USA > New York > The old New York frontier : its wars with Indians and Tories, its missionary schools, pioneers, and land titles, 1614-1800 > Part 15
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The result of this battle on July 3d was appall- ing. Many were shot down at once. Others were captured, tomahawked and scalped. While Queen Esther sang her war-song above them, fourteen had their brains dashed out. Throughout the valley the torch and tomahawk completed the work of desolation, many women and children finding safety by taking flight to the woods, where they perished from exposure. With a misrepresentation that must have been consciously cynical, Crysler de- scribed this barbarous scene as "an engagement in which about 460 * of the enemy were killed." He added that " from there we went to Oghwaga."
The Continental regiment reached Wyoming only to witness a scene of slaughter and desolation. A populous and prosperous settlement had virtu- ally been annihilated. Commanded by Colonel Hartley, and reinforced by a few militia companies,
* Crysler's estimate of the number killed is too large by at least 100.
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this regiment proceeded up the valley against sev- eral Indian towns toward Oghwaga. Some of these were destroyed. Their ruins were discovered in the following summer by the soldiers who came into the country under General Sullivan. Colonel Hartley took several prisoners, but on learning that the Ind- ians and Tories had assembled at Oghwaga and Unadilla in large numbers, he found it unwise to continue his pursuit.
Colonel John Butler, in this enterprise at Wyo- ming, is believed to have received encouragement and active assistance from partisans of the Penna- mite cause, who, during the Revolution, were mainly Tories. In them still survived an ancient bitterness toward the settlers from Connecticut that was now rendered all the more intense because, almost to a man, those settlers had become devoted supporters of the American cause. Events had thus greatly widened the breach, but the success of the Revolu- tion gave to these Connecticut families double cause for rejoicing. It released them from two enemies at once -the Pennamite partisans and George III. One may easily comprehend, there- fore, the enthusiasm with which a local patriotic society * gathers each year on July 3d, at the base of the Wyoming Monument, in commemoration of those who perished in the appalling tragedy on that frontier field of Pennsylvania.
That many of the frontier settlements in New York might have been saved from destruction is as obvious as it is melancholy to recall. Warning after warning had been sent to the authorities, and yet practically nothing-nothing at least that was effec- tive-had been done for their protection. The
* The Wyoming Commemorative Association of Wilkesbarre.
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WYOMING
frontiersmen were left to defend themselves with the aid of such small companies of militia as could be gathered. As early as April 8, 1778, General Conway sent word to Governor Clinton that the people on the frontier insisted that a " small party of Continental troops should be without delay sta- tioned at Harpersfield and Schoharie to quiet the minds of the inhabitants, prevent them from mov- ing, and to give time for collecting the militia that is ordered to be raised."
General Clinton, ten days later, wrote to General Conway advising that a company or two of Conti- nental troops be sent to the frontier to act with the militia. From this correspondence the only result down to July appears to have been Captain Pat- rick's small force so disastrously overwhelmed at Cobleskill. On July 20th General Clinton was advised that if Continental troops did not come the consequences " were to be dreaded, for harvest time had arrived, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the militia could be induced to turn out." Of 600 who had been ordered out in June, only 200 had reported. If Continentals did not arrive, Colonel Klock feared the whole county of Tryon must
meet the fate of Springfield. " It is much to be lamented," wrote General Schuyler to Governor Clinton, " that the finest grain country in this state is on the point of being entirely ruined for want of a body of Continental troops."
On whom full responsibility rests for this neglect, perhaps cannot be said, but a large measure of it must fall to General Horatio Gates, then in com- mand of the Northern Department. The main fact, of course, was that the Hudson Valley needed for its defence, now as before, the fullest force pos-
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sible. Here was the central ground of the conflict, for control of which had been fought the battles of Long Island, Harlem Heights, Trenton, Prince- ton, Saratoga, the Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth ; but the Hudson was now more secure than it had ever been, and men enough ought to have been spared for the protection of the frontier where lay the granary of the northern colonies. General Gates has many blunders, if not worse things, at the door of his unhonored memory, and one of them is neglect of the New York frontier. Governor Clinton wrote from his heart when he said to James Duane, on August 10th : " It is much to be regretted that the operations which were in- tended by Congress against the Indians have hitherto been so utterly neglected by the commanding officer of the Northern Department." He promised later on to tell Duane the reasons which he thought had influenced Gates's conduct.
