I believe it is the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh who said, ‘when whites win, it is a Great Victory, but when the Redman is victorious, it is called a Massacre.’ Defeat or Massacre, it seems, is mostly defined by those who relate their view of facts. On July 3, 1778, in a pristine valley of northeastern Pennsylvania, called Wyoming, “where all save the spirit of man was Devine”, an American militia of mostly aged and young farmers, along with a small company of Continental ‘regulars’, marched out to face a near equal number of battle-tested British Tories and their Native American allies. Within thirty minutes of the first shots fired, the American right was flanked. An order to turn and face their attackers became a terrorized cry of retreat. The panic-stricken militia, facing the howling charge of Native American warriors and hardened wilderness fighters of Butler’s Rangers, threw away their muskets and ran. Most of the nearly four hundred American militiamen were chased down and killed, few were captured, leaving only approximately sixty who escaped the carnage. This rout led to the burning and pillaging of frontier homes, however most of the inhabitants were left unmolested. The result was a panicked exodus of nearly all of the Wyoming Valley’s population, including surrounding areas. Those who fled later spoke of the American defeat as a massacre.
A year later, reports of butchered women and children, including their torture by ‘murdering savages’ (many fabricated and exaggerated with each telling), led Congress to dispatch a large invasion by American troops under Major General John Sullivan against the Iroquois Nation. The Native American presence at Wyoming was at first reported to number 700 warriors. However, British Major John Butler[1] numbered his entire British force at 564, with white Tory settlers making up over 400 of the total, resulting in far lower numbers of mainly Seneca and Cayuga warriors than stated by Americans. No matter; the Native American was to receive the blunt of the patriot’s wrath. Sullivan marched against the Iroquois Nation and, as ordered by General Washington, was to ‘not merely overrun the country, but it was to be destroyed’; a mission Sullivan achieved to Washington’s satisfaction.
Early History of Wyoming Valley
Wyoming[2], a region claimed by the Iroquois nation, from along the northern branch of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania north to New York, was first occupied by the Nanticokes, Shawaneses, and later Delaware Native Americans. In 1662, Charles II of England granted the Province of Connecticut all lands between the 41st and 42nd parallel. This grant complicated matters nineteen years later when in 1681, Charles, eager to settle finances with William Penn, presented him the Province of Pennsylvania. One slight oversight by the King’s generous nature to expand England’s rule over the New World and wipe away a personal debt; a portion of these two grants overlapped in what became known as the Wyoming Valley of northeastern Pennsylvania. It was a bountiful valley described as “land formed by nature as a garden spot of peaceful fruitfulness as well as a delight to the eye,”[3] In 1742, Count Zinzendorf would claim the only early European period of ‘peaceful fruitfulness’ when he established a Moravian settlement in the Valley. This pacifist setting would not last long for both provinces of Connecticut and Pennsylvania were on a crash course.
Trouble in Paradise – Penamite War
The Susquehanna Company of Connecticut was organized for the purpose of settling the Wyoming lands. In 1754, they purchased the valley from the Iroquois. Pennsylvania, who believed Wyoming was within their original charter, complained to mother England to no avail. After the French and Indian war, 200 Connecticut settlers cut timber and settled the valley in 1762. However, they were attacked by Native Americans and twenty men were killed, driving the rest of the settlers back to Connecticut. But Connecticut wasn’t about to give up and five years later settled the same valley, this time with much greater success. In 1768 Pennsylvania, still smarting from their perceived Connecticut’s ‘land-grab’, instructed authorities to approach the Iroquois about purchasing the same area. There must have been a wry businessman among the Native American Nation as the Iroquois, though having sold the land fourteen years earlier to Connecticut, collected payment for land they technically no longer owned. Pennsylvania, with their fresh purchase of the valley, sold portions of the valley already settled by Connecticut residents to their own settlers. This erupted in a violent confrontation as both parties claimed and protected their perceived rights to the same settlements. This clash of enraged pioneers resulted in what has since been entitled The Pennamite War.
