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Battle of Oriskany
Oriskany, BATTLE OF.
Brant, the Mohawk chief,
came from Canada in the spring of 1777, and in June was at the head
of a band of Indian marauders on the upper waters of the
Susquehanna. Brig.
General Nicholas Herkimer was at the head of the militia of
 Tryon
county, New York, and was
instructed by General
Schuyler to watch and check the movements of the Mohawk chief,
whose presence had put an end to the neutrality of his tribe and of
other portions of the
Six Nations. Hearing of the siege of
Fort Schuyler by Colonel St. Leger (August 3), Herkimer gathered
a goodly number of Tryon county militia, and marched to the relief
of the garrison. He and his little army were marching in fancied
security on the morning of August 6 at Oriskany, a few miles west of
the present city of Utica, when Tories and Indians from St. Leger's
camp, lying in ambush, fell upon the patriots at all points with
great fury. Herkimer's rear-guard broke and fled; the remainder
bravely sustained a severe conflict for more than an hour. General
Herkimer had a horse shot dead under him, and the bullet that killed
the animal shattered his own leg below the knee. Sitting on his
saddle at the foot of a beech-tree, he continued to give orders. A
thunder-shower caused a lull in the fight, and then it was renewed
with greater vigor, when the Indians, hearing the sound of firing in
the direction of Fort Schuyler, fled
to the deep woods in alarm, and were soon followed by the Tories and
Canadians. The patriots remained masters of the field, and their
brave commander was removed to his home, where he died from loss of
blood, owing to unskillful surgery. See
HERKIMER, NICHOLAS. |
