Читать книгу Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906] - New York State Historical Association. Meeting - Страница 11

Table of Contents

History has not done justice to the subject in telling the story of Sullivan's expedition. There are few if any equally important events in our history of which the great majority of our people know so little. It was the most important military event of 1779, fully one-third of the Continental army being engaged in it. The campaign was carried on under great difficulties, was brilliantly successful, and executed with but small loss of life. It is possible that the movement would have received more attention from the historians had the loss of life been much greater, even if the results had been of less importance.

The chief result was the practical destruction of the Iroquois Confederacy. While the Six Nations were very active on the frontier the following year, the Confederacy as an organization had received its death blow.

The massacres at Wyoming, along the New York frontier, especially in the Mohawk, Schoharie and Susquehanna valleys, had so aroused the people that the Continental Congress felt called upon to take action and on the 27th of February, 1779, passed a resolution directing Washington to take effective measures to protect the frontier.

It was decided to send a strong expedition against the Iroquois settlements, and utterly destroy their towns and crops, more especially in the territory of the Senecas and Cayugas. It was no small task to equip a large force and traverse an almost unknown, and altogether unmapped, wilderness which was wholly without roads, in the face of an active and vigilant as well as relentless foe.

The command of the expedition was tendered to General Gates because of his rank. In reply to the tender of the command General Gates wrote to Washington as follows: "Last night I had the honor of your Excellency's letter. The man who undertakes the Indian service should enjoy health and strength, requisites I do not possess. It therefore grieves me that your Excellency should offer me the only command to which I am entirely unequal. In obedience to your command I have forwarded your letter to General Sullivan."

Washington had evidently anticipated that Gates would not accept the command as he had enclosed in his letter to him a communication that was to be forwarded to Sullivan in case Gates declined the service. It was this letter to which Gates referred in his reply to Washington. No doubt it was fortunate for the country that the command of the expedition devolved upon some other person than Gates.

Washington felt somewhat hurt at the tone of the letter he received from Gates, and in a communication to the President of Congress he said, "My letter to him on the occasion I believe you will think was conceived in very candid and polite terms, and merited a different answer from the one given to it."

In his instructions to Sullivan Washington wrote as follows:

"Sir:—The expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. The immediate object is their total destruction and devastation, and the capture of as many persons of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more."

At this time it was supposed that the expedition would reach the Indian country in the early summer, but it was not until August that the work of destruction began. Writing again of the expedition Washington said the purpose was "to cut off their settlements, destroy their crops, and inflict upon them every other mischief which time and circumstances would permit."

The purpose of the expedition was primarily to destroy the crops and villages of the Indians, after which Sullivan was to move forward and capture Niagara, if such action should prove to be practicable.

The expedition was to be made up of three divisions. The first was directly under the command of Sullivan; and the forces of which it was composed assembled at Easton, Pa., from which point they marched to Wyoming on the Susquehanna, and from there to Tioga Point. Here they waited for the second division under the command of General Clinton, who had sent an expedition into the Onondaga country, after which he was to assemble his forces at Canajoharie and march across the country to the head of Otsego Lake and then come down the Susquehanna River to join Sullivan at Tioga. The third division was under the command of Colonel Daniel Brodhead, who started from Pittsburgh, Pa. He never directly co-operated with Sullivan, but no doubt aided him by his movement. He left Pittsburgh on the 11th of August with a force of six hundred and fifty men. He followed the Allegheny river and passed up into the Seneca country, where he destroyed more than one hundred and fifty houses and about five hundred acres of corn. His presence in the southern portion of the Seneca country kept some of the Senecas from joining in the movement to oppose Sullivan and so lessened the Indian force at the battle of Newtown and possibly somewhat affected the expedition. The original intention was to have Brodhead join Sullivan at Genesee and aid in the movement against Niagara, but as for some reason no movement was made against Niagara there was no occasion for him to do more than he did, and no further attention need be given his movement as a part of the Sullivan expedition. Brodhead marched three hundred and eighty miles, destroyed houses, cornfields, and gardens, and did his part in destroying the Indian civilization.

Aside from the force of Brodhead, Sullivan's expedition was made up of four brigades. The first consisted of the First New Jersey regiment under the command of Colonel Matthias Ogden; the Second New Jersey commanded by Colonel Israel-Shreve; the Third New Jersey under Colonel Elias Dayton, and Spencer's New Jersey regiment commanded by Colonel Oliver Spencer. The brigade was under the command of Brigadier-General William Maxwell.

