The Mohawk Valley; Its Legends and Its History (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... Chapter XXI Oriskany IN the month of August, 1777, occurred two of the most important battles of the Revolution, the results of which were finally seen in the surrender at Saratoga of General Burgoyne to General Gates and the victorious Americans, when the campaign, begun with the bombastic proclamation of the British General, who signed his name, " John Burgoyne, Esquire, Lieutenant-General of His Majesty's forces in America, Colonel of the Queen's Regiment of Light Dragoons, Governor of Fort William in North Britain, one of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament, and commanding an army and fleet on an expedition from Canada, etc., etc.," ended in the complete and humiliating defeat of that windy gentleman. "I have," says the proclamation, "but to give stretch to the Indian forces under my direction, and they amount to thousands, to overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain and America. I consider them the same where ever they may lurk." The battles I speak of are those of Bennington and Oriskany. It was at the battle of Bennington that he received the first check to his victorious march to Albany through the Champlain Valley, and at Oriskany and Fort Schuyler, the turning back of the attendant expedition to Albany by the way of the Mohawk Valley. The plan of the Campaign of Burgoyne was arranged in London and provided for a force of four thousand British troops and three thousand German, to which were added some Canadians and a body of Indians. An auxiliary force under Colonel St. Leger was to leave Montreal for Oswego simultaneous with Burgoyne's expedition through the Champlain Valley, and there join a body of Tories under Sir John Johnson and Indians under Brant, who were to clear the Mohawk Valley and join Burgoyne and...