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Sullivan's Expedition against
the. Senacas and Cayugas-— Intended Capture of Niagara frustrated. — Sir
John Johnson and his Regiment return to Tryon County.— Brant destroys
Canajoharie.— Still another Invasion into the Schoharie Country—Investment
of Fort Middleberg—Americans fire on a Flag of Truce.—Immense Destruction of
Grain and other Property.— Caughnawaga and Stone Arabia laid in ashes. —
Defeat of Americans at Fort Keyser.—Haldimans approbation of Sir John
Johnson's zeal. — Negotiations for return of Prisoners.—Sufferings of
Loyalist families.—Fight at Schele's Settlement, near Fort Dayton. — A brave
disciple of Martin Luther. — Americans victorious in two engagements near
Johnstown.—Deathi of Walter Butler. — Awful Massacre by American miscreants
of the Moravian tribe of non-combatant Indians.—Conclusion of the War.
In the Spring of 1779, it was
determined by the Americans that active measures should be taken against the
Indians* especially the Senacas and Cayugas, that those tribes should in
fact be annihilated, and with this object in view a division of their army
from Pennsylvania under General Sullivan, who was in command of the
expedition, and another from the north under General Clinton, effected a
junction at Newton, the site of the present town of Elmira. Their joint
forces amounted to five thousand men. They were there met by a gallant band
of five hundred Indians -under Brant, with two hundred and fifty British
under Colonel John Butler, associated with whom were Sir John and Guy
Johnson, Major Walter N. Butler and Captain John Macdonell (Aberchalder). A
desperate resistance was made against such tremendous odds, but without
present success, yet the ultimate and indeed the principal object of the
campaign, which was the capture of Niagara, the headquarters of the British
in that region, and the seat of influence and power among the Indians, was
abandoned, and the Americans reaped but little advantage from the expedition
except that they scourged a broad extent of country, and laid more towns in
ashes than ever had been destroyed on the continent before. Such of the
redmen as were not massacred were with their women and children driven from
the- country, their habitations were left in ruin, their fields laid waste,
their orchards uprooted, their altars overthrown, and the tombs of their
fathers desecrated—all of which is admitted by the American historians, and
was in strict accordance with General Washington's orders, and for which
General Sullivan received the thanks of Congress (November 50th, 1779). And
yet they complained of the atrocities of the Indians.
Still again, in May, 1780.
Sir John Johnson, at the head of five hundred men, composed of some Regular
troops, a detachment of his own Regiment, and about two hundred Indians and
"Tories," re-visited the scene of their once habitation, a visit highly
unpopular to their former neighbours, and the immediate object of which was
to recover Sir John's family plate, which had been buried in the cellar of
Johnson Hall at the time of his flight in 1776, the place of deposit being
confided only to a faithful slave. It was found and distributed among forty
of his soldiers, who brought it back to Montreal. After the custom of the
day, they destroyed all the buildings, killed the sheep, cattle and a number
of obnoxious Whigs, and appropriated all the horses to their own use. Then
ranks were recruited by a considerable number of Loyalists, while Sir John
also obtained possession of some thirty of his negro slaves. A number of
prisoners were also taken and sent to Chambly. We are of course told that
this irruption was one of the most indefensible aggressions upon an unarmed
and slumbering people which stain the annals of British arms. It made much
difference on which leg the boot was placed; and the Indians in sympathy and
alliance with the British were to abstain from all acts of violence, while
not only the men of their race, but the women and children as well, were to
be massacred in cold blood, their very extermination being the object in
view—and the Loyalists were to strike no blow for the Cause they held so
dear, and against those who had deprived them of every earthly possession.
