Minisink Battle
page 7

     In April of the following year, Brandt started from Niagara with another force to invade the frontier.  At Tioga Point he detailed eleven of his warriors to go to Minisink for prisoners and scalps.  With the remainder of his force, he started to invest the fort at Scoharie.  Here he captured some prisoners who made him believe that the place was garrisoned by several hundred men-a bit of strategy that foiled even the wily Indian chieftain.  Brandt turned back, and shaped his course down the Delaware.  One day his command was startled by the death-yell, which rang through the woods like the scream of a demon.  They paused, waiting for an explanation of this unexpected signal, when, presently, two of the eleven Indians who had been sent to the Minisink emerged from the woods, bearing the moccasins of their nine companions.  They informed their chief that they had been to Minisink, where they had captured, one after the other, five lusty men, and had brought them as far as Tioga Point and encamped for the night.  Here, while the eleven Indians were asleep, the prisoners had freed themselves from the cords which bound them, when each took a hatchet, and with surprising celerity brained nine of their captors.  The other two savages, aroused by the noise of the blows, sprang to their feet and fled; but as they ran, one of them received the blade of a hatchet between his shoulders.  Thus was the death of the slain heroes of Minisink avenged.
     For forty-three years the bones of those heroes slain on the banks of the Delaware were allowed to molder on the battleground.  But one attempt had been made to gather them, and that was by the widows of the slaughtered men, of whom there were thirty-three in the Presbyterian congregation of Goshen.  These heroic ladies set out for the battle-field on horseback; but, finding the journey too hazardous, they hired a man to perform the pious duty, who proved unfaithful and never returned.
     In 1822, the citizens of Goshen were led to perform a long-neglected duty by an address of  Dr. D. R. Arnell at the annual meeting of the Orange County Medical Society, in which he gave a brief biography of Dr. Tusten. A committee was appointed to collect the remains and ascertain the names of the fallen.
     The committee at once set upon the duty before them.  The first day they traveled forty miles through the wilderness.  At Halfway-brook, six miles from the battle-ground, the party left their horses.  The vicinity was an unbroken wilderness, with no trace of improvement of any kind, and the danger of attempting to ride was so great that they chose to clamber over the rough ground on foot.
     The committee were astonished at the route taken by the little army; the descents were frightful and the country rugged beyond conception.  The majority of the bones were found on the spot where the battle was fought and near a small marsh or pond a few rods east.  This fact shows that the militia, made reckless by thirst, went for water and were killed.  Some were found at a distance of several miles.  They were the remains probably of wounded men, who had wandered away and finally died of their wounds and hunger. Wild beasts may have removed others.  The skeleton of one man was found in the crevice of a rock where he had probably crept and died.  The whole number of bones collected by the Committee was about three hundred; other bones were subsequently found by hunters and brought in.
     It may be suggested that all of the bones collected may not have been the remains of the white soldiers; that it would be impossible to distinguish, so long afterwards, the skeleton of a white man from that of an Indian.  It should be borne in mind that it was the rule of Indian warfare, when successful, to gather up and carry off all their slain.  On this occasion the survivors saw the Indians engaged in this very duty.
     The gathered remains were taken to Goshen, where they were buried with imposing ceremonies in the presence of fifteen thousand persons, including the military of the county, and a corps of cadets from West Point under the command of Major Worth.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
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