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III
German Flatts Destroyed 1778
D ISASTER was soon to enter the Mohawk Valley. Well up the stream, and not far from the Fort Stanwix line of 1768, stood the thriving settlement of German Flatts, which was now to meet a fate that recalled the one which over- whelmed it during the French War. Here was a settlement that marked almost the farthest advance westward on the Mohawk. A few miles south of it, by passing over the high lands, the traveller reached the head-waters of the Unadilla River.
Warning after warning had been given that Ger- man Flatts was in danger. But it was not until July 24th that a Continental force reached the fron- tier. On that day Colonel Alden's long-expected regiment arrived in Cherry Valley, but this lay many miles to the eastward of German Flatts and on another water-shed. Captain Benjamin Warren has described the scene when this regiment arrived :
About four o'clock arrived at the garrison, which was a meeting-house picketted in, with a large number of dis- tressed inhabitants crowded in, men, women, and children : drew some rum before the men and placed them in their several quarters. The inhabitants received us with the greatest tokens of joy and respect, and it was like a gen- eral jail delivery. They began to take the fresh air and move into the nearest houses from their six weeks' confine- ment in that place.
Sunday, 26th. About eleven o'clock returned to the
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garrison, where we had a sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Johnston * from these words : " Be of good cheer and play the man for our people, and the cities of our God, and the Lord will do what seemeth Him good."
Word reached Cherry Valley on August 10th that Brant intended making an attack, "in conse- quence of which," says Warren, " Captain Ballard, with a party of sixty men, was sent out to make dis- covery." Ballard went to Butternut Creek, where were still dwelling several Tory families, while the remaining troops occupied themselves with strength- ening the fort. Ballard brought back seventy-three heads of cattle, forty sheep, fourteen horses, and fourteen Tories. The next day Ballard set out for Albany with the Tories. Another scouting expe- dition under an officer named Wheelock went to Unadilla, and other scouts were constantly employed for two months, Warren's account of them being as follows :
Aug. 16th. A small scout of six men went out near Tunacliss', t fell in with a small party of the Indians, killed one, but the rest escaped.
Aug. 19th. On receiving intelligence by one of our scouts that Brant and his party were to be at Tunacliss', a party of one hundred and fifty men commanded by Col. Stacy marched by the way of the foot of Lake Osago [Ot- sego] ; came to houses about seventeen miles and lodged there [Warren was in the party].
Aug. 2Ist. This morning about daybreak paraded, marched through low and swampy ground. About ten o'clock crossed two creeks and twelve o'clock arrived on a mountain, looking down on Tunacliss' house : made no dis- covery of the enemy : sent a party each way to the right and left to surround the house ; we then rushed down ;
* William Johnston, the Sidney pioneer. t Richfield.
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found none of them, though a sumptuous meal prepared for the enemy, who on our arrival at the house fired a gun in the woods near us and some were seen to run off. The women would give us no information, but a lad being threatened, informed that some Indians had been there that morning. We made good use of the victuals and pro- ceeded to the foot of Schuyler's lake ; forded the creek, and marched down to Schuyler's house, about nine miles ; made no discovery of the enemy ; lodged there.
We sent a scout down to Tunadilla, who took three prisoners out of their beds and came off undiscovered ; who gave information on examination that Brant was to muster and arm his men the next day, and march for this place [Cherry Valley] or the Flats; that his party was about 400 or 500 strong.
McKendry says this scout was Mckean and that he returned on September 9th. One of the pris- oners was an inhabitant of Unadilla, who said that Brant had issued orders " for a meeting, in order to draw ammunition ; that there was an expedition going on, but could not tell which way." He said the number of Indians and Tories was " reported to be 2,000." The other prisoner told the same story as to an expedition, but placed the number of the enemy at 400 to 600, of whom 100 were at Una- dilla, the others at Oghwaga.
