Fort Dayton
Fort Dayton is on the north side of the Mohawk River on West Canada Creek , in what is now Herkimer . It was built in the fall of 1776 during the American Revolutionary War under the supervision of Colonel Elias Dayton on the orders of General Philip Schuyler .
On 4 August 1777 gathered General Nicholas Herkimer more than 900 men of the Tryon County - Militia at Fort Dayton to support Colonel Peter Gansevoort to Fort Stanwix to march that during the Saratoga campaign by British troops under St. Leger Barry was besieged. Herkimer's troop, which consisted largely of Palatinate German settlers, followed the north bank of the Mohawk and camped west of Sterling (Staring) Creek on the first night. On August 6, Herkimer's troops were ambushed in a narrow ravine by St. Leger's combined armed forces of British, loyalists and Indians . In the battle of Oriskany taking place here , which ended in the crushing defeat of the settler forces, General Herkimer was seriously wounded, but led his men on by giving instructions from his wounded camp. General Herkimer died of his wounds on August 17th at his home in Danube . Meanwhile, General Benedict Arnold , who had arrived at Fort Dayton with 800 men, recruited an additional 400 men and marched into Oriskany on August 22, but the British forces had already fled.
Fort Dayton was also a military supply base for Christian Schell after his service in Schells Busch and the persecution of the loyalist leader Walter Butler and his troops. After Fort Stanwix was destroyed in 1781 , Fort Dayton was the westernmost fort in the Mohawk Valley. In 1782 it was besieged by the Mohawk under their chief Joseph Brant . In July 1783, General George Washington toured Fort Dayton when he was visiting the Mohawk Valley on an inspection trip.
A memorial stone for the location of Fort Dayton stands at the "Historic Four Corners" intersection on North Main Street in Herkimer.
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Coordinates: 43 ° 1'45.3 " N , 74 ° 59'23.6" W.