Battle of Oriskany

The Battle of Oriskany occured on August 6, 1777 and was located near Oriskany Creek in New York. On August 4, 1777, the Tryon County militia marched to the relief of besieged Fort Stanwix. The wilderness road was the only means by which General Herkimer and his men could reach the fort other than by boat via the Mohawk River. The road dipped more than fifty feet (15 m) into a marshy ravine where the small Oriskany Creek, nearly three feet (1 m) wide, meandered along the bottom. Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter had the principal roles in selecting this place for the ambush of the approaching relief column.[3] While the King's Royal Yorkers waited behind a nearby rise, 400 natives concealed themselves on both sides of the ravine. Into this trap General Herkimer's militiamen advanced, with Herkimer himself leading the column.
On August 6, 1777, Herkimer halted his column moments before entering the fateful ravine. On August 5, 1777 Herkimer had sent a party to Fort Stanwix to notify Colonel Gansevoort of the approach of this militia and to request them to send a force from the fort to assist in the approach of the militia. When the militia had reached the ravine he had not yet received a response from the fort and proposed to wait until he received confirmation. (His messengers arrived at the fort at 11am). His Tryon County militia officers, however, interpreted Herkimer's hesitancy as cowardice and publicly rebuked him as a Tory spy. Faced with mutiny by his officers, Herkimer ordered the militia column to advance. The militia officers who followed General Herkimer into the ravine were Colonel Ebenezer Cox, Colonel Jacob Klock, Colonel Peter Bellinger and Colonel Frederick Visscher.
At 10am the militia entered the ravine and the discipline of the militia disintegrated. Exhausted from the heat of their march, many of General Herkimer's men broke ranks and ran to the stream for water. Although Sir John Johnson had instructed his Native American allies not to attack until all of Herkimer's militia had entered the ravine, the Natives could not resist such an opportunity. As the militiamen laid down their muskets and placed their heads to the water, the Native Americans attacked.
In the opening volleys of the battle, General Nicholas Herkimer's horse was shot from beneath him, and he received a wound in the leg. Herkimer was carried by several of his officers to a beech tree now marked by a stone monument. Herkimer was urged by his militiamen to retire from further danger, but that he defiantly replied: "I will face the enemy." Historians interpret Herkimer's reply not only as a testament to his valor, but also his bitterness towards those officers who—having earlier branded Herkimer a coward for his caution and goaded him into the ravine—now urged him to retreat for his own safety.
As the fighting continued, Herkimer rallied his men, fighting his way out of the ravine to the crest just west of it. Directing the battle while leaning against a beech tree there and smoking his pipe, Herkimer observed that the natives were watching the puffs of smoke from his militiaman's muskets. The natives exploited the delay caused by the need to reload muzzle-loading flint locks and rushed in and attack the militiamen with edged weapons--tomahawks and knives.
A violent thunderstorm caused a one-hour lull in the battle. Herkimer regrouped his militia on the higher ground {now marked by an obelisk}. He instructed his men to fight in pairs: while one man fired and reloaded the other waited and then only fired if attacked. Firing in relays, both were to attempt to keep at least one weapon loaded at all times. This tactic kept the Indians at bay and stabilized the remains of Herkimer's command.
After the thunderstorm, a detachment of reinforcements from the King's Royal Yorkers arrived. These loyalists turned their coats inside out to disguise themselves as a relief party coming up the valley from Fort Stanwix. One patriot militiaman, Captain Jacob Gardinier, however, recognized the face of a Loyalist neighbor. In the confusion, the King's Royal Yorkers succeeded in investing the militia's position, but as casualties mounted, they withdrew.
At about 2pm the garrison of Fort Stanwix sortied from the fort to sack the British and Native camp. The Native forces withdrew from the action with cries of "Oonah, oonah!", the Seneca signal to retire. The tactics used by the patriots seriously delayed St. Leger's plans to surge through the Mohawk Valley and unite with Burgoyne and Howe.
Upon the withdrawal of the Natives and Loyalists, the Patriots who had not fled the scene attended to the evacuation of wounded, some of whom were taken by boat downriver to safety. Many wounded Patriots were left on the field. The dead were not buried for several years. The Americans won this battle.

I found this work on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_oriskany