Preserve Indian Field

The Bronx Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) are looking for female descendants of the Van Gilders from Berkshire County, Massachusetts to join its chapter. 

In 1778 an  Indian corp of light infantry was formed at the request of General George Washington.  That company had been suggested to General Horatio Gates by Abraham Nimham.  Abraham was the son of Daniel Nimham, the last Wappinger chief, and first cousin to the children of John Van Gilder and Mary Karner. 

This company was ambushed by a company of British and Hessian soldiers on 31 Aug 1778.  The Mohicans at Stockbridge lost a third of their men that day.  Daniel Nimham, the nephew of John Van Gilder, was killed when he shot a British officer.  There is a cairn memorializing the regiment in Van Cortlandt Park, the site of the ambush.

 A large portion of the battlefield, called Indian Field, has been preserved since then and currently is part of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Now New York City wants to build a $500,000 dog park there.  I think this is disrespectful to the site.  So far it seems to be the only Revolutionary War memorial to the Native American men of New England. I believe the Bronx Chapter of the DAR will press for the creation of a state or national historic park at the site instead.  I know that’s what I’d like to see. I have already determined that in addition to the Mohicans and Wappingers, Tunix, Schaghticoke, Paguset, Mohegan, Pequot, Nipmuc and Wampanoag men served there that day.  The DAR would like descendants of the men of the Indian Corp and the Van Gilders and Winchells to join the DAR to help preserve Indian Field.

Below is a list I’ve compiled of Van Gilder descendants and their Mohican Winchell cousins who served in the American Revolution:

Continental Army:

Andrew Van Gilder

Benjamin Van Gilder

Daniel Van Gilder

David Van Gilder

Ebenezer Van Gilder

Isaac Van Gilder

Jacob Van Gilder

James Van Gilder

John Van Gilder

Joseph Van Gilder

Matthew Van Gilder Jr.

Nathaniel Van Gilder

Nicholas Van Gilder

Reuben Van Gilder

Stephen Van Gilder

David Winchell

Joel Winchell

Green Mountain Boys:

Henry Van Gilder

John Van Gilder Jr.

Jonathan Van Gilder

Service Details:

Daniel Van Gilder

Joseph Van Gilder

(Battle of Saratoga)

Matthew Van Gilder Sr

(Battles of Saratoga, Burgoyne’s Surrender)

Eliakim Winchell Sr.

(Battles of Saratoga, Burgoyne’s Surrender)

Hezekiah Winchell Jr.

(Battles of Saratoga, Burgoyne’s Surrender, Mount Independence)

Albany County Militia:

Andrew Van Gilder

Henry Van Gilder

Jacob Van Gilder

John Van Gilder Jr.

In the table below I list the men belonging to the Indian Corp as found on the Patriot's Blood web site and their tribes.

Massachusetts Men	Nation
Joseph Aaron
Hendrick Aupaumut (aka Lt. Solomon Hendrick)	Mohican
Amos Babcock	Wampanoag	from 5th mass.Mashpee
Joseph Cheenequan	Mohican	DAR
John Cheenquin	Mohican	DAR
Isaac Esop (Aesop)	Mohican	DAR
David Hatch	Wampanoag	from Mashpee
Isaac Johns		from Upton
Benjamin Jones		from Sandwich
James Keeter	Wampanoag	Mashpee
Jacob Keeter	Wampanoag	Mashpee
Abraham Konkpott	Mohican
Job Long		from Hanover
Ephraim Louden		from Milton
Joseph Mamanash	Mohegan/Pocumtuck
Ebenezer Maunauset	Mohican	DAR
Benjamin Metacaman	Mohican	DAR
Andres Mohhewch	Mohican	DAR
Moses Mole	Mohican
Eli Moses		from Sandwich
Pedro Murcock		from Pembroke or Plymouth
David Naunauneck	Mohican
Abraham Nimham	Wappinger
Daniel Nimham	Wappinger
John Nimham	Wappinger
Jacob Pautauwaupeet	Mohican	MSS
John Pearce		from Mashpee
Joseph Pegan, Jr.		from Bridgewater
John Peters		from Southwick
William Placy
Hosea Pocknet	Wampanoag	from Mashpee
James Quamhos	Mohican
James Rimmons		from Mashpee
Aaron Sausonkhok	Mohican
Jeffrey Sechemus		from Roxbury
George Shawn		from Mashpee
John Shepaubweenk	Mohican
David Shupaumwaunhun	Mohican
Samuel Squintoop	Mohican
Robert Sukkaumick	Mohican
Abel Supposon		12th Mass.
Isaac Swift
Job Tampum		from Mashpee
Timothy Taunkauwat	Mohican
Job Tobias		from Barnstable
Cornelius Touwohauunnuk	Mohican
Jacob Tusnuk	Mohican
Solomon Wamsquam		from Needham
Benjamin Waunehnauweet	Mohican
Samuel Wampee		Sandwich or Falmouth
Solomon Wamsquam		from Needham
Andrew Waumankey	Mohican
Isaac Waupeek	Mohican
Hendrick Wautaunkauwot	Mohican
Daniel Wauwaumpequunnaunt	Mohican
Francis Websquish	Mashpee	from Sandwich
Isaac Wnaumpey	Mohican	from Watertown
Jacob Yaunpohkhok	Mohican
Timothy Yokun	Mohican
Antony [ ]
Connecticut Men
John Chops	Paugussett?	from Fairfield,
Phillip Dorus		Middlesex, ct
Samuel Haney		from Hartford
Joseph Hannabal		from Groton
Simon Hobart		New London
Tom Indian
John Jeffords	Mohegan	East Haddam/Canterbury/Stonington
Joseph Johnson		CT
Peter Keyhole		from Woodbury, African American
John Meason		from Killingly or Enfield
Daniel Mossucks	Tunxis	Farmington
Eleazor Pegan	Nipmuc	from Woodstock
William Placey		from Windham
Josiah Poheague		from Stonington
Jabez Pottage		Windham, Pension account
Joseph Read		Fairfield, CT
Joshua Robins		from Windham
James Simon
Amos Temple		from Woodbury
Abimeleck Uncas	Mohegan	son of Ben Unca
Peter Warwehew		from Fairfield,
Thomas Worroups	Schaghticoke
Abel Washauks	Pequot
John Wompee	Pequot
Rhode Island Men
Toby Coys		from Charlestown
Caesar Finch		from Warwick or Coventry
Widsor Fry		Mustee, from E. Greenwich

