Essential Facts
- Also Known As: The Attack on German Flatts.
- Date: September 17, 1778.
- Location: German Flatts, New York, near present-day Herkimer, New York.
- Participants: Brant’s Volunteers and Butler’s Rangers.
- Key American Leaders: Peter Bellinger.
- Key British Leaders: Joseph Brant, William Caldwell.
- Who Won: The British raid was successful
- Part of: The Raid on German Flatts is part of the New York Border War and the American Revolutionary War.
Key Dates
- 1776, Fall: Colonel Elias Dayton built Fort Dayton.
- 1778, July 18: Andrustown attacked and destroyed by Joseph Brant.
- 1778, Late summer: Rumors spread of an impending attack on German Flatts.
- 1778, mid-September: Adam Helmer warned the settlers at German Flatts.
- 1778, September 17: German Flatts was attacked by Joseph Brant.
Significance
The Raid on German Flatts is important to American History for the role it played in the hostilities between American and British forces in northern Pennsylvania and western New York during the American Revolutionary War. It was part of the New York Border War that eventually led most of the Six Nations to abandon New York for Canada.
History
German Flatts
The German Flatts settlement was initially called Burnet’s Field. The name “German Flatts” came from early settlers who were German immigrants from the Palatinate Region of Europe.
- German Flatts covered 10 miles along the Mohawk Valley from the mouth of West Canada Creek.
- The center of the settlement was located 5 miles south of the present-day Herkimer, New York.
- Around the time of the war, there were about 70 houses in German Flatts, along the banks of the Mohawk River.
- Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer lived in the settlement. His home was fortified and known as “Fort Herkimer.”
Palatinate Region — A historic region located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. The area was popular with Huguenots (French Protestants), who fled France due to religious persecution. In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, ending legal protection for Huguenots. Many fled Europe and made their way to the Province of New York, where they established towns like German Flatts and Kingston.
Nicholas Herkimer (1728–1777) — Herkimer was a Brigadier General in the New York Militia. During the Saratoga Campaign (1777), he helped organize the defenses in the Mohawk Valley. His troops were ambushed at the Battle of Oriskany (1777), and he was severely wounded. Herkimer died soon after, due to complications from his wounds.
Fort Dayton
Fort Dayton was two miles west of Fort Herkimer on the north bank of the Mohawk River. Its primary purpose was to protect the settlers living in and around German Flatts.
- Colonel Elias Dayton oversaw the fort’s construction in the fall of 1776.
- It was built on the site of a fort that was used during the French and Indian War (1754–1763).
- Fort Dayton was one of the few Continental Army forts in the Mohawk Valley.
- The fort was under the command of Colonel Peter Bellinger.
Elias Dayton (1737–1807) — Dayton served in the New Jersey Line of the Continental Army during the war. He helped spy on British forces and fought with Washington’s Army during the Philadelphia and Yorktown campaigns.
Peter Bellinger (1726–1813) — Bellinger was an officer in the Tryon County Militia during the war. He served under General Nicholas Herkimer and was also married to his sister, Delia Herkimer. Bellinger fought with Herkimer at Oriskany.
Rumors of an Impending Raid on German Flatts
In late summer 1778, settlers in German Flatts heard warnings of an attack on their settlement.
- The rumored attackers were Joseph Brant and Captain William Caldwell.
- The force was said to include 150 Mohawk warriors (Brant’s Volunteers) and 300 Loyalists (Butler’s Rangers).
- The planned target of the raid was the German Flatts settlement.
Joseph Brant (1742–1807) — Brant, also known as Thayendanegea, was a Mohawk. He is most well-known for leading a series of aids against American settlements on the New York and Pennsylvania frontier during the war.
William Caldwell (c. 1750–1820) — Caldwell was an Irish-born soldier and colonial official who served in the Department of Indian Affairs. He fought with Butler’s Rangers, a Loyalist militia unit led by John Butler. He also fought in Lord Dunmore’s War and served under Dunmore during the Burning of Norfolk (1776). Caldwell served in the Canadian militia during the War of 1812. His unit was known as Caldwell’s Rangers.
Butler’s Rangers — A Loyalist Militia unit raised by John Butler. Most of the men were from upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. During the war, they fought on the Western Frontier, including Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia. The Rangers are most well-known for their participation in the Wyoming Massacre (1778) and the Cherry Valley Massacre (1778).
Scouting Mission and Adam Helmer’s Escape
Colonel Bellinger sent a scouting party toward Unadilla, which was believed to be Brant’s base of operations.
- The scouts were near present-day Edmeston, New York, when they were ambushed.
- Three scouts were killed in the attack.
- The last scout, Adam Helmer, escaped.
