Читать книгу Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906] - New York State Historical Association. Meeting - Страница 18

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In the campaign of 1779 it was evident that the British intended to confine their operations to pillaging expeditions on the frontiers in the north, and an effort to cripple the Union in the south.

In July of the previous year, Butler and Brant with a force of 1600 Indians and Tories had entered the Wyoming Valley and spread death and destruction in their path, and in November raided the inhabitants of Cherry Valley.

Two years before, St. Leger had made his unsuccessful attempt on Fort Stanwix and the Mohawk Valley, while Burgoyne was attempting to force his way through our northern frontier.

Nor were these raids upon the valleys of the Mohawk and the Wyoming, and the inhabitants of Cherry Valley, the only calamities visited upon the frontiers. By reason of the location and small size of the border settlements and the great distance between detached dwellings, the inhabitants, from the very beginning of the Revolutionary struggle, were subject to constant attack by small bands of Indians, and Tories disguised as such, who murdered those who fell into their hands and burned and pillaged their dwellings until none but the most intrepid dared remain in their homes. The supplicating tears of women and children, and the wail of helpless babes, were unheeded. The tomahawk and war-club fell without pity upon the defenceless heads of all alike, and the scalps of women and children and the silvered locks of the aged mingled with those of manhood to adorn the belt of the savage, and be bartered for British gold. Here and there a heap of ashes and a few putrefying bodies remained to show the location of some unfortunate settler's cabin or frontier hamlet. Desolation was spread from one end of the border to the other, and the wail of despair was not to be resisted by the Congress. That body had received a constant stream of appeals for aid from the sufferers at the front since the very beginning of the war. A large part of the documentary remains of that period consist of such letters to Washington, Governor Clinton, and others in authority.

On the first of April, 1779, Congress, in response to a letter of March 13th, from the Legislature of New York, passed a resolution authorizing an expedition against these marauders. The campaign was planned by the Commander-in-chief. Its execution was first offered to General Gates because of his seniority, but the offer was made in such a way that it could not be accepted, and Gates was obliged to decline in favor of Major-General John Sullivan, whom Washington intended from the first should be its commander.

General Washington's orders to Sullivan for the conduct of the campaign were very explicit, and were in part as follows:

"The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more … parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed. Make rather than receive attacks, attend with as much impetuosity, shouting, and noise, as possible; and make the troops act in as loose and dispersed a way as is consistent with a proper degree of government, concert, and mutual support. It should be previously impressed upon the minds of the men, whenever they have an opportunity, to rush on with the war-whoop and fixed bayonet. Nothing will disconcert and terrify the Indians more than this."

The forces were gathered in three divisions; the principal and central one, rendezvousing at Wyoming, was composed of the three brigades of Maxwell, Poor, and Hand, and proceeded up the valley of the Susquehanna to Tioga, where it was joined by the right division under Gen. James Clinton, whose force, consisting of 1,600 men, was gathered at Canajoharie, and proceeded down the headwaters of the Susquehanna. The left division, consisting of 600 men, under Col. Daniel Brodhead, marched up the Allegheny from Pittsburgh, leaving that place the 11th of August, burned 11 towns, containing about 165 houses, which were for the most part constructed of logs and framed timber; destroyed more than 500 acres of cultivated land then in full crop, and took loot estimated as worth $30,000. This division returned to Pittsburgh the 14th of September, having been too late to join the main body, and never having come under the direct command of Gen. Sullivan.

The main division began to assemble at Wyoming early in April, but it was not until the last day of July, in the afternoon, that they finally began their advance. The artillery, ammunition and provisions were loaded on 214 boats (this is the number stated by Col. Proctor, who was in charge of the fleet; most accounts say 120), while 1,200 pack horses carried the baggage and camp utensils, and 700 beef cattle were driven along for food. Gordon, and some other British writers, have claimed that Sullivan demanded much more than he should in the way of supplies. Some of Sullivan's enemies at home made the same charge; but it is a notorious fact that the commander had great difficulty in procuring the amount that he had and that it fell far short of what prudence required. As it was, some of the pork was packed in barrels made of green staves, and spoiled. Much of the time the army subsisted on short rations, eked out by green corn and other supplies taken from the fields of the Indians which they were destroying.