The following is Sir John Johnson's report of this expedition :
"St. Johns, 3rd June, 1780
"Sir,
"I have the honour to report
to Your Excellency the arrival of the troops and Indians under my command at
this place. We arrived at the settlement, within five miles of Johnson Hall,
on the 21st of last month, in the evening, previous to which I had made
known to the Indians the plan I wished to pursue, and I thought I had little
reason to doubt their joining heartily in it, but upon assembling them to
obtain their final answer, I was not a little mortified to find them totally
averse to it, or even to a division of their body. I therefore found myself
under the disagreeable necessity of adopting their plan, which was for them
to proceed to Tripe's Hill, within a mile and a half of Fort Johnson, while
the troops under my command were to march by Johnstown to Caghnawaga, where
the whole were to join and proceed up the river to the nose, and from thence
to Stone Arabia. We accordingly proceeded, and met at the house of Dow
Fonda, at Caghnawaga, destroying all before us as we marched along. From
thence we proceeded to within a mile of the nose, where a halt was found
absolutely necessary, the troops and Indians being much fatigued and in want
of refreshment, having marched from six in the morning of the 21st till ten
in the morning the day following. Some of the Indians and Rangers continued
burning and laying waste everything before them, till they got above the
nose. Most of the inhabitants tied to the opposite shore with their best
effects, securing their boats, which prevented their crossing the river.
After the men were sufficiently rested and refreshed, I proposed moving on
to Stone Arabia, to which the Indians objected, alleging that the troops, as
well as themselves, were too much fatigued to proceed any further, and that
the inhabitants were all fled into their forts, with their effects, and that
there was nothing left but empty houses, which were not worth the trouble of
going to burn; indeed, many of them moved off with their plunder, with which
they were all loaded, before I knew their intention. I therefore found
myself under the necessity of following them. We burned several houses on
our return to Johnstown, where we arrived about one o'clock the same day.
After providing provisions, etc.. we marched back by the same route we came
to the Scotch settlement, the number of houses, barns, mills, etc., burnt,
amounts to about one hundred and twenty. The Indians, contrary to my
expectation, killed only eleven men, among them Colonel Fisher, Captain
Fisher, and another brother, of what rank I know not. The prisoners taken
amounted to twenty-seven. Fourteen of them I suffered to return, being
either too old or too young to march, and I was induced by the earnest
desire of the Loyal families left behind to set at liberty two of the
principal prisoners we had taken, in order to protect them from the violence
of the people, which they most solemnly promised to do; and in order to make
them pay the utmost attention to their engagements, I assured them that the
rest of the prisoners should be detained as hostages for the performance of
this promise. I also sent a Captain Veeder back in exchange for Lieutenant
Singleton, of my Regiment, which I hope will meet with Your Excellency's
approbation. Vast quantities of flour, bread, Indian corn, and other
provisions were burnt in the houses and mills, and a great number of arms,
cash, etc.; many cattle were killed, and about seventy horses brought off.
One hundred and forty-three Loyalists', and a number of women and children,
with about thirty blacks (male and female), came off with us. Seventeen of
the latter belong to Colonel Claus, Johnson and myself. Some are claimed by
white men and Indians, who are endeavouring to dispose of them; I should
therefore be glad to have Your Excellency's directions concerning them. I
enclose Your Excellency the only papers I could procure, with sundry
letters, which will shew the early intelligence they had of our approach. I
must beg leave to refer Your Excellency to Captain Scott for further
particulars, and beg you will excuse this imperfect account of our
proceedings. I shall transmit exact returns of the Loyalists and Indians
from the Mohawk Village, who have come in, by the next post. I beg leave to
recommend my cousin, Ensign Johnson, to Your Excellency for the vacancy in
the Forty-Seventh, if not pre-engaged, as he was of great service in
preventing the Indians from committing many irregularities, which I was very
apprehensive of, and he has been promised the first vacancy. I must also beg
Your Excellency will be pleased to grant a flag for the relief of the
families left-in Tryon County who may choose to come into this Province,
which is most earnestly wished for by their husbands and parents.
"I have the honour to be,
with great respect, Your Excellency's
"Most obedient and
"Most humble servant,
"John Johnson.
"His Excellency,
General Haldimand."
