USA > New York > The old New York frontier : its wars with Indians and Tories, its missionary schools, pioneers, and land titles, 1614-1800 > Part 18
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* Dr. Beauchamp gives the translation, Land from which the Water Has Gone ; but suggests that it may be fanciful. Stone describes it as one of the most ancient of inland American towns. As early as July 22, 1669, it had had troubles with Indians, having then suffered a visitation " the bloody horrors of which yet live in the traditions of the neighbor- hood."
t Bolton was the British commander at Fort Niagara. In October, 1780, he sailed from that place in a new vessel called the Ontario. About midnight, in a violent storm, when near one of the islands at the entrance to the St. Lawrence, the ship was wrecked. Every soul on board, including Bolton, and numbering about 120, was lost.
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BATTLE OF MINISINK
more of them was owing to the many forts about the place, into which they were always ready to run like ground hogs .*
Brant remained at Minisink over night, and at eight o'clock on the following day, July 22d, began his retreat up the Delaware. He had reached a point near Lackawaxen,+ and was preparing to cross the stream on his way to the Susquehanna Valley, when a body of 149 men, comprising the militia of the Minisink region, including Goshen, overtook him, and a memorable engagement, heretofore often referred to as a massacre, took place. That it was not properly a massacre, has already been pointed out by Mr. Nanny, who based his account of the battle on Brant's unpublished letter to Colonel Bolton, quoted above, which proceeds to say :
I left this place [Minisink] about 8 o'clock the next day, and marched fifteen miles. There are two roads-one through the woods, the other alongside the river. We were coming up this road next morning, and I sent two men to examine the other, the only way that the rebels could come to attack us. These men found the enemy's path not far from our camp, and discovered that they had got before to lay in ambush. The two rascals were afraid when they saw the path, and did not return to inform us, so that the rebels had fair play at us. They fired on the front of our people when crossing the river. I was then about four hundred yards in the rear. As soon as the firing began, I immediately marched up a hill in their rear with forty men, and came round on their backs. The rest of my men were all scattered on the other side. However, the rebels soon retreated, and I pursued them until they
1
* Brant's letter is among the Sparks Manuscripts at Harvard.
t For this word, Dr. Beauchamp gives the translation, Forks of the Road.
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stopped upon a rocky hill, round which we were em- ployed, and very busy, near four hours. We have taken forty-odd scalps and one prisoner. I suppose the enemy have lost near half of their men and most of their officers. They all belonged to the militia, and were about 150 in number.
Stone, commenting on the censure of Brant which this battle called forth, says Brant always maintained that his conduct " had been the subject of unjust re- proach," and makes the following statement in his behalf :
Having obtained the supplies he needed, his own object was accomplished. Brant also stated that on the near ap- proach of the Americans, he rose and, presenting himself openly and fairly to their view, addressed himself to their commanding officer, and demanded their surrender, promis- ing at the same time to treat them kindly as prisoners of war. He assured them frankly that his force in ambush was suf- ficient to overpower and destroy them ; that then, before any blood had been shed, he could control his warriors, but should the battle commence, he could not answer for the consequences. But, he said, while he was thus parleying with them, he was fired upon and narrowly escaped being shot down, the ball piercing the outer fold of his belt. Im- mediately upon receiving the shot he retired and secreted himself among his warriors. The militia, emboldened by his disappearance, seeing no other enemy, and disbelieving what he had told them, rushed forward heedlessly until they were completely within his power.
Both sides in this engagement fought in the Ind- ian manner-every man for himself, from behind rocks and trees. Among the slain were some of the best citizens of all the Minisink region. On that rocky hill-side, about one mile from Lackawaxen, their bones lay for more than forty years, practically
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BATTLE OF MINISINK
unburied. What remained of these bones were gathered up in 1822, and, followed by 12,000 people, received honorable burial in Goshen, where a monu- ment now records their names, forty-four in number. After the battle, thirty-three women, members of the Presbyterian Church in Goshen, wore widows' garments. Brant buried his dead after the battle. Some of the bones of these Indians were uncovered at the time of digging the Delaware and Hudson Canal.
