A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. II, Part 87

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre [Raeder press]
Number of Pages: 683

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. II > Part 87

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).

"the Day that we had the battle with them we had between 3 & 4 Hundred men collected at Kingstown fort, about 3 miles distant from the Enemy. in this situation it was concluded best to march out & attact the Enemy, upon which there was a little over 3 Hundred that marched out & attact them. the Enemy got no advantage of us in the first fire, but we ware over Powerd by numbers. our People ware obliged to retreat. the Number Killed on our side can not be certing Knoon, but I beleve not far from two Hundred. the number of the Enemy killed, not far from Eighty.t the next morning John Butler, the Commander of the Enemys forces, sent a flag to demand the fort. I let him no that I wold see him at one o'clk. after noon, after which I went to the Loar [lower] Part of the settlement to find the situation of the People, & found numbrs of Wimen & Children then in the Roads, some Pushing out of the settlement, some one way and some the other, in the utmost distres and ankseiety indevering to make their escape from the Savages.

"at my Return to the fort, found that it was the minds of the grater Part of the Peo- ple then Present to Capitulate with the enemy. I went to there Camp, & was put to the disagreeable necesity of sineing the inclosed Paper, after which no person was hurt by the enemy untill after I left that place: the Next Day after I come from there there was five Persons murdered by the Enemy on the Rode, ; as they was coming from there, and as the artickls of cappitulation are broke on the part of the Enemy I do not look upon myself holden on my part by them, & expect soon to Return to Westmoreland to see if some trifels can be saved that the saveges have left. the number of the Enemy that came against us did not exceed seven or Eight Hundred at most, by the best information I can git. "I am, Sir, with due Regard, your Exlences most obediant humble

[Signed] "NATHAN DENISON."

"N. B. I find that there is Numbers of People in this State [Pennsylvania] desire to take the advantage of our distressed situation to get Posession of our Settlement, which I think cannot be alowed of-but the gratest part of them have been very kind to our scattered inhabitence."

. See "Proceedings and Collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society," VII:131.

t See page 1029.

# The Hickman family and Messrs. Leach and St. John, mentioned on page 1087.

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At Fort Penn, in Lower Smithfield, under the date of July 30, 1778, Colonel Denison wrote as follows* to Lieut. Col. Zebulon Butler-who had gone to Easton a day or two previously.

"The cloven foot seems to appear most plain than when you left this [place]. I applied to Colonel Stroud this morning for arms and ammunition for our people. He replied that he had not more than 100 or 150 weight of lead in store, but expected a wagon load of ammunition from Allentown soon; so that we need not expect to be sup- plied from this store. As to arms, he says he has about 100 which he had from Colonel Hooper, and wants directions from him how to dispose of them. Dr. [William Hooker] Smith is here, and says that he saw Dr. [Lemuel] Gustin at Catawissa, who left our set- tlement yesterday week [Wednesday, July 22d], and says that there were only a few Tories there; and further says that there is a scheme that way on foot for the Pennsyl- vania people to get in possession of our settlement."

There is no doubt that the Wyoming refugees-particularly the women, and the youth of both sexes-when they arrived at the inhabited parts of the country in the course of their flight, were not only phys- ically exhausted, but had, naturally, become worked up to a high degree of excitement, and a consequent condition of excessive exasperation against the authors of their ills. It followed, therefore, as a matter of course, that when they told their tales of the enemy's doings in Wyo- ming, they told them with hyperbolical amplification-to speak frankly. Many of their hearers, in repeating these stories, added to them certain details of their own fabrication, and thus it came to pass that many remarkable accounts of the Wyoming battle and massacre were put in circulation. Miner, writing in 1845 in reference to this matter, saidt :

