[FN-1] MS. letter of Colonel Clyde to Governor George Clinton.
[FN-2] A detachment from this expedition was sent by Brant, at the same time, against the settlement on the Norman's Kill, in the very neighborhood of Albany, when they succeeded in burning twenty houses.—Macauly.
The first admonition of the invasion in the neighborhood of Johnstown, fifteen miles from Canajoharie, was by the ascending columns of smoke from the burning buildings. The people were employed harvesting in the fields, but they turned out immediately, and joining Colonel Wemple, who advanced from below with the Schenectady and Albany militia, proceeded to the scene of conflagration. But their movements were not sufficiently expeditious to arrest the destroyer or to intercept his retreat. Indeed, it is intimated, by good authority, that although the Colonel's forces were superior to those of Brant, the former was, nevertheless, by no means anxious to arrive in the immediate vicinity of the Indians too soon. [FN-1] The Colonel lodged his men that night in the fort. The next morning, while the troops, regular and irregular, were on parade, some buildings were discovered on fire at a distance, which had escaped the flames the day before. The attention of Colonel Wemple being directed to the fact, he remarked, that if any volunteers were disposed to go in pursuit, they might Major Bantlin, with a few of the Tryon County militia, who had arrived that morning, immediately turned out. "We hastened to the place as soon as we could. The enemy discovered us and ran off. It was a small party sent out by Brant We pursued them, but they reached their main body before we came up. We succeeded, however, in rescuing a little girl, whom they had taken and painted." [FN-2]
[FN-1] Major Thomas Sammons, who was in the wheat-field when the smoke was seen, and who immediately repaired to the scene of action.
[FN-2] MSS. of Major Sammons.
The forts destroyed by Brant at Canajoharie, were built by the people themselves, but had not yet been garrisoned. The inhabitants had complained bitterly that they were thus compelled to leave their own firesides unprotected, to assist the Government in re-opening the communication with Fort Schuyler. But being assured that their town could be in no danger, they submitted to the order, and their militia marched to the upper section of the valley. The result was deplorable enough; while the success of his stratagem added another plume to the crest of "the Great Captain of the Six Nations." [FN]
[FN] According to the British account of this irruption, as published in New-York on the 6th of September, Sir John Johnson was in the expedition with Captain Brant. But this could hardly have been the fact, and all other authorities be silent upon the subject. The same account claimed that in the Canajoharie settlements 67 houses and 48 barns were burnt; 17 persons killed, and 53 taken prisoners. At the same time, it was stated that in one of the Schoharie settlements 87 houses were burnt; 7 persons killed; and 31 taken prisoners. At Norman's Kill, 30 houses burnt. Total, 140 houses and barns burnt; 84 people killed; and 73 made prisoners.—Almon's Remembrancer, Part II.—1780.