CHAPTER XII

GENERAL SULLIVAN'S RAID

"And when the soldiers in their marches,
Advanced on that September morn,

And pushed along through woodland arches,
Or passed the fields of yellow corn,

They caught a vison far away,

A dream of peace

e-a happy day,

When they should drop their lurid torches,

And build along these lovely slopes,

And sit at home in their own porches,

Where died in smoke the red man's hopes.

They passed along the rocky ledges,

Above the gorges deep and wild,
And dreamed along the water edges,
With nook and g'en and cove beguiled;
And thought of sloping farms that yet
Should wear the golden coronet;

Of coming far off glad Septembers,
When they should fear no foeman's scorn,
To leave the waste of dying embers,
Along their fields of ripening corn."

-Rev. Dwight Williams.

One cannot properly estimate the importance of Cause which General Sullivan's raid without knowing Something of the circumstances which

led to Sul

livan's Raid.

immediately preceeded this last great war of the Six Nations. It will be remembered that during the American Revolution, the Indians were greatly divided in their sympathies, some friendly tribes remaining faithful to the colonists and bravely assisting in the struggle for freedom, while others sided with the crown and were equally zealous in their support to the British.*

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Even the Six Nations were divided against themselves and, becoming interested in the struggle, forgot the sentiments expressed by an early statesman: We depend neither upon Corlear nor Yonondio, neither on France nor England, but are convinced that the Indians must look out for themselves." Of the tribes of the Six Nations the Onondagas were most friendly to the colonists, and the Cayugas and Senecas were most bitter against them.

* In this connection we can but recall an anecdote of King Hendric in reply to a question asking about the number of warriors to be sent to meet the enemy. "If they are to fight, they are too few. If they are to be killed they are too many!" When it was proposed to send out the detachment in three parties, Hendric took three sticks and said, "Put these together and you can't break them; take them one by one and you can do it easily." The king's advice was taken, with victory as the result. -Holmes.

That the colonies did not at first seek the support of the Indians for this war, but on the contrary desired that they should remain neutral, is proven by a message to the Indians given in a council held at Albany in 1775: "This is a family quarrel between us and England; we do not wish you to take up the hatchet against the king's troops; we desire you to remain at home, and not join either side, but bury the hatchet deep."

There were many reasons for this division, but lack of space prevents enlarging upon them here, excepting to say that it was caused mainly by "go-betweens" on each side who sought to prejudice the Indian against the enemy. Some claim an influence of the French Jesuit missionary as favoring the colonists whom France was assisting. Others say that great exertions were made by English officers still in possession of the frontier posts to secure the Indian alliance. The effort was partly successful, and many hundreds of warriors coöperated with the tory troops in a border warfare very distressing to the frontier settlements. They would make stealthy night marches and suddenly swoop down upon an unsuspecting village many miles away; burning and scalping the helpless inhabitants, and then return to a secret rendevous in the wilderness, and after a few day's refreshment, repeat the same operation in another direction.

*See oration.

"The Indians hung like the scythe of death upon the rear of our settlements." -De Witt Clinton.

"There was scarcely a family on the border, that mourned not the death or captivity of some loved member. Danger was in every path. Death seemed lurking for its prey behind every covert. Defenceless women and children, the aged grandsire and the sturdy youth, oft fell in one promiscuous slaughter."

Gen. Wash

Especially aggravating were the depredations committed at Cherry Valley and Wyoming.* Action of General Washington planned an expedi- ington. tion against the Six Nations, and entrusted it to the care of a brave Indian fighter, General John Sullivan.t

General Washington wrote to General Gates, "It is proposed to carry the war into the country of the Six Nations, to cut off their settlements, destroy their next year's crops, and do them every other mischief which time and circumstances will permit." On General Sullivan's order General Washington said: "The immediate objects are the total destruction of the hostile tribes of the Six Nations, the devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible." He was also directed to "lay waste all the settlements round,. so that the country might not only be overrun, but destroyed." Writing to Congress General Washington said: "The council are fully sensible of the importance of success in the present expedition, and the fatal mischiefs which would attend a defeat. We should perhaps lose an enemy and our frontiers would be deluged in blood."

* "He [the King] has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."

† See personal narrative of Wyoming.

Declaration of Independence.

The pages of history are eloquent in telling how well Results of the General Sullivan conducted this raid. The expedition. savages heard of the coming of the "towndestroyer," and, excepting a few warriors and spies, fled in dismay to the friendly forts of the English and to Canada. But as the expedition was as much for the purpose of destroying the homes and harvest which supported the enemy, this movement on the part of the Indians did not disconcert the plans of the commander, who marched through the fertile valleys, burning, destroying and laying waste whole fields of grain, and annihilating eighteen* Indian villages. We find that 130,000 bushels of corn was burned and thrown into the lake, hundreds of trees loaded with ripe fruit were cut to the ground, and great quantities of other provision destroyed. This was all accomplished in an incredibly brief space of time, as General Washington's instructions are dated May 31st, 1779 and General Sullivan's army reassembled at Easton, Oct. 13th.

The exact route taken is a subject of some discussion, but in map No. 4 of the surveys made by Lieutenant Benjamin Lodget we find that General

* Some say forty.

† See Chapter on Logan.

The map referred to is 103 C. of the Simeon De Witt collection in the archives of the New York Historical Society, being the manuscript maps and surveys of Robert Erskine, Geographer to the Army of the United States during the Revolutionary War.