At German Flatts Brant had been expected all through the summer. In September nine men from that place were sent down the Unadilla River to learn what he was doing. At the Edmeston settle- ment some Indians surprised and killed three of them, driving the others into the Unadilla River. John Adam Helmer fled back in hot haste to the settlement with news that Brant was advancing with a large force. Helmer arrived with his clothing
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" torn to tatters, his eyes bloodshot, his hands, face, and limbs lacerated, and bleeding from the effects of the brambles and bushes through which he had forced his headlong flight."
An hour later, on September 17th, Brant, with 310 Tories and 152 Indians, arrived, and camped in a ravine for the night, ignorant of the fact that Hel- mer's warning had sent all the inhabitants into the neighboring forts-Forts Herkimer and Dayton- occupying the two sides of the river. In the gray of the morning Brant set fire to the settlement, and the people in the forts were thus able to witness the destruction of their homes. All that was left standing of the settlement around Fort Dayton comprised the fort, church, and two houses. An attempt to take the fort proved unsuccessful. Across the river the enemy " burned all the houses, barns and grain, quite down to the church," but at the fort " we sallied out with what men we could spare and kept them from destroying any more houses." * There were 63 houses burned, 57 barns, 4 mills, all the furniture and grain, and a good many hogs were killed. On his return down the river to Unadilla, Brant carried away 235 horses, 229 cattle, 269 sheep, and 93 oxen.
Soon after Brant started to return, a militia force of 300 or 400 men set out in pursuit, but went only as far as Edmeston, where they buried the three scouts whom the Indians had killed. At Ed- meston lived Brant's friend Carr, who met a hard fate. Some Oneidas invaded his estate, killed his servants and carried the family into captivity, where they remained until the war closed. A story has come down that a horse left on the farm was found
* Colonel Bellinger's Report, printed in the Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
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still there when they returned in 1783, having sur- vived all the hardships of its lonely lot.
Some Oneidas and Tuscaroras soon afterward in- vaded the Unadilla Valley, burnt several houses, re- took some of the German Flatts cattle, and brought back a number of prisoners. In their report the Indians said :
We have now taken the hatchet and burnt Unadilla and a place called the Butternutts. We have brought five pris- oners from each of the above places. Our warriors were particular that no hurt should be done to women and chil- dren. We left four old men behind who were no more able to go to war. The Grass Hopper, one of the Oneida chiefs, took to himself one of the prisoners to live with him in his own family; his name is William Lull, and has adopted him as his son. Brothers, we deliver to you six prisoners with whom you are to act as you please.
The other prisoners were Robert McGinnis, John McGinnis, John Harrison, Michael Stopplopen, Barry Laughlin, Moses Thurston, Caleb Lull, and Benjamin Lull. Captain Warren says of the action taken at Cherry Valley on receipt of the news from German Flatts :
Immediately on our receiving intelligence, which was twenty-four hours after it was done, though but twelve miles distant, Major Whiting went out with one hundred and eighty men, who pursued them as far as the Butternuts, but could not overtake them. He took three of their party, tories, and brought them in with some stock they left in their hurry. Brant's party, fearing the country would be upon their backs, made what haste back they could. A division of them arrived first at Tunadilla, and found the place had been beset with our people and put off immediately.
Failing still to secure adequate aid from the State or national authorities, a committee writing from
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Canajoharie on September 28th, made the following appeal to Governor Clinton :
Woeful Experience teaches us that the Troops in Cherry Valley are by no means a Defence for any other Part of the Country. Strange as it may appear to your Excellency, it is no less true, that our Militia by Desertion to the En- emy and by Enlistments into our Service, are reduced to less than seven hundred Men. Indeed if these 700 would do their Duty and act like Men, we might perhaps give the Enemy a Check, so as to give Time to the Militia from below to come up, but, Sir, they are actuated by such an ungovernable Spirit that it is out of the Power of any Officer in this County to command them with any Credit to him- self-for notwithstan'g the utmost Exertion the Officers have nothing but Blame in return.
From the Information we are able to collect from Pris- oners and otherwise, we learn that the Enemy, when at the German Flatts, were 500 or upwards strong, commanded by a Capt. Caldwell. That they intended soon to make an- other Incursion, and that a Reinforcement of 5 or 600 were on its March from the western Nations of Indians to join the Enemy, Indians being frequently seen and our People fired upon, seems in our opinion to indicate a speedy Return of the Enemy.
