George Peck's WYOMING, 1858 - Pennsylvania - Chapter 2 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja jbanja@comcast.net USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities, when written permission is obtained from the contributor, so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ________________________________________________ HTML with illustrations: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/peckwyo/peck-wyo.htm WYOMING; ITS HISTORY, STIRRING INCIDENTS AND ROMANTIC ADVENTURES. By GEORGE PECK, D.D. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE, 1858 BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 71 II. BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. "But this is not a time" - he started up, And smote his breast with wo-denouncing hand - "This is no time to fill the joyous cup; The mammoth comes - the foe - the monster Brant, With all his howling, desolating band; These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine Awake at once, and silence half your land. Red is the cup they drink, but not with wine; Awake and watch to-night, or see no morning shine." CAMPBELL's Gertrude. JOSEPH BRANT [illustration] was a Mohawk sachem. He has been represented as a half-breed, but Colonel Stone makes it appear quite probable that he was a full- blooded Indian. He was born in the western woods, 72 WYOMING. somewhere within the bounds of the present State of Ohio, while his parents were upon a hunting expedition. His Indian name was Thay-en-da-ne-gea. Sir William Johnson held a peculiar relation to the Brant family. Molly Brant was a beautiful squaw, and, when about sixteen, upon a regimental parade - upon a banter on her part - had been allowed by an officer to spring upon his horse behind him, and, with her blanket and black tresses streaming in the air, to fly over the ground, to the great amusement of the spectators. Sir William was present, and was so charmed with the creature that he took her to his house. Colonel Stone says that she became "his wife," and that her "descendants from Sir William Johnson compose some of the most respectable and intelligent families in Upper Canada at this day." Mr. Campbell calls Molly Brant Sir William's "mistress," and in the "Documentary History of New York" she is called his "housekeeper." In all the records we have consulted she is called by her maiden name, "Molly Brant," which would seem to be against the idea of her regular and lawful marriage to Sir William Johnson.* Joseph, a younger brother of Molly Brant, was most naturally taken under the patronage of Sir William; and, as the baronet took great interest in the civilization and improvement of the Indians, it is not strange that he took measures for the education of his protege. The Rev. Mr. Wheelock had established a school at Lebanon, Connecticut, for the education of Indian boys. Joseph was sent to this school with several other Indian boys, and was, in the English sense, so clever, and made such progress as to receive high commendation _______ * Mr. Lossing informs us that Sir William married Molly Brant just before his death, to legitimatize his children. BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 73 from his teachers, and to be employed as an interpreter. He even assisted in translating St. Mark's Gospel into Mohawk. The correspondence between Sir William Johnson and Dr. Wheelock in relation to the subject of this brief sketch is preserved in the Documentary History of New York, and is well worth perusing. In 1763, Molly Brant, moved by prejudice against the New Englanders, caused a letter to be written to Joseph, in Sir William's name, in which he was requested to return home. Dr. Wheelock was much displeased at this, and wrote a letter of remonstrance to Sir William upon the subject, but it was of no use. Sir William's "housekeeper" could not be denied, and Joseph, becoming discontented, came back to take a prominent position among the Iroquois, and to be a powerful ally of the Johnsons and of the crown of Great Britain. In 1777 Brant came down from the north with a band of his Mohawks, and made his head-quarters at Ocquaga and Unadilla, and at the latter place General Herkimer sought and obtained an interview with the Mohawk chief with a view to employing the influence of a former acquaintance and an old friendship to bring him over to the cause of the colonies. General Herkimer had with him about three hundred men, and, after some ceremonies, met Brant at Unadilla. The interview was civil, but fruitless. Brant told the general that, for the sake of old friendship, he would not harm him. But the chief was not to be satisfied without displaying his force; and, upon a signal, five hundred warriors darted from their concealment and gave the war-whoop. The "old neighbors" then separated to meet only once more, and that upon the battlefield. The next we hear of Brant is at the battle of Oris- 74 WYOMING. kany, on the 6th of August. The conduct of the Indians and Tories toward the prisoners which fell into their hands on this occasion was marked by the most unparalleled ferocity. A surgeon of General Herkimer's brigade of militia, by the name of Moses Younglove, made an affidavit, which is now in the office of the Secretary of State, in which he makes the most terrible disclosures. He was made a prisoner, and was "brought to Mr. Butler, Sen." - Colonel John Butler - "who demanded of him what he was fighting for; to which he answered, 'He fought for the liberty that God and nature gave him, and to defend himself and dearest connections from the massacre of savages.' To which Butler replied, 'You are a d-d impudent rebel;' and, so saying, immediately turned to the savages, encouraging them to kill him, and saying, if they did