Dark and threatening was the aspect of affairs for the people of the Mohawk Valley, in the spring of 1778, the year succeeding the dispersion of St. Leger’s motley force at Fort Schuyler. Brant, with his warriors, retired to Fort Niagara after that event, and during the autumn and winter he and the British and Tory leaders made extensive preparations for war the ensuing spring. Colonel Hamilton was in command at Detroit, engaged actively in endeavors to induce the tribes along the southern shores of the western lakes and the head waters of the Mississippi to join the four divisions of the Six Nations of New York 1 who were in alliance with the crown against the patriots. He was aided by three malignant Tories, M‘Kee, Elliot, and Simon Girty. 2 They had been confined at Pittsburgh, but, escaping, they traversed the country thence to Detroit, and by proclaiming that the Americans had resolved on the destruction of the Indians, and that their only safety consisted in the immediate alliance of the Delawares and Shawnees with the soldiers of the king, aroused these tribes to a desire for war. Already they had been excited against the whites in general by the irruption into their county of Daniel Boon and others (of which I shall hereafter write), and they listened favorably to the appeal of the refugees. The expedition of M‘Intosh into the Ohio Valley gave apparent confirmation to the assertions of the Tories, and Captain Pipe (the rival chief of White Eyes of the Delawares, a fast friend of the Americans) at once assembled his warriors, and urged them to follow him immediately upon the war-path. He proclaimed every one an enemy who should speak against his proposition. But White Eyes, the beloved of all, persuaded his people to desist, and sent a message 3 to the Shawnees, which had the effect to keep them in check for a time. We shall consider the Indian wars in the Ohio country in detail in a future chapter.

Two of the Six Nations, the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras, were still faithful to their pledge of neutrality, nor were the tribes of the other four yet generally in arms. Congress, therefore, resolved to make another effort to secure their neutrality, if not a defensive alliance. 4 A council was called, and the chiefs of all the Six Nations were invited to attend. General Schuyler and Volkert P. Douw were appointed commissioners to attend the meeting and act in behalf of Congress. They requested Governor Clinton to send a special commissioner to be present at the council, and James Duane was accordingly appointed. The council met at Johnstown on the 9th of March [1778.]. More than seven hundred Indians were present, consisting of Tuscaroras, Oneidas, and Onondagas, a small number of Mohawks, three Cayugas, but not one of the Senecas, the most powerful and warlike tribe of the confederacy. The latter not only refused to attend, but sent a message affecting great surprise that they were invited to such a council. 5 It is not certainly known that General Schuyler was present at the meeting. La Fayette accompanied Duane, and the latter seems to have conducted the proceedings on the part of Congress. They were opened by an address from that body, charging the Indians with perfidy, cruelty, and treachery, while the conduct of the United States had been true and magnanimous toward them. An old Onondaga hypocritically acknowledged and bewailed the sins of his tribe, but charged them upon the young and headstrong warriors who had been seduced by the Tory leaders. The Mohawks and Cayugas were sullen and silent, while an Oneida chief, conscious of the faithfulness of his own tribe and of the Tuscaroras, spoke eloquently in behalf of both, concluding with a solemn assurance that the United States might rely upon their abiding friendship. Those two tribes were applauded by the commissioners, while the others were dismissed with an admonition to look well to their ways, as the arm of the United States was powerful, and vengeance might penetrate the remotest settlements of the Senecas. The council, on the whole, was unsatisfactory, for it was evident that the most warlike and important tribes, with Brant at their head, still brooded over their loss at Oriskany, and were determined on revenge.

While La Fayette was at Johnstown, Colonel Samuel Campbell, of Cherry Valley, waited upon him and directed his attention to the exposed condition of that settlement and of those upon the Schoharie Creek. The people had built three slight fortifications the preceding year, but they were quite insufficient for sure protection. They were merely embankments of earth thrown up around strong stone houses, and stockaded, into which the women and children might flee for safety in the event of an invasion. They were respectively known as the Upper, Middle, and Lower Forts. 6 By direction of La Fayette, these were each manned by a company of soldiers, with a small brass field piece. He also directed a fort to be erected in the Oneida country, and Forts Schuyler and Dayton to be strengthened; and, as we have already noticed, Fort Plain was afterward enlarged and more strongly fortified. These and far more efficient preparations for defense were necessary; for the recovery of the Mohawk Valley, where their property was situated, was an object too important to the Johnsons, Butlers, and the large number of refugees who accompanied them to Canada, not to induce extraordinary efforts for its attainment. Their spies and scouts were out in every direction, and, at the very time of the council at Johnstown, Colonel Guy Carleton, a nephew of the Governor of Canada of the same name, was lurking in the neighborhood, to watch the actions and to report upon the dispositions of the chiefs in conclave. His employers at the same time were upon the frontiers, preparing for invasion.