"I beg leave to remark that no important subject was ever before involved in such embarrassing contradictions. The reason, I take it, is this: On the invasion by Butler and his Indians, most of the leading men were slain, and the rest of the inhabitants scat- tered in the wildest state of alarm. Rumor brought to every flying group a tale of seven- fold horror, and these, repeated by the fugitives wherever they fled, were told and received as historic truth. * * * Black with cruelty and crimsoned with blood-sufficient to harrow up the soul with horror-is the simple narrative, attested by truth, which dis- plays the ferocity of demons, the malignity of fiends. The false account was immeasur- ably worse! It may excite inquiry, why the oft published error was not earlier corrected. It is obvious that the false statement which took its published form at Poughkeepsie, and was thence circulated, not only in the United Colonies, but throughout every nation in Europe, was calculated to arouse the most powerful emotions of the human soul-pity for Amer- ican suffering-detestation of blackest perfidy-horror at unheard of cruelty on the part of Great Britain and her savage allies; and hence, to strengthen our cause by bringing popular sentiment to bear in our favor, both at home and abroad.

" With motives so powerful to allow the published story to run its course, it may be doubted, even if the truth was known, whether any American would at the time have felt it his duty to hunt up the evidence and publish a new version of the matter. After the war Wyoming was, from her remote, reduced and harassed state, too much engaged in more immediately pressing concerns to leave her people free to study her early annals and correct the errors of the historian."

The first news-item published in relation to the battle of Wyoming was printed in the Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), July 14, 1778, and it read as follows :

"Mr. Butler, formerly an Indian Agent under Sir William Johnson, with a consid- erable force consisting of regular troops and Indians, have made an attack on the settle- ment at Wioming, and have done some mischief. The particulars are not yet come to hand. * * Congress have it under their consideration."

Following this, the first account of the battle of Wyoming and sub- sequent events to be printed appeared on July 20, 1778, in the New York Journal, which, at that time (on account of the British being in possession of the city of New York), was published by John Holt at

* See "Proceedings and Collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society," VII:188. t "History of Wyoming," Introduction, v.

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Poughkeepsie, New York. The article in question read in part as fol- lows :

" POUGHKEEPSIE, July 20.

"Since our last, many of the distressed refugees from the Wyoming settlement on the Susquehanna, who escaped the general massacre of the inhabitants, have passed this way, from whom we have collected the following account, viz .: [Then follows a brief narrative of the settlement of the Wyoming region, the Pennamite-Yankee contest over the land, etc. ] The lands are exceeding good, and produce immense quantities of grain of all sorts, roots, fruits, hemp, flax, etc., and stock of all kinds in abundance. The set- tlement has lately supplied the Continental army with 3,000 bushels of grain, and the ground was loaded with the most promising crops of every kind. * * *

"The Tories and Indians had given some disturbance to these settlements last year,

* * and the Tories concealed themselves among our different settlements. * * The inhabitants having discovered that many of the Tories who had stirred up the Indians and been with them in fighting against us, were within the settlements, twenty-seven of them were in January last taken up and secured. Of these, eighteen were sent to Con- necticut; the rest, after being detained some time and examined, were, for want of suffi- cient evidence, set at liberty. They immediately joined the enemy, and became active in raising in the Indians a spirit of hostility against us. * * *

"Saturday morning, July 4th, the enemy sent 196 scalps into Fort Kingston [Forty Fort], which they invested on the land side, and kept up a continual fire upon. That evening [Saturday, July 4th] Col. Zebulon Butler with his family quitted the fort and went down the river. Col. Nathan Denison went with a flag to Exeter Fort to know of Col. John Butler what terms he would grant on a surrender. Butler answered, 'The hatchet!' Col. Denison returned to Fort Kingston, which he defended till Sunday morn- ing, when his men being nearly all killed or wounded he could hold out no longer, and was obliged to surrender at discretion.

"The enemy took away some of the unhappy prisoners, and shutting up the rest in the houses set fire to them, and they were all consumed together. These infernals then crossed the river to Fort Wilkesbury [Wilkes-Barre], which in a few minutes surrendered at discretion. About seventy of the men, who had listed in the Continental service to defend the frontiers, they inhumanly butchered; and then, shutting up the rest, with the women and children, in the houses, they set fire to them, and they all perished together in the flames. After burning all the buildings in the fort they proceeded to the destruction of every building and improvement (except what belonged to some Tories). * * * When these miscreants had destroyed the other improvements they pro- ceeded to destroy the crops on the ground, letting in the cattle and horses to the corn, and cutting up as much as they could, or what was left. Great numbers of the cattle they shot and destroyed, and cutting out the tongues of many others, left them to perish.