Brigadier-General Enoch Poor commanded the second brigade, which was made up of the First New Hampshire regiment under Colonel Joseph Cilley; the Second New Hampshire commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel George Reid; the Third New Hampshire commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Dearborn; the Sixth Massachusetts under the command of Major Daniel Whiting. The Sixth Massachusetts was at the outset a part of the fourth brigade, and the Second New York was a part of the second brigade, but the two regiments exchanged brigades in August, and from that time till the close of the expeditions were in the brigades as given in this sketch.

The third brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Edward Hand and was composed of the Fourth Pennsylvania regiment under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel William Butler; the Eleventh Pennsylvania under Lieutenant-Colonel Hubley; the German Battalion under Major Daniel Burchardt; an artillery regiment under Colonel Thomas Proctor; Morgan's riflemen under Major James Parr; an independent rifle company under Captain Anthony Selin; the Wyoming militia under Captain John Franklin; and an independent Wyoming company under Captain Simon Spalding.

The fourth brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General James Clinton, was made up of the Second New York regiment under Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt; the Third New York under Colonel Peter Gansevoort; the Fourth New York under Colonel Frederic Weissenfels; the Fifth New York under Colonel Lewis Dubois; and the New York artillery detachment under Captain Isaac Wool.

It would be exceedingly interesting to trace the movement of each of the regiments engaged in the expedition from their place of starting to the various rallying places, but in many instances the writer has been unable to ascertain the facts after consulting all the works relating to Sullivan's expedition to be found in the State library, and other libraries, and after writing to the secretary of some of the state historical societies. Therefore the assembling of the forces constituting Sullivan's expedition will have to be treated in rather a general way.

The New Hampshire regiments apparently wintered at Soldier's Fortune, about six miles above Peekskill, as diaries of various New Hampshire officers engaged in the expedition mention marching from that point and I find no reference to any place occupied earlier. From Soldier's Fortune the New Hampshire troops, certainly the Second and Third regiments, and presumably the whole force, marched to Fishkill, a distance of seventeen miles. At this point they crossed the Hudson river to Newburgh. From that place they marched to the New Jersey line passing through Orange county. They took a route leading through New Windsor, Bethlehem, Bloomgrove Church, Chester, Warwick, and Hardiston. The distance was thirty-eight miles. From Hardiston the force marched to Easton on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware river. It passed through Sussex State House, Moravian Mills, Cara's Tavern, all these places being in the state of New Jersey. The distance from Hardiston to Easton was fifty-eight miles.

On the first of May, 1779, the Second and Fourth New York regiments left their camp near the Hudson and marched to Warwarsing in the southwestern part of Ulster county, thence to Ellenville, a few miles south of Warwarsing, then to Mamacotting (now Wurtsboro) in Sullivan county. The next day was spent in rest at Bashesland (now Westbrookville) near the Sullivan and Orange county line; from this point they marched to Port Jervis. On the 9th of May they crossed the Delaware at Decker's Ferry, and from there marched to Easton.

The New Jersey brigade had spent the previous winter at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, from which point they marched to Easton, passing through Bound Brook.

The forces which gathered at Easton marched from there to Wyoming on the Susquehanna, a distance of sixty-five miles. Nearly forty days were required to cover that distance. The way lay through thick woods and almost impassable swamps. The route took them through Hillier's Tavern, Brinker's Mills, Wind Gap, Learn's Tavern, Dogon Point, and the Great Swamp. They reached Wyoming on the 24th of June.

General Sullivan was much blamed but most unjustly so for his tardy movement. Pennsylvania had been relied upon to furnish not only a considerable body of troops but most of the supplies, but that commonwealth did not give the expedition a hearty support. The Quakers were most decidedly opposed to inflicting any punishment whatever upon the Indians. Other Pennsylvanians were offended because a New Englander had been chosen for the command instead of a Pennsylvanian. Troops were slow in coming forward. Supplies were furnished tardily and reluctantly. They were insufficient in quantity and poor in quality. The commissaries were careless and inefficient. The contractors were unscrupulous and dishonest. The authorities complained saying that Sullivan's demands were excessive and unreasonable and they threatened to prefer charges against him. However, all the testimony goes to show that the commissary department was in charge of men who were either utterly incompetent or grossly negligent of their duty. On the 23rd of June Sullivan wrote Washington saying, "more than one-third of my soldiers have not a shirt to their backs." On the 30th of July Colonel Hubbard wrote to President Reed saying, "My regiment I fear will be almost totally naked before we can possibly return. I have scarcely a coat or a blanket for every seventh man."

On the 31st of July Sullivan's army left Wyoming for Tioga Point. A fleet of more than two hundred boats and a train of nearly fifteen hundred pack horses were required to transfer the army and its equipment. Tioga Point at the junction of the Tioga and the Susquehanna rivers was reached on the 11th of August. The army had been eleven days in making sixty-five miles. The route from Wyoming led through Lackawanna (now Coxton) in Luzerne county; Quialutimuck, near Ransom Station, Luzerne county; Hunkhannock; Vanderlip's Farm (now Black Walnut) Wyoming county; Wyalusing, Standing Stone, Bradford county; Sheshhequin, Bradford county.

