The Battle of Minisink took place during the American Revolutionary War at Minisink Ford, New York, on July 22, 1779. It was the only major skirmish of the Revolutionary War fought in the upper Delaware River valley. The battle was a decisive Iroquois and Loyalist victory, as the Patriot militia was hastily assembled, ill-equipped and inexperienced.

Brant's raid

Although British forces in the Northern Theater were largely concentrated in and near New York, Joseph Brant, a Mohawk war leader, had travelled to the upper Delaware Valley with his Loyalist and Indigenous volunteers to gather intelligence, seize cattle, and possibly disrupt American plans for an expedition against the Iroquois.

In February 1779, Brigadier General Kazimierz Pulaski's infantry had been reassigned to the Southern Theater, leaving the upper Delaware River valley largely undefended. Brant led his volunteers towards Minisink with the goal of taking cattle and demoralizing the colonists.

When Brant's force of 60 Iroquois and 27 Loyalists disguised as native warriors approached the settlement around noon on July 20, many of the settlers fled to the main fort. As a result only four settlers were killed and only three taken prisoner. Brant later explained in his report to Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton at Fort Niagara that "the reason that we could not take more of them was owing to the many forts about the place, into which they were always ready to run like ground-hogs." Ten houses, eleven barns, a church, and a gristmill were destroyed in the raid including the fortified house known as Fort Decker. Brant further reported that he had one man killed and one wounded in the attack, but stressed that they "did not in the least injure Women or Children." Brant's men gave no quarter to the wounded and captured, however, one of the wounded, Captain John Wood, was spared because Brant mistakenly believed him to be a fellow Mason. Brant wrote that three were killed during the battle, and that four were dangerously wounded and would probably not survive. Although badly wounded, Hathorn survived, returning to Warwick to write his report of the loss to his superiors.

Aftermath

thumb|right|Monument at site of the battle, now part of the Minisink Battleground County Park.

After the battle, Brant and his men forded the Delaware and continued north to Onaquaga on the Susquehanna River.

The raid failed to disrupt the Sullivan Expedition. Several weeks later at the Battle of Newtown, Brant and his volunteers, along with Butler's Rangers and several hundred Seneca and Cayuga warriors were brushed aside by Major General John Sullivan and his 3200 Continental Army soldiers. Sullivan subsequently invaded the Iroquois homeland in the Finger Lakes region of New York and destroyed 40 Iroquois villages.

Today, the site of the battle is located within Minisink Battleground County Park in Sullivan County a couple of miles north of the Hamlet of Barryville near the Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct. There are no structures contemporary to the battle, but the park contains several trails, monuments, picnic areas, and a visitors' center.

References

  • Hathhorn and Brant accounts of the Battle
  • John Hathorn's Revolutionary Legacy
  • Battle of Minisink Ford: A Photographic Study
  • The Battle of Minisink