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.