Captain Lazarus Stewart, of Harrisonburg, PA, (who would later perish leading American militia during the Battle of Wyoming), was famous for leading the Paxton Rangers during the French and Indian War. He championed the Pennsylvania cause and organized and led men to claim their purchases of Wyoming’s land from Pennsylvania representatives. Each side claimed temporary victory through the forced eviction of settlers, often with brutal and bloody consequences (similar to New York and New Hampshire’s claims to what later became Vermont after the Green Mountain Boys had their say). In 1769, Captain John Durkee, a zealot patriot and persistent leader of the Connecticut settlers and the Susquehanna Land Company, strongly established his province’s claim by building a thriving settlement of Wilkes-Barre on the Susquehanna River. He scored points among the other provinces by honoring two British members of Parliament, John Wilkes and Issacs Barré, who supported the American cause in the build up to the Revolution. History does not give evidence as to why Durkee, who had met Barre on several occasions and even named a son for him, chose Wilkes over Barre in naming the settlement, having never met Wilkes.
That same year, the Connecticut settlers constructed Fort Durkee [basically a large blockhouse] in 1769 on the west bank of the Susquehanna, not just for protection against Native Americans, but also Pennsylvania ‘thugs’ who ‘infiltrated’ the region. And those of Pennsylvania countered with Fort Wyoming, just north of Ft. Durkee, across the river [another blockhouse], two years later in 1771, to battle Connecticut strongmen who persisted in ‘false claims of ownership’. Additional stockaded and entrenched blockhouses were built by settlers of both Provinces – some destroyed only to be rebuilt in time for the Revolution. The more important were: Fort Ogden in 1771, three miles up the river from Wilkes-Barre by Pennsylvania settlers, named for Amos Ogden (destroyed by settlers and rebuilt during the war); Pittstown Fort, five miles further north on the left bank of the river, by Connecticut settlers; Wintermoot’s Fort, opposite the Pittstown stockades, built by Tory settlers aligned with England; Fort Jenkins, (named for John Jenkins) a mile above Wintermoot’s Fort; Wilkes-Barre Fort, erected at the present day courthouse; and Forty Fort, named by Connecticut settlers for the first forty who settled the region, opposite Ogden’s Fort on the other bank of the Susquehanna River. Others included Shawnee Fort, The Redoubt in Wilkes-Barre, Mill Creek Fort, Rosencran’s Fort, and Brown’s Fort. All of these stockades were small in comparison to larger, military fortifications (one of the larger – Pittstown Fort – housing about 30 structures within). As usual in the border country, they were intended as places of refuge for the inhabitants in case of Native American attacks, as well as attacks by other settlers in the land disputes of the Penamite War.
Preparations for War
All this haggling and vicious rancor between provinces would eventually be set aside when war erupted between England and the new united colonies of America. As hostilities brewed between the British and colonials, those who remained loyal to the Crown, called Tories, were in the minority throughout the valley; the vast number of settlers sympathizing with the ‘rebel’ cause. By 1775, when the first shots of war were fired, most of the Tories had already left Wyoming and joined forces with the Royal Greens, a loyalist regiment organized by Sir Guy Johnson of New York. Patriot settlers organized themselves into militias numbering just over one thousand. However, with the start of war, three hundred of the best and prime aged fighters left to join the regular army forming under General George Washington. This left mainly boys, older men, and invalids to remain in Wyoming to man the stockades and protect the region from Native American and British incursions.
British Colonel Barry Leger (raised to temporary Brevet Brigadier General) invaded the Mohawk Valley, New York, in the summer of 1777. His mainly Tory and Native American force failed to capture Fort Stanwix and were forced to retreat back to Canada. Their invasion to hook up with British General Burgoyne at Albany ended in a complete failure, which helped lead to the British loss of an entire army at the Battle of Saratoga in October of that year. By the spring of 1778, this left the Tory forces of the Royal Greens and John Butler’s Rangers itching for retaliation. Butler, Seneca chiefs Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter, along with Joseph Brent, Mohawk leader related to Sir Johnson, met at the Indian village of Tioga, New York in early June, 1778. It was decided that Butler (along with his rangers and Johnson’s Royal Greens) and the Senecas would attack the Wyoming Valley.
