USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 30
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eyes. His own life and that of his daughter were saved by the inter- position of a Mohawk chief .*
Thirty-two of the inhabitants of Cherry Valley, mostly women and children, were murdered ; also sixteen soldiers of the garrison there. Nearly forty men, women, and children were led away captives, march- ing down the valley that night in the cold storm, huddled together, half naked, with no shelter but the leafless trees, and no resting-place but the cold, wet ground.+ With the destruction of Cherry Valley all hostile movements ceased in Tryon County, and were not resumed until the following spring.
A few months before this event the dreadful tragedy in the Wyoming Valley occurred, in which the chief actors were Tories and Iroquois Indians from New York. That valley is a beautiful and picturesque region of Pennsylvania, lying between lofty ranges of mountains and watered by the Susquehanna River, which flows through it. Its inhab- itants were mostly from Connecticut. At the close of June (1778) Colonel John Butler, with over a thousand Tories and Indians, entered the valley from the north and made his headquarters at the house of Wintermoot, a Tory. He had been guided by some Tories of the valley, who had joined them. Butler had captured a little fort in the upper part of the valley.
* Unfortunately, Brant was not in chief command of the expedition. Walter Butler was the commander. Brant did all in his power to prevent the shedding of innocent blood. On the morning of the attack he left the Indians and endeavored to reach the families of Mr. Wells, Mr. Dunlap, and others, to give them warning, but could not do it in time. He entered dwellings to give the women warning. In one the woman engaged in household duties replied to his advice to fly to some place of safety : " I am in favor of the king, and the Indians won't hurt me."
" That plea will not save you," Brant replied.
" There is one, Joseph Brant," said the woman ; " he will protect me."
"I am Joseph Brant, but I have not the command, and I may not be able to save you," he replied.
At that moment he saw the Senecas approaching. "Get into bed quick," he said, "and feign yourself sick."
The woman did so, and so he saved her .. Then he gave a shrill signal, which rallied the Mohawks, when he directed them to paint his mark upon the woman and her children.
" You are now probably safe," said Brant, and departed.
+ Among the captives were the wife and four children of Colonel Samuel Campbell, whose house had been fortified. He was absent at the time, and on his return he found his property laid waste and his family carried into captivity. They were taken through the wilderness to Fort Niagara. They were treated kindly by the Senecas, and were held as hostages for the safety and exchange of the family of Colonel John Butler, who were then in the custody of the Committee of Safety at Albany.
293
DESOLATION OF THE WYOMING VALLEY.
The whole military force to oppose this invasion was composed of a small company of regulars and a few militia. When the alarm was given the whole population flew to arms. Aged men, boys, and even women seized such weapons as were at hand and joined the soldiery. Colonel Zebulon Butler, an officer of the Continental Army, happened to be at home, and by common consent he was made commander-in-chief of the defenders. Forty Fort, a short distance above Wilkesbarre, was the place of general rendezvous, and in it were gathered the women and children of the valley.
On July 3d Colonel Butler led his little band of patriots-citizens and soldiers-to attempt a surprise of the camp of the invaders at Winter- moot's. The latter, informed of the movement, were ready to receive them. The Tories formed the right of the line of the intruders, resting on the river ; the Indians, led by Gi-en-gwa-tah, a Seneca chief,* were on the left on a line that extended to a swamp at the foot of the moun- tain. Upon the latter the defenders struck the first blow, when a general battle ensued. For half an hour it raged furiously, when, just as the Indians were about to give way, a mistaken order caused the Republicans to retreat in much confusion. The infuriated barbarians sprang forward like wounded tigers and gave no quarter. The patriots were slaughtered by scores. Only a few of them escaped to the moun- tains and were saved. In less than an hour after the battle began two hundred and twenty-five scalps were in the hands of the Seneca braves.
Terror now reigned at Forty Fort, to which the women and children had fled. They had heard the fearful yells of triumph of the Indians. Colonel Dennison, who had reached the valley that morning, had escaped to the fort and prepared to defend its inmates to the last extremity. Colonel Zebulon Butler had reached Wilkesbarre fort in safety.
* The earlier historians of this event asserted (and believed) that Brant and the Mohawks were the chief actors in this dreadful tragedy. Brant denied it, but the testimony of history was against him. Campbell, in his poem, " Gertrude of Wyoming," published in 1809, misled by the historians, makes an Oneida chief say :
" 'Gainst Brant himself I went to battle forth ; Accursed Brant ! he left, of all my tribe, Nor man, nor child, nor thing of living birth- No! not the dog that watched my household hearth Escaped that night of blood upon the plains."
