R & R

Saturday June 2

We spent the day in Little Falls. In the morning we took our bikes down the Erie Canal bike path to the 1764 home of General Nicholas Herkimer. The General is known as the hero of the Battle of Oriskany, for which battle the aircraft carrier recently sunk at Pensacola was named.

In 1777 the British planned a three pronged attack to separate New England from the rest of the Colony and end the Revolutionary War quickly. General Burgoyne was to come down the Hudson, Colonel St. Leger was to come from the West through Oswego, take Fort Stanwix and proceed down the Mohawk, and General Clinton was to bring a large contingent of troops up the Hudson from New York. They would join forces at the Albany.

General Herkimer gathered 800 colonial militamen and Indian allies and headed West from here to Fort Stanwix. On the way, St. Leger's troops and their Mohawk indian allies ambushed the Americans at an indian village named Oriskany. They fought with muskets, pistols, bayonets, tomahawks and hand to hand all day in the bloodiest battle of the Revolution. General Herkimer was severely wounded in the leg, but had his men prop him up against a tree from which he continued to direct the battle.

The result of the battle was inconclusive and General Herkimer returned to his home where his leg was amputated under very primitive conditions. He died 10 days later believing that this battle, that cost him half his men, was a defeat.

In fact ,due to his losses at Oriskany, St. Leger never advanced past Fort Stanwix at Rome. That fact, combined with General Clinton never arriving from New York decided the Battle of Saratoga in the American favor, and that victory was decisive in the eventual winning of the American Revolution.

We can probably say then that, had it not been for the bravery of General Herkimer, we would all probably be speaking English today!

The Herkimer house was a delightful example of a fine Colonial Mansion, and we enjoyed our visit very much.

The trip back along the bike path was through a delightful pass through the rock and is probably the route of a railroad that once ran on the south side of the river.



Along the way we whole fields of wild Phlox.

Sunday June 3, 2007

On Sunday we got a ride from the young lady from the office at the boat dock and attended a lovely old Catholic Church in Little Falls.

As a matter of fact, that young lady Sarah has been a highlight of our trip. She and her husband grew up in the litte town of Little Falls. She went to Albany and got a degree in economics and he is a teacher in the local middle school. Sarah has one 2 1/2 year old and one on the way. They are both happy to raise their family and spend the rest of ther lives in this small town. How refreshing!

Monday June 4, 2007

Today we are getting ready for our guest, Fr Tom Sas. He will arrive about noon and we are going to retrace our path a little bit to see some things that we missed on the boat.

Tomorrow we will take the boat to the town of Herkimer, Tom will ride his bike back and get the car and bring it up to Herkimer and we will repeat that procedure for most of the next week.