No attempts were made by the enemy to molest General Clinton while thus detained at Otsego Lake. Still, his proceedings were not left entirely without observation, and there were two individual affrays happening in his vicinity, which deserve special mention. The name of David Elerson, one of the bold spirits associated with Murphy in Morgan's rifle corps, has already occurred in a former chapter. The detachment to which he belonged had been ordered from Schoharie to join his expedition. While lying at the head of the lake, Elerson rambled off to an old clearing, at the distance of a mile or more from camp to gather pulse for dinner. Having filled his knapsack, while adjusting it in order to return to camp, he was startled at the rustling of the tall and coarse herbage around him, and in the same instant beheld some ten or a dozen Indians, who had crept upon him so cautiously as to be just on the point of springing to grasp him. Their object was clearly rather to make him a prisoner than to kill him, since he might easily have been shot down unperceived. Perhaps they wanted him for an auto-da-fe, perhaps to obtain information. Seizing his rifle, which was standing by his side, Elerson sprang forward to escape. A shower of tomahawks hurtled through the air after him; but as he had plunged into a thicket of tall weeds and bushes, he was only struck on one of his hands, his middle finger being nearly severed. A brisk chase was immediately commenced. Scaling an old brush-wood fence, Elerson darted into the woods, and the Indians after him. He was as fleet as a stag, and perceiving that they were not likely soon to overtake, the pursuers discharged their rifles after him, but luckily without effect. The chase was thus continued from eleven till three o'clock—Elerson using every device and stratagem to elude or deceive the Indians, but they holding him close. At length, having gained a moment to breathe, an Indian started up in his front. Drawing up his rifle to clear the passage in that direction, the whiz of a bullet fleshing his side, and the crack of a rifle, from another point, taught him that delays were particularly dangerous at that spot. The Indian in front, however, had disappeared on his presenting his rifle, and Elerson again darted forward. His wounded side bled a little, though not enough to weaken him. Having crossed a ridge, he paused a moment in the valley beyond, to slake his thirst—his mouth being parched, and himself almost fainting. On rising from the brook, the head of one of his pursuers peeped over the crest of the hill. He raised his rifle, but such was his exhaustion that he could not hold it steady. A minute more, and he would have been in the power of the savage. Raising his rifle again, and steadying it by the side of a tree, he brought the savage tumbling headlong down the hill. In the next moment his trusty rifle was re-loaded and primed, and in the next the whole group of his pursuers came rushing over the ridge. He again supposed his minutes were numbered; but being partly sheltered by the trunk of a huge hemlock, they saw not him, but only the body of their fallen comrade yet quivering in the agonies of death. Drawing in a circle about the body of their companion, they raised the death wail; and as they paused, Elerson made another effort to fly. Before they resumed the pursuit, he had succeeded in burying himself in a dark thicket of hemlocks, where he found the hollow trunk of a tree, into which he crept. Here he lay ensconced two full days, without food or dressings for his wound. On the third day he backed out of "the loop-hole of his retreat," but knew not which way to proceed—not discerning the points of the compass. In the course of two or three miles, however, he came to a clearing, and found himself at Cobleskill—having, during his recent chase, run over hill and dale, bog, brook, and fen, upward of twenty-five miles.
At about the same time, and probably by the same party of Indians, the premises of a Mr. Shankland, lying in their track, situated in the outskirts of Cherry Valley, were assaulted. Residing at the distance of two or three miles from the village, his house had escaped the common destruction the proceeding Autumn. But he had nevertheless removed his family to the valley of the Mohawk for safety, and had returned to his domicile accompanied only by his son. [FN-1] They were awakened just before dawn by the assailants, who were endeavoring to cut away the door with their hatchets. Taking down his two guns, Mr. Shankland directed his son to load them, while he successively fired to the best advantage. But not being able to see the enemy, he determined upon a sortie. Having a spear, or espontoon, in the house, he armed himself therewith, and carefully unbarring the door, rushed forth upon the besiegers, who fled back at his sudden apparition. One of the Indians whom he was specially pursuing, tumbled over a log, and as Mr. Shankland struck at him, his spear entered the wood, and parted from the shaft. Wrenching the blade from the log, he darted back into the house, barred the door, and again commenced firing upon the assailants. They had been so much surprised by his rushing out upon them, that they neither fired a shot, nor hurled a tomahawk, until he had returned to his castle, and barred the sally-port. During that part of the affray, his son, becoming somewhat frightened, escaped from the house, and ran for the woods. He was pursued, overtaken, and made captive. The father, however, continued the fight—the Indians firing through the casements at random, and he returning the shots as well as he could. At one time he thought of sallying forth again, and selling his life to the best advantage; but by thus doing, he very rightly judged that he should at once involve the life of his son. The Indians, growing wearied of fighting at such disadvantage, at last attempted to make sure of their victim by applying the torch, and the house was speedily in flames, but it so happened that between the rear of the house and the forest, a field of hemp interposed—into which Mr. Shankland contrived to throw himself from the house, unperceived by the Indians. Concealed from observation by the hemp, he succeeded in reaching the woods, and making good his retreat to the Mohawk. Meantime the Indians remained by the house until it was consumed, together, as they supposed, with the garrison. They then raised a shout of victory, and departed [FN-2]—several of their number having been wounded by the courageous proprietor.