not, this deponent and the other prisoners should be hanged on a gallows then preparing." "Six or seven" persons were killed at one time, at the instance of a wounded Tory. "Those of the prisoners who were delivered up to the provost guards were kept without victuals for many days, and had neither clothes, blankets, shelter, nor fire, while the guards were ordered not to use any violence in protecting them from the savages, who came every day in large companies, with knives, feeling of the prisoners to know who was fattest; that they dragged one of the prisoners out of the guard, with the most lamentable cries, tortured him for a long time; and this deponent was informed, by both Tories and Indians, that they ate him, as they did another on an island in Lake Ontario, by bones found there, newly picked, just after they had crossed the lake with the prisoners." St. Leger had offered twenty dollars for every American scalp, which, of course, BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 75 furnished the Indians with a motive for killing the prisoners. Younglove was finally doomed to the fire, and was likely to be fed upon by the savages. He was fastened to a stake on the bank of the river, and while preparations were being made for the burning, the bank providentially caved off, and he was carried down the angry current, and was taken up far below by another party of Indians, who took him to the west, where he was obliged to run the gauntlet. After this he was adopted by an Indian, put on the Indian habit, and remained among the Indians until he was exchanged. Dr. Younglove lived to old age, and died a few years since in the city of Hudson, much respected. His story is perfectly reliable. - See Campbell's Border Warfare, p.114-116. Now, when these atrocities were perpetrated, where was Joseph Brant? He was at the head of the Indians who were in the battle of Oriskany, and who tortured and devoured the prisoners there taken. If he was present, these barbarous transactions were permitted, if not ordered by him; but if he left the prisoners at the disposal of the fiends whom he had the honor to command in the battle, and simply retired out of sight, the whole iniquitous and fiendish system of torture, and murder, and cannibalism which followed was at least by his connivance, and at his responsibility. Dr. Younglove in after years published a historical poem, in which, referring to Brant, he represents him as "By malice urged to every barbarous art, Of cruel temper, but of coward heart." In 1778 the operations of the royal forces on the border were put in charge of Colonel John Butler and "Captain Brant." Two projects were set on foot: 76 WYOMING. one was surprising the small garrisons and cutting off the settlements in Tryon County, and the other the destruction of the settlement at Wyoming, on the Susquehanna. The first of these enterprises was to be taken in hand by Brant, and the second by Butler. Early in the spring Brant collected a considerable force at 0cquaga. The settlers at Unadilla and in the neighborhood removed to Cherry Valley, and located themselves within the fortification which had been raised by the order of General La Fayette. Brant, with a party of Indians, soon visited Cherry Valley, with a view to making prisoners of some of the principal inhabitants. While skulking about in the woods he intercepted Lieutenant Wormwood, and shot and scalped him with his own hand. Wormwood was a gallant young officer, and an only son of a respectable resident of Palatine. He had been to Cherry Valley, and was on his return home. The agonized father, as he bent over the mangled corpse of his beloved son, poured out a flood of tears, exclaiming, "Brant! cruel, cruel Brant!" After giving this relation, Mr. Campbell remarks, "Tears started in many eyes which scarcely knew how to weep." Brant and this young officer had been personal friends, and he is said to have lamented his death, having mistaken him for a Continental officer. This was a cold-blooded murder, in whatever aspect it is regarded, and it was all that Captain Brant achieved on this expedition, with the exception of his making a prisoner of Peter Sitz, who was in company with Lieutenant Wormwood. In the month of June, Brant, with a party, visited Springfield, burned the houses of the inhabitants, and carried away several prisoners. He left the women and children in a house to shift for themselves - an act BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 77 which has been noted as an evidence of his great humanity. It must be conceded that Brant did not seem to delight in torturing and murdering helpless women and children; whether it was because he had a spark of kindness in his bosom, or because he considered it mean and cowardly, we shall not attempt to determine. Captain Brant now concentrated his forces at Unadilla, and received constant accessions of Tories, who were more savage than the savages themselves. A reward being offered to any person who would gain satisfactory knowledge of Brant's proceedings, Captain M'Kean volunteered to undertake the enterprise. He took with him five brave men, and proceeded down one of the branches of the Susquehanna. He came upon the track of the chief about twenty miles from Cherry Valley, in the town of Laurens. A Quaker by the name of Sleeper informed him that Brant had been at his house that day, with fifty men, and advised him to keep out of his way. M'Kean, having satisfied himself of the condition of things in that quarter, returned, but not until he had left behind him evidence of his visit. He wrote a letter to Brant, charging him with his predatory and murderous incursions upon the unoffending settlers, and challenging him to single combat, or to meet, in fair fight, an equal