Battle of Oriskany The Battle of Oriskany , fought on August 6 , 1777 , was one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign . Early in the siege of Fort Stanwix , an American relief force from the Mohawk Valley under General Nicholas Herkimer , numbering around 800 men of the Tryon County militia and a party of Oneida Indians , approached in an attempt to raise the siege . British commander Barry St . Leger authorized an intercept force consisting of a Hanau Jäger ( light infantry ) detachment , Sir John Johnson ' s King ' s Royal Regiment of New York , Indian allies from the Six Nations and other tribes to the north and west , and Indian Department Rangers totaling at least 450 men . The Loyalist and Indian force ambushed Herkimer ' s force in a small valley about six miles ( 10 km ) east of Fort Stanwix , near the present - day village of Oriskany , New York . During the battle , Herkimer was mortally wounded . The battle cost the Patriots approximately 450 casualties , while the Loyalists and Indians lost approximately 150 dead and wounded . The result of the battle remains ambiguous to this day because the advantage of the Loyalist victory was countered when a party sortie d from Fort Stanwix and sacked their camp , spoiling morale among the Indians . This was one the few battles in the war where almost all of the participants were North American : Loyalist s and Indians fought against Patriot s in the absence of British soldiers . For the Iroquois nations , the battle marked the beginning of a civil war , as Oneidas under Colonel Louis and Han Yerry allied with the American cause and fought against members of other Iroquois nations . Background . In June 1777 , the British Army , under the command of General " Gentleman Johnny " John Burgoyne , launched a two - pronged attack from Quebec . Burgoyne ' s objective was to split New England from the other colonies by gaining control of New York ' s Hudson River valley . The main thrust came south across Lake Champlain under Burgoyne ' s command ; the second thrust was led by Lieutenant Colonel Barry St . Leger , and was intended to come down the Mohawk River valley and meet Burgoyne ' s army near Albany . St . Leger ' s expedition consisted of about 1 , 800 men that were a mix of British regulars , Hessian Jägers from Hanau , Loyalists , Indians , and rangers . They traveled up the Saint Lawrence River and along the shore of Lake Ontario to the Oswego River , which they ascended to reach the Oneida Carry ( present - day Rome , New York ) . There they began to besiege Fort Stanwix , the Continental Army post guarding the portage . Prelude . Alerted to the possibility of a British attack along the Mohawk , Nicholas Herkimer , the head of Tryon County ' s , issued a proclamation on July 17 warning of possible military activity and urging the people to respond if needed . Warned by friendly Oneidas that the British were just four days from Fort Stanwix on July 30 , Herkimer put out a call to arms . The force raised totaled 800 from the Tryon County militia and was composed primarily of poorly trained Palatine German - American farmers . Setting out on August 4 , the column camped near the Oneida village of Oriska on August 5 . While a number of the militia dropped out of the column due to their lack of conditioning , Herkimer ' s forces were augmented by a company of 60 to 100 Oneidas , led primarily by Han Yerry , a strong supporter of the Patriot cause . That evening , Herkimer sent three men toward the fort with messages for the fort ' s commander , Colonel Peter Gansevoort . Gansevoort was to signal the receipt of the message with three cannon shots , and then sortie to meet the approaching column . Due to difficulties in penetrating the British lines , these couriers did not deliver the message until late the next morning , after the battle was already underway . St . Leger learned from a messenger sent by Molly Brant to her brother , the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant who led a portion of St . Leger ' s Indian contingent , that Herkimer and his relief expedition were on their way on August 5 . St . Leger sent a detachment of light infantry from Sir John Johnson ' s Royal Yorkers toward the position that evening to monitor Herkimer ' s position , and Brant followed early the next morning with about 400 Indians and Butler ' s Rangers . Although many of the Indians were armed with musket s , some were not , and only carried tomahawk and spear . Battle . On the morning of August 6 , Herkimer held a war council . Since they had not yet heard the expected signal from the fort , he wanted to wait . However , his captains pressed him to continue , even accusing Herkimer of being a Tory because his brother was serving under St . Leger . Stung by these accusations , Herkimer ordered the column to march on toward Stanwix . About six miles ( 9 . 6 km ) from the fort the road dipped more than fifty feet ( 15 m ) into a marshy ravine where a stream about three feet ( 1 m ) wide meandered along the bottom . Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter , two Seneca war chiefs , chose this place to set up an ambush . While the King ' s Royal Yorkers waited behind a nearby rise , the Indians concealed themselves on both sides of the ravine . The plan was for the Yorkers to stop the head of the column , after which the Indians would begin their assault on the extended column . At about 10 am , Herkimer ' s column , with Herkimer on horseback near the front , descended into the ravine , crossed the stream , and began ascending the other side . Contrary to the plan , the Indians lying in wait near the rear of the column , apparently unable to contain themselves any longer , opened fire , taking the column completely by surprise . Leading the 1st Regiment ( Canajoharie district ) , Colonel Ebenezer Cox was shot off his horse and killed in the first volley . Herkimer turned his horse to see the action , and was very shortly thereafter struck by a ball , which shattered his leg and killed the horse . He was carried by several of his officers to a beech tree , where his men urged him to retire from further danger . He defiantly replied , " I will face the enemy " , and calmly sat leaning against the tree , smoking a pipe and giving directions and words of encouragement to the men nearby . As the trap had been sprung too early , portions of the column had not yet entered the ravine . Most of these men panicked and fled ; some of the attacking Indians pursued them , resulting in a string of dead and wounded that extended for several miles . Between the loss of the column rear and those killed or wounded in the initial volleys , only about one half of Herkimer ' s men were probably still fighting thirty minutes into the battle . Some of the attackers , notably those not armed with muskets , waited for the flash of an opponent ' s musket fire before rushing to attack with his tomahawk before the enemy had time to reload , a highly effective tactic against men not also