— - TC — (W, Ae nd ———— § $ gy BE sant en Cowrbesy Uticw Public Library 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON NE hundred and fifty summer Ars Ag years ago there was fought on New York contested battles of frontier of one of most hotly ah American Revolution. This was ; battle of Oriskany on J where a force of New York mi led by Gen, Nicholas Herki marching to the relief of Ft force of Tories and Indians, nded by Sir John Johnson and the Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. Flve later out in the wilderness of Kentucky battle frontiersmen, led by Trigg and Daniel Boone, and a force of Canadians and Indians, commanded by Maj. Willlam Cald- well. who had with him the renegades Alexander McKee, Mathew Elliott and Simon Gi This was the battle of Blue Licks, often referred to as “The last battle of the Revolution,” fought August 19, 132 Although there Is no direct tween the two engagements, they exhibit ing parallel of } that is hoth ugust 6, 1 Se huy- ler, won a victory over a coming great years a similar Kentucky John Todd Stephen was fought between an army of Cols. rty. aon connection the circumstances which them about worthy of more than notice. In subordinates overruled the selves the disaster which could have been cases the headstrong foHy 1 he cooler Judgment commanders, thereby bringing upon them- averted The battle of Oriskany was a part of the around Ft Ss huvler N. Y.. In 1777. The are to be rocalled this campaign which centered on the present site stirring even i summer in uicentennial celebra- tions which at various places in the Mohawk Oriskany celebration where the memory of the men who fought In this dramatic and engagement will be honored by thelr descendants hundreds of visitors from all parts of the The events leading up to the battle of were As a part of the British plan to score a decisive success during the sum- mer of 1777 and to crush the Revolution, (ol. arty St. Leger had been sent to sweep through the Mohawk valley to Albany where he was to join the army of General Burgoyne who was com- Ing from the north. But there was ome obstacle to St. Leger's success This was Pt, Schuyler, held by a force of Continentals under the command of Col. Peter Gansevoort and Col. Marinus Willett. On August 2, 8t. Leger appeared before Ft. Schuyler with a force of some 1700 yritish regulars, Hessians and Tories—led by Sir John Johnson, John Batler and his the notorious Walter Butler, and Iroquois Indians, Colonel Gansevoort had appealed to the Com mittee of Safety in Tryon county for help and the chairman of this committee, Nicholas Her- kimer—"0ld Honikol Herkimer” was the affec- tionate nickname for him-—(who had been appointed a brigadier general the previous year) fmmediately raised the militia of Tryon county and set out for the relief of Ft. Schuyler. Her- kKimer's army, a force of about eight hundred men, was divided into four regiments. The first was led hy Col. Ebenezer Cox and was from the district of Canajoharfe. The second from Palatine was commanded by Col. Jacoh Klock, the third from Mohawk was under Col. Frederick Visscher, and the fourth, from German Flats and Kingsland, was commanded by Col. Peter Bell. fnger. This force assembled at Ft. Dayton near the mouth of West Canada creek, and on August 4 started out, crossed the Mohawk near the present site of the city of Utica and reached Whitestown on August 5. At this point Herkimer sent an express to Colonel Gansevoort to arrange for co-operation In moving against the enemy. Gansevoort was to fire three cannon shots as a signal that a force from the fort was ready to make a sortie, where. upon Herkimer was to advance with his army. He was then about eight miles from Ft, Schuyler and it would be easy to hear the report of the big guns at that distance, But hls messengers were delayed in getting through the enemy to the fort and Herkimer's men waited impatiently for the sound of the cannon. Finally, chafing at the delay, they demanded to be led against the enemy, Merkimer steadfastly refused, Then some of his officers, notably Colonels Cox and Parls, began to reproach him and even went so far as to accuse Mm of being a coward and a Tory. But the wise old commander resisted thelr urgings until they became unbearable, Finally, stung to madness by thelr, unjust accusations, he gave the command to afivance, was more of a disorderly mob than an army thdt streamed out of the encampment. At Oris ny creek the road led across a narrow cange- way of logs over a marsh with thick woods on valley. Chief among these will be the bloody and country Oriskany these : down Son. DAVIES, BOONE ror Bust by Albin Paras ek either side. St had =ent a large body of Herk “Johnson's Tories, them many of Tryon neighbors of mers men in Greens.” under Major body of Mohawk Joseph Brant, the noted Watts, Indians led by tt} county, conmpanied who prepare Just ns the kimer's men marched onto the causewa fire Herkime ost Immediately ously { pened retreated aln thelr ground and returned Gt onlioee sought the enemy's shelter behind and trees af the the fight {‘oloneis ately there took place one fiercest in American al whose history. For hand rashness most n and-to- Cox had precipitated the Herkimer which among the first to be killed wns gabled early in the fight by a bullet taredd his knee. His officers urged him to retire t safety, but his word in the enemy.” During become a historic by reply has 3 “1 will face the Mohawk valley the battle, Herkimer's reached Gansevoort, who had what the distant firing meant and three signal cannon. Herkimer's men heard them, but they could not advance now. They were