The raid on the frontier settlement of German Flatts occurred on September 17, 1778, at present day Herkimer, in central upstate New York on the Mohawk River. It was enacted by British partisan forces of Loyalists and four nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederation, mainly Mohawk and Seneca, under the overall command of Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea). This attack, that included the destruction of homes, crops, and the removal of livestock, resulted in very little loss of life; the residents and soldiers had been warned of the enemy’s approach and took refuge in Fort Herkimer, a stockaded mansion on the south banks of the Mohawk River, and the palisaded Fort Dayton, two miles further west north of the river.
This attack was sandwiched in between the destruction of the Wyoming Settlements, Pennsylvania, on July 4th, 1778 by British partisan forces under Colonel John Butler, and later at Cherry Valley, New York, on November 11, 1778, under Brant and Captain Walter Butler, son of Colonel Butler. Both of those raids resulted in the death and capture of a large number of settlers and soldiers. The three major attacks combined in 1778 fueled Major General John Sullivan’s massive retaliatory expedition the following year, during late summer and fall of 1779, that destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages and drove its inhabitants further west, where many perished of the cold and starvation.
German Flatts
The German Flatts settlement, present-day Herkimer, New York, was founded in 1723 by German Palatine immigrants. Originally called Burnet’s Field, the settlement was a ten-mile stretch of the Mohawk Valley, west from the mouth of West Canada Creek. The main community was situated along the south bank of the Mohawk River and five miles further south. It was centrally located in upstate New York, eighty miles west of Albany and thirty miles east of Fort Stanwix, present-day Rome, and the ‘Great Carrying Place’ portage to Lake Oneida which feeds into Lake Ontario. In 1751, the prosperous community had sixty dwellings and around 300 inhabitants. When with the French and Indian War raged all along the frontier, it was only time before German Flatts felt its fury. Sixty-five homes and 6 blockhouses (small stockades) were burned to the ground on November 12, 1757. Though the residents offered little or no resistance, several were killed during the raid and over a hundred taken captive. By war’s end, the captured Palatines returned to their friends, rebuilt their homes, restocked their farms, and began another period of prosperity which lasted till the outbreak of the American Revolution.
Timeline Leading to the German Flatts Raid
─ Summer 1777 British Invade from Canada
In the summer of 1777, British Major General “Johnny” Burgoyne invaded the colonies from Canada, advancing down Lake Champlain with Albany, New York his objective. Another force advanced west, up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario and south toward Lake Oneida. This mixed force led by Lt. Colonel Barry St. Leger totaled 2,500 men of British regular troops, Loyalists, and Native Americans. It two leaders who would play a major role in the upcoming frontier warfare that would last the rest of the war; Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant and Loyalist Colonel John Butler. St. Leger’s force crossed to the Mohawk Valley where, at the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777, they ambushed and defeated a hastily gathered militia force of mainly German Palatine settlers under General Nikolas Herkimer. As many as 500 American militiamen lost their lives, including over forty of German Flatts’ residents. However, St. Leger’s hopes to take Fort Stanwix and push on to join General Burgoyne failed when the fort held out and reports of General Benedict Arnold approaching with a detached army caused his troops to panic in a rapid retreat back to Ontario.
─ Winter 1777-1778 Brant and Butler Prepare Offensive
After the Battles of Saratoga forced the surrender of British General Burgoyne’s army on October 17, 1777, the following year saw England regroup its forces and turn its focus towards the southern colonies. The conflict in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and points west morphed into a frontier struggle of hit and run partisan warfare. During the winter months of 1777-1778, Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant and Loyalist leader Colonel John Butler developed plans to attack frontier settlements in New York and Pennsylvania during the next spring and summer campaign season. Besides hindering the region’s patriot settlements from providing men and material to the war effort, one of their objectives of staging these small and large scale raids was to provide provisions for their growing forces. To this effect, they were also aided by the Province of Quebec, who supplied ammunition and supplies to the Loyalists and Native Americans, mainly of the Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, and Mohawk Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy; the Oneida allied with the rebellious colonies and Tuscarora, though claiming neutrality, often joined Oneida war parties.
