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The road home
Estimates of the Stockbridge battle dead vary
widely, some saying 17, others 37, some as many as 48 dead. In part the confusion is because there was no
certain tally of the number of warrior-soldiers in Ninham’s command, some
sources say 60, others just 44 men. This
is in line with the average Patriot militia company of the American
Revolutionary War, which typically enlisted between 50 to 90 men. Also, while some members of the Stockbridge
Indian Company died on the battlefield, and were easy to count, others died
after fleeing the immediate battlefield, dying of their wounds with their
remains not discovered in the thick woods until later, or refused quarter and
being cut down out of hand, far from the main battlefield. Some of the wounded survived the battle only
to die of their wound’s days or weeks after the battle, none of these were
counted among the battle dead. Generally
the higher estimates are probably the most accurate.
“Several
of the rebel Light Infantry and nineteen Indians were killed on the field
refusing quarter, and many are supposed to have perished in the woods of their
wounds. Ninham’s son was killed...” A Genuine account of the late affair at
Kingsbridge.
“Refusing quarter”, this is an old term
meaning to refuse to surrender. From
this phrase, one would think that the surrounded Stockbridge warriors and
American light infantrymen chose to fight to the death rather than surrender. However, in the brutal style of warfare
favored by commanders like Lt. Col. Banastre, “Bloody Ban”, Tarleton, who
commanded British Legion cavalry at Kingsbridge, surrender was not frequently offered,
instead the cavalry cut down all those who tried to surrender. Often “Refusing quarter”, meant simply
that surrender was not offered and the cavalry killed all they could ride down,
this was also known as “Tarleton’s Quarter”.
“Tarleton’s Quarter”, and the British
Cavalry’s tendency to not taking prisoners was evident after the Battle of
Kingsbridge, when some survivors of the Stockbridge Company ran down a ridge
and across a small bridge over Tippet’s Brook, half a mile distant from the
main battlefield. Once on the other
side, a few of them hid among the rocks and bushes of the western bank. According to Bolton, “The cavalry being
unable to scale the rocks, called upon the fugitives to surrender, promising
them as a condition for so doing life and protection. Upon this three ventured to throw themselves
upon the mercy of the British Soldiers, and were immediately drawn out by the
bridge and there cut to pieces”.
Because of this, well into the 19th century, this bridge was
known as the “Indian Bridge”.
Four of the fleeing Stockbridge, those who didn’t try to surrender, were
able to hide in the rocks and later escape back to the American lines, beyond
the Croton.
Daniel
Ninham called out to his people to fly “...that he himself was old and would
die there...” Lt.
Colonel Simcoe’s account.
Outnumbered five to one, surrounded and ridden
down by cavalry, cavalry that was not inclined to accept surrender from foot
soldiers, especially when the foot soldiers were Native Americans; the
Stockbridge, according to Lt. Col. Simcoe, “fought most gallantly”.
The Stockbridge pulled more than one
cavalryman from their horses and Daniel Ninham even wounded Lt. Col, Simcoe,
before being cut down by cavalryman Edward Wright, Simcoe’s Huzzar orderly.
According to Captain Johann Ewald, “The
Indians as well as the Americans defended themselves like brave men against all
sides...however, most of the enemy were killed, partly shot dead, partly cut
down by the cavalry. No Indians,
especially, received quarter, including their chief called Nimham and his son,
save a few”.
“...the
Indians were killed, or desperately wounded...” Lt. Colonel Simcoe’s account.
According to Thomas DeVoe’s account, from The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries, the wounded from the battle were carried to
the houses of Frederick and Daniel Devoe, to have their wounds dressed and to
be cared for, including “one poor Indian...having one side of his head or
face cleaved down by a sabre cut almost to the chin; here [at Daniel DeVoe’s house] he was
nursed several weeks, when he was able to get away to some of his comrades
north, where he finally got well, but with a face frightfully disfigured”.
For us Moderns, unaware of the damage sword strikes
can cause, to read of an individual surviving a severe sabre cut to the face
seems positively unlikely; especially given the time, the lack of antibiotics,
and a lack of modern medicine.
