The Indian forces of Captain Brant continuing to increase at Oghkwaga, and the anxiety of the people becoming greater with every report from that quarter, General Herkimer [FN-1] determined to repair thither, and obtain an interview. For this purpose the General dispatched a messenger to that place, and invited the chief to meet him at Unadilla—moving forward himself at the same time, at the head of about three hundred of the local militia, from the regiments of Colonels Cox, Klock, and Isenlord, well armed and provided. The precise object of the General, in seeking this interview with Brant, remains to this day more a matter of conjecture than of certainty. The few scattered fragments of Herkimer's correspondence which have fallen into the hands of the writer, show that it was no sudden movement; but, on the contrary, that General Schuyler, Colonel Van Schaick, Colonel Harper, and others, were consulted upon the subject. On the application of Herkimer, Colonel Van Schaick was detached to his assistance on the 15th of June, with one hundred and fifty men, with which force he repaired to Cherry Valley, but could proceed no farther for want of provisions. General Schuyler was also to repair thither in person, in the event of his presence being deemed necessary. [FN-2] Ostensibly, the expedition was one of peace; [FN-3] but the extent of the preparations, and the physical strength of the expedition, imparted an equivocal character to the movement; not more so, however, than was the conduct of Brant during the whole Spring, since his proceedings were such as to keep the minds of the people in a state of feverish excitement and ceaseless uncertainty. Thus, on the 10th of June, Colonel Harper wrote urgently to General Herkimer for a supply of ammunition, in the expectation of an immediate hostile irruption of Brant into the Valley of the Schoharie Kill. On the 13th, the Cherry Valley Committee wrote to the General a still more alarming letter. Brant, according to this statement, in connexion with some of the loyalists of Unadilla, had marked a path directly through the forest to Æsopus, by which route the Tories of Ulster and Orange Counties were to join his forces at Oghkwaga; at which place the chief had vaunted that shortly he would not fear the approach of three thousand men. [FN-4] On the other hand. Major Fonda wrote, on the 19th of June, that an embassy of chiefs and sachems of the Cayuga and Seneca nations, having repaired to Oghkwaga to remonstrate with Thayendanegea against farther hostilities, the latter had determined to listen to their councils, and withdraw into the Cayuga country. In pursuance of this policy, it was added, on what was esteemed good authority, that the Mohawk chief had released a prisoner with his own hands, telling the captors that they had acted wrong. [FN-5]
[FN-1] In the Autumn of 1776, three Brigadier-Generals of the militia were commissioned by the Provincial Congress of New-York, of whom Colonel Nicholas Herkimer was one. The Herkimer family was one of the first to settle at the German Flats, and the name is among those of the original patentees—not Herkimer, however, which is a corruption—but Ergemore, which was the true German name.—Letter of L. Ford to the author.
[FN-2] MS. letters of Colonels Van Schaick, Tupper, and others, among Gen. Herkimer's papers.
[FN-3] Letter of L. Ford, Esq. to the author.
[FN-4] MS. letter from Samuel Clyde to General Herkimer.
[FN-5] MS. letter of Major Jelles Fonda, among the Herkimer papers.
Such was the uncertain condition of things when the expedition under consideration was commenced. Brant and Herkimer had been near neighbors and personal friends, before the troubles came on, [FN] and it is possible the General still cherished a belief that he might yet detach the dusky warrior from the cause he had embraced, but nevertheless might not be disinclined to relinquish. Perhaps he designed nothing more than to drive him from his equivocal position. Perhaps, also, should opportunity be presented, it was his intention to seize his person. But be these suppositions as they may, it will be seen that there was at least one moment in which he contemplated a more decisive course.
[FN] The residence of General Herkimer was a short distance below the Little Falls of the Mohawk, near the river. His mansion, built of brick, is yet standing. Brant's farm, on which he was residing when the Revolutionary storm arose, was near the Upper Indian Castle, about three miles below the house of Herkimer. The farm lies directly upon the river, and is now very valuable. I visited the place in the Autumn of 1835. No other memorials of its last noble possessor remained than the cellar of his house, and the apple-trees which stood before his door. These were vigorous, and in full bearing.—Author.