ohn and of several of his officers, and
retreated safely to the fort, just as St. Leger was up with a powerful
reinforcement. Five colors, which he had brought away with him as
trophies, were displayed under the flag of the fort, while his men
gave three cheers from the ramparts.

St. Leger now endeavored to operate on the fears of the garrison. His
prisoners, it is said, were compelled to write a letter, giving dismal
accounts of the affair of Oriskany, and of the impossibility of
getting any succor to the garrison; of the probability that Burgoyne
and his army were then before Albany, and advising surrender to
prevent inevitable destruction.

St. Leger accompanied the letter with warnings that, should the
garrison persist in resistance, he would not be able to restrain the
fury of the savages, who threatened, if further provoked, to revenge
the deaths of their warriors and chiefs by slaughtering the garrison,
and laying waste the whole valley of the Mohawk. All this failing to
shake the resolution of Gansevoort, St. Leger began to lose heart. The
fort proved more capable of defence than he had anticipated. His
artillery was too light, and the ramparts, being of sod, were not
easily battered. He was obliged, reluctantly, to resort to the slow
process of sapping and mining, and began to make regular approaches.

Gansevoort, seeing the siege was likely to be protracted, resolved to
send to General Schuyler for succor. Colonel Willett volunteered to
undertake the perilous errand. He was accompanied by Lieutenant
Stockwell, an excellent woodsman, who served as a guide. They left the
fort on the 10th after dark, by a sally port, passed by the British
sentinels and close by the Indian camp without being discovered, and
made their way through bog and morass and pathless forests and all
kinds of risks and hardships until they reached the German Flats on
the Mohawk. Here Willett procured a couple of horses, and by dint of
hoof arrived at the camp of General Schuyler at Stillwater.

Schuyler was in Albany in the early part of August, making stirring
appeals in every direction for reinforcements. Burgoyne was advancing
upon him; he had received news of the disastrous affair of Oriskany,
and the death of General Herkimer, and Tryon County was crying to him
for assistance. One of his appeals was to the veteran John Stark. He
had his farm in the Hampshire Grants, and his name was a tower of
strength among the Green Mountain Boys