The Battle at Minisink
Revolutionary War Heritage Trail
On July 20, 1779, a party of eighty seven Tories and Iroquois Native Americans under the command of Capt. Joseph Brant raided the frontier settlement of Minisink (present day Port Jervis). The raid destroyed homes, farms and mills and was designed to bring fear to the inhabitants. Later that day, regional militia units were called out.
Two days later, Brant and his forces met the pursuing force of New Jersey and New York militia – numbering three units with about one hundred twenty men – in a bloody fight on these hills. The militia, led by Capt. John Hathorn, had prepared for an ambush at the ford in the Delaware River when an accidental discharge of a militiaman’s gun alerted Brant to their presence.
Brant then outflanked the militia on the hillside below where you are now standing, cutting off one of the three units and routing the other two. The patriots began a rushed retreat to the top of this hill which culminated in the final phase of the battle. Here the remaining forty militiamen were surrounded and many were killed.
Marker can be reached from Minisink Battle Ground Road, on the left when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
