Battle of Oriskany
- When
- 1777
- Where
- near Oriskany, New York
- Episodes
- 2
The Battle of Oriskany, fought on August 6, 1777, was a major engagement of the Saratoga campaign in which a column of Tryon County militia and Oneidas marching to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by Loyalists and Britain's Indigenous allies. Iroquois fought on both sides, and the Loyalists gained a tactical victory.
Episodes
- Ambush of the relief column
Tryon County militia and Oneidas marching to relieve Fort Stanwix were ambushed by Loyalists and Britain's Indigenous allies on August 6, 1777.
- Iroquois participation on both sides
Iroquois fighters took part on both sides at Oriskany, with Oneidas accompanying the American column against Britain's Indigenous allies.
Background and detail
Background. In June 1777, the British Army launched a two-pronged attack from Quebec under General John Burgoyne, whose objective was to split New England from the other colonies by gaining control of New York's Hudson Valley. The Oriskany engagement formed part of the resulting Saratoga campaign.
The Engagement. On August 6, 1777, an American column of Tryon County militia and Oneidas marched to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix. It was ambushed by a contingent of Britain's Indigenous allies and Loyalists near Oriskany. The battle was one of the few in the war in which most non-Indigenous participants were settlers born in the Thirteen Colonies.
Commemoration. The battle's location is known in Haudenosaunee oral histories as "A Place of Great Sadness". It has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is marked by a monument at the Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site.
People involved
- John Burgoyne · British general whose June 1777 two-pronged offensive from Quebec formed the Saratoga campaign context; not linked to Oriskany itself in the sources
- Butler · British Indian Department official who, in September 1777 after the battle, was authorized to raise Butler's Rangers; not linked to Oriskany in the sources
Sources
- Battle of Oriskany Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-21
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.