The Battle of Oriskany and General Nicholas Herkimer: Revolution in the Mohawk Valley

by Paul A. Boehlert

A gripping account of General Nicholas Herkimer's valiant defeat of British forces in the heart of New York's Mohawk Valley--and a striking account of the days before and after that fateful day in August 1777.
During the critical Battle of Oriskany in August 1777, Continental forces led by General Nicholas Herkimer defeated the British army under St. Leger in the heart of New York's Mohawk Valley. It was a hard-won victory, but he and his brave troops prevented the British from splitting the colonies in two. Although they did not succeed in relieving the British siege of Fort Stanwix, Herkimer's citizen-soldiers turned back the British and protected Washington's northern flank from attack. The Continental army survived to fight the decisive Battle of Saratoga the next month. Herkimer was mortally wounded, but his heroism and leadership firmly placed him in the pantheon of Revolutionary War heroes. Paul Boehlert presents a gripping account of the events before, during and after this critical battle.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2013

Reviews

[Jewlsbookblog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy read, more story-like in tone and not an extremely dry listing of historical facts. I found the tone engaging and informative. There’s also a decent biography listing at the end.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting look at the Battle of Oriskany in the American Revolution. In short, the battle took place in the Mohawk River Valley in the state (colony) of New York in August of 1777. A relief column of militia forces from Tyron County, N.Y. was marching to assist the besieged American forces at Fort Stanwix. The relief column was ambushed and turned back by British forces shortly before it could get to Fort Stanwix. So direct aid to the besieged forces at Fort Stanwix did not happen. However, they delivered enough of a blow to the ambushing forces primarily made up of colonial loyalist, Iroquois allies and German mercenaries. In particular, the Iroquois suffered significant losses to their leadership in this battle. That loss of leadership, combined with a raid on the Iroquois encampment by the besieged forces from Fort Stanwix caused the Iroquois allies to abandon the British forces outside of the fort. Thus, after losing those important allies, the British were forced to give up their attempt to take possession of Fort Stanwix. Without possession of that fort, which was located on their resupply route, the British forces could not continue on to the Hudson River and join up with General Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga. So indirectly, this relief force from Tryon County helped to turn back the British invasion from Canada into the American colonies.
In addition to the battle itself, this book provides excellent insight into the lives of the primarily German heritage settlers in Tryon County that made up the militia force. It traces their initial emigration from Germany and how the opportunity to own their own land in America motivated these people to be both prosperous and patriotic settlers.

[Peter Huston · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book and I did enjoy the first half. Admittedly it's a bit padded in places as there is much that is not known about the life of Nicholas Herkimer so the author spends time on things like the history of the Palatines and economics of the region, etcf., but I was willing to work with that.

What I was not willing to tolerate and find unforgiveable is that the author makes SEVERAL fundamental errors in his description of the Battle of Oriskany, and this is supposed to be the focus and high point of the book. Very quickly, there were no blue coated Hessians there with muskets and 17" sword bayonets, while the author states there were 350 of them. There were a handful of German jaegers there, but they wore green and carried flintlock rifles. I could speculate as to where the author might have come to such faulty conclusions, but that's really not my role.

READ ANOTHER SOURCE ON THE BATTLE INSTEAD


(Gavin Watt's "Rebellion in the Mohawk Valley -The St Leger Expedition of 1777" is highly recommended but heavy reading. Its description of the battle is the one recommended to me by two professional historians who specialize or have specialized in the period. --one is retired.)

[John Gerberich · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mohawk Valley

This reading has filled in many of the gaps in my learning. As a former high school teacher (more than 45 years ago) the significance of St. Leger‘s inability to complete the union at Albany was as important for students to understand as the battle of Saratoga. And yet, this is the first time I truly understood the sacrifices made to stop St. Leger. Thank you for the time and effort to research and deliver such a work.

[Martin Havran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perceptive and Revealing

I was always a fan of the movie "Drums Along the Mohawk" and was surprised how much it adhered to the real events as presented in this book. I don't think that the Battle of Oriskany typically gets the attention it deserves in Revolutionary War history. Perhaps this book will partially remedy that shortcoming.

[Maggie Bourdeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

For this type of book, non-fiction, historical, about a battle in the Revolutionary War, I was please that it was easy to read. The author has a great sense of humor and the information was very interesting to say the least. This is not a book I would have chosen to read. However, my DTBC (Day Trip Book Club) planner for June '16 chose it as her selection. In conjunction with reading the book we went to visit Herkimer's family home in Little Falls, NY. We had a tour and visited the small museum there which had many mementos and scads of information about the place, about Herkimer, and about the battle and other aspects of the Revolutionary War. After our tour we went into the town of Little Falls for lunch and visited the many antique shops in town. Although I am from the Albany NY area I had never visited Little Falls. We also happened upon a postcard of the Overlook Mansion and on the spur of the moment visited it too. What a beautiful building. It is now a B&B and the current owner gave us his nickel tour - we enjoyed it very much.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent blend of biography and battle narrative. The book has a good focus; preceding and subsequent events are mentioned only as necessary to frame the main events. Good critical evaluation of sources. The author also has a good sense of humor. But of course, as I complain about all history books, more maps please!