Area History: Battle and Massacre af Wyoming: Luzerne (then Northumberland) Co, PA

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                   HISTORICAL  ADDRESS

                         at  the

                    WYOMING  MONUMENT

                   3d  of  July  1878

                on the 100th  Anniversary

                         of  the

           BATTLE  AND  MASSACRE  OF  WYOMING

                    by  Steuben  Jenkins

                     Wilkes-Barre,  PA

      Printed  by  Robert  Baur, 104  Main  Street

____________________________________________________

                         ADDRESS

Mr. President,  Ladies  and Gentlemen :

  There is no event of equal magnitude, that occupies so large and
conspicuous a place; none that has made the scene of its enactment so
celebrated in history and song, as has that of the Battle of Wyoming, with
its attendant massacre and conflagration; none that has so largely called
forth the execrations of mankind against the one side, and then feelings of
compassion and sympathy for the other.
  We are met this day to recount the scenes enacted here on this ground just
one hundred years ago, and to commemorate the valor and patriotism of that
little band of heroes who went forth to stay the march of the ruthless
invaders of their soil and save their families, their homes, their flocks
and their harvests from havoc and destruction.
  They were not soldiers, trained and inured to martial services, well armed
and equipped for the fray.  They had no great commander with an army of
veterans, going forth conquering and to conquer; to sate his mad ambition or
wreak his vengeance upon an innocent, unoffending people.  There was no one
among them who possessed an absolute command.  They were principally old men
and boys unfit for the active and arduous duties of the field; who, from
inefficiency had remained at home, while the young men, better fitted for
those active and arduous duties, were serving in the distant ranks of our
country's defenders.
  It was no war of ambition, of plunder, or of revenge on their part; it was
to save themselves and their families from butchery, their homes from the
torch of the incendiary, their flocks and herds from being slaughtered or
driven off, their harvests from being destroyed, and their liberty from
being overthrown.
  We cannot talk or judge of them as soldiers, for soldiers they were not.
We cannot talk of them as an army, for an army they were not.  They were
simply a hasty gathering of a rural settlement for defense against their
invaders.  As such I shall speak of them to-day.  As such we must judge of
their acts.
  To more fully understand the position of affairs on that terrible day and
night of carnage, devastation and blood, go back with me in the history of
the Valley for one hundred years; for it is of that period of its history we
are met here to-day to talk and reflect.  We find quite a different state of
affairs existing here then, from that which surrounds us here to-day.
  Instead of cities and towns, the abodes of wealth, of luxury and ease, we
see only a little hamlet or two, with log houses scattered here and there,
occupied by busy toilers winning from the willing earth in the sweat of
their brows, the means of subsistence.  Instead of cleared fields,
stretching from mountain top to mountain top, dotted with fine farm houses,
palatial in size and in grandeur of adornment, surrounded with large fields,
finely fenced and subdued to the wish of the cultivator; we find an almost
forest waste, with here and there only a cleared spot, encumbered with
stumps and brush, mostly bordering on the river.
  Instead of the screech of the locomotive, as it wheels its course through
the valley at more than race horse speed, communicating and exchanging the
interests and business of the whole country, and bearing a share of the
commerce of the world to and fro through it; we hear the howls of voracious
wolves, the screech of the stealthy panther, and the frightful yell of the
more stealthy and blood-thirsty Indian savage, bearing terror, desolation
and death to the unguarded settler.
  Their communications with the outer world, instead of being borne upon the
lightning's rapid wing, instantaneously throughout the whole continent, were
borne on horseback or on foot, through an unbroken forest, without roads or
bridges; and it was a five or six days' journey out, and as many to return
again, and then only the nearest and feeblest settlements were reached.
  In passing from house to house through the settlement, instead of hearing
the organ or the piano swelling forth their rich strains of harmony, or the
hum and clatter of machinery gathering the abundant harvest and preparing it
for the market, we hear the hum of the spinning-wheel, the bang of the loom,
the whack of the threshing flail, the stroke of the felling axe, the
grinding of grain with the pestle and mortar.
  The people were few and scattered, covering a hundred miles up and down
the Susquehanna, limited in means and resources, and yet, with brave and
true hearts, they battled manfully against the toils, the sufferings, the
privations and dangers that pressed them on every side.  Such was the
condition of the settlement here, one hundred years ago.
  And who were these people thus isolated from the rest of the civilized
world, the pioneers of a new colony, struggling with poverty and want,
battling with foes without and foes within, and yet maintaining their ground
amidst all their dangers, afflictions and sufferings?
  They were principally born and raised in the land of "steady habits"; were
the sons and daughters of the honest yeomanry of Connecticut and Rhode
Island; not the refuse of towns, not gold hunters or greedy speculators, or
reckless adventurers, but the young, the energetic and enterprising part
of a rural population, whose parents were ministers, deacons, and members of
Evangelical churches.  Those from Rhode Island were mostly Quakers, or
Friends.  They came to fell the forest, cultivate the land, and establish a
society on the banks of the beautiful Susquehanna, where, under a more
genial sun, and on a more fertile soil, they might enjoy all the privileges
of their ancestors, and transmit to their posterity homes possessing all the
characteristic excellencies of those of New England.  They were joined in
this enterprise by a company of settlers from Dauphin and Lebanon counties,
of Presbyterian stock, who settled the town of Hanover.  These were chiefly
Scotch-Irish and German.
  They brought the gospel and the gospel minister with them and provided
liberally for their support.  They established schools and made ample
provisions for education throughout the settlement, laying broad and deep
the foundations for a religious, intellectual and moral community.  Such
were the sources whence came the people whose story we are telling, such the
people themselves.  The labors, the sufferings, the dangers and deaths they
endured in preparing the ground and sowing the seeds of future prosperity
and greatness for their descendants accomplished their work, and have given,
not alone to their descendants, but to hundreds of thousands from all parts
of the civilized world, abundant cause for gratitude and joy.  The soil they
hallowed with their blood yields to us a bountiful supply of all that can
gladden the heart and make life happy.
  With these introductory remarks I will at once enter upon the history of
the events of the day we have met to commemorate, and yet, to treat of them
properly, it becomes necessary to detail, to some extent, the preceeding
history of the times which wrought out these events and their sad termination.
  The country was engaged in a great and earnest struggle for freedom
from the exactions and tyranny of the British government.  It was the common
cause of all the colonies, and nowhere was that cause more earnestly
espoused and more ardently sustained than here, at Wyoming.  In addition to
this cause for anxiety and disquiet among the settlers, another existed,
which had, up to this time, given them more trouble and been productive of
greater alarm.  This was the struggle with the Penn proprietors, and those
claiming under them, for the supremacy in government, and the right of soil
where they inhabited.
  Although this struggle had much to do in framing the destiny of the people
here, and, in fact, in bringing the great evils about, that wrought ruin,
desolation and death to the settlers, there is no occasion to go into a
history of that struggle, beyond a statement of its grounds and what it may
be necessary to mention in passing on in our narrative.
  In 1620, Charles I., of England, granted to the Duke of Lenox, the Earl of
Warwick, and others, under the name of "The Council of Plymouth", "All that
part of America lying and being in length from forty degrees of north
latitude to the forty-eighth, inclusively, and in breadth throughout the
main lands from sea to sea".
  Robert, Earl of Warwick, in 1630, obtained from the "Council at Plimouth",
and the next year, 1631, having obtained confirmation of his title, by royal
patent from Charles I., conveyed to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and
others "All that part of New England in America, between the fortieth and
forty-third degrees of north latitude from Narraganset river on the east, to
the South sea on the west, throughout the main lands".
  This grant was confirmed by royal patent from Charles II., on the 20th of
April, 1662, from Narraganset bay on the east to the South sea on the west.
The Pacific ocean at that time was known as the South sea.  Wyoming lies
within these bounds.
  On the 4th of March, 1681, Charles II., by royal charter, granted to
William Penn, as Proprietary and Governor, the territory embraced in the
present State of Pennsylvania, which covered two degrees of latitude of the
same territory previously granted by him to the proprietors of the New
England grant.  The New England settlers claimed Wyoming under the grant of
1662; the Pennamites claimed it under the grant of 1681, from the same king.
This was the ground of controversy, and out of this controversy, and from
the efforts made on both sides to effect a settlement of the disputed
territory, each side to the exclusion of the other, the struggle between the
claimants arose.
  This struggle existed at the first inception of the Revolutionary contest,
and was raging with great fierceness when the oppressive acts of Great
Britain, and the battles of Concord and Lexington called off the thoughts of
the settlers from their own petty conflict, where a few acres of land only
were involved, to that mighty conflict in which their liberties and the fate
of empires were swinging in the balance.
  Accordingly, on the first of August 1775, immediately on receiving the
news of those battles, the settlers assembled in town meeting and offered
terms of compromise and accommodation to the Pennsylvania claimants, during
the great struggle with the common enemy.

  The proceedings of that town meeting are entered on their records as follows :

           "At the meeting of the proprietors and settlers of ye town of
Westmoreland", (this was the town name by which Wyoming was then known) 
"legally warned and held August 1, 1775."
            Mr. John Jenkins was chosen Moderator for ye work of ye day.
           Voted, That this town does now vote that they will strictly
observe and follow ye rules and regulations of ye Honorable Continental 
Congress, now sitting in Philadelphia.
            Resolved, by this town, that they are willing to make any
accomodations with ye Pennsylvania party that shall conduce to ye best good
of ye whole, not infringing on the property of any person, and come in
common cause of Liberty in ye defense of
America, and that we will amicably give them ye offer of joining in ye
proposals as soon as may be.
            Voted, This meeting is adjourned until Tuesday, ye 8th day of
this instant, August, at one of the clock in ye afternoon, at this place.
            This meeting is opened and held by an adjournment, August the
8th, 1775.
            Voted, that this town has but of late been incorporated and
invested with the privileges of the law, both civil and military, and now in
a capacity of acting in conjunction with our neighboring towns, within this
end and the other colonies, in opposing ye late measures adopted by the
Parliament to enslave America; also, this town having taken into
consideration the late plan adopted by Parliament, of enforcing their
several oppressive and unconstitutional acts of depriving us of our
property, and of binding us in all cases, without exception, whether we
consent or not, is considered by us highly injurious to American or English
freedom; therefore, we do consent to and acquiesce in the late proceedings
and advice of the Continental Congress, and do rejoice that those measures
are adopted and so universally received throughout the continent, and in
conformity to the eleventh article of the association, we do now appoint a
committee to attentively observe the conduct of all persons within this
town, touching the rules and regulations prescribed by the Honourable
Continental Congress, and WILL UNANIMOUSLY JOIN OUR BRETHREN IN AMERICA IN
THE COMMON CAUSE OF DEFENDING OUR LIBERTY.
              Voted, That Mr. John Jenkins,  Joseph Shuman, Esq.,  Nathan
Dennison, Esq.,  Mr. Obadiah Gore, Jr., and Lieutenant William Buck, be
chosen a committee of correspondence for ye town of Westmoreland.
              Voted, That Jonathan Fitch, Mr. Anderson Dana, Capt. Wm.
McKarrachen, Mr. Caleb Spencer, Capt. Samuel Ransom, Lieut. George Dorrance,
Mr. Asahel Buck, Mr. Stephen Harding, Mr. John Jenkins, Jr., Mr. Barilla
Tyler, Jr., Mr. Elijah Witer, Mr. Nathan Kingsley, Mr. John Secord, and Mr.
Robert Carr, be chosen a committee of inspection for ye town of Westmoreland."

   The resolution passed at both these town meetings were drawn by
their Moderator, and the meetings were called and held at his suggestion.
  These proceedings cast the die for the settlers of Wyoming.  They now
girded their loins and immediately commenced putting themselves in readiness
to meet the responsibilities of their position.
  These terms of compromise, thus offered by the settlers to the
Pennsylvania claimants, were made known to them, and also to Congress.  On
the 4th of November following, Congress passed a resoluton recommending the
Pennsylvania claimants to accept of the terms proposed.  Congress was
supposed to speak the sentiments of the Pennsylvania party, and it was
presumed that they would be governed in their action by its recommendations,
and hence the settlers neither suspected nor feared any further difficulty
in that direction.  It appears, however, that the Pennsylvania party,
supposing that the settlers, relying on the just recommendations of
Congress, would have all their suspicions lulled to rest, and would be
unprepared to meet and successfully combat a stealthy attack, set in motion
a force of seven hundred men to make a secret expedition against Wyoming.
Intelligence of this movement being received in Philadelphia, Congress
immediately, on the 20th of December 1775, resolved, "that it is the opinion
of this Congress, and it is accordingly recommended, that the contending
parties immediately cease all hostilities, and avoid every appearance of
force until the dispute can be legally decided, etc".
   These recommendations, however wise and just, were all unheeded by the
highwayman Plunket, who had charge of the expedition.  He was thirsting for
plunder, and was not to be choked off in this way.  With the order of the
Governor of Pennsylvania in his pocket, he hastened his movement "to expel
with arms, provisions and military stores, loaded on a large boat, he
marched with his force, called a "posse", from Fort Augusta, in the early
part of December, accompanied by William Cook, Sheriff of
Northumberland county, to give the movement the appearance of a civil
proceeding.
   The progress of his force was necessarily regulated by the movement of
the boat containing their provisions and stores, and as the boat had to be
propelled against the current, very much impeded by floating ice, the
expedition did not reach Nanticoke falls, at the lower end of the Valley,
until the 24th of December.  Here Plunket left his boat, loaded his men with
provisions and ammunition, and started on foot for the west side of the
river.  They had not proceeded a mile when they observed before them a ridge
of rocks, presenting to them a precipitous front, rising from a foot or two
high near the river to a point 800 feet high on the mountain.  Behind
defenses built on this ridge, were posted the settlers to the number of
about 300, waiting the advance of Plunket.  Each side had skirmishers out,
and considerable skirmishing was done, in which some were killed on both
sides.  As Plunket approached, the settlers arose and discharged a volley of
musketry which threw Plunket's force into disorder, and it at once
retreated.  An examination of this natural rampart showed it to be
impregnable, and the expedition seemed utterly thwarted.  Plunket, however,
fell back on his boat, and taking a batteau which he had brought with him,
commenced conveying his troops across the river.
   The settlers, foreseeing that some move of this kind might be made, had
stationed men there under Lieutenant Stewart to prevent it.  As the boat
neared the shore it was fired into and one man killed, when the others,
including Plunket, lay down flat in the boat and suffered it to float down
the river over the falls.  The troops on the western shore discharged a
volley into the bushes whence the firing proceeded and killed one of the
settlers named Bowen.  Plunket at once retreated and abandoned his enterprise.

