Colonel John Brown, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold Part 8

July 26, 1780, he left there (perhaps, however, to return), to a.s.sist the Canajoharie men at Fort Schuyler.

When John Brown took command there I do not know.

The conclusion of the matter of Oct. 19, 1780 was _battle of Klock's Field_ or _Fox's Mills_. On that day and the 18th Sir John Johnson laid waste the whole of Stone Arabia district after burning Caughnawaga.

Brown's defeat in the morning of October 19 did not, however, involve Fort Paris, which was held by Major Root. Although immediate relief of the fort and pursuit of Johnson were essential, Van Rensselaer did not cross the Mohawk until afternoon, crossing at Fort Plain. The enemy was entrenched on the north side of the river, about St. Johnsville, near a stockade or block-house at Klock's. Fort House, a small block-house, was the exact place where just before night a "smart brush" occurred between the British and the Americans under Colonel Dubois. Colonel Dubois took a position above Johnson, on the heights of the north side, to prevent his pa.s.sage up the river. Colonel Harper, with the Oneida Indians, was on the south side of the river, nearly opposite. General Van Rensselaer after all this forward movement and the slight attack, did not hold his position, but fell back three miles down the river.

The enemy camped on land of the late Judge Jacob G. Klock, I suppose, colonel of Second Regiment, Tryon County militia, and, "soon after the moon appeared," moved to a fording-place just above a well-known citizen's (Nathan Christie) residence, and retreated on the south side of the Mohawk, pa.s.sing Oneida Castle, and pus.h.i.+ng westward for Canaseraga on Chittenango Creek, near Lake Oneida.