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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. But in the
memory of the desperate valor of the men who
fought these batties, History forgives them their
indiscretion and in these sesquicentennial years
remembers only «a nation’s gratitude to the men
who helped in the winning of the West,
a
\(7—
ear Hr ms
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