"Captains James Bidlack, Robert Durkee and Samuel Ransom being made prisoners by the enemy, they stripped Bidlack, tied him to a tree, and stuck him full of sharp splinters of pine knots; then, piling a heap of pine knots around him, they set all on fire, put Durkee and Ransom into the fire, and held them down with pitchforks. * * * Parshall Terry, [Jr. ], the son of a man who bore a very respectable character, had several times sent his father word that he hoped to wash his hands in his heart's blood. Agree- able to such a horrid declaration, the monster, with his own hands, murdered his father, mother, brothers and sisters, stripped off their scalps, and cut off his father's head."

This article was reprinted, verbatim, in the Pennsylvania Packet of July 30, 1778. It also appeared later, wholly or in part, in other newspapers throughout the country, and subsequently was published in The Remembrancer (VII : 51) for 1778-'79. A long account (herewith reprinted)* of the battle and massacre of Wyoming came out in Dods-

*"Although some tribes of the Indians-particularly of those commonly called the Six Nations-had sent congratulations to General Gates on his success at Saratoga, and seemed to enjoy great satisfaction in that event; and that others took different opportunities for expressing similar sentiments, yet the presents which they continually received from England, the industry of the British agents, and the influence of the great number of American refugees who had taken shelter amongst them-all operating in conjunction upon their own native and unconquerable passion for rapine-soon led them to centra- dict in act their sentiments or professions upon that occasion.

"The success which attended the small expeditions undertaken by individuals of different tribes, under the guidance of the refugees (who knew where to lead them directly to spoil, and how to bring them off without danger), soon spread the contagion of havock through the adjoining nations, so that, in a little time, destruction raged very generally through the new settlements on the back of the north- ern and middle Colonies. Col. [John] Butler, whose name we have seen as an Indian Agent and com- mander in the wars on the side of Canada [sic], and who had great influence with some of the northern nations of that people, together with one [Joseph] Brant, an half Indian by blood, a man of desperate courage, but, as it is said by the Americans, ferocious and cruel beyond example, were the principal leaders in these expeditions. The vast extent of the frontiers, the scattered and remote situation of the settlements, the nature of the combined enemy-which seemed to coalesce in one point of action all the properties of British, American and savage warfare-

afforded them such advantages in these expeditions that the wretched settlers found all personal resistance as ineffectual as public protection was impracticable. To complete their calamity, submission could procure no mercy; nor was age, sex or condition, in too many instances, capable of allaying the fury of their enemy.

"In this course of havock, the destruction of the fine, new and flourishing settlement of WYOMING was particularly calamitous to the Americans. That district, situated on the Eastern Branch of the

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Susquehanna, in a most beautiful country and delightful climate, although claimed by, and in the nat- ural order of things seeming properly to appertain to, Pennsylvania, was, notwithstanding, since the last [French and Indian] War, settled and cultivated with great ardor by a numerous swarm from the pop- ulous hive of Connecticut. This measure was, however, so much opposed and resented by Pennsylvania, and so obstinately supported by its antagonist, that after much altercation it became at length the foun- dation of an actual war between the two Colonies, in which they engaged with such earnestness that it was not even terminated by the contest with the mother country, until the danger grew so near and so imminent to both sides as, of necessity, to supersede for the present all other considerations.

"The settlement of WYOMING consisted of eight townships, each containing a square of five miles, beautifully situated on both sides of the Susquehanna. In such a country, situation and climate as we have described, and blest with a soil luxuriantly fertile-where every man possessed an abundance (which was, however, the fruit of moderate labour and industry), where no man was very rich nor very great-the inhabitants exhibited upon the whole such a picture of primeval happiness as has seldom been equalled; and such, indeed, as humanity in its present state seems scarcely capable of exceeding. The settlement increased, and throve accordingly. And, notwithstanding its infant state and the opposition they met from Philadelphia, population was already become so vigorous amongst them that they had sent 1,000 [sic] men to serve in the Continental army. Yet, with this excessive drain from the cultivation of a new Colony, their farms were still so loaded with plentiful crops of every kind, and their pastures so abundantly covered with cattle, that their supplies to the army in those respects were at least in full proportion to that which they afforded in men. "Nor had they been deficient in providing against those dangers to which, from their remote situation, they were particularly exposed, and had accordingly con- structed for that purpose no less than four forts, which seemed, at least, fully sufficient to cover the settlement from the irruptions of the savages.

