Andreas “Andrew” DILLENBACH

1736 - 1777  (40 years)

• Name	Andreas “Andrew” DILLENBACH
  Born	29 Dec 1736	Stone Arabia, Montgomery, New York
  Gender	Male
  Served American Revolution?	Y
  Military Flag	Y
  Cause of Death	Killed in Battle of Oriskany
  Died	6 Aug 1777	Oriskany, Oneida, New York
  Buried	Oriskany Cemetery, Oriskany, Oneida, New York   [1]
  Person ID	I39841	Main
  Last Modified	17 Dec 2023

  
  

  Father	Capt Henrich DILLENBACH,   b. 15 Apr 1716, Gerlachsdorf, Schoharie, New York ,   d. 13 Jun 1795, Stone Arabia, Montgomery, New York  (Age 79 years)
  Mother	Anna Margaretha WAGNER,   b. 15 Apr 1713, Gerlachsdorf, Schoharie, New York ,   d. Aft 1795, Stone Arabia, Montgomery, New York  (Age > 83 years)
  Married	19 Mar 1735	Stone Arabia, Montgomery, New York
  Family ID	F12159	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  The Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777 was one of the bloodiest battles in the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign. An American party trying to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by a party of Loyalists and allies of several American Indian tribes, primarily Iroquois. This was one of the few battles in which almost all of the participants were American; Patriots and allied Oneidas fought against Loyalists and allied Indians in the absence of British regular soldiers. —— He was acting captain and was shot through the head and died instantly. An eye-witness of his death, George Walker, and from his account in Stone's "Life of Brant", it was said "this officer had declared he would not to be taken alive". He probably knew the way of indians tortured prisoners taken in war. During the fighting in the ambuscade into which General Herkimer's troops were trapped, three of Johnson's Greens set on him. One of his assailants seized the captain's gun, but he suddenly wrenched it from him and felled him with the musket butt. He shot the second dead, and thrust the bayonet throught a third. He in the moment of triumph was killed by shot. A tradition in the family says that the gun that killed the captain was fired by a tory neighbor living on the farm adjoining the old homestead, and one with whom Captain Dillenbach had grown up and into whose family a daughter had married. He had previously instructed his comrades, in case he did not survive the battle, to take his silver buckles and pocketbook home to his wife. This they did after they had carried his dead body into a nearby field of tall wheat to prevent him from being found and scalped. He with others was never buried, and for months after the battle travelers detoured around the field to avoid the stench of decaying flesh. [1, 2]

  
  

• Sources

  [S96] Find a Grave, database and images, 24590504. [S76] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Oriskany.