written by Anthony Wonderley, Ph.D - Nation Historian
Members of a sovereign nation, Oneidas feel they can't be forced -- morally or legally -- to serve in the armed forces of another nation. But they have always volunteered to fight on behalf of the American government. Oneidas have served in the armed forces of the United States from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm.
Well over 100 Oneidas (out of a total population of some 650) fought on the American side during the British-American struggle called the War of 1812 (1812-1814). They fought in several battles (including virtually the only American victories) on two fronts. Oneidas were active on the Northern New York Frontier around Sackets Harbor, New York, the major U.S. naval base on Lake Ontario, and they fought near Buffalo on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. Part of Ontario today, that region then was called the Niagara Frontier by the Americans and Upper Canada by the English and British Canadians.
Oneida sentiments were expressed in the Six Nations declaration of war in July of 1813: "we do hereby command and advise all the War Chiefs to call forth immediately their warriors under them to put them in motion to protect their rights and liberties which our brethren the Americans are now defending" (Babcock 1927:108). Several days earlier, an Iroquois speaker had told his people "that the country was invaded, that they had one common interest with the people of the United States, that they had every thing dear at stake, that the time had arrived for them to show their friendship for their brethren of the United States not only in words but in deeds" (Snyder 1978:69).
New York State passed, in 1857, a law to compensate unpaid claims for service in the War of 1812. Responding to this veterans' act, a group of Oneidas filed requests to recover costs they (or their parents) had incurred for transportation and equipment during the war years. One of these documents indicates that Oneida Jake Antoine served at Sackets Harbor almost immediately after the start of the war (Declaration 10,566). He asked to be reimbursed for use of his own equipment (including a rifle) and noted he was owed $60 in pay.
Jake Antoine's claim was investigated and judged correct. We have the actual New York State certificate of 1859 attesting that $58 was due him. Presumably he got that money although he may never have received his back pay.
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The following Oneidas joined U.S. forces on the Niagara Frontier in June of 1813 according to the 1857 declarations: Peter Skanandoah, Henry George, Jake Antoine, Sr., Peter Harnyos, Jake Skanandoah, Adam Jordan, William Cornelius, and Henry Cornelius. Most were commanded by the Oneida leader Captain Peter Elm (Tsot-te-gol-la-his (Two Trees of Equal Height). They were native people going to war native style as indicated by the fact that they were accompanied by at least one woman serving as cook: Dolly Skanandoah (Declarations 9,997-10,005). They were joined by a second contingent in September including another Oneida woman, Polly Cooper, who enlisted as a cook that month (Declaration 10,006). A notice in the Niles Weekly Register of October 2, 1813, stated that some 150-200 Oneida and Stockbridge warriors had passed through Canandaigua between September 14 and 21 on their way to link up with the American army (Fairbank 1940:132).
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That summer and fall, American forces were bottled up at Fort George on the Canadian side of the river opposite Fort Niagara. American Iroquois warriors were badly needed as light infantry to control the countryside around the besieged American troops. In addition to pay, the Iroquois were promised that they could keep any publicly owned livestock they might capture.
Oneidas, among the Iroquois responding to American pleas, crossed the Niagara River into Canada in early August. They participated in a series of successful skirmishes with the enemy in August and September including a fight at Ball's Farm (near Fort George) in which two Oneidas perished (Benn 1998:137-44). Such activities, however, immediately relieved British pressure on Fort George as the American commander acknowledged:
Yesterday I had the honor to address you a letter detailing the conduct of the Indians in a late skirmish. Their bravery and humanity were equally con uous. Already the quietness in which our pickets are suffered to remain evinces the benefit arising from their assistance (ibid.:138).
Histories of this campaign disparage the contributions of native allies (Stanley 1950:159-60; Babcock 1927:109-10,157). The Iroquois, for their part, believed their American allies offered too little battlefield support and too many worthless pledges. That fall, several Oneidas (listed as Adam Scanado, Cornelius Dockstader, Jacob Dockstader, Johnson, William, and nine others) were ordered to surrender horses they had taken in raids near Fort George (Snyder 1978:70). As the Seneca Red Jacket complained on behalf of the Six Nations warriors, "We have not received pay according to promise...We were promised that all horses and cattle should be free plunder. We took horses. We had to give them up. We have been deceived" (ibid.:71).
Early in the year, superior British naval power controlled Lake Ontario. Although the Americans had actually built larger ships at Sackets Harbor, those vessels still needed guns and cables which were at Oswego. Attempting to sneak the needed supplies to Sackets Harbor, American Capt. Melancthon Woolsey loaded them onto 19 barges or bateaux and, accompanied by some 130 or more riflemen, set sail from Oswego along the coastline to Sandy Creek on the east shore of Lake Ontario. From there, the equipment could be lugged overland to Sackets Harbor, some 16 miles to the north (Mahon 1972:262-3; Lucas 1906:164-5).
