by Noel
Campbell I have put together the following story after much the same
fashion as he himself set it down.

When the work was begun I doubted if Thayendanega could have been
frightened by a party of boys who were playing at being soldiers, and
refused to make such statement until, quite by chance, I found the
following in Lossing's "Field-Book of the Revolution":

"It was a sunny morning toward the close of May, when Brant and his
warriors cautiously moved up to the brow of the lofty hill on the east
side of the town (Cherry Valley) to reconnoitre the settlement at their
feet. He was astonished and chagrined on seeing a fortification where he
supposed all was weak and defenceless, and greater was his disappointment
when quite a large and well-armed garrison appeared upon the esplanade in
front of Colonel Campbell's house.

"These soldiers were not as formidable as the sachem supposed, for they
were only half-grown boys, who, full of the martial spirit of the times,
had formed themselves into companies, and, armed with wooden guns and
swords, held regular drills each day.... He mistook the boys for
full-grown soldiers, and, considering an attack dangerous, moved his party
to a hiding-place in a deep ravine north of the village."

Then again I questioned if General Herkimer would have sent two boys as
messengers, even though an old and experienced soldier went with them,
when he must have had under his command many men grown who were thoroughly
familiar with Indian warfare. As if to combat this doubt, I found the
following statement by one who has written much concerning the struggles
of the colonists for freedom:

"As soon as St. Leger's approach up Oneida Lake was known to General
Herkimer, he summoned the militia of Tryon County to the succor of the
garrison at Fort Schuyler. They rendezvoused at Fort Dayton, on the German
Flats, and, on the day when the Indians encircled the fort, Herkimer was
near Oriskany with more than eight hundred men, eager to face the enemy.
He sent as messengers to Gansevoort two boys and a man, informing him of
his approach, and requesting him to apprise him of the arrival of the
couriers by discharging three guns in rapid succession, which he knew
would be heard at Oriskany."

Having thus proven, at least to my own satisfaction, that so much of
Noel's story was true, I set about verifying the other portions, and in no
single instance did I find that he had drawn upon his imaginati