Where it all begins: The Battle of Oriskany

At our last tea party I had the pleasure of unveiling the cover of my Revolutionary War novel. The Scarlet Coat will be the first book of my Hearts at War series that Pelican Book Group/White Rose Publishing will release. Today, I want to take you to where it all begins, a horrific battle that plays a role in each book in the series.

In August of 1777, one year and one month after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the British decided to use the Mohawk Valley as a spike into the heart of New England. Barry St. Leger was promoted to Brigadier General for the campaign and took with him eight hundred British, German, Loyalist, and Canadian troops, and almost one thousand allied Iroquois.

One of their first stops was Fort Stanwix (for a time renamed Fort Schuyler by the Continental forces, and near present day Rome, New York).

Areal view of Fort Stanwix

The British laid siege, but the Fort's commander, Colonel Peter Gansevoort, with his almost eight hundred men, refused to surrender.

Reenactment at Fort Stanwix

Thankfully, help was on the way.

General Nicholas Herkimer with his own troops and the local militia, tallying to about 800 men, were hurrying up along the Mohawk River to bring relief. Unfortunately, Molly Brant, sister of Joseph Brant, a Mohawk military and political leader, and one of the most feared Tories in the area, sent runners to inform the British of the American force.

St. Leger sent an intercept force totaling at least four hundred and fifty men. They ambushed the Continental troops in a ravine near the settlement of Oriskany, a battle that became known as one of the bloodiest battles in the American Revolutionary War.

Caught off guard and in a death trap, the Patriots lost over half of their men. Over four hundred men, including Herkimer himself who was wounded and died a few days later. On the British side, the Iroquois war party lost around sixty-five, while the British tallied only seven dead and twenty-one wounded, missing or captured.

But it wasn't a victory for the British.

While they succeeded in turning back the American relief column, the Continental force held the battlefield after the ambushers had withdrawn back toward Fort Stanwix. The Americans also succeeded in crumbling the moral of the Iroquois warriors which led to internal conflict and contributed the eventual failure of St. Leger's strike.

Back at Fort Stanwix the British siege only lasted a couple more weeks before news arrived that Benedict Arnold (yes, that one, but when he was still on the side of the Americans) was approaching with a large force (though his actual force was much smaller than rumor suggested). The unhappy Iroquois insisted the British withdraw...and so they did.

Major General Benedict Arnold

 
When Arnold and his column passed by Oriskany two weeks after the battle, many of the dead Americans still remained where they had fallen. By then the stench was horrific, as was the grisly scene.

A Woman Compelled by Christian Charity
Surrounded by the musket fire of the American Revolution, Rachel Garnet prays for her family to be safe.  When the British invade the Mohawk Valley, and her father and brother don't return from the battle, she goes in pursuit of them. She finds her brother alive but her father has been killed at the hand of the enemy. Amidst the death, how can she ignore a cry for help...? Rachel reluctantly takes in a badly wounded British officer. But how long can her sense of Christian duty repress her hatred for his scarlet coat?

A Man Lost to the Devastation of War
Passages of Scripture and fleeting images of society are all Andrew Wyndham recalls after he awakens to the log walls of his gentle prison. Even his name eludes him. Rachel Garnet insists he is a captain in the British army. He mourns the loss of his memory, but how can he hope to remember war when his “enemy” is capturing his heart?

A Scarlet Uniform Holds the Power to Unite or Divide
Andrew’s injuries are severe, his memory slow to return, and the secret of his existence too perilous to ignore. As Rachel nurses him back to health, his hidden scarlet coat threatens to expose the deeds of her merciful heart, and Andrew is forced to face a harrowing decision—Stay hidden and risk losing the woman he loves or turn himself in and risk losing his life.