number of the patriots with his Indians, telling him that if he would come to Cherry Valley they would make him a goose - referring to his name. This letter he fastened in a stick, and placed in an Indian path; Brant received it, and referred to it subsequently. Some time in June, Brant, with four hundred Indians, met a party of regular troops and Schoharie militia on the upper branch of the Cobelskill. There 78 WYOMING. were only forty-five of our men; twenty-one escaped, twenty-two were killed, and two were taken prisoners. In July, a small settlement, situated west of the German Flats, was destroyed by Brant. Some of the people were murdered, and others were made prisoners, while their goods were either destroyed or carried away. In August, the German Flats was visited by the chief, with three hundred Tories and one hundred and fifty Indians, who ravaged the whole country, burning all the buildings, and plundering every thing which was movable. Most of the people had taken refuge in Forts Herkimer and Dayton, and, consequently, no great number of prisoners and scalps were taken. Schoharie and the surrounding settlements were the objects of the constant and persevering onsets of the Indians and Tories. Colonel Vrooman had the command of the fort at Schoharie, and was contented with merely defending it, without protecting the inhabitants. Colonel Harper was not satisfied with this mode of proceeding, and ran the hazard of a journey alone on horseback to Albany in quest of aid. He put up at a Tory tavern on Fog's Creek, and locked his door. Soon a loud rap at his door alarmed him. He arose, and, placing his sword and pistols on his bed, demanded what was wanted. "We want to see Colonel Harper," was the answer. He opened his door, and four Tories presented themselves. "Step an inch over that mark, and you are dead men," said Colonel Harper. After a little conversation, they left the brave colonel to himself. In the morning he mounted his horse and went on. An Indian followed him, whom Colonel Harper several times frightened out of his purpose by BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 79 presenting his pistol. Upon representing to the commanding officer at Albany the distressed condition of the people at Schoharie, a squadron of horse was immediately provided, and, by a forced march, lit upon the enemy the next morning; "and the first knowledge that the people had that any relief was expected, they heard a tremendous shrieking and yelling; and, looking out, they saw Colonel Harper, with his troop of horse, welting up the enemy. The men in the fort rushed out and joined in the attack, and the country was soon cleared of the enemy." - Campbell. Mr. Campbell publishes an "exact transcript" of a letter from Brant, which is quite characteristic, and has some historical importance. We here give it in full: "Tunadilla, July 9, 1778. "SIR, - I understand by the Indians that was at your house last week, that one Smith lives near with you, has little more corn to spare. I should be much obliged to you, if you would be so kind as to try to get as much corn as Smith can spare; he has sent me five skipples already, of which I am much obliged to him, and will see him paid, and would be very glad if you could spare one or two of your men to join us, especially Elias. I would be glad to see him, and I wish you could send me as many guns you have, as I know you have no use for them, if you have any; as I mean now to fight the cruel rebels as well as I can; whatever you will able to sent'd me you must sent'd by the bearer. "I am your sincere friend and humble servant, "JOSEPH BRANT. "To Mr. Carr. "P.S. - I heard that Cherry Valley people is very 80 WYOMING. bold, and intended to make nothing of us; they call us wild geese, but I know the contrary. "Jos. B." Captain Walter N. Butler owed the Tryon County patriots a special spite on account of his imprisonment in Albany, an account of which we have given in another connection; and, by way of taking vengeance upon them, he planned an expedition against Cherry Valley. He procured from his father, Colonel John Butler, the command of a portion of his regiment, called "Butler's Rangers," together with the liberty of employing the Indians who were under the command of Brant. Captain Butler took up the line of march early in November, and met Brant, with his men, on their way to Niagara for winter quarters. At first Brant was indignant at being made second to Walter Butler, and refused to join the expedition. Matters were, however, pacified between the Indian and the Tory, and they proceeded. Colonel Alden, who had command of the fort at Cherry Valley, was repeatedly admonished of the probability of an attack by the Indians and Tories, but he regarded the event as wholly improbable, and took no precautions against it. On the eleventh, the enemy stole upon the town early in the morning, in a snow-storm, and took the place by surprise. The officers were quartered in private houses, and the wily foe, having learned their localities by a prisoner, sent forward separate parties to surround the houses and take them. Lieutenant Colonel Stacy was made a prisoner; and Colonel Alden made his escape from the house, and was pursued, tomahawked, and scalped. He was one of the first victims of his criminal skepticism and consequent neglect of duty. BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 81 The enemy now rushed upon the citizens, and commenced an indiscriminate murder of men, women, and children. Female helplessness, infantile innocence, or entire neutrality in the struggle was no defense against the savage Indians and the still more savage Tories. The Wells family, who had been entirely neutral, male and female, old and young, with the exception of a boy who was not at home, were all destroyed. A Tory boasted that he shot Mr. Wells when he was at prayer. Rev. Mr. Dunlop, an old gentleman, was made a prisoner, and robbed of his wig and a portion of his clothing, and was hurried off, shivering with the cold. A few were reserved for the purpose of exchange; among these were the wife of Colonel Campbell and his four children. The town was fired, and was soon reduced to a heap of smouldering ruins. The historians record some generous acts on the part of Brant on this occasion. He interfered in behalf of some women and children, and prevented their massacre. "On the day of the massacre he inquired of some of the prisoners where his friend Captain M'Kean was. They informed him that he had probably gone to the Mohawk River with his family. 