   At a town meeting held March 10, 1776 :
               "Voted, That the first man that shall make fifty weight
of good saltpetre, in this town, shall be entitled to a bounty of ten pounds
lawful money, to be paid out of the town treasury."
   Mrs. Bethiah Jenkins, wife of Lieutenant John Jenkins, says the women
took up their floors, dug out the earth, put it in casks, and ran water
through it, as ashes are leached.  They then took ashes in another cask, and
made lye, boiled it, set it out to cool, and the saltpetre rose to the
surface.  Charcoal and sulphur were then pounded and mixed with the
saltpetre, and powder was thus produced for the public defense -- Miner, p. 212.
   John Jenkins, representative from Wyoming to the Connecticut Assembly, at
May sessions, 1776, obtained liberty to erect a powder mill at Westmoreland.
   At the first news of the conflict at Concord and Lexington, many of the
young men of Wyoming hastened to join the Colonial forces   near Boston, to
resist the encroachments of the British government and maintain their
liberties, and some of them arrived in time to take part and fall in the
battle of Bunker Hill.
   Later, and during the winter of 1775-6, a number removed their families
back to Connecticut, and thence proceeded to join the army under Washington.
   Col. Wisner of Orange county New York, visited the Valley for the purpose
of obtaining recruits.  Lieut. Obadiah Gore, with twenty or thirty others,
marched under Wisner to the field of conflict.
   On the 4th of July 1776, Congress, after due deliberation, declared the
Colonies independent of the British crown.
   The people everywhere burned with enthusiasm to sustain the action of
Congress, but nowhere more fervently than at Wyoming, as their acts and the
proceedings of their meetings show.

   At a town meeting held at Wilkes-Barre, August 24, 1776, Col. Z. Butler,
Moderator for ye work of ye day :
                 "Voted, As the opinion of this meeting, that it now becomes
necessary for the inhabitants of this town to erect suitable forts, as a
defense against our common enemy.
                   That this meeting do recommend it to the people, to
proceed forthwith in building said forts, WITHOUT EITHER FEE OR REWARD FROM
YE TOWN."

   In pursuance of this vote, John Jenkins, Stephen Harding, the Gardners,
their relatives, with their friends, proceeded to build a stockade around
the house of John Jenkins, which was called "Jenkins' Fort".  This was in
Exeter township, now West Pittston, about ten or twelve rods above the
northwest end of the Pittston ferry bridge.
   Elisha Scovell and some other inhabitants of Exeter township, joined with
the Wintermoots, the Van Alstynes, and others from Montague township, Sussex
county New Jersey, in building a fort a mile or more below, on the brow of
the plain, where a fine spring flowed from the foot of the hill forming the
plain, which was named "Wintermoot Fort".
   The inhabitants of Kingston erected a fort, an acre or more in extent, on
the west bank of the Susquehanna, in that township, in the town plot near
the centre of the town, which was named "Forty Fort", from the fact that the
township was originally settled by forty proprietors and divided equally
amongst them.
   Upper Wilkes-Barre had its fort just above the mouth of Mill Creek, built
to guard and control the mills erected on that stream, called "Wilkes-Barre
Fort".
   There was a fort in the town plot of Wilkes-Barre; situate on the river
bank just below South street, called "Wyoming Fort".
   The inhabitants of Hanover erected a block-house on the bank of the
river, some three miles below Wilkes-Barre, called "Stewart's Block-house".
Shawnee, or Plymouth, had only a pretence for a fort.
   Besides these was the stockade at Pittston, on the east side of the
river, nearly opposite Jenkins Fort.  This was a place of some strength
and importance.  The people of Pittston and its neighborhood all sought
protection within its ample space and behind its rugged log structures.
   While these proceedings were being had at Wyoming, Congress had her
attention turned to that locality, as appears by the following proceedings
of that body :

            "Friday, August 23, 1776.  Resolved, That two companies, on the
Continental establishment, be raised in the town of Westmoreland, and
stationed in proper places for the defense of the inhabitants of said town
and parts adjacent, till further order of Congress; the commissioned
officers of the said two companies to be immediately appointed by Congress.
             That the pay of the men to be raised as aforesaid, commence
when they are armed and mustered, and that they be liable to serve in any
part of the United States, when ordered by Congress.
             That the said troops be enlisted to serve during the war,
unless sooner discharged by Congress."

   August 26th Congress proceeded to the election of sundry officers, when
Robert Durkee and Samuel Ransom were elected Captains of the two companies
ordered to be raised in the town of Westmoreland; James Welles and Perrin
Ross, First Lieutenants; Asahel Buck and Simon Spalding, Second Lieutenants,
and Herman Swift and Matthias Hollenback, Ensigns of said companies.
   Early in September information was received of the resolutions of
Congress, and rendevous for the enlistment of men on the terms proposed,
were opened by Captain Durkee on the east, and Captain Ransom on the west
side of the Susquehanna.
   These companies of Durkee and Ransom had been already in existence for
some time, and had tendered their services to Congress, but they had not
their full quota as required, and some little delay was necessary that the
requisite number might be raised.  Some change in the officers was made,
Lieut. Buck resigned his position, and John Jenkins, Jr. was appointed in
his place.
   On the 17th of September the two companies completed their quota and
were mustered into the service of Congress, and were known as the "Two
Independent Companies of Westmoreland".
   At a meeting of the Connecticut Assembly in October 1776, an act was
passed for raising a military company in the town of Westmoreland, to be a
part of the 24th Regiment of Connecticut Militia, of which company Solomon
Strong was appointed Captain; Obadiah Gore, Jr., First Lieutenant; and John
Jenkins, Jr., Second Lieutenant.
   As has been stated, Lieut. Gore had gone with a body of men under Col.
Wisner, and Lieut. Jenkins had joined Capt. Durkee's company, before their
appointments were made by Connecticut.
   We thus see how actively and earnestly our people had engaged in the
struggle against their oppressors, and to maintain the declaration of Congress.
   But the enemy were quite as active.
   The American army, under General Washington, pursued by an overwhelming
force, was driven from Long Island, and on the 15th of September, 1776, New
York was taken possession of by the British.
   On the 16th, Fort Washington fell into their hands.  Washington was
retreating before them from post to post through New Jersey, and on the 8th
of December he crossed the Delaware.
   Congress immediately took measures to retire from Philadelphia to Baltimore.
   At this moment of excitement and imminent peril, they resolved "That the
two companies raised in the town of Westmoreland be ordered to join General
Washington WITH ALL POSSIBLE EXPEDITION".
   They then adjourned amidst the utmost trepidation, to meet in Baltimore
on the 20th.
   The two Wyoming companies promptly obeyed the orders, and before the
end of the year reached the place of rendezvous.
   About three weeks afterward, or on the 20th of January, 1777, they took
part in the battle of Millstone, and for their brave and gallant conduct on
that occasion, received the thanks of their commanding officers, in general
orders.  They were afterward in the actions at Bound Brook; at Brandywine;
at Germantown; and at Mud Fort.  They were decimated by disease and the
casualties of war, each company losing more than one-fourth of its original
number.
   The general campaign of 1777 opened amidst gloom and despondency for the
American cause.  Gen. Burgoyne, with a large and powerful army was
descending from the north, along Lake Champlain and the Hudson, and Howe was
moving up that river to join him, hoping thereby to sever the Eastern
Colonies from the Middle and Southern.  The Indians had, until this time,
remained in a great measure, quiescent, but they were seduced from their
partial neutrality, and on the 20th of June, at Boquet river, taken into
full service of the British by Gen. Burgoyne, and a market was opened by him
for human scalps at ten dollars for each, that the Indians might gather in
their work of desolation and death.
   The Tories also, were roused up to join with the British and Indians in
their bloody work, and it now became evident that besides the regular
warfare that might be expected from civilized nations, the frontiers would
be everywhere overrun by the Indians and their more savage allies, the
Tories, and would become one long line of conflagration, devastation and death.
   This state of affairs soon began to be felt at Wyoming, and a system of
guards and scouts was established and regularly kept up among the settlers,
to watch the Indian paths and the movements of the Tories -- a number of the
latter living on the northern border of the settlement.  It was soon
ascertained that the communication was kept up by the Tories, residing
at Tunkhannock and above, and the Indians about Tioga, Chemung and Newtown.
   In the fall of 1777, many of the settlers on the river above Wyoming, who
had moved into that locality from the Delaware, and from New York and lower
Pennsylvania, under the auspices of the Pennsylvania government, began to
give manifest evidence of their sympathy with the British crown, and of
opposition to the American cause.
   In October, Lieut. Asa Stevens was detailed on a scout by the committee
of inspection, with nine men, who returned bringing in five suspected
persons as prisoners.  In the latter part of November, Lieut. John Jenkins,
while out on a scout at Wyalusing, was betrayed by the Tories into the hands
of a body of Indians that infested that locality, and was taken by the
latter to Fort Niagara.  Upon report of this fact at Wyoming, Col. Nathan
Denison, of the 24th Connecticut Regiment of militia, organized his little
force and prepared to march into that locality.  He reported that on the
20th of December, being informed that a band of Tories were forming on the
north and westward of said town of Westmoreland, in order to stir up the
Indians of Tioga, to join said Tories, and kill and destroy the inhabitants
of Connecticut; he ordered part of his regiment to be immediately equipped
and marched to suppress the conspirators.  The party marched about 80 miles
up the river and took several Tories, (about 30) and happily contented the
Tioga Indians, and entirely disbanded the conspirators.  Eighteen of these
prisoners were sent to Connecticut, where "they were received and treated as
prisoners of war, having been taken in arms against the United States". ---
See the War of the American Revolution, p. 313-600.

   About the 13th of February, 1778, Amos York and Lemuel Fitch were taken
prisoners from the same locality, and hurried off to Niagara.  Richard
Fitzgerald was captured at the same time, but being an old man, they
discharged him.
   The prisoners, captured by the Indians and Tories, were kept at Niagara
all winter, among a camp of British, Indians and Tories, of the most brutal
and degraded character.  Many of the latter were from the Susquehanna, above
Wyoming, and hence bore a particular enmity to the prisoners, who, from this
cause, suffered many hardships and injuries from the hands of their captors
and keepers.
   The force wintering at Niagara had, a great part of it at least, been
with Gen. St. Leger, in his attack on Fort Schuyler in August previous, and
in consequence of their defeat there by the American forces under Col.
Gansevoort, were greatly exasperated, and for this reason, were exceedingly
venomous and cruel in their treatment of the prisoners in their charge.
   They received neither clothes, shoes, blankets, shelter nor fire, were
kept starved for provisions -- and what they received was of the worst kind,
such as spoiled flour, biscuit full of maggots and mouldy.  The Indians
would crowd around them with knives in their hands, and feel of them, to
know who was the fattest.  They dragged one of the prisoners out of the
guard, with the most lamentable cries, tortured him for a long time, and
both the Indians and the Tories said they ate him, as it appears they did
another on an Island in Lake Ontario.

   De Veaux says of this terrible place --
             "Niagara was the headquarters of all that was barbarous,
unrelenting and cruel.  There were congregated the leaders and chiefs of
those bands of murderers and miscreants who carried death and distruction
into the remote American settlements.  There civilized Europe revelled with
savage America, and ladies of education and refinement mingled in the
society of those whose only distinction was to wield the tomahawk and the
bloody scalping-knife.  There were the squaws of the forest raised to
eminence, and the most unholy alliances between them and officers of the
highest rank smiled upon and countenanced.  There in this stronghold, like a
nest of vultures, securely, for seven years, they sallied forth and preyed
upon the distant settlements of the Mohawk and Susquehanna Valleys.  It was
the depot of their plunder; there they planned their forays, and there they
returned to feast until the time for action should come again."

   It was amid such people and such scenes as these that our prisoners spent
the winter, and of which they each and all suffered their full share.
Leaving our prisoners here for the winter, let us see how affairs were
progressing at Wyoming.

   We have learned, as has been already stated, that nearly all the able
bodied men were away in the service of their country.  The remaining
population, in dread of the savages and their allies, were building six
forts, or stockades, requiring great labor, and "without fee or reward".
The whole available force was formed into train-bands, guards, scouts, &c.,
and in constant active service.  The small-pox pestilence was in every
district, and no remedy or means then known, could arrest its spread or stay
its virulence.

     "At a town meeting, legally warned, holden December 30, 1777.
      John Jenkins was chosen Moderator for ye work of ye day.
      Voted, by this town, That the Committee of Inspection be empowered to
supply the sogers' wives and the sogers' widows, and their families, with
the necessaries of life."

  Miner says of this vote ---

       "Let it be engraved on plates of silver !  Let it be printed in
letters of gold !  Challenge Rome, in her Republican glory, or Greece, in
her Democratic pride, to produce, circumstances considered, an act more
generous or noble !
        Justice and gratitude demand a tribute to the praise-worthy spirit
of the wives and daughters of Wyoming.  While their husbands and fathers
were away on public duty, they cheerfully assumed a large portion of the
labor which females could do.  They assisted to plant, made the hay, husked
and garnered the corn and gathered the harvest.  They threshed the wheat, or
shelled the corn, and ground it in mortars with pestles, or putting it in a
bag across a horse, would get on top, and taking the youngest child in their
arms, would thus convey it to the nearest mill, sometimes a distance of ten
miles, waiting till it was ground, that they might have bread for their
children on their return home." --- Miner, p. 212.

