Nicholas Herkimer
Nicholas Herkimer (* around 1728 in German Flatts in the Mohawk Valley; † August 16, 1777 in Danube in the province of New York , today USA ) was a militia general in the American War of Independence who died of his wounds after the Battle of Oriskany .
Live and act
Herkimer was the son of the Elector Palatinate emigrant Hans-Jost Herchheimer from Sandhausen near Heidelberg and his wife Anna Catherine Herkimer (Petrie), who lived in the Mohawk Valley in northern New York , today's Herkimer County . He served as a militia captain in the French and Indian War .
American War of Independence
In 1775, he chaired the Security Committee of the Tryon County before and was a colonel in the Countymiliz. After the separation, in which the loyalists among the militia members withdrew to Canada , he became a brigadier general of the state militia. When he learned of the siege of Fort Stanwix to the west in late July 1777 , he ordered the county militia to rally at Fort Dayton .
Battle of Oriskany
Herkimer marched 45 km west with the county militia to bring reinforcements to Fort Stanwix. His force was ambushed at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6 by a combined force of British regulars , loyalist militias and Mohawk Indians . Herkimer's horse was shot and he himself was wounded. Despite his injuries, he sat leaning against a tree and lit his tobacco pipe. He called his men together to prevent a panic retreat, and when they withdrew in an orderly fashion, they took him home with them. His leg had to be amputated due to the severe injury . The operation also went poorly and he died of his injuries on August 16.
today
His home was where Danube (New York) is today and has been preserved as a state historical park. Herkimer County was named after him. His nephew John Herkimer later became a member of the US Congress .
literature
- Michael Rehs: Roots in Foreign Earth: On the History of Southwest German Emigration to America , DRW-Verlag, 1984, ISBN 3-8718-1231-5 (Page 107: The War Hero)
- Herbert Hartkopf: Trappers, Scouts & Pioneers from the Kurpfalz , Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt -Weiher, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89735-601-6 (Page 21: Family of Johan Jost Herkimer * 1695 † 1775 - self-made man, justice of the peace and pioneer in the Mohawk Valley)
- Hans Weyland: Der Bauerngeneral , Verlag Franz Eher Nachf., 1939
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Herkimer, Nicholas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Herchheimer, Nikolaus (German) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Militia General in the American Revolutionary War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1728 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | German Flatts in the Mohawk Valley |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 16, 1777 |
| Place of death | Danube , New York , colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain , now the USA |