e might have been averted. The Tories in that region,
under Sir John Johnson and Colonel John Butler, were really formidable.
As for the Indians of the Iroquois league, they had always been friendly
to the English and hostile to the French; but now, when it came to
making their choice between two kinds of English--the Americans and the
British, they hesitated and differed in opinion. The Mohawks took sides
with the British because of the friendship between Joseph Brant and the
Johnsons. The Cayugas and Senecas followed on the same side; but the
Onondagas, in the centre of the confederacy, remained neutral, and the
Oneidas and Tuscaroras, under the influence of Samuel Kirkland and other
missionaries, showed active sympathy with the Americans. It turned out,
too, that the Whigs were much stronger in the valley than had been
supposed.

[Sidenote: Battle of Oriskany, Aug. 6, 1777.]

After St. Leger had landed at Oswego and joined hands with his Tory and
Indian allies, his entire force amounted to about 1700 men. The
principal obstacle to his progress toward the Hudson river was Fort
Stanwix, which stood where the city of Rome now stands. On the 3d of
August St. Leger reached Fort Stanwix and laid siege to it. The place
was garrisoned by 600 men under Colonel Peter Gansevoort, and the Whig
yeomanry of the neighbourhood, under the heroic General Nicholas
Herkimer, were on the way to relieve it, to the number of at least 800.
Herkimer made an excellent plan for surprising St. Leger with an attack
in the rear, while the garrison should sally forth and attack him in
front. But St. Leger's Indian scouts were more nimble than Herkimer's
messengers, so that he obtained his information sooner than Gansevoort.
An ambush was skilfully prepared by Brant in a ravine near Oriskany, and
there, on the 6th of August, was fought the most desperate and murderous
battle of the Revolutionary War. It was a hand to hand fight, in which
about 800 men were engaged on each side, and each lost more than
one-third of its number. As the Tories and Indians were giving way,
their retreat was hastened by the sounds of battle from Fort Stanwix,
where the garrison was making its sally and driving back the besiegers.
Herkimer remained in possession of the field at Oriskany, but his plan
had been for the moment thwarted, and in the battle he had received a
wound from which he died.

[Sidenote: St. Leger's flight, Aug. 22, 1777.]

Benedict Arnold h