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JOURNALS OF THE MILITARY EXPEDITION OF MAJOR GENERAL JOHN SULLIVAN
AGAINST THE SIX NATIONS OF INDIANS
IN 1779
WITH RECORDS OF CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONSPrepared Pursuant to Chapter 361, Laws of the State of New York, of 1885.
by Frederick Cook, Secretary of State
Auburn, N. Y. Knapp, Peck & Thompson Printers
1887.______
[Transcription is verbatim.]
Biographical Sketch Sullivan
Historical Address
Biographical Sketch Proctor
[Ancestor of Transcriber]______
[333] Biographical Sketch of Major General John Sullivan.BY REV. DAVID CRAFT.
(Pages 333-352)
MAJOR GENERAL JOHN SULLIVAN was born at Somersworth, in New Hampshire, on the opposite side of the river from Berwick, in Maine, February 18, 1740, and was at the date of his Indian expedition thirty-nine years of age. He had acquired a good education under the direction of his father, who was a school teacher, and after reading law with Hon. Isaac Livermore of Portsmouth, N. H., and admission to the bar, he commenced the practice of law at Durham, N. H., which continued to be the place of his residence until his death. In 1772, he was Major of the New Hampshire Regiment in the spring of 1774, he was a member of the Provincial Assembly of New Hampshire, and in September of the same year and in 1775, he was delegate to the Continental Congress, and by that body was appointed Brigadier General in June, 17th and Major General in July, 1776. His courage, bravery and skill were unquestioned. He enjoyed the confidence of General Washington and his compatriots. His conduct in the expedition against the Indians to which he was appointed early in 1779, was the subject of severe criticism in certain circles, and characterized as vandal and unmilitary. His usual practice of firing a morning and evening gun, his destruction of the houses and orchards of the enemy, were declared by some to be unwise and unsoldierly. Sullivan bore these criticisms in patience, and, for the most part in silence; and such was his love for Washington, that never did he allude to the fact, in his own defense, that in those things for which he was blamed, he was acting under the express direction of the commander-in-chief, preferring rather himself to suffer in silence, than that his beloved Washington should bear reproach. Owing to exposure in this expedition, and the derangement of his business grow-[334] ing out of his prolonged absence in the camp, he asked leave to retire from the army at the close of the campaign in November, 1779. His subsequent life was largely spent in connection with public affairs. In 1780 and 1781, he was a delegate to Congress. In 1782, was appointed Attorney-General, of New Hampshire, and re-appointed on the adoption of the new Constitution in 1784. In 1786 and 1787, he was President or Chief Magistrate of the State of New Hampshire. In 1788, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives of New Hampshire, and President of the convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States. In 1789, he was a Presidential Elector and voted for General Washington for President of the United States, and in March of the same year, he was elected President of the State, for the third time. In 1789, he was appointed by President Washington, Judge of the United States District Court of New Hampshire, which office he held until his death, January 23, 1795, in the fifty-fifth year of his age.(See also biographical sketch by Hon. Sylvester Dana, in the proceedings of the Newtown (Elmira) celebration, and "The Military Services and Public Life of Major General John Sullivan" by Thomas C. Amory, Boston, Mass., 1868).
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BY REV. DAVID CRAFT, WYALUSING, BRADFORD CO., PA., BEING A FULL AND COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE IROQUOIS OR SIX NATIONS OF INDIANS OF NEW YORK IN 1779, COMMANDED BY MAJOR GENERAL JOHN SULLIVAN.
THE REV. DAVID CRAFT has, for the past twenty-six years, been the pastor of the Presbyterian church at Wyalusing, Bradford Co., Pa. Residing in a hamlet half way between Wyoming and Tioga, on the Susquehanna, the former site of an early Indian settlement which was conquered and extirpated by the Iroquois, near the seat of the Moravian mission of Friedenshutten from 1765 to 1772, (and at which General Sullivan's army encamped on the 5th of August, 1779); as the centennial of that event approached, Mr. Craft became seized with an enthusiastic desire to learn all about that campaign, and commencing his investigations at an early day he has had ample scope for the studies he so diligently pursued. A scholar of unassuming manners, by his untiring perseverance and intelligent application, he has brought himself into deserved prominence as a historical investigator. The data and journals which he has collected, show close application and patient research among the records and people of that historic section, which has so long been dormant, only to be awakened and brought to the light by this student of local history, on the occasions of the centennial celebrations of Sullivan's march.The following address is the substance of four historical addresses, except the introduction and peroration of each, delivered in the year 1879 —the first, on the battle-field at Newtown on the one hundredth anniversary of its occurrence; the second, covering the march to Kanadesaga, [336] and the destruction of the Cayuga towns, at Waterloo, September 3; the third, at Geneseo, Sept, 16, and the fourth at Aurora, Sept. 24; the last two covering the remaining portion of the expedition. These addresses were combined in one paper, and published in the Centennial Proceedings, issued by the Waterloo Library and Historical Society, 1879. This paper has been carefully revised and amplified, and it now comprises a complete, reliable and valuable history of the Sullivan campaign.
G. S. CONOVER
HISTORICAL ADDRESS OF REV. DAVID CRAFT.
MR. PRESIDENT:
In the current of human history, there arise great events which materially modify the structure of society, turn the stream of national life into new channels, give a new coloring to national character, and secure development of new resources. They are the events which designate historical epochs, and become focal dates to mark the progress of civilization, and trace the development of social and national life.
Such an event, to this country, was the Sullivan Expedition. It marks the beginning of a new era in the history of this Empire State. It determined, at a single blow, whether white men or red men should hold domination over these fertile vales and along these streams, and over these lakes and mountains. At a single stroke it solved the question, whether the American Indian, with his deeply rooted prejudices, with his unconquerable aversion to civilization, with his undisguised hatred for the religion and culture of the European, was longer to stand in the way of human progress; whether he was longer to maintain a barrier, as immovable as his own nature, to the advancement of the institutions and the ideas of the white man, or whether he must go down before the antagonism of another race, which was every day gathering new strength and preparing itself for a fresh onset.
To whichever party our sympathy may cling, in whatever speculations the philanthropist may indulge, whatever charges of cruelty, of greed, of rapacity, may be made against the white man, we shudder to think what might have been the fate of free institutions on this western continent, had the wager of battle between the races, at that awful crisis, given victory to the vanquished.
When this country was first known to the whites, the territory bounded on the north by the St. Lawrence, on the east by the Hudson and Delaware, on the south by the Potomac, and on the west by the great lakes, was inhabited by nations, which from their language, general customs and traditions, seemed to be more closely related to each other, than to the nations which surrounded them. The confederated Five Nations, or as they are commonly called, the Iroquois, occupied the north-eastern portion of this territory, having the Eries and Hurons on the west, and on the south the Andastes, tribes living along the Susquehanna. These powerful neighbors had greatly diminished the strength of the Iroquois, and well-nigh reduced them to a condition of vassalage, and more than once had even driven them from their ancestral seats.
For mutual protection, the Five Nations of Central New York, viz.: the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, entered into a confederation, and in a rude way, anticipated the great Federal Republic which is to-day exercising such controlling power over the affairs of this continent, and such mighty influence over the nations of the earth. By means of the mutual aid they were thus able to give each other, [337] and of the rifle, which traders sold to the Mohawks prior to 1620, the Iroquois soon began to assert their independence, then to make war upon their neighbors, and in a few years, instead of being vassals, they became masters, and either exterminated or brought into subjugation, not only their former conquerors, but carried their conquests to the Mississippi on the west and to the Gulf on the south.
When the English assumed control of New York, they formed an alliance with the Iroquois against the French, the common enemy of both, then in possession of Canada and claiming all the country drained by the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi.
The Iroquois, strengthened by this alliance, and becoming still more attached to the English by the wise policy and blandishments of such shrewd agents as the Johnsons, declared themselves to be the children of the King of England, and the English to be their brethren. At the beginning of the war of the Revolution, they mustered nearly 2,000 warriors,* which with their valor, their peculiar methods of warfare, and the advantages of their situation, rendered them a power whose hostility was greatly to be feared.
The Indian had learned from the white man not only the use of the rifle, but some of the arts and appliances of civilization. The lodge covered with poles and skins had been superseded by the log cabin with its bark-covered roof, and in some instances, with chimneys and glazed windows, and the village was surrounded with waving cornfields and fruitful orchards. Rude as their husbandry was, they raised abundant crops of corn, beans, squashes, potatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, etc.; and the squaws, more provident than their lords, had learned to store a portion of these for the winter's necessities. They possessed also fowls and swine, horses and cattle.