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IV
The Burning of Unadilla and Oghwaga 1778
V IGOROUS measures were now to be em- ployed against the enemy. Heretofore they had practically had no opposition. The man to whom was committed this work was another man named Butler-Colonel William Butler. With his regiment of Scotch-Irish and four companies of Morgan's Riflemen, Butler, in August, was stationed at Schoharie. Late, indeed, was his coming, and he had come as the result of many passionate appeals. Had he or some other commander come earlier with a force strong enough to have held Unadilla against an advance, this whole story of desolation in Schoharie and around Otsego Lake might never have been told.
Governor Clinton, on May 30th, the day of the battle of Cobleskill, had conveyed to Colonel Klock his wishes that a detachment of militia commanded by Colonel Clyde be sent to Unadilla. He be- lieved it would be " attended with very important consequences." As events turned out in Coble- skill, a mere detachment sent to Unadilla probably would have been annihilated. On June 1Ith Gov- ernor Clinton, referring to Colonel Alden's assign- ment to Cherry Valley, wrote :
No force that can be collected will be able to afford full protection to the inhabitants unless the flying party by
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whom they are distressed can be routed at the places where they usually rendezvous. This, I am informed, is Una- dilla. I would therefore advise an expedition against that place, if you and Gen. Stark shall judge it practicable.
On July Ist General Ten Broeck advised Gov- ernor Clinton that " the people of Tryon County are much for the enterprise to Unadilla." They had requested him to appoint the officers to com- mand it. There were reasons why it was thought the command ought to fall to Colonel Peter R. Livingston ; but Ten Broeck was not in favor of Livingston, and suggested that a Continental officer, and perhaps Colonel Marinus Willett, be named in- stead. Governor Clinton was favorable to Colonel Willett, but he seems not to have been available, being wanted elsewhere. Meanwhile had occurred the burning of Springfield and the massacre of Wy- oming.
On July 2 1st we find Governor Clinton suggest- ing to Washington that Colonel Butler's Continen- tal regiment, "instead of halting at Wawarsing, should proceed immediately at least as far north as Schoharie, as it is most probable the next attempt of the enemy will be against that settlement." On July 29th Colonel Butler was in Albany and com- plained to Governor Clinton :
Gen. Stark, on my showing him my instructions, said it was impossible to carry on offensive operations against the enemy at present, and (to make use of his own words) it would be like pulling a cat by the tail to get out the militia at this time. He says some time hence we may attack them and intimates that he intends to command the expedition himself. He has also ordered Col. Alden to join his regiment now lying at Cherry Valley, which de- prives me of the honor your Excellency intended me in
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COLONEL WILLIAM BUTLER
the command of the whole. If your Excellency thinks me worthy of the command and empowers me to carry on offensive measures against the enemy, I will do it at the risk of my honor and everything I hold sacred. If this cannot be, I will do my duty in the command of my de- tachment .*
Two days later Butler had reached Schoharie with his regiment and reported that the accounts of the enemy "are exceeding various, but from the best intelligence that I have yet been able to get they are about fifteen hundred in number at Una- dilla." He had made an addition to the fort in Schoharie and mounted two pieces of artillery. On August 13th he wrote further to Governor Clinton :
On my arrival here I found three forts erected by the inhabitants for their protection within four miles of each other. I took post at one I thought most liable to be at- tacked and immediately sent out a subaltern with a small scout to reconnoitre the country, and to make what dis- coveries he could of the enemy. He proceeded about 25 miles to one Service's, a noted villain, who had constantly supply'd the enemy with necessaries. Service luckily was at home, and upon his refusing to surrender, and making some resistance, one of the party shot him. They also brought in 4 prisoners.
Before the return of the scout I received intelligence from Genl. Stark of one Smith who had raised a number of Tories and was marching to join the enemy. I im- mediately detached Capt. Long, of the Rifle Corps, with a party to intercept their march. Captain Long fell in with them, kill'd Smith and brought in his scalp, brought in also one prisoner and it is thought wounded a number. Only one of Capt. Long's party was wounded.
