Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/248

 HERKIMER

HERMANN

became the leader in politics as well as in the military affairs of the section and he turned to the cause of independencje the large German population of central New York, and in a measure checked the influence of the Johnsons through- out that section. In 1776 he led an expedition against Sir John Johnson and his Indian allies, and when St. Leger with his force of Britisli reg- ulars. New York loyalists and Brant's Indians, comprising a force of 1800 men. invested Fort Schuyler, (ienoral Herkimer led thcTryon county militia. 1000 raw recruits and largely tainted with insubordination, to the relief of the fort. St. Leger had 800 regulars and 1000 Indians, while Colonel Gansevoort, who commanded the fort, had but 750 men. Colonel St. Leger sent out a force to intercept Herkimer, Aug. 5, 1777, and led Herkimer's militia into the wooded ravine near Oriskany on either side of which the Indians were concealed, while at its end the British regulars were also in ambush.' The rear guard and supply train of General Herkimer were captured and Herkimer's horse was killed under him, while he was himself seriously wounded. Still able to sit up he took a com- manding position under a tree, and while calmly smoking his pipe directed the battle. He ordeied the men to adopt the Indian mode of warfare aTid they separated in groups, finding refuge be- hind trees and rocks, and kept up the figiit till Colonel Willett issued from the fort with a con- siderable force and the Indians were driven from the field, the British regulars soon following. St. Leger, anticipating the arrival of another relief party, raised the siege and retreated into Canada, Of General Herkimer's force, one-third fell on the battlefield and many were mortally wounded or carried away captive, Genex'al Herkimer was conveyed on a litter to his hcmse tliirt\^-five miles distant. His leg was unskilfully amputated and he died ten days after the operation. The gov- ernment recognized his services by voting in Continental congress in October, 1777, to raise a monument to the memory of "Brigadier Herki- mer.'' The act was not carried out, however, and in 1827 Governor DeWitt Clinton urged the New York legislature to do what congress had failed to perform, and as the bill failed he re- peated the request in his next message in 1828 with no better result.- In 1844 Judge William Campbell petitioned the 28th congress to redeem the promise of the Continental congress of 1777. He repeated his petition, strengthened by that of the New York Historicnl society to the 29tli con- gress. The centennial of the battle was cele- brated in 1«77. and Horatio Seymour, president of the On(^i<1a Historical society, brought the matter before the 44tli congress and $4100 was voted, which was the original $500 appropriated

in 1777 with the simple interest added. The sum was increased to $10,000 b}' private subscription and an apjn'opriatiou from the state legislature in 18^<2. and an obelisk of granite reaching to the lieight of 85 feet, standing on a pedestal surmounting a limestone foundation, was the tardj- result in 1884 after one hundred and seven years of effort. Bronze tablets, 6x4i feet on the four sides, illustrate and conmiemoiate the hero of Oriskany and record the names of liis gallant men who fell figliting in their coinitry's cause. Tlie accompanying engraving shows General Herkimer's house at Danube, also his grave, marked by a flag, and at the right the base of the monument erected in 1884. He died in Danube, N.Y., Aug. 17, 1777.

HERMAN, John Gottlieb, Moravian bishop, was born in Niesky. Prussia. Nov. 18, 1789, He was educated in the college and seniinarj' of the jMoravian church in his native country, emigrated to America in 1817, and was a teacher and preacher in Pennsylvania until 1844, when he was elected to the supreme executive board of the Moravian church and he was consecrated to the episcopacy in Europe, Sept, 27, 1846. He visited the missions in the West Indies in 1846, and in 1848 presided over the general synod of the entire Moravian church at Herrnhut. Saxony. In 1849 he returned to the United States as pre- siding bishop of the southern district. While on an official visit to the Cherokee country he died in a log cabin in the wilderness of southwestern Missouri. July 20, 1S54.

HERMANN, Binger, representative, was born in Lonaconing, Allegany county. Md., Feb. 19, 1843; son of Dr. Henry and Elizabeth (Hopkins) Hermann. His father, a native of Hessecassel, Germany, was a pro- fessor of the Univer- sity of Marburg, in the electorate of Hes- secassel. His mater- nal grandfather, Da- vid Hopkins, was su- perintendent of the first iron furnace in western Maryland, Binger was educated at the district schools and at the Independ- ent academy, after- ward Irving college, near Baltimore city, ]\rd. In the .spring of 1859 he removed to the west with his father, a prominent physician, who, the previous fall, had been commissioned by a colony of Jlary- landers and Pennsylvanians to seek a location for a settlement in the Oregon country. Binger

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