Colonel Gansevoort Takes Command of Fort Stanwix

This chapter explores how Colonel Peter Gansevoort took command of Fort Stanwix. As May broke, Major Robert Cochran's detachment settled in at Fort Stanwix while the frustrated Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett kept anticipating orders to bring on his men, most of the regiment, to the fort to join with Major Cochran, Captain Aaron Aorson, and Colonel Gansevoort. While he waited, Willett continued recruiting, training his recruits, and performing garrison duty. Service in the Fort Stanwix garrison included frequent contact with Oneidas and other members of the Haudenosaunee nations. Although building the fort had been sold to the Oneidas as a benefit to them as a trading post, Gansevoort ordered the entire garrison to parade the evening of May 7 to hear a strict order from General Horatio Gates totally prohibiting any person associated with the army, and all local inhabitants, from trading with the Indians. Meanwhile, fifteen days after leaving Fort Constitution and completing a slow trip along the Mohawk River with heavily laden bateaux, the companies under Willett finally arrived at Fort Stanwix.