[1] On July 9, 1781 Doxtader commanded a force of five hundred Indians and Loyalists in an attack on the frontier settlement of Currytown, in the present-day town of Root, Montgomery County, New York.
When they arrived about ten o'clock in the morning, "Rudolph Keller, Henry Lewis and Conrad Enders (Antes) were the only men in the fort.
The Indians plundered and burnt all the buildings in the settlement, a dozen or more in number, except the house of David Lewis[3]The invaders were driven out by forces commanded by Colonel Marinus Willet.
The moment the battle commenced, the prisoners, who were bound to standing trees for security, were tomahawked and scalped by their captors, and left as dead.
Fortunately, however, the graves were superficial, and the covering slight-a circumstance which enabled Jacob Diefendorff, who, though stunned and apparently dead, was yet alive, to disentomb himself.
A detachment of militia, under Colonel Veeder, having repaired to the field of action after Willett had returned to Fort Rensselaer, discovered the supposed deceased on the outside of his own grave; and he has lived to furnish the author of the present work with an account of his own burial and resurrection.