In June, Captain M‘Kean, at the head of some volunteers, was sent to reconnoiter Brant’s encampment at Oghkwaga. M‘Kean’s headquarters were at Cherry Valley. On his way down the valley of the Charlotte River, he learned that large war-parties were out, and, fearing a surprise, thought it prudent to return. He halted an hour to refresh, and wrote a letter to Brant, censuring him for his predatory warfare; he intimating that he was too cowardly to show himself in open and honorable conflict, M‘Kean challenged him to meet him in single combat, or with an equal number of men, to try their skill, courage, and strength and concluded by telling him that if he would come to Cherry Valley, they would change him from a Brant to a goose. 7 This was an injudicious movement, and, doubtless, incited the sachem, in some degree, to join Butler, a few months later, in desolating that settlement.

There was an engagement on the 2d of July, on the upper branch of the Cobelskill, between a party of regular troops and Schoharie militia, fifty-two in number, and an Indian force four hundred and fifty strong. The Americans, commanded by Captain Christian Brown, were overpowered. Fourteen were killed, eight wounded, two were missing, and the remainder escaped. The dwellings were burned, and the horses and cattle, which the victors could not take with them, were slaughtered in the fields. At the same time, Colonel John Butler, who had penetrated the country from Niagara with a body of Indians and Tories, eleven hundred strong, broke into the Valley of Wyoming and laid it waste [July 3-4, 1778.]. Of this I shall write in detail hereafter. We have already considered the destruction of the settlement at German Flats, toward the close of this summer. Scalping parties continued to infest the Schoharie and neighboring settlements until quite late in September, when troops from the main army checked their depredations for a while. A few days after the battle of Monmouth [June 28, 1778.], Colonel William Butler, with a Pennsylvania regiment and a detachment of Morgan’s rifle corps, 8 was ordered to Tryon county, and took post at Schoharie, whence parties were sent out to chastise the white and red savages, and to protect threatened settlements. They accomplished but little, however, except in intercepting bands of Tories that were making their way from the Hudson River settlements to join Johnson at Niagara. One of these parties, collected in the vicinity of Catskill, under a Captain Smith, was dispersed, the commander killed, and several of the men made prisoners. This, and a few other exploits of a similar character, inspired the people with confidence, and they anticipated a season of repose. But it was of short duration, for already a cloud was gathering in the west, full charged with desolation.

Cherry Valley, the wealthiest and most important settlement near the head waters of the eastern branch of the Susquehanna, was the enemy’s chosen point of attack. Colonel Ichabod Alden, of Massachusetts, was in command of the fort there, with about two hundred and fifty Continental troops. 9 On the 8th of November the commandant received a dispatch from Fort Schuyler, informing him that his post was about to be attacked by a large force of Indians and Tories, then assembled upon the Tioga River. Colonel Alden treated the information with unconcern, but the inhabitants were greatly alarmed. They asked permission to move into the fort or to deposite their most valuable articles there, but the colonel, regarding the alarm as really groundless, refused his consent. He assured them, at the same time, that he would be vigilant in keeping scouts upon the look-out and the garrison in preparation, and, accordingly, on the 9th parties were sent out in various directions. One of these, which went down toward the Susquehanna, built a fire at their encampment, fell asleep, and awoke prisoners in the hands of Butler and Brant. All necessary information concerning the settlement was extorted from them, and the next day the enemy moved forward and encamped upon a lofty hill covered with evergreens, about a mile southwest of the village, and overlooking the whole settlement. From that observatory they could see almost every house in the village; and from the prisoners they learned that the officers were quartered out of the fort, and that Colonel Alden and Lieutenant-colonel Stacia were at the house of Robert Wells, recently judge of the county, and formerly an intimate friend of Sir William Johnson and Colonel John Butler.

Early in the morning [November 10, 1778.] the enemy marched slowly toward the village. Snow had fallen during the night, and the morning was dark and misty. When near the village, the Tories halted to examine their muskets, for the dampness had injured their powder. The Indians, and particularly the ferocious Senecas, eager for blood and plunder, pushed forward in the van during the halt. A settler, on horseback, going toward the village, was shot, but, being slightly wounded, escaped and gave the alarm. Colonel Alden could not yet believe that the enemy was near in force, but he was soon convinced by the sound of the war-whoop that broke upon the settlement, and the girdle of fierce savages, with gleaming hatchets, that surrounded the house of Mr. Wells. They rushed in and murdered the whole family. 10 Colonel Alden escaped from a window, but was pursued, tomahawked, and scalped.

The house of the venerable minister, Mr. Dunlap (whose wife was the mother of Mrs. Wells), and that of a Mr. Mitchell, were next attacked, and most of the inmates murdered. 11 Mr. Dunlap and his daughter at home were protected by Little Aaron, a Mohawk chief, who led him to his door and there stood by his side, and preserved his life and property. But the good old man sank under the terrible calamity of that day, and joined his lost ones in the spirit land within a year thereafter. Many other families of less note were cut off. Thirty-two of the inhabitants, mostly women and children, and sixteen soldiers of the garrison, were killed. The whole settlement was plundered after the massacre had ceased, and every building in the village was fired when the enemy left with their prisoners and booty. Among the prisoners were the wife and children of Colonel Campbell, who was absent at the time. He returned to find his property laid waste and his family carried into captivity.

