- Sullivan Expedition
The Sullivan Expedition, also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, was a campaign led by Major General
John Sullivan and GeneralJames Clinton against Loyalists ("Tories") and the four nations of theIroquois who had sided with the British in theAmerican Revolutionary War . The expedition occurred during the summer of 1779 and only had one major battle, at Newtown along theChemung River in westernNew York , in which about 700 (mostly) Iroquois and Tories were decisively defeated by an army of nearly 4000 Continental soldiers. Sullivan's army then carried out ascorched earth campaign, methodically destroying at least forty Iroquois villages throughout what is nowupstate New York , in retaliation for Iroquois and Tory attacks against American settlements earlier in the war. The devastation created great hardships for the thousands of Iroquois refugees outsideFort Niagara that winter, and many starved or froze to death. The survivors fled to British regions in Canada and the Niagara Falls and Buffalo areas. [cite web |url=https://oldfortniagara.org/history/history.php?period=9&PHPSESSID=aaa31725874556437673158550f656f2 |title=The American Revolution |accessdate=2007-11-18 |work=1759-1796 Guardhouse of the Great Lakes |publisher=Old Fort Niagara]Background
When the American Revolutionary War began, British officials as well as the colonial
Continental Congress sought the allegiance (or at least the neutrality) of the influentialIroquois Confederacy . The Six Nations divided over what course to pursue. Most Mohawks, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas chose to ally themselves with the British. But the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, thanks in part to the influence ofPresbyterian missionary Samuel Kirkland , joined the American revolutionaries. For the Iroquois, theAmerican Revolution became acivil war .The Iroquois homeland lay on the frontier between British
Canada and the American colonies. After a British army surrendered at Saratoga in upstate New York in 1777, Loyalists and their Iroquois allies raided American Patriot settlements in the region, as well as the villages of American-allied Iroquois. Working out ofFort Niagara , men such as Tory commander Colonel John Butler,Sayenqueraghta , Mohawk CaptainJoseph Brant , and Seneca ChiefCornplanter led the Tory-Indian raids. Commander-in-chief GeneralGeorge Washington never provided any substantial regular army troops for the defense of the frontier and he told the frontier settlements to use local militia for their own defense.On
June 10 ,1778 , the Board of War of theContinental Congress concluded that a major Indian war was in the offing. Since a defensive war would prove to be inadequate the board called for a major expedition of three thousand men againstFort Detroit and a similar thrust into Seneca country to punish the Iroquois. Congress designated Major GeneralHoratio Gates to lead the campaign and appropriated funds for the campaign. [Graymont, pg. 167] In spite of these plans, the expedition did not occur until the following year.On
July 3 ,1778 , Colonel Butler led his Rangers with a force of Senecas and Cayugas (led bySayenqueraghta ) in an attack onPennsylvania 's Wyoming Valley (a rebel granary and settlement along theSusquehanna River near presentWilkes-Barre ), practically annihilating 360 armed Patriot defenders atForty Fort .In September, 1778, revenge for the Wyoming defeat was taken by American Colonel Thomas Hartley who, with 200 soldiers, burned 9-12 Seneca, Delaware and Mingo villages along the Susquehanna River in northeast Pennsylvania.
In September, 1778
Butler's Rangers attacked German Flatts destroying all the houses and fields in the area. (seeAttack on German Flatts (1778) )Further American retaliation was soon taken by rebel army units under William Butler and John Cantine, burning the substantial Indian villages at Unadilla and Onoquaga on the Mohawk River.
