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 early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume II > Part 90
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"The grave errors of historians, in relation to the early history of this famous locality, seem to be imperishable. They have been corrected and refuted, over and over, and yet they continue to be propagated and palmed upon the public. My principal object in this communication is to draw attention to a few of these errors, found in Dr. J. A. Spencer's 'History of the United States.' * *
In Book III, Chapter V, pages 23-25, the author draws upon Thacher's ' Military Journal ' for what he seems to suppose to be an authentic account of the Wyoming massacre.
"The points I dispute are: (1) That Col. Zebulon Butler, who commanded the patriots, and Col. John Butler, who commanded the royal forces, were cousins, whereas they were not related to each other by any natural ties of consanguinity. (2) That Col. Zebulon Butler was drawn out by the Tory leader, upon a pretense that 'they were desir- ous of a parley ' -- when the patriot band went out to fight and to do nothing else. * * * (7) That the story of Parshall and Thomas Terry is pure fiction. It is said one murdered his father, mother, brothers and sisters; while the other, with his own hands, butchered his mother, his father-in-law, his sisters and their infant children, and exterminated the whole family. Parshall Terry was in John Butler's army, and he had a brother on our side. An eye-witness relates the fact that young [Parshall] Terry came into the fort, after the battle, disguised, to bid his friends farewell. There were real Tory outrages enough committed, without making up fictitious ones. One Tory [Pencel] shot his brother in cold blood, and another [Windecker] tomahawked his friend."
The most remarkable and absurd of all the fabulous accounts of the battle and massacre of Wyoming which the present writer has read, was originally printed in a German publication. In 1850 it was translated from the German into English, and was published in the Pittsburg Post. The story was entitled "The German Thermopylae. A Sketch of the American Revolution."+
* This history was subsequently given in the series of articles referred to on page 994, ante.
¿ The translation mentioned above reads as follows:
"There are, we presume, but a few of our readers who have not heard of the beautiful Wyoming Valley, that rich and fertile tract of land situated in the State of Pennsylvania, and which has often been celebrated by poets and writers. This valley was first and chiefly settled by Germans. It con- tains rich farms, fields and meadows, together with valuable timber, and was visited with fire and
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For a considerable number of years following the sanguinary con- flict which took place on Abraham's Plains on July 3, 1778, the event was referred to, first, as "the battle," and then, as "the Indian battle," by the people of Wyoming-who, of all persons, were the best informed as to the particulars and characteristics of that conflict. Thus we find in inilitary orders issued by Lieut. Col. Zebulon Butler at Wilkes-Barré in October, 1778 (see the ensuing chapter), the expressions, " the late battle at this place," " the late battle at Westmoreland," and "the late battle at and near the place called Winterinute's Fort "-all referring to the battle of the previous 3d of July. In the testimony given before the Confirming Commissioners* at Wilkes-Barré in 1787, and in the voluini- nous evidence-both oral and documentary-produced before the com- missioners under the Compromise Law, t at Wilkes-Barré in 1801 and 1802, the expression "Indian battle" was frequently used by contempo- raries of the event-the reference being, in each instance, to the battle of July 3, 1778.
This conflict was denominated a battle notwithstanding the fact that numerous exaggerated accounts of it had been disseminated through- out the civilized world, whereby the event had been represented solely and entirely as a murderous rout and massacre. The people of West- moreland of that period knew very well that a massacre of their fellow-
sword by a party of American Tories, British and Indians in the year 1778, at a time when the male population of the settlement (which number amounted to about 350 souls) had joined the army of the great and immortal Washington, at a distance of several days' journey, where they expected to en- counter the main army of the enemy.
"The Colonel of the Wyoming Germans was Hollenback, a. Justice of the Peace. He was an intimate friend of Washington, who knew how to appreciate his distinguished qualities, as well as his rare intelligence; although as regarding religion, their views and opinions differed greatly from each other, as it is well known that Washington was a strict believer in the Bible, whereas Hollenback did adhere to the doctrines of Thomas Paine, who was a philosopher and freethinker.