The prisoners, numbering nearly forty, were marched down the valley that night in a storm of sleet, and were huddled together promiscuously, some of them half naked, with no shelter but the leafless trees, or resting-place but the wet ground. The marauders, finding the women and children cumbersome, sent them all back the next day, except Mrs. Campbell, her aged mother, 12 and her children, and a Mrs. Moore, who were kept as hostages for the kind treatment and ultimate exchange of the family of Colonel John Butler. The returning prisoners carried back with them a letter from Walter Butler to General Schuyler, in which he pretended that feelings of mercy for the almost naked and helpless captives were the incentive that caused him to release them; disclaimed all desire to injure the weak and defenseless; and closed by assuring him that, if Colonel John Butler’s family were longer detained, he would not restrain the Indians from indulgence in murder and rapine. The "tender mercy" of Butler was that of "the wicked." He was the head and front of all the cruelty at Cherry Valley on that day. He commanded the expedition, and while he saw, unmoved, the murder of his father’s friend and family, and of others whose age and sex should have secured his regard, his savage ally, the "monster Brant," hastened to save that very family, but was too late. 13 Butler would not allow his Rangers even to warn their friends in the settlement of the approaching danger, but friend and foe were left exposed to the terrible storm; he had sworn vengeance, and his bad heart would not be content until its cravings were satisfied. Tender charity may seek to cloak his crimes with the plea that partisan warfare justified his deeds; and lapse of time, which mellows such crimson tints in the picture of a man’s character, may temper the asperity with which shocked humanity views his conduct; yet a just judgment, founded upon observation of his brief career, must pronounce it a stain upon the generation in which he lived. After the destruction of Cherry Valley his course was short, but bold, cruel, and bloody. British officers of respectability viewed him with horror and disgust; and when, in 1781, he was slain by the Oneidas on the banks of the West Canada Creek, his body was left to decay, while his fallen companions were buried with respect.

This expedition, cruel and of doubtful policy, alarmed the neutral Oneidas. 14 They were faithful to the Americans, yet, having intermarried freely with the Onondagas, their relations had been slain or impoverished, and this distressed them. They sent a deputation to Fort Schuyler to inquire into the matter. Colonel Van Schaick pacified, if he did not satisfy, them, and they returned to their people. But the ire of the Onondagas was fiercely kindled, not only on account of the destruction of their property, but because of the extinguishment of their council fire. Three hundred braves were immediately sent upon the war-path, charged with the vengeance of the nation. Guided by a Tory, they came down fiercely upon the settlement at Cobelskill, 15 murdering, plundering, and burning. The militia turned out to repulse them, but, being led into an ambuscade, a number of them were killed. They fought desperately, and while the militia was thus contending, and beating back the savages, the people fled in safety to Schoharie. Seven of the militia took post in a strong house, which the savages set fire to, and these brave young men all perished in the flames. The whole settlement was then plundered and burned. The patriots lost twenty-two killed, and forty-two who were made prisoners.

While this expedition was in progress, scalping parties appeared at the different points in the lower section of the Mohawk, and the settlements were menaced with the fate of Cherry Valley. On the south side of the Mohawk a party fell upon the Canajoharie settlement, took three prisoners, captured some horses, and drove the people to Fort Plain. On the same day [April 18, 1779.] another party attacked a small settlement at Stone Arabia, 16 burned some houses, and killed several people. A party of Senecas appeared at Schoharie on the same day, drove the people to the fort, plundered the houses, and carried away two men prisoners. These simultaneous attacks were part of a plan for cutting off the settlement in detail. The Indians on the south of the Mohawk were from the Seneca country, and those on the north from Canada, both, doubtless, the advanced parties of larger forces. The settlements were thoroughly alarmed. The Palatine 17 Committee wrote immediately to General Clinton, at Albany, for succor. That efficient officer afforded immediate aid, and, by the timely check thus given to the invaders, the settlers of the valley were prevented from being driven into Schenectady. 18 Other settlements near the Delaware and on the frontiers of Ulster county were visited by the Indians in May and the early part of June; and in July [July 20, 1779.] the battle of Minisink occurred, the particulars of which will be hereafter related.

General Sullivan 19 was placed in the chief command, and led in person the division that ascended the Susquehanna from Wyoming, while General Clinton 20 commanded the forces that penetrated the country from the mouth of the Canajoharie. It was arranged to unite the two divisions at Tioga.

