250 Years Ago: Torch and Tomahawk Ravage Cobleskill – Part 3 of 4

Submitted by Richard Christman

Following the battle, the Indians burned all the dwellings in the settlement except an old cabin belonging to George Warner, a Committee of Safety member who they may have hoped to capture when he returned home. “The enemy laid waste the whole settlement of Cobleskill by burning houses, barns, stables & shooting such horses as they could not conveniently catch to take with them,” said Freemoyer in his pension application.

Simms says that ten dwellings were burned at this time: those of George Warner, his son Nicholas, George Fester, Adam Shafer, William Snyder, John Freemire, Lawrence Lawyer, John Zeh, John Bouck and John Shell, the later owned by Lawrence Lawyer. With the barns and other out buildings, the total burned was 20, said Simms, citing a record of the Lutheran Church at Schoharie.

Many sources agree that 22 men including Captain Patrick were killed, two wounded and two taken prisoner. Of the approximately 350 Indians consisting of mostly Senecas, Schoharies, and Oquagos, and Loyalists, approximately 25 were killed. Simms wrote that “a mulatto, who was with the enemy at this time and returned after the war, stated that 25 of their number, mostly Indians, were buried in a mud hole near David Zeh’s. He also stated, that seven of the enemy who were wounded in the battle, died on their way to Canada. The mud hole or march is said in Kenneth Fake’s 1937 Official History off the Town of Cobleskill to be located on the Route 7 right-of-way about midway between Richmondville and Warnerville. The battle took place a short distance below this march, towards Warnerville.

Bodies were buried in pits dug near the George Warner house had stood, not far from the battle scene. Those soldiers were not discovered until some days later, even though scouts had been sent out to reconnoiter and look after the wounded.

One of the wounded was Belknap of Alden’s command. Simms relates that after being wounded, Belknap “discovered a hollow log into which he crept.

The next day he backed out of his resting place cold and stiff, and while seated upon fence the events of the last 24 hours, he discovered two Indians with plunder approaching him, having two dogs. Unobserved by them, he let himself fall into a bunch of briers. The Indians halted near him, and their dogs placed their paws on the fence and growled. He supposed himself discovered, but soon one of them took out a bottle, from which both drank, and he had the satisfaction of seeing them resume their march, without noticing the irritation of their canine friends. Casting his eye along the beautiful valley, and surveying the ruins of the preceding day, he discovered the old house of Warner, on thew west side of the creek, still standing, to which he made his way. He found it unoccupied, but victuals were on the table, and after eating, laid down faint and sad, upon a bed which the house also afforded. In the afternoon two men came and conveyed him to the Schoharie Fort where his wound was properly dressed and he recovered.

Following the attack, surviving residents hid in the forest. Most who sought safety in the forest would spend a rainy night there and not leave until the next day. Simms says that the wife of Lawrence Lawyer and three other stayed in the woods three days and finally came out near the out of the Cobus Kill. 575