"The heart-rending call in distress, of their parents, wives and children, whom they had left at home, soon reached the ears of the Wyoming Volunteers, and in an instant Hollenback found himself surrounded by his men, who urged him to meet the enemy, whose force consisted of more than 2,000 men. In vain were the representations of Washington, who, being aware of the superior numerical strength of these barbarous and plundering hordes, had prognosticated to all a sure death. Terror and agony moved the heart of every one at the thought of the dear ones whom they had left behind, unprotected, and they clenched their fists in eagerness for combat and vengeance at the gloomy pros- pects of their ruined happiness; and it was now no longer possible for them to remain with the army.
"At the sound of the trumpet, and headed by their Colonel, they began to return homeward in great haste, marching day and night until they arrived at their settlement, where, instead of meeting again their peaceable abodes, they beheld the smoking ruins of destroyed dwellings, near to which the enemies had comfortably erected their tents-their morning fires blazing triumphantly in the air, inter- mingled with their huzzas. They soon recognized the red hordes of Brandt, the notorious spoilers of the German Flats, who had joined the rapacious and blood-thirsty Tories and British, who, but a short time ago in Cherry Valley, had given such terrible proofs of their cruelty.
"With doleful looks Hollenback regarded his little gallant band, who, gnashing their teeth for rage and vengeance, stood near the place of destruction, and the looks of his men announced to him the inmost thoughts of their hearts. There was none who would have trembled at an assault on these hordes of murderers. 'Brothers,' exclaimed Hollenback, 'against such cowards, who watch for our absence, and who now rejoice in victory over women and children only, every one of us can stand the ground against eight of them. Let us send these brutes to hell in such a manner that even the Devil himself must have respect for the Germans of Wyoming Valley!' And, raising himself from his saddle, he waved his sword in the air, and spurred his horse onward. Thundering hurrahs followed his words, and his men rushed forward, eager for the ensuing combat.
"At the first volley more than 100 of these red-skins (who formed the advance guard of the en- emy) were weltering in their blood. The enemy were quietly reposing in their camp, but in an instant the whole army of the enemy was apprised of the assault, and from all sides they rushed upon the gallant little corps. The sun rose, spreading its animating beams upon the exhausted Germans, who made arrangements to take their stand behind a row of ruins, and to wait for the approach of their . enemies. The first assault of the enemy was repulsed, and many kissed the earth in death, caused by the dense drift of bullets sent forth from behind the entrenchments. ** *
* The enemy soon en- gaged its whole army in a furious combat, but they were not able to stand their ground against the discharges of the pieces of the little band, which, rattling, cleared their ranks: Repulsed repeatedly, and again hurrying into the fight, the enemy could not gain a foot of ground, although their guns began to clear the ranks of their powerful antagonists. *
"During twelve long hours these German Spartans manfully resisted the superior force of the enemy. Finally, and with the last glowing of the setting sun, the fate of the day was decided; 300 Germans had fallen in defense of their adopted country, and fifty more lay badly wounded, who would not seek for quarter, and still strove to make a last effort against the enemy-who seeing their de- termination, had almost been driven to madness on account of their bravery.
"What a noble military achievement! What persevering heroism! Had these men been Americans, they would, up to this day, have been remembered by the nation as 'The Immortal Wyoming Boys.' But they were only Germans, and their memory-which is as worthy of immortality as that of the Hellenes of Thermopylae-remains silently recorded in the book of history of two Pennsylvania Counties !"
* See paragraph "(4)," page 29, Vol. I.
See page 25, Vol. I.
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townsmen and defenders had been perpetrated on Abraham's Plains by their malevolent enemies-a cold-blooded, savage and brutal slaughter of fleeing foes, and a wicked and unlawful murder of prisoners secured by capture or surrender ; but they were aware, also, that these horrors had been preceded by a battle-between their townsmen and a force superior in numbers and arms-which had been carefully planned and deliberately, bravely and vigorously fought by each of the forces engaged. They knew, too (for many of the Westmorelanders who par- ticipated in the engagement had been, as we have herein noted, soldiers in more than one campaign of the French and Indian War), that the tactics and methods pursued by the savages on Abraham's Plains on that bloody 3d day of July were absolutely in accordance with Indian warfare as it had been carried on from the earliest historic times.
