Failing in these attempts to induce a surrender, the besiegers, four days afterward, had recourse to another expedient. It was the issuing of an appeal to the inhabitants of Tryon County, signed by Sir John Johnson, Colonel Claus, and Colonel John Butler, similar in its tenor to the verbal and written messages of St. Leger to Colonel Gansevoort. The appeal commenced with strong protestations of a desire for the restoration of peace, with a promise of pardon, and oblivion for the past, notwithstanding the many and great injuries the signers had received, upon a proper submission by the people. They, too, were threatened with the ravages of a victorious army, and the resentment of the Indians for the losses they had sustained at Oriskany, in the event of rejecting this appeal. In regard to the garrison of Fort Schuyler, its longer resistance was pronounced "mulish obstinacy," and the people of the Mohawk Valley were urged to send up a deputation of their principal men, to oblige the garrison to do at once what they must be forced to do soon—surrender. If they did not surrender, the threat was again repeated that every soul would be put to death by the Indians. [FN] Messengers were despatched with this document into Tryon County, but to no good purpose; while, as will soon appear, some of those messengers were involved in serious difficulty by their errand.
[FN] See Appendix, No. VII. I have found this document only in The Remembrancer for 1777, page 451.
But if Colonel Willett's success in the brilliant execution of the sortie on the 6th, entitled him, as it unquestionably did, to the commendations he received, a still more perilous enterprise, undertaken by him a few days afterward, was thought, alike by friends and foes, to entitle him to still greater applause. The artillery of the besiegers was not sufficiently heavy to make any impression upon the works, and there was every probability that the garrison might hold out until succors should be obtained, could their situation be made known. Colonel Willett was not only well acquainted, but exceedingly popular, in Tryon County; and it was supposed that, should he show himself personally among the militia of that district, notwithstanding the extent of their suffering in the late expedition, he might yet rally a force sufficient to raise the siege. The bold project was therefore conceived by him of passing by night, in company with another officer, through the enemy's works, and, regardless of the danger from the prowling savages, making his way through some forty or fifty miles of sunken morasses and pathless woods, in order to raise the County and bring relief. [FN-1] Selecting Major Stockwell for his companion. Colonel Willett undertook the expedition on the 10th, and left the fort at ten o'clock that night, each armed with nothing but a spear, and provided only with a small supply of crackers and cheese, a small canteen of spirits, and in all other respects unincumbered, even by a blanket. Having escaped from the sally-port, they crept upon their hands and knees along the edge of a morass to the river, which they crossed by crawling over upon a log, and succeeded in getting off unperceived by the sentinels of the enemy, although passing very near to them. Their first advance was into a deep-tangled forest in which, enveloped in thick darkness, they lost their direction, and found it impossible to proceed. While in this state of uncertainty, the barking of a dog added little to their comfort, inasmuch as it apprized them that they were not far from a new Indian encampment, formed subsequent to the sortie a few days before. They were therefore compelled to stand perfectly still for several hours, and until the morning star appeared to guide their way. Striking first in a Northern direction for several miles, and then Eastwardly, they traced a zig-zag course, occasionally adopting the Indian method of concealing their trail by walking in the channels of streams, and by stepping on stones along the river's edge. In this way they traveled the whole of the ensuing day without making a single halt. On the approach of night they dared not to strike a light, but lay down to sleep, interlocked in each other's arms. Pursuing their journey on the 12th, their little stock of provisions being exhausted, they fed upon raspberries and blackberries, of which they found an abundance in an opening occasioned by a windfall. Thus refreshed, they pushed forward with renewed vigor and at an accelerated pace, and arrived at Fort Dayton at three o'clock in the afternoon. [FN-2]
[FN-1] British Universal Magazine.
[FN-2] "So successful was Colonel Willett in all his movements, that the Indians, believing him to be possessed of supernatural power, gave to him the name of the Devil."—Campbell.
The Colonel and his friend received a hearty welcome from Colonel Weston, whose regiment was then in charge of Fort Dayton, and from whom he obtained the agreeable intelligence that, on learning the news of General Herkimer's disaster. General Schuyler had ordered Generals Arnold and Larned, with the Massachusetts brigade, to march to the relief of Colonel Gansevoort. Colonel Willett thereupon took horse immediately for Albany to meet General Arnold, who was to command the expedition; and in four days afterward accompanied Arnold back to Fort Dayton, where the troops were assembling. The first New-York regiment had been added to the brigade of General Larned, who was yet in the rear, bringing up the heavy baggage and stores.
During Willett's brief absence to Albany, an incident occurred in the neighborhood of Fort Dayton, showing that if he had been active in his attempts to bring succors to the fort, the enemy, on the other hand, had not been idle. About two miles above Fort Dayton resided a Mr. Shoemaker, a disaffected gentleman, who had been in his Majesty's commission of the peace. Having heard of a clandestine meeting of Tories at the house of that gentleman, Colonel Weston despatched a detachment of troops thither, which came upon the assemblage by surprise, and took them all prisoners. Among them was Lieutenant Walter N. Butler, from St. Leger's army, who, with fourteen white soldiers and the same number of Indians, [FN-1] had visited the German Flats secretly, with the appeal of Sir John Johnson, Claus, and the elder Butler, referred to in a preceding page, for the purpose of persuading the timid and disaffected inhabitants to abandon the Provincial cause, and enroll themselves with the King's army before Fort Schuyler. Butler was in the midst of his harangue to the meeting at the moment of the unwelcome surprise. General Arnold ordered a court-martial, and caused him to be tried as a spy. [FN-2] Of this tribunal Colonel Willett officiated as Judge Advocate. The Lieutenant was convicted, and received sentence of death; but at the intercession of a number of officers, who had known him while a student at law in Albany, his life was spared by a reprieve. He was, however, removed to Albany and closely imprisoned until the Spring of the following year. When General the Marquis de Lafayette assumed the command of the Northern department, the friends of the Butler family, in consequence, as it was alleged, of his ill-health, interceded for a mitigated form of imprisonment. He was then removed to a private house and kept under guard, but shortly afterward effected his escape—owing, it was reported, to treachery—and was subsequently distinguished as one of the severest scourges of the beautiful valley which had given him birth.