With the prisoners taken by the first party, there was some letters from Smith to Butler and Brant, informing
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
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them that he would meet them at Service's on Sunday following with a number of Tories whom he had engaged. I also had intelligence that the intention of the enemy was to march in a body to Service's and there divide, one party to attack Cherry Valley and the other this place.
Except in these instances I have been obliged to act totally on the defensive; the little dependence that can be put in the few militia that do turn out, the disaffection of most of the inhabitants to us, the distance and wilderness of country that we have to pass through to the enemy without the necessaries for such an expedition, make it very difficult in my present situation to act otherwise.
Since my coming here numbers of the disaffected people begin to have a proper sense of their error, and are hourly coming in, begging protection, and are desirous of taking the oath of fidelity to the States .*
Service's house was in Harpersfield. The local tradition concerning his fate is that when Captain Long and his men surrounded his house, two of them, David Elerson and Timothy Murphy, en- tered and made Service a prisoner. Watching for his opportunity, Service seized an axe and was aim- ing for Murphy's head when a shot from Elerson brought him dead to the floor. Murphy became a picturesque figure in the Border Wars. He came originally from Virginia and owed much of his suc- cess to his accuracy of aim and his double-barrelled rifle, of whose peculiar utility the Indians seem to have been ignorant. He acquired many of the arts of the Indians in warfare, and was known to scalp his victims. It was said at the close of the war that he had personally killed forty Indians.
Of Murphy many striking tales have been nar- rated-some of them almost too good to be true.
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
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TIMOTHY MURPHY
He was once sent out with a small company of riflemen to destroy an Indian and Tory village near Unadilla. A contributor to Jay Gould's book re- lates that " after a laborious march through marshes and over mountains in which they endured innu- merable privations, they arrived in sight of the village, which lay in a beautiful valley. They remained on the mountain until midnight, when they advanced slowly and cautiously. Luckily most of the Ind- ians were asleep, and after a warm contest, in which clubs, fists, feet, and tomahawks were used by the old Indians, squaws, and papooses, and were resent- ed by the riflemen with fists, feet, and the ends of their guns, the village was reduced to ashes." Be- fore the riflemen returned home, the Indian war- riors reached their ruined village and killed several of the men. But Murphy and some others es- caped, Murphy finding a hiding-place in a large hollow log. It so happened that the Indians chose their camping-place that night near this log, so that Murphy was obliged to spend the night as comfort- ably as he could. On the following morning, when one Indian remained alone in the camp, Murphy killed that man and made his escape.
Meanwhile Colonel Cantine was commanding some militia on the frontier of Ulster and Orange counties. On September 6th Governor Clinton wrote to him: " I am fully convinced that we are not to have peace on our frontier until the strag- gling Indians and Tories who infest it are extermi- nated or driven back and their settlements destroyed. If, therefore, you can destroy the settlement at Oghwaga, it will, in my opinion, be a good piece of service."
This work was to be undertaken by other hands,
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and very soon. Colonel Butler's plans for an ex- pedition to Unadilla having finally met with the ap- proval of General Stark, Butler, about September 20th, sent out four men as scouts, who returned with three prisoners from Unadilla and reported that the number of the enemy at that place reached 300 and at Oghwaga 400, while the number at Tioga Point could not be ascertained. A scout who went to Unadilla some days later (possibly Murphy) returned word that the Indians had fled.
Butler now started for the Susquehanna with his regiment, the riflemen, and some Indians-in all about 500 men, according to Warren. He crossed the hills from Schoharie to the Delaware, and thence proceeded to the Ouleout, which he reached below the site of Franklin village, following the stream to the Scotch Settlement, Albout. An account of the expedition is contained in a letter, written by But- ler himself to General Stark. Having described the march as far as the Ouleout, Butler says :
Oct. 6. Began our march early this morning and at dusk arrived within eight miles of the Unadilla settlement. I here detailed Lieuts. Stewart and Long, with small par- ties, to make prisoners of some inhabitants who lived with- in four miles of Unadilla. I then continued my road in the night, in order to be better concealed and within a smaller distance from the settlement from whence I might make the attack early in the morning. But after having reached about seven miles I met the parties who were de- tached with one prisoner; he told me the enemy had left the place some days before and were gone to Ana- quago.
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