Arrival of British Force and Demands to Surrender
Joseph Brant and his Mohawks continued their raids against settlements further north.[4] Butler set off for the Susquehanna on June 1st. They made the river and descended in their boats to the mouth of Bowman’s creek, where the river sweeps in a great bend. By marching across this peninsula, they traveled about twenty miles to the western mountains of Wyoming. They established camp on the high grounds with a sweeping view of the river and all the Wyoming settlements. The next day, June 28th, native and ranger scouts returned with four scalps and three prisoners, taken from the fields surrounding the Exeter Grist Mill. One, a boy named John Harding, escaped by laying hid among the willows with his mouth just above the water. Word of Butler’s presence quickly spread throughout the valley. According to Richard McGinnis, a loyalist carpenter with Major John Butler’s Tory forces, “the Savages burnt the mill and took 3 prisoners, two white men and a Negro whom they afterward murdered in their own camp.[5]
The most able-bodied patriots of the valley had left to join the Continental Army, leaving six companies of raw militia recruits, chiefly old men and boys, to guard the settlements. By chance, a small number of ‘regulars’ were home on furlough, including a regular-army officer, Col. Zebulon Butler (not to be confused with Major John Butler who commanded the British forces). When word arrived by scouts sent out by Butler and militia colonel Nathan Denison, that “about fifty canoe loads of enemy” and large parties of loyalists and their Native American allies had gathered on each side of the river, the alarm was sounded and settlers rushed to the stockades for protection. Colonel Zebulon Butler took command of the American militia who gathered at Forty Fort across the river from Wilkes-Barre. On July 1st, Zebulon Butler received word of the attack at the mill and sent Col. Denison and Lieut. Col. George Dorrance with all his force to Exeter. They found two Iroquois standing guard over the scalped and mutilated bodies of their victims. These were shot dead—one where he sat and other as he was in the river, fleeing to get away. They buried the dead at Fort Jenkins and returned to Forty fort.
That same day, Loyalist scouts informed British Major John Butler of the preparedness of the settlement, estimating a combined force of about eight hundred men had assembled in the three forts – Wintermoot, Jenkins, and Forty. Is not clear if Butler believed he faced a superior force, or the actual strength of his enemy – untested militiamen numbering approximately four hundred. He immediately set in motion to take the two northern forts, Wintermoot and Jenkins. Wintermoot had been constructed by those loyal to the crown. When Butler’s forces approached, defending patriot Daniel Ingersoll began to prepare a resistance, however was taken captive by Tories within the fort. A mile further north, Fort Jenkins, was attacked that evening by a detachment of rangers under Captain William Caldwell. Only seventeen older men defended the stockade. Four were killed. Three were captured and those remaining capitulated.
American Militia Responds
Early the next morning, July 2nd, the prisoner, Ingersoll, under an escort of two Tory officers – Ranger Lieutenant Tourney and the Ranger’s fifer, John Phillips, arrived at Forty fort to demand a surrender, not only of the fort, but all armed forces in the region. Reportedly, militiaman Colonel Lazarus Stewart, speaking on his own authority, “that he would never give it over to Tories and savages but stand it out to the last and defend it to the last extremity.”[6] The next morning, Friday, July 3, Mr. Ingersoll was again sent, with two guides, a white man and a Native American, delivering the same demand of surrender. Colonel Butler called an immediate council of war. He, along with Colonel Nathan Denison[7] and Lt. Colonel George Dorrance[8], cautioned against sallying from their defenses to attack what he believed to be a far superior enemy. They favored a delay, pointing out that militiamen Captain Simon Spaulding, with portions of Captain Robert Durkee[9] and Captain Samuel Ransom’s[10] companies were enroute to Wyoming.[11] However, similar to the Battle of Oriskany, where General Herkemer cautioned his militia against rushing to attack the enemy and was accused of feebleness and cowardness by the more hawkish militia leaders, Colonel Butler was called a coward by the more passionate patriots, led by Colonel Lazarus Stewart[12]. The former French and Indian War ranger garnished much respect among Wyoming’s militia, particularly the younger men. He threatened to disobey Butler and lead all who would follow him against the British and their native allies. Based on the slaughter of the workers at Exeter Mill, he and others argued that once the forts were captured, the inhabitants would be murdered and their homes put to the torch. Also, there was no guarantee that Spaulding’s forces would arrive in time. Like Oriskany, Colonel Butler gave in and by mid-afternoon on July 3rd, 1778, the militia assembled and marched to battle. So too like Oriskany, the Wyoming militia would walk into an ambush, resulting in the death of most of these passionate young farmers. Some would say that if it were not for Stewart’s influence and unreasonable enthusiasm to rush into battle with untested militia, much bloodshed would have been avoided that tragic day.