Clinton’s troops, fifteen hundred strong, were mustered at Canajoharie on the 15th of June, and on the 17th he commenced the transportation of his bateaux and provisions across the hilly country to Springfield, at the head of Otsego Lake, a distance of more than twenty miles. It was an arduous duty, for his boats numbered two hundred and twenty, and he had provisions sufficient for three months. He reached Springfield, with all his luggage, on the 30th. On his way he captured Hare and Newberry, two notorious spies, the former a lieutenant in the British service, and the latter the miscreant whom we have already noticed as the murderer of Mr. Mitchell’s wounded child at Cherry Valley. They were tried, and hanged "pursuant to the sentence of the court, and to the entire satisfaction of the inhabitants of the county." 21

Clinton, with his division, proceeded to the foot of Otsego Lake, and there awaited orders from Sullivan. A day or two after his arrival [July 1, 1779.], General Schuyler communicated to him the important information that the purpose of the expedition was known to the enemy, and that four hundred and fifty regular troops, one hundred Tories, and thirty Indians had been sent from Montreal to re-enforce the tribes against whom it was destined. This information General Schuyler received from a spy whom he had sent into Canada. The spy had also informed him that they were to be joined by one half of Sir John Johnson’s regiment and a portion of the garrison at Niagara. On the 5th, Mr. Deane, 22 the Indian interpreter, arrived with thirty-five Oneida warriors, who came to explain the absence of their tribe, whom Clinton, by direction of Sullivan, had solicited to join him. 23 They confirmed the intelligence sent by Schuyler, and added that a party of Cayugas and Tories, three hundred in number, were then upon the war-path, and intended to hang upon the outskirts of Clinton’s army on its march to Tioga.

Sullivan and Clinton formed a junction at Tioga on the 22d of August [1779.], the entire force amounting to five thousand men, consisting of the brigades of Generals Clinton, Hand, Maxwell, and Poor, together with Proctor’s artillery and a corps of riflemen. The movement of the expedition had been so slow that the enemy was prepared to receive them. Near Conewawah 24 (Newtown in the histories of the battle), a considerable Indian village at the junction of the Newtown Creek with the Chemung River, they had thrown up breast-works half a mile in length, where they had determined to make a bold stand against the invaders.

General Hand 25 formed the light infantry about four hundred yards from the breast-works, and, while thus waiting for the main body to come up, was several times attacked by small parties of Indians, who sallied out, raised the war-whoop, and then retreated within the works. The hill upon the right swarmed with savages, and Sullivan ordered Poor to sweep it with his brigade. He immediately commenced the ascent, and the action became warm. His progress was bravely disputed for two hours, when the enemy slowly gave way. They darted from tree to tree as they yielded inch by inch; and from behind rocks, and bushes, and trees they galled the Americans terribly with a scattering fire. Brant was at the head of the savages, and Sir John Johnson, aided by the Butlers and Captain M‘Donald, one of the Scotch refugees from Johnstown, commanded the Tories. It is believed that Guy Johnson was also in the battle, but this is not certainly known. They fought skillfully and courageously, and, but for the artillery that was brought into play as speedily as possible, the victory would doubtless have been on their side. The cannonade produced a great panic among the Indians, yet their leader, who was seen at all points, and in the hottest of the fight, kept them long from retreating. Poor at length gained the summit of the ridge, outflanked the enemy, and decided the fortunes of the day. Brant, perceiving that all was lost, raised the loud, retreating cry, Oonah! Oonah! and savages and Tories, in great confusion, abandoned their works and fled across the river, pursued by the victors. Thus ended the battle of Chemung. The force of the enemy was estimated by Sullivan at fifteen hundred, including five companies of British troops and Rangers. The Americans numbered between four and five thousand, a considerable portion of whom were not brought into action at all. Considering the length of time occupied in the battle, and the numbers engaged, the loss was very inconsiderable. Only five or six of the Americans were killed, and about fifty wounded. The loss of the enemy was much greater. In their flight eight Indians were slain and scalped by their pursuers. Ay, scalped! for the Americans had been apt scholars in learning the Indian art of war that had been so terribly taught them in Tryon county for three years.

Sullivan’s army rested upon the battle-ground that night, and the next morning pushed onward toward Catharinestown, an Indian settlement northwest from Conewawah, and about three miles from the head of Seneca Lake. The march was difficult and dangerous. The route lay through narrow defiles and a deep valley traversed by a stream so sinuous that they had to ford it several times, the water often waist high. At night [August 31.] they bivouacked in a dark and tangled cedar swamp, without blankets or food, and in continual fear of an enemy in ambush. 26 The whole army reached Catharinestown in safety, and encamped before it on the 2d of September. The people fled, and the next day the village and surrounding corn-fields and orchards were destroyed.

Taking breath at Kanadaseagea, the invaders marched on to Kanandaigua, at the head of the little lake of that name, and in a few hours after their arrival the "twenty-three very elegant houses, mostly framed, and, in general, large," 27 with the extensive fields of corn and beans, and orchards of heavily-laden fruit-trees, were destroyed. Honeoye, or Anyeaya, a village lying in the path of the invading army in its march toward the Valley of the Genesee, was next swept away, and Sullivan prepared to desolate the broad valley in whose bosom nestled the great capital of the Western tribes, and the most important of all the Indian settlements.

