erman settler named Herkimer, was coming up
against him. When it was at Oriskany, about six miles away, St. Leger
laid a trap. He sent Brant with some hundreds of Indians and a few
soldiers to be concealed in a marshy ravine which Herkimer must cross.
When the American force was hemmed in by trees and marsh on the narrow
causeway of logs running across the ravine the Indians attacked with
wild yells and murderous fire. Then followed a bloody hand to hand
fight. Tradition has been busy with its horrors. Men struggled in slime
and blood and shouted curses and defiance. Improbable stories are told
of pairs of skeletons found afterwards in the bog each with a bony
hand which had driven a knife to the heart of the other. In the end the
British, met by resolution so fierce, drew back. Meanwhile a sortie
from the American fort on their rear had a menacing success. Sir John
Johnson's camp was taken and sacked. The two sides were at last glad to
separate, after the most bloody struggle in the whole war. St. Leger's
Indians had had more than enough. About a hundred had been killed and
the rest were in a state of mutiny. Soon it was known that Benedict
Arnold, with a considerable force, was pushing up the Mohawk Valley to
relieve the American fort. Arnold knew how to deal with savages. He took
care that his friendly Indians should come into contact with those of
Brant and tell lurid tales of utter disaster to Burgoyne and of a great
avenging army on the march to attack St. Leger. The result was that St.
Leger's Indians broke out in riot and maddened themselves with stolen
rum. Disorder affected even the soldiers. The only thing for St. Leger
to do was to get away. He abandoned his guns and stores and, harassed
now by his former Indian allies, made his way to Oswego and in the end
reached Montreal with a remnant of his force.

News of these things came to Burgoyne just after the disaster at
Bennington. Since Fort Stanwix was in a country counted upon as Loyalist
at heart it was especially discouraging again to find that in the main
the population was against the British. During the war almost without
exception Loyalist opinion proved weak against the fierce determination
of the American side. It was partly a matter of organization. The
vigilance committees in each State made life well-nigh intolerable to
suspected Tories. Above all, however, the British had to bear the odium
which attaches always to the invader. We do not know what