Battle of Oriskany
The Battle of Oriskany was a major engagement of the Saratoga campaign during the American Revolutionary War. On August 6, 1777, an American column of Tryon County militia and Oneidas marching to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by a contingent of Britain's Indigenous allies and Loyalists. It was one of the few battles of the war in which most non-Indigenous participants were settlers born in the Thirteen Colonies. The Americans suffered heavy casualties during the battle.
Under the command of Brigadier-General Nicholas Herkimer, the American relief column came up the Mohawk Valley and initially consisted of approximately 800 militiamen and between 60 and 100 Oneida warriors. In response to news of the column's advance, Brigadier-General Barry St. Leger dispatched a force of roughly 500 men under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Johnson to intercept them. Most of Johnson's force were Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga and Mississaugas warriors led by Sayenqueraghta, Cornplanter, and Joseph Brant.
Johnson's men successfully ambushed Herkimer's column in a small valley about east of Fort Stanwix, near the Oneida village of Oriska. The British victory cost the Americans approximately 465 dead, wounded, or captured, while Johnson's force suffered only 93 men killed, wounded or captured. Herkimer was also mortally wounded. The morale of Britain's Indigenous allies was damaged when they discovered that an American sortie from Fort Stanwix had looted their camp during the battle. This was a contributing factor in Leger's decision to abandon the siege two weeks later.
The battle also marked the beginning of a civil war among the Iroquois, as Oneida warriors under Louis Cook and Han Yerry aligned with the Patriot cause, as did the Tuscarora. As the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga were allied to the Loyalist cause, this resulted in incidents of armed conflict between the two factions. The battle's location is known in Iroquois oral histories as "A Place of Great Sadness", and has been designated as a National Historic Landmark along with being marked by a monument at the Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site.
Background
In June 1777, the British Army launched a two-pronged attack from Quebec under the command of General John Burgoyne. Burgoyne's objective was to split New England from the other colonies by gaining control of New York's Hudson Valley. The main thrust came south across Lake Champlain under Burgoyne's command; the second thrust was led by St. Leger and was intended to come down the Mohawk Valley and meet Burgoyne's army near Albany.St. Leger's expedition consisted of about 1,800 men who were a mix of British regulars, Creuzbourg's Jäger Corps, Loyalists from the Royal Yorkers and the British Indian Department, and Indigenous warriors of several tribes, including the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Mohawk, and Mississauga. The main body travelled from Lachine up the Saint Lawrence River and along the shore of Lake Ontario to the Oswego River. At Oswega they were joined by British Indian Department rangers from Fort Niagara under the command of Deputy Superintendent John Butler, and several hundred Indigenous warriors. The expedition ascended the Oswego River and crossed Oneida Lake to reach the Oneida Carry. Fort Stanwix, a Continental Army outpost at the east end of the portage was besieged beginning August 2.
Prelude
's Committee of Safety head Nicholas Herkimer was warned of a possible British attack along the Mohawk River, and he issued a proclamation on July 17 warning of possible military activity and urging the people to respond if needed. Oneida allies warned him on July 30 that the British were just four days from Fort Stanwix, and he put out a call-to-arms. The force raised totaled 800 from the Tryon County militia composed primarily of poorly trained farmers who were chiefly of Palatine German descent. They set out from Fort Dayton on August 4 and camped near the Oneida village of Oriska on August 5. A number of the militia dropped out of the column due to their lack of conditioning, but Herkimer's forces were augmented by a company of 60 to 100 Oneida warriors led by Han Yerry, a strong supporter of the Patriot cause. That evening, Herkimer sent three men toward the fort with messages for the fort's commander Colonel Peter Gansevoort. Gansevoort was to signal the receipt of the message with three cannon shots and then sortie to meet the approaching column. The couriers, however, had difficulty getting through British lines, and they did not deliver the message until late the next morning, after the battle was already underway.St. Leger learned on August 5 that Herkimer and his relief expedition were on their way from a message that Molly Brant had sent to her brother Joseph Brant, the Mohawk leader who led a portion of St. Leger's Indigenous contingent. St. Leger sent a detachment of light infantry from Sir John Johnson's Royal Yorkers towards Oriska that evening to monitor Herkimer's advance, and Brant and Butler followed early the next morning with about 400 Indigenous warriors and Indian Department rangers. Many of the warriors were armed with muskets, however, others carried only tomahawks and spears.