On
November 11 ,1778 , Loyalist Captain Walter Butler (the son of John Butler) led two companies of Butler's Rangers along with about 320 Iroquois led byCornplanter , including 30 Mohawks led byJoseph Brant , on an assault at Cherry Valley in New York. While the fort was surrounded, Indians began to massacre civilians in the village, killing and scalping about 33 people, including women and children. In vain, Brant, who was blamed for the attack, actually tried to stop the rampage. The town was plundered and destroyed.The
Cherry Valley Massacre made it clear to the American revolutionaries that something needed to be done on the New York frontier. When the British began to concentrate their military efforts on the southern colonies in 1779, Washington used the opportunity to launch the planned offensive towards Fort Niagara. Washington first offered command of the expedition toHoratio Gates , the "Hero of Saratoga," but Gates turned down the offer. Major GeneralJohn Sullivan , who had Washington's confidence despite a mixed war record, was then given command. Washington's orders to Sullivan made it clear that he wanted the Iroquois threat completely eliminated::"Orders of George Washington to General John Sullivan, at Head-Quarters May 31, 1779"
:"The Expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more."
:"I would recommend, that some post in the center of the Indian Country, should be occupied with all expedition, with a sufficient quantity of provisions whence parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed."
:"But you will not by any means listen to any overture of peace before the total ruinment of their settlements is effected. Our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them.cite web |url=http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=WasFi15.xml&
]Expedition
The British Commander for North America,
Frederick Haldimand , while kept informed of Sullivan's invasion by Butler and Ft. Niagara, did not supply sufficient troops for his Iroquois allies' defense. Late in September, he dispatched a force of about 600 Loyalists and Canadian Iroquois, but this was too little, too late.Onondaga Village
In April, 1779, Colonel Goose Van Schaik (son of a former Albany mayor), commanding 558 soldiers, led the first attack on the
Iroquois . He headed west fromFort Stanwix where they surprised and destroyed the main Onondaga village killing 12 and taking 33 prisoner. Since the pro British warriors had already left, the village consisted mostly of neutrals and women and children. TheOnondaga accused the soldiers of raping and killing the women. TheContinental Congress congratulated him on his success.Main expedition
Washington instructed Gen. Sullivan and his men to march from
Easton, Pennsylvania to theSusquehanna River in centralPennsylvania and to follow the river upstream to Tioga Point, now known asAthens, Pennsylvania . He ordered Gen. Clinton and his men to travel from Albany, westward up theMohawk River toCanajoharie, New York , to cross overland toOtsego Lake , and then travel down the Susquehanna to meet Sullivan at Tioga Point (near today's Athens, Pa).By Sullivan's account, forty of the Iroquois villages were destroyed, including Catherine's Town,
Goiogouen ,Chonodote , andKanadaseaga , along with all the crops and orchards of the Iroquois. Prior to the main battle at Newtown, there were several skirmishes: onAugust 13 ,1779 GeneralEdward Hand pursing the enemy nearChemung was ambushed with casualties commonly reported as being 21 killed or wounded; [Cruinshank pg. 81] small parties under GeneralsWilliam Maxwell andEnoch Poor sent to cut down corn were also ambushed – although one journal reports total casualties as 4 killed and 8 wounded; ambushes also occurred onAugust 15 ,1779 andAugust 17 ,1779 cite web |url=http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/1pa/1picts/sullivan/sullivanmisc.html#grant |title=Journal of Thomas Grant |accessdate=2007-11-14 |last=Cook |first=Frederick |year=1887 |work=Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 |work=RootsWeb.com |publisher=Knapp, Peck & Thompson] with combined casualties of 2 killed and 2 wounded. These totals are based on figures from a contemporary Journal Account. OnAugust 23 ,1779 the accidental discharge of a rifle in camp resulted in one Captain killed and one man wounded. The campaign had only one major battle, theBattle of Newtown , fought onAugust 29 ,1779 . It was a complete victory for theContinental Army .Later a small detachment of the Continental Army was captured and killed at the
Boyd and Parker ambush . OnSeptember 1 ,1779 Captain John Combs died of an illness. [cite web |url=http://www.combs-families.org/combs/marriage/rw4.htm |title=Capt. (John?) Combs |accessdate=2007-11-19 |publisher=USGenNet]Brodhead's expedition
Further west, a concurrent expedition was undertaken by Colonel
Daniel Brodhead . Brodhead left Fort Pitt onAugust 14 ,1779 , with a contingent of 600 regulars and militia, marching up theAllegheny River into the Seneca and Munsee country of northwestern Pennsylvania and South Western New York. Since most native warriors were away to confront Sullivan's army, Brodhead met little resistance and destroyed about 10 villages, including Conewango. The plan was to eventually link up with Sullivan at the Seneca village of Geneseo for an attack on Fort Niagara, but Brodhead turned back after destroying villages near modern daySalamanca, New York , never linking up with the main force.Tiononderoge
To end the campaign, Clinton's soldiers dispossessed the remaining Mohawks at Tiononderoge who had hoped to remain neutral.
