USA > New York > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 23
USA > Pennsylvania > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
September 17th, Fort Dayton successfully resisted an attack, but the houses at German Flats were burned. On the south side of the Mohawk, the depredations began six miles above Fort Herkimer. In this raid, the Indians burned sixty-three houses, fifty-seven barns, three gristmills, one sawmill and all the grain and fodder. They took away two hundred thirty-five horses, two hundred twenty-nine cattle, two hundred sixty-nine sheep and a large number of swine.3
Colonel William Butler, with a Pennsylvania regiment, had been stationed at Schoharie; and early in October he marched to Unadilla.
194
which he found deserted. Thence he went to Oquaga, which was also abandoned. In his report, he said :
"It was the finest Indian town, I ever saw; on both sides of the river, there were forty good houses, square logs, shingles and stone chimneys, good floors and glass windows."
The place was burned and Butler returned with the loss of only a man or two.
In early November, the Indians raided the house of Peter Hansen at Tribes Hill. They took him and his servant prisoners, but released his wife and children. It was reported five men were captured on Lake George, and that four or five hundred of the enemy were seen near Crown Point.4
Late in March, Cherry Valley appealed for protection to Lafayette, who commanded in that region, and by his order a fort was built there. Many of the settlers as far south as Unadilla fled to Cherry Valley for safety. The young boys, there, organized themselves into a military com- pany and were drilling with wooden guns, one morning, when Brant, con- templating an attack, approached. He being far away was unable to dis- tinguish that it was only a company of boys, and it is said, he observed : "Colonel Campbell has got his house well guarded, I perceive." He de- camped, but while secreted in the woods, the Indians shot and wounded Lieutenant Wormwood, who was going from Cherry Valley to the Mohawk. Brant ran out of the brush and tomahawked and scalped Worm- wood, although before the war, they had been friends.5
A friendly Oneida Indian reported at Fort Schuyler, that a force, of Tories and Indians at Tioga Point, were preparing for the destruction of Cherry Valley and this warning was sent to Colonel Ichabod Alden, who commanded the New England regiment, which had been stationed at Cherry Valley. He immediately sent out, in all directions, scouting parties, but those sent southward, at night foolishly lit a campfire, went to sleep and got captured. From them, the enemy learned, that the principal officers of the garrison stayed at various private houses. Their capture deprived Alden of any information of the whereabouts of the invaders, whose force consisted of some two hundred rangers and five hundred Indians com- manded by Walter Butler and Joseph Brant, between whom, it was said, there was not the best of feeling.
The fort at Cherry Valley occupied a part of the present cemetery, the road and some of the land adjacent thereto. About a quarter of a mile southwest on a little hill was the dwelling house of Robert Welles, where Colonel Alden and Lieutenant Colonel Stacey were staying. Southwest at a considerable distance on a high hill, the summit of which was covered with evergreens, the Tories and Indians camped the night of November 10th, 1778, and early the next morning moved down the valley. A man, named Hamble, riding from the lower settlements to the fort, was waylaid and wounded by ambushed Indians, but he kept to his saddle and galloped to the Welles house and warned Alden. Thence he made his way to the
195
fort and gave the alarm, but it was too late for the inhabitants to reach it from their widely scattered houses.
Colonel Alden ran down the hill towards the fort, and near the foot of it, he was tomahawked and scalped by an Indian who had concealed him- self in the brush. Colonel Stacey was captured. Mr. Welles, his wife, mother, four children, brother John and sister Jane were killed and scalped. The latter ran and hid in the woodpile, but was discovered and seized by an Indian. A Tory, Peter Smith, who had formerly worked for the Welles family, interceded for her, claiming she was his sister, but the savage threatened him and drove him back with brandished hatchet. Then the Indian: struck Jane in the skull with his tomahawk.
Hamble's warning gave the garrison time to close the gates of the fort and prepare for defense. It was attacked on all sides for three and a half hours, when the assailants desisted; but they renewed the attack, the next day and were again repulsed. Dividing themselves into small bands, the Tories and Indians burned the farm buildings and murdered the inhabitants.
The house of Rev. Samuel Dunlop, the venerable pastor was sur- rounded and his wife killed. The aged man was taken from the house by an Indian, but Little Aaron, an Oquaga chief interceded and took Mr. Dunlop under his protection and he escaped all injury except exposure. But due to his terrible experience, his health was shattered and he died within a year.
