Brigadier General Barry St. Leger and his army of 1400, including c.700 Cayuga, Seneca and Mohawk Indians, was ordered to take Stanwix and head down the Mohawk Valley to hook up at Albany with General Burgoyne, coming down from Canada, and General Howe, coming up the Hudson-the famous three-pronged attack intended to divide the colonies in half and bring the uprising to a rapid end.
Somewhere along the way, Herkimer was “taunted for caution by his officers” (All quotes taken from Barbara Graymont’s Iroquois In the American Revolution) and “stung by these jibes, pushed ahead without taking proper precautions.” Most significantly, he never sent his Oneida Indian allies to scout ahead. If he had, the tragedy about to transpire most probably wouldn’t have happened.
As the Snells, their colleagues and a 15-wagon baggage train entered a steep ravine near Oriskany Creek, they had no idea that c.400 Indians and Tories lie in wait on their flanks. The enemy was supposed to wait until all the Americans had entered the ravine before attacking, but a few impatient ones opened fire springing the trap too soon and all hell broke loose.
When the smoke of battle cleared, an estimated 500 militiamen lie dead, their bodies never to be retrieved. Among those killed were nine Snells, five from Snell’s Bush and four from Stone Arabia including George’s son John, a fifer.* The fifer was a small flute-like instrument which along with a drum often accompanied military troops back then-i.e. fife and drums. The Brits lost c. 50. The rear guard which hadn’t been caught in the ambush panicked and ran. Herkimer valiantly tried to rally his men and was wounded in the leg in the process. He would die days later “as a result of an unskillful amputation of his leg.”) He was 48.
As Graymont wrote-“in terms of killed and wounded and failure of objective, the Battle of Oriskany was the greatest of tragedies for the Americans.” And it could have been worse. Mohawk leader Joseph Brant’s request to take a couple hundred men and sweep through a defenseless Mohawk Valley was denied by St. Leger, who compounded this mistake by continuing to lay siege to Stanwix for another two weeks. His Indian allies, disheartened by the loss of five chiefs at Oriskany and not accustomed to sitting around for a long time, were ready to skedaddle. All it took was one more thing to happen and they’d be gone, leaving St. Leger with less than half his army. That “thing” was Benedict Arnold. That’s right. The man whose name became synonymous with traitor.
While Stanwix was holding out under the leadership of 28-year old Major Peter Gansevoort-the real hero of the moment-Arnold was leading a contingent of nearly a thousand men from Albany to relieve the siege. Concomitantly, he perpetrated a ruse (Graymont p.144) which gave the impression that his army was much larger than it was. For St. Leger’s Indian supporters, that was the last straw. Lacking the strength to take on the Americans, Gen. Barry decided that, discretion being the better part of valor, retreat was in order and on August 22nd he pulled up stakes. Bye, bye first prong. Note: Arnold’s leadership during the 2nd Battle of Saratoga, even though he was seriously wounded, helped facilitate Burgoyne’s defeat and subsequent surrender. Bye, bye second prong. Despite his later betrayal, he also should be remembered as a key factor in the colonists’ victory.
The survivors of Oriskany and residents of the Mohawk Valley could now breathe a sigh of relief. But not without consequences. The former returned home to try to reclaim their lives-not an easy task given what they had experienced (one can only wonder how many suffered from PTSD). For the latter, I can’t imagine what life must have been like for the grieving families, especially the widows and their children. Their pain might have been tempered by the knowledge that their loved ones did not die in vain-that their sacrifices at Oriskany resulted in a series of events which doomed the 3-pronged attack to failure thereby convincing the French to come to our aid and fence-sitters to join the cause. These factors, when combined with the war becoming increasingly unpopular at home, caused the Brits to eventually toss in the towel. No Oriskany-no American victory.
Recently, Kay and I visited the Battle of Oriskany Memorial. It was a glorious early spring day. After checking out the monument, I sauntered down to the top of a hill overlooking the ravine below. I couldn’t help but be overcome with emotion. I was standing on sacred ground. Somewhere in the area were the remains of my sixth great-grandfather, Jacob Snell, and his brothers and cousins, relatives all; eight men and a boy who gave everything for that something called freedom. This Memorial Day, let’s remember them and all the others who fell that day-August 6, 1777-the turning point of the Revolutionary War.
*From Snell’s Bush-Joseph, Jacob, Frederick, Sufferenous and Peter; From Stone Arabia-John, Jacob, George and his son, John.