Too Much Time Team?

Is there such a thing as too much Time Team?  My right shoulder is almost normal.  My sprained right ankle is almost normal.  I still want to watch Time Team, though.  I've watched all twenty seasons and all the specials.  I've started watching it from the first program again.

I'm not an archaeologist and I haven't even participated in a dig. ( The closest I've got was helping to clean out the old stone barn at the New Lebanon Shaker site.)  Once I found archaeology uninteresting.  I tended to fall asleep during the archaeological presentations during the Mohican Seminars. Before the last one I attended, something clicked inside me, though, and I realized the importance of the artifacts and the information obtained.  It's physical confirmation of history and the people who came before us.  Sometimes when that history is missing, such as the unknown Mohican history that went up in smoke in 1911, it's all that more important.

Time Team is a unique show.  The photography is well done.  I've seen parts of the British Isles I thought I never would.  I've managed to absorb knowledge without knowing it.  Last Christmas time while helping to decorate our team's area, I gave my team leader an impromptu lecture on bricks used in Britain.

The cast made the program unique as well.  The impression given to the audience is of people who were very knowledgeable and enjoyed their work.  They also liked and respected each another enough to have friendly arguments and challenges.  It was very informative and sometimes very amusing when team members became involved with projects involving ancient technology, or role-playing.  I seem to recall Phil Harding involved with a lot of it.  He comes across as a good sport.  

If I were more talented, I'd put together a video of my favorite moments.  I do get a kick out of it when a tent starts moving across the field, with many legs underneath it like an extremely obese, top heavy centipede. I enjoy Phil Harding's enthusiasm greatly.  It's such a delight to see someone who enjoys his work so much and who is so generous in sharing his knowledge.  I still don't understand flint-knapping, though, and I'm in awe of anyone that can work rock like that.

It's been very interesting to learn that at one point the ancient Britons and the ancient Native Americans were much alike.  They both started as hunter-gatherers. They both started to farm and settle down in small communities.  They both made stone tools and projectiles.  They both made round dwellings to live in.   I think I even saw ancient British shoes that looked like moccasins.  

I have a feeling that there could be more commonalities, but because of the lack of attention paid to Native American sites and their disruption and disappearance we might never know.  Will we ever know if they had enclosure ditches like the Britons?  Did they erect anything similar to the stone henges? I wonder why Britain evolved like it did and why were the Native Americans so different?  Was it because the Roman Empire invaded Britain and conquered it, bringing in new ideas and ways of doing things?  Was it because of even more new information were brought back to Britain from the Crusades?

Mick Aston, I hope where you are now you realize that Time Team has not failed.  Over two hundred sites were listed after Time Team worked on them.  Thanks to the web, Acorn TV and Youtube, new people around the world are discovering Time Team, enjoying it and learning to appreciate archaeology and history, and a more considered and well-rounded view of life.  

Sometimes my brain seems to go on thinking while I'm sleeping.  I had an interesting dream last night.  I dreamed that Time Team came over to America to investigate Mohican sites in Washington County, New York.  Phil Harding wanted to go to a pow wow with me after I mentioned them.  I think that would have been a lot of fun, and it's too bad it was only a dream.  Maybe I ought to watch a movie or two, though.

Mohican Pottery in Delaware County, New York

Ralph S. Ives while walking across the premises of Robert Smith below Roxbury village recently, found a piece of Indian pottery of unquestioned historic interest and  value.  It was made of clay and is part of a former vessel used by the Mahigan Indians, a branch of the Delawares, as a cooking utensil for food.  The pottery was blackened in the inside,  caused  by dropping heated stones into the water to make it sufficiently hot to cook the food placed in it.  Many Indian relics, stone pestles  for pounding corn, and other remnants of articles used by Indians have been found in that vicinity.

Otsego Farmer, 4 July 1919, page 1