The Woodsman's Journal Online

Sunday, August 23, 2026

The Battle of Kingsbridge, and the Stockbridge Indian Massacre, Part Two ©

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

The Battle of Kingsbridge was a defeat for the Patriots, and a total disaster for the Stockbridge Indians. The ‘Indian Company’, the regiment commanded by sachem Daniel Nimham and his son Abraham, Captain of the regiment, was was effectively wiped out, losing between 17 and 40, and maybe as many as 48 Stockbridge warrior-soldiers killed.

But what led to this disaster for the Stockbridge, and how did they get here?

The road to Kingsbridge

Partly because the Stockbridge missionary, John Sargent, Jr., had strong pro-American leanings, but mostly due to the lingering bitterness over the dismissal of their land claim case, and a lack of support by royal officials, such as Sir William Johnson, the powerful British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department, to support what was determined by the Royal Board of Trade to be patently illegal land grab, these once loyal warriors of the British felt that they had been abandoned by the British authorities. The March 11^th, 1767, decision by a New York City court saw 205,000 acres stretching from the Hudson eastward to the Connecticut border (which today includes southern Dutchess County, parts of Putnam County) taken from the Stockbridge and given to the heirs of Adolphe Philipse. Stockbridge bitterness toward British authorities intensified every year thereafter right up to the outbreak of the hostilities at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

Early in 1775, Daniel Nimham offered his services to the Provincial Congress, who employed him as diplomate, bearing messages and dispatches to other tribes of Native Americans further west; tribes such as the Six Nations, the Shawnee and the Kahnawake/Mohawk Indian community of Canada.

According to the Provincial Commissioner of Indian affairs, in a letter to General George Washington, the Stockbridge had stated that they were “anxious to take part in our favour”¹ Subsequently, the Stockbridge Indian Company entered Provincial service on August 21, 1777.

A journal kept by the Hessian officer Johann Van Ewald of the Schleswig Jagr Corps, contains the best description of the warriors in the Stockbridge Indian Company. Van Ewald wrote,

“I was struck with astonishment over their sinewy and muscular bodies. Their strong and well-made and healthy bodies were strikingly distinguished among the European bodies, with whom they lay mingled on the ground...Their costume was a shirt of coarse linen down to the knees, long trousers also of linen down to the feet, on which they wore shoes of deerskin, and the head was covered with a hat made of bast [which is defined in historical notes of his journal as “matting or cordage made from the inner bark of the basswood tree”]. Their weapons were a rifle or musket, a quiver with some twenty arrows, and a short battle-axe, which they know how to throw very skillfully. Through the nose and in the ears they wore rings, and on their heads only the hair of the crown remained standing in a circle the size of a dollar-piece, the remainder being shaved off bare. They pull out with pincers all the hairs of the beard, as well as those on all other parts of the body”.

Because of their skill as hunters, the Stockbridge were natural scouts, and were often employed as scouts and rangers, to spy on opposition forces, gather information and capture enemy soldiers for interrogation, by the Continental commanders. This put them between the lines or in advance of the other larger, more heavily armed Continental forces. Since they were a lightly armed Milita unit, they would not have had extensive military drill on what formations were best to use when attacked by cavalry, and they would not have had bayonets. This would put them at a distinct disadvantage if they were confronted by larger, regular British forces, something that they would learn the hard way at the Battle of Kingsbridge.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Battle of Kingsbridge, and the Stockbridge Indian Massacre Part Three ©”, where we will talk about details of the Battle of Kingsbridge, which was a defeat for the Patriots and a complete disaster for the Stockbridge.

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

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. 18 No. 3, https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/road-kingsbridge-daniel-nimham-and-stockbridge-indian-company-american-revolution, 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

Rindfleisch, Bryan; “The Stockbridge-Mohican Community, 1775-1783”, February 3, 2016, February 3, 2016, https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/02/the-stockbridge-mohican-community-1775-1783/, 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

Sunday, August 16, 2026

The Battle of Kingsbridge, and the Stockbridge Indian Massacre, Part One ©

Have you ever heard of the Battle of Kingsbridge? It is also known as the Stockbridge Indian Massacre or the Battle of Van Cortlandt’s Woods and took place on August 31, 1778, in present-day Bronx, New York, almost 250 years ago.

Daniel Nimham’s company of the Stockbridge Indian Company, consisting of approximately 60 Stockbridge Native American militiamen and scouts, who were allied with the Continental Army, were ambushed and overwhelmed by a larger force of British and Loyalist cavalry, including Lieut. Col. John Graves Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers and Banastre Tarleton’s dragoons.

