USA > New York > The old New York frontier : its wars with Indians and Tories, its missionary schools, pioneers, and land titles, 1614-1800 > Part 16
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Butler now started for the Johnston Settlement, taking the trail on the Sidney side of the river. On October 8th, early in the morning, he says he " de-
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tailed Lieutenant Stewart with four men to Una- dilla to make a prisoner of one Glagford who I intended should guide me to Anaquago." Stewart secured his man, the sole occupant of the place, and "after the troops had cooked their provisions and rested themselves a little, marched five miles beyond Unadilla." Of the destruction of Oghwaga the best account is given by Captain William Gray, one of Butler's officers, who says :
We marched down the river Susquehanna for Oghquaga, the chief Indian town, where we thought to start a party of savages and Tories by surprise ; but we happened unluckily to be discovered by some scouting savages who made the best of their way. We could not come up with them, though our scouting party travelled all night to no purpose. We got to Oghquaga about 10 o'clock at night, which we found evacuated, also in greatest disorder. Everything seemed as if they had fled in greatest haste. Next morning we set the town (which consisted of 30 or 40 good houses) in flames, destroying therein great quantities of household furniture and Indian corn. The same day we marched from Oghquaga up the river to another town called Cuna- hunta, burning some Indian houses and corn on the road. From there we marched very early, leaving it in flames.
Gray says that on their return, when they came to the river about one and a half miles below the mouth of the Unadilla, it was " dreadful to see so large a stream to the man's breast, and very rapid and rising at the rate of one inch a minute, but by the pressing desire of the men to get on and the dil- igence of the officers with their own and the pack horses they were all got over safe, which if we had been but an hour longer we could not have crossed, and God only knows what would have been the dreadful consequences." Butler's letter, under date
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of October 10th, describes the burning of the houses near the mouth of the Unadilla :
October 10. This day we burned all the houses in the Unadilla settlement that were on the south side of the Sus- quehanna, except Glagford's. We also burned a saw and grist mill, the latter the only one in the country.
October II. This day I ordered the troops to rest and clean their arms, and prepared a raft to transport some men on the Susquehanna to burn the other part of the Unadilla settlement. Lieut. Long, with one private, crossed in the raft and burned all the houses. According to my compu- tation I think there were upwards of 4,000 bushels of grain destroyed at Anaquago and Unadilla.
Gray says the expedition proceeded the same evening " up the east side of the river as far as the Scotch Settlement, burning all we met along that could be of any use to the enemy. We could not march thence on Sunday by reason of the great rains. On Monday we marched, burning some Tory houses before we set out, and encamped in the woods that night." This camping place was at the mouth of Handsome Brook .*
After an absence of sixteen days the expedition reached Schoharie with forty-nine captured horses and fifty-two horned cattle. Including the officers there were 260 men in the command. Warren's statement that there were 500 men is obviously an error. Besides the 4,000 bushels of grain found at the two settlements, there was a large quantity of vegetables and poultry, besides several dogs and household goods. Butler's men fared sumptuously. Stone says Oghwaga "was uncommonly well built
* The map that accompanies Gray's letter shows that the Scotch Set- tlement lay on both sides of the Ouleout, and that there were Indian huts farther up the stream.
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for an Indian settlement, there being a considerable number of good farm-houses on either side of the river. These were all destroyed, together with the Indian castle three miles farther down the river, as also large quantities of provision intended for their winter's supply." Butler describes Oghwaga as " the finest Indian town I ever saw."
The Indians had left Oghwaga only the day be- fore Butler arrived, and had made their way to the Delaware at Cookoze,* whence they descended upon some of the Minisink settlements. Brant had 100 men with him, and besides killing several persons, burned barns well filled with the year's crops and carried off many cattle. By the time Butler reached Schoharie, Brant had probably arrived in Oghwaga to learn of the fate that had overtaken his principal base of supplies.
* Sometimes written Cook House and now Deposit. Here, in 1858, eighty years after these events, a granddaughter of Brant was killed in an accident to a train on the Erie Railroad while the train was standing at the station. She was buried in Owego.