Later in that year (August,
1780), Brant with his Indians paid .a visit on his own account to the
settlements of the Mohawk, destroyed the forts at Canajoharie, and rendered
the fairest district of the Valley in a single day a scene of wailing and
desolation, sixteen of the inhabitants being killed, fifty-three dwelling
houses, as many barns, together with a grist mill, the church and growing
crops destroyed, and between fifty and sixty prisoners taken, though it is
admitted that "no outrages were committed on defenceless women and children
other than carrying them into captivity"'—a circumstance which Mr. Stone is
good enough to attribute to the absence of the wicked "Tories" in this
expedition.
In October of the same year
another and more extensive expedition was planned and carried out against
the unfortunate Whigs of the same district, in retaliation for Sullivan's
merciless crusade, under Sir John Johnson, Thayendanegea and a famous Seneca
Chieftain, a half-breed named O'Bail, styled by the Indians "Corn Panter"—
the force consisting, besides Mohawks, of three Companies of the Royal
Regiment of New York, one Company of German Yagers, a Detachment of two
hundred of Butler's Rangers, and one Company of Regulars, under the command
of Captain Richard Duncan, the son of an opulent gentleman residing previous
to the War in the neighborhood of Schenectady, and who was afterwards a
well-known pioneer of the County of Dundas, which, if I am not mistaken, he
represented in the early Parliaments of Upper Canada, and was also in later
life one of the Judges of the Province—for the District of Lunenberg, as the
Eastern portion of the Province was first known. Their total number is
variously estimated from eight hundred to over fifteen hundred. Sir John's
troops were collected at Laehine, whence they ascended the St. Lawrence to
Oswego. Thence they crossed the country to the Susquehanna, where they were
joined by the Indians and some "Tories." Each soldier and Indian had
eighty-rounds of cartridges.
The Americans on this
occasion, when Sir John had invested the Fort of Middleberg, showed their
appreciation of the rules of honourable warfare by firing three different
times on British officers bearing flags of truce with a summons to
surrender, their reason being, as is alleged, ''The savages, and their
companions the Tories still more savage than they, had shown no respect to
age, sex or condition, and it was not without force that the question was
repeated, are we bound to exercise a forbearance totally unreciprocated by
the enemy?" "Besides," it was added, "let us show that we will neither take
nor give quarter; and the enemy, discovering our desperation, will most
likely withdraw." Such conduct as this was likely to meet with reprisals,
and it did. The march was continued in the direction of Fort Hunter, at the
continence of the Schohariekill with the Mohawk River, in the course of
which were destroyed the buildings and produce of every description. General
Washington, in his message to the President of Congress, stated that the
destruction of grain was so great as to threaten the most alarming
consequences, in respect to the forming of magazines for the public service
at the north, and that but for that event the settlement of Schoharie alone
would have delivered 80,ooo bushels of grain The houses and barns were
burnt, the horses and cattle killed or taken, and not a building known to
belong to a Whig was saved. The Whigs, however, in retaliation, immediately
after reducing the houses of the Tories to the common lot. Sir John ordered
his forces to spare the Church at the Upper Fort, but his mandate was
disobeyed. It is alleged that over one hundred of the inhabitants were
killed, but this is probably a gross exaggeration. Whatever was left of
Caughnawaga at the time of the irruption of Sir John in the spring, and all
that had been rebuilt, was destroyed by fire, and both sides of the Mohawk
River laid in waste. A Major Fonda, a prominent Whig, was a principal
sufferer, his houses and property in the Town of Palatine to the value of
sixty thousand dollars being destroyed. At Fort Keyser a battle took place,
which resulted in the entire discomforture of the Americans, their leader,
Colonel Brown, and some forty-five of his men being killed, the remainder
seeking safety in flight, and Stone Arabia was then reduced to the condition
of a desert. By this time, however, reinforcements had arrived for the
Americans, under the command of General Van Renssalaer, whose forces were in
every respect superior to the British. In the engagement which followed, the
British Indians did not act with their usual bravery, and though the
Regulars and Rangers are admitted to have fought with great spirit, Sir John
and his forces were obliged to retire. He succeeded, however, by a very
skilful manoeuvre, in capturing a strong detachment of the Americans under
Captain Vrooman, and made his way to Oswego without further molestation. Sir
Frederick Haidimand, writing to Lord George Germaine, stated: "I cannot
finish without expressing to Your I,ordship the perfect satisfaction which I
have for the zeal, spirit and activity with which Sir John Johnson has
conducted this arduous enterprise."