A Mr. Mitchell, at work in his field, saw the Indians approach his house. He fled and secreted himself in the woods. They set fire to the house, but after they had gone, he succeeded in extinguishing the flames. His wife and three of his children had been killed, but a little ten year old girl was still alive. He placed the wounded child in the doorway, and observing another band approaching, hid behind a log, from where he saw a Tory named Newberry tomahawk the dying child. Newberry was subse- quently captured and executed for the crime. The next day, Mitchell took the bodies of his family on a sled to the fort, where the soldiers assisted him in interring them in a common grave.
The wife of Colonel Clyde and her children fled to the woods and concealed themselves behind a log. "It was a cold rainy day, and the storm continued through the night. She could hear the yells of the savages, as they triumphed in their work of death; several of them passed near where she lay, and one so near, that the butt of his gun trailed upon the log, which covered her." In the morning, her husband who had been in the fort. with a party of soldiers, rescued his family.
Thirty-two of the inhabitants, principally women and children and sixteen soldiers were killed. The place, when the enemy left, presented a terrible scene with corpses mangled and scalped, some with heads, legs or arms cut off and others with the flesh torn from the bones. An effort has been made to mitigate the offense of Joseph Brant and cast the odium on Walter Butler; and to that end stories have been told indicating the humanity of Brant. It is probable both were responsible for that days mis-
196
deeds. Brant with his veneer of civilization was still an Indian and Walter Butler was a civilized demon.
Seventy-one had been made prisoners, and these were taken down the valley and spent the night in wretchedness and terror; but, in the morning of the second day, most of the women and children were released and returned to the fort. However, the wife of Colonel Samuel Campbell and four children, together with Mrs. Moore and her children were retained, because their husbands were leading Whigs. The Indians with their prisoners went down the Susquehanna to Tioga Point and thence by Seneca Lake to the Indian town of Kanadasego, where the prisoners were distributed among Indian families.
The troops were kept at Cherry Valley until the following summer, when the fort was abandoned.5
NOTES-CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
1. Simm's History of Schoharie 273 to 277; Clinton Papers, III, 377, 402, 413.
2. Clinton Papers III, 404, 407, 415, 450, 475, 555, 559, 632, 633, 678, 679, 696,
697; IV 48.
3. Ibid, IV, 48, 49.
4. Ibid, 223, 225, 227, 228, 254, 266.
5. Campbell's Annals of Tryon County; Halsey, Old New York Frontier ; Clinton Papers, IV, 284, 286, 290.
197
CHAPTER THIRTY
THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION
The Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres aroused the American people and February 27, 1779, Congress authorized Washington to take effectual measures for the protection of the inhabitants and the chastise- ment of the Indians. The first retaliation was the invasion, in April, of Onondaga, by Colonels Van Schaick and Willet with five hundred men. Twelve Indians were killed, thirty-four prisoners taken, about fifty houses burned and a large amount of corn and beans destroyed.1
Rumors of an intended expedition against them actuated the Tories and Indians to renewed activities. In April, the Indians burned Lackaway and houses within thirteen miles of the Delaware river. An attack was made near Fort Dayton, in May, and five persons killed and one cap- tured. A little later, two persons were taken near Sharon Center. Joseph Brant with a hundred Tories and Indians ravaged the settlements in the Neversink valley, July 19th and 20th. A number were killed, prisoners taken, eleven houses, the old Dutch church and many barns were burned.2
The militia assembled at Goshen, under Colonel Tusten and they were joined by the Warwick regiment commanded by Colonel Hathorn. Although these prudent leaders opposed it, Major Meeker urged immediate pursuit of the enemy and like most rash and impetuous leaders prevailed. They advanced a few miles, when they came upon the Indian encamp- ment of the night before, which indicated the superiority of the enemy. Hathorn and Tusten again opposed pursuit but were overruled. Meanwhile, Brant rejoined his larger force left on the Delaware, and was marching for the fords of the river, just above the mouth of the Lackawaxen. The Americans discovered his purpose and hastened forward to intercept him. Captain Bezaleel Tyler, one of the first settlers at Cushietunk, and familiar with the locality was sent ahead, as a scout, and was killed by a concealed Indian. The road, near Lackawaxen, on the New York side over which the Americans were marching, ran close to the bank of the river and was encompassed on the east by a steep, and then, as now, wooded hill. Brant concealed his warriors in the woods of this hill, above and in the rear of the American line of march, which when its advance reached a point below the ford, was attacked. The situation, of the surprised Americans hemmed in by the Indians and the river and with a greatly extended line, was