In February, 1778, Joseph Brant chose his base of operations at the Iroquois village of Onaquaga, present day Windsor, New York. He recruited both Native Americans and Loyalists who had been forced west from their homes by provincial legislatures and rebellious militias. By May, his force of around 300 fighters were ready to raid settlements in New York. Colonel John Butler, prodigy of the powerful former British Indian Agent Sir William Johnson, wintered at Fort Niagara from where he established a new Loyalist force of frontier fighters he titled Butler’s Rangers. By the spring of 1778, he had over 200 armed loyalists under his command. His men would team up with Native American forces, often with Joseph Brant leading the Iroquois, along with additional war parties of the Delaware. Butler planned his operations in the Susquehanna River Valley along the New York Pennsylvania frontier, but would lend rangers to assist Brant in his raids in central New York.
─ Early May, 1778 Brant Strikes First
Joseph Brant carried out his first large-scale raid in the Mohawk Valley in early May of 1778. His objective was Springfield and Andrustown (present-day Jordanville, NY), at the head of Lake Otsego, a little less than 10 miles northwest of Cherry Valley and 20 miles southeast of German Flatts along the Mohawk River. Brant took the town without loss of life and burned all the houses but one, moving all the women and children into that house for safety.
─ May 30, 1778 Brant Attacks Cobleskill
Bolstered by his first successful large-scale raid on Springfield, Brant struck again at Cobleskill), New York, a settlement of 20 houses 45 miles west of Albany and 20 miles southeast of Cherry Valley. This time it resulted not only in the destruction of all the homes with livestock killed or taken, but so too the death of some militia settlers and most of a detached company of Continental soldiers. After the affair at Springfield, Captain William Patrick and one company of the 7th Massachusetts Continental Regiment (Alden’s Regiment), stationed at Albany, NY, were ordered to the Schoharie Valley Region with instructions to scout the region and ‘make discoveries’ of the enemy’s movements.’ On May 25th, Patrick received word of a possible attack by Brant’s forces and upon a request by the local militia, responded to the Cobleskill area at the head of 33 men from his company.
On May 30th, Patrick’s Continentals spotted a few Iroquois and, despite a warning of ambush by an experienced scout, Patrick ordered a chase. Shortly thereafter, Patrick’s men were surrounded by approximately 300 warriors and loyalists. After a running fight, fifteen troops lay butchered, including Patrick. Accounts differ as to reporting four to seven having been captured. About a dozen escaped the ambush with three wounded. In the settlement, seven militiamen were killed, including five who had taken refuge at the Warner home. They were burned to death when the building was torched. After destroying ten homes, Brant retreated.
─ July 4, 1778 Wyoming Massacre by Partisan Forces under John Butler
By June, 1778, Colonel John Butler was ready to attack. He had gathered and led a considerable force of 400 Native Americans and 400 Tories. Brant was not present; however, his son, Captain Walter Butler, having escaped from a patriot jail, led Loyalist forces. In late June they departed the Iroquois settlement of Tioga on the Susquehanna River, three miles south of the New York border and present-day site of Athens, Pennsylvania. Heading downriver, their sights were set on the agricultural vibrant Wyoming Valley at present-day Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
On July 3rd, Butler approached and demanded the surrender of Fort Muncy and its region blockhouses, all Continental soldiers, and stores throughout the Wyoming Valley. A Patriot force advanced to engage the enemy, but on the 4th, was routed with a great loss of life and captives. The victors then swooped down on the Wyoming community and burned the settlement, killing dozens while taking many others captive, including women and children. Accounts detailed the brutal murder and torture of some soldiers after being taken prisoner. Butler’s Iroquois and Delaware claimed the taking of 227 scalps, while Colonel Nathan Denison of the Connecticut militia reported 301 total soldiers and settlers dead. Butler and his main force returned victorious upriver on July 8th, with the last of the settlers in the Wyoming Valley departing for safety by July 18th.