During the French and Indian War the chief British officers, be- ginning with Braddock, were slow in obtaining a knowledge of the character of the Indians in times of hostilities, when they were governed by impulse and by hopes of plunder-the desire to obtain scalps and booty being the great (if not the only) motive which ever induced them to accompany either the French or the English on a military campaign .* Then, again, many of those same officers undervalued the Indian system of warfare-placing little faith in the efficiency of guerilla tactics. And yet a review of our Indian history, from Braddock's day down almost to the present era, proves that a small Indian force in ambuscade was an equivalent for, or would overmatch, five times its number of dis- ciplined troops. For the latter, fighting according to the white man's methods, would either be thrown into confusion or become panic-stricken by the peculiar tactics of the savages, and then would be slaughtered in large numbers or totally defeated. To a considerable extent the officers and soldiers of the American army in the Revolutionary War, well informed as they were-either through personal experience or the teach- ings of history-in respect to the Indians' methods of warfare, fought their battles with the savages in much the same way that they or their ancestors had fought them twenty years earlier ; and so the Americans often met with defeat and slaughter-which, in a measure, was what they half expected, for they knew that their foes were blood-thirsty and unrelenting, as well as cautious, wary and vigilant.
Some years ago a famnous General of the United States Army, who had fought through the Civil War, declared, "War is hell !" Yes, and it was "hell" in the days of Braddock, of Wolfe, of Amherst, and of Wash- ington, as well as in the time of Sherman. It inflamed the passions, jaundiced the vision and darkened the heart then just as now. It is true that in these days of singular doctrines and strange "isms " there are some men and women who prate about "humane" war. Their ideas were well hit off, during the United States-Philippine troubles in 1902, by a genial and popular poet, in the following lines :
"What we want is a perfectly humane war, Conducted upon a plan To put all those natives in first-class shape, But never to hurt a man.
"Our soldiers must use only olive-branch loads In their guns, and must exercise care
In furnishing prisoners with dress-suits and pie, And must open all battles with prayer.
* As to Indian warfare, see pages 145 and 146, Vol. I.
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"No matter what tortures our men will endure, No matter how nameless the pain, We've got to be nice to the poor bolo-men, For civilized war is humane !"
War against or by the Indians in this country during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods was certainly not carried on along any such lines as those indicated by these verses. No, war was cruel then and is cruel now, " and neither the poet's harp nor the painter's brush nor the orator's lip can make it other than the horrid thing it is. And the War of the Revolution was distinguished by the extreme barbarity of the British," declares Professor Enoch Perrine of Bucknell University, and then asserts further *:
"Men saw this fact while the war was in progress; for when it was almost over, in the year 1780, John Jay, writing for aid to the Spanish people, declared that 'the barbar- ous and very inhuman manner in which the war has been conducted by the enemy has so alienated the affections of the people from the King and Government of Great Britain and filled their hearts with such deep-rooted and just resentments as render cordial recon- ciliation, much less dependence on them, utterly impossible.' This alienation is seen in the fact that, as the war went on, many of the Tories here became very lukewarm, and Goldwin Smith, the English publicist, says that their number was reduced and their zeal cooled by the arbitrary violence of the King's officers and the excesses of his hireling troops. *
* * This admitted barbarity cannot be defended upon the ground that fire must be fought with fire. As early as the year 1775 Congress said to the Six Nationst: ' This is a family quarrel between us and Old England. You Indians are not concerned in it.' * * * Three years afterwards, when it was thought best to employ some Indians, General Schuyler wrote to James Duane: 'Divesting them of the savage cus- toms exercised in their wars against each other, I think they may be made of excellent use as scouts and light troops.' * * *
" Who, then, were responsible for the extreme cruelty that marked the operations of the English forces? There were, first of all, the savages-spectacular in their war- paint and feathers, like panthers in their sudden, secret and deadly clutch, loud and fierce in their attack. Associated with them in our minds is the pioneer, dead by the side of his plow, his cabin aflame, his children brained and scalped, his wife mayhap fleeing for life across the swamps and through the forests. But the savages were the least culpable. Undeveloped-they were the children only of the woods, an easy prey for plausible villainy; violent-their life of the chase, and their bitter exterminating wars with each other, were to their natures like winds upon the prairies. * *
