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 11th, 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 continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
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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
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