May 30, 2003, will be the 225^th anniversary of the Battle of Cobleskill. Members of the Burning of the Valley Military Association will commemorate the battle on the weekend of May 31 and June 1 with a re-enactment at Lansing Manor, North Blenheim. BVMA will also re-enact the Cherry Valley Massacre on September 20-21, at Cherry Valley, and the German Flats raid on October 4 and 5 at the Nicholas Herkimer Home in Little Falls.

Richard Christman, of Delanson, is a Revolutionary War re-enactor and member of the Third Battalion, Tryon County militia, a BVMA unit. This account includes a detailed death description which may be offensive to some readers.

THE YEAR of 1778 was marked by loyalist and Indian raids on frontier settlements from the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania to the Mohawk Valley of New York.

On July 3 Col. John Butler, commander of the loyalist “Butler’s Rangers,” attacked the Wyoming Valley at Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, in what is known as the Wyoming Valley Massacre. On November 11, Butler’s son Walter led loyalists and Indians in the Cherry Valley Massacre.

But before those massacres, a little settlement on the Cobus Kill had fallen victim to tomahawk and torch. On May 30, what is now Cobleskill was destroyed in one of the first raids of a truly terrible year.

Let us look back at 1778.

The rich flats along the Cobus Kill, in what is now the towns of Cobleskill and Richmondville, were home to about 20 families within a distance of three miles. All were believed to be whigs – rebels who supported independence. Christian Brown commanded an organized company of militia[1] and loyalists could be found a few miles north in New Dorlach. The revolution had begun and settlers of the frontier areas were threatened.

On or about April 20, 1778, Capt. William Patrick of Ichabod Alden’s Massachusetts regiment were ordered to the Schoharie Valley by Gen. John Stark, commander of the Northern Department. Stark gave Patrick this instruction:

Sir, You will keep continual scouting parties in the adjacent country to where you are posted, to discover the motions and movements of our internal enemies. If any of them should be found under arms, aiding, assisting, or forthwith detect them (if in your power) and with their crimes send them to me or the commanding officer at this place. You will do the utmost in your power to find out if any British Officers should come to that country, as it is highly probable they will do, because they have there so many friends; and let no pains be spared in detecting them, making report of your proceedings, from time to time, to me or the commanding officer at this place.[2]

On May 25, military authorities were informed that Seneca and Cayuga Indians were on the warpath.[3] They knew something of what was going on, and that Col. Butler, the commander of Butler’s Rangers, was planning a military movement.

In the latter part of May, several Indians were seen in the vicinity of the Cobus Kill and Capt. Christian Brown sent to Fort Clinton, near the northern boundary line of the present village of Middleburgh, for help. Fort Clinton was the nearest place with enough manpower to spare since it was the only site in the Schoharie Valley with a garrison of continental troops.[4]

On May 26, Captain Patrick and Lieut. Jonathan Maynard, Sgt. Jonas[5] Belknap, a drummer, a fifer and 29 privates – 34 men in all – arrived at Captain Brown’s residence. Brown’s farm was located about 1˝ miles east of present village of Cobleskill, near the old Becker farm. By this time, fifteen men of the 15th Albany County militia were at Brown’s farm.

Two days later, the Captain Patrick’s small force and Brown’s militia moved up the valley to the home of Lawrence Lawyer. Scouts were sent out to try to locate the enemy and on the 29th, three scouts encountered two Schoharie Indians and shot one dead.

JOSEPH Brant, a loyalist Mohawk, captain in the British Indian department, and one of the most feared men on the frontier, had been expected to strike Cherry Valley. Instead, on May 30, his forces approached the settlement along the Cobus Kill, apparently looking for provisions and cattle.

As Brant’s forces approached, Patrick marched his small force up the creek to the residence of George Warner, the most westerly house in the Cobus Kill settlement. It was located in the area known today as Warnerville. Patrick’s troops had been at Warner’s only a short time when about 20 Indians were discovered. Patrick pursued them although Captain Brown, by many accounts, feared the patriots were being led into an ambush. “The enemy... had not been pursued a mile, before it was evident their numbers were increasing,” wrote Simms.[6]

David Freemoyer, one of Brown’s militiamen, said later that the soldiers “were in such hot pursuit of the Indians that they [the soldiers] were precipitated upon the main body of [Indians]... who were lying in ambush.”[7]

The pursuit stopped and an engagement ensued with both parties fighting under the cover of the trees. Firing became intense. Patrick attempted to order a bayonet charge to break the Indian line but was shot before the charge could begin. Two of his soldiers were killed in an attempt to carry him from the field, several others fell in the battle and Brown took command.

At some time during the battle, Lieutenant Maynard is said to have been spared by giving a Masonic sign to Brant.[8] Whatever the reason, he was taken captive and remained a prisoner in Canada until late 1782.