   The year 1778 brought great distrust and fear to the frontiers generally,
but particularly to Wyoming.  The defeat and surrender of Burgoyne had left
the British without sufficient available force in America to carry on a
regular campaign for that year, and as the war was to be continued, the only
resource left to the British government and her commanders, was to employ
the Indians and Tories almost exclusively in carrying on a war of desolation
on the frontier.  This was their declared policy, and it was at once
suspected and feared that Wyoming would be among the first to be attacked,
for none were so hated and exposed as the people on the Susquehanna.  They
had been among the first to declare against British usurpations, and had
been the most active and earnest in supplying men and means to support that
declaration.
   The position was known to be, in a measure, defenseless, and far removed
from immediate support, and their situation seemed to invite rather than
repel the design of an invasion.  A portion of the enemy, particularly the
Tories who had settled up the river under the Proprietary government, were
exasperated by the efforts of the people in the cause of Independence, and
their careful watchfulness of the movements of all not co-operating with
them, and especially by the arrest of some of their number who had betrayed
certain of them and delivered them into the hands of the enemy, and it was
strongly suspected that they would incite a movement against Wyoming,
if it were possible to do so.
   It was known early in the spring of 1778, that a large force was
collecting at Niagara, for the purpose of laying waste the frontiers of
Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York; and as early as February, General
Schuyler wrote to Congress to inform them that such was his belief.  In
March he wrote again to Congress, saying :  "A number of Mohawks, and many
of the Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas, will commence hostilities against
us as soon as they can.  It would be prudent therefore, early, to take
measures to carry the war into their country.  It would require no greater
body of troops to destroy their towns than to protect the frontier inhabitants."
   In this state of affairs, the people of the frontiers appealed to
Congress for forces for their protection.  The people of Wyoming in
particular, represented to Congress the threatening situation of their
locality, and made an earnest appeal for aid.  Moved by their entreaties,
Congress came to the rescue of Wyoming, in the following remarkable resolution :

                "March 16, 1778.  Resolved, That one full company of foot be
raised in the town of Westmoreland, on the east branch of the Susquehanna,
for the defense of the said town and the settlements on the frontier in the
neighborhood thereof against the Indians and the enemies of these states;
the said company to be enlisted to serve one year from the time of their
enlisting, unless sooner discharged by Congress; AND THAT THE SAID COMPANY
FIND THEIR OWN ARMS, ACCOUTREMENTS AND BLANKETS". --- Journal of Congress,
vol. iv, p. 113.

   It would not be difficult to estimate just how much this resolution of
Congress added to the effective force at Wyoming.  It was equivalent to a
suggestion of this sort :  Wyoming has appealed to Congress for help.  She
needs help, undoubtedly.  Let her help herself.  She has the permission of
Congress to do so; provided she builds her own forts, and furnishes "HER OWN
ARMS, ACCOUTREMENTS AND BLANKETS,"  and defends the settlements on the
frontier in her neighborhood.
   If there was ever a case in which the asking for bread and receiving a
stone was exhibited in all its enormity and ungratefulness more than this,
history has refused to record it.
   This fact will stand out more prominently when it is understood that the
Wyoming people had exhausted all their means and force available for active
service, in fitting up and sending out the companies of Durkee and Ransom,
in addition to those who had gone back to Connecticut and entered the
service there, and those who had joined Col. Wisner's regiment under Lieut.
Gore.
   This astonishing magnanimity of Congress was not satisfactory to the
people of Wyoming.  Having received intelligence of a mediated attack upon
them, they again informed Congress -- that same Congress -- of the
threatening danger, and their exposed and defenseless position, and prayed
that the two Wyoming companies of Durkee and Ransom might be returned home,
to guard and protect them through the impending peril.  They felt that there
should be no difficulty about this demand being granted, as those companies
had been raised for the express purpose of defending their homes, and by the
resolution of Congress, were to be "STATIONED IN PROPER PLACES, FOR THE
DEFENSE OF THE INHABITANTS OF SAID TOWN AND PARTS ADJACENT".
   When called upon, however, to go on the distant service of the Republic,
in an hour of peril, and leave their homes defenseless, they marched with
the utmost alacrity; not a murmur was heard, for every man felt that the
case was one of urgency and imperious necessity, and not one of them or
those they left defenseless behind, entertained a doubt but that the
agreement, "to be stationed in proper places, to defend their homes", would
be religiously observed, and when occasion required, they would be ordered
back to the Valley.
   But there was undoubtedly an influence at work on Congress, looking more
to private advantage than public good, whose purpose would be better
subserved by the destruction of the settlement at Wyoming, than by its
preservation.  That influence prevailed, and Wyoming was left to the fate
that they knew so immediately impended over her devoted people.
   A few straggling Indians and Tories, lurking about the settlement,
pretending to be friendly, had been closely watched by the settlers, and
they had become fully satisfied that the presence of these strangers boded
no good, but that their designs were evil, and mischief was meditated for
Wyoming.
   In the midst of the fear, the doubt, and the uncertainty that prevailed
among the people, Lieut. John Jenkins appeared upon the scene, having escaped
from his captors and returned home.  He, with York and Fitch, had been taken
by the Indians early in April to Montreal, where the British authorities
discharged York and Fitch; they not having been found in arms, were not
considered as proper prisoners of war.  They were put on board a British
transport, to be conveyed to some point in New England for release.  Fitch
died of a fever on the voyage; York survived until he reached the residence
of his father-in-law, Manassah Miner, in Voluntown, Conn., where he was
taken sick, and died eleven days before his family reached there, in their
flight from Wyoming after the massacre.  He died believing that his family
had all been cut off in that massacre, as they had been delayed on the way by
sickness.
   Lieut. Jenkins was taken by the Indians from Montreal to Albany, to be
exchanged for an Indian chief who was a prisoner at that place, in the hands
of the Americans.  When the party arrived at Albany, the chief, for whom he
was to be exchanged, had died of the small-pox.  They refused to exchange
him for any other prisoner, but retained him, to take him to Seneca Castle,
to be disposed of by the Grand Council of the nation, which they
expected would be gathered at that place, by the time they should arrive there.
   On the fourth night after the party left Albany, the prisoner, by the aid
of a young chief with whom a strong friendship had existed from almost the
first period of his captivity, made his escape, and arrived at home on the
2d of June.
   He brought information that the great mass of the Tories from up the
river had wintered at Niagara with the Indians and British, that they had
been insolent and abusive, had threatened to return in the spring, bring the
Indians with them, drive the settlers off; and take possession of the
country themselves; that a plan of this sort had been concerted at Niagara
before he left there.  This was the first reliable information the settlers
had received of the threatened invasion of the frontiers somewhere, was to
be made from Niagara, by the combined force of British, Indians and Tories
that had wintered in that locality, and from the conduct of the straggling
Tories and Indians, to which we have alluded, it was strongly suspected that
Wyoming and its neighborhood would be the objective point.
   The story of Lieut. Jenkins confirmed the worst suspicions of the
settlers, and they became aroused to the danger of their situation.
   An express was immediately sent to Washington and to Congress, to inform
them of the certainty of the invasion, and to ask that the companies of
Durkee and Ransom be immediately sent to Wyoming, together with such
additional force as could be spared for the occasion.
   Capt. Hewitt, who had been appointed to enlist the new company, under the
resolution of Congress, which has been given, and who were to furnish their
own "ARMS ACCOUTREMENTS AND BLANKETS", was immediately sent up the river on
a scout.
   On the 5th of June, there was an alarm from Indians, and six white
men, Tories, coming in the neighborhood of Tunkhannock, about twenty-five
miles up the river from Wyoming, and taking Elisha Wilcox, Pierce and some
other prisoners, and robbing and plundering the inhabitants of the neighborhood.
   News of this incursion was brought to the Valley on the night of the 6th,
and on the 7th, although Sunday, the inhabitants set to work to complete and
strengthen their fortifications.
   On the 7th, there was an alarm from Shawnee.  For a week or more after
this, there appeared to be a lull in the storm at Wyoming, a calm such as
often preceeds a violent tempest, but it raged with great fierceness in
other quarters.
   The forces that wintered at Niagara and in Western New York, in pursuance
of orders issued by Col. Guy Johnson, assembled at Kanadaseago, or Seneca
Castle, early in May, and from this point sallied forth in divisions to
carry on their hellish work.  Although the objective point was Wyoming, yet
they were to divide their forces into parties and attack different points,
lay them waste, spread terror, consternation and death on every hand, that
their ultimate destination might not be known, and no force of sufficient
size to offer successful resistance be concentrated against them; and by
dividing their force and sending it into different localities, they would be
the better able to learn the strength and direction of any force which might
be sent to oppose them.  Captain Joseph Brant, or Thayendenegea, with his
Mohawks, some Senecas, Schoharries and Oquagos, went by way of the outlet of
the Cayuga Lake and the Cherry Valley about the 25th of May.  His mission,
with his destructives there, was to lay waste that place.  He secreted them
on Lady Hill, about a mile east of the fort, to await a favorable
opportunity to strike the fatal blow, and slay or capture its occupants.

