The plan of the work, especially of the first and larger portion of it, may perhaps in some respects disappoint the reader, though, it is hoped, not unfavourably. It has been the object of the author to render it not only a local, but, to a certain extent, a brief general history of the War of the Revolution. Thus, while it is a particular history, ample in its details, of the belligerent events occurring at the west of Albany, the author has from time to time introduced brief sketches of contemporaneous events occurring in other parts of the country. By this means, bird's-eye glimpses have been presented, for the most part in the proper order of time, of all the principal military operations of the whole contest. In order, moreover, to the better understanding of the incipient revolutionary movements in the Mohawk country, (then Tryon County,) a rapid view is given of the same description of movements elsewhere. The proceedings of that county were, of course, connected with, and dependent upon, those of New England, especially of Boston--the head, and heart, and soul of the rebellion, in its origin and its earlier stages. Hence a summary review of the measures directly, though by degrees, leading to the revolt of the Colonies, has not been deemed out of place, in its proper chronological position. And as all the Indian history of the Revolutionary war at the north, the west, and the south, has been written out in full, by the incidental sketches of other events and campaigns marking the contest, the work may be considered in the three-fold view of local, general, and biographical; the whole somewhat relieved, from time to time, if not enlivened, by individual narratives--tales of captivity and suffering--of daring adventures and bold exploits. Several weeks after the preceding pages had been stereotyped, but before any considerable progress had been made in printing the body of the work, the author was so fortunate as to obtain a large accession of valuable materials from General Peter Gansevoort, of Albany, embracing the extensive correspondence of his father, the late General Gansevoort, better known in history as "the hero of Fort Stanwix." These papers, embracing those captured by him from the British General St. Leger, have been found of great importance in the progress of the work, and will add materially to its completeness and its value.