Donald, one of the Loyalist officers from Tryon County. All this transpired in far less time than is necessarily occu- pied by the relation. While engaged in the struggle, some of his owo men called out to Gardenier, 'For God's sake, captain, you are killing your own men !' He replied, ' They

are not our men,-they are the enemy,-fire away !' A deadly fire from the Provincials ensued, during which about 30 of the Greens fell slain and many Indian warriors. The parties once more rushed upon each other with bayonet and spear, grappling and fighting with terrible fury ; while the shattering of shafts and the clashing of steel, mingled with every dread sound of war and death, and the savage yells, more hideous than all, presented a scene which can be more easily imagined than described."}

In the midst of this terrible melee, three of the Greens pushed through the broken circle and attempted to capture and drag away Captain Dillenback, who had often declared he would never be taken alive ; and he made good his word. With his clubbed gun he struck one who attempted to seize it senseless to the earth, shot the second one dead, and bayonetted the third; but just as he had accomplished the heroic exploit, a bullet from a distant rifle struck him, and he fell dead amid his enemies.

A conflict so desperate could not continue very long, and at length the Indians, who had suffered severely, and who saw no prospect of ultimate suceess against the stubborn determination of Herkimer's gallant band, sounded their retreating cry, " Oonah ! Oonah !" and fled precipitately from the field amid the cheers of the surviving Provincials, who poured into their seattering masses a destructive fire. The firing at the fort had alarmed the British and Tories, and finding themselves deserted by their allies, they also turned and left the field in the possession of the victorious Tryon County militia. The battle was won.

The following incident of the battle is given in the ap- pendix to vol. i. of Stone's " Life of Brant":

" In regard to the battle of Oriskany, the author has received an interesting anecdote from Mr. John S. Quack- enboss, of Montgomery County. The father of the author's correspondent, Abraham D. Quackenboss, resided in the Mohawk country, on the south side of the river, at the breaking out of the war. Living as it were among the Indians, he spoke their language as well as he did his own. Among them he had a friend named Bronkahorse, who, though an Indian, had been his playmate, and they had served in the French war together under Sir William Johnson. When the Revolutionary troubles eame on, Bronkahorse called upon Quackenboss, and endeavored to persuade him to espouse the cause of the king, assuring him that their Great Father could never be conquered. Quackenboss refused, and they parted,-the Indian, how- ever, assuring him that they were parting as friends, although since they had fought in one war together, he had hoped they might do so in the other. Mr. Q. saw no more of his friend until the battle of Oriskany. During the thickest of the fight he heard his name called in the well-known voice of Bronkahouse, from behind a large tree near by. He was himself sheltered by a tree, but in look- ing out for the warrior he saw his Indian friend. The latter now importuned Quackenboss to surrender, assuring him of kind treatment and protection, but also assuring him that unless he did so he would inevitably be killed. Quackenboss refused, and the Indian thereupon attempted

* Other accounts state that they had turned their coats inside out. t It would seem that Captain Gardenier was a mounted officer.

# From manuscript of William Gardeuier, copied from Stone.

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to kill him. For a moment they watched each other, en- deavoring to obtain the first and best chance of a shot. The Indian at length fired and his ball struck the tree, but had nearly been fatal. Springing from his covert upon the Indian Quackenboss then fired, and his friend Bronkahorse fell dead on the spot. It was the belief of Mr. Quaeken- boss that the loss of the enemy during the battle equaled that of Herkimer's command. The latter suffered the most severely in the early part of the engagement, the enemy in the latter."

The various accounts of this battle differ so much that there is no satisfactory way of reconeiling them. One ac- eount states that Colonel Visscher's command formed the rear-guard behind the baggage-train, and that when the attack began it was eut off, and fled in a panic towards the river ; while in the same volume, a few pages farther on, is given a circumstantial account of the desperate fighting in the circle formed in the latter part of the engagement, of Captain Jacob Gardenier, who commanded a company in this regiment. Some writers say that the force of Her- kimer extended in marching order more than a mile, but to any one who has seen infantry moving in bodies, if even only reasonably closed up, this statement appears somewhat marvelous. The probabilities are that they moved in toler- ably compaet order, and, including their baggage-wagons, may have occupied a half-mile of the road. If they had been in such loose order as sometimes represented, they could not have closed on the centre and formed in the com- paet shape proved to have been the case. That skeletons were found many years afterwards over a wide area does not necessarily imply that the battle proper extended over such an immense space as is sometimes supposed. The heavy fighting was done in and immediately around the ravine, while skirmishing oeeurred among stragglers on both sides at considerable distances from the scene of the principal action. There is little doubt but Herkimer kept his forces substantially together, for in no other way could they have rallied and made a successful defense against the preponderance in numbers and the advantages of position which the enemy possessed. The battle was won by a com- bination of good judgment and coolness on the part of the commander and his subordinates, and the stubborn deter- mination of the whole body to conquer the hated enemy or die on the field. The same determined spirit was mani- fested at Bennington, and these two decisive actions, fought so nearly at the same time, marked in a wonderful manner the crisis of the Revolution, and especially indicated the awakening of the people from that apathy which had but so recently seemed to paralyze them.

As the enemy began their retreat the Provincials set to work constructing rude hand-litters, made of poles and blankets, for the purpose of carrying off their wounded ; and it was while lifting their disabled general into one of them that three desperate Indians dashed up and were in- stantly shot down by three of the militia.