On hearing the firing of the enemy, families in the settlement sought safety in the forest or fled to Schoharie. Brown realized the Americans had been drawn into an ambush. Seeing that they were badly outnumbered, he ordered a retreat. Brant’s forces followed closely and the battle continued from tree to tree.

“The death of Capt. Patrick and his Lieutenant so damped the ardor of the Americans and the enemy was found to be so much superior in numbers being about 300 or 350, while that of the Americans was only about 200[9] [that] Capt. Brown ordered a retreat,” wrote David Freemoyer in his pension application. The retreat became a rout and continued until what was left of Brown’s force was well beyond the settlement. “They retreated with great precipitation to Fort Clinton,” said Freemoyer.

AS the soldiers streamed past Warner’s house, from which they had been drawn into an ambush, three of Patrick’s men and two of Brown’s militia took refuge inside. Their action cost them their lives but may have saved those who escaped. “Being fired on from the house, the Indians halted to dislodge its inmates, by which the rest of the party gained time to make good their retreat. The house was set on fire, and three of its inmates were burned in its ruins,” wrote Simms.[10]

Two continentals were killed while attempting to make their escape from the burning building. One is said to have been taken alive and tortured to death. Simms wrote:

The party who first visited the scene after the battle, found this soldier not far from where the house had stood, with his body cut open and his intestines fastened around a tree several feet distant. In one hand was a roll of continental bills, placed there by the enemy in derision of our country’s almost valueless “promises to pay.”[11]

* * *

The remains of [Martinus] Fester fell into a tub of soap in the cellar, and were known by his tobacco box, and those of [John] Freemire were identified by his knee buckles and gun-barrel.[12]

Following the battle, the Indians burned all dwellings in the settlement except an old log cabin belonging to George Warner, a Committee of Safety member who they may have hoped to capture when he returned home.[13] “The enemy laid waste the whole settlement on Cobleskill by burning houses, barns, stables & shooting such horses as they could not conveniently catch to take away with them,” said Freemoyer in his pension application.

Simms says that ten dwellings were burned at this time: those of George Warner, his son Nicholas, George Fester, Adam Shafer, William Snyder, John Freemire, Lawrence Lawyer, John Zeh, John Bouck and John Shell, the latter owned by Lawrence Lawyer. With the barns and other out buildings, the total burned was 20, said Simms, citing a record of the Lutheran Church at Schoharie.

Many sources agree that 22 men including Captain Patrick were killed, two wounded and two taken prisoner. Of the approximately 350 Indians consisting mostly of Senecas, Schoharies, and Oquagos, and loyalists, approximately 25 were killed. Simms wrote that “a mulatto, who was with the enemy at this time and returned after the war, stated that 25 of their number, mostly Indians, were buried in a mud hole near David Zeh’s. He also stated, that seven of the enemy who were wounded in the battle, died on their way to Canada.”[14] The mud hole or marsh is said in Kenneth Fake’s 1937 Official History of the Town of Cobleskill to be located on the Route 7 right-of-way about midway between Richmondville and Warnerville. The battle took place a short distance below this marsh, towards Warnerville.

Bodies were buried in pits dug near where the George Warner house had stood, not far from the battle scene. Those of several soldiers were not discovered until some days later, even though scouts had been sent out to reconnoiter and look after the wounded.

One of those wounded was Sergeant Belknap of Alden’s command. Simms relates that after being wounded, Belknap “discovered a hollow log into which he crept.”

The next day he backed out of his resting place cold and stiff, and while seated upon a fence, reflecting upon the events of the last 24 hours, he discovered two Indians laden with plunder approaching him, having two dogs. Unobserved by them, he let himself fall into a bunch of briers. The Indians halted near him, and their dogs placed their paws on the fence and growled. He supposed himself discovered, but soon one of them took out a bottle, from which both drank, and he had the satisfaction of seeing them resume their march, without noticing the irritation of their canine friends. Casting his eye along the beautiful valley, and surveying the ruins of the preceding day, he discovered the old house of Warner, on the west side of the creek, still standing, to which he made his way. He found it unoccupied, but victuals were on the table, and after eating, he laid down, faint and sad, upon a bed which the house also afforded. In the afternoon, two men came and conveyed him to the Schoharie Fort where his wound was properly drest and he recovered.[15]

Following the attack, surviving residents hid in the forest. Most who sought safety in the forest would spend a rainy night there and not leave until the next day. Simms says that the wife of Lawrence Lawyer and three others stayed in the woods three days and finally came out near the mouth of the Cobus Kill.

This report was sent to General Stark the day following the battle:

Schoharry 30th May 1778

                   William Dietz, Esq.
                   Thomas Cheson, Major.
                   Jost Becker, Major.
N.B. the number of the Enemy as near as we can Learn is about three or four hundred,
One O’clock at night.”[16]

Col. Abraham Wemple of the Schenectady militia came to Schoharie with 119 men and wrote the following to Gen. Abraham Ten Brock:

I have buried the Dead at Cobus Kill, which is 14 in number; found five more burnt in the ruins of the house of one Yurry Wainer [Warner] where the engagement has been; they were Butchered in the most Inhuman manner; burnt 10 houses and Barns, Horses, Cows, Sheep &c. lay dead all over the fields.

