Under the leadership of Colonel Ebenezer Cox, Colonel Jacob Klock, Colonel Peter Bellinger, and Colonel Frederick Visscher, patriotic soldiers of Tryon County followed Herkimer through the bloody Battle of Oriskany and there on August 6, 1777, checked St. Leger’s advance upon Albany, administering the first defeat to the advancing columns of Burgoyne. Col. John W. Vrooman federated the counties of Oneida, Herkimer, Fulton, Montgomery, Schoharie, and Schenectady into the Mohawk Valley Historic Association, which through popular subscription led to the purchase of 48 acres and the erection of the memorial monument to the unknown dead of the Oriskany Battlefield. The Oriskany Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution was organized with the special object of making the Oriskany Battlefield a National Park.