'He sent me a challenge once,' said Brant; 'I have now come to accept it. He is a fine soldier thus to retreat.' They answered, 'Captain M'Kean would not turn his back upon an enemy when there was any probability of success.' 'I know it; he is a brave man, and I would have given more to have taken him than any other man in Cherry Valley, but I would not have hurt a hair of his head.'" - Campbell. It has been supposed that the humanity of Brant on this occasion was a mere ruse, to show off by contrast the savage barbarity of Butler, against whom he harbored a preju- 82 WYOMING. dice, and this seems to us by no means an uncharitable conclusion. The diabolical malice of Walter N. Butler had no bounds. He was so thoroughly determined to make a clean riddance of all the "rebels," that numbers of neutrals and some of the friends of the royal cause were cut to pieces, lest some of the "rebels," under the false pretense of neutrality or friendship, should escape. He acted upon the maxim that it was better to destroy friends than to let enemies escape. - See Campbell, p.144. The garrison held out, and a re-enforcement of two hundred militia, on the day following, drove the scattering parties of Indians and Tories from the neighborhood. They kept their position until the next summer, when they joined General Clinton in his march into the Indian country with General Sullivan. Cherry Valley was a scene of desolation, and exhibited every where the saddest mementoes of heartless cruelty. Mr. Campbell says: "The mangled remains of those who had been killed were brought in, and received as decent an interment as circumstances would permit. The most wanton acts of cruelty had been committed, but the detail is too horrible, and I will not pursue it further. The whole settlement exhibited an aspect of entire and complete desolation. The cocks crew from the tops of the forest trees, and the dogs howled through the fields and woods. The inhabitants who escaped, with the prisoners who were set at liberty, abandoned the settlement." Some of those scenes we often heard described in our childhood by those who witnessed them. We were raised in old Tryon County, in Middlefield, equidistant from Cherry Valley and Cooperstown. The settlement BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 83 in Middlefield, then called "Newtown Martin," was destroyed, and the people scattered. Some of them lived to return and spend the remainder of their lives on the soil which had been stained with the blood of their relatives and neighbors. Old Mrs. Writer - who used to be called "Aunt Recter" - once related to our excellent mother, while we sat by her side, the story of her captivity and sufferings. She was stripped of all her clothing except her chemise and under-skirt. There was a most beautiful girl of her acquaintance who was the admiration of all. As Mrs. Writer - then Miss Cook - was hurried along by her captors, she saw a stout Indian cut the throat of the beautiful girl referred to a few steps before her. As she passed she saw her in her death-struggle. Her nose, her ears, her eyelids, and her breasts were cut off, and her rosy cheeks were deeply gashed. All this barbarous mangling of the poor girl was inflicted while she was alive, as a matter of sport and derision. Could fiends have devised deeds of such abominable atrocity? When the company encamped a large belt of scalps was brought to her, and she was ordered to dress them, being instructed by the squaws. The process consisted in stretching them - spatting them between her hands, and then laying them out to dry. Every scalp, as she took it up, reminded her of some friend or acquaintance. She finally took up one which she thought was her mother's. It was the scalp of a female, and she almost knew to a certainty that it was covered with the very hair which she had so often combed and dressed. She wept; but the lifted tomahawk, and manipulations which indicated that her own scalp would soon come off, dried up her tears. Her mother, however, had not been killed. She lived to a great age, 84 WYOMING. and died near the head of Otsego Lake. She was called "Aunt Molly M'Allum," and Mrs. Writer was half sister to Daniel M'Allum, the captive boy of whom we have elsewhere spoken. Colonel Campbell, whose wife and children were made prisoners by Butler and Brant, in our childhood we often saw on horseback, on his way to and from Cooperstown, or upon a visit to his sons, two of whom, William and Samuel, lived in Middlefield; and one thing we remember, especially, attracted our attention when we doffed our hat and made our best bow to the colonel as he passed, he always made a graceful bow in return. His son, Dr. William Campbell, was a most estimable man and a polished gentleman. He was the uncle of Honorable William W. Campbell, the historian of Tryon County. This brief paragraph of personal matters we hope will be excused, as it may not be considered wholly out of place. In 1779 we find Colonel Butler