Battle
Herkimer held a war council on the morning of August 6. He wanted to wait because he had not heard the expected signal from the fort, but his captains pressed him to continue, accusing him of being a Tory because his brother was serving under St. Leger. He was stung by the accusations and relented, ordering the column to march on toward Stanwix.About from the fort, the road dipped more than into a marshy ravine with a stream at the bottom that was about wide. Seneca chiefs Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter chose this place to set up an ambush; the Royal Yorkers waited behind a nearby rise and the Iroquois concealed themselves on both sides of the ravine. The plan was for the Royal Yorkers to stop the head of the column, after which their Indigenous allies would attack the extended column. At about 10 am, Herkimer's column descended into the ravine, crossed the stream, and began ascending the other side with Herkimer on horseback near the front.
Contrary to the plan, the Indigenous warriors lying in wait opened fire prematurely, however, the Patriots were taken completely by surprise. Colonel Ebenezer Cox was leading the 1st Regiment, and he was shot off his horse and killed in the first volley. Herkimer turned his horse to see the action and was struck by a ball that shattered his leg and killed the horse. Several of his officers carried him to a beech tree and urged him to retire from further danger. He defiantly replied, "I will face the enemy", and calmly sat leaning against the tree smoking a pipe and giving directions and words of encouragement to the men nearby.
The trap had been sprung too early, and portions of the column had not yet entered the ravine. Most of these men panicked and fled; some of the attacking warriors pursued them, resulting in a string of dead and wounded that extended for several miles. Between the loss of the column rear and those killed or wounded in the initial volleys, only about half of Herkimer's men were still fighting 30 minutes into the battle. Some of the attackers who were not armed with muskets waited for the flash of an opponent's musket fire before rushing to attack with the tomahawk. During the battle, Oneida leader Akiatonharónkwen shot and killed an enemy warrior whose musket fire was devastatingly accurate, noting that "every time he rises up he kills one of our men".
Herkimer's men eventually rallied, fighting their way out of the ravine to the crest to its west. John Johnson was concerned about the militia's tenacity, so he returned to the British camp and requested some reinforcements from St. Leger, returning with 70 men. A thunderstorm caused a one-hour break in the fighting, during which Herkimer regrouped his militia on the higher ground. He instructed his men to fight in pairs; while one man fired and reloaded, the other waited and then only fired if attacked. They were to keep at least one weapon loaded at all times to reduce the effectiveness of the tomahawk attacks.
Butler took time during the thunderstorm to question some of the captives, and thus learned about the three-cannon signal. Reinforcements from the Royal Yorkers arrived, and Butler convinced them to turn their coats inside out to disguise themselves as a relief party coming from the fort. When the fighting resumed, the Royal Yorkers advanced, but the ruse failed when Patriot Captain Jacob Gardinier recognized the face of a Loyalist neighbor. Close combat continued for some time, often hand-to-hand between men who had been neighbors.
File:Marinus Willett MET DT2936.jpg|thumb|right|215px|Lt. Col. Marinus Willett, a 1791 portrait by Ralph Earl
Sortie from Fort Stanwix
Herkimer's messengers reached the fort at around 11 a.m., and Colonel Gansevoort organized the requested sortie. Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett led 250 men from the fort and raided the nearly deserted enemy camps to the south, driving away the few people left in them and taking four prisoners along the way. They collected blankets and other personal possessions from the indigenous camps, and they also raided John Johnson's camp, taking his letters and other writings.One of the warriors guarding the camps ran to the battlefield to alert fellow warriors that their camps were being raided. They disengaged with cries of "Oonah, oonah!", the Seneca signal to retire, and headed for the camps to protect their women and possessions. This forced the smaller number of German and Loyalist combatants to also withdraw.
Aftermath
Patriots
Herkimer was seriously wounded and many of his officers were killed, and the battered remnant retreated to Fort Dayton. His men carried him from the battlefield and his leg was amputated, but the operation went poorly and he died on August 16. The indigenous warriors retrieved most of their dead by the following day, but many dead and wounded Patriots were left on the field. Benedict Arnold's relief column marched through several weeks later, and the men were moved by the stench and grisly scene.File:Joseph Brant painting by George Romney 1776.jpg|thumb|right|upright|215px|Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, 1776 portrait by George Romney
General Philip Schuyler learned of the retreat from Oriskany and immediately organized additional relief to be sent to the area. Arnold's relief column arrived at Fort Stanwix on August 21, and he sent messengers into the British camp who convinced the British and indigenous besiegers that his force was much larger than it actually was. They abandoned their siege and withdrew.