[FN] On the 9th of April, 1779, Congress passed a resolution granting the commission of Captain to four of the Oneida and Tuscarora Indians, and eight commissions of Lieutenants. Subsequently, the then principal Oneida chief, Louis Atayataroughta, was commissioned a Lieutenant-colonel. Louis, or "Colonel Louis" as he was afterward called, was the representative of three races, being part Indian, part Negro, and part white man. A few other commissions were issued to those Indians in the course of the war. The greater number served faithfully. Some were killed, and three of the lieutenants deserted to the enemy, and exchanged their commissions for the same rank in the British service.
Seven of the principal Onondaga chiefs, who had hitherto been considered as neutrals, being at the time in Oneida, on their way to Fort Schuyler, it was determined to call them in to the council, and acquaint them with the above resolution. It was accordingly done by the transmission of a large black belt of wampum. The Onondagas replied, "That they were very glad to hear the resolution which their children, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, had made. They observed, that as the Oneidas, who were the head of the confederacy, had committed the council-fire and tree of peace to their care, with a charge to guard them against the approach of any thing which might injure either, or tend to interrupt the harmony of the confederacy, they had therefore invariably pursued the path of peace; and though they had been desired by the opposite party of their tribe to extinguish the council-fire, yet they had refused, nor could they consistently do it while the Oneidas retained any hopes of accommodating matters in the Six Nations. But as the heads of the confederacy had declared themselves so fully upon that subject, they had now let go their hold of peace, extinguished the council-fire, and sunk the tree into the earth; and were determined to join their children, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, to oppose any invader."
The Onondagas farther engaged, upon their return home, to effect a final separation in their tribe, and insist that every one should declare for one side or the other. The conduct of most of the Onondagas had been from the first equivocal—often openly hostile. But those present at this council manifested a better feeling, and joined in the request of the Oneidas for troops to aid in their protection. The Oneidas, on this occasion, placed great confidence in the professions of their Onondaga brethren, and were in high spirits at the result of the council. [FN]
[FN] General Clinton's correspondence—MS. letter of Colonel Van Dyck.
There was other evidence, not only of the intention of Thayendanegea to make a powerful Indian descent upon the Mohawk during this winter, but of the supposed fidelity of these Onondagas to the United Sates. About the middle of February, General Clinton, having through various channels and by several expresses, received information at Albany of such a design, marched to Schenectady with Colonel Van Schaick's regiment, ordering the latter as far up the Mohawk as Caughnawaga, there to await the event. On the 26th of February, Captain Copp, of Fort Van Dyck, [FN-1] wrote to Captain Graham, then in charge of Fort Schuyler, announcing that two of the Oneida messengers, of distinguished (Indian) families, had just returned from Niagara, where they had obtained positive evidence of Brant's purpose. The Mohawk chief had received expresses, announcing that the Shawanese and Delawares were to strike a simultaneous blow upon the frontier of Virginia; [FN-2] and Brant himself was to lead the main expedition direct to the Mohawk, while another diversion was to be created by sending a smaller force round by the Unadilla, to fall upon the settlements of Schoharie. In regard to the fidelity of the Onondagas, it was stated by the Oneida chiefs that fourteen of that nation had been despatched to Niagara, by the chiefs of the tribe, to persuade their brethren, who had taken up the hatchet with the Mohawks, to return. But these fourteen messengers had not been permitted to come back themselves, and the Onondagas were apprehensive that they and all their people at Niagara had been made prisoners. The uneasiness in Tryon County was greatly increased under these circumstances. Major Jelles Fonda wrote to General Clinton, stating that there were yet three hundred Tory families in the northern part of that settlement, affording aid and comfort to the hostile refugees, who kept up a continual intercourse with them, across through the woods, or by lake Champlain, to Canada. For greater security, therefore, he urged permission to build a strong block-house, and station fifty rangers within it, on the Sacondaga river, directly north of Johnstown.
[FN-1] In the Oneida or Onondaga country.
[FN-2] The project of Colonel Hamilton, frustrated by his capture.