Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/345

DELAWARE COUNTY. 321 Schoharie creek, burning and destroying every thing that lay in their way. Soon after G-en. J ohnston departed towards the Lower Fort, Murphy followed in his rear and secured prisoner a man by the name of Benjamin Buttons. The loss of the garrison in this affair was only one killed and two wounded, one mortally. It is not known what loss the enemy sustained, or why they retreated so hastily. The true, and most probable cause was the determined spirit of resistance manifested in firing upon the flag, leading them to suppose the defence could be obstinate. The tory leaders, satiated with blood, may have been unwilling to act over the tragedies of Wyoming and Cherry Valley. A small body of men then left the Middle Fort under Col. Vrooman, and by a circuitous route reached the Lower Fort, just as the tories and Indians were passing where the village of Schoharie now stands. Several buildings which were there erected, were burned to the ground. When they arrived at the Lower Fort, they showed little disposition to attack it, although its garrison did not amount to 100. They separated into two divisions, the regular troops marching along the bank of the creek, and the Indians filing off a quarter of a mile to the east of the fort. The regulars fired a few cannon shot without effect, one only lodging in the corner of the church. — The Indians and tories, in preparing a small brass cannon, received a brisk and deadly fire from the fort, which so frightened them that they sunk their cannon in a morass, and marched to where the road now runs, where they were joined by the regulars. They then fired & few shots with small arms, and the Indians approached near enough to throw their bullets into the tower of the church, where some marksmen had been stationed. A discharge of grape drove them back, and passing over the Fox creek, they set fire to a house and grist-mill, after which they proceeded to Fort Hunter.