HERKIMER, NicnotAs (1715?-77). An American soldier of the Revolutionary War. He was born probably in what is now Herkimer County, N. Y. Nicholas served as a lieutenant of militia in the French and Indian War, and was in command of Fort Herkimer in 1758, when the French attack on German Flats was made. In 1775 he was commissioned a colonel of militia, and was chairman of the Committee of Safety of Tryon County. In the following year he was appointed a brigadier-general of the New York militia, and operated against Sir John Johnson. After Ticonderoga fell into the hands of Burgoyne's advancing army on July 7, 1777, Colonel Saint Leger joined Sir John Johnson at Oswego, and with a mixed force of 1800 British regulars, Tories and Iroquois Indians under Joseph Brant, advanced toward Fort Stanwix (q.v,). The fort was invested on August 3d, and two days later Herkimer, with a force of 800 hastily recruited militia and volunteers, marched to its relief. Apprised by his Indians of the advance of the relieving column, Saint Leger arranged an ambuscade in a swampy ravine at Oriskany. The battle that ensued, perhaps the
most obstinate and murderous of the entire Revo lution, was indecisive. The Americans held the field and drove their opponents off, but lost a third of their force in dead and wounded, and were too weak to continue the advance. Saint Leger's force, on the other hand, was so crippled and disorganized as to render out of the question both the continuation of the seige and the ad vance southward. Early in the fight Herkimer had his horse shot under him and his leg shat tered by a musket-ball; but, seated on his saddle bags underneath a tree, he continued calmly to smoke and shout out his commands until the fight was over. Ten days later he (lied, as a result of an unskillful operation. A monument S5 feet high was erected to his memory on the field of Oriskany in 1834.