198
precarious. Assailants and assailed sought the protection of the trees and the Battle of Lackawaxen became a hand to hand struggle. It began about 11 o'clock and continued during the afternoon, when the Americans were completely overpowered. Forty-four were killed and those who escaped did so by crossing the river. After the battle, Brant continued his march unmolested.3
Inspired by the hope of averting the invasion of their country, the Indians invaded the West Branch valley. While returning to his fort at Muncy with supplies, Captain John Brady, as they crossed a small ravine, remarked to his companion, Smith: "This would be a good place for the Indians to secrete themselves." Instantly, three rifles cracked and Brady fell from his horse. Smith escaped and reached the fort. The relief party found the famous frontiersman dead and scalped.4
The depredations continued ;5 and it was rumored a large force was descending the valley. Robert Covenhoven, the scout was sent up the river to ascertain the situation. The intrepid man succeeded in exploring the camp, at the mouth of Lycoming creek, of the enemy, who were in large numbers. After a perilous journey, he reached the lower settlements and gave the alarm. Most of the women and children fled to Fort Augusta, but the inhabitants at Fort Freeland and Boon's fort remained.
June 29th, Fort Freeland was invested by three hundred Tories and Indians, under Captain McDonald and Hiokoto, the Seneca chief. Jacob Freeland, as he stepped from the gate of the fort was shot but he fell within. "There were but nine men in the fort and but little ammunition. Mary Kirke and Phebe Vincent commenced immediately to run all their (pewter) spoons into bullets." About 9 o'clock, a flag of truce was raised and it was agreed: "That all those who were able to bear arms should go as prisoners, and the old men and women and children set free, and the fort given up to plunder." Mrs. Kirke clothed her sixteen year old son, William in womens' clothes and he escaped. His wife, being crippled, John Vincent went to Captain McDonald and said, she was unable to walk, but if he had the horse stolen, the week before by the Indians, he could take her away. Vincent and his wife lay in the meadow all night, unpro- tected from the rain. In the morning, the horse was brought them and placing his wife on it, they made their way to Northumberland.6
When the firing at Fort Freeland was heard at Boon's fort, Captain Hawkins Boon with thirty men marched to its relief. They were ambushed and fought for two hours, when further resistance being futile, the sur- vivors escaped as best they could. Captain Boon was killed and eleven were slain.7
Washington selected Major General John Sullivan of New Hampshire, as commander of the expedition against the Indians, and assigned to it the New Jersey brigade commanded by Brigadier General William Max- well, the New Hampshire brigade under Brigadier General Enoch Poor, a brigade of light troops led by Brigadier General Edward Hand and Colonel Thomas Proctor's battalion of artillery. Washington consulted Zebulon Butler, John Franklin, and Simon Spaulding, three leading
199
Wyoming men ; and John Jenkins, a Wyoming surveyor, who had been through the Indian country as a captive, was engaged as chief guide.
Sullivan assumed command at Easton, May 7th. An advance detach- ment was sent to construct a road over the wild Pocono mountains, and this delayed the start of the army until June 18th. Considerable distances were marched each day and suitable camp sites selected at night.8 The army reached Wilkes-Barre, June 23rd. The necessary supplies had not yet arrived and this neglect was so great that Craft has explained it as follows :
"The testimony on all sides is that the State Commissary Department was in hands of men, who were either entirely incapable or grossly negli- gent. Of course great allowance should be made for the depressed condi- tion of the country, the worthlessness of the currency and the poverty of the people; but the real cause was mainly to be found in the coldness and real disfavor with which the state authorities regarded the expedition, and the entirely inadequate idea they had of its extent and necessities."
Pennsylvania opposition was due to Quaker pacifism and the attitude of the land speculators, who while publicly deploring the Wyoming Mas- sacre, expressed satisfaction, that the land was cleared of the hated in- truders, and willingness that the Indians should possess it until the war was over.