Brant's letter adds that on reaching Oghwaga he learned that General Sullivan "perhaps by this time may be at Shimong, where I have sent my party to remain till I join them." He himself was just set- ting out with eight men for the Mohawk River, “in order to discover the enemies' motions." General Clinton was still at the foot of Otsego Lake, with ten days longer to remain. Brant proceeded up the Unadilla River to the Mohawk, where he captured a man named John House. House became lame from marching, and the Indians prepared to kill him, but Brant ordered that he be released on a promise of neutrality. One of General Clinton's scouts afterward found House, and the day before the de- parture from the lake, brought him into camp. House had particulars of the threatened invasion from Canada by way of Buck Island. Fort Schuy- ler was to be attacked.
Another incident of the same weeks relates to Job Stiles, who, with a companion, made a cross-country journey as messenger from General Sullivan to General Clinton. Fearing to pass up the Susque- hanna beyond the mouth of the Chenango, they turned their course up to the forks of the Chenango, and thence went across the wilderness to the lake.
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Wilkinson says they were two weeks in making this journey, and, owing to the heavy rains, suffered much from exposure. Each had a copy of the mes- sage, concealed in a handkerchief, in one of his arm- pits.
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III
General Clinton's Descent of the Susquehanna
I779
G ENERAL CLINTON'S start for Tioga Point was made on a Monday, Mr. Gano having preached on Sunday from the text, " Being ready to depart on the morrow." Steps for the departure were taken on Sunday after the ser- vices closed, when, as Mr. Gano has described the scene, " the general rose up and ordered each cap- tain to appoint a certain number of men out of his company to draw the boats from the lake and string them along the Susquehanna below the dam, and load them that they might be ready to depart the next morning." After the dam had been opened several hours, the swell occasioned in the river " served to carry the boats over the shoals and flats, which would have been impossible otherwise."
The season had been in want of rain and " it was therefore matter of great astonishment to the inhabi- tants down the river for above a hundred miles what could have occasioned such a freshet in the river." Stone says the valley was " wild and totally unin- habited except by scattered families of Indians, and here and there by some few of the more adventu- rous white settlers in the neighborhood of Unadilla." These latter were Tories. Stone adds that the sudden swelling of the river, the flood being large even down to Oghwaga, “ bearing upon its surge a
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flotilla of more than two hundred vessels, through a region of primitive forests and upon a stream that had never before wafted upon its bosom any craft of greater burden than a bark canoe,* was a spec- tacle which might well appal the untutored inhabi- tants of the region thus invaded." It has even been said that this rise in the water was great enough to cause the Chemung River at Tioga Point to reverse its course.
Mr. Gano says the soldiers marched on both sides of the river, except that the invalids were placed in the boats with the baggage and provisions. The light infantry and rifle corps under Colonel Butler formed an advance guard, and were to proceed, says Bleeker, as " discovering parties," and were to govern their march " so as not to quit sight of the front of the line of march if possible, and the woods will permit." A guard was to follow the rear line of the boats and, like the advance guard, was not to quit sight of the boats " unless by unavoid- able circumstances, as swampy roads, etc." In the centre of the land line was to go the remainder of the land force with all the horses and cattle, the marching being "in two columns, or Indian files, wherever the roads will not permit it otherwise, with the cattle betwixt the columns." Each regiment was to have its due proportion of boats, and in each boat were to go three men. An elaborate system of signals was established to meet emergencies such as the front line going so fast that the rear boats would be lost sight of. Full instructions were issued for action in case an enemy appeared.
* The trader's " battoe " had been in these waters for more than fifty years, and pioneers had traversed them in the same kind of boats for at least ten years.
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James Intomy B.gene
CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA
On August 9th the army reached Camp Demes- ses, sixteen miles from the lake, and on August 10th " Jochum's farm," # twenty miles by land from the lake. From this farm the General wrote to his brother that "the troops have advanced thus far without the least accident, in perfect health and high spirits." The most distressing parts of the river had been passed, " so I expect to arrive at Anaquegha the 15th." On August 11th the army was at Ogden's farm, " 36 miles from the lake," and on August 12th " at Unondila, 52 miles from the lake." These distances are many miles in excess of the distances by present roads. They gave reckonings based apparently on the winding river's course.