Thus far the enemy had fled in terror before the invading army, and the villages of the Indians were destroyed without an effort being made to defend them. The beautiful Valley of the Genesee, the earthly paradise of the Six Nations, was now menaced. A council of the villages of the plain was held, and they resolved to turn and strike another blow in defense of their homes. Their women and children were removed to the deep shelter of the forest, and the warriors prepared for battle upon a plain between Honeyoe and the head of Connissius Lake, now known as Henderson’s Flats. There they waited in ambush the approach of Sullivan’s army, and rose upon the advanced guard with the desperation of wounded panthers. The battle was short, the savages were routed, and all that they had gained was the capture of two Oneida chiefs. 28

On the 12th, Kanaghsaws and its plantations were laid in ashes. Here the progress of the army was temporarily checked by a deep stream, which it was necessary to bridge in order to pass over with the baggage and stores. Before them lay the village of Little Beard’s Town, and, while the army was delayed in constructing a bridge, Lieutenant Boyd, of the rifle corps, with a detachment of twenty-six men, went to reconnoiter the town. He found it deserted, except by two Indians, whom he killed and scalped. Returning, his route lay near the party who had captured the two Oneidas. One of them, as we have seen, was killed, the other was spared for torture. He broke loose from his captors, and fled in the direction of Sullivan’s camp. Many Indians started in pursuit, and these were joined by Brant and a large body of warriors, who had lain in ambush to cut off Boyd on his return. The pursuing Indians came upon Boyd and his party [September 13, 1779.]. Surrounded by overwhelming numbers, he saw no way to escape but by cutting his way through the fierce circle. Three times he made the attempt; almost all his men were killed, and himself and a soldier named Parker were made prisoners and carried in triumph to Little Beard’s Town. 29 Brant treated them humanely, but, having business elsewhere, the chief left them in the custody of Colonel John Butler, who, with his Rangers, was there. The unfeeling Tory handed them over to the tender mercies of the Indians. By them Boyd was tortured in the most cruel manner, and then beheaded. Parker was beheaded without being tortured. Among the few who escaped was Timothy Murphy, the slayer of Fraser at Bemis’s Heights. The Americans found the bodies of the two victims at Little Beard’s Town, and buried them upon the bank of Little Beard’s Creek, under a clump of wild plum-trees on the road now running from Moscow to Genesee.

Sullivan proceeded to the Genesee Valley. Gathtsegwarohare and Little Beard’s Town were destroyed, and on the 14th he crossed the river, and the army encamped [September, 1779.], around Genesee, the Indian capital. Here every thing indicated the presence of civilization. There was not a wilderness feature in the scene. The rich intervales presented the appearance of cultivation for many generations, 30 and the farms, and orchards, and gardens bespoke a degree of comfort and refinement that would be creditable to any civilized community. But a terrible doom hung over the smiling country. The Genesee Castle was destroyed, and the capital was laid in ashes. "The town" [Genesee], said Sullivan, in his dispatch to Washington, "contained one hundred and twenty-eight houses, mostly large and very elegant. It was beautifully situated, almost encircled with a clear flat, extending a number of miles, over which extensive fields of corn were waving, together with every kind of vegetable that could be conceived." Yet the contemplation of this scene could not stay the destroyer’s hand; and over the whole valley and the surrounding country the troops swept with the besom of desolation. Forty Indian towns were burned; one hundred and sixty thousand bushels of corn in the fields and in granaries were destroyed; a vast number of the finest fruit-trees, 31 the product of years of tardy growth, were cut down; hundreds of gardens covered with edible vegetables were desolated; the inhabitants were driven into the forests to starve, and were hunted like wild beasts; their altars were overturned, and their graves trampled upon by strangers; and a beautiful, well-watered country, teeming with a prosperous people, and just rising from a wilderness state, by the aid of cultivation, to a level with the productive regions of civilization, was desolated and cast back a century within the space of a fortnight. 32 To us, looking upon the scene from a point so remote, it is difficult to perceive the necessity that called for a chastisement so cruel and terrible. But that such necessity seemed to exist we should not doubt, for it was the judicious and benevolent mind of Washington that conceived and planned the campaign, and ordered its rigid execution in the manner in which it was accomplished. It awed the Indians for the moment, but did not crush them. In the reaction they had greater strength. It kindled the fires of deep hatred, which spread far among the tribes upon the lakes and in the valley of the Ohio. Washington, like Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, received from the savages the name of An-na-ta-kau-les, which signifies a taker of towns, or TOWN DESTROYER. 33

From causes not clearly understood, Sullivan did not extend his victorious march to Niagara, the head-quarters of the Tories and Indians, the breaking up of which would have been far more efficient in bringing repose to the white settlements than the achievements just accomplished; but, having desolated the Genesee Valley, he crossed the river and retraced his steps. When the army recrossed the outlet of Seneca Lake [September 20, 1779.], Colonel Zebulon Butler, of Wyoming, was sent with a detachment of five hundred men, to pass round the foot of Cayuga Lake and destroy the Indian towns on its eastern shore. Lieutenant Dearborn was dispatched upon similar service along its western shore; and both corps, having accomplished their mission, joined the main body on the Chemung [September 28.]. 34 Butler had burned three towns and the capital of the Cayugas, and Dearborn had destroyed six towns and a great quantity of grain and fruit-trees. The army reached Tioga, its starting-place, on the 3d of October, where it was joined by the garrison left in charge of Fort Sullivan. Destroying that stockade, they took up their line of march on the 4th for Wyoming, where they arrived on the 7th, and pitched their tents on the former campground near Wilkesbarre. The next day a large portion of the troops left for Easton, on the Delaware, at which place they were dismissed. Thus ended a campaign before which we would gladly draw the vail of forgetfulness.