"But neither the happiness of climate, the fertility of soil, nor the remoteness of situation could prevent the evils of party and political discord from springing up amongst them. It might indeed appear from the supply of men which they had sent to the army that only one political principle per- vaded the settlement-a supply so ill suited to the state and strength of an infant colony that it seems difficult whether to admire more the excess of zeal from which it proceeded, or the total want of pru- dence, policy and wisdom under which it was directed. But notwithstanding this appearance, they had no inconsiderable mixture of Loyalists among themselves, and the two parties were actuated by senti- ments of the most violent animosity. Nor were these animosities confined to particular families or places, or marked by any line of distinction; but, creeping within the roofs and to the hearths and boards where they were least expected, served-as it afterwards fatally appeared-equally to poison the sources of domestic security and happiness, and to cancel the laws of nature and humanity.

"It would seem extraordinary-if such instances had not occurred upon other occasions-that this devoted people had frequent and timely warnings of the danger to which they were exposed by sending all their best men to so great a distance [i. e., to serve in the Continental army], without their taking any timely measures for their recall, or even for procuring a substitute of defence or protection. Their quiet had been interrupted by the savages, joined with marauding parties of their own countrymen, in the preceding year; and it was only by a vigorous opposition, in a course of successful skirmishes, that they had been driven off or dispersed. Several of those whom they called Tories, and others who had not before been suspected, had at that time and since abandoned the settlement; and along with a per- fect-and consequently, dangerous-knowledge of all the particulars of their situation and circum- stances, were well known to have carried along with them such a stock of private resentment (from the abasement and insults they had suffered from the prevailing party) as could not fail to give a direction to the fury, and even a new edge to the cruelty, of their savage and inveterate enemies.

"A sort of public act, which had taken place in the settlement since the last invasion, was preceded with, and productive of, circumstances which afforded cause for the greatest alarm, and for every pos- sible defensive precaution. An unusual number of strangers had, under various pretences, and the sanction of that universal hospitality which once so much distinguished America from the Old World, come into the Colony, where their behaviour became so suspicious, that they were at length taken up and examined, when such evidence appeared against several of them (of their acting in direct concert with the enemy, on a scheme for the destruction of the settlements) that about twenty were sent off under a strong guard to Connecticut, in order to be there imprisoned and tried for their lives. The remainder of these strange Tories, against whom no sufficient evidence could be procured, were only expelled. It was soon well known that this measure of sending their fellows to Connecticut, had excited the rage of those so called Tories, in general, whether in arms on the frontiers, or otherwise, in the most extreme degree; and that all the threats which had ever been denounced against this people, were now renewed with aggravated vengeance.

"As the time approached for the final catastrophe, the Indians practised a more refined dissimula- tion, if not greater treachery, than had been customary with them. For several weeks previous to the intended attack, they repeatedly sent small parties to the settlement, charged with the strongest profes- sions of friendship, declarations of the fullest desire and intention to preserve the peace inviolate on their side, and requests that the same favourable and pacific disposition might be entertained and culti- vated on the other. These parties, besides lulling the people in their present deceitful security. answered the purposes of communicating with their friends, and of observing the immediate state of affairs in the Colony. Some alarm, or sense of their danger, began, however, to spread among the peo- ple, and letters were sent to General Washington, and to others in authority, representing their situa- tion, and demanding immediate assistance.

"As the time more nearly approached, some small parties of the enemy- more impatient than the rest, or more eager and covetous to come in for the first fruits of the spoil-made sudden irruptions into the settlement, and committed several robberies and murders; in the course of which, whether through ignorance, or whether from a total contempt of all ties and obligations, they massacred the unhappy wife and five children of one of those men, who had been sent for trial, in their own cause, to Connecticut.

