By DAVID HULSE

MINISINK FORD - Next week ceremonies in New York and Pennsylvania will mark the 221st anniversary of what one historian called "one the hardest fought battles" of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Minisink.

Sullivan County's Battleground Park today occupies the location where historians say a party of Orange County and New Jersey militia in pursuit of raiders led by Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant were themselves ambushed, divided and killed almost to the last man.

Some say Brant was on a pure terrorism raid, other say he was foraging for supplies when on July 20, 1779 he raided settlements in and around present day Port Jervis. The raids, by Brant's own accounts destroyed much property, but were largely ineffective against the population due to the forts protecting the settlers.

Leading some 85 Indians and Tory sympathizers Brant withdrew up the Delaware into the "howling wilderness," according to Brant biographer Isabel Thompson Kelsay. "There was not a wilder, lonelier place on the whole frontier, a place where wolves gathered by night, but men were seldom seen," she wrote.

In pursuit came some 120 New York and New Jersey militia led by Colonel John Hathorn and Lt. Col. Benjamin Tusten. After a two-day pursuit they spotted Brant's column and in trying to set up an ambush, were themselves ambushed. About 40 of the militia party were separated from the rest and some of the remaining militia fled.

The day-long July 22 battle in wooded highlands was fought Indian style and without quarter. The only militia survivor falsely gave Brant a Masonic distress signal and was spared. Tusten died. Hathorn was wounded and escaped. Brant reportedly lost about ten men in the engagement.

No one returned for the bodies of the militia dead for more than 40 years.

In 1822 an Orange County party recovered some bones, which were returned to a monument in Goshen. Other bones found later came to rest in a now unmarked grave in the old Congregational Church yard in Barryville.

One soldier's body found near the Delaware was interred in Scenic Drive in Lackawaxen in what has become known as the Grave of the Unknown Soldier of the Revolution.

Saturday's commemorative ceremonies will begin in Lackawaxen at 1:30 p.m., with ceremonies on Scenic Drive.

New York ceremonies, which will be addressed by retired Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Williams, are scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at the Battleground in Minisink Ford. Between the ceremonies, starting at 2:15 p.m., National Park Service historian Mary Curtis will be at the park offering an interpretive program on the battle. The day ends with a "bring your own" picnic supper at the Zane Grey Museum in Lackawaxen at 4:00 p.m.