On leaving camp at Ogden's farm it was ordered that the boats be " started three abreast and the whole at a close distance," the river by this time having be- come broad enough to admit of doing so. Here it was ordered that " all the troops receive one gill of rum and each officer one quart." Another day brought the expedition past the site of Unadilla village and into camp on the Sidney side of the Sus- quehanna, the river being crossed at nightfall from the ruins of the Unadilla settlement. Lieutenant Van Hovenburg describes as follows the first stages of the journey :
Camp Lake Otsego, Aug. 9. The army under com- mand of Gen. Clinton struck camp and loaded our baggage on board the batteau and proceeded down the Susquehanna river as far as Burris farm. The troops t marched, all ex- cept three men to each boat; we had 250 boats and quar-
* Van Valkenburgh's.
t The Camp Demesses of Bleeker's Order Book. Elsewhere in the journals written Burrows. Lieutenant McKendry calls the place " Mr. Cully's farm," referring to Matthew Cully, the Cherry Valley man, who settled there.
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tered them that night and remained there the greater part of the next day on account of the rain, which is 15 miles.
Burris Farm, Aug. 10. Decamped at about three p. m., and loaded our baggage and proceeded on our march about 5 miles, to Joachim Valkenburgh place and encamped there that night-ratel snakes plenty, very good soil.
Bleeker calls this place " Camp Jachim's farm," and General Clinton writes "Camp Jacum's farm," while Lieutenant Beatty describes it as " Jorkam's," and Lieutenant McKendry as "Yokeum's." In General Clinton's letter, written from this camp on August 10th, he refers to the farm as " 20 miles by land from Lake Otsego and five miles above the Adenquetangay Branch," which identifies the farm as land above Colliers. The Gray map places " Youchem's " just north of the mouth of Schenevus Creek. It lay on the east side of the Susquehanna:
Susquehanna river, Valkenburgh place, Aug. II. De- camped and loaded our baggage and proceeded on our march as far as two miles below an Indian place called Otago which was completed twenty miles.
Otago, Aug. 12. We decamped at about five in the morning and proceeded on our march as far as Unedelly, and encamped on the south side of the river, and most extra- ordinary good land and most beautiful situation.
Unedelly, Aug. 13. We decamped in the morning early and marched out at 5 o'clock as far as a beautiful island called Gunna Gunta, and encamped there, which was about 12 miles. There were apples plenty at this place.
Beatty's account of the journey down to Oghwaga contains the following passages :
Aug. 10. Marched at 3 o'clock and went five miles, to Yokams, where we encamped; the men in the boats en- camped on the farm, which lies on the east side of the river, and the remainder on the side opposite.
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CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA
Wednesday, 11. Marched 4 this morning, sunrise, and proceeded on 14 miles down the river, where we encamped on a small farm ; passed several small farms to-day with very poor houses on them, and some none. The riflemen in front saw fresh Indian tracks to-day in the path and found a knife at one of their fires. To-day we crossed a large creek called Otego and passed several old Indian encamp- ments where they had encamped when they were going to destroy Cherry Valley, or returning. Likewise we passed one of their encampments yesterday-we encamped to-night at Ogden's farm, and very bad encamping ground.
Thursday, 12. Proceeded down the west side of the river as usual; 12 miles came to a small Scotch settlement called Albout * on the other side of the river, five miles from Una- dilla, which we burnt ; but the people had gone to the enemy this last spring; went on to Unadilla; crossed the river to the east side and encamped ; the river was at middle deep where we waded it. The settlement was destroyed by our detach- ment last fall, excepting one house which belonged to one Glasford, who went to the enemy this spring. His house was immediately burnt, when we came to the ground to-day. We passed several old Indian encampments where they en- camped when they destroyed Cherry Valley; the road mid- dling hilly.
Friday, 13. This morning very foggy and a great deal of dew. Marched at 6 o'clock; went 2 miles, wading the river at three feet deep; proceeded on to Conehunto, a small Indian town that was, but was destroyed by our de- tachment last fall. It is fourteen miles from Unadilla. A little below this town there are three or four islands f in the river where the Indians raised their corn ; on one of these islands our troops encamped with the boats and cattle. The light infantry went two miles from Conehunto, where they encamped a little after three o'clock, in the woods. Mid- dle good road to-day.
* The settlement at the mouth of the Ouleout.
t One of these islands is the Stowell, or Chamberlain, Island of later times, near Afton.