About this time some very
acrimonious correspondence was taking place between British and American
officers, each accusing the other of cruelty to prisoners. Thus, General
Watson Powell writes to the American Colonel Van Schaick, in returning some
American prisoners: "The attention which has been shown to Mrs, Campbell and
those in her unfortunate circumstances, as well as the good treatment of the
prisoners, which it is hoped they will have the candour to acknowledge, is
referred to for comparison to those by whose orders or permission His
Majesty's subjects have experienced execution, the horrors of a dungeon
loaded with irons, and the miseries of wan," and he enclosed a list of some
families of men belonging to the Eighty-Fourth Regiment whose return was
demanded. The list is as follows: John McDonell's family, Donald McGnser's,
Duncan McDonell's, John Mcintosh's, Duncan McDonells, Donald McDonald's,
Kenneth McDonell's, and John McDonell's father and mother. Colonel
Gansevoort replied, denying the accusation which General Powell made in a
previous portion of his letter, of a breach of faith on the part of the
Americans in regard to the cartel of the Cedars, and denying also that,
except in some few cases by way of retaliation for the many cruelties
alleged by him to have been perpetrated by the British, any prisoners or
Loyalists had been treated with cruelty or indignity. Colonel Gansevoort,
however, is upon their own admission, proven to have lied twice in the same
letter, and his maxim being, as is stated, "his country, right or wrong"—his
denial of cruelty to prisoners is worthless. It is apparent, and perhaps
after all but natural, that their wrongs all through the War were magnified
to the utmost extent, and in others the most preposterous stories were
fabricated, while they carefully conceal, minimize or totally deny
well-founded accusations of cruelty to prisoners in their hands, and other
offences. Some of their violations of the rules which govern hostile States
and Governments are, however, notorious, and are matters of history, as when
Congress itself broke the plighted faith of their General (Arnold) in regard
to the cartel entered into at the Cedars for the exchange of prisoners. They
are unable to deny or explain that breach of national honour, and are
obliged to admit that the violation of the stipulations made on that
occasion created difficulties in regard to the exchange of prisoners during
the whole War, and was frequently a source of embarassment and mortification
to General Washington during its entire continuation.
The Haldimand papers shew the
vicissitudes and hardships undergone by the families of many of the
officers. In series B, vol. 158, p. 351, appears the following:
*To his Excellency General
Haldimand, General and Commander m Chief of all H;» Majesty's Forces in
Canada and the Frontiers thereof,
"The memorial of John and
Alexander Macdonell, Captains w the King's Royal Regiment of New York,
humbly sheweth,
"That your Memorialist, John
Macdonell's, family are at present detaind by the rebels in the County of
Tryon, within the Province of New York, destitute of every support but such
as they may receive from the few friends of Government in said quarters, in
which situation they have been since 1777.
"Am I your Memorialist,
Alexander Macdonell, on behalf of his brother, Captain Aikn Macdonell, of
the Eighty-Fourth Regiment that the family of his said brother have been
detained by the Rebels in and about Albany since the year 1775, and that
unless it was for the assistance they have met with from Mr. James Ellice,
of Schenectady, merchant, they must have perished.
"Your Memorialists therefore
humbly pray Your Excellency will be graciously pleased to take the
distressed situation of said families into consideration, and to grant that
a flag be sent to demand them in exchange, or otherwise direct towards
obtaining their release ment, as Your Excellency in your wisdom shall see
fit, and your Memorialists will ever pray as in duty bound.
"(Signed,) John Macdonell,
"Alexander Macdonell."