and Brant opposing General Sullivan, and decently whipped on the Chemung. The Tory and the Indian chief fled to Niagara to get out of harm's way for that time, and to prepare for another marauding expedition when occasion might offer. The massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley were amply avenged. The Indians who were collected about Niagara in the winter of 1779-80, having lost all their crops in the lake country, and having none but salt provisions, a thing to which they were not accustomed, died of scurvy in great numbers. In August, 1781, Major Ross and Walter Butler came down from Canada into the Mohawk Valley with six hundred and seven Tories and Indians. Colonels Willett and Harper met them near Johnstown with about five hundred militia, and put them to rout. The BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 85 retreating Indian and Tory army fled to the northwest. Ross, with a portion of his men, escaped, but Butler was not so fortunate. He was pursued by a company of Oneida Indians, and on coming to West Canada Creek, about fifteen miles from the village of Herkimer, he swam his horse, and, upon reaching the shore, he turned his back upon his pursuers, who had just come up to the creek, and defiantly and insultingly slapped his hip, when one of the party took deliberate aim, and brought the vaunting Tory to the ground. The Indian dropped his rifle and blanket and swam the creek, and on coming up to Butler he found him wounded. He now craved the mercy which he had so often denied to helpless women and children - he most piteously begged for his life; but the Indian warrior sprang upon him like a tiger, and with his lifted tomahawk, shouted out, "Sherry Valley - remember Sherry Valley!" and he buried his tomahawk in his brains, and tore his scalp from his head while his death struggle was upon him. The miserable man might well have died with the words of Adonibezeck in his mouth, "As I have done, so hath God requited me." He had no burial, but his body was left to rot above ground, or to be devoured by wild beasts. The place where he crossed the creek is called "Butler's Ford" to this day. This was the last incursion made into Tryon County, and it had a very appropriate winding up in the death, by the hand of an Indian, of one of the most cruel of the class of white men who stimulated the Indians to the diabolical cruelties perpetrated on the frontier. Colonel Stone, in his "Border Wars," has preserved a letter from Walter Butler vindicating himself; and his father, and the Indians too - why did he not in- 86 WYOMING. elude the Tories? - from the charge of "cruelties." The letter is directed to General Clinton, and is dated "Niagara, February 18, 1779." In this letter Captain Butler says, "We deny any cruelties to have been committed at Wyoming, either by whites or Indians." He rests his vindication upon the fact that "not a man, woman, or child was hurt after the capitulation, or a woman or child before it, and none taken into captivity." Now what does all this prove, more than that the "cruelties" attending the Wyoming massacre might have been greater than they were? How many men were cruelly tortured the day before "the capitulation?" The apology seems to proceed upon the ground that the cold-blooded torture of "men in arms" is not cruel, especially if it took place before "the capitulation." What was the reason that none were tortured "after the capitulation?" Simply because there were none left, or next to none, to torture. Captain Butler avoids the points of complaint. These are, 1. That the prisoners taken upon the battle- field were tortured by the Indians, or barbarously murdered, in cold blood, by the Tories. 2. That, the defenseless people in the fort, women and children not excepted, were plundered of their food and clothing, and left to perish with hunger and exposure. And, finally, that the articles of capitulation were wholly and cruelly disregarded before Colonel Butler had left the ground. Next, Captain Butler proceeds to vindicate himself and the Indians from the charge of "cruelties" at "Cherry Valley;" and his principal justification is - for here he does not deny the facts - that "Colonel Denison and his people appeared again in arms, with Colonel Hartley, after a solemn capitulation. and engagement not to bear arms during the war." Here BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 87 the vindication wholly ignores the fact that the capitulation was made a nullity by Colonel Butler, and, of course, was not obligatory on the other party. We shall not farther tax the reader's time and patience with refutations of the sophisms of this famous letter. Colonel Stone, in the largeness of his charity, calls it a "straightforward, manly letter." We regard it as a "straightforward" evasion, with nothing "manly" about it. The bad temper and barefaced falsehoods of the letter constitute another illustration, in addition to the many which the histories record, of the cowardly cruelty and meanness of Walter N. Butler, one of the Tory leaders in the border wars. Brant, although bad enough - ay, quite too bad for endurance - was almost a saint when compared with the younger Butler. Thanks to his imprisonment in Albany that the Wyoming massacre was not aggravated by manifold more horrors than it has been our painful task to record. WAS BRANT AT THE WYOMING MASSACRE? The question of Brant's presence at the battle of Wyoming has been much discussed and differently decided. An impression that Brant was at the head of the Indians on that occasion has long been strong and quite general among the people of Wyoming - the impression originating from the old settlers and actors in that fatal and ill-advised encounter. Mr. Chapman, the first historian