The Battle
Decision made, between 375 and 400 militiamen left Fort Forty[13] and advanced north towards the enemy. They proceeded up what is now Wyoming Avenue in Wilkes-Barre and stopped at a bridge which crossed Abraham’s Creek. Here Thomas Bennet declared that they were “marching into a snare and that they would be destroyed.” Reportedly Bennet turned back at Abraham’s Creek and returned to the fort. They halted again at Swetland’s Hill where the fires of forts Wintermoot and Jenkins could be observed. Scouts reported back that the two forts had been torched and the enemy was in full retreat. Colonel Butler ordered a halt. He wanted to hold the line with a possible return to the fort to await confirmation of the enemy’s withdraw and the expected reinforcements. However, it was too late to halt the passions of the inexperienced militia who insisted on chasing the enemy from their valley, led by Stewart’s demands they press on. Again, Butler relinquished and they marched further north, arriving at Exeter Flats around 4 PM, about a mile from the enemy where they would face their destiny. The battlefield would soon become a bloodbath; that included the outspoken Stewart.
When Fort Forty refused a second attempt at their peaceful surrender, Major Butler was perplexed after Forts Wintermoot and Jenkins had capitulated with minimal resistance. He was certain Colonel Butler would give up the fort when assured that his peaceful surrender and promise to remain neutral in the war would guarantee the protection of all Wyoming inhabitants from harm by loyalists and Native Americans. Forty Fort’s refusal meant that Butler and his army would have to take the fort by force and he immediately set about to do so. Every movement by the militiamen was watched vigilantly by Major Butler’s scouts. As soon as the patriots left the fort, Butler, who was at Wintermoot, sent word to his men at Fort Jenkins to destroy the stockade and hasten to join him. Butler wrote that the Americans approaching “pleased the Indians highly who observed they should be upon equal footing with them in the woods.” Around 2 PM, Major Butler ordered forts Wintermoot and Jenkins be put to the torch to deceive the Americans into believing that his men were retreating. This ploy appeared to work as the Americans hastened their approach. Butler would post his Rangers and Greens on the left (the traditional strong position in line-of-battle, and his native allies on the left, under the direct command of Butler.[14]
Col. Butler, on approaching the enemy, sent forward Capts. Ransom and Durkee, and Lieuts. Ross and Wells, to mark off the ground on which to form the order of battle. On coming up, the column deployed to the left, and under those officers every company took its station, and then advanced in line to the proper position, where it halted, the right resting on a steep bank, and the left extending across the gravel flat to a morass, thick with timber and brush that separated the bottom land from the mountain. Yellow and pitch pine trees with oak shrubs were scattered all over the plain. On the American right was Capt. Bidlack’s company, next was Capt. Hewitt’s, Daniel Gore being one of his lieutenants. On the extreme left was Capt. Whittlesey’s. Col. Butler, supported by Maj. John Garrett, commanded the right wing. Col. Denison, supported by Lieut. Col. George Dorrance, commanded the left.[15]
It was 4 PM and the weather was hot and sultry when the two forces met. Accounts of the battle vary. Earlier reports state that the loyalists and Native Americans engaged the militiamen openly as they approached and continued a heated firefight from the opening shots. As the Americans advanced the enemy, Col. Butler ordered his militiamen to fire, and at each discharge, to advance a step. Along the whole line the discharges were rapid and steady. As they advanced, they poured in their fires, forcing the British line to give way. The Native Americans on the right kept up a galling fire from their hiding place in the woods. For half an hour a hot fire had been given and sustained, when the superior numbers of the British forces began to develop its power. The Native Americans began to flank the American left, throwing that wing into confusion. Col. Denison gave orders that the company of Whittlesey should wheel back, so as to form an angle with the main line, and thus present his front, instead of flank, to the enemy. The difficulty of performing something only professional veterans would venture proved fatal to the militiamen facing their first trial under fire. On the attempt, many thought the cry to fall back meant a general retreat. The entire left line did so allowing the native allies to rush in with a horrid yell. Utter confusion now prevailed on the left as the entire American line caved in.[16]
Another version states that the British delayed firing, in a sense, allowing the Americans to fall prey to an ambush. Marching forward, guns ready, the Americans fired their first volley at two hundred yards. The rangers and Indians continued to lie still without returning fire. By the time the Americans were within a hundred yards of Butler’s forces, they had fired three volleys. It was then that Sayenqueraghta, the Seneca war chief, gave the signal for the Indians to fire, and the rangers followed suit. At such close range, the Americans suffered greatly. The Indians closed in around their flanks and an attempt by the American left wing to fall back to a better position was taken by others as a signal for retreat, resulting in a rout. Overpowered and unprepared, the militiamen panicked, dropped their guns, and fled in all directions.[17]
After thirty minutes, the battle was over, but for the slaughter. The Native Americans and Rangers were merciless in their pursuit of the militiamen. Each man for himself, the farmers were chased down and shot, tomahawked, or had their brains bashed in with war clubs and battle hammers. Many scalps were taken as the warriors and rangers collected bounty payments upon their return to Fort Niagara. Few militiamen would escaped the slaughter. The British collected their forces and by nightfall, advanced to Fort Forty.