In 1823 John Brant, son of the chief, being in England, opened a correspondence with Campbell on the subject of the injustice done to his father in the poem. Partial justice was accorded in the next edition of " Gertrude of Wyoming." The poet, after noting in a note the proofs of error which had been furnished him, said : " The name of Brant, therefore, remains in my poem a pure and declared character of fiction." He did not alter the poem, however, and so it remains.
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Darkness put an end to the conflict, but increased the horrors of the scene. Prisoners were tortured and murdered. Sixteen of them were arranged around a low rock, and while held by strong men were nearly all murdered by a tomahawk and club used alternately by a half-blood woman called Queen Esther. Two of them threw off the barbarians who held them and escaped to the mountains.
On the following morning Forty Fort was surrendered. Colonel John Butler promised the inmates protection of their persons and property, and they went back to their homes ; but so soon as the Tory leader left the valley the Indians wlio lingered spread over the plain, and with torch, tomahawk, and scalping-knife soon made it an absolute desolation. Scarcely a dwelling or an ontbuilding was left uncon- sumed. Not a field of grain was left standing ; not a life was spared which the barbarians could reach. The inhabitants who had not fled during the previous night were slaughtered or nar- rowly escaped. Those who departed made their way toward Connecticut. Many perished in the great swamp on Pocono Mountains, ever since known as "The Shades of Death."
The details of the deso- INDIAN WAR IMPLEMENTS. lation of the beautiful Wy- oming Valley and of the horrors of the flight of the survivors of the massacre form one of the darkest chapters in human history. The British secretary for the colonies (Lord George Germaine) praised the barbarians for their prowess and humanity, and resolved to direct a succession of similar raids upon the frontiers, and to devastate the older American settlements. "After- ward among the extraordinaries of the army," said a bishop in the House of Lords, " was an order for scalping-knives."
Very important events outside of the State of New York occurred during the year 1778. In general interest the most important was the arrival, at the beginning of May, of the cheering news that a treaty of alliance between France and the United States had been signed at Paris
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THE BRITISHI FORCES LEAVE PENNSYLVANIA.
on February 6th. The glad tidings greatly inspirited the Americans. Almost simultaneously appeared a gleam of hope emanating from the British throne and Parliament. The general failure of the campaign of 1777, ending in the capture of Burgoyne's army, made the English people and a powerful minority in Parliament clamorous for peace. Commissioners were sent to America to attempt a settlement of the dis- pute. They were authorized to treat with Congress as a competent body ; but the conciliatory measures they were empowered to agree to did not include a proposition for the independence of the United States. Their mission was therefore a failure.
The English ministry, regarding the alliance with France as equivalent to a declaration of war on the part of that country, felt much anxiety for the safety of their army at Philadelphia and their navy on the Dela- ware River, especially when informed that the French were fitting out a fleet for American waters. Orders were sent to Howe to evacuate Phila- delphia, and to his brother (the admiral) to leave the Delaware and pro- ceed to New York. The land and naval forces were ordered to concen- trate there. The French Government sent twelve ships of the line and four frigates, under the Count d'Estaing, to blockade the British fleet on the Delaware. The latter had escaped to sea a few days before the arrival of D'Estaing at the mouth of that river, and found safety on the waters of Amboy er Raritan Bay, into which the heavy French vessels could not enter.
General Sir Henry Clinton had succeeded General Sir William Howe in command of the army at Philadelphia when the order came for the evacuation of that city. He instantly obeyed the order, and on June 18th (1778) passed the Delaware with eleven thousand troops, and attempted a flight across New Jersey to New York by way of New Brunswick and Amboy. His design was frustrated by Washington, who left Valley Forge with a renovated army stronger in numbers than that of his foe, crossed the Delaware, and compelled Clinton to turn his face toward Sandy Hook.
Washington pushed on vigorously in pursuit of the fugitive army. He overtook the British near Monmouth Court-House, and there a sanguinary battle was fought on Sunday, June 28th-an exceedingly hot day. Darkness ended the conflict without any decisive result. The Americans slept on their arms, determined to renew the struggle the next morning ; but Clinton stole away silently in the darkness at mid- night unobserved by the wearied Americans, reached Sandy Hook in safety, and proceeded to New York by water. Washington did not pursue. He marched to the Hudson River, crossed into Westchester
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County, remained there until the autumn, and then recrossed into New Jersey, and made his winter quarters at Middlebrook, on the Raritan. Clinton lost about six hundred men by desertion during his flight across New Jersey.
