Note 1272 — Chapter VIII

The enlisted Indians are occasionally heard from during the war, although their services were not conspicuous. Their fondness for liquor soon brought them into trouble, and we find that a petition signed by seventeen of them was presented to the Provincial Congress, asking that liquor might be kept out of their way. This petition was duly granted. (Am. Arch., 4th ser., ii. pp. 1049 and 1083.) During the siege of Boston they occasionally killed a sentry (The Boston Gazette and Country Journal, Aug. 7, 1775; Frothingham's Siege of Boston, pp. 212, 213). In Mass. Archives, vol. lvi. (special title, "Coat Rolls, 8 Months' Service, 1775—vol. i. Rolls"), no. 173, is a copy of what purports to be an order for bounty money, etc., signed by thirty-two persons. Appended is the following: "Camp at Charlestown, March 12, 1776. This may certify that the within named persons were soldiers in my Regiment, and served as such in the service of this province last summer, until they were discharged by his Excellency Gen. Washington. Attest, John Paterson, Col. These Indians belonged to Capt. William Goodrich's Company. Attest, John Sargent." Some of them, under the command of Captain Ezra Whittlesey, were "posted at the saw-mills", Sept. 13, 1776 (Amer. Arch., 5th series, ii. p. 476). If Guy Johnson is to be believed, there were enlisted Indians in the battle of Long island, and some of them were taken prisoners (N. Y. Coll. Doc., viii. p. 740). Washington applied for them for scouting service, Oct. 18, 1776 (Amer. Arch., 5th series, ii. p. 1120); Jones (Annals of Oneida County, p. 854) says that a considerable party of Oneidas participated in the battle of White Plains, and that a full company of Stockbridge Indians, under Captain Daniel Ninham, went to White Plains (Ibid. p. 888). A capture by Indians of six prisoners is reported in Moore's Diary, etc., i. p. 476. The Stockbridge Indians were ambuscaded at King's Bridge with severe loss, Aug. 31, 1778. (Mag. Am. Hist., v. p. 187.) In 1819, the survivors of this tribe, petitioning the President of the United States for the protection of their rights in certain lands in Indiana, said: "When your parent disowned you as her children, and sent over to this great island many strong warriors to burn your towns, destroy your families, and bring you into captivity, we, of the Muhheakunuks, defended your fathers on the west against the warriors which your parent had sent against you on that side; and we also sent our warriors to join your great chief, Washington, to aid him in driving back into the sea the unnatural monsters who had come up from thence to devour you, and ravage the land which we a long time before granted to your fathers to live upon." (American State Papers—Public Lands, vol. iii., Washington, 1834).