The actual field of battle was left in the hands of the Provincials, but in that terrible five hours' conflict their losses had been dreadful. The best authorities state them to have been about 200 killed, including many of the prin- cipal military and civil leaders of the county, with probably

as many more wounded, and quite a large number taken prisoners. The British reports made extravagant claims, setting the Provincial loss as high as 500 killed (Claus' letter) and 200 prisoners. A loss of 200 killed and 300 wounded and prisoners was probably a nearer approximate to the truth, but even this would be an enormous loss, con- sidering the numbers engaged, equal to five-eighths of Her- kimer's whole force, which fully equals the loss of Brad- dock's army and that of St. Clair, when both were defeated and driven in disorder from the field.

The following list of officers killed, wounded, and miss- ing is from Stone, and was taken from Lieut. Jacob Sam- mons' narrative. The list, as will be seen, does not include the name of General Herkimer :

" The officers of the Tryon County militia killed or wounded in this battle were as follows : In Col. Frederick Visscher's regiment, Captains John Davis and Samuel Pet- tingill, killed; Major Blauvelt and Lieut. Groat, taken prisoners and never heard of afterwards; Captain Jacob Gardenier and Lieut. Samuel Gardenier, wounded. In Col. Jacob Kloek's regiment, Major John Eisenlord and Major Van Sluyek and Captain Andrew Dillenback, killed; Captains Christopher Fox and John Breadbeg, wounded ; Brigade Major John Frey, wounded and taken prisoner. In Colonel Peter Bellinger's regiment, Major Enos Klep- sattle, Captain Frederick Helmer, and Lieut. Petry* were killed. Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Bellinger and Henry Walradt were taken prisoners. In Col. Ebenezer Cox's regiment, Col. Cox and Lieut .- Col. Hunt were killed; Cap- tains Henry Diefendorf, Robert Crouse, and Jacob Bow- man, killed; Captain Jacob Seeber and Lieut. Wm. Seeber, mortally wounded. The surgeon, Moses Younglove, was taken prisoner. Among the volunteers not belonging to the militia who were killed were Isaac Paris (then a mem- ber of the Legislature), Samuel Billington, John Dygert, and Jacob Snell, members of the Committee of Safety. There was likewise a Captain Graves who fell, but to which regiment he belonged the author has not ascertained."

This battle was to Tryon County what the battle of Flodden Field, in 1513, was to Scotland,-scarce a family but was in mourning, and the loss, as shown, reached the legislative bodies of the State and county. It was a fearful holocaust, but every drop of blood shed in that wilderness fight, like the fabled dragon's teeth of Cadmus, produced a new and determined warrior to take the place of each one slain.

The losses on the side of the enemy can only be conjec- tured, as no careful official statement was ever furnished by St. Leger. In a loose way he enumerates about 60 Indians killed and wounded, while Col. Claus says in his letter to Secretary Knox at London, " We lost Capts. Hare and Wilson of the Indians, Lieutenant McDonald of Sir John's regiment, two or three privates, and 32 Indians, among which were several Seneca chiefs, killed. Captain Watts, Lieutenant Singleton, of Sir John's regiment, and 33 Indians wounded."

Col. Claus evidently tried to put a good face upon the matter and to pass lightly over the losses, and only men-

# Spelled also Petrie.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

tions Sir John Johnson's regiment as sustaining any loss at all among the white troops. The admissions of Thayen- danegea of the terrible losses among his Mohawks, and the mourning among the Senecas and Cayugas, coupled with St. Leger's subsequent statements during the siege of Fort Stanwix, prove beyond a peradventure that their losses were heavy and most discouraging. But taking everything into consideration, there cannot be much doubt that the Provin- cials suffered the heaviest loss on the field. They took no prisoners, while the British claimed to have taken 200, though this was no doubt an exaggeration.

Both parties claimed the victory, though it is self-evident that technically the British lost the battle. On the other hand, it may be said that they accomplished the design of the expedition, which was nothing more than to prevent the reinforcement of Fort Stanwix, which they succeeded in doing, though undoubtedly the result of the battle was the primary cause of the subsequent defection of the In- dians, and the final abandonment of the siege by St. Leger.

The Provincials, on the other hand, though left in pos- session of the field, did not stop to bury their dead (or at most only a part), but left them where they fell, to be interred by General Arnold's troops. Both parties were probably glad to see the battle ended.

It has been said that the Indians were with great diffi- culty induced to enter into this expedition, and the object was only accomplished by the free distribution of stimulat- ing drink among them. According to the narrative of Mary Jemison, who was captured near Pittsburgh, and held a prisoner for several years among them, the Senecas were deceived into the campaign. " They were sent for to see the British whip the rebels. They were told that they were not wanted to fight, but merely to sit down, smoke their pipes, and look on. The Senecas went to a man, but, contrary to their expectations, instead of smoking and looking on, they were obliged to fight for their lives, and in the end of the battle were completely beaten, with a great loss in killed and wounded."*

These accounts may have some truth in them, but in the face of the facts that Thayeudanegea was the commander- in-chief of the whole Indian forces, and that the utmost efforts of the colonists could not persuade these Indians even to remain neutral, it is altogether probable that they very willingly joined St. Leger, and only conjured up these frivolous excuses after they had been defeated and humbled. Had they succeeded in cutting to pieces General Herk- imer's command, taking Fort Stanwix, and ravaging the Mohawk Valley, there would have been very little lamenta- tion and no apologies.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 27

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 920

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920