August 6th marks the anniversary of the 1777 Battle of Oriskany. Fought as an American relief column marched to aid the besieged Fort Stanwix, about 800 Tryon County militiamen and 60 allied Oneida warriors under Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer were ambushed by British, Loyalist, and Indigenous forces (including Mohawk and Seneca warriors). [Read more…] about August 6th Marks 1777 Battle of Oriskany Anniversary
Joseph Brant
Two Kettles Together: Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen
Tyonajanegan, who Europeans called Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen or Two Kettles Together, was a mother of four who took up arms alongside her husband as their Oneida Nation chose to support the colonists in the American Revolution.
Almost nothing is known about her early life, although at least one family historian reports that she was “taken prisoner with her sister Katy from the Shawanoes, & remained with the Mohawks.”
However, she and her husband and his family had significant roles in early New York history. [Read more…] about Two Kettles Together: Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen
The Minisink Battlefield Death of Dr. Benjamin Tusten in 1779
He was born in Southold, Long Island on December 11, 1743, and moved with his family to the banks of the Otterkill near Goshen just three years later. His father, a Colonel in the New York State Militia and a judge, wanted him to be farmer, but as he grew older it became apparent he was destined for other things, and he was sent off to study Latin and Greek and mathematics, eventually deciding on a career in medicine. [Read more…] about The Minisink Battlefield Death of Dr. Benjamin Tusten in 1779
Henry Baker: A Loyalist Who Resettled in New York
Our home sits on a small knoll within sight of Round Lake on English Road in the town of Clifton Park, in Saratoga County, NY. The original 100-acre farm lot was purchased in 1797 by Henry Baker (1747-1834), a farmer from Halfmoon and his wife Hannah. Baker was a Loyalist that had settled in Halfmoon after the Revolutionary War.
The 1797 deed lists the grantor of Lot three as Janet Smith and Harriet, widow and daughter of the Honorable William Smith (1728 – 1793), a Loyalist, chief Justice of the Province of Lower Canada and previously the Chief Justice of New York from 1780-1782. [Read more…] about Henry Baker: A Loyalist Who Resettled in New York
The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective
In the early 1750s, the French were establishing trading posts and building forts along western the frontiers of the British colonies. In the fall of 1753, in part to protect his own claims on Indigenous lands, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie had sent 22-year-old George Washington (then a militia leader and surveyor) to deliver a letter to Fort Le Boeuf at what is today Waterford in northwest Pennsylvania, demanding they stop. [Read more…] about The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective
The Mystery of Joseph Brant’s Watch
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There was a story that had been passed down in the Minthorn family for generations. It told of how an ancestor had hidden her two infants under the roots of a tree to save them during the Revolutionary War attack on Cherry Valley, NY, in 1778. It was said that in her zeal to quiet her children, the youngsters were rendered unconscious, being revived only after the attackers had departed.
While this story is most likely fiction, there is some truth mixed in. [Read more…] about The Mystery of Joseph Brant’s Watch
Battles of Stone Arabia, Klock’s Field Archeological Study Complete
On October 19, 1780, Loyalists, Native Allies and British soldiers led by Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Johnson and Captain Joseph Brant began destroying farms in Stone Arabia, a village about a mile north of Fort Keyser, in what was then Tryon County (today, Palatine Township in Montgomery County).
Colonel John Brown, leading a force of New York and Massachusetts revolutionaries left Fort Paris in Stone Arabia in an attempt to attack what he believed was a smaller, isolated enemy force. [Read more…] about Battles of Stone Arabia, Klock’s Field Archeological Study Complete
Joseph Brant’s Face: A State Capitol Mystery
A recent article in the Albany Times Union, “The Enduring Mystery of a Mohawk Warrior Bust at the Capitol,” (online edition, July 22, 2022) noted that there is a sculpted face of Joseph Brant on the exterior of the State Capitol building in Albany, New York.
Researched and written by journalist Chris Carola, it questions why Brant, a Native American who supported the British during the American Revolution – and who wreaked havoc on a number of white settlements – was honored by having his visage on such a prominent edifice. [Read more…] about Joseph Brant’s Face: A State Capitol Mystery
When History Is Wrong: The Albany County ‘Dietz Massacre’
During the Revolutionary War the little community of Beaver Dam (sometimes spelled Beaverdam) in what is now Berne, Albany County, NY saw little action.
The British and their Indigenous allies repeatedly attacked the communities in the Schoharie Valley to the west however, despite the presence of a large militia and three forts to protect the people of Schoharie. [Read more…] about When History Is Wrong: The Albany County ‘Dietz Massacre’
The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks
During the Revolutionary Era much of New York State was a heavily forested frontier, sparsely populated but bitterly divided.
Although the only major campaign in the Adirondacks would end at the Battle of Saratoga, factional raiding parties traversed the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks throughout the war.
Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams details many of those frontier raids in her new book The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks: Raids in the Wilderness (Arcadia Publishing, 2020). [Read more…] about The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks
Joseph Brant’s 1780 Mohawk Valley Raid
This week on The Historians Podcast, archaeologist and historian Wayne Lenig discusses Mohawk chief Joseph Brant’s 1780 raids in the Mohawk Valley. Lenig will be one of the speakers at next month’s American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley Conference at Fulton-Montgomery Community College.
Listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about Joseph Brant’s 1780 Mohawk Valley Raid
Joseph Brant’s 1780 Attack On Canajoharie
The American Revolution Round Table (ARRT) of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys will host Wayne Lenig, who will give a presentation entitled Joseph Brant’s 1780 Attack on Canajohary.
Original accounts of the August 2nd raid began appearing in major newspapers about two weeks after the attack. A newspaper account dated September 9, 1780 stated the following: “At the fort now called fort Ransalaer (Fort Plain), Sir John Johnson and Captain Brant have burnt 51 houses, 42 barns, 17 killed, and 52 prisoners.”
[Read more…] about Joseph Brant’s 1780 Attack On Canajoharie
The Oneida Nation Supported American Rebels
James Kirby Martin, a history professor at the University of Houston, traces his interest in the Mohawk Valley to his birthplace in northern Ohio.
Joseph Brant of the Mohawk Nation was born in what is now Ohio in 1743 and Martin was fascinated by Brant’s life. The younger brother of Sir William Johnson’s longtime consort Molly Brant, Joseph Brant and Sir William’s son John led devastating raids in the Mohawk Valley during the American Revolution.
Sir William, Britain’s Indian agent in our region, died in 1774 before the war. However, his good relations with the Iroquois Confederacy kept most of them on the side of the British during the Revolution. [Read more…] about The Oneida Nation Supported American Rebels