   A company of boys happened to be training, for boys caught the martial
spirit of the times, as Brant, like the eagle from his eyrie, was looking
down from his hiding place, upon the devoted hamlet, seeking his prey.
Mistaking these miniature soldiers for armed men, he deferred the attack for
a more favorable opportunity.
   After killing Lieut. Wormwood, a promising young officer from Palatine,
who had left the fort but a few minutes before on horseback, and taking
Peter Sitz his comrade, prisoner, Brant directed his steps to Cobleskill.
--- Sims' Scoharrie, p. 28. Border Warfare, p. 126.
   On the 1st day of June, was fought the battle of Cobleskill.  The Indian
forces, commanded by Brant, amounted to about three hundred and fifty.  The
American forces, commanded by Capts. Patrick and Brown, amounted to about
fifty.  The battle was mostly in the woods, and both parties fought in the
Indian style, under cover of trees.  Of the American force, twenty-two were
slain and their scalps borne off in triumph, among them Capt. Patrick.  Six
were wounded and two made prisoners.  The Indians had about an equal number
killed. -- Sims -- Campbell -- Stone, p. 353.
   From here, Brant, after committing a few further depredations in that
quarter, led his forces to Tioga, where he joined the main body of the army,
marching to the invasion of Wyoming.
   At the same time that Brant started on his expedition, from Kanadaseago,
Major John Butler, commonly called and known as Col. Butler, being at that
time, however, only a major, with the British and Tories, amounting to about
four hundred, and a party of Indians, under Gucingerachton and Kayingwaurto,
both Seneca chiefs, amounting to about four hundred, passed up Seneca Lake
and proceeded to Chemung and Tioga, at which point Butler and Kayingwaurto
engaged in preparing boats for transporting themselves and their baggage
down the Susquehanna.
   A considerable body of Indians, under Gucingerachton, were detached
at Knawaholee, or Newtown, and sent across the country to strike the West
Branch of the Susquehanna and lay it waste, while the boats were being
prepared, and Brant should rejoin the main party with his forces.
   Gucingerachton, with his party, arrived on the West Branch near the mouth
of Bald Eagle creek, on the 16th of May, and at once commenced his work of
death and desolation.  He continued at this work, overrunning the whole line
of the lower West Branch, until the 10th of June.  He and his savage horde
swept that whole region as with the besom of destruction, and the final
catastrophe in the bloody work occurred on this latter day.
   Meginness says -----
          "This was indeed a bloody day.  The savages glutted themselves
with murder and plunder, and retired in triumph.  A gloomy pall seemed to
have fallen over the infant settlement, and weeping and wailing were heard
on every hand.  Children were murdered before their parents' eyes; husbands
were compelled to witness the horrid deaths of their wives, and in turn,
children were compelled to gaze upon the mangled bodies of their parents.
Neither age, sex, nor condition were spared; the wails of helpless infants,
the imploring cries of defenseless women, failed to awaken a chord of pity
in the adamantine {unyielding} bosom of the tawny savage.  He laughed their
pitiful appeals to scorn, and with a fiendish grin of pleasure, plied the
knife, and tore the reeking scalps from their heads."
   The harvest of scalps they reaped in these fields counts up to forty-five
-- add to these a large number of prisoners, and a vast amount of plunder,
and we have (Otzinachson, p.211, etc.) a slight account of the work done.
   It will readily be seen from these facts, what the scope of the Indian
warfare for 1778 embraced.  The whole frontier was aglow with fire,
desolation and death, beneath the fagot, tomahawk, rifle and scalping-knife
of the Indians, and their cruel and implacable allies, the British and
Tories.
   Our narrative now returns to Wyoming, for this is becoming the gathering
point of all these scattered parties.  A glance shows at once that the storm
is gathering, dark and fearful in that direction, boding death and
destruction through all its borders.
   On the 12th of June, William Crooks and Asa Budd went up the river to a
place some two miles above Tunkhannock, on the west side of the river,
formerly occupied by a Tory named John Secord, one of the committee of
Inspection appointed August 8, 1775, who had been absent at Niagara since
the fall before.  Crooks was fired upon by a party of Indians and killed.
   On the 17th, a party of six men, from Jenkins' Fort, in two canoes, went
up the river to observe the movements of the enemy.  The party in the
forward canoe landed about six miles below Tunkhannock, on the west side of
the river, opposite LaGrange, or Osterhout, and ascended the bank.  They saw
an armed force of Indians and Tories running toward them.  They gave the
alarm, returned to their canoe, and endeavored to get behind an island to
escape the fire of the enemy, which was being poured in upon them.  The
canoe, in which were Miner Robbins, Joel Phelps and Stephen Jenkins, was
fired upon and Robbins killed and Phelps wounded.  Jenkins escaped unhurt,
although his paddle was shot through and shivered to pieces in his hands.
In the party that fired upon the canoe was Elijah Phelps, the brother of
Joel and brother-in-law of Robbins.
   Capt. Hewitt, with a scouting party, went up the river on the 26th, and
returned on the 30th of June with news that there was a large party up the
river.
   At Jenkins' Fort, the uppermost in the Valley and but little over a mile
above Wintermoot Fort, there were gathered the families of the old patriots,
John Jenkins, Esq., and Captain Stephen Harding, the Hadsalls, John Gardner,
and others distinguished for zeal in their country's cause.  Not
apprised of the contingency of the savages, on the morning of the 30th of
June, before Captain Hewitt's return, Benjamin Harding, Stukley Harding,
Stephen Harding, Jr., John Gardner and a boy named Rogers, about eleven
years of age, James Hadsall and his sons, James and John, the latter a boy,
with his sons-in-law Ebenezer Reynolds and Daniel Carr, together with Daniel
Wallen and a negro named Quocko, a servant of William Martin -- twelve in
all, went up the river about five or six miles, into Exeter to their several
labors; some of them, particularly Benjamin and Stukley Harding, taking
their arms.  The Hardings, with Gardner and the boy Rogers, worked in the
cornfield of Stephen Harding, Jr.; the Hadsalls and the others, part in
Hadsall's cornfield, on an island, part in his tanyard, close at hand on the
main land.
   Towards evening, Michael Showers, or Shores, and Jacob Anguish, or
Ankers, two well-known Tories, came to Stephen Harding's cornfield and told
them they might call in their sentries and they would stand guard for them.
Suspecting them of treachery, and that danger threatened, Stephen went at
once to get the horses and make for home.  When the Tories saw what Stephen
was doing, they left to give information to the Indians and Tories, who were
not far off in a large body.
   When Stephen returned with the horses, near to where he had left his
brothers, he saw that they had quit work and passed on down the river
towards a deer-lick.
   On the way down was a deep, narrow ravine through which a small brook
found its way to the river.  In this ravine, a body of Indians and Tories
had concealed themselves, waiting their coming.  This spot is in the
neighborhood of the new Baptist meeting house, between that and the river.
As the party was passing this point, the savages fired upon them, wounding
both Benjamin and Stukley.  They returned the fire, and then quite a contest
ensued.  The Indians rushed upon them with spears and tomahawks, and
they clubbed their guns and fought bravely and furiously, resisting until
they fell, pierced through with spears, and were hacked and cut to pieces
with the tomahawks.  John Gardner was taken prisoner.  Having no arms, he
took no part in the fight.
   That the Hardings fought bravely was attested by the enemy, as well as by
the terrible condition of their bodies when found.  In the meantime, a party
of the Indians had captured the elder James Hadsall, his son-in-law Carr,
and the negro, at the tannery which was situated just above the mouth of the
creek.
   Those on the island came off in their canoes, and as they were ascending
the bank, a party of savages, lying in wait, fired upon them, shooting James
Hadsall down and wounding Reynolds, who fled with Wallen to the woods.  John
Hadsall, the boy, remained behind fastening the canoe.  Upon hearing the
firing he plunged into a thicket of willows and drift that overhung the
waters near by.  The Indians, missing one from the party in the canoe, went
to the river to search for him.  One of them walked out on a log just over
where he was hid, but did not discover him.  He could see the Indian's eyes
as he peered about to find him.  After night set in, he ventured out of his
hiding place, and made his way back to the fort, arriving after midnight.
He was the first to arrive and bring news of the fate of his companions to
their waiting, anxious friends.
   The elder Hadsall, Gardner, Carr and the negro were taken up Sutton's
creek about a mile or two, to what is known as the Bailey farm, where
Hadsall and the negro were put to death by the most insulting, lingering and
excruciating tortures, giving a most delightful evening's entertainment to
Major Butler and his demoniac crew; the Indians and Tories being the actors
in the horrible drama, the Tories in particular displaying a lively relish
in the performance of their several parts.
   Stephen Harding, Jr., with the boy Rogers, Reynolds and Wallen, fled
through the woods, and after wandering all night, succeeded in reaching the
fort next morning.
   Intelligence of this affair was at once communicated to all parts of the
Valley, and the utmost alarm and consternation prevailed.
   Col. Zebulon Butler, of the Continental army, then at home on leave,
being solicited, assumed command of the settlers.  On the 1st of July, he,
Col. Nathan Denison, and Lieut-Colonel George Dorrance, with all the forces
at command at that time, marched from Forty Fort to Exeter, a distance of
eleven miles, where the murder of the preceding day had been perpetrated,
with the design of punishing the guilty parties.
   The two Hardings were found where they had fallen.  From appearance they
must have contended to the last, for their arms and faces were much cut and
several spearholes were made through their bodies.  They were scalped and
otherwise mutilated.  Two Indians who were watching near the dead bodies,
expecting that friends might come to take them away, and that they might
obtain other victims, were shot -- one where he sat, the other in the river,
to which he had fled.  Zebulon Marcy's rifle, it was supposed, killed one of
them, and subsequently he was waylaid and hunted for several years; a
brother of one of the Indians killed swearing he would have revenge.
   The bodies of the Hardings were brought down to Jenkins' Fort, washed and
decently buried in the Jenkins' graveyard near the fort, where Elisha
Harding, Esq., their brother, caused a stone to be erected to their memory,
with this inscription :  "Sweet be the sleep of those who prefer liberty to
slavery".
   The borough of West Pittston has the distinguished honor of having these
sacred relics repose within her bounds.  They should be cherished and cared
for by every true patriot.  A fitting monument should be erected to mark
their resting place.
   John Gardner, taken at the time the Hardings were killed, was a husband,
the father of five children, and a highly respectable man.  On the morning
of the 4th, his wife and children were permitted to see him.  The interview
was extremely affecting.  He was chained to a log, and near by lay a heavy
pack of plunder which he was expected to carry.  The last adieu was
exchanged, and they parted to meet no more.  When his captors were ready to
go, they put a rope around his neck, placed the pack on his back, and led him
off as they would a beast of burden.  He held out until they arrived in the
neighborhood of Geneva, N.Y., where, exhausted by his journey, and crushed
by the weight of his load, he fell to the earth, when he was handed over to
the squaws, who tortured him to death.  They piled up wood and brush around
him, stuck him full of pine knots, set fire to them, and thus ended his life.
   Daniel Carr, a fellow prisoner, saw the remains the following day, and
represented it as a sight to awaken the deepest pity.
   The enemy, numbering about two hundred British Provincials, and about two
hundred Tories from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, under the command
of Major John Butler, and Capt. Caldwell, of Sir John Johnson's Royal
Greens, and about five hundred Indians, commanded by Kayingwaurto, a Seneca
chief, and Capt. Joseph Brant, a Mohawk, descended the Susquehanna river in
boats, and landed near the mouth of Bowman's creek, where they remained some
time, waiting for the West branch party to join them.  This party consisted,
as before stated, of about two hundred Indians, under the command of
Gucingerachton, a Seneca chief.  After the junction of all the forces,
numbering altogether about eleven hundred, they moved forward to the
invasion of Wyoming.  They left the largest of their boats, and with the
lighter ones passed on down to the "Three Islands", five or six miles
below, laying them up in Keeler's eddy, about fifteen miles from the Valley.
   From this point they marched overland, and encamped on the evening of the
30th of June, on Sutton's creek, about two miles from where the Hardings
were killed.
   On the 1st of July, while the settlers were marching up the river to
bring down the dead bodies of the Harding's, and if possible, chastise their
murderers, the enemy were marching toward the Valley, by a route back of the
mountain, which lay between them and the route the settlers took in marching
up and returning.  They arrived and encamped on the side of the mountain
bounding the Valley on the north-west, at a point directly opposite
Wintermoot Fort the same night.  On the morning of the 2d, the gates of the
fort were thrown wide open to the enemy, and possession taken by them.  It
was said that the inmates of the fort consisted chiefly of Tories, who
treacherously surrendered it to the enemy.  This became their headquarters
while they remained in the Valley.
   The evening of the 2d, a detachment, under the command of Capt. Caldwell,
was sent to reduce Jenkins' Fort.  Originally, the garrison consisted of
seventeen, mostly old men, six of whom, Miner Robbins, the two Hardings, two
Hadsalls and the negro were slain, and three made prisoners; two, Phelps and
Reynolds, wounded; Samuel Morgan, sick, and two lame, so that no means of
resistance being left, the stockade capitulated on honorable terms.
   During all this day the settlers were engaged in gathering all the force
they could command, with their women and children at Forty Fort and the
other forts, chiefly the former, about four miles below Wintermoot Fort.
   It was a day of alarm, excitement and terror; a day of preparation,
running to and fro, fleeing and seeking shelter from impending wrath and death.

                              3D  JULY  1778.