At this time the British were in possession of Rhode Island. At the request of Washington, D'Estaing proceeded to Newport to assist Gen- erals Sullivan and Lafayette in driving them from the island. On the arrival of the fleet the Americans crossed over from the main to Rhode Island and pressed on toward the British camp. At that moment Howe, with a strongly re-enforced fleet, appeared. D'Estaing went out to meet him. A terrible storm dispersed and shattered both fleets. The French vessels hastened to Boston for repairs, leaving the Americans, who had been promised four thousand troops from the Gallic ships, in a perilous situation. They fell back to the northern end of the island pursued by the British. A severe battle was fought upon Quaker Hill (August 29th), in which the Americans were victorious. The next morning the latter withdrew to the main, leaving the British still in possession of Rhode Island ; but they were in the real position of prisoners. Such also was their position at New York until D'Estaing sailed for the West Indies late in the autumn, when Sir Henry Clinton sent two thousand troops, under Colonel Campbell, to invade Georgia, then the weakest member of the Confederacy. After some resistance the British took possession of Savannah, and it became the headquarters of the British army in the South for some time.
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BRITISH EXPEDITION UP THE HUDSON.
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CHAPTER XXI.
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SIR HENRY CLINTON * was in command of a force of over sixteen thousand men in the spring of 1779, yet his instructions confined him to a predatory warfare upon the coasts. In May a squadron commanded by Sir George Collier conveyed transports and galleys bearing twenty- five hundred troops, under General Matthews, to the waters in South- eastern Virginia. The commanders sent out parties against Norfolk and other places on the Elizabeth River and the neighborhood, to seize or destroy an immense quantity of naval and military stores and other prop- erty gathered there. That whole region was ravaged and made a scene of plunder and conflagration. Soon afterward these forces appeared at New York to join Sir Henry Clinton in an expedition up the Hudson River.
After the capture of Forts Clinton and Montgomery in the Highlands, West Point and Constitution Island opposite were strengthened by forti- fications, and forts were erected upon Stony Point and Verplanck's Point opposite, a few miles below the Highlands. Fort Fayette, upon Verplanck's Point, was completed in the early summer of 1779, but that on Stony Point was then unfinished. These forts were to serve the double purpose of protecting the King's Ferry, on the Hudson, the most direct and convenient communication between the Eastern and Middle States, and of disputing the passage of British vessels through the High- lands.
At the close of May, Collier's vessels, seventy in number, great and small (and one hundred and fifty flat-boats), bore Sir Henry Clinton and a land force, under General Vanghan, up the Hudson, to attempt the capture of the two posts last mentioned. The troops were landed before dawn on May 31st, a part of them, under Vaughan, a few miles below Verplanck's Point, and the remainder, led by the baronet, a little below Stony Point. The handful of men at the latter place set fire to the
* Sir Henry Clinton was a son of Admiral Sir George Clinton, colonial Governor of New York, and born in 1738. He died in 1795. He entered the army when quite young, and rose to the rank of major-general in 1775, when he was sent to America with Howe and Burgoyne. He was active during the war with the American colonies until 1782, when he returned to England. He had succeeded Sir William Howe as com- mander-in-chief of the British forces in America in 1778.
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block-house there, abandoned the unfinished fort, and fled to the monn- tains. Heavy artillery was dragged to the crest of the rocky promontory and turned upon Fort Fayette, while Vaughan's troops and the vessels joined in an attack upon that post. The little garrison of seventy men were compelled to surrender. Sir Henry garrisoned both posts, and pro- ceeded to finish, arm, and man the fort at Stony Point.
Meanwhile Washington, believing Sir Henry's object to be the seizure of the Highland forts, had advanced his army toward the river moun- tains, and made his headquarters at New Windsor, above the Highlands. This movement checked Sir Henry's designs. He soon returned to New York, and sent Collier's vessels on a maranding expedition to the shores of Connecticut. They bore about twenty-five hundred British and Ilessian (as the Germans were called) marauders, commanded by ex- Governor Tryon, who seemed to find the errand congenial to his nature He made the Hessians his incendiaries and executors of his most cruel work.