At the very beginning of the conflict between the American Colonies and the mother country, the Colonial authorities sent a delegation to the Great Council † of the Iroquois, informing them that their difficulties with the British king related to the white people alone, and as it did not concern the Indians, they ought to be neutral in the contest. To this policy the Great Council agreed; and it was declared that some of their chiefs even offered their services to the Americans, which, however, the commissioners firmly, though kindly, declined.
Sir William Johnson, Baronet, the popular British Indian agent, died June 24, 1774, and his son, John, succeeded to his titles and estates, and his son-in-law. Col. Guy Johnson, succeeded to the Indian agency. Col. John Butler, a speculator in Indian lands, whose father had been a warm friend of the Baronet's, was a near and wealthy neighbor of the Johnsons; these were all active loyalists, and in connection with Sir Guy Carlton, then Governor of Canada, began to persuade the Iroquois to take up the hatchet in aid of the British king. The celebrated Mohawk warrior, Joseph Brant, who had been elevated to the military chieftaincy of his nation, and won over to the side of the British government, from which he had received a captain's commission, was lending all of his powerful influence to the side of the crown.‡ Rev. Samuel Kirkland, a missionary among the Oneidas, succeeded, however, in preventing a part of that nation, the Stockbridge Indians
* In a census taken in 1763, out of 1,950 warriors, the Senecas claimed 1,050, the Oneidas 250, the Cayugas 200, the Mohawks 160, the Onondagas 150, and the Tuscaroras, who had been admitted as the Sixth Nation of the Confederacy, 140. The British Indian agent reported that during the Revolutionary war the English had in their service 400 Seneca warriors, 300 each of Onondagas and Mohawks, 230 Cayugas. 200 Tuscaroras and 150 Oneidas.† A formal conference and treaty was held by commissioners of the congress, to-wit: Gen. Schuyler, Col. Turbot Francis, Col. Wolcott, Mr. Douw and others, with the Iroquois at Albany, N. Y., August, 1775. A full account may be found in "Stone's Life of Brant;" Vol. I, Appendix No. 2.
‡ There is good reason also to believe that, aside from the long alliance and friendship with the British Government, the demoralizing effect of British gold and British rum, and the great influence of Brant, that the Iroquois themselves had begun to feel the mortification of having their own subjects, aided as they often were by the Colonial Government, maintain a successful rtevolt against their authority, and their alliance with the British meant, ultimately, the assurance of English rule over the white people, and of Iroquois supremacy over the Indians on this continent.
[338] and a part of the Tuscaroras, from taking up arms against the States, and subsequently some of them joined the Americans—Captain Jehoiakim with a few Stockbridge Indians, and Hanyerry, an Oneida, with some of his nation, being connected with the Sullivan Expedition as guides, as also a chief called Captain Print, who acted as interpreter. Without going into the particulars of the negotiations, it is sufficient to say that, through this defection of the Iroquois, about 1,200 Indian warriors were brought into the field to strengthen the British forces.
As early as 1775, Sir Johnson and Col. John Butler called a secret council of the Indians at Oswego, which was attended principally by the Senecas and Cayugas, who henceforth, became prominent in their opposition to the Colonists, and foremost in the various marauds made against the frontier settlements.
In the early part of the year 1776, Sir John Johnson fled to Canada, where he was commissioned a Colonel in the British service, and raised a command of two battalions, composed mostly of Scotchmen, living near Johnstown, who had accompanied him in his flight, and of other American loyalists, who subsequently followed their example. From the color of their uniform they were called "Royal Greens." Johnson became not only one of the most active, but one of the bitterest foes of his own countrymen, of any who were engaged in the contest, and was repeatedly the scourge of his own former neighbors.
Besides the regularly enlisted and uniformed companies of Greens or Rangers, a considerable number of disaffected people had been driven from the border settlements by the Whigs, as public enemies, and became refugees about the British camps and garrisons. These by the patriots were called "Tories." They, burning with rage toward the Whigs, and frequently disguised as Indians, either in company with them, or in bands by themselves, kept up a predatory or guerilla warfare along the frontiers and in cruelty and inhumanity far exceeded the savages themselves.
Of Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, as the Indians called him, who acted so conspicuous a part on our frontiers during the Revolutionary war, a few words need be said. Of more than average natural gifts, he had enjoyed peculiar advantages for their cultivation, His sister, Molly, being the mistress of Sir William Johnson, that gentleman secured for him a fair English education, and afterward gave him a responsible position connected with the Indian agency, which he held until the beginning of the war. About that time he made a visit to England, where he was received with marked attention by the nobility and English people, and was persuaded that the ancient treaties between the Iroquois and the British bound him to support the crown in its struggle with the Colonies. Brant returned to America an avowed ally of the British government.
He was descended from a Sachem of the Mohawks, and attained the high honor of being recognized as the war chief of the Confederacy, a position the highest and the most honorable to which an Iroquois could aspire. As the leader of his dusky warriors, he was foremost in the fray, exhaustless in expedients to harass his enemy, of tireless energy, of dauntless courage, of lofty and chivalrous bearing, commanding the fullest confidence of his people, a tower of strength to his friends and a terror to his foes. Even after the lapse of a century, the mere mention of his name calls up recollections of slaughter and massacres, of plunder and pillage, of burning and devastation, for which men still execrate his name and stigmatize his memory.
With such a horde of white men and red, of Indian warriors, refugees, Tories, uniformed militia, and a few regular troops, men whose passions were inflamed with intensest hatred against the patriots, who were stimulated to deeds of reckless bravery by hope of plunder, who were encouraged to a mad rivalry with each other in acts of savage barbarism and merciless cruelty—with such a horde, whose battle-cry was "No quarter," and whose purpose was extermination, Without military discipline and without susceptibility of control, let loose upon the scattered and unprotected settlements on the frontiers, British Generals and British statesmen sought to subdue the rebellion in their western colonies, and crush out life and liberty from the new-born nation.
The great event of 1777, was the invasion of Burgoyne, and the defeat and capture of his army. In this campaign the forces under Butler and Brant were with St. Leger in the siege of Fort Schuyler, and were engaged in the battle of Oriskany.
[339] Although the Iroquois had shamefully broken their pledge to remain neutral during the contest between the Colonies and the mother country, yet, Congress determined to make a still further effort to secure their good will, and sent a deputation to meet them at Johnstown in March, 1778. It was estimated that seven hundred savages were at this council, but of these there were only three or four Cayugas and not a single Seneca. The latter nation not only refused to attend the conference, but sent a most insolent message, in which they affected great surprise, using their own language, "that while our tomahawks were sticking in their heads, (meaning the Continentals,) their wounds bleeding and their eyes streaming with tears for the loss of their friends at German Flats, (Oriskany,) the commission should think of inviting them to a treaty." In his life of Brant, Colonel Stone says, "While the impression at the time seemed to be that the Oneidas, the Tuscaroras and the Onondagas would remain neutral and restrain their warriors from taking part with the British, the commissioners left the council under the full persuasion that from the Senecas, the Cayugas, and the greater part of the Mohawks, nothing but revenge for their lost friends and tarnished glory at Oriskany and Fort Schuyler, was to be anticipated."
This year, 1778, was marked by a series of attacks on the most important frontier towns in New York and Pennsylvania. In January, predatory excursions were begun against the settlers on the Susquehanna, and before the close of spring, of more than a hundred families scattered along the river above the Lackawanna, not one remained. Then came the destruction of Wyoming, and the piteous tale of sorrow and distress and death had hardly been told when there followed in swift succession the destruction of Andrus-town, of the German Flats and of Cherry Valley. As the terror-stricken fugitives fled to the adjoining settlements, they told with every conceivable exaggeration, the story of their sufferings, and the hideous cruelty and savageness of both Tory and Indian. Every messenger from the frontiers brought a new tale of butchery, of prisoners tortured, of scenes where every refinement of cruelty was in sharp competition with the most shocking barbarism. This enemy in the rear, though of despicable character and of but little strength, when measured by the ordinary military standard, yet proved to be far more annoying than the more formidable forces under Clinton and Howe.
During the winter of 1778-79, bands of savages or disguised Tories were incessantly prowling around the border settlements, keeping the people in constant alarm and terror. Military men began to discuss the feasibility of what had for a year been advocated by Washington—carrying the war into the enemy's country. It was argued that the surest and easiest way to protect the border settlements, was to weaken the power of the adversary. It was known that in the fertile valleys of the Genesee and along the lakes of Central New York, large crops of corn and other vegetables were raised, not for the support of the Indians alone, but as supplies for the British army. It was thought that if these crops should be destroyed, and the Indians driven back upon the British garrisons which were maintained at Niagara and Oswego, it would largely increase the expense of the British government in carrying on the war, embarrass their operations through the failure of their expected supplies, place a greater distance between the Indians and the frontiers, and teach them wholesome lessons of the power of the colonies to visit upon them the vengeance which their cruelties deserved. The territory it was proposed to lay waste was that occupied by the Senecas and Cayugas, the two most powerful nations of the Iroquois, and the most haughty and implacable in their enmity to the people of the States.