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V
The Cherry Valley Massacre 1778
T HE massacre of Cherry Valley followed speedily upon the destruction of Unadilla and Oghwaga, and may be traced directly to Colonel Butler's drastic work. Although an attack had long been contemplated, this massacre as to its immediate causes was an act of retaliation.
Four Indian chiefs, a month after the attack, de- clared to Colonel Cantine that "your rebels came to Oghwaga when we Indians were gone, and you burned our houses, which made us and our brothers, the Seneca Indians, angry, so that we destroyed men, women, and children at Cherry Valley." * Many of the Indians had a bitter hatred of Cherry Valley, for there lived Colonel Samuel Clyde + and Colonel Samuel Campbell, both of whom had been conspicuous in the battle of Oriskany ._ Another motive on the part of the Indians had survived from the massacre of Wyoming, four months before. At the capitulation of Forty Fort, Colonel Dennison had entered into an agreement not to serve against
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
t Colonel Clyde's wife was Catherine Wasson, a niece of Dr. Matthew Thornton, of Londonderry, N. H., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Her early home was at Amsterdam, where she had known Brant as a boy playmate of her brothers.
# Dr. James D. Clyde, of Cherry Valley, still possesses the British musket with which Colonel Clyde was knocked down in this battle. The soldier was about to run him through with the bayonet when an American shot the soldier, the ball tearing away a piece of the stock of the gun.
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MONUMENT AT CHERRY VALLEY TO THOSE WHO PERISHED IN THE MASSACRE ( On the site of the Revolutionary Fort. )
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
the forces of Great Britain again, but when Colonel Hartley set out in pursuit of Colonel John Butler and destroyed some Indian towns on the upper Susquehanna, Dennison went with him. This had deepened the feeling of resentment on the part of the Indians toward all settlers on the frontier. Still another motive of revenge sprang from the breast of a white man-one who has been commonly accepted as the master fiend in this tragedy.
Just before the Indian council assembled at Ti- oga Point, Brant had been on his way to Niagara for the winter. He had the misfortune somewhere on the Susquehanna beyond Oghwaga to fall in with Captain Walter Butler. Butler had recently been tried at court-martial and punished with imprison- ment as a spy, this court having been ordered by Benedict Arnold. In April he had made his es- cape and was now anxious for revenge. He found the Senecas and some of the other Indians stirred to revenge quite willing to join him in an expedition to Cherry Valley. Brant argued against the expe- dition but was induced to yield. His opposition probably sprang in part from his dislike of Walter Butler. Butler, moreover, was to command the ex- pedition, and this was not pleasing to Brant.
It was strange that General Hand, who was now in command at Albany, had failed to make adequate preparations against an attack. So far from doing so he seems to have contemplated an actual re- moval from Cherry Valley of its only defence, Colonel Alden's regiment. On October 12th Captain Warren wrote in his diary that the regi- ment was " likely to be removed from here soon." Early in November General Hand went himself to Cherry Valley, and Warren writes that during his
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stay "an express arrived from Fort Schuyler in- forming that one of the Oneidas was at a council of war of the enemy's in which it was determined to visit Cherry Valley." This message came from Colonel Gansevoort and stated that the council had been held at Tioga Point, which, in fact, was the case.
General Hand thereupon returned to the Mo- hawk Valley, and ordered Colonel Klock to " send immediately 200 men" to reinforce Cherry Val- ley. He sent word that Klock would arrive on November 9th. On the 7th twenty citizens had signed a letter to Hand expressing great fears of an early attack and adding "to prevent which and to disappoint our fears, Oh, General, let a sufficient number of troops be allowed us, and if possible those we now have under Colonel Alden, as they now are acquainted with our country and the roads and haunts of our enemy ; so that by their means we may be secured from slaughter and devastation." Although Colonel Klock was only twenty miles away he failed to reach Cherry Valley on Novem- ber 9th as promised. When he did arrive he was too late. The massacre had already occurred.
The attacking force, marching from Tioga Point, received additions on its way up the Susquehanna until 800 men, of whom 600 were Indians, 150 Tories, 50 British troops, and 4 British officers, were collected, including Senecas under Hiokatoo.
