This fort was eligibly situated upon a high plain in the rear of the village, and commanded an extensive sweep of the valley on the right and left. A sort of defense was thrown up there by the people in the early part of the war, but the fort proper was erected by the government after the alarming demonstrations of the Indians in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys in 1778. For a while it was an important fortress, affording protection to the people in the neighborhood, and forming a key to the communication with the Schoharie, Cherry Valley, and Unadilla settlements. Its form was an irregular quadrangle, with earth and log bastions, embrasures at each corner, and barracks and a strong blockhouse within. The plain on which it stood is of peninsular form,
* I was unsuccessful in my search for information respecting the career of General Herkimer in youth and early manhood. He left no children. Those of the family name are descendants of his only brother, George Herkimer. His family was among the early settlers of the German Flats, and, though opulent according to the standard of his times, he seems to have been quite uneducated. An old man whom I saw near the Flats remembered him as "a large, square-built Dutchman," and supposed him to have been about 05 years old when he died. Should this meet the eye of any of his descendants, they will confer a favor upon the author by communicating to him any information they may possess concerning the general and his immediate family.
** An aged resident of Fort Plain, Mr. David Lipe, whose house is near the canal, below the old fortification, went over the ground with me, and I made a survey of the outlines of the fort according to his directions. He aided in pulling down the block-house when it was demolished after the war, and his memory seemed to be very accurate. I am indebted to him for much of the information here recorded concerning Fort Plain.
***Explanation of the Plan.—The black line represents the parapet; a, the largo block-house; bbbb, small block-houses at each bastion; cc, barracks. There were two largo apple-trees within the fort, and on the northern side of the hill is the living spring that supplied the garrison with water.
Fort Plain Block-house.—Trial of its Strength.—Invasion of the Settlement.—True Location of Fort Plain
and across the neck, or isthmus, a breast-work was thrown up. The fort extended along the brow of the hill northwest of the village, and the blockhouse was a few rods from the northern declivity.