In the autumn of 1778, the New York authorities had determined to send a strong force into the very heart of the Iroquois country, to punish severely the Mohawks and Onondagas for their breach of faith, and their cruelties upon the patriot frontiersmen, but it was abandoned on account of the lateness of the season. In September, however, Colonel Thomas Hartley* of the Eleventh Penn-sylvania Regiment, with about two hundred men,
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* Colonel Hartley was born near Reading, Pa., September 7th, 1748, removed to York, Pa., in 1766 when he studied law and was admitted to practice, July 25th, 1769, and had a brilliant career as a soldier, lawyer and statesman. By a special commission from Washington, January 11th 1777, he raised a regiment of continental troops, which, July 14th, 1778 was ordered to Sunbury, in the forks [continued on page 340] of the Susquehanna, September 21st, 1778 with 200 men rank and file and 17 horse under Captain Carbury, he set out up the Lycoming, taking two boxes of extra ammunition and twelve days provision. "In our route we met with great rains and prodigious swamps, mountains, defiles and rocks impeded our march, we had to open and clear the way as we passed. We waded or swam the river Lycoming upwards of 20 times." He destroyed Sheshequin, Queen Esther's Town and Tioga, reaching Sunbury the 5th of October, after making a circuit of near 300 miles in about two weeks, recapturing "50 head of cattle, 28 canoes, besides many other articles." Killed at least eleven of the enemy and took fifteen prisoners, and lost four killed and wounded. This regiment was subsequently reorganized and became the " New Eleventh Regiment," Hartley having retired, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Adam Hubley. Colonel Hartley died in York, Pa., December 21st, 1800. A sketch of Colonel Hubley precedes his diary herein.[340] penetrated the Indian country by way of the West Branch, the Lycoming and Towanda Creeks as far as Tioga, intending to form a junction with a detachment from General Clinton's Brigade. But finding the enemy in force at Chemung, and not meeting the expected reinforcements, after recovering some property stolen by the savages, he retired to Wyoming, reaching that place October, in safety. The subject was formally brought to the attention of Congress, and that body, Feb. 27, 1779, passed a resolution authorizing General Wash-ington to take the most effectual measures for protecting the inhabitants of the States and chastising the Indians. The Commander-in-Chief determined to carry out this resolution with vigor. General Hand, Colonel Zebulon Butler, Captain John Franklin and Captain Simon Spalding, of Wyoming, each of whom had extensive knowledge of the Indian country, were consulted. Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel,) John Jenkins, by profession a surveyor, who had recently been a captive among the Indians, and had traveled over the very country into which it was proposed to send the army, was able to give information of great value, and was retained as chief guide to the expedition. General Philip Schuyler, at his headquarters on the Hudson, was also gathering and transmitting most important information from those conversant with the movements of the enemy.
The plan of a vigorous campaign contemplated the entire destruction of everything upon which the Indians depended for food or shelter.* The invading army was to enter the Indian country in three divisions; one from the south up the Susquehanna; another from the east down that river, the third from the west by the way of the Alleghany. These were to form a junction at some convenient point, advance against the strongholds of the enemy in such force as could not possibly be resisted, and then overrun the whole Iroquois country, west of the Oneida villages.
In a letter to the President of Congress dated April 14, 1779 Washington says: "The plan of operations for the campaign being determined, a commanding officer was to be appointed for the Indian expedition. This command, according to all present appearances, will probably be of the second, if not of the first, importance of the campaign. The officer conducting it has a flattering prospect of acquiring more credit than can be expected by any other this year; and he has the best reason to hope for success. Gen. Lee, from his situation, was out of the question; Gen. Schuyler, (who, by the way, would have been most agreeable to me), was so uncertain of continuing in the army, that I could not appoint him; Gen. Putnam I need not mention. I therefore made the offer of it, for the appointment could no longer be delayed, to Gen. Gates, who was next in seniority, though perhaps I might have avoided it, if I had been so disposed, from his having a command by the special appointment of Congress. My letter to him on the occasion, I believe you will think was conceived in very candid and polite terms, and it merited a different answer from the one given to it."
Washington had written to Gates on the 6th of March, who answered: "Last night I had the honor of your Excellency's letter. The man who undertakes the Indian service should enjoy youth and strength; requisites I do not possess. It therefore grieves me
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* See instructions of General Washington of date May 31, 1779, in " Military Services and Public Life of Major General John Sullivan," by Thomas C. Amory, Boston, Mass., 1868.— Page 104— Also in Sparks' collection of Washington's writings, Vol. VI, page 264. In these instructions General Washington says: "The immediate objects is their (Six Nations) total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many persons ***** as possible." See also General Washington's instructions of date, September 15th, 1779, published at the end of this address.[341] 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.*
General Sullivan† accepted the command and immediately began preparing the details for the expedition. It was determined that the center or main division of the army should rendezvous at Wyoming, whence baggage and supplies could be transported to Tioga and beyond, by water. This division was to be made up of three Brigades - the New Jersey, commanded by Brigadier-General William Maxwell, ‡ composed by First Regiment, under Colonel Matthias Ogden; the Second, under Colonel Israel Shreve; the Third, commanded by Colonel Elias Dayton, and the Independent or Fifth, better known from the name of its commander, as Colonel Oliver Spencer's Regiment; also David Forman's Regiment, and Colonel Elisha Sheldon's Connecticut Riflemen, both subsequently merged into Spencer's Regiment. The Second, was the New Hampshire Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Enoch Poor, § comprising from that State, the first Regiment, under
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* The following is General Washington's letter referred to by General Gates appointing General Sullivan to the command of the expedition: —HEAD QUARTERS, MIDDLE BROOK, MARCH 6th, 1779.
Dear Sir:—
Congress having determined upon an expedition of an extensive nature against the hostile tribes of the Indians of the Six Nations, the command is offered to Major General Gates as senior officer, but should he decline, it is my wish it should devolve upon you. That no time may be lost by Gen. Gates' non-acceptance, I have put this letter under cover to him, and have desired him to forward it to you, should that be his determination. Should it therefore be sent to you, I must request you to set out as speedily as possible after the receipt of it, to Head Quarters, as the season is already far advanced. Upon your arrival the whole plan of the expedition shall be communicated to you and measures concerted for, carrying it into execution.Nothing will contribute more to our success in the quarter where we really intend to strike, than alarming the enemy in a contrary one, and drawing their attention that way. To do this you may drop hints of an expedition to Canada by the way of Coos. This will be the more readily believed as a thing of that kind was really once in agitation, and some magazines formed in consequence, which the enemy are acquainted with. You may also speak of the probability of a French fleet making its appearance in the Spring, in the River St. Lawrence to co-operate with us. It will be a great point gained, if we can by false claims, keep the force ready in Canada from affording any timely assistance to the Savages, Refugees and those people against whom the blow is levelled.
I would wish you to keep the motive of your journey to Head Quarters a secret, because if it is known that an officer of your rank is to take a command to the westward, it will be immediately concluded that the object must be considerable.
I am with great Regard,
Dear Sir,
Your Most Obedient Servant,
GEORGE WASHINGTON.MAJOR GENERAL SULLIVAN.
† See biographical sketch of General Sullivan, at page 331 hereof.
‡ Brigadier General William Maxwell, Commandant of the Jersey line, was a gentleman of refinement and an officer of high character. Of his personal history but little is known. It is believed he was born in Ireland, but at an early age was brought by his parents to New Jersey. When quite young he entered the military service, and at the breaking out of the Revolutionary war was made Colonel of the Second Battalion of the First Establishment, was with Montgomery in his Canada Campaign, promoted to Brigadier-General October, 1776, and commanded the Jersey Brigade in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and indeed in all the battles in which the Jersey Brigade was engaged, until he resigned his commission, July, 1780. He died November, 1798.
§ Brigadier-General Enoch Poor was born in Andover, Mass., June 21, 1736, but for most of his life resided in Exeter, N. H. Immediately after the battle of Lexington, New Hampshire resolved to raise three regiments, the third being placed under the command of Col. Poor. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier by commission, dated February 21, 1777. In the indecisive but hard-fought battle of Stillwater, General Poor's Brigade was so closely engaged that it suffered more than two-thirds of the whole American loss in killed, wounded and missing. At the battle of Saratoga, General Poor led the attack. The vigor and gallantry of the charge, supported by an adroit and furious onset from Colonel Morgan, could not be resisted and the British line was soon broken. The year after the Sullivan Campaign, two brigades of Light Infantry chosen from the whole army were formed, the command of one of which, at the request of La Fayette, was given to Gen. Poor. He died of fever September 9, 1780, in camp at Hackensack, N. J., where he was buried the next day with military honors, greatly lamented by the army in which he was deservedly popular. General Washington declared him to be "an officer of distinguished merit, who as a citizen and a soldier, had every claim to the esteem of his country.'' It has been mentioned as no small tribute to his memory, that the Marquis La Fayette, on his second visit to this country, at a public entertainment, should have proposed the sentiment, ''The memory of Light Infantry Poor and Yorktown Scammel."