On November 9th Colonel Alden, hearing noth- ing from Colonel Klock, sent a scouting party of one sergeant and eight men down the valley. They soon met the advancing invaders and were made prisoners. Two days later, at midday, the attack on Cherry Valley was made. The enemy did not come
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THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
directly along the highway that followed the creek, but descended from a hill below the village where they had spent the night, a spot now frequently pointed out to travellers. They gave the settle- ment a complete surprise, " notwithstanding all our endeavors to the contrary," wrote Major Whiting.
One of the most shocking incidents connected with the massacre was the first-the killing of the Robert Wells family, comprising nine members and three servants. Every one of the family, except John Wells, a son then attending school in Sche- nectady, was murdered. The Wells house was on the site of the Lindesay settlement of 1739, now known as the Phelan place, an elevated and beauti- ful spot, just below the village. Captain Wells him- self was killed by a Tory who boasted afterward that he did this while Captain Wells was on his knees in prayer. Wells's daughter Jane fled to a place behind a pile of wood, but a Seneca Indian found her there and slew her with his tomahawk. Captain Wells had been intimately associated with Sir William Johnson in his official work and was one of the best-known men on the frontier. When Colonel Butler heard of his fate he said, " I would have gone miles on my hands and knees to have saved that family, and why my son did not do so God only knows." Brant had known the family for many years, and his comment was that they were as dear to him as his own.
Colonel Alden had fled from this house as he saw the enemy approaching, hoping to reach the fort, but he was killed on the road by a blow from a tomahawk. One of the scouting party was forced to guide the enemy to the quarters of the officers who were living in private houses outside the
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fort. When the advance was made on the fort, Whiting says, " had it not been for the great ac- tivity and alertness of the troops, they had rushed within the lines. We had about six or eight of the regiment killed." Warren's account is as follows :
The enemy pushed vigorously for the Fort, but our Soldiers behaved with great spirit and alertness ; defended the Fort, and repulsed them after three hours and a half smart engagement. Twelve of the regiment beside the Col. killed, and two wounded.
Nov. 12 .- The Indians came on again, and gave a shout for rushing on, but our cannon played on them back ; they soon gave way ; they then went round the settlement, burnt all the buildings, mostly the first day, and collected all the stock and drove the most of it off, killed and captured all the inhabitants, a few that hid in the woods excepted, who have since got into the fort.
Nov. 13-In the afternoon and morning of the 13th we sent out parties after the enemy withdrew ; brought in the dead ; such a shocking sight my eyes never beheld before of savage and brutal barbarity ; to see the husband mourning over his dead wife, with four dead children lying by her side, mangled, scalpt, and some of the heads, some the legs and arms cut off, some the flesh torn off their bones by their dogs-twelve of one family all killed and four of them burnt in his house.
Saturday 14th .- The enemy seem to be gone; we sent out to collect what was left of cattle or anything ; found some more dead and buried them.
Sunday 15th-This day some provisions arrived, being the first supply after the first attack, when we had not a pound of bread for men in garrison for four or five days, but a trifle of meat. In the afternoon a scout we thought had been taken by them, a sergeant and eight arrived in safe. But some they took prisoners they let go again ; informed they had a number wounded, and we saw a number of them fall, so that we have reason to think killed more of them
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than they killed of our regiment, though they butchered about 40 women and children, that have been found. It came on to storm before the engagement began ; first with rain, but for the day past it has been a thick snowstorm.
Monday 16th-The snow continued falling and is al- most knee deep on a level.
Though there were 300 men between this and the river [Mohawk ] most of them together before we were attacked, yet they came within four miles and laid there until they were assured the enemy was gone off .* Col. [William] Butler, though near forty miles off, marched and got near and would have been the first to our assistance, had we not sent him word they were gone off. We are here in a schock- ing situation ; scarcely an officer that has anything left but what they have on their backs.t
The citizens killed were thirty in number, and seventy-one others were made prisoners, the most of them being released afterward. The number of houses burned was twenty, of barns twenty-five, and of mills two. During the night after the attack many inhabitants were shut out from the fort " where they lay all night in the rain with the chil- dren who suffered most." One of the prisoners was a boy named Campbell whose son William W. was afterward to write the well-known history of these times.
