Marcius Willson, History of the United States (New York, NY: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, and Co., 1872) 242Â
When the Patriots took Fort Stanwix under Colonel Gansevoort's command, they renamed it Fort Schuyler after General Philip Schuyler (cousin to Hon Yost Schuyler). British General Barry St. Leger headed up the siege, while the Loyalist Haudenosaunee controlled the surrounding forests. Benedict Arnold's small detachment of the 1st New York Regiment would have to fight through miles of hostile territory, vastly outnumbered and outgunned. This was a mission taken out of desperation as Fort Schuyler faced imminent destruction by St. Leger, and was certain to fail.
Private Daniel Lee had already been seasoned in battle. He was almost certain to die in the inevitable armed confrontation with St. Leger. His fate, and the fate of the rest of Arnold's detachment, would come to rest on the ability of a mentally ill outcast to sell a fantastic story.
Annals of Tryon County; or, the Border warfare of New-York, during the Revolution. 1831.