Although beaten back into the wilderness, and their beautiful country laid waste, the Indians were not conquered, and in the spring of the following year [1780.] Brant and some of his followers were again upon the war-path. During the winter the threat of Sir Frederic Haldimand against the Oneidas was executed. Their castle, church, and villages were destroyed, and the inhabitants were driven down upon the white settlements for protection. They collected together near Schenectady, where they remained until after the war. 35 These, too, were particular objects for the vengeance of the hostile savages. They regarded the Oneidas as double traitors, and determined to punish them accordingly, should an opportunity offer to do so.

In April, in connection with a band of Tories, the savages destroyed Harpersfield, and then marched to the attack of the Upper Schoharie Fort. On their way they captured Captain Alexander Harper and a small company who were with him, engaged in making maple sugar. Three of the yeomanry were killed, and ten made prisoners and taken to Niagara. With difficulty Brant kept his Indians from murdering them by the way. At Niagara Harper met with his niece, the daughter of Mr. Moore, of Cherry Valley, whose family, with that of Colonel Campbell, was carried into captivity in 1778. She had married a British officer named Powell, and through his exertions Captain Harper and his associates were kindly treated at Niagara. But they were doomed to a long absence from home, for they were not released until the peace in 1783 opened all the prison doors. 36

The borders of Wyoming, and the Dutch settlements along the western frontiers of the present Ulster and Orange counties, suffered from scalping parties during the spring and summer of 1780. We have already noticed the destruction of the settlement and mills at Little Falls, on the Mohawk; also the devastation of the Canajoharie settlements and the hamlet at Fort Plain, which occurred in August of that year. The irruption of Sir John Johnson into the valley in the neighborhood of Johnstown will be considered when writing of my visit to Johnson Hail.

During the autumn [1780.] an extensive expedition was planned against the Mohawk and Schoharie settlements. The Indians were thirsting for revenge for the wrongs and misery inflicted by Sullivan. The leaders were Sir John Johnson, Brant, and the famous half-breed Seneca warrior, Corn Planter. 37 The Indians rendezvoused at Tioga Point, and, ascending the Susquehanna, formed a junction at Unadilla with Sir John Johnson and his forces, which consisted of three companies of his Greens, one company of German Yagers, two hundred of Butler’s Rangers, one company of British regulars, under Captain Duncan, and a number of Mohawks. They came from Montreal by way of Oswego, bringing with them two small mortars, a brass three pounder, and a piece called a grasshopper.

Major Woolsey, who seems to have been a poltroon, 38 was the commander of the garrison at the Middle Fort, and sent out a detachment against the foe, under Lieutenant Spencer, who was repulsed, but returned to the fort without losing a man. That post was now formally invested by the enemy, and Sir John Johnson sent a flag, with a summons to surrender. The bearer was fired upon by Murphy, the rifleman already mentioned, but was unhurt; and, on his return to the camp, Johnson commenced a siege. The feeble garrison had but little ammunition, while the enemy, though well supplied, did very little execution with his own. The siege was a singular, and even ridiculous, military display. While a party of the besiegers were awkwardly trying to cast bomb-shells into the apology for a fort, the rest were valiantly attacking deserted houses and stacks of grain. Failing to make any impression, Sir John sent another flag toward noon. Murphy again fired upon the bearer, and again missed his mark. Woolsey had ordered him to desist, but Murphy plainly told his commanding officer that he was a coward, and meant to surrender the fort; and excused his breach of the rules of war in firing upon a flag by the plea that the enemy, in all his conduct, paid no regard whatever to military courtesy.

The siege continued, and again a flag was sent, and was fired upon a third time by Murphy. The officers and regulars in the fort had menaced him with death if he should again thus violate the rules of war. But the militia, among whom he was a great favorite, rallied around him, and Woolsey and his men were set at defiance. At length Johnson, suspecting the garrison to be much stronger than it really was, or fearing re-enforcements might arrive from Albany, abandoned the siege, and marched rapidly down the valley, destroying with fire every thing combustible in his way. He attacked the Lower Fort, but, being repulsed by a shower of grape-shot and musket-balls from the garrison in the church, he continued his march down the river to Fort Hunter, 39 at its junction with the Mohawk. Not a house, barn, or grain-stack, known to belong to a Whig, was left standing, and it was estimated that one hundred thousand bushels of grain were destroyed by the invaders in that one day’s march. The houses and other property of the Tories were spared, but the exasperated Whigs set them on fire as soon as the enemy had gone, and all shared a common fate. Only two persons in the besieged fort were killed, but about one hundred of the inhabitants were murdered during the day. The Vroomans, a numerous family in Schoharie, suffered much, many of them being among the slain.

