Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-05-11
BATTLE OF oRlskANY.
Tho Most Obstinate of All the Sansuipo
 Flights of the Revolution.

BATTLE OF ORiSkANY.
 Tho Most Obstinate of All the Sansuips
 Fights of the Revolution.
 About two miles west of Oriskany, the road was crossed by deep semi-circular ravine, concave toward the east The bot tom of thls ravine, writes Prof. John Fiske in the Atlantic, was a swamp, across which the road was carried by a causeway of logs, and the steep banks on either side were thickly covered with trees and underbrush. The practiced eye of Thayendanegea at once perceived the rare advantage of such pc sition, and an ambuscade was soon prepared with skill as deadly as that which once had wrecked the proud army of Braddock. But this time it was a meeting of Greek with Greek, and the wiles of the savage chief were foiled by a desperate valor which nothing could overcome. By ten o'clock the main body of Herklmer's army had descend ed into che ravine, followed by the wagons, while the rear-guard was still on the rising ground behind. At this moment they were greeted by murderous volley from either side, while Johnson's Greens came charg- ing down upon them i'll front, and the Indians, with frightful yells, swarmed in behind and cut off the rear guard, which was thus obliged to retreat to save itself. For moment the main body was thrown into confusion, but it soon rallied and formed itself in 8 circle, which neither bayonet charges nor musket fire could break or penetrate. The scene which ensued was one of the most internal that the history of savage warfare has ever witnessed. The dark ravine was filled with a mass of fifteen hundred human beings, screaming and curslng, slipping in the mire, pushing and struggling, seizing each other s throats, stabbing, shooting and dashing out brains. Bodies of neighbors were after wards found lying in the bog, where they had gone down in death-grapple, their cold hands still grasping the knives plunged in each others hearts.
 Early in the fight musket-ball slew Her kimer's horse, and shattered his own leg just below the knee; but the old hero, noth- ing daunted, and batting nothing of his coolness in the midst of the horrid struggle, had the saddle taken from his dead herse and placed at the foot of a great beech-tree, where, taking his seat and lighting his pipe. he continued shouting his orders in a stentorian voice and directing the progress of the battle. Nature present. ly enhanced the lurid horror of the scene. The heat of the August morning had been intoierable. and black thunder-clouds, over- hanging the deep ravins at the beginning of the action, had enveloped it in 8 darkness
 
 ing in torrents, while gusts of wind howled through the tree-tops, and sheets of lightning flashed in quick succession, with a continuous roar of thunder that drowned the noise of the fray. The wet rifles could no longer be fired, but hatchet, knife and bayonet carried on the work of butchery, until, after more than five hun dred men had been killed or wou1SLsd, the Indians gave way and fled in all directions, and the Tory soldiers, disconcerted, began to retreat up the western road, while the patriot army, remaining in possession of the hard-won field, felt itself too weak to pursue them.
 At this moment as the storm cleared away and long rays of sunshine began hickering through the wet leaves, the sound of the three signalguns came boom ing through the air, and presently sharp cracking of musketry was heard from the direction of Fort Stanwix. Startled by this ominous sound, the Tories made all possible haste to join their own army, while the patriots, bearing their wounded on filters of green boughs, returned in sad pro- cession to Orlskany. With their com mander helpless and more than one-third of their number slain or disabled, they were in no condition to engage in fresh conflict, and unwillingly confessed that the garrison at Fort Stanwix must be left to do its part of the work alone. Upon the ar- rival of the messengers Colonel Ganse- voort had at once taken in the whole sit uation. He understood the mysterious fir ing in the forest, saw that Herkimer must have been prematurely attacked, and ordered his sortie instantly, to serve as 8 diversion. The sortie was brilliant suc- cess. Sir John Johnson, with his Tories and Indians, was completely routed and driven across the river. Colonel Marinus Willett took possession of his camp, and held 1t While seven wagons were three times loaded with spoil and sent to be un- loaded in the fort. Among all this spoil, to- gether with abundance of food and drink, blankets and clothes, tools and ammunition, the victorS captured five British standards, and all Johnson's papers, maps and mem oranda, containing full instructions for the projected campaign. After this useful ex- ploit, Colonel Willett returned to the fort and hoisted the captured British standards, while over them he raised an uncouth flag, intended to represent the American stars and stripes, which Congress had adopted in June as the National banner. This rude flag, hastily extemporized out of white shirt, an old blue jacket, and some stripes of red cloth from the petticoat of soldiers wife, was the first American flag with stars and stripes that was ever hoisted, and it
 
 orabie day of Oriskany, August $, 1777.
 Of all the battles of the revolution, this was perhaps the most obstinate and mur- derous. Each side seems to have lost not less than one-third of its whole number and of those lost, nearly all were killed, as 1t was largely hand-to-hand struggle, like the battles of ancient times, and no quar- ter was given on either side. The number of surviving wounded, who were carried back to Oriskany, does not seem to have ex- ceeded forty. Among these was the in domltable Herkimer, whose shattered leg was so unskilfully treated that he died a few days later, sitting in bed propped by pillows, calmly smoking his Dutch pipe and reading his Bible at the thirty-eighth Psalm.
 Two Fridays In One Week.
 A day is added or taken from the ealen- dar when q ship is crossing the Pacific Ocean. Those who remember this fact will be interested in the following extract from the journal of 8 traveller on his way from China to San Francesca. "We ran north naSfarlv c0urSe at first hjph as