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Saturday 14. Marched this morning at 8 o'clock; very hilly road for the right flank ; arrived at the ford two miles from Oghwaga about 2 o'clock, which is eight miles from where we started. The ford being too deep to wade, crossed in our boats to the east side ; went over a high hill * and got to Oghwaga at three o'clock, when we encamped on very pretty ground. This town was one of the neatest of the Indians living on the Susquehanna. It was built on the east side of the river, with good log houses, with stone chim- neys and glass windows. It likewise had a church and bury- ing ground and a great number of apple trees, and we likewise saw the ruins of an old fort, which formerly was here for many years.
Of Oghwaga, McKendry says : " It lay pleasantly situated on both sides of the river and on an island in the centre of the ruins of about 60 houses, which appear by the cellars and walls that it was a fine set- tlement before it was destroyed, considering that they were Indians. One English family lived with them." Beyond Oghwaga several Indian towns were de- stroyed before a junction with Sullivan was made at Tioga Point-Ingaren having five or six houses, a tannery, fields of corn and potatoes ; Shawhiangto, with ten or twelve houses ; Otseningo, with twenty houses ; Chenang, and Owego, with several, and Choconut + with fifty.
From Tioga Point General Sullivan sent forward 1,000 men to meet General Clinton's force, of whose approach word had reached him. The meet- ing of the two armies took place at Union, and hence the name. General Clinton's arrival at Tioga Point was celebrated with salvos of artillery, much
* Still known as Oghwaga Hill. Opposite this eminence lies the vil- lage of Ouaquaga, in the town of Colesville.
t Place of Tamaracks was the meaning Cusick gave to Dr. Beau- champ.
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CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA
music and cheers. Especially welcome was a large store of provisions which he brought with him. When Washington, then at Newburg, learned that Clinton had departed for Otsego Lake, he became anxious lest the delay involved in transporting his provisions should enable the Indians to rally all their strength and successfully oppose him. Wash- ington had understood that Clinton would take such supplies only as would be needed for a rapid march. But the event proved how fortunate had been General Clinton's action. General Sullivan was delayed in reaching Wyoming and had written to General Clinton that " the commissaries have deceived us in every article." In case Clinton were depending upon him " we must all starve together."
277
IV
Iroquois Civilization Overturned
I779
N OW was to follow that campaign of ruthless destruction in Western and Central New York which has been likened to Sherman's march to the sea, although in the difficulties pre- sented in the country which Sullivan traversed there was a great contrast rather than a parallel. From Tioga Point the combined force, numbering about 3,200 men, moved along the north bank of the Chemung River, reaching the old Indian town of Chemung * on August 27th.
Brant meanwhile had retreated from the Mohawk in time to join the main body of the Indians andTo- ries and become a leader at the approaching battle of Newtown, where, before he arrived, the Indians and Tories, with whom were Colonel John Butler, Sir John Johnson, Walter Butler, and Captain McDon- ald, had thrown up embankments more than half a mile long, with the pits carefully concealed by newly cut trees. On August 19th, the day Clinton reached Owego, Brant wrote the following letter from " Shi- mong," little conscious that, in the Newtown fight, and the events that followed, the People of the Long House would meet such overwhelming disaster :
I am deeply afflicted. John Tayojaronsere, my trusty chief, is dead. He died eight days after he was wounded. * The meaning of this word is Big Horn.
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INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE
Five met the same fate. I am very much troubled by the event, because he was of so much assistance to me. I de- stroyed Onawatoge a few days afterward. We were carry- ing off two prisoners. We were overtaken and I was wounded in the foot with buck shot, but it is of small con- sequence. I am almost well.
We are in daily expectation of a battle which we think will be a severe one. We expect to number about 700 to-day. We do not quite know the number of the Bos- tonians already stationed about eight miles from here. We think there are 2,000 beside those at Otsego, represented to consist of two regiments. This is why there will be a battle either to-morrow or the day after. Then we shall begin to know what is to become of the People of the Long House.