At the Salmon River, Woolsey had arranged to meet 130 Oneidas to traverse the shore, for the purpose of protecting the boats if chased on shore or into any of the creeks (Brannan 1823:337). The Oneidas were there, and flotilla and Indians moved on [north] toward the Big Sandy, where they all arrived at noon on May 29, 1814 (Lossing 1868:799).
The American flotilla sailed two miles up Sandy Creek to unload the supplies but they had been detected by the British. On the morning of May 30, an English force of 200 marines and sailors advanced up both sides of the creek accompanied by two gun-boats and five barges (The War: accounts of June 14 and 23, 1814). According to a contemporary newspaper account (Herald, Rutland, VT, June 15, 1814):
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Our commander, apprehending an attack, placed the riflemen and Indians in the woods on each side of the creek, and sent a few raw militia with a show of opposing the enemy's landing. The plan succeeded. The militia retreated on the first fire, pursued by the enemy, but as soon as they passed the Indians and riflemen who were in ambush, these last attacked them in the rear, while a battery of four field pieces opened on them in the front (DeLong 1949:99). The riflemen and Indians opened a most destructive fire upon the enemy, which obliged them to surrender in about ten minutes, the American commander reported (Brannan 1823:337). The Oneida-U.S. force killed or captured the entire enemy expedition including its watercraft (Hickey 1989:185). One Oneida was wounded or killed (Lossing 1868:800; Landon 1954:58). It was a costly defeat for the English. The British could ill-afford to lose seamen, and the Americans were able to equip the new vessel by which they would regain a balance of power on Lake Ontario (Horsman 1962:174). |
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According to Oneida recollections recorded in 1877, Jacob and Cornelius Doxtator fought in this battle and Henry Cornelius (Suggoyonetau) probably did also (Draper 11:197, 214). As was true of other elderly Oneidas, this was the second war in which Cornelius had risked his life on behalf of the United States.
Immediately after Sandy Creek, Oneidas joined the U.S. Army forces assembling to reinforce the more distant Niagara Frontier. An official muster of Oneidas lists 17 warriors who served under their leader, Lt. Hendrick Schuyler, from June 13 to July 26. Another eight Oneidas served until September 25 (Muster Roll of Feb. 14, 1814 in Parrish Papers). On June 15, a party of 33 Oneida warriors under Cornelius Doxtator were at Onondaga awaiting the arrival of two more groups under Jacob Doxtator and Martinus White (Fairbank 1940: Paper No. 13).
They joined the American army in time for the battle at Chippawa (Ontario) on July 5, one of the few American victories in the dismally managed Niagara Frontier theater of war. They served in a unit commanded by American General Peter Porter.
A Pennsylvania militiamen with the Oneidas and other Six Nations Indians at Chippawa wrote:
We marched down to near Chapaway [Chippawa], and General Porter called on our Regiment for some volunteers to go out on a Scout and about 200 of our Regiment with 450 Indians advanced within a mile of Chippawa when we met some of the enemy we drove them till their main body let loose their artillery on us when we were obliged to retreat a short Distance till general Scott Came to our assistance with the regulars which soon Compelled the enemy to retreat to their fort (Mahon 1972:267,269).
General Porter said his command performed beyond the call of duty and had done double the work of any other American troops that day (ibid.:269). They suffered some 35 casualties, 23 of them native people (Babcock 1927:155).
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Among those who fell was Cornelius Doxtator, an Oneida chief. In later years, an interpreter named Ephraim Webster recounted this event: [Toward the close of the action, Webster] saw Doxtator, an Oneida chief, pursued by five or six mounted Wyandots. They passed near him, and knowing well the Indian rules of warfare, he stood erect and firm, looking them full in the face; they passed him unharmed. Doxtater was shot just as he leaped a fence near by, upon which the Wyandots wheeled and rode off (Clark 1849 1:340). In 1877, Chief Doxtator's grandson told what happened next: Cornelius Doxtator Sr. was with Oneidas in battle of Chippawa [sic.] in 1814. Was shot, when a Chippawa ran up, tomahawked & scalped him; & with others, captured Doxtator's two boys, Daniel and George, respectively 17 & 15, who were near their father. But some Oneidas shot the Chippawa as he was clambering a fence, tomahawked & scalped him, & recovered the prisoner boys (Draper:200). |
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Major-General Jacob Brown, however, strongly criticized the Iroquois performance at Chippawa. Perhaps the American general [Brown], who could not see the Iroquois action because of the forest, wanted his regulars to absorb as much of the credit for his singular victory as possible...Rather than praising the American-allied Iroquois discovery of the British flanking movement, Brown's report to Washington emphasized how their retreat left his flank exposed and how he had to send his dragoons to stop the fugitives from running from the battlefield altogether (Benn 1998:164).
