A Battle by Any Other Name: Klock's Field, October 19, 1780

The Sullivan-Clinton Expedition may have destroyed the homeland of the Iroquois in New York, but it did not dampen their will, or that of their Loyalist allies, to try to take it back.  As the tide began to turn against the British elsewhere in the Revolution, units of Loyalist and Patriot militia, along with Native auxiliaries, kept up the fight.

This Battle goes by several names, Klock's Field, Falling's Orchard, Nellis Flatts, or Stone Arabia.  On one side was Sir John Johnson, William Johnson's successor as Superintendent of the British Indian Department.  Johnson had command of units from several Loyalist troops, including his own King's Royal Regiment of New York, Butler's Rangers, and a British regular infantry regiment.  Brant's Volunteers included both Natives and even Whites or mixed-race men willing to fight under his command.  Facing them were units of the Albany County Militia and Tryon County Militia, along with Oneida auxiliaries.  As with other battles we've covered, this would be a case of Settlers and Natives against Natives and Settlers. 

In retaliation for the destruction of their homeland, Brant's and Johnson's men began destroying homes in Stone Arabia, a village in present-day Palatine Township, Montgomery County, New York.  The American commander, John Brown, gathered up levies of militia from as far away as Massachusetts to meet the threat.  He was quickly defeated by Johnson and Brant, but they had reckoned without larger American forces nearby, commanded by General Robert van Rensselear, who caught up with them on the fields of a farm owned by George Klock.  The two groups traded fire until Renssalear that his men were too bunched up on the field and cross-firing at each other.  He ordered a retreat to Klock's farmhouse and outbuildings to sort out the mess.  Johnson and Brant took the opportunity to cross the Mohawk River and put it between themselves and their enemy. 

Although this battle sounds like a mutual retreat and a dismal failure on both sides, Johnson and Brant did achieve their objective, a twenty-mile swath of destruction from Fort Hunter to Stone Arabia.  The Americans would pay dearly for the destruction and theft of Iroquois land and property.