   Let us look at the position of affairs as they existed on the 3d of July, 1778.
   The upper part of the Valley, on the west side of the river, was in the
hands of the enemy, numbering 1100 men, well armed and equipped, thirsting
for conquest and blood.
   So complete and effective was their possession, that no person had been
able to pass their lines to give information of either their numbers,
position or purpose.
   Jenkins' Fort, on the Susquehanna, just above the west end of the
Pittston Ferry Bridge, was in their possession, having capitulated the day
before, but possession had not been taken until this morning.
   Wintermoot Fort, situate on the bank of the plain, about a mile and a
half below and about a half a mile from the river, had been in their
possession all the day before, and was used as their headquarters.
   Forty Fort, some four miles further down the river, situate on the west
bank of the Susquehanna river, was the largest and strongest fort in the
Valley.  Thither had fled all the people on the west side of the river, on
the 1st and 2d, and this was to be the gathering point of the patriot band.
The Wilkes-Barre and Pittston Forts were the gathering points for the people
in their immediate neighborhood.
   The forces, such as they were, were distributed throughout the Valley
somewhat as follows :
   The Kingston company, commanded by Capt. Aholiab Buck, numbering about
forty-four men, was at Forty Fort.
   The Shawnee company, commanded by Capt. Asaph Whittlesey, numbering about
forty-four men, was at Forty Fort.
   The Hanover company, commanded by Capt. Wm. McKarrachen, numbering about
thirty, was at home, in Hanover.
   The upper Wilkes-Barre company, commanded by Capt. Rezin Geer, numbering
about thirty men, was at Wilkes-Barre.
   The lower Wilkes-Barre company, commanded by Capt. James Bidlack, Jr.,
numbering about thirty-eight men, was at Wilkes-Barre.
   The Pittston company, commanded by Capt. Jeremiah Blanchard, numbering
about forty men, was at Pittston Fort.
   The Huntington and Salem company, commanded by Capt. John Franklin,
numbering about thirty-five men, was at home.
   These were the militia, or train-bands, of the settlement, and included
all who were able to bear arms, without regard to age.  Old men and boys
were enrolled in them.
   Then there was Cap't. Detrick Hewitt's company, formed and kept together
under a resolution of Congress, to which reference has already been made.
   Besides these, there were a number who were not enrolled in any of the
companies, numbering about one hundred; and in addition, there were a number
in the Valley who had been driven from the settlements up the river.  Making
altogether in the Valley, a force of men of all ages and boys, numbering
about four hundred.
   Notwithstanding the neglect which all their former appeals for aid had
met with, a new appeal was made by the settlers when they learned the
certainty and imminence of the danger that was threatening, and fast closing
in about them.  Again was an express sent to Washington and to Congress,
informing them of the immediate presence of the enemy and of the imminent
peril which threatened, requesting the aid of their two companies, with such
additional force as could be sent; but there was so much hesitancy in
deciding, and so much delay in letting the companies go, after the decision
was made, that Captains Durkee and Ransom, and Lieutenants Welles and Ross,
and some others, resigned their commissions in disgust, and hurried home
to the relief of their beleagured neighbors, friends and families.
   The two Wyoming companies, largely reduced by disease and the casualties
of war, were thereupon united and placed under the command of Simon Spalding
as Captain, raised to that position from a Lieutenancy in Durkee's company.
After a day or two's detention, this company alone was sent by a roundabout
way to Wyoming.
   Although Captains Durkee and Ransom, Lieutenants Ross, Welles, and some
others, arrived before the march to battle, they could give no definite
information as to when the company might be depended upon to arrive for
their assistance.
   Capt. Clingman, at the lower Fort Jenkins thirty-five miles down the
river, had been sent for by express, the urgency and danger of the situation
made known to him, and his assistance, with his command consisting of ninety
men, earnestly solicited.  There was not much hope or expectation of this
company marching to their assistance, from the fact that it was a
Pennsylvania company, feeling no interest in the salvation of the
settlement, yet it was thought their humanity might prompt them to do their
duty, and hence they might come to assist in driving back the savages and
British.
   On the 2d, Col. Denison had sent a messenger express to Capt. John
Franklin and Lieut. Stoddard Bowen, to hurry forward to the scene of danger,
with their Huntington and Salem company, without delay.
   Such was the situation, when, on the morning of Friday, the 3d of July,
Major John Butler sent a flag to Forty Fort, demanding an unconditional
surrender of that fort, the public stores, and Capt. Hewitt's company, with
 a promise that he would, when in possession, give them good terms of
capitulation, and with a threat that in case of refusal, he would move upon
them at once in full force.
   The demand was refused by Col. Denison, then in command, but the refusal
was accompanied with a suggestion that he would like time and opportunity to
consult with Col. Butler and other officers, who were not then present.
   The flag was borne by Daniel Ingersoll, a prisoner, taken at Wintermoot
Fort, who was accompanied by a Tory and an Indian, to serve both as guards
and spies.  They returned, bearing the refusal of surrender, and it was
supposed that upon their return and report to Major Butler, he would
immediately march upon them.
   A messenger was forthwith despatched to Col. Butler, at Wilkes-Barre,
informing him of the situation, and requesting his immediate presence with
all the available force at command.
   Col. Butler at once ordered the two Wilkes-Barre companies and the
Hanover company, to march directly to Forty Fort.  They promptly responded,
and at one o'clock they were all at the place of rendezvous.  Information
had been sent to other parts of the Valley, for every man to hasten to Forty
Fort, as an attack was hourly expected.
   Immediately upon Col. Butler's arrival, a consultation of the officers
was held, in which the situation was fully discussed.  It was decided not to
surrender, but to hold the fort at all hazards.
   For the purpose of securing, by delays in negotiations, sufficient time
to permit the arrival of Franklin and Spalding's companies, and possibly
Clingman's, a flag was sent to Major Butler for a conference with him, upon
the subject of his demand of the morning.  At the same time scouts were sent
out to make reconnoisance (sic), and learn, if possible, the strength and
situation of the enemy, and watch his movements.  In fact, such scouts had
been out all the morning.
   The flag had not proceeded half way to Major Butler's camp when it was
fired upon by prowling Indians and Tories, probably out as spies, and
compelled to return.  After consultation, another flag was sent out.  It was
also fired upon and compelled to return.
   The scouts sent out returned with the news that they had not been able to
get near enough to the British camp, to ascertain more than that they were
still occupying the neighborhood of Wintermoot Fort, and that the Indians
were prowling about in every direction, many of them moving down the Valley,
capturing horses and cattle which were roaming about in the woods.
   Other scouts were sent out, and it was resolved to try another flag.
This had not proceeded far, when it was fired upon and compelled to return.
Scouts that had been out returned with reports that the enemy were moving
down toward the fort, and that their number was not greater than that in the
fort.
   It was at once resolved to go out and meet them, and if possible, beat
and drive them back, at least stay their progress of destruction down the
Valley.
   Accordingly, the force gathered at Forty Fort, numbering about four
hundred including old men and boys, marched out at about 3 o'clock in the
afternoon, leaving the fort with a few old men and young boys, women and
children, many of them sick, under the command of Lieut. John Jenkins.  They
marched from the fort in martial array, with the Stars and Stripes at their
head, to the tune of "St. Patrick's day in the morning", played on a fife by
a true blue son of Erin, with drums beating, and proceeded as far as
Abraham's creek, at the point where the road now crosses it at the stone
bridge, a little over a mile from the fort.  Here on the hill a halt was
made, and the party properly disposed to resist an attack.
   The position was well chosen.  The creek at this point makes a complete
elbow, round a hill which rises, abruptly, about twenty feet above the
stream largely protecting their right and front, while a branch of the
stream and a marsh on the left, covered that part of their force, and their
rear was open for retreat to the fort, should that become necessary.  The
position was well calculated to be successfully held against a largely
superior force, at least it gave them a great advantage in case of an attack
upon them.
   From this point a flag was again sent out, and other scouts, and their
return awaited.  This flag was also fired upon and returned.  Scouts that
had been previously sent out, had by great skill and energy, succeeded in
making a reconnoisance (sic) of the enemy, by passing along the foot of the
mountains on the west of the Valley; but on their return, when in Western
Wyoming, near the present site of Shoemaker's mills, were shot, one fatally;
the other, slightly wounded, made his way back to headquarters.  The
information brought was to the effect that the enemy were in commotion, but
what their design or which way they were moving, could not be told, but the
supposition was they were preparing to leave the Valley.  All the
information gained was too indefinite and too slight to be of any use in
judging of either the numbers or design of the enemy.  All was doubt and
uncertainty.
   Speculations and discussion now began to arise as to the intent of the
enemy.  The march upon Forty Fort, which had been threatened by Major Butler
in the morning, unless a surrender was made, had not taken place.  What did
it mean ?  Had the threat any meaning, or was it mere braggadocio ?  It was
suggested that the invading force had been over estimated by the timid; that
if Major Butler had the overwhelming force pretended, he would, long ere
this, have put his threat in execution, instead of breaking camp and leaving
the Valley, as now appeared most probable.  What did it mean ?  Was it a
mere threat to frighten, and thus evade pursuit ?  Such were the queries the
situation gave rise to, and in consequence of no satisfactory answer
being at hand, the discussion grew warm -- hot, I may say.
   In the best of the discussion, scouts returned reporting that the enemy
were burning all the settlements above, and collecting all the cattle within
their reach, and from appearances, it was supposed they would not risk an
immediate attack on Forty Fort, at least, did not intend to do so, but would
burn, plunder and destroy all the upper settlements, probably cross the
river to Pittston, take possession of that fort, destroy that and the
neighboring settlements, massacre the people or make them prisoners, and
then return back with their booty from whence they came.
   This report put an entirely new feature on the face of affairs.  Although
speculative to a great extent, yet it afforded those who had been fierce to
march and meet the enemy, new grounds on which to urge their views.  They
had become tired of seeking the enemy by flags, and demanded to march, meet
and attack him wherever found.  They insisted that his force was small, too
small to cope with them, or he would, ere this, have executed his threat of
the morning.
   The cool and more judicious of the officers, on whom the responsibilities
rested, thought prudence the better part of valor, and decided that their
present position, being tenable against a superior force, and serving to
protect the lower and main part of the valley from the encroachments of the
enemy, would answer the purpose of protection to that part of it, until the
expected reinforcements should arrive.
   At this point in the debate, Lieut. Timothy Pierce arrived with
information that the company of Spalding was on its way, and would probably
arrive Sunday, for their assistance.
   This news did not, however, calm the troubled waters.  It was contended
that Sunday would be too late.  That the enemy by that time could prowl
through the Valley, rob and burn their homes, kill or take captive the
women and children, drive off their horses and cattle, and destroy their
harvests, while they, like base and cowardly poltroons, were standing by
with arms in their hands, and seeing him do it, without making an attempt to
prevent it.
   Besides, were they to remain where they were, or go back to the fort and
shut themselves up in it to await deliverence, they had not collected and in
store sufficient provisions to hold out a long siege, or endure a long delay.
   The discussion became heated and personal.  Charges of cowardice were
made by Capt. Lazarus Stewart, then a private in Capt. McKarrachen's Hanover
company, against all who opposed advancing, particularly against Col. Butler
the principal commander, who was against an advance, and he threatened to
report him as such to headquarters.  Stewart was ordered under arrest by
Col. Denison.
   The Hanover company became mutinous.  Capt. McKarrachen resigned, and the
company immediately elected Stewart in his place.  They now threatened a
revolt, unless a march should be immediately made against the enemy.
   Col. Dennison, a cool and quiet man, who had taken little or no part in
the discussion as yet, urged the propriety of careful and considerate
action, and the impropriety and danger of hasty and inconsiderate action.
That it would be far better to wait until more was known of the number and
movements of the enemy; that it was hardly possible that they would attempt
to overrun the Valley as matters then stood; that a little delay would give
them more information upon these points, when they could act intelligently,
and in the meantime, Spalding's and Franklin's companies would arrive, the
latter, certainly.
   These suggestions did not meet the feelings and views of the men
generally.  They had become warmed up by the fiery words of Capt. Stewart,
and declared that it would be a disgrace never to be forgotten or forgiven,
should they remain there, or lie cooped up in the fort, while the enemy
should devastate the Valley, plunder and burn their homes, and then draw off
with their booty, and they too cowardly to offer the least resistance.  It
was therefore determined to march, and meet or attack the enemy.

  Those who would be disposed to blame the commanders of the settlers for
permitting the decision of the question whether to march or remain in
position to be made by the rank and file, should remember that the freest
Republic the world has ever known existed here.  The people were their own
rulers, in the strictest and fullest sense of that term.  They met in town
meeting and disposed of all their affairs.  The town meeting was a
legislative, judicial and executive body, all in one.  There was no veto on
its enactments; no appeal from its decisions, and no escape from its
execution.  All were accustomed to take part in its deliberations and
debates; all voted on its final decisions, and all submitted to its
authority.  Could they do less on this occasion ?  It may be objected that
this was a military body, and as such, ought to have been submissive to the
commands of its officers.  This was not the view they took of it.  It was
only a town meeting, met for military purposes, in which they all had an
equal interest, and from the acts of which flowed a common danger or safety.
  When it was decided to advance and attack the enemy, Col. Butler
discharged Capt. Stewart from arrest, saying : "We will march and meet the
enemy if he is to be found, and I will show the men that I dare lead where
they dare follow".
   The order to march was immediately given, and they proceeded cautiously
on their way as far as the hill, just below the monument, where another halt
was made, and where scouts met them with information that the enemy had set
fire to Wintermoot Fort and were leaving the Valley.
   In confirmation of this report, they pointed out the smoke from the fire
of the burning fort.  The men now became eager to advance and pursue 
the enemy.  Here, Richard Inman, one of the Hanover men, wearied with the
long march and the burden he was carrying, lay down alongside of a log
fence, while they were halted, and went to sleep.  After a short halt they
moved on toward Wintermoot Fort, to test the accuracy of the information in
line with the south-western boundary of the Fair ground, where they formed
in battle order, their line extending from the hill which forms the plain,
up in a north-western direction, about 1500 or 1600 feet.
  Captains Durkee and Ransom, and Lieutenants Ross and Welles, having no
immediate command, were detailed to mark off the ground and form the line of
battle.
   Their march had been in column along and just on the hill mentioned, and
on coming up to the line marked off, the column deployed to the left, and
every company took its designated station and advanced in line to the proper
position, where it halted, the right resting on the hill, the left extending
to the northwest.
   Yellow and pitch-pine trees, with scrub-oaks about breast high, were
everywhere over the plain.  There were very few trees of any size.  The
Indians were accustomed to burn the plain over every year, to make pasture
for deer and other game, and thus destroyed the growth of trees of large size.
   The line was formed with Capatain Hewitt's company on the right; next,
Captain Bidlack's; and next, Captain Geer's.  Captain Whittlesey's company
was placed on the left; next, Captain Stewart's, and next Captain Buck's.
Captains Durkee and Ransom, and Lieutenants Ross, Welles and Pierce were
assigned positions on the field, rather as aids than commanders.  Lieutenant
Stoddart Bowen had arrived with a few men from Salem, and they were added to
Whittlesey's company on the left.
   Captain Blanchard remained at the Pittston Fort with his force.  The
Indians and Tories had taken possession of all the water craft in the
upper part of the Valley, and consequently Blanchard's company could not get
over to join our men, had it been prudent and proper for them to have done so.
   Col. Butler, supported by Major Jonathan Waite Garret, assisted by
Anderson Dana as adjutant, commanded the right wing.  Col. Denison,
supported by Lieut.-Colonel George Dorrance, commanded the left wing.  Such
was the ground, such the forces, and such the order of battle.
   While these arrangements were being made, scouts were coming in bringing
information of the movements of the enemy.  They had succeeded  in making
their reconnoisance to the immediate vicinity of the fort, saw it burning,
and a few Indians and others lingering near.
   The enemy, in the meantime, had not been idle.  From their scouts they
had learned the movements and progress of the settlers in their march; had
called in their scattered forces, particularly those at Jenkins' Fort, and
had placed them in position to receive the settlers upon their advance.
   Major Butler, Captain Benjamin and Captain Wm. Caldwell, Lieutenant
Turney, with the British, were located on the left of their position, from
the hill toward the marsh; next, and on their right, were the Tories, under
Captains Benjamon and William Pawling and Hopkins; and to the right of these
were the Indians, under Kayingwaurto, Gucingerachton and Theyasdenegea,
reaching beyond the marsh and doubling down behind a covert of alders, white
birch and other brush; the whole force being arranged nearly in the form of
a crescent.  They skulked and hid away in the bushes, so that the few who
were stirring about the open space near the burning fort, were all that
could be seen.
   After the settlers had formed their line of battle, they marched, in
single line as formed, nearly a mile, and to within forty or fifty rods of
the fort, their right still resting on the hill, and their left extending
about 1600 feet toward the marsh, and to within 400 feet of it, where
they halted and sent forward scouts for further reconnoisance.  On the
advance of the scouts, Indians would pop up, fire at them and flee, some in
one direction, some in another.
   Here they began to realize the fact, that the enemy might be near in
sufficient force to make their further advance a bloody one, in fact, that a
battle was imminent.  They came to a halt.  Their officers rode along the
line informing the men of the situation, and addressing and encouraging them
to stand bravely up to the work.
   Says Col. Butler ----
        "The enemy is probably in full force just ahead of us.  If so, we
shall have hot work.  Remember your homes !  Your women and children call on
you to protect them from the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savages.
Your own fate, as well as that of your women, your children and your homes,
is in your hands.  Remember the fate of the Hardings and make sure work.
Victory is safety !  Defeat is death !  Let every man do his duty and all
will be well !"
   The line at this point was counted off into odds and evens, from right to
left.  The advance was made by the evens marching ten steps and halting, and
so on, alternately, each division or section marching ten steps, halting,
firing and loading, while the other was going through the same exercise,
until more than half the distance to what finally became the field of battle
had been gone over.
   As they advanced in this manner, a number of Indians, here and there over
the field, would arise, deliver their fire and flee before them.  The fire
would be returned and our people would continue to advance.  Soon a squad of
British arose, delivered their fire and fell back.  Our commander cries out,
"See ! the British retreat !  Stand firm and the day is ours !"  They
continued to advance and soon another squad of British arose, delivered
their fire and fell back.  Again the cry, "The British retreat !  The
day is ours !"
   Our men had now arrived at a point just opposite Wintermoot Fort, on
their right, and on the edge, in front of the only cleared space on the
plain, which was an open field of three or four acres.  They continued their
advance slowly and cautiously, when they soon found the British in full
force in front, standing up to the work, though apparently yielding ground.
The firing now became general along the lines on both sides.  Our people
felt they were gaining ground and driving the enemy before them.
   Too much attention had been devoted to the movements of the British in
front, to properly observe and understand the movements and dangers of the
other portions of the field.  The British lay behind a log fence which ran
along the upper side of this cleared field down to the foot of the hill at a
marshy spot, and were largely concealed and protected by it.  The Indians,
lying behind the marsh, on the other side of the field, which ran diagonally
across the front of our line, and concealed behind its dense shrubbery, had
not manifested their force on the field, and their location was not really
known.  When the settlers had advanced fully into this cleared field, and
were, as they supposed, driving the enemy before them, the Indians broke
from their covert and fell upon their left, yelling like demons, pouring in
their fire and pressing to close quarters with the spear and tomahawk.
   Their numbers were sufficient not only to outflank the left, but to turn
it and gain the rear.  Col. Denison, on discovering this movement, at once
gave orders for the left to fall back, and form an oblique line to the
position of the right, and thus bring the left into a position to face the
enemy.
   The order was not fully understood, or was imperfectly communicated, and
hence the movement was confused.  In the midst of the noise and confusion,
the word oblique was understood by some to be retreat, and the line was not
formed, but the left began moving in on the right in a broken, confused
mass.
   The officers, meantime, made every possible effort to have their orders
understood, and to restore order and bring the men to face the enemy and
stand their ground, but in vain.  Col. Dorrance fell, severely wounded,
while riding along the line gallantly laboring in this vain attempt.  The
mistake was a fatal one and could not be retrieved.
   The Indians, meantime, rushed in upon them, yelling, brandishing their
spears and tomahawks, and the British and Tories pressed down upon them in
front, pouring in a terrible fire.
   Broken, borne down by overwhelming numbers, and pressed by an
irresistible force, the left gave way and fell back on the right.  The
movement was rapid and confused and brought confusion on the right.  From
confusion to disorder, from disorder to broken lines, and thence to flight
were but steps in regular gradation.  The flight became a slaughter, the
slaughter a massacre.  Such was the battle.
   It was impossible that the result of the battle should have been
different.  The enemy were nearly three to one, and had the advantage of
position.  Our men fought bravely, but it was of no avail.
   Every Captain fell at his position in the line, and there the men lay
like sheaves of wheat after the harvesters.
   Indulge me while I recount to you some of the incidents of that flight,
that slaughter, that massacre.
   The flight from the battle-field, although confused and made under
overwhelming pressure, by a furious onslaught of the enemy, yet, was not
entirely devoid of system.  The men, generally, gathered in squads, and
commenced moving off, frequently turning back, like the hunted lion, and
holding in check their pursuers, by their threatening attitude and the
mutual support they gave each other.
   On the left, a squad of a dozen or more, unconscious of the fatal state
of affairs by which they were surrounded, one man only, John Caldwell,
having fallen in lines, stood their ground and loaded and fired, not only
after all their friends had fled and were gone, but until the enemy had
passed by them in pursuit.  They commenced moving off the field together,
but one by one broke off, seeking safety in separate flight, by hiding in
the bushes, and fleeing out of the line of pursuit.  Part of them were taken
prisoners, and with others, to the number of ten, were taken about half a
mile above the battlefield, about midway between Wintermoot and Jenkins'
Fort, on the top of the hill, on the line between Exeter, and West Pittston,
near the river, where they were put to death with savage torture.
   Capt. Blanchard and others, at Pittston, seeing fires burning below on
the opposite side of the river, went down to see what was going on.  They
beheld a scene of torture of the most horrible and revolting character.
   Several naked men were being driven round a stake, in the midst of
flames.  Their groans and shrieks were most piteous, while the shrieks and
yells of the savages, who danced around, urging the victims on with spears,
were too horrible to be endured.  They were powerless to prevent or avenge
these atrocities, and withdrew, heartsick, from the sight of the terrible
orgies.
   Among the prisoners was Joseph Elliott, who, seeing the horrible fate
that awaited him if he remained, sprang, and broke through the death circle
of the savages, and fled to the river and plunged in.  When out about twenty
rods, a ball from his pursuers struck him in the shoulder, wounding him
slightly.  He continued on, crossed the river, and proceeded safely to
Wilkes-Barre Fort.
   A body of fugitives surrounded Col. Butler, and all moved off together.
Another body surrounded Col. Denison, and kept together until they reached
Forty Fort.  On their way, with the Indians in hot pursuit, Rufus Bennett,
who held Col. Denison's horse by the tail, and was the hindmost of the
party, remembered that Richard Inman had lain down at the hill, at their
second halting place, and not gone on with the others.  As they came near to
where Inman lay, Bennett turned his head in that direction and saw Inman
sitting up, rubbing his eyes.  "Is your gun loaded, Inman?"  "Yes, it is !"
"Shoot this Indian!"  Inman raised his rifle and the foremost Indian, as he
passed the fence, was shot through the heart.  He sprang up, uttering a
fearful yell, and fell prostrate.  The other pursuing Indians turned and
fled back, leaving the party unmolested.  Col. Butler repaired to the
Wilkes-Barre, or Wyoming Fort.  Col. Denison took up his quarters at Forty Fort.
   They at once took all necessary precautions to hold their positions and
keep safely their inmates for the night, and until other arrangements could
be made for their security.
   The men fled generally back to the fort on the route they had marched
out, or to the river, pursued closely by the British, Indians and Tories,
and it would be difficult to tell which took most delight in shooting and
cutting down the fugitives.  No quarter was granted.  All were
discriminately slaughtered, wherever found.  Men seemed transformed into
demons.  It was a dreadful hour.

