Battle of Oriskany
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The Battle of Oriskany was one of the bloodiest battles in the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign. It also has the distinction of being one of the few battles of the war where all of the participants were North American: Loyalists and Native Americans fought against Patriots in the absence of British soldiers. For the Natives, the battle was a civil war: Oneidas allied with the American militia fought against members of the other Iroquois nations.
On August 6, 1777, during the siege of Fort Stanwix, an American relief force from the Mohawk Valley under General Nicholas Herkimer, numbering around 800 men, was approaching to raise the siege. British commander Barry St. Leger authorized an intercept force consisting of Sir John Johnson's King's Royal Regiment of New York, Native allies from the Six Nations and Seven Nations of Canada, and Indian Department Rangers totaling at least 450 men.
The Loyalist and Native force ambushed Herkimer's force in a small valley about six miles ( 10 km) east of Fort Stanwix. During the battle, Herkimer was mortally wounded. The battle cost the Patriots approximately 450 casualties, while the Loyalists and Natives lost approximately 150 dead and wounded. It was a clear victory for the loyalists over the rebels.
But the Loyalist victory was tarnished when a sortie from Fort Stanwix sacked the Crown camp, spoiling morale among the Native Americans to continue the siege.
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[edit] Background
- Further information: Battle of Bennington
A three-pronged attack, known as the Saratoga Campaign of 1777, was launched by the British under the direction of Major General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne. Burgoyne's proposed strategy was to split New England from the other colonies by gaining control of New York.
During his march down the Mohawk Valley from Oswego to Albany, Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger besieged Fort Stanwix, then under the command of Colonel Peter Gansevoort. St. Leger's force of British regulars of the Royal Artillery, 8th and 34th Regiments, loyalist King's Royal Yorkers and natives of the Six Nations and Seven Nations of Canada laid siege to the fort.
Upon hearing reports of St. Leger's advance, Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer assembled the Tryon County militia at Fort Dayton to proceed to Gansevoort's aid. On August 4, 1777, Herkimer, with 800 militiamen—mostly poorly trained German-American and Yankee farmers—and 40 Oneida Indians, began the forty-mile (65 km) trek west from Fort Dayton to Fort Stanwix.
When St. Leger learned that Herkimer and his relief expedition were on their way, he sent Joseph Brant, a Mohawk chief, with more than 400 natives, and Sir John Johnson, with the light infantry company of his King's Royal Yorkers to intercept them. Their clash at Oriskany Creek was one of the key episodes of the Campaign of 1777.
[edit] Battle
On August 6, 1777, the Tryon County militia marched to the relief of besieged Fort Stanwix. The wilderness road was the only means by which General Herkimer and his men could reach the fort other than by boat via the Mohawk River. The road dipped more than fifty feet (15 m) into a marshy ravine where the small Oriskany Creek, nearly three feet (1 m) wide, meandered along the bottom. Chief Joseph Brant, familiar with the terrain, selected this place for his ambush of the approaching relief column. While the King's Royal Yorkers waited behind a nearby rise, 400 natives, led by Brant, concealed themselves on both sides of the ravine. Into this trap General Herkimer's militiamen advanced, with Herkimer himself leading the column.
In a much-debated incident, Herkimer halted his column moments before entering the fateful ravine. As a Dutch veteran of the French and Indian War, Herkimer surmised that the ravine was a natural place for an ambush and wished to send a reconnaissance patrol ahead. His Tryon County militia officers, however, interpreted Herkimer's hesitancy as cowardice and publicly rebuked him as a Tory spy. Faced with mutiny by his officers, Herkimer ordered the militia column to advance. The militia officers who followed General Herkimer into the ravine were Colonel Ebenezer Cox, Colonel Jacob Klock, Colonel Peter Bellinger and Colonel Frederick Visscher.
Upon entering the ravine, the discipline of the militia disintegrated. Exhausted from the heat of their march, many of General Herkimer's men broke ranks and ran to the stream for water. Although Sir John Johnson had instructed his Native American allies not to attack until all of Herkimer's militia had entered the ravine, the Natives could not resist such an opportunity. As the militiamen laid down their muskets and placed their heads to the water, the Native Americans attacked.
