The battle was a decisive Iroquois and Loyalist victory, as the Patriot militia was hastily assembled, ill-equipped and inexperienced.

Although British forces in the Northern Theater were largely concentrated in and near New York, Joseph Brant, a Mohawk war leader, had travelled to the upper Delaware Valley with his Loyalist and Indigenous volunteers to gather intelligence, seize cattle, and possibly disrupt American plans for an expedition against the Iroquois.

[1] In February 1779, Brigadier General Kazimierz Pulaski's infantry had been reassigned to the Southern Theater, leaving the upper Delaware River valley largely undefended.

[2] When Brant's force of 60 Iroquois and 27 Loyalists disguised as native warriors approached the settlement around noon on July 20, many of the settlers fled to the main fort.

[2] On the morning of July 22, the militia moved into position on a hill to the east of the confluence of the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers, intending to ambush Brant's forces as they crossed the Minisink Ford.

After several hours of exchanging shots, ammunition began to run low, and the battle devolved into hand-to-hand combat.

Several weeks later at the Battle of Newtown, Brant and his volunteers, along with Butler's Rangers and several hundred Seneca and Cayuga warriors were brushed aside by Major General John Sullivan and his 3200 Continental Army soldiers.

[3] The inhabitants of the Precinct of Goshen (which preceded the forming of towns in Orange County) were unable to bury their dead for 43 years as the battlefield was too remote.