![Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. “A sketch of the siege of Fort Schuyler [Stanwix] presented to Col. Gansevoort by L. Flury” New York Public Library Digital Collections.](https://www.thenmusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/map6-1.jpg)
As General Burgoyne’s main body moved south in early July, about 600 British, German, Canadian, and Loyalist troops under Lt. Col. Barry St. Leger made a foray into the Mohawk Valley region of central New York in hopes of drawing some Patriot forces away from the Albany area. Accompanying St. Leger was around 500 Native warriors. Before he could enter the heart of the valley, however, he needed to overcome a Patriot garrison at Fort Stanwix (which the Americans called Fort Schuyler) consisting of 700 Continentals and militiamen under the command of 28-year-old Col. Peter Gansevoort. As St. Leger’s forces closed around Fort Stanwix in late July, his Native allies targeted the civilians who lived around the post.
"Yesterday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, our garrison was alarmed at the firing of four guns. A party of men was instantly dispatched to the place where the guns were fired, which was in the edge of the woods, about 500 yards from the fort, but they were too late. The villains were fled, after having shot three girls who were out picking raspberries, two of whom were lying scalped and tomahawked, one dead, the other expiring, who died in about half an hour after she was brought home. The third had two [musket] balls through her shoulder, but made out to make her escape; her wounds are not thought dangerous. By the best discoveries we have made, there were four Indians who perpetrated these murders."
John Albert Scott. “Fort Stanwix (Fort Schuyler) and Oriskany.” Rome, NY: Rome Sentinel Co., 1927, p. 162.