Minisink

A History of the Battle of Minisink

by Richard Tyler

The brief story of the Battle of Minisink is that Colonel Joseph Brant, a half-breed Mohawk Indian under British command, was raiding patriot villages along the Delaware River. Colonel Allison, from Goshen, commander of the Third Orange County Regiment, had been captured by the British earlier at the Battle of Fort Montgomery. This left Lt. Colonel Benjamin Tusten in charge of the regiment at Goshen. On July 20, 1779 Colonel Tusten received a dispatch from Minisink that the Indians were raiding the village. He ordered up his entire force and called for volunteers. "Citizens left their shops, farms and stores to join in pursuit of Brant and his murderous band". Colonel John Hathorn's militia was at Warwick, Orange Co., N.Y. following their victory at Stoney Point when he got word of the raid. He joined Colonel Tusten's forces and also Major Meeker's men from New Jersey. There was a total of about 120 men at Minisink the morning of July 21, 1779. They pursued the Indians up river that day and camped for the night at Skinners Saw Mill. This place is about eighteen miles from Minisink. They were still about three miles from their enemy. They engaged the Indians the next day on July 22. The American patriots were out-numbered and out-flanked by the British Indian forces. A small group, including Colonel Tusten, was surrounded at the top of a hill. They held out until near dark on July 22 when they ran out of ammunition. Then the Indians rushed in and killed all except those who escaped down the hill and across the river. It was reported that 45 were killed, 30 escaped and a few others were taken as prisoners in the Battle of Minisink. Colonel Tusten was among those killed. Colonel Hathorn wrote a report of the battle to Governor Clinton on July 27, 1779.

The bones of the men killed that day were not picked up for over 43 years. In April 1822 a party set out to collect all the bones. And on June 26, 1822 about 15,000 people witnessed a funeral procession in Goshen to honor those men killed in the Battle of Minisink. Gen. John Hathorn, then near 80, layed the cornerstone of a monument erected in Goshen. (Stones from Beaver Brook, where David Dean was with John Reid, were used to build the Minisink Monument.)