* In the second and higher degree of culpability are the Tories. Intelligent, devoted to the King and the Established Church, possessed frequently of much property, it was their affair if they chose to disregard the signs of the times and to close their eyes to the rising sun of Lib- erty. Conservative by nature and aristocratic in conduct, they found a plenty of argu- ments why they should remain loyal to the Crown. * *
" But for sonie strange reason the Tory, when opportunity offered, was worse in his cruelty than the red-men themselves. Fiske employs no mere rhetoric when he says that ' the Tories took less pains than Brant to prevent useless slaughter, and some of the atroc- ities permitted by Walter Butler have never been outdone in the history of savage war- fare.' * * They [the Tories] tried to create this impression of themselves-that they were worse even than the redskins; and, while many were yet living, Fenimore Cooper pilloried them in his novels with the sanction of their contemporaries. Against them, too, the vengeance of the gods was at work. They incensed their friends, neighbors, relatives- paying the price which those pay who set at naught the ties of blood; their property was confiscated, and their estates formed no niean part of Colonial wealth; they lost whatever position they held in either Church or State; they fled to Canada and Nova Scotia, and to this day their descendants apologize and hang the head.
" In the third and highest degree of culpability, raised to a bad eminence, is the British Government, without whose positive sanction and active aid these cruelties would have ceased in their inception. At the head stands George, the King. *
* Soon he began to press for the employment of Indians against the revolted Colonies. At his insti- gation it was Suffolk who in the House of Lords interrupted the dying Chatham by defending the King's proposition to use the Indians as 'a means that God and Nature put into our hands.' All knew what the savages would do in battle, for they had been tried in the French and Indian War, the memory of which was still fresh. So fearful had the work of the Indians been that the Great Commoner,¿ who died two months be- fore the crowning crime at Wyoming, cried out with expiring breath against the abomi-
* In a scholarly address-"The Nemesis of Wyoming"-delivered before the Wyoming Commem- orative Association, July 3, 1905. Published by the Association in 1906.
i See page 925, ante.
# The Earl of Chatham. See page 608, Vol. I.
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nable proposition of Suffolk: 'What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and Nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife! Such principles shock every sentiment of honor; they shock me as a lover of honor and honorable war.' * * *
"Even with the Ministry in his control the King could not have perfected his plan *
had there not been at hand one who * * was both pliant and energetic. He was found in the person of Lord George Germain .* Placed at the head of the department of military affairs, the conduct of the war on the frontier was left largely to him. Fiske tells us that the terrors of the war on the border must be charged to the account of Lord George Germain and a few unworthy men who were willing to be his tools. *
* Guy Carletont tried to restrain the Indian, but Germain would abate neither jot nor tittle.
* * He determined to establish the King's supremacy, not by honorable, skilful strug- gle, but by breaking the spirit of the Americans so far as barbarity, Indian or otherwise, could do it. * * * The enlistment of the German mercenaries was due largely to him ; his tactics were to destroy private property and injure individuals by unprovoked attacks with fire and sword. He could not be made to believe other than that the Tories were numerous and strong, while the Colonists were few and feeble."
The methods pursued by the Tories and Indians on the battle-field of Wyoming, after the Westmorelanders had begun to retreat, were prob- ably no more savage and shocking than what they practised on any field where they were the victors. They intended these barbarous doings to be finishing touches to a successful conflict. However, as years rolled on, the massacre features of Wyoming's bloody 3d of July became more and more prominent in people's eyes, chiefly because those features were dwelt upon and exaggerated in nearly every piece of prose and poetry- whether trivial or of consequence-which was published during those years on the subject of Wyoming. When, in 1837 and 1838, appeals were made to the National Congress by citizens of Wyoming for aid for "old Wyoming sufferers, their widows, heirs, and legal representatives;" and when, in 1839 and subsequent years, appeals were made by the same citizens to the General Assembly of Connecticut for an appropriation of money to be used in erecting the Wyoming Monument, there was pub- lished relative to these matters a considerable amount of literature. The mnost, if not all, of this was the product of a resident of Wilkes-Barré who was an intelligent, earnest and ardent supporter of all good projects for the benefit and advantage of his fellow-citizens; but who was, withal, a gentleman of elevated sensibility and lively imagination. In his zeal to make out a strong and convincing case for Wyoming, the massacre, and the subsequent flight of the survivors from the Valley, were strongly featured in his writings, while he dealt but briefly with the battle itself, its importance and its results. In more recent years the events of July 3, 1778, have been represented and designated-in art, in song, and in history-as the "massacre of Wyoming" more often than as the "battle of Wyoming."
