Barry St. Leger. General Herkimer ordered Tryon County militia to assemble at Fort Dayton to go to the aid of Colonel Peter Gansevoort at Fort Stanwix. G.F. Helmer and Adam Helmer's brother Johan Fredrich Helmer, as part of the Tryon County militia were called up. Herkimer sent three scouts, Captain Hans Mark Demuth, Hans Yost Folts, and Lieutenant Adam Helmer to Fort Stanwix to relay the news to Colonel Gansevoort. Pressured by his subordinate commanders on August 6, General Herkimer reluctantly and prematurely set out to attack St. Leger's army. While passing through a ravine, they were ambushed by British regulars, Tories, and Indians under the command of Joseph Brant and John Butler, thus starting what would become known as the Battle of Oriskany, Adam Helmer lost his brother, Capt. Johann Friedrich Helmer, in the battle and another, Lt. George Frederick Helmer II, was seriously wounded. Helmer, the fittest of the three scouts, reached Fort Stanwix with the message ahead of the other two, having traversed swampy terrain and floated down river when a severe storm flooded his route. News of the Oriskany battle arrived shortly after Helmer's did, and Ganesvoort ordered an attack on the British encampments. Some combination of the weather and Gansevoort's attack contributed to the retreat of the British from the Oriskany battlefield back to their camps surrounding the fort. In any case, Herkimer's troops were able to escape to await reinforcements. Herkimer himself was wounded in the fight, returned to his home and died soon after. Gansevoort refused to submit to the siege, and the British withdrew from the area with the news that Benedict Arnold had arrived at Fort Dayton with reinforcements. Adam Helmer's run In September 1778, Lt. Helmer and eight scouts under his command were sent to the Unadilla River Valley to spy on Joseph Brant's company of Indians and Tories who were encamped at Unadilla near the confluence of the Unadilla and Susquehanna Rivers. It was feared that Brant would send a raiding party north to the Mohawk Valley during the harvest season to forcefully obtain stores for the winter ahead. When Helmer's scouts reached Edmeston Manor, the farm of Percifer Carr, just north of what is now South Edmeston, they were attacked by a large group of Brant's men, apparently part of the feared raiding party on its way north. Several of the scouts were killed, but Helmer managed to