Casualties
Of the nearly four hundred militiamen who took the field, only sixty were to escape the carnage, including Colonels Butler and Denison, and find their way back to Forty Fort. Loyalist carpenter Richard McGinnis reported that only forty-five militiamen found their way safely to Fort Forty.[18] The Loyalists and Iroquois killed almost all who were captured and only five prisoners were taken alive. Butler reported that his Indian allies had taken 227 scalps. Colonel Denison claimed a loss of 1 lieutenant colonel, 2 majors, 7 captains, 13 lieutenants, 11 ensigns, and 268 privates, for a total of 302 men. As for the British, Butler claimed the loss of one Indian and two rangers, with eight Indians wounded. McGinnis stated that white casualties amounted to two loyalists wounded with a Mr. Wilson having died later of his wound, “it having been mortefeid,”[19] [old spelling and term for gangrene], the other having recovered. This single action had nearly wiped out every able-bodied male patriot in the entire Wyoming Valley region. According to one source, 60 Patriot bodies were found on the battlefield and another 36 on the line of retreat. All were buried in a common grave.[20]
After the Battle
Butler approached Fort Forty the next morning and demanded an unconditional surrender. Colonel Zebulon Butler, after having vacillated on attacking and running from the field, continued his flight. The night of July 3rd, after having escaped to Fort Forty, he and seventeen of his soldiers abandoned the inhabitants and escaped to the mountains. Colonel Denison took command of the fort and what was left of the Wyoming militia. He had to defend the fort with only a few aged men, some young boys, and a small number of wounded. The rest were women and children; most if not all having lost husbands, sons, and fathers. Butler offered honorable terms of capitulation. If the garrison and region agreed to take a pledge not to again take up arms against the King of England, he guaranteed that no harm would come to any woman or child or anyone not baring arms. So too he included to respect private property, assuring that his men would not loot or destroy dwellings. Denison had no choice but to accept. Colonel Nathan Denison agreed to surrender Forty Fort and two other posts, along with what remained of his militia. Butler paroled them on their promise to take no part in further hostilities. Major Butler spared non-combatants, but not their homes. He wrote: “But what gives me the sincerest satisfaction is that I can, with great truth, assure you that in the destruction of the settlement not a single person was hurt except such as were in arms, to these, in truth, the Indians gave no quarter.”
Lives were Spared, But not the Destruction of Property
British Major Butler, for the most part, kept his promise not to allow his forces to molest those who remained in the valley. Infamous American farmer Hector Saint-John de Crevecoeur, whose “Letters” are a classic of American literature and history, confirmed this having written: “…Happily these fierce people, satisfied with the death of those who had opposed them in arms, treated the defenseless ones, the woman and children, with a degree of humanity almost hitherto unparalleled.”[21] Therefore, counter to exaggerated claims made in newspaper accounts of the battle and aftermath, there was no loss of ‘innocent’ human life. However, private property was another matter; Butler’s guarantee to spare the settler’s homes was an empty promise or perhaps a ruse. The beautiful valley was devastated. Homes and villages were torched. Property was pilfered and livestock slaughtered. Later, in a report to Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton, British commander at Ft. Niagara, dated July 8th, Butler appeared to boast, writing that eight palisaded forts were destroyed, along with all the mills, and about a thousand homes. In addition, he reported that a thousand head of cattle had been killed or driven off, as well as a great number of sheep and swine. McGinnis confirmed this writing that “my heart was affected for the women and children, who came after us, crying and beseeching us that we would leave them a few cows, and we told them it was against the orders of Colonel Butler…”[22] Shortly afterwards, Major Butler called his army together and took up his return march northward to Fort Niagara.
