They meant but a visit, we forced them to tarry; But few of the foemen went back from Schoharie. [Illustration: THE BATTLE-GROUND OF ORISKANY.] ORISKANY. The battle at Oriskany is one of the many instances during the Revolutionary contest where disaster resulted through the rashness and insubordination of inferior officers. A lack of discipline continually placed the cause in peril, and success was frequently won at a cost which might have been avoided. The enemy, under the command of Johnson and Brant, were, fortunately for their antagonists, troubled with the same fault. Had it been otherwise, the Americans would have been exterminated. [Illustration: PETER GANSEVOORT.] The enemy had laid siege to Fort Schuyler, where Gansevoort lay with a small garrison. General Herkimer, though without much pretensions to military science, was a brave and prudent officer, and perfectly fitted for the occasion. He had called out the militia of Tryon County to the number of eight hundred. His plan was to make an attack upon the enemy simultaneously with a sortie from the fort, and he sent a messenger to effect that arrangement with Gansevoort. The signal for Herkimer’s advance was to be a single gun from Fort Schuyler. It was some time before the scout could make his way safely through the investing force. In the mean while some of the men grew impatient, and clamored for an immediate advance. Colonels Cox and Paris headed this party, and when Herkimer refused they denounced him as a coward. At length he submitted to a precipitous movement, at the same time saying that these very bold gentlemen would be the first to run. And so it proved. The incidents of the fight are so minutely given in the ballad that no further explanation is needed. The Americans remained masters of the field, but at a fearful loss, of which that of Herkimer was not the least. Had the original plan been followed, much of the slaughter would have been spared. There is no portrait of Herkimer in existence; all that we learn of his appearance was that he was short, stout, and full-faced. He was a man of ability, and, had he survived, from his character and courage he would doubtless have figured creditably in the partisan warfare waged in Eastern and Northern New York, if not in a wider sphere of action. [Illustration: GENERAL HERKIMER’S RESIDENCE.] _THE FIGHT AT ORISKANY._ On the fifth of August, in the morn, I was ploughing between the rows of corn, When I heard Dirck Bergen blow his horn. I let the reins in quiet drop; I bade my horse in the furrow stop, And the sweet green leaves unheeded crop. Down at the fence I waited till Dirck galloped down the sloping hill, Blowing his conch-horn with a will. “Ho, neighbor! stop!” to Dirck I cried, “And tell me why so fast you ride— What is the news you scatter wide?”