Sir John remained at Fort Hunter on the 17th [October, 1780.], and destroyed every thing belonging to the Whigs in the neighborhood. On the 18th he began a devastating march up the Mohawk Valley. Caughnawaga was laid in ashes, and every dwelling on both sides of the river, as far up as Fort Plain, was destroyed. 40 On the night of the 18th Sir John encamped with his forces near "The Nose," and the following morning he crossed the Mohawk at Keder’s Rifts, 41 sending a detachment of fifty men to attack a small stockade called Fort Paris, in Stone Arabia, about three miles north of the river. The main body kept in motion at the same time, and continued the work of destruction along the wide line of its march.

As soon as the irruption of Johnson into the Schoharie settlement was made known at Albany, Governor George Clinton, accompanied by General Robert Van Rensselaer, of Claverack, at the head of a strong body of militia, marched to the succor of the people in Tryon county. They arrived at Caughnawaga on the 18th, while it was yet in flames; and, ascertaining that Fort Paris was to be attacked the next day, Van Rensselaer dispatched orders to Colonel Brown, then stationed there, to march out and meet the enemy. Brown promptly obeyed, and near a ruined military work, called Fort Keyser, confronted the invaders. A sharp action ensued, and the overwhelming numbers of the enemy bore down the gallant little band of Brown, who, with forty of his soldiers, was slain. 42 The remainder of his troops found safety in flight.

Sir John now dispersed his forces in small bands to the distance of five or six miles in each direction, to pillage the county. He desolated Stone Arabia, and, proceeding to a place called Klock’s Field, halted to rest. General Van Rensselaer, with a considerable force, was in close pursuit. He had been joined by Captain M‘Kean, with a corps of volunteers, and a strong body of Oneida warriors, led by their principal chief, Louis Atyataronghta, whom Congress had commissioned a colonel. 43 His whole force was now fifteen hundred strong. Van Rensselaer’s pursuit was on the south side of the Mohawk, while Johnson was ravaging the country on the north side. Johnson took care to guard the ford while his halting army was resting, and the pursuers were there kept at bay. The tardy movements of Van Rensselaer, who, instead of pushing across to attack the wearied troops of the invader, rode off to Fort Plain to dine with Governor Clinton, were justly censured; and the Oneida chief even denounced him as a Tory. This accusation, and the remonstrances of some of his officers, quickened his movements, and toward evening his forces crossed the river and were arrayed for battle. The whites of the enemy were upon a small plain partially guarded by a bend in the river, while Brant, with his Indians, occupied, in secret, a thicket of shrub oaks in the vicinity. The van of the attack was led by the late General Morgan Lewis, then a colonel. Colonel Dubois commanded the extreme right, and the left was led by Colonel Cuyler, of Albany. Captain M‘Kean and the Oneidas were near the right. Johnson’s right was composed of regular troops; the center, of his Greens; and his left was the Indian ambuscade. When the patriots approached, Brant raised the war-whoop, and in a few moments a general battle ensued. The charge of the Americans was so impetuous that the enemy soon gave way and fled. Brant was wounded in the heel, but escaped. Van Rensselaer’s troops wished to pursue the enemy, but it was then twilight, and he would not allow it. They were ordered to fall back and encamp for the night, a movement which caused much dissatisfaction. 44

Louis and M‘Kean did not strictly obey orders, and early in the morning they started off with their forces in pursuit. Johnson, with the Indians and Yagers, fled toward Onondaga Lake, where they had left their boats concealed. His Greens and the Rangers followed. Van Rensselaer and his whole force pursued them as far as Fort Herkimer, at the German Flats, and there M‘Kean and Louis were ordered to press on in advance after the fugitives. They struck the trail of Johnson the next morning, and soon afterward came upon his deserted camp while the fires were yet burning. Van Rensselaer had promised to push forward to their support; but, having little confidence in the celerity of his movements, and fearing an ambuscade, Louis refused to advance any further until assured that the main body of the Americans was near. The advanced party halted, and were soon informed by a messenger that Van Rensselaer had actually abandoned the pursuit, and was then on his return march! It was a shameful neglect of advantage, for, with proper skill and action, Johnson might have been captured at the Nose, 45 before Stone Arabia was desolated, or else overtaken and secured in his flight.

When Van Rensselaer heard of the concealment of Johnson’s boats on the Onondaga, he dispatched a messenger to Captain Vrooman, then in command at Fort Schuyler, ordering him to go with a strong detachment and destroy them. Vrooman instantly obeyed. One of his men feigned sickness at Oneida, and was left behind. He was there when Johnson arrived, and informed him of Vrooman’s expedition. Brant and a body of Indians hastened forward, came upon Vrooman and his party while at dinner, and captured the whole of them without firing a gun. Johnson had no further impediments in his way, and easily escaped to Canada by way of Oswego, taking with him Captain Vrooman and his party prisoners, but leaving behind him a great number of his own men. 46 Tryon county enjoyed comparative repose through the remainder of the autumn and part of the winter.