The outnumbered Stockbridge Indians, warriors from the Mohican, Wappinger, and Munsee tribes were essentially wiped out. The number killed has been variously reported from 14 to 40 individuals, with many contemporary accounts and modern markers noting around 30 to 48 killed after being taken by surprise by the larger British and Loyalist forces.

But who were the Stockbridge-Mohican? First, they are not to be confused with the modern Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut

the Mohegan. They are the ‘Muh-he-con-neok’, the ‘People of the Waters that are Never Still’, and pronounced ‘Muhheakun’nuk’, which was shortened into English as Mahican or Mohican. Historically the Stockbridge were the remnants of the Mahican, Housatonic, Wappinger, Tunxis, Shawnee, and other ‘River Indians’, Native Americans who lived along the shores of Hudson River, all of whom congregated at the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, one of several Mahican communities in New England and New York, in the mid eighteenth century, known as ‘Praying Towns’. Praying Towns were settlements of assorted Native Americans who embraced Christianity and lived in the English colonies alongside white inhabitants, these settlements offered several key advantages to both white settlers and Native Americans.

The Stockbridge-Mohican were pro-independence and immediately after shots being fired at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, rushed to the aid of the New England minutemen. In what would later become known as ‘Battle Road’, Mohican and American soldiers lined the path connecting Concord, Lexington, and Boston, Massachusetts, and poured a relentless fire upon the marching British infantry, inflicting heavy casualties upon them. And afterwards ‘Stockbridge Indian Company’ marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts, along with thousands of colonial militiamen to besiege the British army encamped within Boston.

During the siege, the Stockbridge constructed fortifications, patrolled the outer defenses, and conducted periodic ambushes of British forces, like the one June 21 when as described in Bryan Rindfleisch’s article, the Stockbridge on June 25, 1775 “killed more of the British guard”, and the next day “Two Indians went down near Bunker Hill and killed a sentry”. In addition, “some British barges sounding the waters near the mouth of the Charles River were put into a retreat by a shower of arrows that killed one redcoat and wounded three. The arrows were aimed by Stockbridges … who were encamped near that place”. The Stockbridge Indian Company also fought at Bunker Hill, driving back the British attack, fighting that cost them one of their own, Abraham Naumanmpputaunky.

Leading up to the Battle of Kingsbridge, The Stockbridge Indians who had served alongside Rogers's Rangers in the French and Indian War, did great service for the American army during the Revolution serving as advanced scouts, raiding behind enemy lines and taking prisoners.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Battle of Kingsbridge, and the Stockbridge Indian Massacre Part Two ©”, where we will talk about the Battle of Kingsbridge, which was a defeat for the Patriots and a disaster for the Stockbridge.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

New York City Cemetery Project; “Stockbridge Indian Burial Ground”, March 1, 2022, https://nycemetery.wordpress.com/tag/native-american-cemeteries/, accessed August 12, 2026

Sunday, August 9, 2026

The Tuscarora Heroes, December 19th, 1813 ©

The Tuscarora Heroes, in little known incident, in an often overlooked war, that took place over 200 years ago, on the edge of the wilderness that bordered the Old Northwest Frontier, in the frontier village of Lewistown (now known as Lewiston), New York, because of them my faith in the general goodness and neighborliness of humans was reborn.

The Opening Salvo

During the waning months of 1813, American forces under pressure from advancing British forces, abandoned Fort George and burned it and the neighboring village of Newark, now Niagara-on-the-Lake, before retreating across the Niagara River to Fort Niagara.

1. Revenge! British forces cross the Niagara river

In retaliation, 1,500 British soldiers and Native warriors, on the night of December 19^th, 1813, at 4:00 am, crossed the Niagara river at Five Mile Meadow. The main British force of Regulars advance and silently and swiftly surprise and capture Fort Niagara. Simultaneously the British allied Native Americans and some British Regulars advance on and attack Lewistown. .

2. The Destruction of Lewistown. The civilians escape east up the Ridge Road.

Lewistown was poorly defended and the British allied Native Americans begun to loot and burn houses. Also, because many of the houses contained liquor, they become intoxicated and uncontrollable by the British Indian Department agents. Some residents are killed, some are captured but many escape east on Ridge Road, in their night clothes, wrapped in blankets if they were lucky and had time and the foresight to snatch them up, before running for their lives.

