CHAPTER VII

FORT STANWIX AND ORISKANY

Fresh from undoing Herkimer's ugly plot, Brant abandoned
the Susquehanna and went off in the direction of Lake
Ontario. A great Indian council was to be held at Oswego,
and possibly he was hurrying to this meeting.

A vigorous campaign had been set on foot for the midsummer
of 1777 by General Burgoyne, who was now in command of
the British forces at Montreal. It was arranged that
Burgoyne should strike southward with the main army until
he reached the Hudson river. Meanwhile another body of
troops, under Lieutenant-Colonel St Leger, would make a
long detour by way of Lake Ontario and the western part
of the colony of New York. The object of this latter
movement was to rally the Indians, collect a force of
loyalists, and fight through the heart of the country
with the hope of forming a junction with Burgoyne's army
at Albany.

St Leger reached Oswego about the middle of July. There
he was joined by a regiment of loyalists, the famous
Royal Greens, and a company of Tory Rangers under Colonel
John Butler. Brant was present with two hundred Mohawks,
while a large band of Senecas were also grouped under