"At length, in the beginning of July, 1778, the enemy appeared suddenly, but in full force, on the Susquehanna. They were led by [John] Butler (that distinguished partizan, whose name we have already mentioned), who was assisted by most of those leaders who, like him, have rendered themselves terrible in the present frontier war. Their force was estimated at about 1,600 men, of whom, something less than one-fourth were Indians, led by their own chiefs. The others were disguised and painted in such a manner as not to be distinguished from the savages; excepting only their officers, who, being dressed in regimentals, carried the appearance of regulars. One of the smaller forts, which was mostly garrisoned by those called Tories, was by them given up; or, as it was said, betrayed. Another was taken by storm, where, although they massacred the men in the most inhuman manner, they spared the women and children.

"It seems odd enough, if not singular, that another Colonel Butler (and said to be a near relation to the invader) should chance to have the defence of Wyoming, either committed to his charge, or by some means fall to his lot. This man, with nearly the whole force of the settlement, was stationed in the principal fort, called Kingston; whither, also, the women, children, and defenceless of all the forts (as the only place of common refuge) crowded for shelter and protection. It would seem, from his sit- uation and force in that place, that he might there have waited, and successfully resisted, all the attempts of the enemy. But this man was so wretchedly weak that he suffered himself to be enticed by his name- sake and kinsman to abandon the advantage and security afforded by his fortress, and to devote those under his charge to certain destruction, by exposing them naked to so severe an enemy.

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"Under the colour of holding a parley for the conclusion of a treaty, he [Col. Zebulon Butler] was led into an agreement that, upon the enemy withdrawing their force, he should march out to hold a conference with them in the open field, and that at so great a distance from the fort as shut out every possibility of the protection which it otherwise afforded. To render this measure still more unaccount- able, he, at the same time, showed so great a distrust of the enemy, and seemed so thoroughly apprehen- sive of their designs, that he marched 400 men, well armed (being nearly the whole strength of his gar- rison), to guard his person to the place of parley! Upon his arrival there he was greatly surprised at finding nobody to treat with; but not being willing to return without finishing his business, he advanced towards the foot of the neighbouring mountains, still hoping that he might hear or see something of those he wanted. As the country began to grow dark and woody, a flag at length appeared, at a con- siderable distance among the bushes, the holders of which seemed so much afraid of treachery and dan- ger from his side, that they retired as he advanced, whilst he, endeavouring to remove this ill impres- sion, still pursued the flag.

"This commander of a garrison did not once perceive his danger until his party was thoroughly enclosed, and he was suddenly awakened from his dream by finding it attacked at once on every side. His behaviour in this wretched situation could scarcely have been expected from the conduct which led him into it. He and his party, notwithstanding those circumstances of surprise and danger which might have disconcerted the most veteran troops, fought with resolution and bravery, and kept up so continual and heavy a fire for three quarters of an hour, that they seemed to gain a marked superiority over their numerous enemy. In this critical moment of danger, some sudden impulse of fear or premeditated treachery, in a soldier, which induced him to cry out aloud that the Colonel had ordered a retreat, determined at once the fate of the party, and possibly that of the final author of their ruin.

"In the state of confusion that ensued, the enemy, breaking in on all sides without obstruction, commenced an unresisted slaughter. Considering the great superiority of numbers on the side of the victors, the fleetness of the savages, and the fierceness of the whole, together with the manner in which the vanquished had been originally surrounded, it affords no small room for astonishment that the com- mander of the garrison, with about seventy of his party, should have been able to effect their escape, and to make their way good to a small fort on the other side of the river. The conquerors immediately invested Fort Kingston, and, to cheer the drooping spirits of the weak remaining garrison, sent in for their contemplation the bloody scalps of 200 of their late relations, friends and comrades.

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A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. II, Part 87

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Wilkes-Barre [Raeder press] Number of Pages: 683

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre [Raeder press]
Number of Pages: 683