- Helmer was known as the best runner in the Mohawk Valley.
- Helmer reached German Flatts on September 16, 1778, and raised the alarm.
- This allowed most settlers to take shelter in the forts.
- Meanwhile, Brant’s force moved up the Unadilla River, through Cedarville, toward German Flatts.
AHC Note — Helmer’s escape inspired the character played by Henry Fonda in the movie Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).
Brant Arrives at German Flatts
- Brant arrived about an hour after Helmer.
- Brant was unaware that the settlers had been warned and was prepared to engage any defenses.
- He camped near Shoemaker’s Tavern (present-day Mohawk, NY), a Loyalist town.
- The next day, September 17, his forces burned the undefended farms and mills between Little Falls and Frankford.
Appendix
Narrative of the Raid on German Flatts
This account of Brant’s raid on German Flatts is from A History of Herkimer County (1856) by Nathaniel S. Benton. Please note that minor corrections have been made to improve and update the text. Section headings have also been added.
The Herkimer Valley in the Spring of 1778
Unmolested by the enemy in the fall of 1777 and the spring of 1778, the inhabitants had planted their fields, expecting to reap an abundant harvest in due season, but in this they were sorely disappointed. Fort Schuyler, an important post, commanding the western entrance, by water communication, to the Mohawk Valley, was thirty miles distant from the principal settlements at the German Flatts, and presented no barrier against sudden irruptions of the enemy, who could easily avoid that fortress, and fall upon the inhabitants below, from almost every direction; and during the summer of this year the work of devastation was vigorously prosecuted.
Militia Companies
On June 25, 1778, the following appointments were made by the governor and council to the regiment of local militia in the German Flatts and Kingsland Districts:
- Field officers and Regimental staff — Peter Bellinger, colonel; Frederick Bellinger, lieutenant-colonel; George Demoth, adjutant; Rudolph Steel, quartermaster.
- Michael Ittig, captain; Jacob Baulcom, 1st lieutenant; Frederick Frank, 2d lieutenant; Patrick Campbell, ensign.
- Henry Harter, captain; John Demoth, 1st lieutenant; Peter Ja. Weaver, 2d lieutenant; John F. Bellinger, ensign.
- Jacob Small, captain; George F. Helmer, 2d lieutenant; Jacob D. Petrie, ensign.
- Henry Staring, captain; Theobald Baker, 1st lieutenant; George Weaver, 2d lieutenant.
- Soverenus Gassleman, captain; Henry Huber, 1st lieutenant; Jacob G. Klock, 2d lieutenant.
- Frederick Getman, captain; Jacob Meyer, 2d lieutenant; John Meyer, ensign.
- Henry Eckler, captain; Conrad Orendorff, 1st lieutenant; Timothy Frank, 2d lieutenant; Adam A. Staring, ensign.
The nine companies organized in August 1775 were reduced to seven in about 18 months of active war. Most of this loss was sustained at Oriskany. The names of Herkimer and Shoemaker have entirely disappeared from the rolls, and the Petries have but one representative left.
Brant Destroys Andrustown
The Mohawk chief, Brant, with a small party of Indians, attacked a settlement of seven families, called Andrustown, in the present town of Warren, in the month of July, plundered the inhabitants, burned up all the buildings, killed four persons, among whom was an aged man by the name of Bell, and his two sons. One other man perished in the flames of his own house. The rest of the inhabitants were carried away captives, and all the property that could be removed was taken by the Indians.
This attack was carried out for plunder, as Brant was collecting a large force at Oghwkaga (Onaquaga), or Unadilla, for a more important and far more serious expedition, in its effects, which he led in the following month. Brant wanted provisions and used this method to replenish his stock.
- AHC Note — Andrustown was first called Henderson’s Town and then Andreas Town. Today, it is the site of present-day Jordanville, New York, a hamlet within Warren, New York, in Herkimer County.
Pursuit of Brant’s Volunteers
The Indians made a hasty retreat and were not overtaken, although pursued by a party of Americans from the German Flatts. After reaching the scene of desolation, the provincials interred the dead. Then, with several friendly Indians, they followed the marauding party as far as the Little Lakes, in the southern part of Warren. When finding the object of their pursuit beyond their reach, they gave up the chase.
Destruction of Loyalist Property
There were a few white families at Little Lakes, called Young’s Settlement, and the principal man was Young, the patentee, to whom the lands had been granted by the crown in 1762. This man was a Tory in feeling, but was not known to have committed any open acts of violence against the country.
His nearest neighbor sympathized with him, and when the Americans found Brant and his party had spared these people, they plundered and burned their houses in retaliation for the destruction of Andrustown.