Tioga was the Iroquois name for the point of land lying between the Chemung River and the north branch of the Susquehanna. Every name that an Indian gave to a place or a person was descriptive, and had a meaning. Most of these as we find them written are corruptions of the names as they sounded when spoken by an Indian, and therefore we find the same word in different documents spelled in as many ways as it could be spelled by illiterate English, Dutch and French settlers, with a few extra letters thrown in. Tioga is said to mean anything between any other two things, a gate, the forks of a river, etc. (from Teyaogen, or Teiohogen). Van Curler in his Journal of 1634 speaks of the Mohawk's name of their great river as Vyoge. Father Jogues gave Oiogue as the Mohawk name for the Hudson, in 1646. Ohio is another corrupted form of the same word, and all seem to be corrupted from the same Iroquois word, meaning a large stream. Many other Indian place-names occur in the various journals of the officers engaged in this expedition, and it would be interesting to take them up and consider their meaning if it were possible. But in the above case it seems fair to suppose that Indians coming down the trail from the Chemung Valley should speak of this spot as Vyoge, or Oiogue, the great or principal river, as distinguished from the smaller branch above.

However that may be, the time between the 31st of July and the 11th of August was consumed by the main body of the army in reaching this spot, selected as the meeting place of the divisions.

On their march for this place after leaving Wyoming, the first night they encamped at a place called by the Delaware Indians, Lechau-Hanneck, or Lackawanna, also said to mean the forks of a stream, and by the Iroquois called Hazirok, with something of the same meaning. The following night they encamped at a place the Indians called Quailutimack, meaning, "We came upon them unawares." On the 4th, it is related, they crossed a small creek, called where it joins the Susquehanna, Massasppi (missisipu), great river, this being a Delaware word meaning about the same as the Iroquois Oiogue.

On the 5th the detachment lost three of its men, one soldier dying of the so called "falling sickness," one of Proctor's artillerymen being drowned, and Sergt. Martin Johnson dying from heat. Dr. Elmer informs us in his journal that Johnson was a hard drinker and "his vitals were decayed by spirituous liquors." On the 8th, Col. Proctor destroyed the first of the Indian settlements, a place called Newtychanning, consisting of about twenty houses.

The army arrived at Tioga on the 13th. Here they remained until the 25th, awaiting the arrival of General Clinton's detachment. In the meantime Fort Sullivan was erected, and a detachment sent up the Chemung River to destroy an Indian town of the same name, consisting of about fifty houses, with more than 100 acres of cultivated fields of grain and other Indian produce. Some of the troops under General Hand, as they pursued the Indians who were fleeing from the village, fell into an ambush, whereby six were killed and nine wounded, with slight loss to the enemy. While destroying the crops, one other man was killed and three more wounded by some of the enemy who were concealed across the river. The houses here destroyed were built of split and hewed timber, covered with bark, and in the center of the town were two large buildings, presumably council houses. None of the buildings had chimneys or floors. While herding the stock in the camp at Tioga, the Indians succeeded in killing and scalping several of the pack-horse men and wounding some others.

Meantime a detachment under Generals Hand and Poor were sent up the Susquehanna to meet General Clinton.

Gen. Sullivan had written Clinton from Wyoming on July 30th, "I wish you to set out on the 9th of next month (marching moderately), as some allowance is to be made for bad weather, which will probably detain us some time. On my arrival at Tioga, I will immediately detach a considerable body of light troops to favor and secure your march."

Previous to this date Clinton had gathered his forces at Canajoharie and transported them to the shore of Otsego Lake, the level of which he had raised about two feet by erecting a dam, for the purpose of causing a flood which would float his expedition in boats over the shallows of the Susquehanna head-waters.

Breaking the dam, he left Otsego Lake, according to Sullivan's instructions, on the 9th of August, and proceeding down the river with little difficulty, destroyed such Indian dwellings and crops as came in his path.