fight. ing for thelr lives, So great was the Slaughter in both armies that the Indians finally the ery of retreat—"Oonah, Oonah !” and left the field The Tories, seeing this and being alarmed at the sound of the firing made during the sortie from the fort which had been led by Col. Maripus Wil lett, also retreated. Herkimer and his men held the field on which they had won thelr dearly bought victory, The losses inflicted upon the enemy and Willett's gortie which had fallen upon St. Leger's camp stampeded a portion of the Brit. ish force and captured a great store of supplies resulted In St. Leger's giving up the siege of Ft. Schuyler. So vietory came out of defeat after all, for Ft. Schuyler was saved and the threat of St Leger's Invasion of the Mohawk valley collapsed. Herkimer died a few days after the battle, Five years later occurred the other battle in which the foolhardiness of headstrong men brought about another disaster equal to that of Oriskany. On August 16, 1782, a mounted messen. ger dashed up to Boone's Station, a small froatier fort which this: famous pioneer had built across the Kentucky river a short distance from Boones- bourough-—with the news that Bryan's Station, an important point further west, about five miles from the present city of Lexington, had been at- tacked by an overwhelming force of Indians and Canadians, The men of Boone's Station immedi- ately galloped to the ald of thelr brethren, and the next day found Boone, who happened to be ut Booneshourough at the time, on thé way to Bryan's Station, with all the men of the vicinity that he could collect. When they arrived, they found that the enemy had already retreated, but since, by the evening of August 17, the Ken- tuckiang assembled at Bryan's Station numbered more than 180, and as many more under Col Benjamin Logan were expected hourly, they determined to observe the principle of border warfare-—that no savage foray should go unpun- fished. So, without waiting for Logan, they decided to pursue the enemy at once, even though they realized that the enemy, composed of fierce Wyan- dottes and accompanied by the renegades McKee, Elliott, and the Infamous Simon Girty, greatly outnumbered them, Early the next morning the party, commanded by Cols. Todd, Trigg and Boone, set forth, They found that the enemy had left a plain trail, but heedless of this Indication that the allies invited pursuit, the Kentuckians dashed on rapidly. On the morning of August 18 they came to the Licking river at a place ealled Blue Licks, A few Indians were seen on the ridges Messengers been wondering who fired the raised 4) NICHOLAS FERKITTER Boone WAS cert ambush and advised # strong position on their side f 1} walt there until his me But this wise counsel ns disregard impatient Kentuckian wer strike a bhlow ut tt} thelr stations be detached the rear of marct the while the alr While the decision proposition gs being discuss Major McGars his d Boo in the proposal to await 4, wis foroed who tie ind been taunted wit) cowardice by Mears t spurring his “OTe f his fellows for doing so snddenly broke up the council by horse to the ford and dashing cross it. shouting “Let all who are not cowards follow me!” It was just the sort of an appeal which wonid influence such rashly courageous most They streamed across AE men as of these Kentuckians were the river in fashion was nothing for Boone, Todd and Trigg to do but to follow, and to try to restore some order in the mob, They crossed river and advanced up a buffalo trail to the top of ridge By this time order had been restored, with MeGary leading an advance party of twenty-five the top of the ridge nal for the crashing volles disorderly and there strageling the safely the bi yond some semblance of As they approached a rifle shot rang which then followed Twenty-three of MeGary's twenty-five men went down nt this fire. The headstrong McGary who had precipitated the fight was one of the two After this first volley, the Canadians themselves on the ridge and from the ravine on either flank, the Indians opened a deadly fire. The Kentuckians stood their ground and returned the fire. Instantly the Wyandottes, always noted ar reckless and desperate fighters, came bursting through the smoke with poised toma- hawks There was a short hahd-to-hand conflict until the Kentuckians, greatly outnumbered, almost surrounded and in imminent danger slaughtered where they stood, broke and fled back toward the river. Nearly every officer of rank wns killed. Boone escaped across the river, The Kentuckians, hotly pursued, streamed back across the river. There Major Netherland rallied his men and offered resistance, ending the pursuit and preventing fa Massacre, Of a force of approximately one hundred eighty men, sixty-seven had been killed outright or were ont ax a «ig first who escaped. showed battle. and seven had been captured, four of whom died at the torture stake. escaped was wounded In some way, Halfway back to Bryan's Station, the survivors met Colonel realized how different the result might have been if they had heeded Boone's advice and awaited Logan's coming, and had not been swept into action by MeGary's rash appeal. Blue Licks was perhaps the greatest defeat ever suf. fered by the ploneers of the Blue Grass state, but it was also a high-water mark In hér history, For the Indians came no more to Kentucky and Blue Licks marked the end of the frontier period, Oriskany and Blue Licks—two names which afford a striking illustration of the Injury which a body of undisciplined men may do to them- selves and those dependent upon them. 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