Herkimer, General Nicholas.—Won the battle of Oriskany, which many regard as the decisive battle of the Revolution. Was the eldest son of Johann Jost Herkimer (or Herchheimer), a native of the German Palatinate, and one of the original patentees of what is now part of Herkimer County, N.Y. Was commissioned a lieutenant in the Schenectady militia, January5, 1758, and commanded Fort Herkimer that year when the French and Indians attacked the German Flats. Appointed colonel of the first battalion of militia in Tryon County in1775, and represented his district in the County Committee of Safety, of which he was chairman. Was commissioned brigadier general Sept.5, 1776, by the Convention of the State of New York, and August6, 1777, commanded the American forces at the battle of Oriskany, where he received a mortal wound but directed the battle from under a tree until its successful conclusion, dying ten days later at his home, the present town of Danube,N.Y.

Congress testified its appreciation of his service by twice passing resolutions requesting New York to erect a monument at the expense of the United States. A statue of the famous German American has finally been erected at Herkimer, N.Y., through the liberality of former U.S. Senator Warner Miller. The battle of Oriskany was fought by the Mohawk Valley Germans without assistance, other reports notwithstanding. A part of the American troops under Herkimer refused to co-operate and left the Germans to the number of only800 to engage the enemy alone.

Quoting an American writer: “The battle of Oriskany was one of the most important battles of the Revolution, and General Washington said it was ‘the first ray of sunshine.’ The British forces, under Col. St.Leger, had landed at Oswego, coming from Canada, under orders to march through the Mohawk Valley to Albany, there to join Burgoyne, who was coming down from Canada with a large army, by way of Lake Champlain. These two forces were to meet at Albany and then go down the Hudson River, thus dividing the forces of the Americans. If this plan had succeeded doubtless the Revolution would have failed. However, the defeat of St.Leger at Oriskany sent his army back to Canada, and the defeat of Burgoyne later at Saratoga ended the entire movement and led to the final victory at Yorktown.”

H.W. Elson, in his “History of the United States of America,” says, “Oriskany was without exception the bloodiest single conflict in the war of the Revolution.... Nothing more horrible than the carnage of that battle has ever occurred in the history of warfare.”

In the Magazine of American History for August, 1884, was printed an exhaustive article, “The Story of a Monument,” dealing largely with General Herkimer, the Battle of Oriskany, the character of its hero and the details of his personality and his surroundings. The author, S.W.D. North, quotes ex-Governor Dorsheimer as declaring at the Centennial Celebration: “Oriskany was a German fight. The words of warning and encouragement, the exclamations of praise and of pain, the shouts of battle and of victory, and the command which the wounded Herkimer spoke and the prayers of the dying, were in the German language.” The author holds, however, that even then the admixture of races had played pranks with the German names, until today the descendants of many of the participants in that “German fight” would not know the names of their ancestors if spelled on the roster as they were spelled correctly at the time Oriskany was fought. The problem was further complicated by the fact, says North, that the original Palatinates and their descendants who comprised the bulk of the yeomanry of the Mohawk Valley in the Revolution, were not an educated people. General Herkimer would be called an ignorant man these days. One of the most curious of the few existing specimens of his manuscript is preserved by the Oneida Historical Society, and throws a strange light on the mixed jargon in which even the hero of Oriskany issued his military orders and incidentally proves that the present spelling of his name was not his own way:

Rendered into English, the order reads as follows:

The Herkimer homestead is still preserved, and has now become an institution under the care of the State of New York. Agitation to bring this about was initiated by the German American Alliance, which raised the money to make the homestead a national memorial. The legislature granted a charter placing it under the care of the German American Alliance and the Daughters of the American Revolution, who for years co-operated peacefully in the loving task entrusted to them. Late in December, 1919, the last German American connected with the committee was forced out as a result of the desire to obliterate every reminder of the share of the German element in the memorial. (See “Palatine Declaration of Independence” elsewhere.)