Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer was an American Palatine military officer who fought during the Revolutionary War. He died of wounds after the Battle of Oriskany.
Herkimer at the Battle of Oriskany
A bronze statue of Herkimer was erected in 1907 in Myers Park in Herkimer, New York
The Battle of Oriskany was a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the bloodiest battles in the conflict between Patriot forces and those loyal to Great Britain. On August 6, 1777, several hundred of Britain's Indigenous allies, accompanied by Loyalists of the King's Royal Regiment of New York and the British Indian Department, ambushed a Patriot militia column which was marching to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix. This was one of the few battles in which the majority of the participants were American colonists. Patriots and allied Oneidas fought against Loyalists and allied Iroquois and Mississaugas. No British regulars were involved; however, a detachment of Hessians was present.
Herkimer at the Battle of Oriskany Painting by Frederick Coffay Yohn, c. 1901
The site of the ambush at Bloody Creek, New York
Lt. Col. Marinus Willett, a 1791 portrait by Ralph Earl
Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, 1776 portrait by George Romney