of Wyoming, in accordance with the popular tradition, asserts Brant's presence and lead on the occasion. Mr. Campbell, the historian of Tryon County, takes the same view of the question; while Thomas Campbell, the poet, with our own poets, Halleck and Whittier, poetize in the same direction. The able biographer of Brant - Colonel Stone - takes the 88 WYOMING. other side of the question; while Mr. Miner presents reasons pro and con, and leaves his readers to judge of their force for themselves. Colonel Stone rests the cause upon the denial of Brant, and the credibility of Indian and Tory witnesses. It seems rather strange that the ingenious author did not address himself to the task of proving an alibi, a thing which it may be supposed was very possible at the time he collected his materials. John Franklin once said in relation to Colonel Stone's witnesses, "You won't make such witnesses believed in old Wyoming: people there would take their lives, but never the words of Indians and Tories." The argument of the too partial biographer of Brant was also questioned by others besides the people of "old Wyoming." A review of "The Life of Brant" in the Democratic Review,, supposed to have been written by the Hon. Caleb Cushing, controverts the author's positions, and shows their inconclusiveness. In 1846, in an article in the Methodist Quarterly, we took the same ground. It is reasonable to ask where Brant was on the 3d of July, 1778, if he was not, as usual, at Colonel John Butler's elbow. He was with him the previous year at the battle of Oriskany, and the year following on the Chemung, when General Sullivan marched into the lake country. They were often united in border warfare, Butler commanding the Tories, and Brant the Indians. These questions are entitled to fair consideration and a satisfactory answer, and we shall now look at them with candor. After much examination of the subject, we have reached the conclusion that during the entire summer of 1778 Brant was in the Valley of the Mohawk and on the head waters of the Susquehanna - at his head BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 89 quarters at Ocquaga or Unadilla, and, consequently, that he was not in the Valley of Wyoming at the time of the battle. In June the historians tell us that Brant and his Indians burned the settlement at Springfield, near the head of Otsego Lake. Taking another step in advance, we certainly find Brant at Unadilla on the 9th of July, from an authentic letter of his published by Mr. Campbell, which we have copied above. This letter relates to supplies for his men, and acknowledges the receipt of corn from a Mr. Smith. We will now connect this fact with another. C. L. Ward, Esq., in an address delivered at the Pioneer Festival held in Owego on the 22d of February, 1855, asserted that the younger Brant had shown him "a receipt, in the handwriting of his father, for money paid for corn and other provisions, dated on the 5th day of July, 1778, two days after the battle, and while the British forces were in Wyoming." This receipt harmonizes exactly with the letter to Pursifer Carr, dated the 9th, which refers to transactions of the same class. It may farther be observed that Unadilla is the only locality where Brant would be likely to purchase supplies for his men at the date of the receipt. There he had his head-quarters, and when he visited other places he plundered provisions in abundance, and was under no necessity of purchasing of Tories. The chief could not have come from Wyoming after the battle on the 3d in time to be in negotiation for supplies in Unadilla on the 5th. The facts above established quite conclusively prove the alibi. We next refer to a dispatch from Colonel Guy Johnson to Lord George Germaine, dated New York, 10th September, 1778. The following is the por- 90 WYOMING. tion of the dispatch which relates to the question in hand: "Your lordship will have heard before this can reach you of the successful incursions of the Indians and Loyalists from the northward. In conformity to the instructions I conveyed to my officers, they assembled their force early in May, and one division, under one of my deputies (Mr. Butler), proceeded down the Susquehanna, destroying the forts and settlements at Wyoming, augmenting their number with many Loyalists, and alarming all the country, while another division, under Mr. Brant, the Indian chief, cut off 294 men near Schoharie, and destroyed the adjacent settlements, with several magazines from whence the rebels had derived great resources, thereby affording encouragement and opportunity to many friends of government to join them." - Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, vol. viii., p. 752. This dispatch shows clearly that Brant led the Indians in the incursions upon the settlements in the Mohawk Valley and on the head waters of the Susquehanna, while Butler made his raid upon Wyoming. Brant must consequently be identified with the hostile movements of the Indians and Tories which we have sketched above. There was, indeed, so far as we have yet been able to ascertain, no one engagement in which that "chief cut off 294 men" during the space of time embraced in Colonel Johnson's dispatch. The colonel must embrace all the persons killed in the small actions which occurred in the Mohawk Valley, and all the murders of the savages committed through the various settlements during the months of June, July, and August. The colonel's dispatch was probably based upon a report from Brant of the number of scalps BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 91 taken during the summer: if this is not the explanation of the matter, we are at present unable to give any that would be likely to be satisfactory. This document clearly proves