Oneida County is a county located in the state of New York, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 234,878. The county seat is Utica. The name is in honor of the Oneida, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League or Haudenosaunee, which had long occupied this territory at the time of European encounter and colonization. The federally recognized Oneida Indian Nation has had a reservation in the region since the late 18th century, after the American Revolutionary War.
Danube is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 1,039 at the 2010 census. Early Palatine German immigrants in the eighteenth century named the town after the Danube River in Europe.
Oriskany is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 1,400 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from the Iroquois word for "nettles".
Herkimer is a village on the north side of the Mohawk River and the county seat of Herkimer County, New York, United States, about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Utica. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 7,743. It was part of the Burnetsfield Patent and the first European-American settlement this far west in the Mohawk Valley.
The Battle of Oriskany was one of the bloodiest battles in the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign. On August 6, 1777, a party of Loyalists and several hundred Indigenous allies across several nations ambushed an American military party that was marching to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix. This was one of the few battles in which the majority of the participants were Americans; Patriots and allied Oneidas fought against Loyalists and allied Iroquois in the absence of British regular soldiers. There was also a detachment of Hessians in the British force, as well as Western Indians including members of the Mississauga people.
Nicholas Herkimer was an American patriot militia brigadier general during the American Revolutionary War. He died of wounds after the Battle of Oriskany.
John Butler (1728–1796) was a Loyalist who led an irregular militia unit known as Butler's Rangers on the northern frontier in New York during the American Revolutionary War. Born in Connecticut, he moved to New York with his family, where he learned several Iroquoian languages and worked as an interpreter in the fur trade. He was well-equipped to work with Mohawk and other Iroquois Confederacy warriors who became allies of the British during the rebellion.
Fort Stanwix was a colonial fortress whose construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The bastion fort was built to guard a portage known as the Oneida Carry during the French and Indian War. Fort Stanwix National Monument, a reconstructed structure built by the National Park Service, now occupies the site.
Drums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 American historical drama film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert portray settlers on the New York frontier during the American Revolution. The couple suffer British, Tory, and Indian attacks on their farm before the Revolution ends and peace is restored.
Adam Frederick Helmer, also known as John Adam Frederick Helmer and Hans Adam Friedrich Helmer, was an American Revolutionary War hero among those of the Mohawk Valley and surrounding regions of New York State. He was made nationally famous by Walter D. Edmonds' popular 1936 novel Drums Along the Mohawk with its depiction of "Adam Helmer's Run" of September 16, 1778, to warn the people of German Flatts of the approach of Joseph Brant and his company of Indians and Tories.
Fort Dayton was an American Revolutionary War fort located on the north side of the Mohawk River at West Canada Creek, in what is now Herkimer, New York. A fort had previously been built on the same site during the French and Indian War.
Herkimer Home State Historic Site is a historic house museum in Herkimer County, New York, United States. Herkimer Home is in the north part of the Town of Danube, south of the Mohawk River.
The Bennington Battlefield is the Rensselaer County, New York, location where the Battle of Bennington occurred on the 16th of August 1777. It is located on New York State Route 67 in Walloomsac, New York, a historic route between Bennington, Vermont and the Hudson River. Here, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts militia under General John Stark rebuffed a British attempt led by Colonel Friedrich Baum to capture American stores. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. A portion of the battlefield is preserved in the Bennington Battlefield State Historic Site.
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, also known as Erie Canal National Historic Landmark, is a historic district that includes the ruins of the Erie Canal aqueduct over Schoharie Creek, and a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) long part of the Erie Canal, in the towns of Glen and Florida within Montgomery County, New York. It was the first part of the old canal to be designated a National Historic Landmark, prior to the designation of the entire New York State Barge Canal as a NHL in 2017.
Newtown Battlefield State Park, formerly known as Newtown Battlefield Reservation, was the site of the Battle of Newtown fought in August 1779, during the American Revolutionary War. It was the only major battle of the Sullivan Expedition, an armed offensive led by General John Sullivan that was ordered by the Continental Congress to end the threat of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War. In the battle, the Iroquois were defeated decisively. A portion of the battlefield is today managed as a 372-acre (1.51 km2) state park. The entire battlefield was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
The creation of the Tryon County, New York militia was authorized on March 8, 1772, when the Province of New York passed a bill for the establishment of organized militia in each county in the colony. By 1776, the Tryon County militia had in effect become an army of rebellion under the control of the Tryon County Committee of Safety. The Tryon County militia would go on to fight at the important battles of Oriskany and Johnstown during the war.
Colonel Jacob Klock (1701–1798) was the colonel of the 2nd regiment of the Tryon County militia during the American Revolutionary War.
The Fallen Timbers Battlefield was the site of the Battle of Fallen Timbers on 20 August 1794. The battle, a decisive American victory over Native American and British opponents, effectively ended the Northwest Indian War, securing the Old Northwest for settlement. An area believed to be the battle site, located in Maumee, Ohio, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. That site, now the Fallen Timbers State Memorial, is about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) south of the actual battlefield, which was identified in 1995, and much of which is now preserved as part of the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site. The National Historic Site was established in 1999 as a partnership between the National Park Service, Toledo MetroParks, and the Ohio Historical Society.
The siege of Fort Stanwix in 1777 began on August 2 and ended August 22. Fort Stanwix, in the western part of the Mohawk River Valley, was then the primary defense point for the Continental Army against British and Indian forces aligned against them in the American Revolutionary War. The fort was occupied by Continental Army forces from New York and Massachusetts under the command of Colonel Peter Gansevoort. The besieging force was composed of British regulars, American Loyalists, Hessian soldiers from Hesse-Hanau, and Indians, under the command of British Brigadier General Barry St. Leger and the Iroquois leader Joseph Brant. St. Leger's expedition was a diversion in support of General John Burgoyne's campaign to gain control of the Hudson River Valley to the east.
Indian Castle Church is a historic mission church at Indian Castle in Herkimer County, New York. The church is located on NYS Route 5S near present-day Danube. It is a one-story, rectangular wood frame structure, clad in clapboard with a gable roof and steeple. To the rear of the church is a burial ground containing the remains of both Mohawks and Europeans.