Aftermath, Legacy, and Patriotic Propaganda
Though there were many reports of murderous ‘savages’ ravishing, killing, and kidnapping the valley residents after the battle, historical evidence indicates that this did not occur. What could be considered a massacre was mainly the killing of armed militiamen who tried to escape the battle. Colonel Denison had left the valley shortly after the terms of surrender was signed. By July 28th, he had heard about the destruction of the settlement and that five settlers had been killed on the road as they tried to leave the region. He sent a report to Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull that detailed British Major Butler’s attack along with a promise to return and take up arms again, since the British had broken their promises within the articles of capitulation.
Afterwards, the families and inhabitants were divided up and individually dispersed in the mountainous wilderness. Farmer Hector Saint-John de Crevecoeur wrote, “…For a considerable time the roads through the settled country were full of these unhappy fugitives, each company slowly returning towards those counties from which they had formerly emigrated…”[23] As news of the disaster spread beyond the Wyoming Valley, it prompted a general exodus of residents from throughout the area of the Forks of the Susquehanna. In a letter on August 1st, Col. Thomas Hartley reported to the colony’s Council: “Four fifths of the Inhabitants fled with such Effects as they could carry from this Country. . .. A most extraordinary panic seems to have struck the People. The Wyoming Settlement is almost totally destroyed.” A few days later, on August 10th, Hartley wrote: “All the People of the West Branch above . . . Muncy had fled & evacuated their settlements—so on the North-East Branch, all above Nescopeck Falls were gone.” Most fled eastward towards the Delaware River in what became known as the ‘Great Runaway,’ while others pushed through what was called the Dismal or Great Swamps of the Poconos where some perished from exhaustion and starvation; thereafter labeled “The Shades of Death.”
Shortly after this exodus, newspaper rushed to publish an account of the battle. Stories of settler murders and other depredations at the hands of Native Americans continued to circulate among those fleeing the region. Anxieties increased and these stories, combined with the additional hardships suffered in flight through the wilderness, were carried to the cities by the survivors. The personal accounts of these suffering witnesses to the battle at Wyoming soon appeared in newspapers throughout the colonies.[24] The Connecticut Courant printed the first story about the battle on July 21. It fed the passions of a nation ripe for revenge by reporting exaggerated accounts of atrocities exacted on the inhabitants of the valley, stating that half of the five thousand residents had been killed or taken captive by raving bands of Native Americans.
Though by far the most popular and widely distributed version of the battle came out of Poughkeepsie on July 20, 1778. The story was presented as a true account by the “distressed refugees from the Wyoming Settlement…who escaped the general massacre.” This would prove to be the source of much misinformation about the battle and subsequent destruction of the valley that had a lasting effect not just on Congress protracting the war, but decades later; numerous historian would quote the account in this report as proven facts, right up to the twentieth century. The anonymous writer, claiming first hand knowledge of all events, proved to be grossly inaccurate. He attributed the American loss to British treachery to draw the militia into a trap, resulting in a savage and merciless assault against men who firmly held the line before it was shattered by the death of so many. That after the battle, Colonel Denison defended countless assaults by the enemy against Ft. Forty until, after most defenders were killed or wounded, was forced to surrender. Further accounts were explicit in what occurred next; detailing horrendous tortures of both captives and the ‘innocent’ inhabitants of the settlement, including decapitation, flaying, heads caved in, those burned alive, and impalement onto stakes. The ‘red devils’ were reported to have taken no mercy in the brutal murder of women and children in a drunken rage as they put the entire valley to the torch.