that Brant was in the Valley of the Mohawk while Butler was in the Valley of Wyoming. Another fact we have to adduce is that of a certificate of protection, given to one of the settlers, dated "Westmoreland, July 5th, 1778," and signed by "John Butler" and " Kayenguaurton." Colonel Butler varies the orthography of this name, probably from mere carelessness, and we have followed him. Colonel Stone and Mr. Lossmg give us the name of this chief thus - "Gi-en-gwa-toh, which signifies, He who goes in the smoke." Butler styles himself "Superintendent of the Six Nations," and his associate is called "the Chief of the Seneca Nation." The name of the chief is evidently, written by Colonel Butler, but the outlines of a turtle - [illustration] - at the left of the name, signifying that the chief belonged to the turtle tribe of the Seneca nation, was probably executed by the chief himself. This document has every internal evidence of authenticity. We have examined it with great care, and have no doubt of its having been written by Colonel Butler at the date which it bears, and signed, so far as he was able to sign it, by the chief who led on the Indians in the battle. It is in the hands of a literary friend, who kindly allowed us to examine it. No one will doubt that if Joseph Brant had been the leader of the Indians on the occasion of the battle, his name would have been attached to the document in his own handwriting. Finally, we adduce the report of Colonel John But- 92 WYOMING. ler to Colonel Bolton, never before published, as in itself absolutely conclusive. In this report he says the Indians were led on by a Seneca chief by the name of Gucingeracton. For these reasons, each of which alone is sufficient to satisfy any unprejudiced mind, we hope it will be considered as settled that Brant had no part in the Wyoming massacre. The historians generally, both English and American, set down "the famous Mohawk chief Brant" as the ferocious leader of the Indians at the Wyoming massacre, and, so far as appears, Brant took no pains to correct the general impression. Thomas Campbell, the poet, in his Gertrude, in the lines at the head of this sketch, assumes the truth of the tale, and calls the chief "the monster Brant" After the war had closed, Brant settled in Canada, and died there. In 1822, his son, "John Brant, Esq., of Grand River," visited England, and made it a point to convince the poet that his father was not at Wyoming at all, and that, instead of being a "monster," he was a humane, brave, and a magnanimous foe. The first point he doubtless established, and the second the poet conceded, albeit, after yielding to the proof he proceeds to refute it. Mr. Campbell, the historian, publishes the letter of Mr. Campbell, the poet, to John Brant, Esq., in his Appendix. We would copy this letter if it were not that its length and the irrelevancy of the greater portion of it make it inexpedient. The letter is dated "London, January, 1822." It acknowledges the receipt of certain "documents" forwarded by Mr. John Brant, and proceeds in an apologetic strain, of which the following brief paragraph may be considered as an expression of the spirit, and as an exponent of the sense: BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 93 "In short, I imbibed my conception of your father from accounts of him that were published when I was scarcely out of my cradle. And if there were any public, direct, and specific challenge to those accounts in England ten years ago, I am yet to learn where they existed." Now we yield the point of Brant's immediate connection with the Wyoming massacre, but we are sorry not to be able as fully to yield to the claim made for him in certain quarters to more than common humanity, and magnanimity. Little more evidence is needed to put those claims into doubt than the facts presented in Colonel Stone's apologetic life of the great Mohawk chief. The "cruelties" perpetrated in the Mohawk Valley during the years 1777 and 1778, where Brant was continually present, and where he was the presiding genius, are, if possible, more revolting than those perpetrated at Wyoming. In Wyoming the women and children were not murdered after the capitulation of the fort, but in Cherry Valley no sex or age was spared. We are aware that it is said that Walter Butler had command on that occasion. Yes, and Walter Butler says that "the Indians" perpetrated the "cruelties" at Cherry Valley, for the reason that, "being charged by their enemies with what they never had done, and threatened by them, they had determined to convince you that it was not fear which had prevented them." Now, as each party accuses the other, and no one doubts but both had a part in those "cruelties," it is but historical justices to divide the responsibilities between them. In fact, the steps of Brant, wherever he went, were red with the blood, not only of men, but of "women and children." He sometimes did spare them, but at other times he did not; and, 94 WYOMING. indeed, the former was the exception, and the latter the rule. What, then, is gained by the friends of the chief when they have proved that he was not at the Wyoming massacre? Absolutely nothing; for his Mohawks and Tories were engaged in the same, and even greater "cruelties," in the valley of the Mohawk, and upon the head waters of the Susquehanna and the Delaware at the same time, and during the remainder of the war. It will not be unfair now to direct the attention of the reader to a few instances of Brant's "cruelties." The first instance we would refer to is the murder of his former friend, Lieutenant Wormwood, an account of which we have given. Another instance is related by Mr. Campbell, as follows: "He often said that, during the war, he had killed but one man in cool