[342] Colonel Joseph Cilley; the Second, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel George Reid; the Third, or Scammel's Regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Dearborn; and the Second New York commanded by Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt. The third, was a Brigade of Light Troops, under Brigadier-General Edward Hand,* composed of the Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Hubley; the German Regiment, or what there was left of it, commanded by Major Daniel Burchardt; Captain Simon Spalding's Independent Wyoming company; the Wyoming militia, under Captain (afterward Colonel,) John Franklin, and Schott's Rifle Corps, with Captain Selin in command. It was expected that the Pennsylvania and some other companies would be filled up by enlistment, when the whole number would be about 3,500 men. There was also a section of Artillery under command of Colonel Thomas Proctor † of Philadelphia.
The right division of the army was the New York Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General James Clinton, consisting of the Third Regiment, under Colonel Peter Gansevoort, who in 1777 gained great renown for his heroic defense of Fort Schuyler against St. Leger; the Fourth, or Livingston's Regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Weissenfels,‡ the Fifth, or Independent Regiment, commanded by Colonel Louis Dubois; § the Sixth Massachusetts, or Alden's Regiment, commanded by Major Whiting.—Colonel Ichabod Alden having been killed, the autumn previous, at Cherry Valley, and Lieutenant-Colonel Stacia being a prisoner with the enemy; the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel William Butler; companies of Morgan's Riflemen, with Major James Parr the senior officer, and a small command under Colonel John Harper. The nominal strength of the Brigade was about 1,600 men.
The left division was to consist of troops at Pittsburg, numbering about 600 or 800 men, under command of Colonel Broadhead. As this force never became connected with the main army, and never received orders from General Sullivan, nothing further need be said of it. (See page 306 hereof).
General Sullivan reached Easton, Pennsylvania, May 7, and the next day writes to Washington, saying, "I will do everything in my power to set the wheels in motion, and make the necessary preparations for the army to move on." He adds, "the expedition is no secret in this quarter. A sergeant of Spencer's who was made prisoner at Mohacamoe and carried to Chemung, has just returned; he says they [the enemy] know of the expedition and are taking every step to destroy the communications on the Susquehanna. * * * I think the sooner we can get into the country the better." This last sentence is in allusion to the verbal instructions of Washington not to hasten his march from Easton until it was known what would be the future movement of D'Estaing, then in the West
* Brigadier-General Edward Hand, though the youngest of the Brigadiers, held the most important position in the command, next to General Sullivan himself. Born in Ireland the last day of 1744, he entered the British army as Ensign, served for two years in his regiment in this country, then resigned and settled in Pennsylvania. At the beginning of the Revolution he entered the Continental service as Lieutenant-Colonel, but was made Colonel of a rifle corps in 1776, was in the battles of Long Island and Trenton, and in the summer and fall of 1777, having been made a Brigadier-General April 1, was in command at Pittsburg, where he acquired such knowledge of the Indian country and their modes of warfare as made his services indispensable to the expedition. Washington placed great confidence in his judgment and consulted him freely in regard to the feasibility of the enterprise. In 1780, he succeeded Scammel as Adjutant General of the army, and held the position until the close of the war. He was commissioned Major General, September 30, 1783. He was known as a lover of fine horses and an excellent horseman. He died in Lancaster County, Pa., September 4, 1802, aged 58 years.† Colonel Thomas Proctor was born in Ireland, but in early life came to Philadelphia, where he worked at the trade of a carpenter, until the beginning of the war, when he raised a company, was commissioned Captain, November 27, 1775, and promoted Colonel from Major, February 6, 1777, resigned April 9, 1781 and died at Philadelphia, March 16, 1806. He was a man of great executive ability and was frequently serviceable to the government in other than a military capacity. In 1791, he was sent on a mission to the Western Indians, which he performed to the satisfaction of the government. The journal kept while on this mission is printed in the New Series of Pennsylvania Archives, Volume VI.
‡See appendix 3.
§ See appendix 2.
[343] Indies, who was expected soon to sail north, and with whom the Commander-in-Chief wished to be ready to co-operate in striking some decisive blow upon the enemy. General Sullivan was also directed so to time his movements that he should destroy the crops before the enemy could gather them, and at the same time be so late that they could neither rebuild nor replant. There was no need, however, to caution against too much haste, as it was past the middle of June before the road was opened from Easton to Wyoming.
In the meanwhile, some of the Jersey troops were in a state of mutiny because the authorities of that State had not only neglected to provide for the depreciation of the currency, but had failed to pay even the nominal sum in the almost worthless Continental paper money, due them for their services. It required all the address of the officers to quiet the minds of the soldiers, and Washington declared that nothing had occurred during the war, which so filled him with alarm. Spies from the enemy were also busily at work amongst the disaffected soldiers urging them to desert the army and betray their country. The apprehension of some of these and the execution of the ringleaders, put a stop to further desertion.
Difficulties of another sort began to present themselves. Many people in Pennsylvania had opposed the expedition from the first. The Quakers of Philadelphia, averse to all war on principle, were specially so to any measure which looked toward punishing the Indians, who, they alleged, were far more deserving of pity than blame for whatever excesses they might be guilty of; while what was known in that State, in the Wyoming controversy, as the Pennamite party, which included men possessing large wealth and much political influence, who held title under Pennsylvania for considerable tracts of land in the Wyoming Valley upon which the Connecticut people had settled, while they professed to commiserate the sufferings of the people, did not hesitate to express their satisfaction at being clear of the hated "Intruders," and their perfect willingness that the Indians should keep them out of the disputed territory until the war was over. This opposition began to show itself early in the campaign, in the lack of hearty co-operation and the failure to furnish either their quota of men or supplies for the army.
On the 12th of June, General Sullivan wrote to Washington, giving him, in detail, the difficulties he had been compelled to meet, who in reply says, (June 21st,) "I am very sorry you are like to be disappointed in the independent companies expected from Pennsylvania, and that you have encountered greater difficulties than you looked for. I am satisfied that every exertion in your power will be made and I hope that your eventful operations will be attended with fewer obstacles."
A small force consisting of the Wyoming militia under Captain John Franklin, the Wyoming Company under Captain Simon Spalding with two companies of Colonel Hartley's Regiment (Eleventh Pennsylvania) all under the command of Colonel Zebulon Butler had wintered at Wyoming. Early in the Spring Major Powell * with a detachment of about two hundred men of the Eleventh Pennsylvania reinforced the garrison and were joined by the remainder of the regiment soon after. On the 5th of April General Hand issued orders to Major Daniel Burchardt in command of the German Regiment, Major Lomaign commanding Armand's troop and Captain Anthony Selin of Captain John Paul Schott's corps to rendezvous at Fort Penn (present Stroudsburg), and proceed immediately to Wyoming. On the 8th of May, General Hand came in person and assumed command. The route from Easton to Wyoming lay across the high range of hills dividing the Delaware from the Susquehanna. Almost impenetrable swamps lie between the ridges of these hills. A bridle path had been opened between Easton and Wyoming † some years before. To make this passable for wagons and artillery, Van Cortlandt's and Spencer's Regiments had been detailed soon after their arrival at Easton. Finding the task greater than had been anticipated, Cilley's regiment was sent to assist them May 27. On the 31st of May in general orders, Gen. Sullivan "Returns his most sincere thanks to Cols. Van Cortlandt and Spencer and to the officers and soldiers under their command for their unparalleled exertions in clearing and repairing the road to Wyoming." At this date these three
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*The Indians ambuscaded this detachment at Laurel Run near Wyoming, April 24, and killed Captain Joseph Davis, Lieut. Jones and two men.† Wyoming then was in Northampton County, whose capital was Easton.
[344] regiments were encamped on Locust Hill, fourteen miles from Wyoming. It was not until June 14th, that they reached Wyoming.