The Poughkeepsie story first appeared in the Connecticut Courant on July 28th and two days later in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania Packet. From there it went to the August 3rd edition of the Boston Gazette, the August 8th edition of New York’s Royal Gazette, and finally came to rest in the North Carolina Gazette on September 4th. Within two months of this battle on the Pennsylvania frontier, every American colony had heard of the Poughkeepsie story.[25] In 1802, an “Account of the dreadful devastations of the Wyoming Settlements in July, 1778” first appeared as part of a collection of stories highlighting Native American hostilities on the frontiers. In 1804, Supreme Court justice John Marshall joined the narrative; including an account of the battle in his publication, Life of George Washington. Based primarily on the details given in the Poughkeepsie story, these retellings elaborated more on the political events leading up to the battle, and the 1802 version that introduced a new character into the plot, Joseph Brant[26], Mohawk leader and fierce enemy. This, as most of what Mr. Marshall regurgitated in his journal, proved to be a fabrication.
Whether it was the Poughkeepsie story, its 1802 version, or Marshall’s biography of Washington that first found its way to Europe is unknown. But somehow the story of the Wyoming Valley battle eventually made its way to Thomas Campbell, a poet of great renown, in Scotland. His Gertrude of Wyoming was first printed in 1809.[27] He wrote an epic poem describing a pristine paradise and virginal young woman who, along with her community, were ravaged by heathens and savage fiends. In its truest sense, it was a romantic tragedy that unfolded as the virtue of the American community stood bravely to defend all that was dear to them. Its patriotic inspiration became fuel for generations, resulting in celebrations and memorials that marked the glory of militiamen standing firmly before overwhelming odds and fighting to the death. Right up to and throughout the twentieth century, this became a beacon for patriot fervor. Unfortunately, it was based on little historical fact.
Lastly, it is Charles Minor’s 1845 history of the battle and unfolding events that not only grasped the collection of fantastical stories of the massacre, but added a new form of savage fantastical imagery that has been debated for generations: Queen Esther, aka Madam Montour, French wife of an Oneida Chief. A full description of Minor’s imaginary avenging she-devil is beyond the scope of this article. Basically, Esther’s Iroquois son was killed in the battle. She was to take out her revenge against fourteen or more militia captives. The spinning tale has her ordering her warriors to encircle the men around a large stone and force their heads onto the rock. She then methodically and gleefully bashed in each of their heads with a war club. This fantastical story was taken as fact by so many that even to this day, one can view a memorial display by the local chapter of the DAR to those clubbed to death; reported to be the same large, bloody boulder is beneath a meshed caged – seriously – so visitors can no longer try to enact the event by banging their own heads on the rock.
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ALSO OF SIMILAR INTEREST ON REVOLUTIONARY WAR JOURNAL
RESOURCES
Boender, Preston. Wyoming Massacre Casualties Short History of Lancaster County: Wyoming Valley Massacre. 2021: Self Published.
Bradsby, H. C. History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania. 1893: S. B. Nelson and Company, New York, NY.
Commager, Henry Steele & Morris, Richard B. The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six, The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants. 1958: Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, IN. Reprint 1975: Da Capo Press, New York, NY.
Dziak, Mark. The Battle of Wyoming: For Liberty and Life… 2018: Self-Published.
Ellis, Edward. The Fugitive or the Quaker Scout of Wyoming. 1866: George Routledge & Sons, London, UK.
Francavilla, Lisa A. The Wyoming Valley Battle and “Massacre”: Images of a Constructed American History. 2002: Masters Thesis for the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
Hayden, Horace Edwin. Major John Garrett…A Forgotten Hero of the Massacre at Wyoming. 1895: Wilkes-Barre Historical Society, Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Hayden, Horace Edwin. Wyoming Historical Society. The Massacre of Wyoming The Acts of Congress for the Defense of the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, 1776-1778. 1895: Wyoming Historical Society, Wilkes-Barre, PA. 2014 Reprint: Creative Media Partners
Jenkins, Steuben (July 3, 1878). Historical Address at the Wyoming Monument (Speech). 100th Anniversary of the Battle and Massacre of Wyoming.
Kopelman, Eileen. The Wyoming Massacre (With 38 original oil paintings). 2017: Self-Published
Miner, Charles; William Penn Miner. History of Wyoming in a Series of Letters. 1845: J. Crissy, Philadelphia, PA.
Paton, Lewis B. Massacre Ridge (Fiction). 2005: Thorndike/Chivers, Waterville, ME.
Peck, George. Wyoming, Its History, Stirring Incidents, Romantic Adventures. 1858: Harper & Brothers, New York, NY.
Pennsylvania Heritage, Indian Queen of the Wyoming Valley, June 1977.