The above memorial is dated
27th July, but the year is not given. It was probably 1779 or 1780.
A petition from a number of
the men of the King's Royal Regiment of New York is as follows:—
To the Honourable Sir John
Johnson, Lieutenant-Colonel Commander of the King's Royal Regiment of New
York.
The humble petition of sundry
soldiers of said Regiment sheweth,—
That your humble petitioners,
whose names are hereunto subscribed, have families in different places of
the Counties of Albany and Tyron, who have been and are daily being
ill-treated by the enemies of Government.
Therefore we do humbly pray
that Your Honour would be pleased to procure permission for them to come to
Canada. And your petitioners will ever pray.
John McGlenny, Thomas Ross,
Alexander Cameron, Frederick Goose, Wm. Urghad, Alex. Ferguson, Thomas
Taylor, William Cameron, George Murdoff, William Chissim, Eckean McIntire,
Andrew Milcross, Donald McCarter, Allen Grant, Hugh Chisholm, Angus Grant,
John McDonald.
The names and number of each
family intended in the within petition :—
Name of Family-
1, Duncan Mclntyre's,
2. John Christy's
3, George Mordoff's
4, Daniel Campbell's
5, Andrew Milross'
6, William Urghad's
7, Donald McCarter's
8, Donald Ross'
9, Allan Grant's
10, William Chiasmi's
11, DonaId Chissim's
12, Hugh Chissim's
13, Roderick McDonald's
14, Angus Grant's
15, Alexander Grant's
16, Donald Grant's
17, John McDonald'?
18, John McGlenny's
19, Alexander Ferguson
20, Thomas Ro3s'
21, Thomas Taylors'
22, Alexander Cameron's
23, William Cameron's
24, Frederick Goose's
Endorsed—Memorial from several soldiers of Sir John Johnson's Corps,
received 27th July. (The year is not given, it was probably 1779 or 1780.)
In August, 1781, Donald
McDonald, one of the Loyalists from Tryon County, who had come to Canada at
the head of a small band of sixty-two Indians and Tories, and accompanied by
"two notorious traitors named Empie and Kasselinan," as Mr. Stone is good
enough to term two prominent German Loyalists, whose descendants now live in
the County of Stormont, made a raid upon the settlement at Schell's bush
near Fort Dayton. A number of Whigs took refuge in Schell's house, and
defended it bravely against several attempts to fire. McDonald at length
procured a crowbar and attempted to force the door, but while thus engaged
received a shot in the leg from Schell's musket which placed him hors de
combat, and none of his men being sufficiently near, Schell, quick as
lightning, opened the door and made him prisoner, making use of the
cartridges with which he was amply provided to fire upon his comrades,
several of whom were killed and others wounded. Whereupon Mr. Schell, out of
compliment to McDonald's religion no doubt, immediately caused to be sung
the hymn which was a favourite with Luther during the perils and afflictions
of the great Reformer in his controversies with the Pope. While thus
engaged, McDonald's forces returned to the fight, and made a desperate
attempt to carry the fortress by assault and rescue their leader. Rushing up
to the walls, five of them thrust the muzzles of their guns through the
loopholes, but had no sooner done so than Mrs. Schell, seizing an axe, by
quick and well-directed blows, ruined every musket by bending the barrels.
Schell afterwards managed to escape to Dayton. McDonald was so desperately
wounded that his men were unable to remove him, so they took Schell's boys
as hostages, charging their wounded leader to tell the Americans that if
they would be kind to him they would take care of Schell's boys. McDonald
was the next day removed to Port Dayton by Captain Small, where his leg was
amputated, but the blood could not be staunched and the brave man died in a
few hours. Mr. Stone is authority for the statement that he wore a silver
mounted tomahawk, which was taken from him by Schell, that it was marked by
thirty scalp notches, "showing that few Indians could have been more
industrious than himself in gathering this description of military
trophies"—but Mr. Stone is not impartial or thoroughly trustworthy on such
subjects. Eleven British were killed and six wounded, and the boys who were
returned after the War reported that nine wounded died before they arrived
in Canada. Schell was subsequently killed during the War by Indians, one of
his sons being killed and another wounded in their efforts to save him. It
must be conceded that he fought with pluck and that Martin Luther had every
reason to be proud of his disciple.