At three o'clock in the morning of Friday, June 18, the camps were aroused, and in an hour afterward the troops were in motion for the Susquehanna. General Sullivan was accompanied by the three New Jersey, the Second and Third New Hampshire Regiments and Proctor's artillery. The route of this day was up the Bushkill creek from Easton twelve miles to the foot of the Blue ridge where they encamped at Heller's Tavern, near present Hellersville.* The next morning the army was astir at four o'clock. Hellers was at southern opening of the Wind Gap, a remarkable Pass in the Blue Ridge. Through this the little army took its way just as the day was breaking, and at seven o'clock halted for rest and breakfast at Brinker's Mills, † seven miles from Heller's and beyond the northern entrance of the Gap. Here a large building had been erected for the storage of the army supplies, which gave the name of Sullivan's Stores to this locality. While resting here the army drew four days' provisions, sufficient to last them until they should reach Wyoming, and then marched nine miles farther to Learned's Log Tavern. ‡ This was the last house on the frontier. From this point the road had opened by Van Cortlandt's and Spencer's regiments to Wyoming, but was still rough and difficult to travel. The road this day had led through a stony, barren region but the next day passed over the Pocono mountains which divide the water-shed of the Delaware from the Susquehanna and was so difficult that but five miles could be made and encamped for the night near a small stream called "Rum Bridge, or White Oak Run." General Sullivan dated his orders this morning at Chowder Camp § so called because he was served with "trout chowder" on his arrival at this place. From the mountain peaks over which the army passed the views were delightful. At the east was the Delaware Water Gap, nearly south the Wind Gap, in the West the Blue ridge rising peak beyond peak, presenting a picture wherever the eye turned of weird, fascinating beauty. On Monday, the 21st of June, the road lay through the Great Swamp, a rough, stony, hilly stretch of heavily timbered land, interspersed with frequent streams and marshy places, and at one point so dark from the overhanging trees through whose shade the sun never penetrated as not inaptly to be called the "Shades of Death." After a fatiguing march of twenty miles the troops reached the northern limit of this swamp late in the evening and pitched their tents upon a spot appropriately named by their Commander, "Fatigue Camp." ¡¡ The days march had not only been attended with weariness to the men but had been fraught with numberless mishaps to baggage; wagons and gun carriages were broken, horses exhausted and some of them had died from fatigue, so that it was two o'clock the next afternoon before the army could renew its march, encamping for the evening on Bullock farm fifty-eight miles from Easton and seven from Wyoming which was reached the next day, Wednesday, July 23, without mishap. Here, instead of finding the supplies he had expected, a new disappointment awaited him. Of the salted meat, not a pound was fit to eat ¶ Of the cattle, many of
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* Hellersville is near the boundary of present Northampton County. Mr. Miner is mistaken when he makes the road pass through Stroudsburg. There was such a road used by the early settlers at Wyoming, but in 1779, the shorter and better route up the Bush hill had been opened. Van Cortlandt marched by way of Stroudsburg, May 11-14.† Present Saylorsburg in Monroe county, Pennsylvania.
‡ Near Tannersville in Monroe county, on the road from Stroudsburg to Wyoming.
§ At present called Hungry Hill, Monroe Co., Penn.
¡¡ Present Burnt Plain, or Barren Hill, Luzerne Co., Penn., 12 miles east of Wilkesbarre, Penn.
¶ It is but just to say that the reason rendered for this was that the meat was necessarily packed in casks made of green lumber, which soured the brine and spoiled the meat, notwithstanding the utmost precautions were used. In a letter from the Pennsylvania war office under date of July 21, 1779, occurs the following:—''Your remarks on the Staff Department have undoubtedly but too much foundation; at the same time we must observe that they are in many cases almost insuperable difficulties in the way: among these may be reckoned the want of men and proper materials, of the former the country is much drained; and of the latter the old stocks are generally worked up or used and no provision made for future wants. Hence in particular they have sometimes been obliged to use green stuff for casks, which in summer is ruinous to whatever is put in them. To this cause may be imputed the badness of some of the salted provisions destined for your army; for we have upon inquiry rec'd satisfactory evidence that no care was wanting in the salting and repacking of the greater part of them."
[345] them were too poor to walk and some could not even stand. Everything pertaining to the Commissary's Department was in a deplorable condition, and the clothing department was in no better. On the 21st of July, General Sullivan writes, that more than a third of his soldiers have not a shirt to their backs.
As early as May 19, Colonel Pickering, then on General Washington's staff, wrote to Joseph Reed, President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, stating the necessity of hastening forward the supplies for the army, and adds, ''we expected ere this time that all the stores would have been at least on their way to Estherton, but for want of wagons three-fourths of them are in this city." The next day the Board ask that they may have immediately from eighty to one hundred wagons to convey supplies to the Susquehanna. On the 31st of May, General Washington himself writes to President Reed urging that the stores be sent forward with all expedition.
Instead of exerting themselves to forward the supplies so urgently demanded, and which had been faithfully promised beforehand, the authorities complained that the requisitions of Sullivan were exorbitant and threatened to prefer charges against him before Congress.
General Sullivan says also that the Executive Council of Pennsylvania engaged to furnish seven hundred and twenty rangers and riflemen, and on the 21st of July. "not a man of them had joined the army, nor are any about to do it." The excuses rendered were that the Quartermaster paid such large wages for boatmen, that no one could be persuaded into the military service—and General Sullivan was further told that he had men enough for his expedition, although it was the opinion of both himself and Washington, that his force was too small for the exigencies of the campaign.
The Commander at once set about with great vigor to supply his army with the necessary stores and means for their transportation. Boats were secured, four hundred fifty boatmen were enlisted, and soldiers were detailed, who, under the direction of Gen. Hand and other officers, were busily engaged for six weeks in collecting the supplies which he expected would be in Wyoming on his arrival there.
General Sullivan was by no means the only officer who complained of delinquency and criminal neglect in the State Commissary Department. In a letter to President Reed, of July 22, William Maclay, the Lieutenant of Northumberland, says: "I wish not to complain of any one, nor would be understood so. I, however, know the wretched slothfulness of many who are engaged in the public department, and would rather do a piece of business myself than have the trouble of calling on them." Under date of July 14, Colonel Hubley writes to President Reed: "Our expedition is carrying on rather slow, owing to the delay of our provisions, &c. I sincerely pity General Sullivan's situation. People who are not acquainted with the reasons of the delay, I'm informed, censure him, which is absolutely cruel and unjust. No man can be more assiduous than he is. Unless some steps are taken to find out and make an example of the delinquent, [Quartermasters and Commissaries] I fear our expedition will be reduced to a much less compass than was intended." July 30th he writes again: "To-morrow we march, and I am sorry to say exceedingly ill provided to carry through the extensive expedition. The same unparalleled conduct of those employed in supplying this army, seems still to exist. I hope to see the day when the delinquents will be brought to proper punishment. My regiment I fear will be almost totally naked before we can possibly return. I have scarcely a coat or blanket for every seventh man. The state stores are all issued and delivered to the regiment." The testimony on all sides is, that the Commissary Department was in the hands of men. who were either entirely incapable or grossly negligent. Of course great allowance should be made for the depressed condition of the country, the worthlessness of the currency, and the poverty of the people, but the real cause was mainly to be found in the coldness and real disfavor with which the State authorities regarded the expedition, and the entirely inadequate idea they had of its extent and necessities.
But few incidents worthy of note occurred during the five weeks the army lay here. [346] On Sunday, June 27, Rev. Andrew Hunter,* chaplain to Maxwell's Brigade preached in the woods, to his Brigade, and Dr. Rogers † the chaplain of the Pennsylvania Brigade held service near the Fort attended by the commander-in-chief and his suite.
On the afternoon of July 1, Laurence Miller and Michael Rosebury of the Jersey Brigade who had been convicted of enticing soldiers to desert to the enemy and sentenced to be hanged, the latter was executed and the former on account of his good behavior, his penitence and numerous family was pardoned. The three ‡ chaplains attended to administer spiritual comfort in their last moments.
July 4th falling on Sunday, Dr. Rogers preached a patriotic discourse, as did both Doctors Hunter and Kirkland and the next day there was a military display in honor of the event, and the customary toasts drank amid much hilarity. This day thirty boats, were sent down to Sunbury after the stores which had been collected there. Those who had been engaged as boatmen having deserted, soldiers from Col. Hubley's Regiment were detailed to man them. They brought back forty-three on the 9th, when a party under Captain Cummings was sent to Coxe's Town for additional supplies, which returned on the 23d. On the 20th Captain Bowman arrived with supplies from Brinker's Mills, including two hundred seventy head of cattle and some horses. Thus General Sullivan after many vexatious delays by the unwearied exertions of his troops finally succeeded in gathering provisions sufficient to warrant him to set out on his great adventure.
On the evening of the 13th of July, thirty-three of the German Regiment deserted, on the plea that their term of enlistment had expired. They were apprehended, brought back, tried by court-martial, the leaders condemned to suffer death, and the others to severe punishment. On the petition of the criminals, with the promise to serve faithfully until properly discharged, and the recommendation of a board of officers, they were pardoned, and cheerfully took their places in the ranks.