Among those who escaped were the Johnstons. Hugh Johnston, then a lad, saw from the fort the
* Warren refers here to Colonel Klock's dilatory action under General Hand's orders. Warren's Diary is in the Spark's Collection of Manu- scripts at Harvard.
t McKendry gives the names of the Continentals who were killed as follows : Ichabod Alden, Robert Henderson, Thomas Sheldon, Gideon Day, Benjamin Adams, Thomas Mires (sic), Thomas Hilden, Daniel Dudley, Enos Blakeley, Thomas Noles, Oliver Deboll, Simeon Hopkins, and Robert Bray. Those made prisoners were : Colonel William Stacey, Lieutenant Aaron Holden, Ensign Andrew Garret, Sergeant Snzer de Bean, and eleven privates whose names McKendry does not give.
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advance of the Indians and hastened to Mrs. Can- non's house, where his father lived, and gave the warning by which the Dominie, his wife, and chil- dren were able to hasten to the woods and there secrete themselves. From this point of safety they witnessed the destruction of the settlement. A lad seven years old who accompanied them was David McMaster, a grandson of the Dominie, who settled in Unadilla after the war. Mr. Johnston had now lived in Cherry Valley for more than a year. A month before the massacre he had married Captain McKean and Mrs. Jennie Campbell. Lieutenant McKendry describes him as " late of Tunadilla," and says he performed another marriage ceremony in September at which the guests "drank seven gallons of wine." On the arrival of Colonel Alden's regiment he had been made chaplain.
Another who escaped was Mr. Dunlop, who owed his life to Little Aaron, one of the chiefs of the Ogh- waga Mohawks." But Mr. Dunlop's wife perished in the storm. In Cherry Valley is still preserved an ancient clock made in Kilmarnock, Scotland, that escaped the fire which burned the Campbell home. It was originally brought into the country by the pioneer Campbell, and was saved from the fire by a boy who concealed it in an orchard near the house.
Here in Cherry Valley now dwelt the Ogdens of Otego. When the alarm came, Mrs. Ogden with her children fled to the woods, carrying a blanket
* Campbell describes the incident as follows : "Little Aaron led him out from the house tottering with age, and stood beside him to protect him. An Indian passing by pulled his hat from his head and ran away with it; the Chief pursued him and regained it. On his return another Indian had carried away Mr. Dunlop's wig; the rain was falling upon his bare head, while his whole system shook like an aspen under the con- tinued influences of age, fear, and cold. He died about a year after ; his death was hastened by his misfortunes."
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with which to cover them. She finally made her way in safety to the Mohawk, where her husband, some days later, joined them. The Ogdens had been well known to Brant before the war. As we have seen, Brant had often been down the Susque- hanna in his canoe on expeditions of war and sur- veying and was familiar with the Otego home of the Ogdens. The father had become famous as a hunter of beaver and a scout.
Besides the older part of the present cemetery, the Cherry Valley fort included the adjacent street and some of the land across it. It was large enough to contain all the inhabitants of the place, though hardly with comfort. Colonel Alden has been blamed for not admitting them after the news of November 9th, and has been partially excused on the ground that he was ignorant of Indian methods in war. The passages already given from Warren's Diary hardly justify exclusive criticism of Alden. General Hand's visit to Cherry Valley a few days before the attack (he was there as late as November 8th), and the un- fulfilled promises of reinforcements on November 9th, complicate the problem of official responsibil- ity. For Colonel Klock's failure to reach Cherry Valley before the massacre no excuse seems pos- sible. The distance was only twenty miles and the road was old and well travelled. When at last he did arrive, his orders from General Hand were to pursue the enemy " if he found it practicable." But it appears that " for want of provisions and ammu- nition," and in the belief that "the enemy had gone too far to be overtaken," he then gave up all thought of pursuit and proceeded to disband his regiment .*
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
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Captain William Harper seems to have voiced the sentiments of the inhabitants when he wrote to Governor Clinton on December 2d that Klock had come to Cherry Valley, "warmed himself, turned about, marched back without affording the distressed inhabitants the least assistance or release, even to bury the dead, or to collect the small re- mains of their cattle or goods." Captain Harper in another letter to Governor Clinton, of February 16th following, declared that Klock had promised Hand that he would send 400 men "some days before the enemy arrived." When finally he came, he " did not stay above two or three hours, notwith- standing the enemy had not retired above six or seven miles from the settlement." Captain Har- per made similar references to Colonel Fisher, who arrived the same day as Klock. After the manner of Klock, Fisher refused either to stay or to assist in burying the dead, or otherwise to relieve the distress of the inhabitants.