─ September 8th – 12th, 1778 Halsey’s Retaliatory Raid
After the Wyoming attack, Colonel Thomas Hartley’s Additional Continental Regiment (later renamed the 11th Pennsylvania) was ordered to the Wyoming Valley. He arrived at the burned-out fort on August 28th and began rebuilding the palisade fortification. It was generally completed by September 8, 1778. It was from Fort Muncy that Col. Hartley staged a counter raid against three Iroquois towns. Along with a small force of militia, he advanced 200 men up the Susquehanna River, around 80 miles as far as Tioga and Wyalusing. After having torched the Seneca settlements around Tioga that included Unadilla and Onaquaga, he returned to Fort Muncy. This raid by Hartley did little damage to Butler’s forces; however, the destruction of homes and villages angered the Iroquois, particularly the Seneca, which only added to the ferocity of future raids.
German Flatts Receives Reports of Possible Attack
By the time of the American Revolution, there were about 70 homesteads on both sides of the river, including Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer’s stockaded mansion called Fort Herkimer. Two miles westward on the north bank of the river was Fort Dayton. In the fall of 1776, Maj. General Phillip Schuyler dispatched Colonel Elias Dayton to German Flatts to construct a fort specifically to protect the German Flatts region. Dayton constructed the fortification on the site of an earlier French and Indian War blockade and named it for himself. Fort Dayton became one of the few Continental army posts on the Mohawk, another being Fort Stanwix to the west. It included a stockade, blockhouse, bastions, curtains, barracks, and artillery. It was from Fort Dayton that General Herkimer marched his militia army into an ambush and defeat. At the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777, one of the bloodiest of the war, his militias were surprised and ripped apart while marching towards the enemy. Herkimer was mortally wounded and died within the week.
By the late summer of 1778, the district and forts were defended by the 4th Regiment of the Tryon County Militia, under the command of Colonel Peter Bellinger. Colonel Bellinger had married Delia Herkimer, sister of the deceased general. He and his regiment were present at the Battle of Oriskany. Bellinger was cognizant of settler and Oneida rumors that Joseph Brant was a real and constant threat and that German Flatts was targeted for a future attack. In response to these reports, he sent out scouting parties to probe towards Unadilla, which he suspected was Brant’s base and from where any attack would originate. One of these scouting parties would effectually prove to save many lives in the upcoming attack.
Brant Gathers His Forces for the Raid
Brant had originally planned raiding German Flatts earlier in the summer. He delayed his plans, expecting John Butler and his Loyalists to join him. However, after Butler’s successful attack on the Wyoming Valley settlements in July, Butler returned to Fort Niagara. In the meantime, Butler sent one of his officers, Capt. William Caldwell, to Unaquaga to recruit men for his expanding unit known as Butler’s Rangers. By early September, it was clear that Butler would not be joining Brant for his raid on German Flatts. Therefore, Brant and Caldwell decided to launch their expedition with the men they had on hand. Sources generally agree that the raiding party which left Unadilla, 60 miles south of German Flatts on the Susquehanna River, in mid-September and progressed up the Unadilla River to attack consisted of 150 Iroquois (principally Mohawk), and Loyalists of Caldwell’s Ranger Company and Brant’s company of Tory volunteers, numbering between 200 to 300 men, bringing the attacking force from around 350 to 450 men.
The Attack on German Flatts
On September 16th, Brant’s men discovered and attacked one of the scouting parties Colonel Bellinger had sent out. This occurred near present day Edmesont, just under thirty miles south and slightly west of German Flatts. They had been scouting along the Unadilla River and Butternut Valley area from Old Unadilla to Lake Oneida. They were surprised at a spring on Perceval Carr’s farm. Of the nine men in the party, three were killed with the rest scattering. One, Adam Helmer, ran to alert the residents at German Flatts. His 26-mile marathon later became the basis for Walter D. Edmonds 1936 novel Drums Along the Mohawk, and subsequent 1939 Ford movie of the same name in which actor Henry Fonda portrayed Helmer’s dash. Helmer reached the settlement and sounded the alarm which gave time for most of the inhabitants to seek safety within the two forts. Colonel Bellinger sounded his regiment’s call to arms and sent an urgent request for assistance to Colonel Jacob Klock, commanding the 2nd Tyron County Regiment, at Conajoharie, 30 miles east.