   Lieut. Elijah Shoemaker, who had fled into the river and was quite out of
harm's way, was hailed by Windecker, a Tory, who had worked for him and
received many favors at his hands, and requested to come back and put
himself under Windecker's protection.  Shoemaker stopped, hesitating what
course to pursue.  "Come out !  Come out !" says Windecker.  "You know I
will protect you !"  Shoemaker, trusting to the assurance, came back, and as
he extended his hand to take Windecker's to help him up the bank, Windecker
struck his tomahawk into the head of his victim, who fell back into the
river and floated away.
   Many other fugitives were in like manner lured to shore, by promises
of quarter or safety, and in like manner slain, too many to be recounted on
this occasion.
   The account of the horrible orgies at what has since been known as Queen
Esther's Bloody Rock must close this part of this most bloody event.
   On the evening of the battle, sixteen of the prisoners taken on the field
of battle and in the flight, under promise of quarter, were collected
together by their savage captors around a rock, near the brow of the hill,
at the southeast of the village of Wyoming, and a little more than a mile
from the field of action.  The rock at that time was about two feet high on
its eastern front, with a surface four or five feet square, running back to
a level with the ground and beneath it at its western extremity.  The
prisoners were arranged in a ring around this rock, and were surrounded with
a body of about two hundred savages, under the leadership and inspiration of
Queen Esther, a fury in the form of woman, who assumed the office of
executioner.  The victims, one at a time, were taken from the devoted circle
and led to the east front of the rock, where they were made to sit down.
They were then taken by the hair and their heads pulled back on the rock,
when the bloody Queen Esther, with death-maul would dash out their brains.
The savages, as each victim was in this manner immolated, would dance around
in a ring, holding each others' hands, shouting and halloring, closing with
the death-whoop.  In this manner fourteen of the party had been put to
death.  The fury of the savage Queen increased with the work of blood.
Seeing there was no other way or hope of deliverance, Lebbens Hammond, one
of the prisoners, in a fit of desperation, with a sudden spring, broke
through the circle of Indians and fled toward the mountain.  Rifles Cracked
!  Tomahawks flew !  Indians yelled !  But Hammond held on his course for
about fifty rods, when he stumbled and fell, but sprang up again.  Stopping
for a moment to listen, he found his pursuers on each side of him, or a
little ahead, running like demons.  He stepped behind a large pine tree
to take breath, when, reflecting that his pursuers being already ahead of
him, he would gain nothing by going on in that direction, he turned and ran
for the river in such a course as to avoid the party around the fatal rock,
and yet to keep an eye on them.  He passed by without being seen, went down
and plunged into the high grass in the swampy ground at the foot of the
hill, where he remained concealed for about two hours, watching the
movements and listening to the yells of his pursuers.  He finally crawled
out of his concealment, cautiously made his way to the river, and thence
down to the fort.
   Let us go back to the battle-field.  On the fatal left we find only the
body of John Caldwell, of Captain Whittlesey's company.  He was killed by the
first fire of the Indians; in fact they fired but once, and dropping their
guns rushed in with spears and tomahawks.  Not a living, breathing soul is
found on the field.  All who had not been able to fly, except Col. Dorrance,
were put to death and scalped.  The wounded were killed where they lay, or
were dragged to the burning fort and thrown upon the fire, pierced and held
on with spears.  They plead in most piteous terms to be spared, but they
appealed to hearts of adamant, that rejoiced in their sufferings and laughed
at their merciful supplications.
   The body of Captain Ransom, who was a fleshy man, was lying near the
fort; his thigh was split with a knife all around from the knees to the
hips.  Captain Bidlack was lying by his side, his head cut off.  Captain
Bidlack lay a short distance off; he had been held on a fire in a heap of
old logs and brush and burned to death.  All were shockingly mutilated.  It
was a terrible sight.  The stench from the burning bodies polluted the
atmosphere with its odor.
   Night came, but it did not put an end to the work of death.  All through
its dark shadows, the Indians and Tories, like beasts of prey, prowled
along the line of flight, hunting out those who had concealed themselves,
slaying them on the spot, and tearing off their  scalps, or capturing and
reserving them for torture.
   To those who were in the forts, and those who had escaped the pursuit of
the murderous savages, that was a night of consternation, of alarm, and of
terrible agony.
   The shrill whoop of the Indians, mingled with the yells and hootings of
the Tories and British, as they gathered near, proclaimed a fate as horrible
to the survivors, as that of any who had fallen into their hands.  All
through the night was heard the voice of lamentation for the fate of
husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends, who had fallen by the hands
of the enemy; and weeping and wailing for tribulation, danger and death,
that seemed to await them on the morrow.  To the survivors it was "a night
long to be remembered", never to be forgotten.
   The morning of the 4th dawned amid the deepest sorrow and the most gloomy
forebodings.  Whichever way the afflicted people turned their eyes, death
stared them in the face.  The victorious foe seemed but to have whet their
appetite for blood by the carnival of the preceeding day and night.  They
spread themselves everywhere throughout the Valley, and their pathway was
marked by the shrieks of falling victims, the conflagration of their
dwellings, and the destruction of their teeming harvests.
   About eight o'clock in the morning, Major Butler despatched a messenger
with a flag to Forty Fort, requesting Col. Denison to come up to
headquarters and agree on terms of capitulation.  He went, accompanied by
Obadiah Gore, Esq., and Dr. Lemuel Gustin.  A demand was made for the
delivering up of all Continental troops, as prisoners of war, specially
naming Col. Z. Butler, Lieut. J. Jenkins and the remains of Hewitt's
company.  Denison desired time to consult, which was given.  It was
determined that these parties should at once leave the Valley, and the
capitulation should be only for the inhabitants.  Col. Butler at once fled
across the mountains to the Lehigh, and Hewitt's company fled down the river.
   Terms were agreed upon, on a renewal of negotiations, in all respects
favorable to the inhabitants, except that it provided, "that the property
taken from the people called "Tories, up the river, be made good : and they
to remain in peaceable possession of their farms". This was the only
provision against the settlers and in favor of the enemy, or any part of them.
   "Nevertheless", says Col. Denison, "the enemy, being powerful, proceeded,
plundered, burned and destroyed almost everything that was valuable;
murdered several of the remaining inhabitants, and compelled most of the
remainder to leave their settlements, nearly destitute of clothing,
provisions and the necessaries of life."
   William Gallop, on oath in the case of Van Horn vs. Dorrance, says :
        "We were not to be plundered, but they plundered us of everything.
They kept us three or four days, then told us to go.  One hundred and eighty
women and children, accompanied by only thirteen men, went together.  They
suffered extremely, all on foot, barefoot, bareheaded, in great want of
provisions.  Two women were delivered in the woods.  Those of the men who
had been in the battle made their escape before the fort surrendered, as the
enemy said they would kill all that had been in the battle.  The savages
burnt all our improvements; scarcely a house left that was valuable.  About
two hundred men were then absent, serving in the Continental army."
   The greater part of the men, women and children had fled east and down
the river on the night of the massacre.  Crossing the river at Forty Fort,
they plunged into the wilderness and made their way to the mountains.  Many
fled on the night of the 4th.
   The number of fugitives fleeing east from the Valley was about two
thousand.  The savages, finding they had fled, pursued them.  Many were
slain by the pursuing savages in their flight, some died of excitement and
fatigue, others of hunger and exposure, while many were lost who never found
their way out.  Hundreds were never seen again after they turned their backs
on Wyoming.  By what sufferings and torture they died the world will never know.
   On their way was a long and dreary swamp to be traversed by them, which,
on account of the number who fell and perished in its mire and among its
thorny brambles, was called "THE SHADES OF DEATH".
   On the evening of the 5th, the advance party fell in with Capt.
Spalding's company at Bear Swamp.  On the morning of the 6th, Lieut. Jenkins
joined the company and they continued their march toward Wyoming.  When they
arrived on the top of the mountains, within sight of the afflicted valley,
they halted and sent out parties to protect the fugitives and drive back the
pursuing savages.  They remained here engaged in this work for two or three
days, when they fell into the rear of the fugitives, scattering themselves
through the woods, picking up those who had fallen by the way, exhausted
from hunger and fatigue, giving them food, and encouraging and helping
forward the women and children.
   But for the timely aid thus furnished, many -- very many -- would have
perished, who passed through the wilderness in safety.
   The number slain in the battle and massacre has been variously stated.
It may be put down at 300.  Those who perished in the wilderness may be put
down at 200; making a total of 500, in the battle, massacre and flight.
   Major John Butler, in his report, says 227 scalps were taken at Wyoming.
Many were shot in the river, whose scalps were not obtained.

