a.k.a. V.J.

A couple weeks ago, I traveled to the Oriskany battlefield and Fort Stanwix. I didn’t know it at the time, but an interesting prelude to the Oriskany battle unfolded at a place called Mexico Point, just 15 miles from my home.

The story goes that there was a patriot spy named Silas Towne who was monitoring British troop activity along the St. Lawrence River. Towne discovered Gen. St. Leger’s British Army force that was camped on the beach at Mexico Point. Towne skulked around in the wilderness on an island where St. Leger was deliberating on how to approach his objective — the strategic patriot stronghold at Fort Stanwix. St. Leger wanted to take an overland route directly from his current position. His officers convinced him to, instead, head west to Oswego and pick up some reinforcements, including the formidable Mohawk chief Joseph Brant. From there, they could take the easier water route to Stanwix. St. Leger agreed to that idea, and Silas Towne had overheard the whole exchange.

According to the story, Towne rushed through the wilderness to Fort Stanwix and warned the garrison there that the force of redcoats and their Indian allies were coming to attack. A few weeks later, the Battle of Oriskany took place and the British siege of Fort Stanwix ultimately failed. That led to St. Leger never meeting up with Gen. Burgoyne, as the British grand strategy called for. There’s no way to know if Burgoyne still would have experienced his crushing, war-altering defeat at Saratoga if his force had been bolstered by St. Leger’s troops, but one has to believe that Gentleman Johnny’s chances would have improved if St. Leger had made it through. In that sense, Silas Towne sneaking around the Lake Ontario shoreline at Mexico Point one fateful night in 1777 might have dramatically altered the course of American history.

The Silas Towne story doesn’t have a lot of documentation to back it up. It seems the details have been passed down through his family’s history and local lore. Towne was, after all, a spy, so if it really did go down like that, it’s not like there would have been an official written record of it. Whatever really happened that night on what came to be known as Spy Island, Towne did settle on the spot of his espionage after the war, lived there until his death in 1806, and is now buried there. Spy Island is now part of Mexico Point Park, and the site of a monument to Silas Towne.

Jen and I visited the park a couple weeks ago to explore around and pay our respects to the local patriot hero. I had never been to Mexico Point before, but Jen frequently used the park as a backdrop for senior portraits back during her professional photographer days. The photos below, which document our excursion, were all taken by her.