Lieut.-Colonel Pawling, with a detachment, was marching from Kingston via Shandakin, under orders to join Clinton on August 16th. at Annaquaga, which, before it was destroyed by Col. William Butler, in the fall of 1778, was quite a large Indian settlement, occupying an island and both sides of the river, where the little village of Onaquaga now stands. Clinton arrived at this place on the 15th, and remained there until the 17th, awaiting the arrival of Pawling. In the center of the island he found the cellars and wells of about sixty houses, also fine orchards. Most of these buildings had been log houses, with stone chimneys and glass windows.

Pawling did not arrive, but returned to Kingston on September 1st and reported his inability to join Clinton, owing to the swollen streams and bad roads. Proceeding on their way, the Right Division passed several Tuscarora villages, which they destroyed, with the crops. Arriving at the mouth of the Chenango Creek, a small detachment was sent four miles up that stream to destroy the village of Chenango, consisting of about twenty houses.

On the 19th they joined the detachment of General Poor, burning the villages of Chukkanut and Owagea, and three days later arrived at the encampment of the main division at Tioga. On the 23d of August, by the accidental discharge of a musket, Captain Kimball was killed and a Lieutenant wounded.

Leaving a garrison to defend Fort Sullivan, at Tioga, the whole army proceeded, on the 26th, taking the route up the Tioga branch of the Susquehanna. About sixteen miles up this stream was a village called Newtown, which they reached on the 29th. Here the light troops, which were marching ahead, discovered a breastworks, artfully masked by green bushes, extending for about half a mile, in an advantageous place, protected by a high mountain on one side, the river on the other, and a large creek in front, behind which the enemy were entrenched. Here occurred the most important fight of the campaign. The design of the enemy appears to have been primarily, an ambuscade. His force of British regulars, consisting of two battalions of Royal Greens and Tories, was led by Col. John Butler, with Captains Walter Butler and Macdonald as subordinates. The Indian forces were commanded by the great Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. All the cunning of the Indians, combined with the trained tactics of the British regulars, were here exerted to check the advance of Sullivan's invading army. Had the Americans not discovered the trap in time to avoid it, the story of this campaign would have ended here in a tale of butchery hardly equaled in the annals of war. But three companies of Morgan's riflemen, the pride of Washington, were in advance; veterans of a hundred battles, and in no way inferior to the enemy in Indian craft; and the ingenious device for drawing our forces into an ambush was thwarted. For hours the battle waged fiercely. By skillfully maneuvering his troops Sullivan had nearly succeeded in surrounding the enemy, when, admirably commanded, and wisely discreet, the signal for retreat was sounded just in time to escape. The entire loss to the Americans was three killed and thirty-nine wounded. Twelve Indians were found dead on the field, but the number of their wounded is unknown.

The events of the succeeding days during which the expedition was prosecuting its errand of destruction, were a constant repetition of each other. The army was almost constantly on the move, searching out and destroying such settlements as could be found. The Indians skulked away like a pack of wolves at the approach of the hunter, turning now and then to snap at their pursuers, and then vanishing. Where once had stood their pleasant villages surrounded by fruitful fields, was only left heaps of smouldering ashes and masses of trampled grain and prostrate fruit trees. They needed no spies to keep them informed of the progress of the invaders. A trail of smoke by day and a ruddy glow on the sky at night told it too plainly. The scourge had fallen. Not only were the frontiers cleared but the doom of the Iroquoian Confederacy was sealed, and its dominion over the vast territory which it had so long ruled was destroyed forever. From the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, through the beautiful valley of the Susquehanna and the lake region of central New York to the fruitful valley of the Genesee, no Indian settlement of importance was left. Said Sullivan in his official report: "The number of towns destroyed by this army amounted to 40, beside scattering houses. The quantity of corn destroyed, at a moderate computation, must amount to 160,000 bushels, with a vast quantity of vegetables of every kind. Every creek and river has been traced, and the whole country explored in search of Indian settlements, and I am well persuaded that, except one town situated near the Allegheny, about 50 miles from Genesee, there is not a single town left in the country of the Five Nations.

"It is with pleasure I inform Congress that this army has not suffered the loss of forty men, in action or otherwise, since my taking the command, though perhaps few troops have experienced a more fatiguing campaign. I flatter myself that the orders with which I was entrusted are fully executed, as we have not left a single settlement or field of corn in the country of the Five Nations, nor is there even the appearance of an Indian on this side of Niagara."