Peter Gansevoort wrote "It is remarked that the Indians live much better than most of the Mohawk River farmers, their houses [being] very well furnished with all [the] necessary household utensils, great plenty of grain, several horses, cows, and wagons".Aftermath
Historians disagree as to whether an Iroquois nickname for Washington, "
Town Destroyer ", originates from this expedition.The devastation created great hardships for the more than 5,000 Iroquois refugees that winter, and many starved or froze to death. But, this was not entirely because of the expedition since in May, 1778,
John Butler wrote: "The Indians in this part of the Country are so ill off for Provisions that may have nothing to subsist upon but the roots and greens they gather in the woods." [Cruikshank pg. 63]Fearing attack, large number of
Tuscarora andOneida defected to the British cause.In February, 1780, General Schuyler sent a party of pro-rebel Indians to
Fort Niagara to appeal for peace with the British-alliedIroquois . Suspecting a trick by Schuyler, thoseIroquois rejected the proposal. The four messengers were imprisoned where one of them died.Although the Sullivan Expedition devastated the Iroquois crops and towns and left them at the mercy of the British for the harsh winter of 1779-80, one officer noted "The nests are destroyed, but the birds are still on the wing." Washington was underwhelmed by the lack of a decisive battle and the failure to capture Fort Niagara. However, the homelands and infrastructure of Iroquois life was devastated by the Campaign. Sullivan soon resigned his commission. The Iroquois warriors continued their devastating raids throughout the war (
Burning of the Valleys campaign of 1780), rolling back white settlement to Albany for a time.But in the long term, it became clear that the expedition forever broke the Iroquois Confederacy's power to maintain former crops and utilize some town locations. The
Iroquois would never again obtain their standard of living they had before the attack. The expedition amounted to little more than famine and dispersion. Following the war, much of the Iroquois lands would be secured in the peaceTreaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) , later to be absorbed by controversial treaties with the State of New York. Some of its native population would move to Canada, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, but mostFact|date=July 2008 resumed life at Buffalo Creek (today's Buffalo). In the wake of the Treaty of Paris (1783), European-Americans began settling the newly vacant areas in relative safety, eventually isolating , by land controversial land treaties with New York State, the remaining pockets of demoralized native peoples into villages and towns.Notes
References
*Boatner, Mark Mayo. "Encyclopedia of the American Revolution." New York: McKay, 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1.
*Calloway, Colin G. "The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities". Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-47149-4 (hardback).
* Cruikshank, Ernest, "Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara", 1893
*Graymont, Barbara. "The Iroquois in the American Revolution". Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1972. ISBN 0-8156-0083-6; ISBN 0-8156-0116-6 (paperback).
*Mintz, Max M. "Seeds of Empire: The American Revolutionary Conquest of the Iroquois." New York: New York University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8147-5622-0 (hardcover).
*Taylor, Alan. "The Divided Ground." New York: Alfred Knopf, 2006. ISBN 0-679-45471-3 (hardcover)
*Williams, Glenn F. "Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois." Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-59416-013-9.External links
* [http://earlyamerica.com/review/1998/sullivan.html "The 1779 Sullivan Campaign" by Stanley J. Adamiak]
* [http://sullivanclinton.com Sullivan/Clinton Campaign by Robert Spiegelman]
* [http://www.crookedlakereview.com/articles/101_135/112summer1999/112cornell.html Retracing the Route of the Sullivan Expedition through Pennsylvania]
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