blood, and that act he ever after regretted. He said he had taken a man prisoner, and was examining him; the prisoner hesitated, and, as he thought, equivocated. Enraged at what he considered obstinacy, he struck him down. It turned out that the man's apparent obstinacy arose from a natural hesitancy of speech." This case is distinctly described and specially marked. Still another instance is clearly distinguished from the foregoing. It is related by Mr. Weld, a European traveler. In a skirmish with a body of American troops Brant was wounded in the heel, but the Americans, in the end, were defeated, and an officer taken prisoner. The officer, after having delivered up his sword, entered into conversation with Sir John Johnson, when Brant stole slyly behind them and laid the officer low with a blow of his hatchet. Sir John was indignant, BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 95 and he resented the treachery in the warmest terms. Brant listened to him without concern, and, when he had concluded, told him. that he was sorry for his displeasure, but that his heel was exceedingly painful at the moment, but, since he had avenged himself upon the only chief of the party which they had taken, it was much less painful than it had been before. - See Border Warfare, p. 249, 250. Mr. Campbell had heard another version of this story, in which "it was stated that an officer was killed to prevent his being retaken by the Americans, who were in pursuit of the Indians." This story which the historian had heard may have been another instance still of Brant's cruelty, for it differs from either of the preceding relations. Indeed, the three descriptions above given can not be different versions of the same fact. The reasons for the murder are unlike each other, and are wholly incompatible, and the circumstances are equally various and inconsistent with the idea of their having occurred in the self-same case. It is in vain to try to "Wash the Ethiop white." One cold-blooded, unprovoked murder is enough to characterize a moral "monster" - many acts of the same class certainly do not relieve the case. We may judge the conduct of the chief too severely. Of this the reader will make up his mind in view of all the facts. All we aim at is historical justice; and this, at all hazards, we shall labor to secure. Colonel John Butler, when the Revolutionary struggle came on, was a government functionary under Sir William Johnson, and after Sir William's death he became warmly attached to Sir John and Colonel Guy Johnson. When he fled with the Johnsons to Cana- 96 WYOMING. da, his family fell into the hands of the patriots, and were exchanged for the wife and children of Colonel Campbell, of Cherry Valley. He was exceedingly active in the border conflicts. He commanded a regiment of Rangers in conjunction with Brant and his Mohawks, and was a fearful scourge to the patriots of Tryon County. He marched at the head of his Rangers, and a motley mass of Tories and Indians, upon Wyoming in 1778, and was there implicated in the most savage barbarities. His report of the transactions of that expedition, which we have given to the reader in another place, is a disgrace to civilization and humanity. He accompanied Sir John Johnson in his murderous onslaught upon the Mohawk and Schoharie settlements in 1780. His old residence is situated in THE BUTLER HOUSE [illustration] the Mohawk Valley, near Fonda. His property was confiscated by an act of the New York Legislature, but was amply reimbursed by the British government. He succeeded Guy Johnson as Indian Agent, with a salary of $2000 per annum, and was granted a pension, as a military officer, of $1000 in addition. He lost caste with the high-minded British officers on account BRANT AND HIS TORY ASSOCIATES. 97 of his savage cruelties in the border war, and particularly in Wyoming. It is said that on that account Sir Frederick Haldemand, then Governor of Canada, refused to see him. - See Lossing's Field-Book. It is claimed that Colonel Butler was not so infamously cruel as his son Walter, and that he might have dictated more severe terms to Colonel Denison and the settlers in Forty Fort after the battle. All this we admit, and yet it is not saying much in favor of the great Tory leader. There may be many shades between the brutal and diabolical cruelties of Walter Butler and the modified savageism of Brant which are still at a vast distance from the laws of civilized warfare, and which are entitled to little respect from the historian. No man knew better the character of the warfare carried on by Tories and Indians than Colonel John Butler. He set on these bloodhounds, and, in some instances at least, encouraged them to do their worst. Prisoners of war and the wounded, while begging for quarter, were cruelly tortured, after the battles of Oriskany and Wyoming, under his immediate command. What great relief to the character of the Tory is it to say that he did not order the old men, women, and children in Forty Fort to be butchered? He might almost as well have done it, for he allowed them to be plundered of their food and clothing, and driven to the mountains to starve and be devoured by wild beasts. Sure enough, "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." After the war Colonel Butler settled in Canada, and lived till about the year 1800, when he went to his accounts. He applied to the British government to be knighted, but failed, as we judge from the fact that we have never seen him dignified with the title of Sir. 98 WYOMING. He is not, even by historians but too tender of his reputation, called Sir John Butler, but simply Colonel Butler. An interesting anecdote touching his efforts to secure the honors of knighthood we shall insert in another connection.