The last expedition against
this neighborhood was destined to be a still more unfortunate one for the
British. In October, 1781, a force was organized at Buck's Island, in the
St. Lawrence, a few miles below Kingston, consisting of about seven hundred
men, composed of twenty-five men of the Eighth Regiment, one hundred of the
Thirty-fourth Regiment, one hundred of the Eighty-fourth (Royal Highland
Emigrants), thirty-six Highlanders, one hundred and twenty of Sir John
Johnson's, forty of Lake's Independents, one hundred and fifty of Butler's
Rangers, twelve Yagers, with one hundred and thirty Indians, the whole under
the command of Major Ross, who was, I believe, a brother-in-law of Captain
John Macdonell of Aberchalder, having married his sister.
A hard contested battle took
place in the neighborhood of Johnstown on the 24th October, the fortune of
war varying from time to time, but culmiating in that of the Americans,
whose loss was forty killed, the British losing the same number in killed
and some fifty prisoners. A day or two later, another engagement occurred,
about twenty of the British being killed, amongst whom was the brave Walter
Butler, son of Colonel Butler of the Scouts, one of the most enterprising
and indefatigable officers, who was shot through the head by an Oneida
Indian and promptly scalped. It is necessary to peruse a full narrative of
the war properly to appreciate the dauntless courage, activity and endurance
of this gallant soldier. The Americans disgraced their nation by refusing
burial to his body. In re-passing the battle ground, the body of Butler was
discovered as it had been left, and there, without sepulchre, it was
suffered to remain.
This expedition closed the
active warlike operations in the north for that year, and the following was
a period rather of armed neutrality than active war, while in November,
1782, provisional Articles of Peace on the basis of a treaty, by which the
independence of the United States was acknowledged, were entered into, and
the people of the Mohawk Valley were left in peace, though that region of
country had been so utterly laid waste that little more was to be
accomplished. The Loyalists lost their homes, but the land on which their
own dwellings once stood was all that they left to their opponents. The last
act of the War is a fitting satire upon the protestations of the Americans
of the humane manner in which they conducted it: The massacre of every man,
woman and child belonging to the Moravian Tribe of Indians by a band of some
three hundred wretches under the command of a miscreant named Colonel David
Williamson. These Indians had been peaceable during the whole War—the tenets
of their religious faith, for they were Christians, and their religious
principles, which would appear to have been somewhat similar to those of the
Quakers, forbidding them to fight. They are described as a humble, devout
and exemplary community, simple tillers of the soil of their forefathers.
Their brains were battered out, old men and matrons, young men and maidens
and children at their mothers' breasts being massacred, two only of the
whole settlement escaping, while the American papers of the day applauded it
as a very commendable achievement. It was as base, as brutal and as
treacherous as the massacre of Glencoe—perhaps worse, if that be possible.
Mr. Thomas Campbell might have composed a sequel to his "Gertrude of
Wyoming".
The provisional articles of
Peace, signed on the 30th November, 1782, were forwarded by Lord Sydney to
General Haldimand on the 14th February, 1783. On the 8th of August
following, Lord North wrote to General Haldimand, ordering the disbandment
of the two Battalions of the King's Royal Regiment of New York and of the
Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment, the latter replying on the 18th of
November that it would be impossible to disband them until the spring. The
necessary preliminaries appear, however, to have been carried out during the
winter of 1783-4, but the disbanded soldiers received assistance from
Government for three years, until they were able to reap some return from
the lands allotted to them in Upper Canada.
The Treaty of Versailles,
establishing the Peace between Great Britain and the United States, and
settling the boundary between Canada and the States, was signed on the 3rd
September, 1783. |