Our minds have not changed. We are determined to fight the Bostonians. Of course their intention is to ex- terminate the People of the Long House. The seven na- tions will continue to kill and devastate the whole length of the river we formerly resided on. I greet your wife. I hope she is still well and that you yourself may also be well .*
On August 29th was fought the battle of New- town on a hillside overlooking the river near which on fertile bottom lands were growing from 150 to 200 acres of corn, now almost ready to be gathered. With the enemy waiting behind their embankments, fire was opened by Sullivan's artillery-six three- pounders and two Howitzers, carrying five-and-a- half-inch shells-a form of warfare especially terrible to an Indian, for whom the noise of cannon had ex- ceptional horrors. Of Brant's conduct on this field much in laudation has been written, and perhaps nothing finer than the following by Mr. Craft :
Such was the commanding presence of the great Ind- ian captain and such the degree of confidence he inspired
* Addressed to Colonel Daniel Claus. The original is in the Draper collection of Brant Manuscripts.
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that his undisciplined warriors stood their ground like vet- erans for more than half an hour as the shot went crashing through the tree tops or ploughing up the earth under their feet and shells went screeching over their heads or bursting in their ranks, while high above the roar of the artillery and the rattle of small arms could be heard the voice of Brant, encouraging his men for the conflict, and over the heads of all his crested plume could be seen waving where the con- test was likely to be most sharp.
For several hours this battle in the primeval for- est lasted, the Indians fighting from behind rocks, bushes, and trees, their yells and warwhoops drowned by the noise of cannon. At last they were forced from behind their fortifications, but, under Brant's skilful leadership, they made a hasty retreat, and were saved from destruction. His men " darted from tree to tree, with the agility of panthers," and at a fording-place up the river, crossed to the other side with such haste that they left behind their packs, tomahawks, and scalping-knives. Pursued for two miles, they lost eight men, killed. The bodies of fourteen others were afterward found partly buried. Their total loss included eleven more. The Americans lost five or six men, and had forty or fifty wounded.
Among the Indian towns which the expedition now entered and laid in ruins, were these: Two miles above Newtown, one with eight houses ; far- ther on, Kanawaholla * with twenty ; Catharinetown with thirty or forty good houses, fine cornfields, horses, cows, hogs, etc. ; Kendaia with twenty houses of hewn logs, some of them painted, peach-trees and an apple orchard of sixty trees ; Kanadesaga + with
* Head on a Pole, is the meaning Dr. Beauchamp gives.
+ New Settlement is the accepted meaning.
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INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE
fifty houses, and thirty others near it, orchards and cornfields, the village being built around a square in which trees were growing ; Skoiyase * with eighteen houses, fields of corn and trees well laden with apples, this town being destroyed by detachments under Colonel John Harper ; Shenanwaga with twenty houses, orchards, cornfields fenced in, stacks of hay, hogs, and fowls ; Kanandaigua + with twenty-three " elegant houses, some framed, others log, but large and new "; Honeoye with twenty houses ; Kanagh- saws with eighteen houses ; Gathtsewarohare with twenty-five houses, mostly new, and cornfield which it took 2,000 men six hours to destroy ; Little Beard's Town, the great Seneca Castle, having 128 houses, mostly " large and elegant, surrounded by about 200 acres of growing corn as well as by gar- dens in which all kinds of vegetables were growing, from 15,000 to 20,000 bushels of corn being burned with the buildings," and finally six or seven villages along the shores of Cayuga Lake, destroyed by a detachment under Colonel William Butler.
One of these Cayuga towns was Chonobote where were found peach-trees numbering 1,500, all of which were cut down. At Kanadesaga, besides apple and peach trees, there were mulberry-trees, and the grow- ing vegetables were onions, peas, beans, squashes, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, cucumbers, watermelons, carrots, and parsnips. General Clinton describes the corn as " the finest I have ever seen." One of the officers saw ears twenty inches long. Under the white man, fifteen years later, this Genesee country was to acquire new and lasting fame for extraordi- nary fertility.
* The word means Long Falls or Rapids in the River.
t Means Place Chosen for a Settlement.
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Thus was all that garden land laid waste. " Corn, gathered and ungathered, to the amount of 160,000 bushels," says Stone, " shared the same fate ; their fruit-trees were cut down, and the Indians were hunt- ed like wild beasts, till neither house nor fruit-trees, nor field of corn, nor inhabitant, remained in the whole country." He adds, that in this expedition more towns were laid in ashes and a broader extent of country ruined than had ever before been the case on this continent.
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