The Chronicles

The Chronicle covers significant dates in New York
during the Revolutionary period. click on the year below
to view that year's events.

1775 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781

         Apr 04 The Massachusetts Congress asks missionary Samuel Kirkland
to recruit Oneidas to the Patriot cause; they refuse and remain neutral.
     May 10 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold capture Fort Ticonderoga
12 Seth Warner captures a garrison of 1 sargeant and 11 men at Crown Point.
14 Guy Johnson is warned of a plot to kidnap him, and fortifies his home, Guy Park.
Ethan Allen sends a messenger to recruit Indians at Caughnawaga to the American cause; they turn the message over to Governor Carleton.
     July Guy Johnson, the Butlers, Daniel Claus, Joseph Brant, and other Loyalists gather together to leave the Mohawk Valley.
17 Guy Johnson arrives at Oswego, calls the Iroquois there for a council
     Sept 06 Walter Butler, with Peter Johnson and Gilbert Tice, ambushes an American force attacking St. John's. The Loyalists suffer heavy losses, but drive off the Patriots.
25 Ethan Allen attacks outskirts of Montreal; his force is outflanked by Rangers and Indians led by Walter Butler and Peter Johnson, and is forced to surrender.
Jun 27 Burgoyne arrives at Crown Point
30 Burgoyne begins seige of Fort Ticonderoga
July 02 Arthur St. Clair abandons Ticonderoga's outer works.
04 Mount Hope and Sugar Loaf Hill occupied by British artillery, able to fire down on Fort Ticonderoga.
07 St. Clair evacuates his troops from Ticonderoga at 3 am.
Seth Warner's men beaten by British advance force at Hubbardton.
29 Gansevoort reports that two young girls were scalped and killed while picking berries outside Fort Stanwix
Aug 04 Nicholas Herkimer gathers the Tryon County militia at Fort Dayton, and sets out to relieve Fort Stanwix.
06 Oriskany,"The bloodiest battle of the Revolution".
A mixed force of regulars,Loyalists, and Indians ambush the Tryon County militia on its way to relieve Fort Stanwix. After hours of fighting,the militia withdraw,taking their mortally wounded leader Nicholas Herkimer with them.
Sept 15 John Butler is authorized to raise five companies of Butler's Rangers; recruiting is very succesful, drawing Loyalists who were mistreated by their Patriot neighbors.
16 Battle of Bennington. Baum's column runs into John Stark's Vermont militia, and is practically wiped out by the Vermonters; Baum is mortally wounded. Breymann's relief column beats Stark back, but suffers twenty five percent casualties.
19 First Battle of Saratoga. Continentals under Horatio Gates try to turn back Burgoyne's advance at Freeman's Farm. The day ends with the British holding the field.
Oct 06 Attack of Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton. General Sir Henry Clinton attacks in the Hudson Highlands, hoping to force a connection to Albany and relieve Burgoyne. British,Loyalist and Hessian troops overrun the forts, forcing both garrisons to surrender. Governor George Clinton, Col. John Lamb, and others flee in the chaos and avoid capture.
07 Second Battle of Saratoga. Benedict Arnold leads a fierce counterattack during the Battle of Bemis Heights. Arnold is wounded in the leg; the same leg that was wounded during the assault on Quebec. Brig. Gen Simon Fraser is shot by a sniper (allegedly Timothy Murphy), and dies from the wound.
16 Burning of Kingston,NY by a British force led by General John Vaughn.The attack on New York's seat of government is part of Sir Henry Clinton's attempt to relieve Burgoyne.
17 Burgoyne surrenders his army to Gates. The unusual surrender terms of the "convention" keep most of the British force as prisoners of war in America until the Revolution's end.
May Brant raids and Burns Cobleskill. 22 Continentals are ambushed and killed.
Jun Brant raids and burns Springfield.
July 03 John Butler raids the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.
Nov 11 Walter Butler, Joseph Brant, 500 Iroquois, and 200 Rangers raid Cherry Valley. 32 civillians,including women and children, are killed. 16 soldiers, along with their commander Col. Ichabod Allen, also die.
Apr 21 Van Schaick's 1st NY (with elements of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th NY),accompanied by Willett and Cochran of the 3rd NY, attack the Onondaga Castle(near modern Syracuse). 50 houses were burnt, 12 Indians killed, and 33 taken prisoners.
  28 Raiding parties reported in Schoharie, Stone Arabia, and near Fort Plank. The 2nd Regiment, Albany County militia Gansevoort's 3rd NY, and elements of the Tryon County militia march to Johnstown in response.
   