I shall leave a guard of 70 men at the lower fort of Schoharie, all the rest of my force I shall keep at the upper part of the Settlement. Please to send the bearer 2 quire of paper.

                                   I am D’r Genl. Your Ob’t hum. Serv’t

                   A’bm Wemple
                   Schohary 6th June 1778

D’r Sir, I forgot to mention in mine of this date that the people of Cobus Kill, whose houses and Effects are burnt, only came off with what they had upon their backs, have apply’d to me for provisions. I shall be glad to know wether they can draw out of public stores or so.[17]

“Something like a reign of terror prevailed” on the frontier following the Cobleskill raid, wrote Alexander Flick, the state historian, in his History of the State of New York. The Mohawk Valley was in panic and Albany also feared an attack. All available state militia were ordered to Schoharie Valley by Gov. George Clinton and Flick says that parts of eleven regiments were sent.

“The raids made so deep an impression on the inhabitants that in June when nearly a hundred Tory families assembled in the vicinity of Fort Hunter, they were allowed to march toward Canada unmolested” wrote Francis P. Kimball in The Capital Region of New York State.

In Albany, the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies met on June 9 and considered reports of desertion.

Whereas it appears probable in the opinion of this Board, that divers of the Subjects of this State, have lately gone over to and joined a party of Savages who have [lately] committed the Depredations at Schoharry

Therefore Resolved That it be and it is herby most earnestly recommended to the Coll.. or Commanding officers of the respective Militia Regiments in this County forthwith to order the Captains or Commanding Officers of Companie to make immediate returns to this Board of the Names of such persons of their respective Companies who have during the Alarm at Schoharry been and are still absent from their respective Places of abode.[18]

The raids continued: Mayfield and Springfield in June and German Flats in September. Although these were individually small raids, they spread panic over a wide area.

The Battle of Cobleskill had repercussions for weeks, from Albany west. Fort Dubois was built at Cobus Kill between April 6 and July 11, 1779. It was located on a height of land then owned by Jacob Shaffer on present-day Main Street, about a mile east Cobleskill’s center. The fort covered nearly three acres and was commodious enough to accommodate all the Cobus Kill valley inhabitants. A natural stream fed water into the moat surrounding the fort’s palisades.[19] Shaffer’s house was also picketed.

On June 11, Congress authorized a military expedition to protect the New York frontier. The expedition was to start in 1778 but on Aug. 22 it was postponed. On November 11, Cherry Valley became the seventh New York State community destroyed that year.[20] On Feb. 25, 1779, the expedition to the west was re-authorized by Congress. That summer, generals John Sullivan and James Clinton led the march west through the Seneca territory, destroying crops and villages and forcing the natives to Niagara.

A year later, loyalists and Indians retaliated with another chapter in Schoharie County history: the Johnson-Brant raid on the Schoharie Valley.

Hagan, Edward A., War in Schohary 1777 – 1783, Middleburgh, N.Y., 1980.

History of the State of New York, vol. IV., Alexander Flick, ed., Columbia University Press, New York, 1933.

History of the Town of Cobleskill, Robert Holt, ed., Cobleskill, N.Y., 1997.

Kelsay, Isabel Thompson, Joseph Brant 1743 - 1807 Man of Two Worlds, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, N.Y., 1984.

Kimball, Francis P., Capital Region of New York State, vol. I, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York, 1942.

Lossing, B. J. Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, vol. I, New York, 1851.

McCarty, Thomas Martin, “Death of Captain Patrick,” unpublished paper by a Yale University graduate student.

Minutes of the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies, vol. I, Victor Hugo Paltsits, ed., Albany, N.Y., 1909.

Morrison, James F., History of Fulton County in the Revolution, Gloversville, N.Y., 1977.

Official History of the Town of Cobleskill, Kenneth Fake, ed., Cobleskill, N.Y., 1937.

“Pension Papers of David Freemoyer,” Schoharie County Historical Review, Spring, 2001.

Public Papers of George Clinton, vol. 3, Hastings, Hugh, ed., James R. Lyon, Albany, N.Y., 1909.

Simms, Jeptha R., Frontiersmen of New York, vol. II, Albany, N.Y., 1882.

Simms, Jeptha R., History of Schoharie County and Border Wars of New York, Albany, N.Y., 1845.

Stark, Caleb, Memoir and Official Correspondence of General John Stark, G.P. Lyon, Concord, N.H., 1860.

Watt, Gavin and Morrison, James F., British Campaign of 1777, Toronto, Ont., Canada, 2002.