[FN-1] The late Thomas Shankland, Esq. of Cooperstown.
Greatly to his vexation, as appears from his letters. General Clinton was detained at Otsego, by the tardy movements of his commander below, during the whole month of July and the first week in August--until, indeed, his troops became impatient to a degree. [FN] But the General was not idle in respect to every arrangement that might add to their security or contribute to their success. In the letter to his brother, last quoted, he disclosed one capital stroke of generalship, which not only contributed largely to his successful descent of the river, but was of great service in other respects. The damming of the lake, and the accumulation, by this means, of a vast reservoir of water, by rendering more certain and expeditious the navigation of the river, was an exceedingly happy thought And when at length orders were received for his embarkation on the 9th of August, his flotilla was not only borne triumphantly along upon the pile of the impatient waters accumulated for the occasion, but the swelling of the torrent beyond its banks caused wide and unexpected destruction to the growing crops of the Indians on their plantations at Oghkwaga and its vicinity. They were, moreover, greatly affrighted at the sudden and unexpected rise of the waters in the dryest season of the year, especially as there had been no rains--attributing the event to the interposition of the "Great Spirit," who thus showed that he was angry with them. The whole expedition was indeed calculated to impress them with terror--as it might have done a more enlightened and less superstitious people. The country was wild and totally uninhabited, excepting by scattered families of the Indians, and here and there by some few of the more adventurous white settlers, in the neighborhood of Unadilla. The sudden swelling of the river, therefore, bearing upon its surge a flotilla of more than two hundred vessels, through a region of primitive forests, and upon a stream that had never before wafted upon its bosom any craft of greater burthen than a bark canoe, was a spectacle which might well appall the untutored inhabitants of the regions thus invaded.
[FN] By a letter from the Commander-in-chief to General Sullivan, it appears that in the organisation of the expedition the latter had been compelled to encounter greater difficulties than had been anticipated. He wan disappointed in regard to the Pennsylvania independent companies--to supply which deficiency, Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Pauling was directed to march across from Warwasing, and join Clinton at Oghkwaga. Governor Clinton himself had intended to lead this regiment, but General Washington, believing that the influence of his presence was needed elsewhere, induced him to relinquish that design. The delays of Sullivan, therefore, may not nave arisen from any fault of his own. Still, the inactivity of General Clinton at Otsego Lake, and of Sullivan at Wyoming, was no more irksome to the former than to Brant himself. This active warrior had probably led in person the three hundred Indians spoken of by the Oneidas as having gone forth to hang upon the flanks of General Clinton, and annoy his troops by skirmishes during the march. Becoming weary, however, of waiting for a foe whose movements were apparently so tardy, Brant determined on making the irruption into Minisink, of which a history has been given in the last preceding chapter.