May 01 The 2nd and 4th NY regiments leave the Hudson River Valley to join the Sullivan Expedition forming near Easton, PA
  04 Several houses "were burnt at the Fantine Kill" (Ulster County), 6 civilians killed.
  10 A raiding party hits Fort Dayton, five men killed outside the fort, 1 taken prisoner. Seperately, 24 Indians "discovered about ten miles from the Old Indian Castle."
July Lt. Henry Hare and Sgt. Newbery of Butler's Rangers are captured and courtmartialed as spies. Both men are held responsible for their roles in the Cherry Valley Massacre, and are hanged at Canajoharie.
31 The Sullivan Expedition leaves the Wyoming Valley for New York Indian country.
Aug 28 Continental troops raid and burn the village of Chemung.
29 John Butler, his Rangers,and Brant and his warriors make a stand at Newtown(present day Elmira). Nine Indians and Three Continental soldiersare killed; 34 Continentals are wounded.
Sept 03 Sullivan burns Catherine's Town.
20 Col.Gansevoort of the 3rd NY ordered to destroy the lower Mohawk castle. Local settlers, who are now homeless, ask that Gansevoort turn the Indian's homes over to them; he complies. The entire action is later criticized by General Philip Schulyer, due to the fact that this particular Mohawk village supported the rebel cause.
Nov 27 Captain Jelles Fonda, 2nd Albany, is brought before a court martial. Fonda is charged with ordering his men to fire on men from Capt. Stephen J. Schuyler's regiment as they mutinied at Fort Plank. Fonda is tried and acquited of the charges.
Apr Third raid on Cherry Valley. 79 Indians and two tories burn the deserted fort, and all buildings still standing - the town ceases to exist.
May 21 Sir John Johnson raids the valley. His force burns every building except the church in Caughnawaga. Legend has it that Sir John returns to Johnson Hall to recover the family silver he had buried there prior to his flight to Canada.
July A force of Mohawks and Senecas burn the Oneida castle. The Oneidas finally pay the price for siding with the Americans at Oriskany and for their continuing support of the rebel cause. The Oneidas flee to Fort Stanwix for protection.
Oct The Burning of The Valleys.A two pronged raiding force sweeps down into the Mohawk and Scoharie Valleys. Sir John Johnson leads a force from Oswego; Maj. Christopher Carleton's party comes south from Fort. St. Johns.
02 Johnson's raiding force leaves Oswego. His troops consist of men from the 8th, 34th, and 84th regiments, his Royal Greens, Rangers,Artillery and Indians totaling about 600 men.
17 Johnson's raiders arrive outside the walls of the Upper Fort at Scoharie. They burn outlying farms, then swing around the fort to attack the next defense - the Middle Fort. The severely under garrisoned Middle Fort faces a seige; according to legend, Johnson sends out a parley flag to demand surrender. The flag bearer is fired upon by frontiersman Timothy Murphy. This happens three times. The legend concludes that Johnson finds the resistance too strong, and abandons the seige.
18 The raiders burn the settlements as far as Fort Hunter.
19 Battle of Stone Arabia. Also known as the battle of Klock's field. Colonel Brown's militia force is supposed to rendezvous with more troops led by General Robert van Rennselear; they will catch Johnson in a pincer move. Rennselear delays linking up; Brown meets Johnson's troops in the fields near Stone Arabia, and is severely mauled. Brown is shot down and scalped. The raiders now move on to burn Stone Arabia.
Oct 24 A small Continental scouting party encounters a force of 700 Tories and British regulars under the command of Major John Ross and Captain Walter Butler southeast of Fort Plain.
25 Battle of Johnstown. Marinus Willett's force of Continentals and Levies catches up with the raiding party led by Major Ross and Walter Butler. The fight seesaws through the streets of Johnstown; the Loyalists retreat, and are pursued by the Patriots.
30 Ross' raiders are pursued by Willett's force. The two collide at a ford of West Canada Creek. During the skirmish, Walter Butler is shot through the head. The news of Butler's death is more momentous than the surrender at Yorktown.
 

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