It Happened Here--The Battle of Minisink Ford
Part 2--The Battle in a "Howling Wilderness"  *

By  afternoon on July 20, 1779,  Joseph Brant and his Volunteers were hurrying up the trail along the Minisink (Delaware) River, with their  captured cattle and prisoners, attempting to put distance between themselves and  local militias they assumed would be assembling to follow them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Several Locations along NYS 97   

The fires of torched barns and houses had scarcely burned themselves out before riders were thundering over town and country roads to muster militias from settlements in Orange county, Goshen,  and Sussex County, NJ.

                                                                                   

The Road that became the Goshen-Minisink Turnpike (Rte 6) was the route followed by the Goshen Militia

The militias assembled at the ruins of Major Decker's farm.  Immediately, concerns were raised that enough militiamen were present to take on the raiders,  along with concerns that  they might not have enough gunpowder.  Contemporary accounts recommended militiamen each  provision themselves with 23 made-up cartridges, 1 lb. of powder,  and 3 pounds of shot.  Major John Poppinio,  for example, 'had only one quarter of a pound, which he reported was more than many others had.' * Lt. Col. Dr. Benjamin Tutsten, leader of the Machaghkamik militia wanted to wait until more men and supplies arrived. Supposedly, the argument swung in favor of those advocating immediate pursuit when Major Samuel Meeker of the New Jersey Militia dramatically jumped on his horse, and flourishing his sword declared 'Let the brave men follow me; the cowards may stay behind.'  A plan was quickly settled on to leave immediately on horseback along the Peenpak trail which  roughly parallels the river trail, to get ahead of the raiders  Before  they had travelled a few miles they were joined by Colonel John Hathorn who arrived with some  50 additional militiamen, from Warwick, N.Y.   Hathorn assumed command .

        U.S. Route 209 and Peenpak Tr. road, Huguenot, NY

Their plan was for the horses to  be brought back by several of the militiamen's sons and a few slaves that accompanied them.  Then, the militia would cut through the woods to set up an ambush in front of the Indians. 

As darkness fell Brant's forces made camp along the Halfway brook near where it empties into the Minisink.  About midnight the militiamen also camped  along the same creek about three and a half miles upstream of Brant's raiders.  The thick woods and rough terrain prevented either group from realizing the close proximity of the other.

NY 97 and County Rte. 11, Barryville

     In the predawn hours the militiamen  set off to try to get ahead of Brant's raiders and prepare an ambush.  While they were moving in to get into position, however, one of Hathorn's scouts tripped in the thick underbrush, discharging his weapon and alerting Brant's men, who fled.  Accounts vary, but one or more times the militiamen attempted to get around and surprise  the raiders who were principally concerned with escaping with their captured cattle,  horses, booty and prisoners.  Eventually,  they caught up to the raiders as they began to cross the river at the broad ford where the Lacawaxen Creek joins the Delaware, on the Pennsylvania side.  Unfortunately, in their zeal to press their attack  they fired from too great a distance and many of their shots failed to hit their targets.  Meanwhile, Joseph Brant and about 40 of his men worked their way up a ravine  to attack the militiamen's flank. The ambushers now found themselves ambushed!   As the raiders who were crossing the river joined the attack,  a sizable number of militiamen who were cut off and isolated fled from the battlefield.                             

                              Delaware River, near the ford, probably looks much as the ford did in Revolutionary

                                  times. Today, at the ford site,  roads, the Delaware and Hudson canal , the D&H aqueduct

                                                  and numerous buildings have greatly changed the ford's appearance

                                        

                                                                              Route 97 at Minisink Battlefield

Over the next four or five hours Hathorn's militia were gradually pushed up  the hillside to the rocky, boulder strewn summit as the tory and Indian  attack fanned out  to encircle  the besieged militiamen.  Firing was often intense, but the rocks and dense vegetation offered few clear fields of fire.  Initial fatal casualties may have been light on both sides.  But as the battle wore on, the militiamen's ammunition ran low and Hathorn called to his men to fire only if  they had a clear shot.  Meanwhile, Brant's raiders' ammunition may have also been running low for soon afterwards Brant ordered his men to charge the militamen's defensive line.  Fierce hand to hand combat broke out. The militamen's line dissolved.  

"Portrait "of Hathorn made in 1907 from descriptions made by  descendants 

/ Joseph Brant portrait--George Romney, 1776 photo from the Battlefield Park

Hathorn saw he had lost control and ordered his men to attempt  a break out and escape any way they could. He urged Dr.Tutsen to flee. But Tutsen, who was caring for the wounded, under a large sheltering rock that would become known as the "hospital rock", refused.  He and the seventeen men he was aiding would die in the assault.

19th century illustration

of Dr. Tusten at "Hospital

Rock" All militiamen, of 

course, would not have been wearing any kind of military uniforms,

                                                                     Marker at the hamlet of Tusten,   NY S  97
The defeated militia fled in every direction, with most scrambling down the hill to throw themselves  into the Delaware river.  The Indians and tories followed them singly or in small groups in hot pursuit. Many of Hathorn's defeated men were shot down or tomahawked and scalped.  Survivors trickled into Machaghkamik  over the next three  or four days with tales of harrowing escapes.  Brant would continue his withdrawal over the Minisink River up into Iroquoia  into the heart of the Finger Lakes Country and central New York.
In less than a month General John Sullivan and an army of about 4000 Continentals would plunge into Iroquoia, brushing aside Brants efforts to oppose him and destroying scores of Iroquois villages effectively ending the Iroquois presence in New York.

                                                             

                                                           Route 97 at the Lackawaxen Creek/Delaware River junction

*Part 1  is available by going to this blog site  (NYSHMS:It Happened Here) 9-2019.

* p.108   The Battle of Minisink,  Vernon Leslie.  1975.  Leslie makes extensive use of the Draper Manuscripts owned by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, an extensive body of research compiled by Dr. Lyman Draper  in the first decade of the 20th century that included stories collected from families of the survivors of the raid and battle, and correspondence between Hathorn and Governor Clinton, previously believed to have been lost in the New York State Capitol fire of 1911.  Draper died in 1907, before he could write his work.

Marker of the Week  Fortnight (!)--  20th Century  Heroism Recognized !

As a veteran of a meagre 3 years of Den  Mothering  Parenting , I cannot imagine this scale of courage, patience and fortitude! :)

Next Time--Two Explorers