3. Tuscarora warriors attack to buy time for their neighbors to escape

Despite being outnumbered by 30 to 1, Tuscarora men rushed down from the Escarpment and into the fight to help the people of Lewistown. From the heights of the Escarpment near their village, three Tuscarora men blew horns to create the impress of a large unseen force, approaching. At the same time, a small group of Tuscarora warriors attacked the British forces. They were able to give the impression that “their numbers were legion”. This confused the British and their native allies who, fearing a trap, stopped pursuit of the fleeing people of Lewistown, and temporarily retreated. The survivors of the attack on Lewistown, with the help of the Tuscarora, fled east desperately trying to outrun their attackers. The British forces pursued them for about 9 miles (15 km), before abandoning the chase.

As a reward for their bravery and kindness, the Tuscarora’s village was burnt to the ground by the British forces, as was Lewistown.

Burning the Frontier

British regular, Canadian Militia and Crown allied Native Americans began looting, burning and destroying everything within seven to nine miles (11 to 15 km) eastward from the river shore. This is a prelude to a campaign that eventual destroyed all settlements on the American side of the border for thirty miles. Almost every structure, from the village of Lewistown to the village of Buffalo, was looted and burned to the ground. Their thousands of inhabitants, called the “sufferers”, were driven as refugees as far east as Batavia, Rochester and Central New York.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

The Historical Marker Database; “Tuscaroras Defend Lewiston Against 1813 British Attack War of 1812”, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=80502, accessed August 8, 2026

Lundy's Lane Historical Society; The Documentary History of the Campaigns upon The Niagara Frontier in 1812-14, [Welland Tribune Office, 1908], page 28 to 29, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Documentary_History_of_the_Campaign/tTNEAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Documentary+history+of+the+campaigns+upon+the+niagara+frontier%22&pg=PP5&printsec=frontcover, accessed August 8, 2026

Sunday, August 2, 2026

Could You be a Hero...Acting in an Emergency©

I was recently reading some old online magazines, when I came across, Harry Kursh’s article “Could You Be A Hero?”, in a 1957 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, and it got me to thinking about how people act in emergencies. I’ve always heard, and taught the rule of thumb, that 33% of the people in an emergency freeze up and can’t act, 33% don’t know what to do, but if told what to do can act, and 33% can act independently.

Studies tend to back this up, although the percentages are different than in my rule of thumb. For example, a poll from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) found that “While three-quarters (76%) of adults in the United States feel prepared to communicate with 911 operators in an emergency, only slightly more than half (55%) feel prepared to provide hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Slightly less than half (46%) of respondents feel prepared to apply a tourniquet to control severe bleeding, or move a victim to safety (47%), and fewer than a third (29%) feel prepared to use an automatic external defibrillator (AED)”.

Responding in an emergency isn’t about being without fear. The truly brave person is afraid but acts anyways. It isn’t about a lack of fear, it is about controlling that fear and not letting it control you.

And it is a known fact that the more training you’ve had, the more likely you will react correctly during an emergency. For example, in a medical emergency, more than 80% of those with first aid training will respond to a medical emergency.

Have you ever been in an emergency? Do you know where you fall on this rule of thumb? Do you need more training? Do you need to become more acclimatized to stressful situations? Would you jump in and act in an emergency? You’ll never really know until you are tested, but this is an interesting survey that might give you a hint. Let’s find out.

Complete the survey created by Harry Kursch, see below, and find your hero score. The scoring is at the end of this article, above the sources.

So how did you do? So how did you do? Remember acting in an emergency is about pushing through fear and acting even when you are scared. It’s also about having the training and the knowledge to act in the situation and act correctly. So learn to conquer your fears and get training, especially in self-defense (make sure it includes live sparring) and first aid.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP); “Nearly Half of U.S. Adults are Unprepared to Help in a Medical Emergency, January 18, 2023, https://www.emergencyphysicians.org/press-releases/2023/1-18-23-nearly-half-of-u.s.-adults-are-unprepared-to-help-in-a-medical-emergency, accessed August 1, 2026

Kursh, Harry; “Could You Be A Hero?”, Mechanix Illustrated, August 1957, Vol. 53, No. 8, [Fawcett Publications, Inc.; Greenwich CN], https://archive.org/details/mechanix-illustrated-195708/page/n3/mode/2up, accessed August 1, 2026

Sunday, July 26, 2026

Josiah Hunt made ‘secret camp-fire’, a ‘nearly smokeless fire’, using white oak bark. But other early frontiersman used hickory bark, Which burns most nearly smokeless?

So, this week we are going to evaluate Josiah Hunt’s ‘secret camp-fire’, his ‘nearly smokeless fire’, which he made by creating a ‘coal pit’ of white oak bark. But since, Ted Franklin Belue, writing in “Terror in the Canelands”, reported that Benjamin Kelly, who escaped from the Shawnee towns of the Ohio territory in 1782, used hickory bark to also create a ‘nearly smokeless fire’, we are going to test shagbark hickory bark as well. Both will be compared to a mix of barks which include, silver maple, cottonwood, and spruce, among others.

