August 26, 2001

Madman Saved U.S. Revolution

A frightening madman -- with unkempt beard, turkey feathers in his hair, face streaked with red war paint - stomped around a bonfire that cast long shadows in the forest night.

He waved his arms and bellowed gibberish no one understood. Awestruck Indians, similarly garbed and painted, strained to make sense of what they heard and saw.

Hon Yost Schuyler was prophesying to a great council of fierce Iroquois warriors.  

They had gathered just beyond musket range of Fort Stanwix at the headwaters of

the Mohawk River in upper New York province of colonial America. The time was August 1777 - a year into an epic revolt of New World Englishmen against British monarchy.

Only six months before the drama unfolding in the American wilderness, Gen. "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne in London offered the admiralty some "Thoughts" about how he would bring the American rebels to heel in six months. He was given the opportunity instantly to do so.

His plan was to mount a three-pronged attack against Albany at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. This would cut the infant United States in half and deny Gen. George Washington crucial weapons and supplies from New England states:

• Burgoyne was to move south from Canada, and down the Lake Champlain valley with the main force. He would reduce the hastily built, lightly defended rebel Fort Ticonderoga in the process.
• General Barry St. Leger was to sail up the St. Lawrence River to Fort Oswego and thence east to the Mohawk. Fort Stanwix, another small colonial outpost on the way, would be destroyed to close any possible western escape route for American forces.  
• Sir William Howe, commander-in-chief of British forces in America had occupied the city of New York. He was to move up the Hudson with a strong force of Regulars.

Unfortunately for the plan, Burgoyne was naive about Admiralty bureaucracy, American determination, difficulties of wilderness campaigning, fickleness of Indian allies - and Hon Yost Schuyler.

Burgoyne began his march in July, as scheduled, with a force of 8,000 Regulars, German mercenaries and Canadian Tories and a few hundred Iroquois. As gentlemen in the field were accustomed, Burgoyne brought along 30 wagons of personal amenities. Included were Mrs. Commissary, his mistress, with her extensive wardrobe, and a large supply of Champaign.

St. Leger set out with 800 Regulars and Tories and something more than 1,000 fierce Iroquois.

American frontiersmen quickly carried news of the invasion to Gen. Washington. His forces at the moment were trying to extricate themselves from the battles for New York City.

Washington said he could only spare his best general, Benedict Arnold. The latter would go to Sweetwater a few miles south of Albany and recruit a militia to oppose the British thrusts.

Burgoyne had similar bad news. His ally, Howe, said he had no orders from London about the concerted invasion from the north. Anyway, he was in hot pursuit of Washington who has headed for Pennsylvania. Howe indicated he might send up one or two raiding parties later.

The two British forces struggling through the virgin forests of New York Province, confident of their prowess, pushed ahead. It seemed to them that only two, dinky, under-manned forts opposed them.

Cannons A Handicap

The twin campaigns in the wilderness went slowly. Both British generals brought large numbers of heavy cannon with which to "reduce" Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Stanwix.

Paths through the forests averaged only a half-mile a day as soldiers felled threes and constructed corduroy roads of logs for the artillery. All the while, American snipers picked off the weary Red Coats.  

Commander at Fort Ticonderoga was Gen. Philip Schuyler. When informed of the overwhelming strength of Burgoyne's army, Gen. Schuyler prudently loaded his men and cannon unto barges and slipped away in the night.

A disappointed Burgoyne split his forces for continued march toward Albany. He took the high ground west of Lake Champlain.

The Hessians, under Baron Von Riedesel, accompanied by his wife and three little daughters, were sent down the east bank. Their route was through a "deadening" consisting of a forested swamp. It was described as "too thin to walk on, and too thick to swim in." Burgoyne waited frequently for his German allies to catch up.

On the western front, St. Leger approached Fort Stanwix unimpeded. He surrounded the fort manned by just 750 Americans. He sent a three-man delegation under white flag to demand that Commander Peter Gansevoort surrender.

The delegation was blindfolded, so the Britishers could not see the fort defenses, and led to Col. Gansevoort's quarters, shades drawn. After a gentlemanly sharing of wine, Gansevoort declared the only way the British could see the fort defenses was to fight their way in.

With this, St. Leger began to dig trenches in preparation of tunneling under the main bastion and blowing it up.