The expedition left New York on the night of July 3d (1779), and in the space of a week laid waste and carried away a vast amount of private property, and cruelly abused the inhabitants. They plundered New Haven on the 5th ; laid East Haven in ashes on the 6th ; destroyed Fairfield by fire on the 8th, and plundered and burned Norwalk on the 12th. The soldiers were given free license to abuse and oppress the defenceless inhabitants. While Norwalk was in flames Tryon sat in a rocking-chair upon a hill in the neighborhood, a delighted spectator of the ruin wrought by his orders. In allusion to this and kindred expedi- tions Trumbull, in his " McFingal," makes Malcolm say :
" Behold ! like whelp of British lion, Our warriors, Clinton, Vaughan, and Tryon, March forth with patriotic joy To ravish, plunder, and destroy. Great generals, foremost in their nation,
The journeymen of Desolation, Like Samson's foxes, each assails, Let loose with firebrands in their tails, And spread destruction more forlorn Than they among Philistines' corn."
The British finished, armed, and garrisoned the fort on Stony Point early in July. The Americans resolved to capture it. The impetuous General Wayne " was then in command of some infantry in the High-
# Anthony Wayne was born in Chester County, Penn., January 1st, 1745 ; died at Presque Isle (now Erie), Penn., December 15th, 1796. His father was commander of a
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THE AMERICANS CAPTURE STONY POINT.
lands. He proposed to surprise the garrison and take the fort by storm. "Can you do it ?" asked Washington.
" I'll storm hell if you'll plan it," said Wayne.
Washington gave him permission to undertake Stony Point first. Leading a few hundred men secretly through a mountain pass, Wayne was within half a mile of the rocky promontory on the evening of July 15th. They stealthily approached the only accessible way to the fort, across a marshy strait by a narrow causeway in the rear. They reached that point at midnight. After pass- ing the causeway the little force was divided into two columns to make the attack at different points. With loaded muskets and fixed bayonets ni they marched up to the attack, pre- ceded by a " forlorn hope" of picked men to make openings in an abatis at designated points of assault.
The assailants had nearly reached the abutis before they were discov- ered. The. alamined sentinels fired GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE. their muskets, when the startled garrison flew to arms. The stillness of that hot summer night was snd- denly broken by the rattle of musketry and the roar of cannons from the ramparts. In the face of a terrible tempest of bullets and grape-shot the assailants forced their way into the fort at the point of the bayonet. Wayne, who led one of the divisions in person, had been brought to his knees by a stunning blow from a musket-ball that grazed his head.
squadron of dragoons under William III. of England at the battle of the Boyne. After his marriage Anthony became a farmer and a surveyor. He was a member of the Penn- sylvania Legislature in 1774-75 ; became a colonel in the Continental army in 1776 ; went with his regiment to Canada in that year ; was wounded in battle, and early in 1777 was commissioned a brigadier. He was in the battle of Brandywine, September 11th, 1776, and a few nights afterward his camp, near the Paoli Tavern, on the road between Phila- delphia and Lancaster, was assailed by a British force, and many of his men were slain. He was in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth, and he captured Stony Point, on the Hudson, in July, 1779. Wayne did admirable service in the Southern States during the remainder of the war. In 1792 he became general-in-chief of the armies of the United States. He brought the Indians in the North-west to peaceful relations, and was stationed at Presque Isle at the time of his death. Brave almost to rashness, he received the title of " Mad Anthony."
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Believing himself mortally wounded, he exclaimed : "March on ! Carry me into the fort, for I will dic at the head of my column." He soon recovered, and at two o'clock in the morning he wrote to Wash- ington :
" The fort and garrison, with General Johnston, are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men determined to be free." Wayne also wrote in a subsequent despatch : " The humanity of our brave soldiers,
Stoney Point 16 th July VING Dear Gene 20Plocka.m
Te fort than -
li Hohoustonam very our
sven behaved like men who are determined to the frece Jours most Sincerely Gent WorkingTor &
FAC-SIMILE OF WAYNE'S DESPATCH.
who scorned to take the lives of a vanquished foe when calling for mercy, reflects the highest honor on them, and accounts for the few of the enemy killed on the occasion."