General Hand, who had left matters entirely in charge of these shrinking militia colonels, was back in Albany before the massacre occurred. It is quite clear that he failed to take the situation se- riously. At any rate, he was not clear-sighted in his judgment as to its gravity ; nor was he vigorous in action for giving relief. He shared this neglect, however, with many other men with whose com- mands had gone an obligation to protect the fron- tier.
Within the fort Colonel Alden's body was buried with military honors, including the firing of three volleys over his grave. A stone still marks this burial-place, to which devout pilgrimages have been made for more than 100 years. Adjoining this
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grave in 1825 was buried the wife of Colonel Clyde, and in the digging of the grave Alden's remains were exposed. " I saw and examined his skull," says Levi Beardsley, "which was sound as when first buried. The tomahawk with which he was struck after being shot, had not cut through to the brain, but seemed to have glanced off, chipping away a portion of the skull. The cavity was dis- colored with blood and several lines or marks where the tomahawk had entered were red and bright. Alvin Stewart took away one of the teeth."
Had the methods of Brant prevailed in this attack, less bloodshed would have occurred. His methods were of an honorable kind, warfare by him having never been attended by downright massacre, but by the taking of prisoners, cattle, and provi- sions, and the burning of houses and barns. Camp, bell narrates incidents showing his humanity at Cherry Valley. The most barbarous part of the work was done by Tories and the Senecas. The Tories incited the Indians to barbarities to which by nature they were inclined, while the Senecas were led by Hiokatoo, a chief whose unparalleled cruelties to his enemies have been admitted by his own wife, Mary Jemison. She lived with him for nearly half a century. He was a fierce and cruel savage who butchered infants, but she says that, al- though war was his trade from youth till old age and decrepitude unfitted him for it, he " uniformly treated me with tenderness and never offered an insult." Hiokatoo had been at Braddock's defeat, where, having taken two prisoners, he burned them alive.
Brant eagerly inquired at Cherry Valley for Cap- tain Mckean, saying he had come to accept his
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challenge. He characterized Mckean as " a fine soldier thus to retreat," and he " would have given more to take him than any other man in Cherry Valley, but would not have hurt a hair of his head." Brant, after the war, maintained that he had never killed but one man unfairly, and in that case his act was due to a misapprehension. He had questioned the man, who was a prisoner, and finding him ob- stinate and apparently untruthful, killed him on the spot. Lying, it should be remembered, was an offence for which the Iroquois inflicted the punish- ment of death. Brant was sincerely affected after- ward when he learned that the man's conduct was due to an impediment in his speech.
Of Brant's humanity in the Border Wars many stories have been related. He was a Mason and at Minisink saved the life of a prisoner who gave him the sign of distress. On another occasion he saved a Mason who had already been bound to the stake and around whom the fagots had been piled. Still another case is that of Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Maynard. While stationed at West Point with Colonel Alden's regiment, Maynard had been sent out on a scouting expedition and was captured by Indians. His companions were bound to trees and burned to death, but Maynard having a sword was thought to be a prize for whom a ransom could be obtained, and accordingly was taken to Unadilla. He there gave to Brant the sign of distress and was ordered set free .* Another example relates to one of Brant's later campaigns in the Mohawk Valley, One day an Indian entered General Van Rensse- laer's head-quarters, with an infant in his arms, and
* Brant MSS. in the Draper Collection.
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bearing a message from Brant, containing these words :
I send you by one of my runners the child which he will deliver that you may know that whatever others may do I do not make war upon women and children. I am sorry to say that I have those engaged with me in the service who are more savage than the savages themselves.
The literature of the Border Wars will be searched in vain for a defence of the conduct of Walter But- ler * at Cherry Valley, or of his father, John But- ler, at Wyoming. Brant included Walter among those who were "more savage than the savages themselves." But it is proper to permit him to speak for himself when no one speaks for him. Butler wrote to General Clinton in February, 1779 :
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