The movements of General Sullivan had not been unobserved by the enemy, who naturally concluded that the gathering of such a force and the collection of such extensive stores indicated some offensive movement, and that the invasion, which they had treated with so much ridicule, might be a more serious affair than they had anticipated.
Bold and desperate measures were undertaken to divert the attention of the General, divide his force, and, if possible, embarrass or delay his movements, by making vigorous, attacks on the right and on the left of him.
For the protection of the scattered settlements on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, a fort had been erected fifteen miles above Northumberland, called Freeland's Fort. On the 28th of July one hundred British soldiers, under command of Captain McDonald, and two hundred Indians, invested the fort. Captain Hawkins Boon, a few miles below, hearing the firing, started with thirty men for the relief of the garrison. Before reaching there, the garrison, which consisted of thirty-two men, surrendered, and Captain Boon's party were surrounded by the enemy and fourteen of his men were slain. Great panic ensued, and express after express arrived at Wyoming beseeching General Sullivan
* Rev. Andrew Hunter, the son of a British officer was born in Virginia, licensed to preach by the First Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1773, was a missionary in Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1778 was appointed chaplain in Maxwell's Brigade. In 1788 he was elected Trustee of the College of New Jersey. In 1804, was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in that institution. In 1808, he resigned his professorship to take charge of an academy in Bordentown, N. J., but was soon after appointed chaplain in the Navy and stationed in the Navy Yard in Washington, until his death which occurred Feb. 24, 1823.† A biographical sketch of Rev. Wm. Rogers, D. D., is given in the introduction to his diary.
‡ Besides Revs. Rogers and Hunter, and the Rev. Samuel Kirkland,—the Rev. Israel Evans of the New Hampshire Brigade was chaplain in the expedition, and faithfully performed his duties to the close of the war. He was from Pennsylvania, a graduate of Princeton college and ordained chaplain of the army in 1776, at Philadelphia. Upon the appointment of Colonel Poor as Brigadier in 1777, Mr. Evans became chaplain of his brigade and so continued until the close of the war. He pronounced the eulogy at the funeral of General Poor in 1780. Being a popular preacher he was settled in Concord, N. H., as successor to the Rev. Mr. Walker, July 1, 1789. He died at Concord, March 9, 1807, in the sixtieth year of his age.— N. H. Reports.
[347] to send them aid. In reply he wrote lo Colonel Cook: "Nothing could afford me more pleasure than to relieve the distressed, or to have it in my power to add to the safety of your settlement, but should I comply with the requisition made by you, it would effectually answer the intention of the enemy and destroy the grand object of this expedition. To-morrow the army moves from this place, and by carrying the war immediately into the Indian country, it will most certainly draw them out of yours."
The same week Brant with a party of warriors fell upon the Minisink settlements in Orange County, N. Y., killing several of the inhabitants and making others prisoners. One hundred and fifty militia marching for their relief, were decoyed into an ambush and more than a hundred of them slain. An attack followed on the settlement of Lackawaxen, which was broken up with the loss of several lives and a number taken prisoners. General Sullivan, however, was too good a General to divide his force in the presence of the enemy. He detached not a man from his main body, but hastened the preparations for his departure.
Rumors that large parties of Indians had been discovered at several places below Wyoming induced the commander to detach the Second Jersey Regiment with two field pieces to act as escort to the boats then coming up the river. On the 24th, the fleet consisting of one hundred twelve loaded boats in charge of General Hand, arrived. Their approach was announced by the discharge of the cannon which were on the boats, answered by those on shore, and were received by soul stirring strains of music by Colonel Proctor's regimental band. In general orders, thanks were returned to General Hand, Major Conway, Captains Rice and Porter, and others for their great exertions in bringing forward the stores of the army with such expedition. All was now bustle and excitement in preparing for the march. Stores were loaded upon the boats and provisions were arranged for the packhorses.
On the last day of July, everything being in readiness so far as circumstances would allow, about one o clock in the afternoon, the army broke camp at Wyoming and began its forward march. Two captains, six Subalterns, and one hundred men were left as the garrison for Wyoming under command of Colonel Zebulon Butler, who was charged with forwarding such supplies as might be collected. The artillery consisted of eight brass pieces, viz.: two six-pounders, four three-pounders, two howitzers, carrying five and a half-inch shells, together with a light piece for carrying either shot or shell, called a co-horn.* The artillery, ammunition, the salted provisions, flour, liqours, and heavy baggage were loaded on two hundred and fourteen boats, † manned by four hundred and fifty enlisted boatmen, Colonel Proctor's Regiment, and two hundred and fifty soldiers; all under the command of Colonel Proctor. To General Hand and his light troops was assigned the post of honor, the front of the column, which was directed to march in three columns and keep about a mile in advance of the main body. Hubley's Regiment and Captain Spaldings Independent Company formed the center column and proceeded on the main road; the German Regiment and Captain Schott's Independent Corps formed the right column, the left being a detachment from the center. Colonel Armand had on the 30th of June been ordered with his troops to join the army of Washington. Advanced and flanking parties were kept out to guard against surprise from the enemy, and the brigade was so arranged as to be instantly effective in case of sudden attack. Then Maxwell's Brigade advancing by its left in files, sections or platoons according to the nature of the country, then Poor's Brigade advancing by the right in the same manner in the rear of Poor. Then followed the packhorses about twelve hundred in number and seven hundred beef cattle. A regiment taken alternately from Maxwell's and Poor's Brigades
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* A Cohorn is a small brass piece mounted on a wooden block with handles, so that it could be carried a short distance by hand. Colonel Proctor conceived the idea of putting legs under it, and placing it on board one of the light boats which was to precede the fleet, called it the "Grasshopper," because the reaction of the discharge threw it over backwards.† A different number of boats has been given by other writers, and by the journalists of the Campaign. I have followed Colonel Proctor's own account as published in the Pennsylvania Archives, New Series, IV., 557. Chaplain Rogers gives the number one hundred and twenty.
[348] was detailed as rear guard. Sixty men under Captain Gifford of the Third Jersey Regiment were directed to go up on the west side of the river to prevent any surprise or interruption from that quarter, and four light boats, well manned, were ordered to keep abreast of them and bring them over to the main body, in case of an attack by a superior force.
(See Order of March illustration.)
The firing of a gun from the "Adventure," Colonel Proctor's flag boat, at 1 o'clock P. M., was the signal for the fleet to weigh anchor. In a few moments the whole army was in motion, with flags flying, drums beating, fifes screaming, and Colonel Proctor's regimental band playing a lively air. Passing the fort, a salute of thirteen guns was fired which was answered by a like number from the fleet. When the whole line got in motion the distance from front to rear was about two miles,* and sometimes farther, while the fleet was spread out at least an equal distance. Owing to unskillful loading or mismanagement, the boats experienced great difficulty in making headway against the rapid current of the Susquehanna; and equal difficulty was experienced with the packhorses, the lading either being badly packed, or the slings improperly adjusted, packs were frequently falling off, or the horses liable to stumble and fall.
The first days march brought the army to the head of the Wyoming valley, a distance of ten miles, and the troops encamped on the flats near where Coxton now is, on the north side of the Lackawanna creek. The flat, however, made slower progress. Grounding in the shallows, buffeted by the swift current of the rifts, manned with crews unused to the business and unacquainted with the current, the boats did not reach the encampment until the afternoon of the next day, while two of them capsized but the lading was saved. It was three o'clock in the afternoon of August 1st, before the army again resumed its march which for the distance was more severe than the day before.
From its junction with the Tioga to the Lackawanna, the Susquehanna has no natural valley, but cuts through at a considerable angle, a series of high ridges running in a northeast and southwest direction. At the gaps through which the river has made its passage, the escarpments are from two hundred to three hundred feet in perpendicular height, and frequently come so steeply to the waters edge that there is not room for even a foot path. The Susquehanna sweeps round these bluffs in long, graceful curves, giving it the appropriate name of "Winding River." The great "Warrior Path" which the main body of the army followed instead of following the bank of the stream, frequently shortened the distance by going over the hills, coming out upon the crest of the escarpment, thence by a steep, slippery descent to the water's edge.