                          NUMBER OF THE SLAIN

   As the exact number of the slain is a matter of great doubt, I give the
numbers as stated by various parties who may be presumed to know somewhat
about it.
   Major John Butler says 227 scalps were taken; Col. Zeb. Butler says about
200; Lieut. John Jenkins says 300 and a number of officers; Col. N. Denison
says 268 privates, 1 colonel, 2 majors, 7 captains, 13 lieutenants, 11
ensigns;  Captain John Franklin says 204;  Isaac A. Chapman, 300;  Hon.
David Scott, 300;  T. F. Gordon, 330;  Dr. David Ramsey, 360;  Bartram
Galbraith,Jr., 340;  Abram Scott, 340;  Col. W.L. Stone, 300;  Dr. Geo.
Peck, over 200;  Charles Miner, 160; Col. Pickering, 170.
   The story of the sad fate of Col. Dorrance remains to be told.  On the
4th, as the victors were moving down to Forty Fort, to avail themselves of
the full fruits of their victory, the captors of Col. Dorrance, two Indians,
started to take him down to that post.  Being an officer of prominence,
dressed in a new uniform, with new sword and equipments, he had been spared
when the slaughter of the wounded on the battlefield had taken place, under
the idea that more could be obtained for his ransom than could be made from
his slaughter.  About a mile from the field he became exhausted, and was
unable to proceed farther.  What to do with him was a matter of pressing
inquiry with the savages.  Behind them was a desolation, ahead, new fields
to plunder.  To remain where they were and take care of their prisoner was
out of the question.  Stepping aside they held a short consultation.
Returning, they put him to death, one taking his scalp and sword, the other
his coat and cocked hat with feather.  The latter at once doffed his own
habiliments and donned the coat and hat of their victim, in all else  being
in "puris naturalibis", and thus proceeded to the fort with his
companion.  Gaily and proudly as the veriest dandy in new toggery, he
strutted about and through the fort, before, as he supposed, an admiring
audience.  He took particular pains to exhibit himself to Mrs. Dorrance, who
sat grieving over the sad fate of her husband.  Ludicrous and comical as the
sight would be comedy, it was a sad and mournful one as part of a bloody
tragedy.
   I have thus gone over the leading events connected with the Battle and
Massacre of Wyoming, as we have learned it from our ancestors, and it may
appear to some to be but a one-sided story, told with the views and in the
interests of that side only.
   Deeming it but fair and proper that both sides should be heard here
to-day, I will give you the story, as written by a historian on the other side.
   I will quote from Capt. Alexander Patterson's petition to the Legislature
of Pennsylvania, in 1804.

             "In the year 1776, there were a number of inhabitants, settlers
on the north-east branch of Susquehanna, near Wyalusing, under the
Pennsylvania title.  Amongst these were two brothers by the name of Pawling,
of a respectable family from the county of Montgomery.  They had paid one
thousand pounds in gold and silver for their farm at Wyalusing, unto Job
Gilaway, a useful, well-informed Indian, who had obtained a grant for said
land from the late proprietors of this State.  Among the settlers were the
Messrs. Secord, Depew, Vanderlip, and many others, wealthy farmers. The
Yankees at Wyoming being more numerous, and though at the distance of sixty
miles, insisted that the Pennsylvania settlers should come to Wyoming and
train and associate under Yankee officers of their own appointment.  As may
be supposed, the proposals were very obnoxious to the inhabitants of
Pennsylvania, and very properly refused, alleging they would associate by
themselves and would not be commanded by intruders, who had so repeatedly
sacked the well disposed inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and at that time
bid defiance to its laws and jurisdiction.  This gave a pretext to the
Yankees for calling them Tories.  They therefore went in force and tied the
Pennsylvania settlers, and brought them to Wyoming, with all their
moveables, and confined them in a log house, until the Indians who lived in
the neighborhood of Wyalusing --- and loved the Pennsylvanians and at that
time were well affected to the United States --- some of whom had joined our
army."
            "These Indians came to Wyoming and requested that the
Pennsylvania people should be released from confinement.  After some
altercation, and the Indians declaring they would complain to Congress, they
were released, and on their return, without property, were ambushed and
fired upon by the Yankees.  The event of all this was that the Pennsylvania
people were so harrassed by the intruders, that they were driven to seek an
asylum with the Indians, and at length retired to Niagara for protection.
It was well known at the time, on the frontiers of Northumberland and
Northampton counties, that the conduct of these Yankees occasioned the
secession of the Five Nations from the United States."
            " As was natural to imagine, those Pennsylvania settlers who had
been so cruelly robbed of their property would endeavor to regain it.  Their
address and moving complaints induced Joseph Brant, a well-known Indian
chief, and a Col. Butler, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to come with
them to Wyoming with a number of Indians, for the recovery of their
property, goods and chattels."
            " The party arrived at a place called Abraham's Plains, about
five miles above Wyoming.  The Yankees were apprised of their being at that
place, and must needs go and fight them, led on by the old murderer, Lazarus
Stewart, first having drank two barrels of whiskey to stimulate their
spirits.  They marched in riot, with drums beating and colors flying.  The
result was that a number of them was killed.  Those who asked quarter
were humanely treated, nor was a woman or child molested, only enjoined to
leave the country to the rightful owners.  Surely there was no propriety in
calling that transaction a massacre or murder.  The wretches brought it upon
themselves, and so be it."

   In another petition, presented by Patterson to the Pennsylvania
Legislature, August 27, 1784, he says :
                "The Connecticut settlers continued to harrass and distress
all those who had the honesty to declare they held their lands under this
State, with vexations suits and fines insupportable, until many of the
unhappy sufferers, cut off from every support from this State, grew
desperate, joined the savages, and in revenge, deluged Abraham's Plains with
blood."

   Benjamon Pawling, in a letter dated at Niagara, in 1784, to Edward
Bartholomew, at Philadelphia, states that the Pennsylvania claimants were
the people that cut off the Connecticut settlers, at Wyoming.

   I will call one more witness ---
   Col. Guy Johnson to Lord George Germain.  New York, 10th Sept., 1778.
   No. 9.  Extract
   * * * "Your Lordship will have learned, 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 to
the forces early in May, and one division, under one of my deputies (Mr.
Butler), proceeded with great success down the Susquehanna, destroying the
posts and settlements at Wyoming, augmenting their numbers with many
loyalists, and alarming all the country; whilst another division, under Mr.
Brandt, 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."
   These 294 scalps of men cut off by Mr. Butler and the chief, Brandt,
and their associates, and sold in the British market, were gathered on the
following fields :
             Cobleskill  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 22
             West Branch of Susquehanna - - - - -  - - - - 45
             Wyoming - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - 227
                                    Total _______________ 294
   It is said by some that Brandt was not at Wyoming.  The story as told by
both sides is that he was.
   If these be not the fields wherein were harvested and prepared for the
British market these 294 scalps of human victims, please tell me from what
fields they were gathered.  The number is sure to be correct, for the report
comes from the purchaser, a high dignitary of the British crown, a wholesale
dealer in the article, for which he paid $2940 in British gold and silver.
A few more may have been gathered and lost by the wayside, but this was the
number taken to market.  At ten dollars each they were too valuable to be
counted loosely.  The number agrees with the stumps upon the ground in these
localities.  Until we know better we must accept the story as told by both
sides at the time of the transaction.
   Truth and justice require that another fact, which has been omitted,
should be told at this time.  So far as known to the people here, not a
woman or child was slain by the enemy in the Valley.  How many, if any, were
slain by them in the woods and mountains, whither they pursued them, was
never known.
   There was no shutting up whole families in their houses, and then fire
set to them and the whole consumed together.  No slaughter of whole
families, men, women, and children, in that or any other way.  The
wickedness and devilishness of the savage horde needed not that extent of
atrocity to make them execrated throughout the civilized world.
   The humane in England, of every degree, "reprobated, in strong terms, the
circumstances attending the destruction of several parts of America,
particularly of the settlement of Wyoming, and the cruelties exercised
by Col. Butler and his savage horde."  [See Dodsley's Annual Register, 1779,
p.91.]

                        THE  FRATRICIDE

   The story of the fratricide, as told in our histories, would seem to be
disproved by the following document, on file in the State Department of
Connecticut, at Hartford.  Doc.133.
   To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, or in
their recess, to his Excellency, the Governor, and Council of Safety of said
State ---
        The memorial of the subscribers sheweth, That your Honors'
memorialists enlisted into the service of this State, in ye Connecticut
army, under Captains Strong and Judd, in ye year 1777; that we cheerfully
went out into ye service of our country, leaving our families in this town;
that in ye yr. 1778 the enemy destroyed this place, as your Honors well
know, but by special favor of his Excellency, General Washington, we have
since that time been continued here, where we have done duty under ye
command of Captain Simon Spalding, who is now, by a late resolve of ye
Continental Congress, ordered to leave this garrison, where some of our
families are, and are daily exposed to ye ravages of ye enemy, where our
families must either be left or removed out into ye country or camp.
Wherefore your Honors' memorialists humbly beg leave to lay this our state
and condition before your Honors, that your Honors in your great goodness
will order that we may be discharged from our enlistment, that we may,
without expense to the State, support ourselves and families, and that in
wisdom your Honors interpose in our behalf, or some way grant relief; and
we, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
                     JOHN RYON
                     LEMUEL WHITMAN
                     JOHN JACKSON
                     JOHN OAKLEY
                     JOHN PLATMORE
                     JOHN PENCIL
Westmoreland, ye 23d day of January, 1781.
                  ENDORSED.
    The within is a true representation of facts, and we, the subscribers,
beg leave to request your Honors that this memorial may be granted, as these
men are good inhabitants, being industrious men, and much wanted in this
exposed part of ye country, and serve to strengthen ye particular interest
of this State, for if this town be not again destroyed by ye enemy, we hope,
in a few years, to be able to throw a considerable sum of cash into ye
treasury of this State, and make some returns for your honors great goodness
in granting so many of our requests.  And your petitioners, as in duty
bound, shall ever pray.
                  JOHN HULBUT    Selectman
                  JAMES NESBIT       "
                  JABEZ SILL         "
Westmoreland, 23d January, 1781.
    Signed at the particular request of ye inhabitants.

   The allegation is that John Pencil killed his brother, Henry, on
Monockonock Island, after the battle.
   The story of the battle, the massacre and flight have been briefly told.
I shall now proceed to dispose of the several actors in them, who survived,
and then my task will be completed.
   Major Butler, on the morning of the 5th, received a letter from a
messenger.  He at once called his officers and the Indian chiefs around him
and read its contents.  He addressed them earnestly, and at the conclusion
they gave a great shout.  He at once prepared to leave the Valley, and set
out by way of the Lackawanna, accompanied by Brant and his command.  They
gained the Susquehanna at Great Bend, from which point Brant continued on to
Umatilla, where he is found on the 9th, writing to  Persifer Carr for corn.
Gucingerachton and Kayingwaurto went up the Susquehanna, accompanied by the
Tories.
   Capt. Spalding's company, accompanied the fugitives flying east as far as
Stroudsburg, where they remained until the 4th of August, when they returned
to the Valley, accompanied by many of the fugitives.  They took possession
and held it till the close of the contest with Great Britain, although often
assailed, and many of them killed or taken prisoners.
   The dead, who had fallen on the fatal 3d, remained unburied until the 22d
of October.  On the preceding day the following order was issued :