Happily, when Edward Garrick Mallery, the young and brilliant Wilkes-Barré lawyer, wrote in 1843 the graceful, chaste and stirring epitaph now inscribed upon the Wyoming Monument, ¿ he denominated the chief event commemorated by that monument as "The Battle of Wyoming"-and thus it should be entitled always ! Moreover, let it be remembered that it was not only a battle attended with dreadful car- nage, and with horrors of every shape and name, and followed by "wide- spread havoc, desolation and ruin," but that it was a battle of import- ance and of considerable consequence, when its results are considered.
It is true that the battle was disastrous to the Americans. What else could have been expected ! What officer ever yet succeeded in ral- lying, and bringing again into line, a band of flying militia with a cloud
* See page 568, Vol. I, and page 1047, ante.
t See pages 927 and 936.
# See Chapter XXVII.
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of savages at their heels ! Zebulon Butler was not an accidental soldier. His intelligence, courage and fortitude had been exhibited during the French and Indian War, and in the Pennamite-Yankee contest for the possession of the region he was later to defend against a horde of merci- less invaders. But when the invasion actually occurred he was not only unprepared (through no fault of his own, however), but was compelled to meet the enemy contrary to his own better judgment. His disposi- tion of his men for the battle was that of a soldier ; his conduct during the battle that of a brave man and skilful officer. But for the untoward circumstance of the mistaken order which threw the left wing into con- fusion, the fortunes of the day might have been different. Neither Lieut. Colonel Butler nor Colonel Denison lost any character in the eyes of those who took part with them in the battle, or in the estima- tion of those who knew the two men.
In the light of our present knowledge of the event, it is undeniable that the battle of Wyoming has never received its adequate place in the history of the War of the Revolution. "The battle was not one of the great battles of history, either in skill displayed, the numbers engaged, or in the casualties suffered," wrote Gen. Edmund L. Dana in 1878 .* " It was fought, however, against superior numbers, arms, and discipline, and in defense of life and home. It was great in the motives which prompted and the courage which inspired the heroes who gave their lives to their country and their example to all time." Three years later General Dana declared; that "he admitted that while the accounts of the battle and massacre inay have been exaggerated in many respects, in others he believed justice had never been done those who fought and fell-tliat the deeds of valor and heroism done by these men were greater than we ever credited them for. He believed they were the greater and grander because the men fought without support-with nothing whatever to rely upon."
" The battle of Wyoming was not a great battle directly in its results, as affecting the struggle for Independence by the Colonies. It was not great in point of the number of men engaged in the conflict. But it was great in this : The exaggerated story of the atrocities com- mitted by the British troops and their allies [after the battle], fired the heart and nerved the arm of every American patriot in this broad land, wherever the story became known. It crossed the broad and tempest- uous Atlantic, and the sympathies of European civilization became enlisted on the side of the struggling Colonists." The battle of Wyoming caused General Washington and the Continental authorities to send into the country of the Seneca and other tribes of the Six Nations the mili- tary expedition commanded by General Sullivan-as narrated in Chap- ter XVIII. The short but severe campaign conducted by Sullivan broke the backbone of the Iroquois Confederacy, and greatly weakened the power of the Indian allies of the British. The fertile and beautiful country now forming the western part of the State of New York was then an unknown wilderness, and its value and attractiveness were first made known to the white people through the Sullivan Expedition. As a consequence, many (not a few from Wyoming Valley) of those wlio shared the perils and privations of that expedition, afterwards became settlers of the land they had aided to conquer.
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