For five weeks, the army remained at Wyoming, while the needed sup- plies were being accumulated, largely due to the exertions of Sullivan and his officers. A garrison of one hundred men, under Zebulon Butler was left at Wilkes-Barre, and July 31st, the advance up the river began. Eight field pieces constituted the artillery, which with the ammunition, salted meats, flour and heavy baggage were loaded on two hundred and fourteen boats, manned by four hundred and fifty enlisted boatmen. General Hand's brigade led in three columns, preceded by an advance party and protected by flankers on either side. Then followed Maxwell's brigade on the left and Poor's brigade on the right. Following the troops were twelve hundred packhorses and seven hundred beef cattle. A regiment formed the rear, and a detail of sixty men went up the west side of the river to prevent a surprise attack from that quarter. The whole line extended a distance of at least two miles. Guarded encampments were made each night ;9 and the army reached Tioga Point, August 11th. That night, a scouting party guided by John Jenkins reconnoitered the Indian town of Chemung, which the troops occupied the next day. In pursuing the inhabitants of it, six soldiers were killed and three wounded. At Tioga Point, a fortification, called Fort Sullivan was erected, as a base of supplies.
The northern division of Sullivan's army was a brigade under Brig- adier General James Clinton, which marched from the Mohawk by the way of Canajoharie and Springfield to the outlet of Otsego Lake, arriving there, July 3rd. Due to the summer drouth, the Susquehanna which rises in the lake was low; and to make the river navigable, a dam was erected at the outlet, which raised the water of the lake about three feet. Two hundred fifty boats had been assembled and these were placed along the
200
banks of the river. They were loaded with the stores and two small cannon and were manned, three men to each boat. August 9th, the dam was broken and the flooded water carried the fleet of boats, successfully over the rifts and through the shallows. The army marched along the shores, and nine encampments were made.1ยบ It reached Tioga Point, August 22nd.
The army began its invasion of the Indian country on the 26th, and the following Sunday discovered the enemy near the present Wellsburg. At this point, the Chemung river makes a semi-circular bend of which the road is the diameter. Between the road and river is a low ridge, some- what parallel with the road, and where the Wellsburg road crosses it, turns north making an angle. The enemy had fortified this ridge by a breastwork about waist high, and concealed by brush planted in front. At the angle was the principal force. A creek flows from the north, between two high hills, the western one being that on which the monument now stands. These hills were occupied by British observation detachments. Skillful dispositions had been made for an ambuscade.
Hand's brigade advanced to within twelve hundred feet of the breast- work; and the foe, several times, sallied forth to entice the Americans within the ambush, but without avail. Poor's and Clinton's brigades marched toward the creek, with the object of seizing the monument hill and out- flanking the enemy's works. Poor dislodged the detachment on the eastern hill, and after some delay reached the foot of the monument hill. Mean- while, Proctor's artillery bombarded the works at the angle, which was withstood for some time. Detecting Poor's advance, Brant with a large force occupied the monument hill to prevent the flanking movement. He furiously attacked Poor's left wing, held by Colonel Reid's regiment, but Colonel Dearborn wheeled his regiment to Reid's support. Clinton sent reinforcements, and Brant's offensive being blocked, he ordered a retreat. The Americans occupied the hill and followed it to Newtown, by which name the battle is known, but were unable to intercept the fleeing foe.
The American losses were three killed and thirty-nine wounded ; and that of the enemy has never been accurately determined. Sullivan's force was about three thousand and that of the British, two hundred and fifty Tories commanded by Major John Butler and a thousand Indians under Joseph Brant. The Indians were completely disheartened and thereafter offered no real resistance to the invasion of their country.
The army began its pursuit August 21st, and having burned a small village above Newton and Kanawaholla near the present Elmira, the next day reached Sheaquaga or Catherine's Town on the inlet of Seneca Lake, and the home of Catherine Montour. It consisted of thirty or forty good houses and fine cornfields and orchards, which were destroyed. An old squaw, left behind in the flight, gave Sullivan needed information, and he reciprocated by having a hut built for her and by providing her with provisions. Passing a village at what is now North Hector and Kendaia or Appletown, where Luke Swetland, an escaped Wyoming captive joined them, the army reached Kanadesaga, near the outlet of the lake and on the site of the present Geneva. There resided Sayenqueraghta, the great chief
201
of the Senecas and principal man of the Six Nations. The town con- sisted of fifty good houses and extensive fields and orchards, which were destroyed.