                     "CAMP WESTMORELAND, Oct. 21, 1778.
     Ordered, That there be a party, consisting of a Lieutenant, two
sergeants, two corporals and twenty-five men, to parade to-morrow morning,
with arms, as a guard to those who will go to bury the remains of the men
who were killed at the late battle, at and near the place called Wintermoot
Fort."
   In pursuance of this order, Lieut. John Jenkins, on the morning of the
22d, took charge of a party and went forth on the mournful duty assigned
them.  They took with them two carts, some shovels and some two-tined wooden
forks.  The weather having been dry for some time after the battle, the
bodies had dried and shriveled up so that few could be recognized.  They had
become so light that two men, one at the head and the other at the knees,
could take a body up on their forks and toss it into the cart without
difficulty.  Passing along up from Forty Fort they had reached but little
more than half way to the field of conflict before their carts were full.
They then stopped and dug a hole in the earth, to bury them.  After putting
in what bodies they had, they found the hole still capable of holding more.
They therefore proceeded on to the battle-field and gathered up all they
could find there and on the way, and hauled them all to this spot, making
for them one common grave.  It was well it was so done, for they went out
and fell together in the same glorious cause, and in death they should not
have been divided.
   After they had deposited all that could readily be found, they closed the
grave and left them to their rest, where they remained until the 4th of
July, 1832, when they were exhumed for the purpose of erecting a monument to
their memory, which it is gratifying to record has been done.  What bodies
were not found and buried on that day in that grave, were afterwards buried
when discovered, on the spot where they lay.  The number buried at that
time, where the monument now stands, was 96 --- 60 of whom were from the
battle-field, the rest on the line of flight.
   You ask, did this terrible atrocity go unavenged ?  Was no effort made to
punish its perpetrators ?
   I answer, it was avenged.  How, I will briefly narrate.
   Upon the reception of the horrible tidings from Wyoming, Washington
directed Col. Thomas Hartley to form a rendezvous, gather troops and move
against the invaders on their own ground.  At the same time, Col. William
Butler, of the 4th Pennsylvania regiment, was ordered from Fort Stanwix to
go down and form a junction with Col. Hartley, at Tioga, and together
operate against the enemy.  Col. Hartley went as far as Tioga, took some
Indians prisoners, burnt Queen Esther's town and palace, and destroyed
Tioga; but Col. Butler did not appear to join him.  He returned to Wyoming.
On his way he was attacked by a considerable body of Indians, between
Wyalusing and Laceyville, on Indian Hill, and quite a sharp fight was had.
The Indians were beaten and fled, leaving ten of their number dead on the
field.  Col. Butler mistook his way.  He went down the head waters of the
Delaware, instead of the Susquehanna.  Discovering his mistake, he struck
across to the Susquehanna, but too late to co-operate with Col. Hartley.
He, however, destroyed the Indian castles and villages in the neighborhood
of Unadilla, up and down the river.
   This, however, was more than balanced by the massacre of Cherry Valley,
on the 11th of November, following.
   The whole country had now become aroused to the terrible state of affairs
on the frontiers, and vigorous and ample means for subduing these inhuman
monsters were demanded on all hands.  Accordingly an expedition against them
was devised during the winter of 1778-9, and set in motion in the following
spring.  This expedition was put in charge of Major-General John Sullivan,
who marched into the Indian country as far as the Genesee river.  He met
the enemy in several pitched battles, the most important of which was
at Newtown, and defeated them in all.  He destroyed forty of their villages
and towns, with 160,000 bushels of corn, and devastated their whole country
along the line of march.  Among the slain in a battle at Chemung was
Kayingwaurto, one of the chiefs who led the Indians at Wyoming.  This
expedition, while inflicting serious injury upon them in the destruction of
their homes and means of subsistence, as well as by their utter
demoralization as a warlike force, was not so seriously destructive to them
in the loss of life, as the results which flowed from it.  By the
destruction of their towns and crops they were thrown completely on the
hands of the British, who were compelled to take them in and provide for
them at Niagara.
   The ensuing winter was one of great rigor and severity.  The snow fell
early and to a great depth, as much as eight feet, and remained upon the
ground all winter.  The cold was intense and continuous, so that it was
quite impossible to travel or get about.  Shut up in narrow quarters, and
fed on salt provisions, the scurvy broke out among them, and a large number
died.  They never recovered from these complicated calamities, and the once
mighty Indian confederacy melted away with the opening of spring, and
ceased, from that time forth, to be a power of any consequence or importance
in the contest in which they had previously acted such a conspicuous and
terrible part.
   The haughty and chivalric spirit of this splendid race of savages, whose
skill and eloquence in council, and whose mighty conquests and
long-continued domination over surrounding tribes attracted the attention
and won the admiration of the enlightened world, seemed to have been worthy
of a better fate, but the degrading and demoralizing influence of
association with the British and Tories, dragged them down to the lowest
depths of depravity and terminated their career amidst the execrations
of mankind, with none to mourn their unhappy end.

   How was it with Great Britain ?
   The British government, from the time when the news of the terrible
atrocities committed at Wyoming reached that country, had all the moral
power of her people against her in a further prosecution of the war.  The
opposition became strong and zealous, and it was with difficulty supplies
were obtained for that purpose.  The war lingered along without moral force
or power for some years, became a scheming with treason and a work for
incendiaries, and finally resulted in a glorious victory for the Americans,
and an ignominious defeat of the British, who lost not only all they had
fought for, but thirteen of the brightest jewels from their imperial diadem.
   The Tories fled to Canada, losing everything, gaining nothing but an
immortality of infamy.
   The conquered and the slain, and their descendants, how, is it with them ?
   They arose from this holocaust of blood and flame with renewed life and
vigor.  They built up the waste places, cleared away the forests, erected
homes, established institutions, embellished this beautiful Valley, and have
grown to be what you see around you here to-day, and, perchance, may see
to-morrow.
   The nation they fought and sacrificed and died to establish, is great and
mighty, the home of freemen, the abode of liberty.  In all that enriches and
ennobles mankind, in all that honors and dignifies a nation, she stands
without a peer.  Steam navigation, the telegraph, phonograph, telephone,
microphone, electric pen, and other wonders in science and in practical
life, have been invented and wrought out by the genius and skill of her
people.  They have given a mighty impetus to the human mind, and wiped out
all the bounds that have hitherto been set to control its onward progess.
The dark, the stone, the brazen, the silver, the golden, the iron, and all
other ages have been swept away and superseded by the electric, or lightning
age, and this great and mighty people have realized in themselves the
mythological Jupiter Tonas of the ancients, grasping and wielding the
lightnings of heaven, though directing them to bless instead of curse mankind.

                                THE  END


           MASSACRE  OF  WYOMING
     --------------------------------
             by Steuben Jenkins
     ---------------------------------
      Read at Monument, 3d July, 1878

To rid us of a tyrant's chain
Our fathers fell; and not in vain
they marched to battle and were slain,
And with their blood bedewed this plain;
     They fought for home and liberty.

A British --Tory -- Savage band
Had come to desolate their land;
Should they like cowards fly ? or stand
and meet th' invaders hand to hand
     And drive them back if that they may ?

Like freemen, valiant, true and brave,
They march to victory or the grave,
While at their head their banners wave,
And from their God they blessings crave,
     To guide them on to victory.

They met in battle's stern army,
Dire was the conflict, dire the day;
Borne down by odds, in short sharp fray,
The gallant patriot gave way,
     And fled from horrid slaughtering.

Th' invading host was fierce and strong,
They swift pursued the flying throng,
They swept the plain, they passed along
And killed or captured old and young;
     The living saved for torturing.

They gave no quarter, spared no life
Of all, who, in the battle's strife
Had fought for home, for children, wife ---
With spear, and tomahawk, and knife,
     They gave them o'er to butchery.

While time shall in full torrent swell,
Queen Esther's bloody rock shall tell
Of demon orgies, Indian yell,
That stunned the victims ere they fell
     On that dread night of massacre.

Nations and people all unite
To damn the deeds done that dread night
On tortured men, homes blazing bright,
And call on God to curse and blight
    The cause that works such infamy.

But few of that heroic band,
Who marched th' invaders to withstand,
And save from ruin their loved land,
Survived the battle's bloody brand
    To see their country's victory.

A hundred years have rolled away
Since on that sad, ill-fated day,
Our fathers fell in bloody fray;
And we are gathered here to pay
     Due honors to their memory.

They who beneath these tablets lie,
This lesson taught posterity :
`Tis sweet and glorious to die
For country, home and liberty.
    Yea, sweeter far than slavery.

Then let us, o'er their honored grave,
The glorious flag of freedom wave !
Keep green the memory of the brave !
Wave, freemen !  all your banners wave !
     In honor of their memory.

              FINIS



         BATTLE OF WYOMING
      ------------------------
         by Steuben Jenkins
      ------------------------

Strike the lyre in warning strain !
Wake the hearts of daring men !
Bid them for their country stand,
Guard their homes and cherished land !
Tyrants trampling on their rights,
Savage hordes whose presence blights,
March their homes in desolate;
Bid them rise ere yet too late !

Strike the lyre in martial strain !
Rouse to action valiant men !
See ! they meet in battle's shock,
Meet as waves meet frowning rock !
Crushed beneath o'erwhelming force,
Carnage marks their flight's fell course.
Three to one the forces prove,
Three opposed to one we love.

Strike the lyre in mournful strain !
Let it peal a sad refrain !
Let its notes a requiem prove
O'er the graves of those we love,
Martyrs for our liberty !
Dying that we might be free !
Honored be the patriot dead !
Glorious be their gory bed !

Strike the lyre in joyful strain !
Strike, O, strike it yet again !
Let its joyful tones resound !
Let it echo all around !
Bid it tell of glorious deeds !
Bid it tell how freedom speeds !
Tell what gallant men have done !
Tell how liberty was won !

Strike the lyre in dulcet strain !
Strike for all good-willing men !
Fruitful blessings on each hand
Flow throughout our happy land.
Perfect love in full accord,
Peace and plenty crown the board !
All from bondage now are free !
All rejoice in Liberty !


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                        WYOMING  MONUMENT

              (Inscription on right and left side)

                DULCE ET DECORUM EST PATRIA MORI

                         SLAIN IN BATTLE

                         FIELD  OFFICERS

Lt.-Col. George Dorrance                John Garrett

                            CAPTAINS

James Bidlack, jr., Aholiab Buck, Robert Durkee, Rezin Geer, Dethick Hewitt,
Wm. McKarrachen, Samuel Ransom, Lazarus Stewart, James Wigton

                          LIEUTENANTS

A. Atherton, Aaron Gaylord, Perrin Ross, Lazarus Stewart, jr., Flavius
Waterman, Stoddart Bowen, Timothy Peirce, Elijah Shoemaker, Asa Stevens,
James Welles.

                            ENSIGNS

Jeremiah Bigford, Silas Gore, Jonathan Otis, Asa Gore, Titus Hinman, 
William White

                           PRIVATES

Jabez Atherton, Christopher Avery, ----- Ackke, A. Benedict, Jabez Beers,
Samuel Bigford, David Bixby, John Boyd, John Brown, Thomas Brown, William
Buck, Joseph Budd, Amos Bullock, Asa Bullock, Henry Bush, Enos Brockway,
John Caldwell, Josiah Carman, Joseph Carey, Joel Church, William Cofferin,
James Cofferin, Samuel Cole, Isaac Campbell, ----- Campbell, Robert
Comstock, Kingsley Comstock, Brothers Cook, Cook, (and) Cook, Christopher
Courtright, John Courtright, Anson Corey, Jenks Corey, Rufus Corey, Joseph
Crocker, Samuel Crocker, Jabez Darling, D. Denton, Anderson Dana, Conrad
Davenport, George Dowling, James Devine, Levi Dunn, ---- Ducher, Benjamin
Finch, Daniel Finch, John Finch, Elisha Fish, Cornelius Fitchett, Eliphalet
Follett, Thomas Foxen, John Franklin, Stephen Fuller, Thomas Fuller, George
Gore, ---- Gardner, ---- Green, Benjamin Hatch, William Hammond, Silas
Harvey, Samuel Hutchinson, Cyprian Hebard, Levi Hicks, John Hutchins, James
Hopkins, Nathaniel Howard, Elijah Inman, Israel Inman, Samuel Jackson,
Robert Jameson, Joseph Jennings, Henry Johnson, Joshua Landon, Daniel
Lawrence, William Lawrence, Francis Ledyard, James Lock, Conrad Lome, Jacob
Lome, William Lester, C. McCartee, Nicholas Manville, Nero Mattewson,
Alexander McMillan, Job Marshall, Andrew Millard, John Murphy, Robert
McIntire, Joseph Ogden, Abel Palmer, Silas Parke, William Parker, John
Pierce, Henry Pencil, Noah Pettebone, jr., Jeremiah Ross, jr., Elisha
Richards, William Reynolds, Elias Roberts, Timothy Rose, Abram Shaw, James
Shaw, Joseph Shaw, Constant Searle, Levi Spencer, Eleazer Sprague, Aaron
Stark, Daniel Stark, Darius Spofford, James Spencer, Joseph Staples, Reuben
Staples, Rufus Stevens, James Stevenson, Nailer Sweed, Ichabod Tuttle, Abram
Vangorder, John Vaulbie, Elihu Waters, Jonathan Weeks, Bartholomew Weeks,
Philip Weeks, Peter Wheeler, Stephen Whiton, Eben Wilcox, Elihu Williams,
jr., Rufus Williams, Aziba Williams, John Williams, John Ward, John Wilson,
Parker Wilson, William Woodring, ---- Wade, Ozias Yale, Gershom Prince, colored.

      _________________________________________

             (Inscription on rear, over door)

                        SURVIVORS

                        COLONELS

        Zebulon Butler             Nathan Denison

                       LIEUTENANTS

        Daniel Gore                Timothy Howe

                         ENSIGNS

        Daniel Downing            Matthias Hollenback

                        SERGEANTS

Jabez Fish    Phineas Spafford    ---- Gates

                         PRIVATES

John Abbott, Gideon Baldwin, Zera Beach, Rufus Bennett, Elisha Blackman,
Nathan Carey, Samuel Carey, George Cooper, Joseph Elliott, Samuel Finch,
Roswell Franklin, Hugh Forsman, Thomas Fuller, John Garrett, Samuel Gore,
Lemuel Gustin, Lebens Hammond, Jacob Haldron, Elisha Harris, Ebenezer
Heberd, Richard Inman, John Jamison, Henry Lickers, Joseph Morse, Thomas
Neill, Josiah Pell, Phineas Peirce, Abraham Pike, John N. Skinner, Giles
Slocum, Walter Spencer, Edward Spencer, Roger Searle, Cherrick Westbrook,
Eleazer West, Daniel Washburn.

               PRISONERS TAKEN FROM WYOMING

John Gardner, Daniel Carr, Samuel Carey, Daniel Wallen, Daniel Rosenkrans,
Elisha Wilcox, ----Pierce.

               KILLED ON APPROACH TO WYOMING

William Crooks, Miner Robbins, Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding, James
Hadsall, James Hadsall, jr., Wm. Martin, Quocko, colored.
     ______________________________________________________

                (Inscription on front of Monument)

                     Near this spot was fought,
          on the afternoon of Friday, the third day of July, 1778,

                      THE BATTLE OF WYOMING

                 In which a small body of patriotic Americans,
           chiefly the undisciplined, the youthful and the aged,
      spared, by inefficiency, from the distant ranks of the Republic
          led by Col. Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Denison,
                    with a courage that deserved success,
                        boldly met and bravely fought
                 a combined British, Tory and Indian force,
                            of thrice their number.

       Numerical superiority alone gave success to the invader,
               and wide-spread havoc, desolation and ruin,
      marked his savage and bloody footsteps through the Valley.

                            THIS MONUMENT

                   commemorative of these events,
                           has been erected
                   over the bones of the slain,
     By their descendants, and others, who gratefully appreciated
        the services and sacrifices of their patriotic ancestors.