Jerseyfield, New York
Jerseyfield, New York
JERSEYFIELD, NEW YORK. 30 October 1781. After the action at Johnstown, New York, on 25 October, Colonel Marinus Willett moved to German Flats on 27 October in an attempt to cut the raiders off from their boats (which were at Oneida Creek). After assembling about four hundred men and sixty friendly Oneidas, he started his pursuit the evening of 28 October. He caught up with a hunting party from Major John Ross's column in the morning of 30 October and scattered it. Late in the afternoon the pursuit engaged Major Walter Butler, who made a stand with the rear guard at Canada Creek. The battlefield is between modern Ohio City and Russia, New York, probably at the ford known as Hess's Rift. The brief firefight ended when Butler was killed, but the delay allowed the main body to escape. Willett made one last attempt to catch up and then turned back rather than risk wearing his men out.
SEE ALSO Border Warfare in New York; Butler, Walter; Johnstown, New York.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Willett, William M. A Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willett. 1831. New York: New York Times, 1969.
revised by Robert K. Wright Jr.