Only two Revolutionary War battles took place within what would become Delaware County. The battle of Downs Brook or Wilson’s Flats began on September 9th, 1778. After John Graham and his militia were ambushed with most men killed on the Sun Trail by Lt. Ben Shanks, Captain Samuel Clark with 52 Independent Company of Ulster County militia were sent to try to capture Shanks and his warriors. “He made his way by the East Branch of the Delaware by following the same trail the Indians had just taken after massacring Col. Graham and his doomed troops. After reaching the Pawpachton across from the inlet of the Tremper Kill, he was informed of an Indian encampment along Downs Brook, a short distance up today’s Knox Ave. in the village of Downsville. Captain Clark quietly led his men up Coles Brook and over the notch into the upper valley of Bull Run and Downs Brook, then descended the creek and fell upon the rear of Ben Shank’s unsuspecting Indians. Around five o’clock on the afternoon of September 9th, the battle of Downs Brook or Wilson’s Flat began with a flurry of rifle fire from the steep forested slopes along the east side of the brook flats. The combatants continued to hide and fire upon each other from behind trees and rocks until darkness ended the three-hour firefight. At dawn, Clark’s men found the Indians had slipped away during the night, leaving behind. the bodies of five or six of their fallen warriors. The militiamen buried the Indians alongside an equal number of their own fallen brothers before returning to Fort Lackawack, back along the same trail they’d taken to the East Branch.” Pioneer Homesteaders of the Western Catskills 1764-1797 by J. L. Miller. If you are interested in the early history of the Western Catskills, this book by J.L. Miller is available at the Delaware County Historical Association bookstore. https://www.dcha-ny.org/books.html
The Sun Trail mentioned above, ran from the Indian village of Oquaga on the
Susquehanna River near the present city of Binghamton, to Kingston, on the
Hudson River. It was called the Sun Trail by the Indians who so named it because it
went from the setting to the rising sun (West to East). It was the principal route of
the Leni Lenapes of the Sophus tribe who lived at Oquago who famed the river
valley of the upper Roundout Creek. In the East, it started at Warwarsing and
followed Westward up the Rondout Kill through Grahamsville, over Wyman Hill,
across the Neversink at Halls Mills and westward through the Willowemoc to
Brown’s Settlement, where it crossed Mongaup Creek, continuing across the width
of Onteora to the Beaverkill where it joins Shin Creek at Lew Beach.
Colchester Historical Society 