Sullivan expedition
The Sullivan Expedition , also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition , was a campaign led by Generals John Sullivan and James Clinton against loyalists and four of the six nations of the Iroquois League that sided with the British during the American Revolutionary War . The expedition took place during the summer of 1779. The only major battle took place near Newtown , along the Chemung River in western New York State. The loyalists and the Iroquois suffered a decisive defeat. Sullivan's army then carried out a scorched earth action . At least forty Iroquois villages were systematically destroyed. This was in response to Native American and loyalist attacks on American settlements at the beginning of the war. The devastation caused great hardship for the Iroquois the following winter, but they resumed their raids on American settlements the following year with renewed vigor.
background
When the American War of Independence began, both British representatives and representatives of the insurgent Continental Congress sought the support or at least neutrality of the influential Iroquois League . The Six Nations disagreed as to how things should go. Most of the Mohawks , Cayugas , Onondagas and Seneca chose an alliance with the British. But the Oneidas and Tuscaroras , under the influence of the Presbyterian missionary Samuel Kirkland , chose the side of the American insurgents. So the American War of Independence became a civil war for the Iroquois.
The territory of the Iroquois League was on the border between British Canada and the American colonies. After a British army surrendered at Saratoga in 1777 , loyalists and their Iroquois allies raided American patriot settlements in the area, as well as American Iroquois settlements. The raids that started from Fort Niagara were led by men like Colonel John Butler , Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, or Seneca chief Cornplanter . On July 3, 1778, Colonel Butler led his rangers in association with a delegation of Seneca and Cayuga under the leadership of Cornplanters to a surprise attack in the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania , along the Susquehanna River at today's Wilkes-Barre . In doing so, he practically destroyed a detachment of 360 armed American defenders from Forty Fort . What happened next has so far remained in the dark, but the victorious loyalists and Indians are said to have begun to abuse prisoners and fleeing settlers, with perhaps an unknown number being tortured and killed. Although captured Patriots who took part in the fighting were apparently all executed , Butler insisted that bystanders be spared. However, widespread rumors claimed the opposite. Whether a major massacre actually took place was irrelevant, as contemporary Americans were convinced of it. And so they demanded retribution for the Wyoming Valley massacre . It is certain that around 1,000 homes were destroyed by American patriots in the Wyoming Valley and Butler reported that 227 American scalps were captured. Joseph Brant has been accused by many of participating in atrocities in the Wyoming Valley. However, he was not there.
However, Brant was present in another controversial attack later that year. On November 11, 1778, Captain Walter Butler , the son of John Butler, led two companies of Butlers Rangers along with about 320 Iroquois under the leadership of Cornplanter, including 30 Mohawk under the leadership of Brant, in an attack near Cherry Valley in New York. While the fort was being encircled, the Indians attacked civilians in the village, killing and scalping approximately 33. This included women and children. Brant and Butler tried in vain to stop the hustle and bustle. Eventually the place was looted and destroyed.
The massacre in Cherry Valley made the American rebels realize that something had to happen on the New York state border. Before that, the Commander-in-Chief George Washington did not have enough men to reinforce the border area. However, when the British began to concentrate their military efforts in the southern colonies in 1779, Washington took the opportunity to launch a major offensive on Fort Niagara. Washington initially offered command of the expedition to Horatio Gates , the "hero of Saratoga". But Gates refused. Command was then given to Major General John Sullivan, who, despite a mixed war record, had the confidence of Washington. Washington's orders to Sullivan make it clear that he wanted the Iroquois threat completely removed:
- Orders from George Washington to General John Sullivan, at Headquarters May 31, 1779
- The expedition they are chosen to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations Indians, as well as their allies and followers. The immediate goals are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of all ages and genders as possible. It is of the utmost importance to destroy their crops that are in the ground and to keep them from planting new ones.
- I would recommend that a post be set up in the middle of the Indian territory, drawn from the entire Expeditionary Force, with sufficient supplies, and from which the departments leave with instructions on the most effective way to devastate the surrounding settlements so that the area is not only taken, but destroyed.
- But you should not in any way accept any offers of peace until the complete annihilation of the settlements has been completed. Our future security depends on their inability to meet us and on the horror that the seriousness of the punishment inflicted on them will evoke in them.
The route
Washington directed Sullivan and his men to advance from Easton, Pennsylvania, to the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania and follow the river up to Tioga, New York. He ordered Clinton and his men to advance west up the Mohawk River from Albany to Canjoharie, New York, then cross country to Otsego Lake , and then follow down the Susquehanna to meet Sullivan in Tioga.
Brodhead's expedition
Further west, a similar expedition was conducted by Colonel Daniel Brodhead . He left Fort Pitt on August 14, 1779 with a detachment of 600 regular soldiers and militia, marched up the Allegheny River into the Seneca and Munsee area in northwest Pennsylvania. With most of the Indian warriors absent to face Sullivan's army, Brodhead encountered little resistance. He was able to destroy about 10 villages, including Connewango (Warren, Pennsylvania). The plan was to meet with Sullivan at some point in the Seneca village of "Genesee" and to carry out a joint attack on Fort Niagara . But Brodhead turned back before he achieved that goal.
literature
- Williams, Glenn F. Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-59416-013-9 .
- 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).
- 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).