[FN-1] The late Thomas Shankland, Esq. of Cooperstown.
[FN-2] Campbell's Annals.
Greatly to his vexation, as appears from his letters. General Clinton was detained at Otsego, by the tardy movements of his commander below, during the whole month of July and the first week in August—until, indeed, his troops became impatient to a degree. [FN] But the General was not idle in respect to every arrangement that might add to their security or contribute to their success. In the letter to his brother, last quoted, he disclosed one capital stroke of generalship, which not only contributed largely to his successful descent of the river, but was of great service in other respects. The damming of the lake, and the accumulation, by this means, of a vast reservoir of water, by rendering more certain and expeditious the navigation of the river, was an exceedingly happy thought And when at length orders were received for his embarkation on the 9th of August, his flotilla was not only borne triumphantly along upon the pile of the impatient waters accumulated for the occasion, but the swelling of the torrent beyond its banks caused wide and unexpected destruction to the growing crops of the Indians on their plantations at Oghkwaga and its vicinity. They were, moreover, greatly affrighted at the sudden and unexpected rise of the waters in the dryest season of the year, especially as there had been no rains—attributing the event to the interposition of the "Great Spirit," who thus showed that he was angry with them. The whole expedition was indeed calculated to impress them with terror—as it might have done a more enlightened and less superstitious people. The country was wild and totally uninhabited, excepting by scattered families of the Indians, and here and there by some few of the more adventurous white settlers, in the neighborhood of Unadilla. The sudden swelling of the river, therefore, bearing upon its surge a flotilla of more than two hundred vessels, through a region of primitive forests, and upon a stream that had never before wafted upon its bosom any craft of greater burthen than a bark canoe, was a spectacle which might well appall the untutored inhabitants of the regions thus invaded.
[FN] By a letter from the Commander-in-chief to General Sullivan, it appears that in the organisation of the expedition the latter had been compelled to encounter greater difficulties than had been anticipated. He wan disappointed in regard to the Pennsylvania independent companies—to supply which deficiency, Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Pauling was directed to march across from Warwasing, and join Clinton at Oghkwaga. Governor Clinton himself had intended to lead this regiment, but General Washington, believing that the influence of his presence was needed elsewhere, induced him to relinquish that design. The delays of Sullivan, therefore, may not nave arisen from any fault of his own. Still, the inactivity of General Clinton at Otsego Lake, and of Sullivan at Wyoming, was no more irksome to the former than to Brant himself. This active warrior had probably led in person the three hundred Indians spoken of by the Oneidas as having gone forth to hang upon the flanks of General Clinton, and annoy his troops by skirmishes during the march. Becoming weary, however, of waiting for a foe whose movements were apparently so tardy, Brant determined on making the irruption into Minisink, of which a history has been given in the last preceding chapter.
During these energetic proceedings of Clinton, it has been seen that Sullivan was very dilatory in his movements, and his conduct in the early part of the campaign gave particular dissatisfaction to Congress. His requisitions for supplies were enormous, and several of his specifications of articles, such as eggs, tongues, and other luxuries, were considered so unsoldier-like as to create disgust. However, having completed his arrangements, he left Wyoming on the 31st of July, and ascended the Susquehanna to Tioga, with an expedition far more formidable as to numbers, and not less imposing in other respects, than was the descending division under General Clinton—though he had not the advantage of riding upon so majestic a flood. Sullivan reached Tioga on the 11th of August, and on the following day pushed out a detachment twelve miles toward Chemung, which was attacked by a body of Indians—losing, during the brush, seven men killed and wounded. The detachment returned to Tioga on the 13th, after having burnt one of the Indian towns.
General Clinton with his division, having been joined at Oghkwaga by a detachment of Colonel Pauling's levies from Warwasing, arrived at Tioga and formed a junction with Sullivan on the 22d of August. The entire command amounted now to five thousand, consisting of the brigades of Generals Clinton, Hand, Maxwell, and Poor, together with Proctor's artillery and a corps of riflemen. So long had the expedition been in progress, that it was well understood the Indians and Tories were not unprepared to receive them; and in moving up the Tioga and the Chemung rivers, the utmost degree of caution was observed to guard against surprise. A strong advanced guard of light infantry preceded the main body, which was well protected by large flanking parties. In this way they slowly proceeded in the direction of the works of the enemy, upon the Chemung at Newtown. On the 28th, an Indian settlement was destroyed, together with fields of corn, and other Indian products yet unharvested. [FN]