Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906]. New York State Historical Association. Meeting
![Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906] - New York State Historical Association. Meeting](limg_read866290.jpg "Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906] - New York State Historical Association. Meeting")
journals of the officers engaged in this expedition, and it would be interesting to take them up and consider their meaning if it were possible. But in the above case it seems fair to suppose that Indians coming down the trail from the Chemung Valley should speak of this spot as Vyoge, or Oiogue, the great or principal river, as distinguished from the smaller branch above.
However that may be, the time between the 31st of July and the 11th of August was consumed by the main body of the army in reaching this spot, selected as the meeting place of the divisions.
On their march for this place after leaving Wyoming, the first night they encamped at a place called by the Delaware Indians, Lechau-Hanneck, or Lackawanna, also said to mean the forks of a stream, and by the Iroquois called Hazirok, with something of the same meaning. The following night they encamped at a place the Indians called Quailutimack, meaning, "We came upon them unawares." On the 4th, it is related, they crossed a small creek, called where it joins the Susquehanna, Massasppi (missisipu), great river, this being a Delaware word meaning about the same as the Iroquois Oiogue.
On the 5th the detachment lost three of its men, one soldier dying of the so called "falling sickness," one of Proctor's artillerymen being drowned, and Sergt. Martin Johnson dying from heat. Dr. Elmer informs us in his journal that Johnson was a hard drinker and "his vitals were decayed by spirituous liquors." On the 8th, Col. Proctor destroyed the first of the Indian settlements, a place called Newtychanning, consisting of about twenty houses.
The army arrived at Tioga on the 13th. Here they remained until the 25th, awaiting the arrival of General Clinton's detachment. In the meantime Fort Sullivan was erected, and a detachment sent up the Chemung River to destroy an Indian town of the same name, consisting of about fifty houses, with more than 100 acres of cultivated fields of grain and other Indian produce. Some of the troops under General Hand, as they pursued the Indians who were fleeing from the village, fell into an ambush, whereby six were killed and nine wounded, with slight loss to the enemy. While destroying the crops, one other man was killed and three more wounded by some of the enemy who were concealed across the river. The houses here destroyed were built of split and hewed timber, covered with bark, and in the center of the town were two large buildings, presumably council houses. None of the buildings had chimneys or floors. While herding the stock in the camp at Tioga, the Indians succeeded in killing and scalping several of the pack-horse men and wounding some others.
Meantime a detachment under Generals Hand and Poor were sent up the Susquehanna to meet General Clinton.
Gen. Sullivan had written Clinton from Wyoming on July 30th, "I wish you to set out on the 9th of next month (marching moderately), as some allowance is to be made for bad weather, which will probably detain us some time. On my arrival at Tioga, I will immediately detach a considerable body of light troops to favor and secure your march."
Previous to this date Clinton had gathered his forces at Canajoharie and transported them to the shore of Otsego Lake, the level of which he had raised about two feet by erecting a dam, for the purpose of causing a flood which would float his expedition in boats over the shallows of the Susquehanna head-waters.
Breaking the dam, he left Otsego Lake, according to Sullivan's instructions, on the 9th of August, and proceeding down the river with little difficulty, destroyed such Indian dwellings and crops as came in his path.
Lieut.-Colonel Pawling, with a detachment, was marching from Kingston via Shandakin, under orders to join Clinton on August 16th. at Annaquaga, which, before it was destroyed by Col. William Butler, in the fall of 1778, was quite a large Indian settlement, occupying an island and both sides of the river, where the little village of Onaquaga now stands. Clinton arrived at this place on the 15th, and remained there until the 17th, awaiting the arrival of Pawling. In the center of the island he found the cellars and wells of about sixty houses, also fine orchards. Most of these buildings had been log houses, with stone chimneys and glass windows.
Pawling did not arrive, but returned to Kingston on September 1st and reported his inability to join Clinton, owing to the swollen streams and bad roads. Proceeding on their way, the Right Division passed several Tuscarora villages, which they destroyed, with the crops. Arriving at the mouth of the Chenango Creek, a small detachment was sent four miles up that stream to destroy the village of Chenango, consisting of about twenty houses.
On the 19th they joined the detachment of General Poor, burning the villages of Chukkanut and Owagea, and three days later arrived at the encampment of the main division at Tioga. On the 23d of August, by the accidental discharge of a musket, Captain Kimball was killed and a Lieutenant wounded.
Leaving a garrison to defend Fort Sullivan, at Tioga, the whole army proceeded, on the 26th, taking the route up the Tioga branch of the Susquehanna. About sixteen miles up this stream was a village called Newtown, which they reached on the 29th. Here the light troops, which were marching ahead, discovered a breastworks, artfully masked by green bushes, extending for about half a mile, in an advantageous place, protected by a high mountain on one side, the river on the other, and a large creek in front, behind which the enemy were entrenched. Here occurred the most important fight of the campaign. The design of the enemy appears to have been primarily, an ambuscade. His force of British regulars, consisting of two battalions of Royal Greens and Tories, was led by Col. John Butler, with Captains Walter Butler and Macdonald as subordinates. The Indian forces were commanded by the great Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. All the cunning of the Indians, combined with the trained tactics of the British regulars, were here exerted to check the advance of Sullivan's invading army. Had the Americans not discovered the trap in time to avoid it, the story of this campaign would have ended here in a tale of butchery hardly equaled in the annals of war. But three companies of Morgan's riflemen, the pride of Washington, were in advance; veterans of a hundred battles, and in no way inferior to the enemy in Indian craft; and the ingenious device for drawing our forces into an ambush was thwarted. For hours the battle waged fiercely. By skillfully maneuvering his troops Sullivan had nearly succeeded in surrounding the enemy, when, admirably commanded, and wisely discreet, the signal for retreat was sounded just in time to escape. The entire loss to the Americans was three killed and thirty-nine wounded. Twelve Indians were found dead on the field, but the number of their wounded is unknown.
The events of the succeeding days during which the expedition was prosecuting its errand of destruction, were a constant repetition of each other. The army was almost constantly on the move, searching out and destroying such settlements as could be found. The Indians skulked away like a pack of wolves at the approach of the hunter, turning now and then to snap at their pursuers, and then vanishing. Where once had stood their pleasant villages surrounded by fruitful fields, was only left heaps of smouldering ashes and masses of trampled grain and prostrate fruit trees. They needed no spies to keep them informed of the progress of the invaders. A trail of smoke by day and a ruddy glow on the sky at night told it too plainly. The scourge had fallen. Not only were the frontiers cleared but the doom of the Iroquoian Confederacy was sealed, and its dominion over the vast territory which it had so long ruled was destroyed forever. From the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, through the beautiful valley of the Susquehanna and the lake region of central New York to the fruitful valley of the Genesee, no Indian settlement of importance was left. Said Sullivan in his official report: "The number of towns destroyed by this army amounted to 40, beside scattering houses. The quantity of corn destroyed, at a moderate computation, must amount to 160,000 bushels, with a vast quantity of vegetables of every kind. Every creek and river has been traced, and the whole country explored in search of Indian settlements, and I am well persuaded that, except one town situated near the Allegheny, about 50 miles from Genesee, there is not a single town left in the country of the Five Nations.
"It is with pleasure I inform Congress that this army has not suffered the loss of forty men, in action or otherwise, since my taking the command, though perhaps few troops have experienced a more fatiguing campaign. I flatter myself that the orders with which I was entrusted are fully executed, as we have not left a single settlement or field of corn in the country of the Five Nations, nor is there even the appearance of an Indian on this side of Niagara."
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