at was so overwhelming that the royalists
and Indians, in a demoralized condition sought shelter under the walls
of Fort Niagara.

The lower Mohawk Valley having experienced the calamities of border wars
was yet to feel the full measures of suffering. On Sunday, May 21,
1780, Sir John Johnson with some British troops, a detachment of Royal
Greens, and about two hundred Indians and Tories, at dead of night fell
unexpectedly on Johnstown, the home of his youth. Families were killed
and scalped, the houses pillaged and then burned. Instances of daring
and heroism in withstanding the invaders have been recorded.

Sir John's next achievement was in the fall of the same year, when he
descended with fire and sword into the rich settlements along the
Schoharie. He was overtaken by the American force at Klock's Field and
put to flight.

Sir John Johnson with the Royal Greens, principally his former tenants
and retainers, appear to have been especially stimulated with hate
against the people of their former homes who did not sympathize with
their views. In the summer of 1781 another expedition was secretly
planned against Johnstown, and executed with silent celerity. The
expedition consisted of four companies of the Second battalion of Sir
John's regiment of Royal Greens, Butler's Rangers and two hundred
Indians, numbering in all about one thousand men, under the command of
Major Ross. He was defeated at the battle of Johnstown on October 25th.
The army of Major Ross, for four days in the wilderness, on their
advance had been living on only a half pound of horse flesh per man per
day; yet they were so hotly pursued by the Americans that they were
forced to trot off a distance of thirty miles before they
stopped,--during a part of the distance they were compelled to sustain a
running fight. They crossed Canada Creek late in the afternoon, where
Walter N. Butler attempted to rally the men. He was shot through the
head by an Oneida Indian, who was with the Americans. When Captain
Butler fell his troops fled in the utmost confusion, and continued their
flight through the night. Without food and even without blankets they
had eighty miles to traverse through the dreary and pathless wilderness.

On August 6, 1781, Donald McDonald, one of the Highlanders who had fled
from Johnstown, made an attempt upon Shell's Bush, about four miles
north of the present village of Herkimer, at the head of sixty-six
Indians and Tories. John Christia