Report of the Proceedings of the Wyoming Commemorative Association of the 120th Anniversary of the Battle and Massacre of Wyoming. 1898: Wilkes-Barre Historical Society, Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Report of the Proceedings of the Wyoming Commemorative Association of the 134th Anniversary of the Battle and Massacre of Wyoming. 1914: Wilkes-Barre Historical Society, Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Stone, William L The Poetry and History of Wyoming including Campbell’s Gertrude… 1841: Wiley & Putnam, New York, NY.
Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution. Reprint 2011: Skyhorse Publishing, NY, NY.
Wilcox, William A. Jenkin’s Fort: An Address to commemorate the fort by the DAR. 1900: Pittston, PA.
Wyoming Massacre and Columbia County. Columbia County Historical Society, Bloomsburg, PA.
ENDNOTES
[1] Many internet articles and some early publications list Butler’s rank as colonel. Stronger evidence gives his rank as major.
[2] The name Wyoming is often contributed to the Algonquin word meaning ‘large prairie place’. Another sources credits the name Wyoming as derived from a corruption of Maugh-way-wame, a Delaware Indian name for The Large Plains. The Native Americans were referring to the lush valley of northeastern Pennsylvania, not the bone bleached plains of present-day state Wyoming. In 1865, U.S. Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio proposed the name Wyoming to the newly acclaimed territory. He had been born in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania and believed the new territory lived up to his boyhood home. Eventually, Mr. Ashley visited his namesake. However, it is reported that he returned home with second thoughts, stating “…there was not enough fertility in the soil to subsist a population sufficient for a single congressional district. Not one acre in a thousand can be irrigated.” But it was too late.
[3] The War of the Revolution, by Christopher Ward, pg. 629
[4] Many later accounts of Wyoming listed Brant as being present during the battle. This was not true. Numerous documents and testimonials state that Brant was much further north during the battle and later destruction of the valley.
[5] The Spirit of 76, The Story of the Revolution as Told by Participants, pg. 1006.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Dennison would survive the battle, dying in 1809.
[8] Dorrance would be captured, but later that day, while being marched to Butler’s camp, became too exhausted to continue and was killed by his native captors.
[9] Robert Durkee along with much of his company would be killed at the Battle of Wyoming.
[10] Samuel Ransom, like Durkee, was killed in battle along with many of his company.
[11] On July 3rd, Spaulding’s men were still about a hundred miles away, taking some days to reach Fort Forty and Wilkes-Barre.
[12] Lazarus Stewart; highly respected veteran and ranger of the French and Indian War, he was one of the more inspirational leaders of the Wyoming settlement. It was upon his insistence that the militia threw caution to the wind and marched out to confront a highly experienced and battle-hardened British force. Lazarus County, Penn., would be named for him.
[13] All captains who marched that day lost their lives. These forces included: Captain Dethic Hewitt’s 40 men, Capt. Asaph Whittlesey’s company plus 40 men under Lazarus Stewart, Capt. William McKarrican’s 40 men (who – being a schoolmaster – turned his company over to Stewart), Lt. Roswell Franklin, Capt. James Bidlack, Jr. and 38 men, Capt. Rezi Geer (smaller number not known), Capt. Aholiab Buck and his Kingston company, portions of Capts Robert Durkee and Samuel Ransom including Colonel Nathan Dennison and Lt. Colonel George Dorrance. In addition, were those of the trainbands, judges of the court, and all civil officers. Lastly, many older men, some grandfathers, grabbed their muskets and took the field – one lost his life and several of his great-grandchildren in the battle.
[14] The Spirit of 76, pg. 1007.
[15] Bradsby, H. C. History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania. 1893
[16] Ibid.
[17] Francavilla, Lisa A. The Wyoming Valley Battle and “Massacre”, pg. 4.
[18] Spirit of 76, pg. 1007.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Jenkins, Steuben (July 3, 1878). Historical Address at the Wyoming Monument (Speech). 100th Anniversary of the Battle and Massacre of Wyoming.
[21] The Spirit of 76, pg. 1010, from Sketches of 18th America, pp. 107 – 206.
[22] The Spirt of 76, pg. 1007.
[23] Ibid., pg. 1007.
[24] Francavilla, pg. 7.
[25] Ibid. pg. 5.
[26] Ibid. pg. 14.
[27] Ibid. pg. 19.