New York's Wappinger Indians Fight for Washington in the American Revolution

New York's Wappinger Indians Fight for Washington in the American Revolution

August 31, 1778 upon this field Chief Nimham and seventeen Stockbridge Indians as allies of the Patriots gave their lives for liberty

In the Revolution Nimham and his warriors took an active 
part. Some sixty of them, expert marksmen and skilled in war, 
joined the American forces and fought with a bravery and valor 
worthy of their ancient race, in the days of their glory. Active 
in the campaigns of 1777, they joined Washington again in the 
spring of the following year, and were detached with the forces 
under La Fayette, to check the depredations of the British army 
on its retreat from Philadelphia, and they were afterward trans-
ferred to Westchester county, the scene of some of the most 
hotly contested struggles of the war. 

It was on the 30th of August, 1778, that Nimham and his 
warrior band went forth to the field of their last battle. On 
that day they met with a scouting party of British under Colo- 
nel Emerick, and after a tierce engagement compelled them to 
retreat. On the following morning the whole of the British 
force at Kings Bridge was ordered out and the larger part was 
placed in an ambuscade, while Emerick was sent forward to de- 
coy his assailants of the previous day. In the extreme northern 
part of the annexed portion of the city of New York, is a high 
elevation of land, known as Cortlandt's Kidge. Winding 
through the valleys and emptying into the Harlem River, near 
Kings Bridge, is a stream that has borne from the earliest times 
the name of Tippets Brook. The wooded heights and the 
banks of the stream were the scenes of a most sanguinary con- 
flict. The attempt to draw the Indians into the ambuscade 
failed, and upon their advance the British troops had scarcely 
time to fall into rank. The Indians lined the fences and com- 
menced firing upon the forces under Colonel Enierick. The 
Queen's Rangers moved rapidly to gain the heights, and Tarle- 
ton advanced with the Hussars and his famous Legion of Cav- 
alry. This being reported to Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, he 
directed Major Ross to conduct his corps on the heights, and 
advancing to the road arrived within ten yards of Nimham and 
his men. Up to this time they had been intent on the attack 
upon Colonel Emerick. Tliey now gave a yell and fired on the 
advancing enemy and wounded five, including Colonel Simcoe. 

They were driven from the fence, and Tarleton rushed upon 
them with his cavalry and pursued them down Cortlandt"s 
Ridge. Here Tarleton himself had a narrow escape. Striking' 
at one of the fugitives, he lost his balance and fell from his 
horse. Fortunately for him the Indian had no bayonet and his 
musket was discharged. A captain of a company of American 
soldiers was taken prisoner with some of his men, and a company 
under Major Stewart, who afterwards distinguished himself at 
the storming of Stony Point, left the Indians and tied. The en- 
gagement was renewed with the fiercest vigor. The cavalry 
charged the ridge with overwhelming numbers, but were bravely 
resisted. As the cavalry rode them down, the Indians seizing 
their foes, dragged them from their horses, to join them in death. 

     In a swamp, not far from the brook, Nimham made his last 
stand. When he saw the Grenadiers closing upon him and all 
hope of successful resistance gone, he called out to his people 
to flee, but as for himself, " I am an aged tree, I will die here." 
Being attacked by Simcoe he wounded that oificer, but was shot 
and killed by Wright, his orderly Hussar. In this fearful fray 
the power of the tribe was forever broken. More than forty of 
the Indians were killed or desperately wounded in the fight, and 
when the next morning dawned, there, still and cold in death, 
on the field he had defended so bravely, lay the last sachem of 
the AVappingers. 

The place where they crossed Tippets Brook is still known as 
Indian Bridge, and an opening in the Cortlandt woods yet bears 
the name of Indian Field, and there the dead were buried. It is 
said that the spirit of the sachem still haunts the field of his 
last battle, and that the sound of his war cry still rises on the 
midnight air, and greets the ear of the belated traveller as he 
treads on his lonely way. 

From that time the Wappingers ceased to have a name in his- 
tory. A few scattered remnants still remained, and as late as 
ISll, a small band had their dwelling place on a low tract of 
land by the side of a brook, under a high hill, in the northern 
part of the town of Kent,' but all that remained of them have 
Long since passed away, and the fleece that knew them once will 
know them no more forever. 

A person who stands on the high land in Carmel, south of 
Lake Gleneida, sees far to the northwest, three lofty mountains 
that tower above all the country round. To the middle peak, 
which is the highest, we have given the name of the last Sachem 
of the tribe that once ruled all the lands that can be seen from 
'its highest summit: and we trust that in honor of his valor, and 
of the faith sealed with his blood, on the field where he fought 
for the liberty of America, it will bear to all future time the 
name of Mount Nimham. 

'The site of this village is on the farm of Isaiah Booth, about half a mile south 
of the Putnam county road, near the west line of Lot 5.