On August 31, 1778, a skirmish was fought that involved the most completely American of all the units in the Patriot army. Most of the men in this unit made the supreme sacrifice on this field of battle in defense of their country. Today, amid the crowds of people and the thunder of traffic in New York City, their bodies lie in a secluded area of Van Cortlandt Park near an area known as Indian Field. The Patriot soldiers who fell there were Native Americans of Nimham’s Indian Company of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
The decision of these men to support the Patriot cause was a complex one. The history of America from the time of the first English colony in Virginia was one of constant expansion, a never-ceasing quest for more land. An independent United States would continue this course so destructive to Indian culture. The government of Great Britain was more sympathetic to the Native Americans. In 1763, in response to resistance led by Chief Pontiac, the British king had established the Line of Demarcation, reserving all lands west of the highest crest of the Appalachian Mountains for the various Indian tribes. This action made supporting the British appealing when the American Revolution began, and most of the tribes along the frontier became pro-British.
The Iroquoian Confederation did not follow this pattern. In the early 1760s George Washington, while serving in the Seven Years’ War (in America usually called the French and Indian War), became close friends with Andrew Mon-tour, the leader of the Delaware tribe, part of the Iroquois Confederation. In 1778 Andrew’s son, John, commanded a company of Delawares in the Continental Army under Washington, and the friendly relations with that tribe had won support from members of other tribes in the Confederation, including members of the Mohican tribe, who still lived in the vicinity of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. These Native Americans had adopted many parts of the culture of their white neighbors and were thoroughly integrated into Massachusetts units in Washington’s army.
Many PATRIOT CAVALRYMEN had their sabers made by local blacksmiths who used steel from saws taken from sawmills.
It had long been a plan of Washington’s to form a special unit of light infantry made up of frontier riflemen and Indians. This unit would specialize in scouting, skirmishing, and making raids on the British. During the winter of 1777–1778, while at Valley Forge, Washington had asked, and received, from Congress permission to form such a unit. In late June and early July 1778, the unit began to take shape.
Historians estimate that more than one hundred Native Americans from various tribes were serving in the army under Washington’s direct command, while many others served in other Patriot organizations. Washington ordered the Indians in his command to be temporarily separated from their regular units and brought together into a special corps. The overall command of the light infantry would belong to Capt. Allen McLane. Capt. Abraham Nimham would command the largest unit of Indians, the Mohicans from Stockbridge. Indeed, Captain Nimham welcomed the assignment because it would bring together all the Stockbridge Mohicans then scattered among the various units, welding them into a single fighting force.
At this point in the war, the British army held New York City, having occupied it in August 1776, while Washington and the Patriot army made their headquarters several miles north at White Plains. The area between the two forces was a “no man’s land” where clashes between small bodies of troops frequently occurred.
The “Indian Corps” Washington organized was described by an eyewitness as wearing “a shirt of coarse linen down to the knees.” This was the hunting shirt used by all frontiersmen, regardless of race. Beneath the hunting shirt the Indian troops wore linen pants and deerskin moccasins. For weapons the men carried a bow and some twenty arrows and a musket. With the bow and arrows, they were capable of a much more rapid rate of fire than musket-bearing troops, and at the short range usually involved in an ambush, they were quite deadly. Most also carried a knife or a short axe, or tomahawk. A full-strength infantry company would have been made up of fifty men, but Nimham’s Indian Company probably had forty men. Although few in number, these men were veterans. Some of the Stockbridge men had seen action as early as Bunker Hill in June 1775, while a considerable number had fought at Monmouth during the spring of 1778, when Washington had confronted the British as they withdrew from Philadelphia.
The British unit assigned to protect their front lines against Patriot marauders was the Queen’s Rangers, commanded by Lt. Col. John Simcoe. All the enlisted men, and some of the officers, were Loyalists born in America. The Rangers were a mixed unit; some were infantry, others mounted dragoons, or cavalry, commanded by Banistre Tarleton. Not only were these men familiar with the countryside, many of them had experience in the rough-and-tumble small-scale warfare of the frontier. Surrounded as they were by a hostile Patriot population, the Queen’s Rangers had gained a great deal of combat experience. They also knew that they could never return to their homes if they lost the war. In short, they were formidable fighters.
In July 1778 Daniel Nimham’s Indian Company laid an ambush for the Queen’s Rangers. It was only a lucky accident that both Simcoe and Tarleton escaped being caught in this trap and killed. Both men immediately began plotting revenge.
On August 31, 1778, Simcoe led 500 men out from the British lines along the Square Mile Road, toward the village of the same name. Almost half of the British force advanced west of Tribbet’s Brook, while the rest moved along the Bronx River. Tarleton and the dragoons stayed on the flank.
The lay of the land allowed Nimham’s company to spot the British along the brook, but those along the river were out of sight. Nimham’s Indian Company moved to attack the British soldiers they could see, and soon a lively skirmish was underway. Then disaster struck. The remainder of the British under Simcoe closed in behind Nimham’s force. As the Indians left the cover of stone walls and bushes to retreat, Tarleton charged with his cavalry. This was the moment in battle that cavalry on both sides wait for. So long as the infantry remained in ranks or behind cover, the horsemen could accomplish little. Once the infantry broke ranks or left cover, the cavalry held a great advantage. Men on foot with empty muskets were no match for horsemen swinging sabers and firing pistols. Nimham and his men fought as best they could, but in only a few minutes, thirty-seven members of the Indian Company, including Captain Nimham, were stretched on the ground, dead.
The most completely American unit in the Patriot army was wiped out on the battlefield. The bodies of these soldiers were collected by local farmers and buried in what has come to be called Indian Field. There they still lie today, silent witnesses to their devotion to the cause of independence.
Author’s note: The area of Van Cortlandt Park occupied by ball fields and called Indian Field is not the burial site. The graves are located along an old lane, today merely a footpath, near the park nursery.