Gen. Benedict Arnold at Sweetwater was not having much luck recruiting an opposing force to the invasion. Most able-bodied men were already in service, and the others were frightened of the huge number of bloodthirsty Iroquois involved.

Burgoyne, heartened by the abandonment of Fort Ticonderoga, and isolation of Fort Stanwix, sent a delegation of recruiters behind patriot lines to organize a pro-British rally. The principal speakers, Ensign Walter Butler and Hon Yost Schuyler, were caught and brought to Gen. Arnold for court martial.

Both prisoners were convicted of spying and ordered hanged. Some of Arnold's aides had gone to school with Butler and requested mercy for him. Arnold sent him to military prison at Albany.

The madman, Hans Yost, had no friends and was allowed to rave in his cell until a gallows was built. Like many frontiersmen, Hans Yost Schuyler had gone "native" - speaking, dressing and acting as an Indian. His strange outbursts were considered by Indians to be a manifestation of close connection to, and protection by, the Great Spirit.

Very soon, Hans Yost's distraught mother and his brother Nicholas came to Arnold to plead amidst copious tears for the madman's release.

Gen. Arnold discerned that Schuyler might not be as crazy as seemed. Arnold said he would release Schuyler -- holding the mother and brother hostage -- if he would persuade the Iroquois to abandon their participation in the British invasion. The prisoner, suddenly rational, assured Arnold he could, and would do so.

Mutiny

Thus, Hans Yost came out of the woods into an Iroquois war council. After a few minutes of antics he announced the Great Spirit had come into his mouth. The fiercest American general was marching with a huge army to kill the Iroquois and their families.

"How many American warriors?" asked the Iroquois. Schuyler replied, in funeral tone, "Count the leaves on the trees!"

Then and there, the superstitious Indians began to desert. A delegation of chiefs urged St. Leger to retreat. He refused.

At this, the Indians rioted. They stole the baggage supply of rum, helped themselves to the officers' belongings and beat the British soldiers. Britishers threw down their knapsacks and attempted to flee into the forest, only to be hunted down and scalped. St. Leger and the few that did escape straggled back to Oneida.

The defenders of Fort Stanwix were puzzled the next morning when their wake-up volley toward St. Leger's camp did not bring a response. Scouts crept out cautiously to discover the British had abandoned everything.

St. Leger's papers were still on his field desk. Muskets and empty backpacks were scattered everywhere. The cannon that had threatened the fort was unattended. Only a British bombardier (thrower of hand grenades) was found, asleep. He was as puzzled as the Americans about what happened to his comrades.

With St. Leger's force vanquished, and Burgoyne tangled up in the forests, recruits came forward to Gen Arnold. He regrouped the forces from Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Stanwix to positions north of Albany.

Baron Riedesel blundered into a patriot ambush near Bennington Village. Nine hundred Germans were killed. A few days later, Burgoyne ventured his troops through wheat fields, and hundreds of his best soldiers were killed by militiamen in the surrounding forest.

Benedict Arnold was wounded in his right knee. It was his last battle for American liberty before he defected to the British.

Burgoyne began to retreat, hoping to stand at Fort Ticonderoga. However, a cloudburst stalled this last, desperate attempt to wrest some advantage from the disaster.

Cannons and wagons were hopelessly mired. As masses of American militiamen slogged forward for the kill, the author of "Thoughts" surrendered Oct. 17, 1777. His only condition was that Americans would turn their backs and not witness the British troops stacking their arms. We can be sure, however, that the victorious Americans peeked.

Hon Yost Schuyler's phony prophecies can rightly be said to have saved the American Revolution. A British victory at that time - while Gen. Washington was on the run and struggling through the winter at Valley Forge - would have jeopardized the momentous struggle for freedom.

After Hon Yost had secured the release of his mother and brother, he took part in raids against patriots in the Mohawk valley. After the war, he lived permanently among the Oneida as a medicine man - with powers conferred by the Great Spirit.

Historian James Thomas Flexner says Hon Yost Schuyler established his position by tomahawking two Indian women to death as witches.

Author: Lindsey Williams

cutline - 3 col. soldiers

Illustration provided

[ British general "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne surrenders to Americans after his overwhelming forces were decimated by patriot militiamen and a madman's cooperation. ]

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