Straying from the trail

The Erie Canal trail varies from smooth pavement, to smooth crushed limestone, to dirt tracks through the forest. This morning we hit a section of single track that was muddy clay, wet from the recent rains.

When I say 'hit a section of single track", the hit part is litteral. I'm a poor bike handler, and when I felt my front wheel starting to slip I did exactly the opposite of what I should have done. Instead of pushing through and keeping my momentum, I slowed down. A second later we were on the ground, but no worse for wear. However, we made a joint decision to bail out on the trail for a while and seek a paved alternative.

This turned out to be a good decision. In a mile or two our new road route took us to the Oriskany battlefield State Historic site. The site itself was nothing much to look at, just a grassy field and a stone monument. But the ranger at the site was a gifted storyteller who brought the battle to life.

The battle of Oriskany is related to Fort Stanwix, a few miles away in Rome. In 1777, the British had a plan to separate New England from the rest of the colonies by gaining control of New York. 3 British forces were to converge on Albany: one coming up the Hudson River from New York City, a second coming down from Lake Champlain, and a third coming down the Mohawk River from Lake Ontario. This 3rd force was commanded by general Barry St Leger.

When St Leger got to Fort Stanwix, he found the Americans had captured it. He didn't have big enough canons to breech the walls, so he surrounded the fort.

An American militia of 800 men under the command of Nicholas Herkimer went to relieve the Americans trapped in Fort Stanwix. Large numbers of both the British and American forces were made up of members of the Iroquois nations. It was a very personal battle. Everyone knew everyone, and through the grapevine, everyone knew everyone else's plans.

The British heard through their Iroquois allies that Herkimer was coming, so they set up an ambush. Herkimer heard about the ambush through his Iroquois allies, but was pressured to keep going by his subcommanders who did not quite trust him. One reason they didn't trust Herkimer was that his brother was part of the British forces surrounding Fort Stanwix.

The ambush ended up being one of the bloodiest battles of the revolutionary war. The battle went in for hours, with a pause in the middle for a torrential downpour. Additional British soldiers from the seige left Fort Stanwix to join the fight. While they were gone, the Americans in Fort Stanwix came out and captured or destroyed all the supplies from the British encampment.

General Herkimer was wounded, but directed the fight while propted up under a tree, smoking his pipe. The Americans won the battle of Oriskany, although Herkimer died of his wounds a few days later.

An interesting tidbit about the Oriskany battlefield monument is that it is built out of stone from a lock on the Erie Canal. At one point canal boats were weighed to determine how much they were charged, using a specially designed weighing lock. When they stopped weighing boats, the weighing lock was no longer needed and NY State donated the stone from the lock.

Each year descendents of the battle lay wreathes to remember their ancestors who died in the fight. Last year, for the first time, the descendents of a Loyalist came down from Canada to add a wreath to remember him. This caused a bit if a stir with the Patriot families, and the ranger had to diplomatically point out that the ceremony was about remembering and honoring the dead, but also about healing and thanks for the Peace that eventually followed the war.

Since team A had abandoned the Erie Canal trail, we had to find our way through Utica. This was a nice urban change of pace, although I think we managed to hit every traffic light in the city.

Utica club beer used to cost 25 cents a glass when I was in college a few miles from here.

We may have left the trail, but we haven't left the rust belt.

One the far side of Utica we reunited with team S and got back on the planned route, which took us to Little Falls on the Mohawk River. A canal on the north side of the river that predated the Erie Canal by decades was used in colonial times to get past the falls. When the Erie Canal was built on the south side of the river, they put in an aqueduct across the river to connect the two canals.

The walls of the Mohawk River valley are steep near Little Falls.

Water power enabled a lot of factories in Little Falls back in the day. Few are still in business.

Living off of the land. Viktoriya was happy to find a red currant bush.

Which one is the salt shaker? The tall one with 2 holes or the short one with 3 holes?

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DAVID FAULKNERenjoyed
your entries have greatly increased my knowledge of the USA
thanks for taking the time after your rides
Dave
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6 years ago

Alain AbbateTo DAVID FAULKNERGlad you enjoy history. Every time I hear a park ranger telling stories, it brings back memories of being at great national parks and monuments. It must be the ranger hats that do it.
We are sorry we didn't think to take a picture of the wonderful ranger today.
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6 years ago