Over the years, many visitors to the Minisink Battleground have noted that when young people visit the Park, the scene of the July 22, 1779 Revolutionary War battle, their attention is typically riveted on Hospital Rock. That is where the Goshen physician, Dr. Benjamin Tusten, a lieutenant colonel in the militia under siege by Joseph Brant and his band of Tories and Iroquois, attempted to treat some of the badly wounded soldiers under his command. Despite Tusten’s valiant efforts, none of those wounded survived the battle, and the good doctor himself, forsaking an opportunity to escape with his commanding officer and others, was ultimately killed, as well. When they hear the story, most people are moved by the sacrifice, but children especially so.  

They seem to take their time surveying the shadowy scene at the base of the imposing boulder, formulating their own ideas for what must have motivated Tusten and the men who took part in the battle, and coming away with a better understanding of those men’s need to defend their families, their community, and their country. 

The Battle of Minisink has not only been recorded as one of the deadliest battles of the Revolutionary War, it was a devastating defeat for the Colonists. While perhaps strategically insignificant, the battle and the events leading up to it emphasized once again the vulnerability of the settlements on the frontier, which had already prompted George Washington to dispatch General John Sullivan to drive Brant and his men out of the country.

It also highlighted the concept of the Revolutionary War as a civil war, as neighbors who once depended upon each other for survival while living side by side upriver at Cushetunk fought on both sides. 

Two days before the battle on that desolate hilltop, Brant’s band of marauders had forayed for a second time into the Mamakating valley, murdering the men of the community of Minisink, and plundering its assets. When word of the attack reached Goshen, Lt. Col. Tusten ordered all available militia to meet him at Fort Decker. 

The Goshen militia, made up of farmers and merchants and clerks, and what James Eldridge Quinlan later described in his “History of Sullivan County” as “some of the principal gentlemen of the county,” was soon on the trail of the raiders. The traveling was slow and torturous, the terrain nearly impassable in places. Still, the militia pressed on, determined to recapture the plunder and exact a toll on the enemy that would cause them to think twice before embarking on future raids.

 “The excited militia men took up their line of march, and followed the old Cochecton trail seventeen miles, when they encamped at Skinner’s mill, near Haggie’s Pond [present day Loch Ada], about three miles from the mouth of Halfway Brook,” Quinlan recounted. “This day’s march must have nearly exhausted the little army. How many men of Orange and Sullivan, in these effeminate days, can endure such a tramp, encumbered with guns and knapsacks?” 

Despite the rigors of the pursuit, the militia was in high spirits, according to historian Isabel Thompson Kelsay, in her book, “Joseph Brant: Man of Two Worlds.” They were full of contempt for the Native Americans they were chasing, and were confident Brant’s men would abandon their loot and run when confronted.  

“On July 22, two days after the raid, the two parties were close enough together to be aware of each other’s presence,” Kelsay writes. “They had come about twenty-seven tangled, rock-strewn miles. On the right a mountain rose darkly and on the left was the rippling Delaware. In the distance loomed the far-ranging Catskills. There was not a wilder, lonelier place on the whole frontier, a place where the wolves gathered by night, but men are seldom seen.” 

That was the backdrop for the Battle of Minisink, fought between the rocks and trees on a hilltop outside present day Barryville. Brant, an adroit strategist, was able to outmaneuver the militia, and despite inferior numbers, possessed the more experienced contingent. Hours of fighting, first with muskets, and then hand to hand, left the Colonials routed and Brant and his force, smaller by just three men, resumed their journey to his upstate headquarters. Six more of his men, wounded in the battle, would die on the way. 

Forty-six colonials, including Dr. Tusten, were killed that day and their remains were left on the desolate battlefield for 43 years before they were recovered for burial, that gruesome detail merely serving to punctuate the devastation of the Battle of Minisink. 

Today, the battleground is preserved and serves as a reminder of the devastation that took place that day in 1779. And each year scores of people make the long trek up the hill for commemorative services, this year to be held tomorrow, Saturday, July 19.  

The commemoration will get underway at four p.m. with the keynote address to be delivered by Terry Blosser Bernardo, Sullivan County Legislator and member of the Wiltwyck chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. As always, the commemoration is free and open to the public and among those in attendance will no doubt be some youngsters who have visited Hospital Rock and feel moved to pay homage to the ultimate sacrifice of Colonel Tusten and his men.

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian and a founder and president of The Delaware Company. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com.