Angela K Couch is an award-winning author for her short stories, and a semi-finalist in ACFW’s 2015 Genesis Contest for her Revolutionary War novel that will be published by Pelican Book Group. As a passionate believer in Christ, her faith permeates the stories she tells. Her martial arts training, experience with horses, and appreciation for good romance sneak in there, as well. Angela lives in Alberta, Canada with her “hero” and three munchkins.

www.angelakcouch.com

Nicholas Herkimer - Hero of the American Revolution

by Elaine Marie Cooper

The gorgeous Mohawk Valley in upstate New York hosts the home of Nicholas Herkimer, a war hero during the American Revolution. He was a Brigadier General of the Tryon County (New York) militia—a man virtually unknown to me until I saw the John Ford film classic, “Drums Along the Mohawk” a few years ago.

Herkimer was the third generation in New York of a group known as German Palatines. They descended from the 13,000 Germans who fled the attacks by the French in their homeland in the early 1700’s. England sent 3,000 of these refugees to the colonies as slaves who needed to work off their passage to the New World.

An opportunity arose for the Palatines to own land when the colony of New York offered acreage along the Mohawk River Valley. This was hardly altruistic on the part of the colony. This was unprotected territory on the fringe of New York where the Palatines were used as buffers for any attacks by the French or unfriendly Native Americans.

Herkimer’s grandfather settled on a tract near Little Falls where he set up a trading business that thrived. Although the family started out as indentured servants in America, the family home near Little Falls speaks to the prosperity that succeeding generations procured through trading, land speculation and farming.

The Herkimer family home was fortified during the French and Indian War. Nicholas, only in his 20’s, had his first military command at Fort Herkimer in 1757.

The oldest of 13 children, Herkimer was given a tract of land from his father in 1760. That is where he built a brick home for his own family.

When the Revolution broke out, Herkimer took up the Patriot cause and was named Colonel of a militia battalion for the Continentals. In 1776, he was promoted to Brigadier General. Besides the threat of British troops, the residents of the Mohawk Valley were under constant threat from unfriendly Indians who declared their loyalty to the King of England.

The situation became explosive when an Oneida blacksmith informed Herkimer of a British force under Brigadier General Barry St. Leger coming from the north. This massive army consisted of the British regulars, American Loyalists, and Indians. They intended to attack at Fort Stanwix, then occupied by Continental troops from New York and Massachusetts.

Herkimer mustered 800 men (including a group of Oneida Indians) to join the American militia to try to stop St. Leger. They arrived at the Oneida Village of Oriska on August 5, 1777. Communication with the fort was delayed and discontent among Herkimer’s officers, who accused the Brigadier General of being a Loyalist like his brother, infuriated Herkimer. He ordered his troops forward.

St. Leger learned of the approaching militia and sent a large force to attack. They waited in ambush.

The battle that followed on Oriskany (or-iss’-cunny) Creek became one of the bloodiest of the American Revolution with musket fire erupting from three sides and militiamen falling one on top of the other.

Herkimer himself was wounded when bullets felled his horse and one musket ball passed through his leg. Herkimer’s men dragged him under a tree, where the general (propped on his saddle) continued to direct his men. The battle continued but the militia suffered the loss of an estimated 500 soldiers. The losses might have been greater except for a sudden and severe thunderstorm that interrupted the fighting. The storm gave Herkimer time to tighten the resistance.

Although both sides claimed victory, the Battle of Oriskany is traditionally viewed as an American defeat. However, the battle marked a turning point in St. Leger’s command. As word of approaching reinforcements under Major General Benedict Arnold reached his ears, St. Leger began retreating to Lake Ontario. This retreat prevented his army from reinforcing British General John Burgoyne in Saratoga—the battle that was the turning point in favor of the American Continentals in October, 1777.

As for Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer, he was carried by his surviving men to his home in Little Falls. When his wound became infected, it was decided that his leg needed amputation. Uncontrolled bleeding after the amputation signaled the end was near. It is reported that Herkimer called for his pipe and Bible, and read out loud until he passed into eternity.

Although most accounts state his date of death as August 16, 1777, his tombstone in the cemetery next to his home is engraved with the date he died: August 17, 1777.