However, it is interesting to note that both
period and modern doctors note that wounds caused by edged weapons, even on the
head and face heal quickly and generally without problems. As an example, the skull in the sidebar, is
from a young French cavalryman, who died during 1812, and whose body, was found
in a mass grave in Kaliningrad in 2006.
He’d survived a heavy sword cut to the face, which had sheared off part
of his upper jaw below his nose, breaking all his front teeth and cleaving his
right lower jaw in two. Incredibly he
survived anywhere from six weeks to three months, before eventually succumbing
to starvation, hypothermia, typhus, or some combination of the three, during
Napolean’s Retreat from Russia.
Many of the Stockbridge died on the
battlefield, according to Thomas DeVoes account, “Others were afterwards
found maimed; the old Chief Ninham, was so badly wounded that he must have soon
after died; yet before his death he was able to crawl down the hill to a
running brook, towards Jesse Husted’s house”. Daniel Ninham’s body was found after the
battle, when someone followed the house dogs towards the creek, to discover
Ninham’s nearly devoured remains, along with the mutilated bodies of two or
three more of the fallen Stockbridge.
They were buried in the ‘Indian Field’ and large stones placed on
their graves, initially not as a monument, but to prevent the local dogs from
digging up and further desecrating their bodies.
A month after the battle, the four remaining
Stockbridge in service with the Continental Army, were released from service
and returned to their families. This battle
wiped out an entire generation of warriors, severely weakening the Stockbridge
tribe; eventually causing them lose control over their homeland unscrupulous
land speculators, and were forced west, first to central New York state and the
lands of the Oneida, were they formed New Stockbridge, and finally, starting in
1818, when New York State began pressuring all Native Americans to leave the
state, all the way to Wisconsin, where they are today.
And
this ends our sad chapter on The Battle of Kingsbridge, and the Stockbridge
Indian Massacre, a defeat for the Patriots, a compte disaster for the
Stockbridge.
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Sources
Bolton,
Robert, Rev.; The Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County
of Westchester, Vol II, [Chas. F. Roper, New York, 1888], page 623, https://dn790000.ca.archive.org/0/items/historyofseveral22bolt/historyofseveral22bolt.pdf,
accessed August 31, 2026
Ewald,
Johann, Captain; “A Diary of the American War: A Hession Journal”, edited and
translated by Joseph P. Tustin, [Yale University, New Haven, CN, 1979], https://lindsaylegion.com/reference/library/books/1775/Ewalds%20Diary%20of%20the%20American%20War.pdf,
accessed August 15, 2026
Hauptman,
Laurence M.; “The Road to Kingsbridge: Daniel Nimham and the Stockbridge Indian
Company in the American Revolution”, American Indian Magazine, Fall 2017 / Vol.
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accessed August 22, 2026
National
Park Service; “The Stockbridge Militia and the Battle of Van Cortlandt’s Woods”,
https://www.nps.gov/mava/learn/historyculture/the-stockbridge-militia-and-the-battle-of-van-cortlandt-s-woods.htm,
accessed August 12, 2026
New
York City Cemetery Project; “Stockbridge Indian Burial Ground”, March 1, 2022, https://nycemetery.wordpress.com/tag/native-american-cemeteries/,
accessed August 12, 2026
Rees,
John U; “ ‘On command with Nimham Indian Capt.’: Jabez Pottage, Indigenous
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accessed August 31, 2026
Rees,
John U; “Richard Walling, ‘Patriots Blood The Indian Company of 1778’ ”, https://www.academia.edu/125746909/Richard_Walling_Patriots_Blood_The_Indian_Company_of_1778_,
accessed August 31, 2026
Rees,
John U; “ ‘The bones of those who have been killed in the war’: Biography of
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accessed August 31, 2026
Rindfleisch,
Bryan; “The Stockbridge-Mohican Community, 1775-1783”, February 3, 2016,
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accessed August 15, 2026
The
Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries,
Volume V, “The Massacre of the Stockbridge Indians 1778”, [A.S. Barnes and Co.,
New York and Chicago, 1880], page 185 to 195, https://books.google.com/books?id=EFkbYbpRHDcC&pg=PA195&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false,
accessed August 22, 2026
Vergano,
Dan; “A French Soldier Died After A Saber Wound In 1812. Scientists Have Now
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