The Oneidas fought well in the War of 1812 and contributed substantially to what few victories the Americans could ever claim around Lake Ontario. According to Benn, the Iroquois provided the United States with a competent light infantry force in an army that fought without an adequate supply of such troops. Unfortunately for the Americans, they did not utilize their aboriginal allies effectively and, except for Sandy Creek and Chippawa, reaped few strategic benefits from having native combatants in their ranks (1998:172).
The Oneidas themselves gained nothing from the war. They bore the burden of hosting their younger brothers, the Tuscaroras, who had been burned off their lands near Niagara in late 1813. Hardships were endured without help from the federal government which, during the years 1813-1817, suspended all annuity payments to the Iroquois (Benn 1998:149,151,182). And Oneidas experienced the same gratitude New York State had shown them after the Revolution. Following a brief pause during the war years, New York's remorseless efforts to acquire Oneida land started back up again (land cession treaties ceased between 1811 and 1815).
Oneidas who enlisted in 1814 had been promised pay of $40 (captains), $30 (lieutenants), and $8 (warriors) but they received little or nothing of this during hostilities. Sadly, the American government did not act in good time, despite continued protests by the Iroquois, and morale among the tribes in New York plummeted. They had fought for the United States, they had suffered losses, but they found their needs ignored by those who had demanded their help. As of 1816 some Iroquois still had not received their military wages (Benn 1998:182). That year, Oneidas politely reminded Indian agent Jasper Parrish of this obligation (NYS Document):
Esq. Parrish Sir
We the undersigned Oneida Indians respectfully inform you Sir that we have understood from the Secretary of War from the seat of Government and also from the General Edmunds Paymaster General that a regular return list of our warriors who served in the last war of all their claims has been presented by you Sir to the War Department and accepted and also that the Mony [money] requisite to pay us for the whole of our pay has been paid to you about three months past for the purpose of paying us and we therefore humbly hope that you will have the goodness to fulfill the expectations of Government that we have been already paid the whole of our dues from them by you our Agent for that purpose and we humbly pray that you will satisfy our Claims as soon as you can as we want it settled soon by complying with this our Request you will greatly oblige us--
Capt. Peter Martinus WightPeter Welock
Jacob DoxtadorMoses AtsequaitMoses Shyler
Roland LouyWilliam Nichols Cornelius Onognatco
Lewis DanyHenry ShylerNeddy Atsequait
George HillPowlas Onighlaudus[?]Addam Jourdan
John CorneliusDaniel Cornelius
George DoxtadorWilliam Cornelius
Jacob AntonyIssac Peter
Babcock, Louis L. 1927 The War of 1812 on the Niagara Frontier. Buffalo Historical Society Publication 29.
Benn, Carl 1998 The Iroquois in the War of 1812. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Brannan, John, ed.1823 Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of the United States during the War with great Britain in the Years 1812, 13, 14, & 15. Way and Gideon, Washington, D.C.
Clark, Joshua V.H.1849Onondaga; Or Reminiscences of Earlier and Later Times (2 volumes). Syracuse: Stoddard and Babcock.
Declaration Claims of the Soldiers of the War of 1812; declarations filed in Madison and Oneida Counties, 1857. New York State Archives, Albany.
DeLong, Mrs. Earl V. 1949 The Battle of Sandy Creek and the Romance of the Great Cable. Oswego Historical Society Publication 12:97-103.
Draper Lyman C. Draper Manuscripts, Series U (Frontier War Papers, Vol. 11. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison. Available in microfilm.
Fairbank, Dorothy May 1940 Letters and Documents Relating to the Government Service of Jasper Parrish among the Indians of New York State, 1790 to 1831. Parrish Papers, Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie.
Hickey, Donald R. 1989 The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Horsman, Reginald 1972 The War of 1812. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Landon, Harry F. 1954 Bugles on the Border. Watertown Daily Times, Watertown, NY.
Lossing, Benson, J. 1868 The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812. Harper & Brothers, New York.
Lucas, C.P. 1906T he Canadian War of 1812. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Mahon, John K. 1972The War of 1812. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
NYS Document Letter from the Oneidas to Jasper Parrish at Canandaigua, 1816. Document 1246, New York State Library, Albany.
Parrish Papers Jasper Parrish Papers in box 2, folder 102 of Lucy Maynard Salmon Historical Materials Collection. Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie.
Snyder, Charles M., ed. 1978 Red and White on the New York Frontier: A Struggle for Survival; Insights from the Papers of Erastus Granger, Indian Agent 1807-1819. Harrison, NY: Harbor Hill Books.
Stanley, George F.G. 1950 The Indians in the War of 1812. Canadian Historical Review 31:145-65.
The War 1814The War [New York newspaper] Vol. 3, numbers 2-3, June 14
and June 21.
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