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Chapter 6 - Mohawk River Valley

Herkimer Home, Danube, NY

                 

All sites in this chapter:
  : Sir William Johnson Hall, Johnstown
  : American Hotel, Sharon Springs
  : Hyde Hall, Springfield
  : Herkimer Home, Danube
  : Fountain Elms, Utica
  : Union Station, Utica
  : Stanley Theater, Utica
  : Oneida Community Mansion House,
        Oneida


 

T wo miles east of Little Falls on the south side of the Mohawk River and near the original Erie Canal is Herkimer Home, built circa 1750 for Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer. It is a Georgian style, gambrel-roofed house built of brick imported from Holland. It was General Herkimer who led the militia in the Revolutionary War Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777. He was leading 800 militiamen to recapture Fort Stanwix in Rome. Herkimer initially opposed advancing further until he could get reinforcements to face what he considered overwhelming British forces, who might set an ambush. His officers, however, were eager to proceed and argued so fiercely that Herkimer relented. Sure enough, the British staged an ambuscade, and one of the bloodiest battles of the war ensued. The Americans stood their ground thereby preventing British reinforcements from reaching the Hudson River Valley, where combined efforts of British forces from the west and east might have changed the war’s outcome. In the course of the fighting, General Herkimer was seriously wounded in one leg but continued to direct his militia until the British and the Indians retreated. He was taken to his home where his leg was amputated. Ten days after the battle he died from a hemorrhage caused by the amputation. The general was buried on a knoll just a short distance from his residence.