The Battle of Cobleskill was an American Revolutionary War raid on the frontier settlement of Cobleskill, New York on May 30, 1778. The battle took place in what is now the hamlet of Warnerville, New York, near the modern Cobleskill-Richmondville High School. The raid marked the beginning of a phase in which Loyalists and Haudenosaunee, encouraged and supplied by British authorities in the Province of Quebec, attacked and destroyed numerous villages on what was then the western frontier of New York and Pennsylvania.
A small party of Haudenosaunee entered Cobleskill and drew the local defenders into a trap set by a much larger party of Haudenosaunee and Loyalists under the command of Joseph Brant. After killing a number of the regulars and militia, and driving off the remainder, Brant's forces destroyed much of the settlement. Months later, regulars and militia commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William Butler retaliated against Brant's actions against Cobleskill and other communities by destroying two Haudenosaunee villages on the Susquehanna River. A year later, Continental Army forces razed 40 Haudenosaunee villages during the Sullivan Expedition.
Following the Battles of Saratoga and the failure of the campaign of British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne to gain control of the Hudson River valley, the Revolutionary War in upstate New York became a frontier war. British leaders in the Province of Quebec supported Loyalist and Native American partisan fighters with supplies and armaments. During the winter of 1777–78, Mohawk war leader Joseph Brant and Seneca war chief Sayenqueraghta developed plans to attack frontier settlements in New York and Pennsylvania. In February 1778, Brant established a base of operations at Onaquaga near present-day Windsor, New York. By the time he began his campaign in May 1778, he had recruited a mix of Haudenosaunee and Loyalist volunteers estimated to number between two and three hundred. One of his objectives was to acquire provisions for his forces and those of Major John Butler, who was planning an attack on the Wyoming Valley.
In 1778, the settlement of Cobleskill consisted of twenty families living on farms spread out along Cobleskill Creek. It was part of the Schoharie area which was a significant source of food for the Patriot war effort. Its principal defense was the small local militia under Captain Christian Brown. When attacks by the Haudenosaunee were rumored to be coming in the spring of 1778, the militia appealed for additional support. Continental Army Colonel Ichabod Alden sent a company of thirty to forty men from his 7th Massachusetts Regiment under Captain William Patrick to reinforce the militia.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) grew from colonial resistance to British taxation without parliamentary representation — a dispute that radicalized through the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), and the Boston Massacre (1770). Fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775; the Continental Congress declared independence on July 4, 1776. The Continental Army under George Washington faced severe shortages of supplies and troops, enduring the brutal winter at Valley Forge (1777–1778) before French alliance and French financing turned the military balance. Major engagements included Bunker Hill (1775), Trenton (1776), Saratoga (1777) — which secured French intervention — and Yorktown (1781), where British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. An estimated 25,000 American soldiers died in service, from combat, disease, and captivity. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded British territory east of the Mississippi, though it left unresolved questions about Indigenous land rights and the status of Loyalists.
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