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We fought in the dark and the storm with Herkimer at the Oriskany, and many of our warriors fell. But we did not sulk in our lodges. We have ravaged and driven in the whole American border along a line of hundreds of miles. Now the Congress sends an army to attack us, to avenge what we have done, and the great forces of the king are not here.
Then he asked what the old soldier meant by wishing to be excused from duty, and the sergeant, in the fewest words possible, gave him an account of our proceedings since leaving the camp at Oriskany, concluding by saying: "There is no question but that Jacob Sitz will make his way through the Indian encampment, if it can be done by any person.
The writing was my cousin Dorothy's; and, trembling all over in spite of myself, I broke the seal of the first. It was undated: "DEAREST, Your letter from Oriskany is before me. I am here in your room, the door locked, alone with your letter, overwhelmed with love and tenderness and fear for you.
Not far from Oriskany, Brant, the Mohawk chief, and Johnson, the loyalist leader, hid their men in a ravine, through which the Americans would have to pass, in a thin line, over a causeway of logs. Meantime, the Americans were heedlessly pressing on, without order, to the rescue of their comrades. In their impatience, even ordinary precautions were neglected.
That night we buried our dead; one hundred on the field where they had fallen, two hundred and fifty in the burial trenches at Oriskany thirty-five wagon-loads in all.
Sergeant Corney had an interview with the general after we had succeeded in quieting Jacob to a certain degree, and the commander advised that we return home without delay in order to give information as to what we had seen; but he did us three the honor of requesting, in case our services should not be needed immediately at Cherry Valley, that we would rejoin his force, which was to be stationed at the mouth of Oriskany Creek, without delay.
General Herkimer, August, 1777, on his march from what is Herkimer county to the battle of Oriskany, forded the Mohawk near the site of the old fort, and though wounded, stopped there on the return journey. But what about Trenton?
"General Arnold has despatches for you, Captain Ormond," he said; "I am Drummond, Brigade Major; we expected you at Varick Manor on the ninth you wrote to your cousin, Miss Varick, from Oriskany, you know."
Can't you see that by loiterin' now we may be sacrificing all those brave fellows who are making ready to march from the Oriskany in the hope of aiding in holdin' the fort?" "That is your final word?" Jacob asked, sharply, and Sergeant Corney replied, feelingly: "It cannot be otherwise. We are bound first to obey orders, even though a dozen of our best friends were bein' led to the stake, an' "
"As many knew him for a Tory, his tale found ready belief, and, when interrogated as to the numbers of the advancing host, he gave a warning frown and pointed significantly to the countless leaves that fluttered on the branches overhead." They had been decoyed into their present situation, and had been moody and uneasy since the battle of Oriskany.
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