In the rest of the invaded country were regularly laid out towns of good houses, barns, stacks of hay, horses and cattle, fine gardens in which were growing onions, peas, beans, squashes, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, cucumbers and watermelons, large fields of corn and extensive orchards of apples, pears and peaches. The buildings were burned, the horses and cattle taken, the gardens and corn uprooted and the fruit trees cut down. The destruction was so complete, that the Indian families who fled to Fort Niagara were left destitute and became charges of the British government. Detachments destroyed the villages down the Seneca river and on the west side of the lake.
Butler and Brant retreated to Canawaugas, near the present Avon and planned to ambush Sullivan's army in a defile west of Conesus Lake. Lieutenant Thomas Boyd and a party of scouts were surrounded by the Indians, near this ambuscade, and fifteen were killed. Eight escaped, but Boyd and sergeant Michael Parker were captured and tortured to death. At an Indian village on Canaseraga creek, the enemy formed in line to dispute its possession, but as the Americans formed their battle line, they broke and fled.
During colonial days, the chief Seneca town was Chenussio, at the intersection of Canaseraga creek and the Genesee river; but it was now superseded by a village on the west side of the river, near what is now Cuylerville and opposite Geneseo, and known as Little Beard's Town. In it were one hundred twenty-eight large houses, surrounded by two hun- dred acres of gardens and cornfields. This was the western door of the Long House of the Iroquois, and there the destruction ceased. Near were found the headless and mutilated bodies of Boyd and Parker. Mrs. Lester and child, escaped Wyoming captives came into the American camp.
Colonel Gansevort with a hundred troops was dispatched to Albany, and he passed through the friendly Tuscarora and Oneida villages with- out molesting them. Due to the intercession of white neighbors, what remained of the lower Mohawk castle was spared. Colonel William Butler and Colonel Dearborn laid waste all the villages on both sides of Cayuga lake, and all the towns on the Tioga river were burned.
On its return, the army reached Tioga Point September 26th, Wyoming October 7th and on the 15th arrived at Easton. Sullivan destroyed some forty towns and broke the power and unity of the Iroquois Confederacy, and henceforth, the Six Nations became a despairing people sated with vengeance.1.1
They revenged themselves early the following spring. In April, Colonel Hunter reported from Fort Augusta, the capture of several per- sons near Fort Jenkins, and others taken from Wyoming.12 Those cap- tured near Fort Jenkins and on Fishing creek were Peter Pence and Moses Van Campen, whose father and brother were killed; and Jonah Rogers, a boy taken at Hunlock's creek, where he was making maple
202
sugar with Asa Upson. Upson was killed and scalped by the Indians, who with their captives went to Pikes creek, where Abraham Pike and his wife were making sugar. They released the woman and her child, but took Pike and proceeded up the river, where they encamped one night. Pike, who was a deserter from the British army and knew he would be executed if taken to Fort Niagara, seems to have urged and planned the escape. When the Indians had gone to sleep he cut himself loose, took away their guns and severed the cords which bound the others. Between them they killed three of the Indians and the others fled. April 6th, they successfully reached the fort at Wilkes-Barre.13
The day before the Pence capture, March 27, 1780, the Indians cap- tured Thomas Bennet, his son Andrew, aged fourteen and Lebbeus Ham- mond at Wyoming, and the third night encamped at Meshoppen. The prisoners were papoosed, that is placed under poles on either end of which an Indian slept. Mr. Bennet, who surmised the savages intended soon to kill him, pretended sickness and insisted he must get up; whereupon all were allowed to get up. Leaving the prisoners in charge of a watchman, the other Indians went back to sleep. Mr. Bennet replenished the fire, several times with wood and waited. When the watchman fell asleep, Bennet killed him with a spear, Hammond dashed out the brains of another Indian with an axe and Bennet slew the third savage with a clubbed musket. The two other Indians fled. Six days after their capture, Ham- mond and the Bennei's reached the fort at Wilkes-Barre.14
The same month, Avery, Lyons and Jones were taken at Capouse (the present Scranton) and in April, the house of Emanuel Gonsalus, on the Delaware river in Smithfield township, was raided and he and a serv- ing man taken prisoners. Captains Westbrook and Van Etten pursued the Indians and a fight ensued, in which Benjamin Ennis and Richard Rose- krans were killed, two men wounded and Captain Westbrook reported missing.15 Near Sunbury, in April, Mr. Lewis, and Mr. Curry and a man named Dunn were killed.16
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.