The Battle at Minisink

On July 20, 1779, a party of eighty seven Tories and Iroquois Native Americans under the command of Capt. Joseph Brant raided the frontier settlement of Minisink, present day Port Jervis, destroying homes, farms, and mills to bring fear to the inhabitants. Later that day, regional militia units were called out. Two days later, Brant and his forces met a pursuing force of New Jersey and New York militia, numbering three units with about one hundred twenty men, in a bloody fight on these hills. The militia, led by Capt. John Hathorn, had prepared for an ambush at the ford in the Delaware River, but an accidental discharge of a militiaman’s gun alerted Brant to their presence. Brant then outflanked the militia on the hillside below, cutting off one of the three units and routing the other two. The patriots began a rushed retreat to the top of this hill, where the final phase of the battle ended with the remaining forty militiamen surrounded and many killed.

Highland, New York · United States