In was only an hour after the alarm was sounded that Brant and Caldwell’s force arrived from up the Unadilla River by way of Cedarville, ten miles southwest of German Flatts. They showed up south of the Mohawk River and on the southern end of the settlement. Unaware that the region had been alerted, Brant ordered they camp for the night in and around Shoemaker’s Tavern; a scant two miles from Fort Dayton. Judge Rudolph Shoemaker, owner of the tavern, was a prominent Tory and it was at his tavern that Walter Butler, son of Colonel John Butler, was captured on Aug. 15, 1777, later having escaped.
The next day, Brant discovered the settlers had taken refuge in the forts. He and his men demonstrated before the stockades, but lacked heavy weapons to properly assault the fortifications. Too militarily weak to do anything but watch from the ramparts, the militia and settlers were forced to watch their enemy rampage through their community on both sides of the Mohawk River, from Little Falls to Frankford. Sixty-three homes were destroyed including a similar number of barns, three grist mills, and one saw mill. The only buildings left standing were those within the forts, a church, the homes of a few ministers, and those of the scattered loyalists still within the region. A large number of horses, cattle, and sheep, up to a thousand were driven off, killing those they could not take with them including all hogs. By noon, Brant ordered his force to depart the region with their plunder.
Aftermath
When through, more than 700 people were left homeless. Only three settlers were killed, those among the scouting party, and a small number captured; however, no listing of casualties of the raid exists. Colonel Klock’s regiment did not arrive until after the raiders had left. The militia pursued, but were unable to catch up with them. Loyalist Captain Caldwell later commented about the raid writing, “…we would have in all probability killed most of the inhabitants of German Flatts had they not been apprised of our coming by one of the scouts getting in and warning of our approach, and perhaps got to their forts…”
The three scouts who were killed the day before the raid were found and buried where they fell. A marker on Rt. 18 in Edmeston, NY marks the site. Of the five scouts who scattered when they were attacked by Brant’s men, they were never heard from again; assumed they were either captured or most likely killed. While Brant marched north to German Flatts, a war party of Oneidas and Tuscaroras capitalized on his absence from Unadilla and raided the town, freeing prisoners Brant had taken and sent back while in route to German Flatts.
After the raid, Brant was far from over causing havoc among the central New York region. Two months later, on November 11, 1778, he and his force, this time joined by Captain Walter Butler and his men, attacked the community of Cherry Valley, New York, around 30 miles southeast of German Flatts. This time, the region, though having received word of a probable attack, would not have the benefit of German Flatt’s Colonel Bellinger’s experience and caution. Colonel Ichabod Alden’s 7th Massachusetts Continental Regiment garrisoned the nearby fort. Alden received the warning of an imminent attack but brushed it off as rumor, refusing to allow the settlement’s inhabitants to move within the safety of the fort. The result was the death of Alden, along with fifteen of his soldiers, the total destruction of the community, while most of Cherry Valley’s residents were either killed or captured.
The three major raids; Wyoming, German Flatts, and Cherry Valley, including dozens of smaller skirmishes, many resulting in the death and or capture of isolated settlers, caused the Continental Congress to take action. In the late summer of 1779, one fourth of Washington’s army was dispatched to form a retaliatory expedition against the Iroquois Nation and Loyalists allied with them. Major General John Sullivan marched his army into the Finger Lake Region of New York and destroyed over 40 villages, driving the inhabitants westward where hundreds died of starvation in one of the coldest winters on record.
General Sullivan’s act of genocide, though opening up the region to European settlers after the war, did little to stop the number nor ferocity of Native American and Loyalist raids against frontier settlements. Locally for German Flatts, on October 29, 1780, Sir John Johnson passed through German Flatts after raiding the Schoharie Valley. He captured some and burned several of the newly constructed homesteads. In early 1781, Native Americans continued to appear in small parties, raiding and destroyed property at German Flats. And in 1782, attacks all along the western frontier had become so prevalent that by years end it was labeled “The Year of Blood.”
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