While waiting for Clinton Sullivan built a fort which was named in his honor, between the Tioga and Susquehanna rivers about a mile and a quarter above their junction at a point where the two streams were within a few hundred yards of each other. The center of the present village of Athens, Pa., is almost exactly at this point.

Early in the spring Clinton with the First and Third New York regiments passed up the Mohawk to Canajoharie. From this point an expedition was sent out against the Onondagas. About fifty houses were burned and nearly thirty Indians were killed and a somewhat larger number taken prisoners.

After this expedition Clinton passed from Canajoharie to the head of Otsego Lake. This was a laborious enterprise as, for a portion of the distance, roads had to be cut through an unbroken forest and there was not a good road any part of the distance. More than two hundred heavy batteaux had to be drawn across from Canajoharie, a distance of twenty miles, by oxen.

Otsego Lake, the source of the Susquehanna, is about twelve hundred feet above tide water, nine miles long with an average width of a mile. The outlet is narrow with high banks. Here Clinton built a dam and raised the water of the lake several feet, sufficient to furnish water to float his boats when the time came for a forward movement.

On the 9th of August Clinton's forces embarked and the dam was cut. The opening of the dam made very high water, flooding the flats down the river and frightening the Indians, who thought the Great Spirit was angry with them to cause the river to be flooded in August without a rain.

During his passage down the Susquehanna, Clinton destroyed Albout, a Scotch Tory settlement on the east side of the Susquehanna, about five miles above the present village of Unadilla; Conihunto, an Indian town about fourteen miles below Unadilla, on the west side of the river; Unadilla, at the junction of the Unadilla with the Susquehanna; Onoquaga, an Indian town situated on both sides of the river about twenty miles below Unadilla; Shawhiangto, a Tuscarora village near the present village of Windsor, in Broome county; Ingaren, a Tuscarora hamlet where is now the village of Great Bend; Otsiningo, sometimes called Zeringe, near the site of the present village of Chenango, on the Chenango river, four miles north of Binghamton; Choconut, on the south side of the Susquehanna at the site of the present village of Vestal, in the town of Vestal, Broome County; Owegy or Owagea, on the Owego Creek about a mile above its mouth; and Mauckatawaugum, near Barton.

On the 28th of August Clinton met a force sent out by Sullivan at a place that has since been called Union because of this meeting. It is about ten miles from Binghamton.

The two forces having joined, all was in readiness for a forward movement. The expedition which at this time had its real beginning, all the previous movements having been in the nature of organization and preparation, was a remarkable one in that it was to pass over hundreds of miles of territory of which no reliable map had ever been made, through forests where no roads had ever been cut, across swamps that were almost impassable to a single individual, with no opportunity to communicate with the rest of the world from the time they set out on their forward movement till their return, no chance to secure additional supplies, no hope of reinforcements in case of disaster, no suitable provision for the care of the sick and wounded, no chance of great glory in case of success, no hope of being excused in case of failure. It was a brave, daring, almost reckless movement. It was successful beyond all expectation, yet its story is almost unknown.

Note.—The New Hampshire troops marched from Soldier's Fortune, six miles above Peekskill, to Fishkill, crossed the Hudson to Newburgh, then across Orange County, N. Y., and northern New Jersey, to Easton on the Delaware. Some New York troops who wintered at Warwarsing in Ulster County, N. Y., passed to Easton also, going through Chester, in Orange County, and down the Delaware River The New Jersey troops who had wintered at Elizabethtown, marched to Easton from this point the united forces marched to Wyoming, on the Susquehanna River. Here they were joined by some of the Pennsylvania troops and the whole force passed up the river to Tioga Point, where they awaited the arrival of Clinton, who had gone up the Mohawk and after destroying some of the Onondaga towns crossed from Canajoharie to the head of Otsego Lake and down the Susquehanna to join Sullivan. The united forces then marched into the Indian country, going to the foot of Seneca Lake, down its east shore, thence to the foot of Canandaigua Lake, then to the foot of Honeoye Lake and across the country to head of Conesus Lake, and from there to Little Beard's Town on the Genesee. From this point the army retraced its steps. From the foot of Seneca Lake a detachment was sent up the west shore a few miles to the Indian town of Kershong. Another detachment under Colonel Dearborn went up the west side of Cayuga Lake and joined the main body at Catherine's Town, at the head of Seneca Lake. A third detachment under Colonel William Butler went up the east side of Cayuga Lake and joined the main army at Kanawaholla, not far from the present city of Corning. All these movements are indicated on the accompanying map.