| Stockbridge Militia | |
|---|---|
 Lt. Col. Simcoe's description of the battle.Woodlawn Cemetery is visible at bottom right. | |
| Active | 1775–1778 |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch | John Nixon's Brigade,8th Massachusetts Regiment,Massachusetts Militia,Continental Army |
| Type | Conventional soldiers, scouts |
| Role | Conventional 18th-century European warfare and scouting operations |
| Engagements | American Revolutionary War Siege of Boston Capture of Fort Ticonderoga Siege of Ticonderoga Battle of Saratoga Battle of Monmouth |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Major GeneralHoratio Gates Brigadier GeneralJohn Nixon Jehoiaikim Mtohksin (Stockbridge officer) Abraham Nimham (Stockbridge officer) |
TheStockbridge Militia was aNative American military unit fromStockbridge, Massachusetts which served in theContinental Army during theAmerican Revolutionary War. The militia unit was composed mostly ofMohican,Wappinger, andMunsee from the Stockbridge area. While most northeastern tribes, such asJoseph Brant'sMohawks, aligned themselves with theBritish, the Stockbridge tribes allied with theAmerican Patriots. Led by Jehoiaikim Mtohksin and Abraham Nimham, they were the first group of Native Americans to fight for the cause of American independence during the Revolutionary War.[1]
In 1774, as the revolution began to get under way inMassachusetts, members of the Stockbridge tribes met at the Red Lion Inn to pledge their loyalty to the American cause:
Wherever your armies go, there we will go; you shall always find us by your side; and if providence calls us to sacrifice our Lives in the field of battle, we will fall where you fall, and lay our bones by yours. Nor shall peace ever be made between our nation and theRed-Coats until our brothers -the white people- lead the way.[2]
This first incarnation of the militia served at theSiege of Boston and theCapture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. This militia disbanded soon thereafter, with some Indians returning to their homes and others continuing to serve as scouts for various units.
In 1777, a new militia was gradually formed as Stockbridge men from the8th Massachusetts Regiment,Nixon's Brigade, and other units gathered under the command of Major GeneralHoratio Gates. This new, loosely organized Stockbridge Militia, now part of theContinental Army, was led by Jehoiaikim Mtohksin. Abraham Nimham, the son of famedWappingersachemDaniel Nimham, joined the unit as Mtohksin's second-in-command. From 1777 to 1778 they participated in theSiege of Ticonderoga, theBattle of Saratoga, and theBattle of Monmouth.
In August 1778, the Stockbridge Militia was stationed at an outpost in what is nowthe Bronx, just north ofManhattan.[3] They were attached to a newly formed Light Infantry Corps commanded byContinental Army generalMordecai Gist. TheQueen's Rangers, aLoyalist military unit under the command of Lieutenant ColonelJohn Graves Simcoe, led an attack on the Stockbridge Militia in what became known as theBattle of Kingsbridge[4]Cortlandt Ridge,[5]Van Cortlandt's Woods,[6] orThe Stockbridge Massacre.[3] The Queen's Rangers were developed fromRogers' Rangers, aprovincial unit in which many Stockbridge Indians had served during theFrench and Indian War.
The battle took place in the northeast of today'sVan Cortlandt Park, in an area known today as "Indian Field" about one mile north ofKingsbridge in today'sBronx. The Queen's Rangers led a cavalry charge against the Stockbridge Militia, scattering the unit. By most accounts roughly 40 Stockbridge Militia were killed in the battle, while the Queen's Rangers suffered comparatively light casualties, with 1 cavalryman killed and 3 wounded. Due to the chaos of the battle, the Stockbridge Militia did not bury their casualties, though local residents quickly combed over the battlefield and buried any bodies they found.[3][7]
After the fighting,Hessian captain Johann Von Ewald sketched a Stockbridge warrior based on one of the dead who had been left behind. The picture is the only known contemporary depiction of a Revolutionary-era Stockbridge militiaman. Von Ewald described the Indian casualties after his examination:
Their costume was a shirt of coarselinen down to the knees, long trousers also of linen down to the feet, on which they woreshoes of deerskin, and the head was covered with a hat made ofbast. Their weapons were a rifle or musket, a quiver with some twenty arrows, and a shortbattle-axe, which they know how to throw very skillfully. Through the nose and in the ears they wore rings, and on their heads only the hair of the crown remained standing in a circle the size of a dollar-piece, the remainder being shaved off bare. They pull out with pincers all the hairs of the beard, as well as those on all other parts of the body.[8]
The bodies of the Indians were left on the battlefield. Soon after, local residents discovered the corpses being scavenged by dogs, and they buried them in a mass grave.[9] By the 19th century the spirit of theirsachem was said to haunt the land of "Indian Field".[10]
That engagement was the last of the war for the militia; Abraham's father, Daniel Nimham, was a man of great standing among the Wappinger, and the other casualties represented a significant loss to the total population of the tribe back in Massachusetts. Requesting leave to return home to help the families of the dead, the company was paid $1,000.00 for their service and discharged by order ofGeorge Washington in September 1778.[1]
By the time of Shays's Rebellion much of the Indian community at Stockbridge had left for the Brothertown community in New York. According to the historian Patrick Frazier, "The remaining Stockbridges appear not to have participated in the agrarian fray; if they had, it is hard to say which side they would have taken, since they had friends on both." It has been suggested that their service during the American Revolution created strong support for Indiansuffrage, in the newCommonwealth of Massachusetts; although article five of the first draft, of the state's new constitution, excluded Indians, as eligible voters, it was soundly defeated and the second draft gave all men the right to vote.[1]
Most of the Indian survivors eventually settled inOneida County, New York and were later moved toWisconsin, forming theStockbridge-Munseetribal reservation.