Three test holes were dug, for ‘coal pits’ each about as wide as your hand is long and a bit deeper than half a hand and it will be about “...size and depth of a hat crown”.

To measure the smoke being put out, I viewed the smoke while the fire was being ‘sufficiently ignited’ to produce coals in the ‘coal pits’. I did not measure the smoke after the ‘coal pits’ were covered with dirt, except for the two air holes. I reasoned that the amount of smoke from all the fires would be less when they were banked and the oxygen supply was choked off; forcing the wood to smolder slowly rather than burn away completely.

As you can see, it was a bit of a horse race, and while all the bark fires produced smoke, the clear winner of the most ‘nearly smokeless fire’ was White Oak bark, followed closely by Shagbark Hickory and at a distant third was Mixed bark! This result was confirmed by an impartial judge, who viewed the smoke to confirm my findings.

So, Josiah Hunt for the win of the most ‘nearly smokeless fire’. If you ever need to build a ‘secret camp-fire’, use White Oak bark for the least smoke, or if that can’t be found, then use Shagbark Hickory.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read more in our Summer of 1776 series.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Belue, Ted Franklin; Terror in the Canelands: the Fate of Daniel Bonnes’s Salt Boilers, The Filson Club History Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. I., January 1994, page 29, https://filsonhistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/publicationpdfs/68-1-2_Terror-in-the-Canelands-The-Fate-of-Daniel-Boones-Salt-Boilers_Belue-Ted-Franklin.pdf, accessed July 25, 2026

Bigelow, David; History of Prominent Mercantile and Manufacturing Firms in the United States, Vol VI, [David Bigelow, Boston, 1857], page 265-270, https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Prominent_Mercantile_and_Manu/y1w-AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22History+of+Prominent+Mercantile+and+Manufacturing+Firms+in+the+United+States%22+1857+%22josiah+Hunt%22&pg=PA266&printsec=frontcover, accessed May 7, 2026

Howe, Henry; Historical Collections of Ohio, [Derby, Bradley & Company, Cincinnati, 1847], page 199 to 200, https://books.google.com/books?id=ri8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=%22josiah+hunt%22+roth&source=bl&ots=M7iiOgL5Xj&sig=WXic_CR-GpPKHcgxxeXT3oCTcz4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=noyDU8XEDuilsQTX7ICQCw&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22josiah%20hunt%22%20roth&f=false, accessed May 7, 2026

S.J.R.; “Fuel Value of Wood”, Hardwood Record, October 10, 1912 [Chicago], page 32 to 33, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hardwood_Record/7QQ3AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=does+dry+oak+bark+burn+without+smoke&pg=RA12-PA33&printsec=frontcover, accessed May 16, 2026

Rapacz, Andrea; Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library, Personal conversation regarding The Phineas Meigs’ Hat, May 01, 2016, 10:51 am

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; “N. W. Territory Map, 1801”, by William Barker, [© 2026], https://digital.library.illinois.edu/items/9d2ba5e0-994e-0134-2096-0050569601ca-2, accessed May 9, 2026

Webster, Noah; A Dictionary of the English Language: Compiled for the Use of Common Schools, [George Goodwin & Sons, Hartford, 1817], page 275, https://books.google.com/books?id=fJ8RAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=ross+bark+dictionary&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T5kXUu-ZAcTd4QTxtYCQCw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ross%20bark%20dictionary&f=false, accessed May 9, 2026

About Me

I live near Buffalo, New York and have more than 25 years of experience in the outdoors. I enjoy being in the wilderness, paddling a canoe or exploring the woods, when I am not researching survival, woodcraft, camping skills or life on the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I am a published author and I have been a guide for Birchbark Expeditions and an Outdoor Skills trainer for the Boy Scouts since 2014. I am also a martial artist, having studied several different combat arts over the past 30 years. Currently, I am the author of The Woodsman’s Journal Online and BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.

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Sunday, August 23, 2026

The Battle of Kingsbridge, and the Stockbridge Indian Massacre, Part Two ©

Sunday, August 16, 2026

The Battle of Kingsbridge, and the Stockbridge Indian Massacre, Part One ©

Sunday, August 9, 2026

The Tuscarora Heroes, December 19th, 1813 ©

Sunday, August 2, 2026

Could You be a Hero...Acting in an Emergency©

Sunday, July 26, 2026

Nearly Smokeless Fires, Experimental Archaeology 102©

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