In the opening volleys of the battle, General Nicholas Herkimer's horse was shot from beneath him, and he received a wound in the leg. Herkimer was carried by several of his officers to a beech tree now marked by a stone monument. Herkimer was urged by his militiamen to retire from further danger, but that he defiantly replied: "I will face the enemy." Historians interpret Herkimer's reply not only as a testament to his valor, but also his bitterness towards those officers who—having earlier branded Herkimer a coward for his caution and goaded him into the ravine—now urged him to retreat for his own safety.
As the fighting continued, Herkimer rallied his men. Directing the battle while leaning against the beech tree and smoking his pipe, Herkimer observed that the natives were watching the puffs of smoke from his militiamen's muskets. The natives exploited the delay caused by the need to reload muzzle-loading firelocks and rushed in and attack the militiamen with edged weapons. During the battle, a violent thunderstorm caused a one-hour lull in the battle. Herkimer used the opportunity to regroup his militia on higher ground. This time he instructed his men to fight in pairs, so that while one man reloaded the other fired. This tactic served to stabilize the remains of Herkimer's command.
Upon learning that the garrison of Fort Stanwix had sortied from the fort to sack the British and Native camp, the Native forces withdrew from the action with cries of "Oonah, oonah!", the traditional Seneca signal to retire.
Before the natives withdrew, a detachment of reinforcements from the King's Royal Yorkers arrived. These loyalists turned their coats inside out to disguise themselves as a relief party coming up the valley from Fort Stanwix. One patriot militiaman, Captain Jacob Gardinier, however, recognized the face of a Loyalist neighbor. In the confusion, the King's Royal Yorkers succeeded in investing the militia's position, but as casualties mounted, they withdrew.
Upon the withdrawal of the Natives and Loyalists, the Patriots who had not fled the scene attended to the evacuation of wounded, some of whom were taken by boat downriver to safety. Many wounded Patriots were left on the field.
[edit] Aftermath
Although the Tryon County militia never reached Fort Stanwix, the Native losses at the Battle of Oriskany induced the Natives to withdraw their support for Barry St. Leger's expedition.
During the British interception of Herkimer's militia at Oriskany Creek, a 3rd New York Regiment sortie from Fort Stanwix sacked St. Leger's poorly guarded encampment. Without the support of the Natives, St. Leger could not continue the siege. The army retreated to Lake Ontario, causing this prong of the Saratoga Campaign to collapse.
The wounded Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer was carried by his men from the battlefield. His leg was amputated, but the operation went poorly, and he died as a result of the injury on August 16, 1777.
Loyalist John Butler commanded an Indian detachment in the battle. Butler's participation in this British victory resulted in his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and being given command of Butler's Rangers.
According to historical accounts, an hour into the battle, the creek ran red with the blood of the fallen; hence, the Battle of Oriskany was more commonly termed the Battle of Bloody Creek by local inhabitants in the decades that followed.
Because of the small population of settlers in the Mohawk Valley, the patriot losses sustained at the Battle of Oriskany were almost overwhelming to the community. In most families, all the male members had perished.
[edit] See also
- Chief Joseph Brant
- John Butler
- Peter Gansevoort
- Adam F. Helmer
- Nicholas Herkimer
- Sir John Johnson
- Barry St. Leger
[edit] References
- Walter D. Edmonds; Drums Along the Mohawk; 1937, Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 0-8156-0457-2.
- Nelson Greene; History Of The Mohawk Valley, Gateway To The West, 1614-1925; 1925, Reprint Services Corp., ISBN 0-7812-5180-X.
- Alice P. Kenney; Stubborn for Liberty: The Dutch in New York; 1975, Syracuse University Press, ISBN 0-8156-0113-1.
- Gavin K. Watt, Rebellion in the Mohawk Valley: The St. Leger Expedition of 1777, Toronto: Dundurn, 2002. ISBN 1-55002-376-4
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Gavin K. Watt, Rebellion in the Mohawk Valley, Toronto: Dundurn, 2002 at pp. 316-320
[edit] External links
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