Page 23
History of Orange County
Towns of Goshen, Hamptonburgh and Chester
Page 23
     With three hundred of his warriors, he set out from Niagara, in June 1779, to fall upon the western frontiers of this state. There were also under his command, painted like Indians, about two hundred tories, whom through courtesy, we often hear called “the disaffected,”  “the friends of the British government,” &c.-but I prefer to call them by the good old revolutionary name “Tories.”*  After the middle of July they appeared on the west of Minisink, like a dark cloud hanging on the mountain top, ready to break upon the plain below in thunder and lightning, tempest and hail.  On the morning of the 20th, the inhabitants were awakened from their slumbers, by the flames of their dwellings, and fled in consternation. Their farms were laid waste, and their cattle and other property plundered by a detachment of his execrable band, whom Brandt had sent out for the work of robbery and murder.  On the evening of the same day Colonel Tusten, of Goshen, received by express, intelligence of the events of the morning, and issued orders to the officers of his regiment, to meet him on the morning of the 21st, with as many volunteers as they could raise, at Minisink, which he hail fixed as the place of rendezvous.  The officers generally, with the small force which they could raise and equip on so short a notice, met the Col. at the place appointed, where they held a council of war, and discussed the question whether they should pursue the savages or not.  Col. Tusten wisely opposed the pursuit, as Brandt, a skilful warrior, was probably the commander, as the enemy's force appeared to be much superior to them, and as they had with them, many tories who were well acquainted with the woods: while we had only a small force, were ill supplied with ammunition, and at the same time expected reinforcements.  The majority, however, were for pursuing the Indians, who they said would not fight, and from whom they should endeavor to recover the plunder. In the midst of these deliberations, Major Meeker mounted his horse, flourished his sword, and said, “let the brave men follow me: the cowards may stay behind.”  As may be readily thought, this decided the question: they all took up the line of march, and proceeded that evening seventeen miles, and encamped for the night.  On the next morning, they were joined by a small reinforcement under Col. Hathorn of the Warwick regiment, who, being an older officer than Col. Tusten, took the command.  When they had advanced a few miles, to Halfway Brook, they came upon the place where the Indians had encamped the preceding night: and another council was held there.  Colonels Hathorn, Tusten, and others whose valor was governed by prudence, were opposed to advancing farther, as the number of Indian fires, and the extent of ground occupied by their encampment, removed all doubt as to the superiority of the force of the enemy.   Here the same scene which broke up the former council was reacted, and with the same effect.
     Captain Tyler, who had some knowledge of the woods, was sent forward at the head of a small scouting party, to reconnoitre the movements of the enemy, and give notice of the best grounds for attacking him; but he had not advanced far before he was killed, a circumstance which created considerable alarm.  As our troops were marching north on the hills west of the Delaware, about nine in the morning, they discovered the Indians, advancing leisurely along the bank of the river, about three quarters of a mile distant.
     Brandt had sent forward the plunder under an escort to a fording place of the Delaware, near the mouth of the Lakawack, where he intended to cross the river.  Col. Hathorn wished to intercept him before he reached that place.  Owing to intervening woods and hills, the two armies soon lost sight of each other, and Brandt instead of advancing along the bank of the Delaware, wheeled to the right, and passing up a deep ravine over which our troops had marched, and thus he, crossing our line of march, showed himself on our rear, about ten o'clock.
     By this skilful manoeuvre, he not only took us by surprise, but chose his own ground for commencing the attack.  Col. Hathorn, as his men were ill supplied with ammunition, issued an order like that of Gen. Putnam, at Bunker's Hill, not to fire a single shot till the enemy was near enough to make it take effect: Just at that moment an Indian was seen riding a horse that had been stolen from Minisink on the 20th, and was known to one of out men, who immediately fired on him and killed him.  The fire soon became general.  At the commencement about fifty of Col. Hathorn's men were cut off from the main body and could not be brought into the engagement, leaving between eighty and ninety men only to contend with the whole force of the enemy, five times their number.  Every thing that the most determined bravery could effect was effected.    Soon after the commencement of the battle, they were completely surrounded by the savages on the summit of a hill, descending on all sides, and the ground which they occupied among the rocks and bushes was about an acre in extent, which they maintained in an obstinate conflict from between ten and eleven in the morning until late in the afternoon.  The wounded were collected in a secure place under a rock, to the number of seventeen; where Col. Tusten, who was a skilful surgeon, dressed their wounds.  So deadly was our fire, that had it not began to slacken on account of the failure of ammunition,  Brandt afterwards admitted that he would have been compelled to retreat.  Several attempts to break into our lines had failed, but just as the fire began to slacken, one man who had guarded the northeast angle of the hollow square and who had kept up from behind a rock, a destructive fire upon the enemy, fell, and the Indian and tory crew broke in upon our troops like a resistless deluge.  The yell of the savages, the screams of the wounded calling upon their companions not to forsake them, and the groans of the dying presented a scene of horror that beggars all description.  Col. Tusten probably fell, determining not to abandon the wounded.  All the rest fled in every direction, and more were killed in the flight than fell in the battle.  Some swam across the Delaware, while others were drowned in attempting to cross.
     Out of eighty who were in the engagement, forty-four were killed, chiefly militia officers, the most respectable citizens who had offered themselves willingly before their men could be equipped.  Some were wounded, who died by a lingering and protracted death, whose wounds were not in themselves mortal, but they were forced to suffer under them, inflamed by the heat of the weather and for want of dressing, while they were distressed with hunger and burning fever, no one to administer them a drop of water, or cheer the protracted agonies of death by a sympathising word or look.- Thus died a father, a brother, or a husband, far from his home in the cheerless solitudes of the mountains.
Sternitur infelix, alieno vulnere coelumque
Aspicit, et dulces morieus reminisitur agros.
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                       “The Mammoth comes--the foe--the monster Brandt,
               With all his howling, desolating band.”
      *Some estimate Brandt's forces as low as one hundred and sixty, we give what is thought to be nearest the truth.