At this period every thing combined to cast gloom over the Mohawk country. Vermont, as we have noticed in a former chapter, had assumed an equivocal position, amounting almost, in appearance, to a treasonable rebellion against Congress. General Haldimand, with a large regular force, was menacing the northern country from his post upon Lake Champlain; the Johnsons, Butlers, and Brant were laying plans for an extensive invasion of Tryon county and the settlements near the Delaware; the forts that served for a defense for the people were weak from lack of provisions, ammunition, and men; the principal one, the key to the Mohawk Valley from the west, was destroyed; and, worse than all, a spirit of discontent and despondency was rife in that quarter, induced by the inefficiency of Congress in furnishing supplies, and the seeming hopelessness of the patriot cause. General Schuyler and others expressed their conviction that, if another invading army should come upon the settlements during the existing state of things, large numbers of the people would join the royal standard. The undisciplined militia, necessarily engaged in farm labor, and often insubordinate, were a weak reliance, and nothing but an efficient military force, either of paid levies or soldiers of the regular army, could give confidence and real protection.

The expectation of such aid was but a feeble ray of hope at the beginning of the summer, for Washington and the French commander (De Rochambeau) were concocting plans far more important than the defense of a single frontier section of the vast extent of the colonies. Governor Clinton was greatly pained and embarrassed by the gloomy prospect in his department. In this dilemma, his thoughts turned to Colonel Willett, who had just been appointed to the command of one of the two regiments formed by the consolidation of five New York regiments. His name was a "tower of strength" among the people of the Mohawk Valley, and Clinton implored him to take command of all the militia levies and state troops that might be raised for the summer campaigns. He consented, left the main army, and established his head-quarters at Fort Rensselaer 47 (Canajoharie), toward the close of June [1781.]. The spirits of the people were revived, although the forces of Willett consisted of mere fragments of companies hastily collected from the ruins of the last campaign. "I confess myself," he said, in a letter to Governor Clinton, "not a little disappointed in having such a trifling force for such extensive business as I have now on my hands; and, also, that nothing is done to enable me to avail myself of the militia. The prospect of a suffering country hurts me. Upon my own account I am not uneasy. Every thing I can do shall be done; and more can not be looked for. If it is, the reflection that I have done my duty must fix my tranquillity." 48

28 One of these was General Sullivan’s guide, and had rendered the Americans very important services. He had an elder brother engaged with the enemy, and here they met for the first time since their separation at the Oneida Castle. Fierce was the anger of the elder chief when he recognized his brother in the prisoner. Approaching him with violent gestures, he said, "Brother! you have merited death! The hatchet or the war-club shall finish your career!" He then reproached him for aiding the rebellion, for driving the Indians from their fields, and for butchering their children. "No crime can be greater," he said. "But though you have merited death, and shall die on this spot, my hands shall not be stained with the blood of a brother! Who will strike?" Instantly a hatchet gleamed in the hand of Little Beard, the sachem of a village near by, * and the next moment the young Oneida was dead at the feet of his brother. – See Campbell’s Annals.

42 Colonel Brown was a distinguished soldier in former campaigns of the Revolution in the Northern Department, as the reader has already noticed. He was born in Sandersfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, October 19th, 1744. He graduated at Yale College in 1771, and studied law with Oliver Arnold (a cousin of the traitor), at Providence, Rhode Island. He commenced practice at Caughnawaga, New York, and was appointed king’s attorney. He soon went to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he became active in the patriot cause. He was chosen by the State Committee of Correspondence, in 1774, to go to Canada to excite rebellion, in which perilous duty he had many adventures. He was elected to Congress in 1775, but before the meeting of that body he had joined the expedition under Allen and Arnold against Ticonderoga. He assisted in the capture of Fort Chambly in the autumn of that year, and planned the attack on Montreal, which resulted so disastrously to Colonel Ethan Allen. He was at the storming of Quebec at the close of the year. The following year Congress gave him the commission of lieutenant colonel. In 1777 he conducted the expedition that attacked Ticonderoga and other posts in its vicinity, released one hundred American prisoners at Lake George, and captured quite a large quantity of provisions and stores belonging to the enemy. Soon after this he retired from the service on account of his detestation of Arnold. Three years before the latter became a traitor, Brown published a hand-bill, in which he denounced him as an avaricious and unprincipled man, charged him with "selling many a life for gain," and predicted that he would prove a traitor, in the remarkable words with which the hand-bill closed: "Money is this man’s God, and to get enough of it he would sacrifice his country!" This was published at Albany in the winter of 1776-7, while Arnold was quartered there. Arnold was greatly excited when told of it, called Brown a scoundrel, and declared that he would kick him whensoever and wheresoever they might meet. This declaration was communicated to Brown. The next day, Brown, by invitation, went to a dinner where he would meet Arnold. The latter was standing with his back to the fire when the former entered the door, and he and Brown thus met each other face to face. Brown walked boldly up to Arnold, and, looking him sternly in the face, said, "I understand, sir, that you have said you would kick me. I now present myself to give you an opportunity to put your threat into execution." Arnold made no reply. Brown then said, "Sir, you are a dirty scoundrel." Arnold was still silent, and Brown left the room, after apologizing to the gentlemen present for his intrusion. *

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Transcription and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 06/03/2001.

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