Nicholas Herkimer’s legacy is memorialized in his lovely Colonial home in Little Falls, New York. It inspires a visitor to remember his remarkable achievement in the steps leading to the resolution of the Revolution. Huzzah, General Herkimer.

Elaine Marie Cooper is the author of Fields of the Fatherless, Winner of the 2014 Selah Award for YA Fiction and Best Religious Fiction for the 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She has also penned the award-winning Deer Run Saga. You can visit her website here.

Rumblings in the Valley....Pt. 2

The Story of the Campaign of 1777 and the Battle of Oriskany

Johnson, Butler and Brant came back to the valley to play prominent roles in the Campaign of 1777 when the British planned an invasion of New York. If they managed this, they could separate the New England colonies from those of the Middle Atlantic and South, effectively ending a short-lived “revolution”. To do this, the main force under General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne would come down the Hudson via Lake Champlain from Canada, with a second force under General William Howe to move north from New York City. A third under Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger would drive east from Oswego by way of the Mohawk Valley.

The three armies planned to unite in Albany, thereby controlling the state’s strategic waterways and the adjoining land areas. Since the waterways were important trade routes, the growing success of the Patriot middle class farmers and merchants could be brought under control and in service to the Crown once more.

The plan, though sounding good on paper, never worked. Howe failed to receive orders to move north, and instead sailed for Philadelphia. Burgoyne advanced as far south as Saratoga (Schuylerville) where his army was eventually routed, and he was captured.

However, in the Mohawk Valley phase of the campaign, Sir John Johnson (Sir William’s son) was second in command to St. Leger, Colonel John Butler headed the Loyalist militia, and Joseph Brant lead the Iroquois tribes, save for the Oneidas, who’d sided with the Patriots. They also found the entrance into the valley unexpectedly blocked—by Ft. Stanwix, built by the British during the French and Indian War. With the foresight of General Philip Schuyler of Albany, the Patriots repaired this strategic outpost after the French threat had ended. Colonel Peter Gansevoort, also of Albany, then commanded the garrison.

News of the invading army spread like a brush fire throughout the Valley and alarmed the frontier settlements. General Nicholas Herkimer summoned all males between the ages of 16 and 60 to assemble at Ft. Dayton (what was to become the community of Herkimer) to raise the siege of Ft. Stanwix. As the most prominent Patriot in the Valley, Herkimer directed the Tryon County Militia.

Herkimer and his militiamen, (about 800) marched to relieve Ft. Stanwix, never suspecting their fate. It struck on the morning of August 6, 1777 at a marshy ravine south of the Mohawk and just west of Oriskany, N.Y. (between present-day Utica and Rome, N.Y.)

Molly Brant, Mohawk wife of Sir William Johnson had sent a message to her brother Chief Joseph Brant, who led St. Leger’s Indian contingent, with the exact date that Herkimer and his men would set out to relieve Ft. Stanwix. It might be interesting to discover just how this information got into Molly’s hands.


The fierce battle raged throughout the day in a pastoral setting called Bloody Creek (Oriskany Creek), as ill-prepared, mostly German farmers faced Indians, Loyalist militia, British and Hessian soldiers. In the beginning of the encounter, Herkimer was shot in the leg, but seated on a log and with sword drawn, continued to direct and encourage his men who faced over a thousand of the enemy. In proportion to the numbers engaged, no other battle of the Revolution exceeded the casualties at Oriskany.







But Herkimer and his men held the line.

Eleven days later, General Herkimer died of gangrene after his leg was amputated. Fond of Scripture, the General listened as his devoted wife Maria remained at his side to read the Psalms daily before he passed away.

British plans to march though the valley had failed. The Patriots from the Mohawk Valley were free to join the forces opposing Burgoyne. The Battle of Oriskany was a turning point in the Campaign of 1777 and the War for Independence. ~ Pat Iacuzzi