Johnston, the commander of the fort, and five hundred and forty- three men were made prisoners. He had sixty-three killed. The Americans lost one hundred men killed and wounded. The British shipping lying in the river near by slipped their cables and moved down the stream. The Americans attempted to capture Fort Fayette, but
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WAR WITH THE INDIANS IN THE INTERIOR.
failed. Unable to hold and garrison the fort in Stony Point, they removed the heavy ordnance and stores to West Point and abandoned the post. The British repossessed it a few days afterward.
The terrible atrocities of bands of the Six Nations in 1778 around the head-waters of the Susquehanna and their vicinity and in the valley of Wyoming impelled the Americans to the exercise of vengeance against them in the most effectual manner. All of these nations, excepting the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, had been won over to the side of the crown by British emissaries among them, employed by the Johnson family, and the task of chastising them would be hard and perilous. A question of life or death of the frontier settlements was involved, and the people did not hesitate. They cheerfully joined in an expedition to penetrate the heart of the Iroquois country, for the purpose of spreading desolation with fire and sword, and conquering and securing peace by the force of terror.
In the spring of 1779 some preliminary movements to this end were undertaken. The first was against the Onondagas. Between five and six hundred troops, led by Colonels Goose Van Schaick and Marinus Willett, left Fort Schuyler on April 19th, and penetrated the heart of the Onondaga nation south of (present) Syracuse. They took the bar- barians by surprise, destroyed three of their villages, burned their pro- visions, and slaughtered their live-stock. It was an unfortunate expedi- tion, for it exasperated the Indians and did not spread terror among them, as was anticipated. Three hundred Onondaga braves were imme- diately sent ont upon the war-path charged with the vengeance of the nation. They spread terror and desolation far and near in conjunction with other members of the Confederacy. They pushed southward to the waters of the Delaware and the borders of Ulster County.
On the night of July 19th, Brant, with sixty Mohawks and a band of Tories disguised as Indians, fell upon the settlement of Minisink, on the Neversink River, in the western part of Orange County, at the foot of the Shawangunk Mountains. They destroyed the growing crops, burned the church and ten houses, mills, and barns in the neighborhood, and retired with considerable plunder without attempting further violence.
When Colonel Tusten, at Goshen, heard of this raid he hastened with one hundred and fifty men (many of them volunteers) to the scene of desolation. They held a council, when it was concluded to pursue the marauders. Colonel Hathorn had arrived with a few recruits, and took command of the pursning party. They overtook the main body of them near the mouth of Lackawaxen Creek (July 22d), when Brant by a quick movement threw his force in Hathorn's rear, placing the republicans in an ambush. More than fifty men were separated from the main body,
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leaving the remainder to sustain the shock of a furious attack. A severe confliet ensued, lasting from eleven o'clock in the morning until sunset. The republicans were beaten, and were murdered after they were made prisoners. Only thirty of the nearly three hundred pursuers survived to tell the sad story of the massa- cre. Forty-three years af- terward the citizens of Orange County caused the bones of the slain to be gathered and buried near the centre of the Green in the village of Goshen, and over them a neat white marble monument was erected, bearing the names of the slain. A more elegant monument commemorative of the event was erected by order of the supervisors of Orange County in 1862. It was the gift of the late Dr. MONUMENT AT GOSHEN. M. H. Cash.
A more powerful instru- ment for the chastisement of the offending Iroquois was formed in the summer of 1779. General Washington placed General John Sullivan *
* John Sullivan was born at Berwick, Me., February 17th, 1740 ; died at Durham, N. H., January 23d, 1795. He was a lawyer, a member of the first Continental Congress, and in December, 1774, with John Langdon, led a patriot force against Fort William and Mary, at Portsmouth, N. H., and took from it one hundred barrels of gunpowder, fifteen cannons, many small-arms and stores. In June, 1775, Sullivan was appointed one of the four brigadier-generals of the Continental army ; commanded a portion of the troops that besieged Boston, and after the evacuation, in the spring of 1776, he went with troops to re-enforce the patriot army in Canada. On the death of General Thomas there he took the command of the army ; skilfully effected a retreat from that province ; was made prisoner in the battle on Long Island in August ; was exchanged, and joined Washington in Westchester County ; did good service in the battles at Trenton and Princeton, at Brandywine and Germantown, and in Rhode Island. After his expedition against the Indians in the State of New York he left the army on account of shattered health, and took a seat in Congress late in 1780. He was attorney-general of New Hampshire from 1782 to 1786, and president of that commonwealth from 1786 to 1789. From the latter date until his death he was United States Judge of New Hampshire.
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