The route this day, August 1st, was along the river bank. For a mile and a half it was at the base of the hill which forms the first narrows, covered with pieces of the argillaceous shales which, when wet were slippery as glass, then across an abandoned plantation where Ransom now is, through a second narrows to a grassy plain called Quialutemac, the main body encamping on the stream running by the Keeler farm, about seven miles from Lackawanna, and on the line of the Wyoming county. It was with great difficulty the packhorses and cattle could begot forward, and Colonel Cilley's † regiment, which
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* Rev. Dr. Rogers says, "The army being obliged to, moved in Indian file, and the packhorses only, judged to be about two thousand in number, must have formed according to the opinion of many of the officers, a line of at least six miles." But ordinarily the army marched more compactly. The packhorses were distributed as follows:— twenty for the commander-in-chief, three hundred for Maxwell's Brigade, three hundred for Poor's, two hundred for Hand's, one hundred for Proctor's, and all the others, about three hundred more for the public stores, all under the direction of Colonel Bond.† Joseph Cilley from Nottingham, N. H., was born in 1745. In 1774 he was engaged in the attack upon Fort William and Mary. Upon the news of the battle of Lexington he marched for the scene of act on at the head of one hundred volunteers; was appointed major of Poor's regiment, and lieutenant-colonel in 1776, and April 2, 1777, was made colonel of the 1st N. H. Reg't of three years' men. He fought his regiment bravely at Bemis Heights, at the storming of Stony Point, at Monmouth and other hard fought battles of the Revolution. In this expedition he was one of General Sullivan's most trusted officers. After the war he was appointed major general of militia and with his own hand arrested the leader in the insurrection of 1786. He was a man of great industry and energy, of strong passions, yet generous and humane. He died in August, 1799.
[349] formed the rear guard, did not come up to the encampment until a couple of hours after sunrise the next morning. The army lay still a day at this place, while the stores which had been left along the road were brought up. David Brown of Captain Spalding's company, was this day accidentally wounded in the side with a tomahawk. At seven o'clock, Tuesday, August 3, the army was again in motion. The path lay over the hill between Quialutemac and Buttermilk Falls, crossing the creek about forty yards above the Falls, then near the river until they crossed the Tunkhannock creek on the north bank of which the troops encamped, Hand being about a mile in advance. The experience of the past two days had taught many a useful lesson both in managing the packhorses and the boats, and the journey of twelve miles this day was the easiest of any heretofore made. The next morning, Hand's brigade was on the march at five o'clock and the main army an hour later. The path followed up the beach about three miles to Teagues creek, then up the creek, over what is now Russell Hill, crossing the Meshoppen near its mouth, then over a second hill to Black Walnut * a distance of fourteen miles. The main body encamped on the abandoned farm of Frederick Vanderlip, the light troops a mile farther up on Williamson's farm. Both these men had gone off with the enemy. Owing to the long bends in the river at "Horse Shoe," the boats were compelled to make a distance more than six miles greater than that made by the troops, consequently did not come up until the next morning, which delayed the movements of the army until nine o'clock when the march was again resumed. For a mile the path was over the hill which divides Black Walnut from Skinner's Eddy, or Depew's † where they crossed Tuscarora creek at its mouth, thence over Indian Hill, ‡ to the river, one mile and a half farther to Wyalusing, § the main body encamping on the site of the old town, Hand's brigade a mile farther up near Kingsley's. ¡¡ During the day one of the boatmen fell overboard and was drowned. This was the first life lost in the expedition. Indications of the presence of lurking savages, led the commander to observe unusual precautions against ambuscades. The flanking divisions were doubled, the troops were directed to march as compactly as possible and a system of signals devised for communicating information to all parts of the army. Colonel Dayton's Regiment was the rear guard. This evening just after getting into camp, Sergeant Martin Johnson of the Second Jersey Regiment died suddenly after marching all day. ¶ The army had orders to remain here a day for rest. A man of the cattle guard belonging to Van Cortlandt's Regiment, which had been rear guard, had been left sick at Black Walnut, and a party sent back to look after him found him dead. His body was brought up to Wyalusing and with Sergeant Johnson buried near Kingsley's house. The orders to march early the following morning were suspended on account of a heavy rain which fell all the night and continued until nearly noon of the seventh. In the meanwhile, arms, were cleaned, provisions cooked, and everything put in readiness to move early the next day, August 8th. Sergeant Shoecraft of Van Cortlandt's Regiment with three men, and Captain Jehoiakim ** were sent out to reconnoitre the country as far as Tioga.
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* So called from the great number of stately walnuts found growing there. A station on the Pennsylvania and New York railroad preserves the name. Dr. Rogers says the small stream which ran between the encampments was called "Machapendaarre." This is just below the station.† In honor of John Depew a pre-revolutionary settler there.
‡ So named on account of a considerable skirmish in which Hubley's regiment was engaged here with the Indians on his return from the expedition against Tioga the fall before.
§ Wyalusing was the site of a considerable Indian village established by Papunhank, a Monsey chief in 1754. In 1763, the Moravian Church established a mission here, and it soon became a Christian town. In 1772, the mission removed to the Ohio. Prior to the Revolution it was the most considerable white settlement above Wyoming, no less than forty families being settled in the neighborhood. The settlement was broken up by Tories and Indians in the fall and winter of 1777-78.
¡¡ Nathan Kingsley an early and prominent settler. The body of his log house is still (1886) standing. Under date of Saratoga, July 24, 1779, Maj. Gen. Schuyler writes, "Yesterday a certain Nathan Kingsley, who was made a prisoner in Oct., 1777, near Wyoming, and returned from captivity in Canada. He appears a sensible & intelligent man and has given me a good account of Niagara and Buck Island." He was afterward a Justice of the Quorum, and died in Ohio at an advanced age.
¶ See Dr. Ebenezer Elmer's journal of this date.
** Captain Jehoiakim a Stockbridge Indian with three others had come on with Rev. Samuel Kirkland, their missionary, as guides for the Expedition. The three, however, left the army at Wyoming. See Rev. Dr Rogers, journal of August 11.
[350] On leaving the encampment at Wyalusing, the path crossed the creek nearly a mile above its mouth, then led over Vaughan and Lime Hills, coming to the river a half mile below the mouth of Rummerfield creek, then along the river bank to Standing Stone, a distance of ten miles from Wyalusing where the main body of the army encamped; Hand's Brigade went two miles farther to the Wysox where they pitched tents for the night.
On Monday, August 9th, it was ten o'clock before the main army came to Hand's encampment, and nearly a half hour later before the entire army was on the march. To avoid an almost impassable swamp, now the fertile fields of Messrs. Piollet, the path crossed the Wysox creek a half mile above its mouth then led along the side of the hill, up Franklin creek, through Echo Cannon, over to a small creek which empties into the river a little below Sugar creek, thence over Breakneck hill, where for more than a quarter of a mile, the narrow path lay along the crest of a precipitous ledge of rocks nearly two hundred feet in height, thence along the river flats to the place of encampment which was opposite the present village of Ulster. The day was very warm and the march tiresome and several of the men gave out. In passing Breakneck three head of cattle fell off and were killed. The numerous rifts and greater distance by the river compelled the fleet to anchor three miles below the encampment, after one boat loaded with flour had been wrecked and the lading lost. This day Captain Gifford burnt the Indian town of twenty-eight new houses called Newtycharming near the mouth of Sugar creek. The next morning was rainy, and the army continued in its encampment to rest, draw rations and wait for the arrival of the boats.
Early on Tuesday morning the army was astir. Fearing an attack at the crossing, Captain Gifford was reinforced with Van Cortlandt's and Cilley's Regiments who forded at the encampment. The rest of the army marched a mile and a half farther up the river fording opposite the present village of Milan, a mile below the junction of the two rivers. The water was waist deep and the current swift but the men grasping each other firmly were able to withstand it and crossed in safety. Marching a mile they crossed the Tioga or Chemung, and encamped at Tioga, the site of an Indian town, on the peninsula, between the rivers. In this day's march the army passed over the remains of Queen Esther's town,* which was situated on the west side of the Susquehanna, opposite to its junction with the Tioga or Chemung.
On the first flat above the present village of Chemung, stood the Indian town Chemung in 1779. The old town, abandoned a number of years previous, was nearly three miles below, and near the present village. General Sullivan determined, if possible, to surprise and destroy this town, and thus prevent it from being used as a rendezvous for parties to commit depredations upon his camp. Accordingly the same evening of his arrival at Tioga, (August 11th,) † Captain John N. Cummings of the Second New Jersey Regiment, ‡ Lieutenant Jenkins, the guide, Captain Franklin § of the Wyoming militia and five others
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* Queen Esther, whose palace and village were burned by Colonel Thomas Hartley in the autumn of 1778, and who made herself notorious by her barbarous conduct at Wyoming, was the grand-daughter of Madame Montour, daughter of French Margaret, and sister of Catherine, whose town was at the head of Seneca lake. She was the wife of Echobund, (or Eghobund,) who was the chief or king of the village of Sheshequin, on the site of present Ulster, Bradford county, Pa., built about 1765. It was for a number of years the seat of a Moravian mission, which in 1772 was removed farther west. After the place was abandoned by the Moravians and their converts, Echobund with the remnant of his clan moved four or five miles farther up the river, where he probably died. Queen Esther figured prominently in the Susquehanna valley, until the Sullivan Expedition, after which her name is seldom mentioned. Her only son was slain at Wyoming, the day before the battle.† Captain Cumming was one of General Sullivan's most trusted officers, and could always be relied upon for dangerous and delicate service. He entered the army as First Lieutenant, November 29, 1775, was promoted to Captain, November 30, 1776, in which capacity he served in this campaign; was made Major, April 16, 1780, and Lieutenant Colonel, December 29, 1781, and commanded the Third Regiment, February 11, 1783 and discharged at the close of the war.