John Frank, then one of the Committee of Safety of Tryon county, from the German Flatts District, long known as “Judge Frank,” was one of the party who pursued Brant.
Fort Herkimer and Fort Dayton
The Palatine settlements at the German Flatts were doomed to suffer again under the scourge of Indian warfare, about the last of August or the first of September of this year (1778). At this period, there were two stockaded defenses called forts, midway between these settlements, east and west.
Fort Herkimer, near the south bank of the Mohawk river, containing the stone church and the stone mansion of the Herkimer Family, and some other buildings, was surrounded by a ditch; and Fort Dayton, on a somewhat elevated spot of ground in the westerly part of Herkimer village, a few rods from the site of the present court house.
Fort Herkimer, so-called, was enclosed with a ditch and stockades during the French and Indian War in 1766, and Fort Dayton was constructed a year or two previous to the time now under consideration. These defenses, and others of like construction, erected in the Mohawk valley, were intended to be used as places of refuge for the inhabitants, in cases of sudden incursions by the enemy in their plundering and murdering expeditions, and to store public property when necessary.
They were a sufficient defense against the Tories and Indians, who were never incumbered with arms heavier than the musket and rifle, and, with few exceptions, their armaments were small, consisting of cannon used in firing signal guns to warn the distant inhabitants of some impending danger.
Liberty Pole at Fort Herkimer
The first liberty pole erected in the valley was raised at Fort Herkimer, in the spring of 1775, and was cut down by White, sheriff of Tryon county, who came from Johnstown with a body of militia for that purpose. The pole was probably burned afterward by this common hangman.
Homes and Harvest
There were then about seventy dwelling houses on both sides of the river in the neighborhood of these forts, besides bams, other outbuildings, and mills, with a large population for the number of dwellings. The earth had yielded an abundant harvest, and most of the crops had been harvested and stored.
Brant at Unadilla
Brant’s extended stay at the Unadilla without striking a blow on someone of the exposed points of the frontier, excited a suspicion among the inhabitants that he might be meditating an attack upon them.
Helmer Raises the Alarm
A party of four men was sent to watch his movements, who, falling in with the enemy, three of them were killed. The fourth, John Helmer, saved himself by flight, and returning to the Flatts about sundown, he gave notice that Brant with a large force was approaching and would be down on the settlements quickly.
Forts Dayton and Herkimer now became the asylums for the terror-stricken inhabitants, to which men, women, and children fled for safety, taking with them their most valuable effects, such as could be moved. Their crops, cattle, and buildings were abandoned, of course, to the disposal and tender mercies of the enemy. There were many among them in whose recollections the scenes of 1757 and 1758 were vividly fresh, and the apprehension of the ruin that awaited them must have been painfully severe.
Brant Approaches German Flatts
Brant, at the head of three hundred tories and one hundred and fifty-two Indians, approached the confines of the settlements just at nightfall, but the weather being unpropitious and the night dark, he made a halt near Shoemaker’s, his Tory friend, and remained there with his forces until morning, unconscious that his approach had been notified to the inhabitants in time to allow them to escape.
The Destruction of German Flatts
The untiring vigilance of the chief set him early afoot, and in the gray of the morning the whole valley was illuminated by an almost simultaneous blaze of houses, bams, stacks, and barracks of hay and grain and other combustible materials. A sorrowful sight, to the people in the forts, who saw their houses and other buildings, with the produce of the season’s labor, entirely consumed by fire.
But this was not all, nor did the destroyer here stay his hand. As soon as it was light enough to discern objects at a distance, the Tories and Indians collected all the stock that could be found, and everything that could be gathered was driven or carried away.
Almon’s Remembrancer states that there were 63 dwelling houses, 57 bams, three grist-mills and two saw-mills burnt, with most of the furniture and grain kept therein; 235 horses, 229 horned cattle, 269 sheep and 93 oxen taken and carried away.
Only two people lost their lives in this affair. The Indians were compelled to be content with their plunder, such as it was; they got neither scalps nor prisoners this time, nor did they make any attack upon the forts.
Aftermath of the Raid on German Flatts
Soon after the enemy left the valley with their booty, a party of between three and four hundred militia followed in pursuit as far as the Unadilla, but this expedition was fruitless, except in finding and burying the bodies of the three scouts who went out with Helmer to watch the movements of Brant.
Shortly after the events above narrated, William Dygert, who had been taken prisoner by Brant on Fall Hill some time in July or August, was recaptured by the Oneida and Tuscaraora Indians and restored to his friends. This aggression at the German Flatts did not long go unpunished, and a severe retribution soon overtook the Indians by the invasion and destruction of two of their chief towns, Unadilla and Oghwkaga (Onaquaga).