armed with bayonet s . Louis Atayataronghta , a Mohawk warrior fighting with Herkimer ' s men , shot one of the enemy whose fire had been devastating in its accuracy , noting that " every time he rises up he kills one of our men " . Herkimer ' s men eventually rallied , fighting their way out of the ravine to the crest just to its west . John Johnson , concerned about the militia ' s tenacity , returned to the British camp and requested some reinforcements from St . Leger shortly before a thunderstorm broke out . Another seventy men headed back with him toward the battle . The thunderstorm caused a one hour break in the fighting , during which Herkimer regrouped his militia on the higher ground . He instructed his men to fight in pairs : while one man fired and reloaded the other waited and then only fired if attacked . Firing in relays , both were to attempt to keep at least one weapon loaded at all times , to reduce the effectiveness of the tomahawk attacks . John Butler , the leader of the rangers , took time during the thunderstorm to question some of the captives , and learned of the meaning of the three cannon signal . When Johnson and his reinforcements arrived , he convinced them to turn their coats inside out to disguise themselves as a relief party coming from the fort . When the fighting restarted after the rain , Johnson and the rest of his Royal Yorkers joined the battle , but one of the Patriot militiaman , Captain Jacob Gardinier , recognized the face of a Loyalist neighbor . Close combat , at times hand - to - hand fighting between neighbors , continued for some time . Sortie from Fort Stanwix . When Herkimer ' s messengers reached the fort around 11 am , Colonel Gansevoort began organizing the sortie that Herkimer had requested . After the thunderstorm passed , Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett led 250 men from the fort , and proceeded to raid the nearly - deserted enemy camps to the south of the fort . Driving away the few British and Indians left in those camps ( and taking four prisoners along the way ) the Patriots collected blankets and other personal possessions from the Indian camps , and also successfully raided John Johnson ' s camp , taking his letters and other writings ( including an intercepted letter to Gansevoort from his fiancée ) . One of the Indians who had stayed behind to guard the camp ran to the battlefield and began alerting the Indians to the fact their camps were being raided . They disengaged with cries of " " Oonah , oonah ! " " , the Seneca signal to retire , and headed for the camps to protect their women and possessions . This forced the smaller number of German and Loyalist combatants to also withdraw . Aftermath . Patriots . The battered remnant of Herkimer ' s force , with Herkimer seriously wounded and many of its captains killed , retreated back to Fort Dayton . The wounded Herkimer was carried by his men from the battlefield . His leg was amputated , but the operation went poorly and he died on August 16 . While the Indians retrieved most of their dead from the battlefield the following day , many dead and wounded Patriots were left on the field . When Arnold ' s relief column marched through the scene several weeks later , the stench and grisly scene was , according to various accounts , quite memorable . When General Philip Schuyler heard of the retreat from Oriskany , he immediately set about sending additional relief to the area . The siege at Fort Stanwix was eventually lifted on August 21 when a relief column led by General Benedict Arnold approached . While still at Fort Dayton , Arnold sent messengers into the British camp that were able to convince the British and Indian besiegers that his force was much larger than it actually was . Loyalists . Loyalist John Butler was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel for his role in the battle , and was authorized to raise a regiment that became known as Butler ' s Rangers . After the siege was lifted some Loyalists returned to Quebec while others ( including a number of the Indians ) joined Burgoyne ' s campaign on the Hudson . Indians . Brant and Sayenqueraghta , the principal Seneca chief , proposed the next day to continue the fighting by pursuing the Colonials down river toward German Flatts , but St . Leger turned their proposal down . This battle marked the beginning of the civil war in the Iroquois Confederacy , as the Iroquois in St . Leger ' s camp met in council and decided to send the Oneidas a bloody hatchet . Brant ' s Mohawks raided and burned the Oneida settlement of Oriska later in the siege , prompting the Oneidas to plunder the Mohawk castles of Tiononderoge and Canajoharie . The Fort Hunter Mohawks were later subject to the same treatment , prompting most of the remaining Mohawks to flee to Quebec . It has been claimed that Brant ' s Indians tortured and ate some of their prisoners . However , modern historians dispute this . It is likely that some of the prisoners taken were ritually killed ( which to Europeans is extremely similar to torture ) ; there does not appear to be any evidence of cannibalism ( ritual or otherwise ) . John Butler reported that four prisoners held by the Indians " were conformable to the Indian custom afterwards killed . " Winners and losers . The battle was , based on the percentage of casualties suffered , one of the bloodiest of the war . About half of Herkimer ' s force was killed or wounded , as was about 15 % of the British force . St . Leger claimed the battle as a victory , as the American relief column had clearly been stopped . However , the Americans were left in control of the battlefield by the withdrawal of the Indians . The British victory was tempered by the discontent of the Indians after the battle . When they joined the expedition , they had expectations that the British forces would do most of the fighting . They were the dominant fighters in this action , and some suffered due to the loss of their personal belongings taken during the sortie from the fort . This blow to their morale contributed to the eventual failure of St . Leger ' s expedition . Legacy . Blacksnake , one of the Indians at the battle , was interviewed many years afterwards . He recalled , " I thought at that time the Blood Shed a Stream running down on the ground . " A monument commemorating the battle was erected in 1884 at 43°10 . 6 ' N 75°22 . 2 ' W , and much of the battlefield is now preserved in the Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site . The site was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1962 , and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 . Nicholas Herkimer was honored when the town of Herkimer and Herkimer County , New York were named for him . American Revolutionary War activities in the Mohawk Valley , including the Battle of Oriskany , were memorialized by Walter D . Edmonds in his 1937 novel , " Drums Along the Mohawk " . The battle was also remembered with the naming of the aircraft carrier , launched in 1945 .