‡ For a notice of Lieutenant Jenkins, see introduction to his journal.
§ Captain, afterward Colonel John Franklin, was one of the most remarkable men of northern Pennsylvania. Among the early emigrants to Wyoming, he was made a captain of the militia raised by order of Congress, March 16, 1778. He was one of the guides to the expedition and severely wounded in (continued on 351) the action of August 13. He was afterward a Justice of the Peace and after his recovery he re-entered the military service and continued to the close of the war. In the land controversies, he espoused the Connecticut side with so much ardor that he was arrested for high treason, but after a confinement of thirteen months, released without trial. He was elected high sheriff of Luzerne county in 1792 for three years; was a Member of Assembly from 1795 until 1805. He died revered and beloved at his home in Athens, Penna., March 1, 1831, in the eighty-second year of his age.
[351] were sent to reconnoitre Chemung. Carefully they threaded their way through the tangled forests, avoiding the trail, yet keeping sufficiently near it not to lose their way, watchful of an ambush and listening for the footfall of a foe, they made their way to the crest of the high hill now owned by Miles C. Baldwin, Esq., where they could look down upon the town. There all was bustle and confusion. The Indians were evidently expecting an attack, and were hastening to a place of safety. The scouts returned the next day, about three o'clock P. M. On hearing their report the Commander-in-Chief issued orders for the soldiers to be in readiness to march at a moment's notice, and at eight P. M., (August 12th) with the greater part of the troops under Generals Poor and Hand, General Sullivan set out from Tioga, leaving General Maxwell in command of the camp. The soldiers took one day's rations in their haversacks, and carried the little cohorn by hand, all the way to Chemung and back to camp.
Night marches are always attended with great fatigue and many inconveniences, but here these were greatly augmented. The path lay through deep woods and tangled thickets, down into dark valleys and over precipitous hills; at one time the soldiers are floundering through a swamp, at another feeling their way along a narrow path on the hillside where there is scarcely room for two to walk abreast, and where a single mis-step would plunge headlong the unfortunate comrade upon the rocks hundreds of feet below— the day begins to dawn ere the tired troops reached the last Narrows. Covered by the fog, however, they pushed on their way, General Hand taking a little more circuitous route to strike the town in the rear, while General Poor advanced upon the front. But, lo! the bird had flown. Only two or three straggling Indians were discovered, and these ran away as soon as our men came in sight, which was a little before sunrise.
At his own request, General Hand was permitted to pursue the retreating enemy, with Hubley's Regiment and the Wyoming troops, the latter a little in front. He had advanced about a mile, when, as the company of Captain Bush, which was the right of the regiment, and the Wyoming companies pressing on rapidly and possibly with too little caution,* had just reached the broken ground about a mile above Chemung, known as the "Hog-Backs," they were fired upon by the Indians in ambush, killing six men, viz.: one sergeant, one drummer and four privates, all of the Eleventh Pennsylvania, wounding Captain Franklin, Captain Carbery, † Adjutant Huston; ‡ and six rank § and file. Our men returned the fire, pushed up the hill on a run, and the enemy beat a hasty retreat. It was afterwards known that the Indians had at least three killed and a number wounded. General Hand was recalled by orders from General Sullivan.
Nearly one hundred acres of excellent corn, just in the milk, were near this town, the greater part of which General Poor was ordered to destroy. A party of the enemy on the other side of the river fired upon the troops just as they were entering a field, killing one
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* The order of march was as follows: Captain Andrew Walker's (fifth) company of twenty-four men in the van, the rest of the Eleventh Regiment, then the two Wyoming companies, the left covered by the Tioga, the right by Captain George Bush (third) company of forty men as flankers. Lt. Col. Hubley gives the following as the loss, viz.:—Two Captains, one Adjutant, one guide, and eight privates wounded, and one sergeant, one drummer and four privates killed—all but two of the casualties being from his regiment, there being one killed and one wounded in Cilley's regiment.† Henry Carbery was captain of the Eighth Company, having been promoted from Lieutenant, November 30, 1778. He was at first in command of a troop of light horse dismounted by order of General Sullivan. He was retired in January, 1781. In June, 1783, was concerned in the riot of the soldiers of the Pennsylvania line and fled to Maryland.
‡ William Huston was commissioned ensign doing duty as Adjutant with the rank and pay of a Lieutenant to which he was promoted, February 21, 1780. He belonged to the Seventh Company. He and Captain Carbery were taken in boats to Wyoming, Aug. 28.
§ John McDowell, a private of Captain Bush's company, was wounded by a ball through his body Pa. Ar., New Series, X, 783.
[352] and wounding five. About forty acres of corn were left for the future use of the army,, the rest destroyed, the town burned, the troops returned to their encampment, reaching Tioga near evening of the 13th, greatly wearied with the fatigue of the journey and the extreme heat of the weather. The casualties were seven killed and fourteen wounded. All were brought to Tioga, where the slain were buried with military honors in one grave, Chaplain Rogers officiating at the religious services.
We can hardly imagine a scene in military experience more tenderly solemn than this, when, after the fatigues of that long march and conflict, in the terrible heat of that August day, just at sunset, beneath the "Shadows of Nature's leafy temples," more than an hundred miles distant from the home of a white man, these dust begrimmed soldiers, gather in silence and in sorrow, to consign their comrades, the first to fall by the enemy's, bullets in the campaign, to the rest of their quiet graves. With what readiness they listen as their chaplain pronounces the brief discourse, and how reverently they bow their heads as he "Went to prayer." We can well believe it was no exaggeration when he records in his journal, "The regiment very solemn and attentive. The scene was exceedingly affecting." These were among the heroes who sleep in nameless graves. No living soul knows the exact place where their ashes lie, and probably no one knows the name of a single one of the slain.*
For the protection of the stores and boats to be left at Tioga during the absence of the army, a fortification was erected, which the soldiers, in honor of their commander, called Fort Sullivan. The site selected was near the centre of the present village of Athens, where the two rivers approach very near each other. Four strong block houses set in the angles of a parallelogram served as bastions for the work, the two opposite ones resting on the bank of each river, and the other two about midway between, and at a distance of about one hundred yards from each other. The curtain was made by setting logs endwise into the ground, the whole being surrounded by a ditch, making a work of ample strength for the place.
The New York Government had determined, prior to the Sullivan Expedition, to send a strong force against the Iroquois, by the way of the Mohawk, and General Clinton was making preparations accordingly. After this expedition was determined upon, it was thought best to punish the Onondagas for their repeated treachery and cruelty, General Schuyler, then in command at Albany, with the approval of Washington, therefore directed General Clinton to send out a strong detachment and destroy their towns and break up their haunts. Accordingly on the 19th of April, 1779, Colonel Van Schaick, commanding the First New York Regiment, with a detachment of five hundred and fifty-eight men, including officers, made a forced march to their towns, which were taken partly by surprise; twelve Indians were slain, thirty-three taken prisoners, their three villages entirely destroyed with a considerable quantity of corn, beans and other vegetables, most of their arms captured, a swivel at the council house disabled, their council fire extinguished, and the troops returned after an absence of six days, having made a journey of 180 miles, without the loss of a single man.
General Clinton, † who since the middle of June had been transporting his brigade and stores from the Mohawk by way of Canajoharie and Springfield, encamped at lake Otsego, the head waters of the Susquehanna, the third of July, where, awaiting orders from General Sullivan, he remained until the 9th of August. Lest the river would be rendered unnavigable by the drought which frequently occurs in July and August, he had thrown a dam across the outlet of the lake by which its waters were raised about three feet above usual high water mark.
His force consisted of the Third, (Colonel Gansevoort's), the Fourth, (Lieutenant Colonel Weissenfels'), and the Fifth (Colonel Dubois'), New York Regiments, the Sixth Massachusetts, (Colonel Alden's), the Fourth Pennsylvania (Colonel Richard Butler's)
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* Joseph Davis and Ezekiel Davis both of Amherst, of the Third Company of Cilley's Regiment, who were reported killed previous to August 29th, may have been two of them.† See biographical sketch of General Clinton accompanying steel engraving .
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