Cherry Valley Massacre

The Cherry Valley Massacre, November 11, 1778, was one of three major attacks in 1778 on American ‘rebel’ wilderness settlements and military outposts. British Loyalists and Native American forces, particularly four tribes of the Iroquois Nation Confederation; Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, and Cayuga ascended on the New York settlement, destroying it while killing and capturing many of its residents. The other two tribes of the Six Nations, Oneida and Tuscarora, did not participate, having allied with the rebellious Americans. The other two significant assaults occurred prior to Cherry Valley; the Wyoming Massacre in northeast Pennsylvania – July 3, 1778, and German Flatts, New York – September 17, 1778.

The viciousness and brutality of these attacks, especially on settlers and their families, was shocking. They created a tremendous uproar among the thirteen rebellious colonies. This prompted Congress to act by funding a major retaliatory raid the following year against those Native Americans aligned to England. In 1779, General Washington ordered nearly a quarter of the American Continental army on an expedition into the Finger Lakes region of New York that amounted to genocide of the Iroquois Nation. Forty Native American villages were torched, 160 thousand bushels of corn and other crops destroyed, and the native population was driven westward at the start of winter, where half would die of starvation and the cold. This expedition only proved the harden Native American resolve to seek revenge as the bloody frontier warfare exploded in renewed vigor in 1780.

When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a great victory, but if they lose, it is called a Massacre

Cheeseekau (Chiksika) Shawnee Chief of Kispoko Div. and older brother of Tecumseh

Cherry Valley Village

Sixty miles due west of Albany, twenty-four miles south of the Mohawk River, and eight miles from Lake Otsego which is the source of the Susquehanna River that drains much of central Pennsylvania  to the Chesapeake Bay, the village of Cherry Valley, first settled by four families in 1738, was nestled in a prosperous and fertile valley. The community grew, mainly from Dutch and Irish immigration, and flourished over the years while maintaining amiable relations with their neighbors, the Iroquois Confederation to their north (Mohawks and Oneida) and west (other four member nations) throughout the Finger Lakes regions. This was largely due to the famous British Agent, Irishman Sir William Johnson, 1^st Baronet.

Sir William Johnson and His Prodigies

A British army officer and administrator, as a young man he moved to the upper New York among the Mohawk  to manage his uncle’s landholdings. He established a repour with the Iroquois, learning Mohawk, and in 1756, with war brewing between England and France, was made British Superintendent of Indian Affairs. During the French and Indian War, he quickly aligned the Iroquois against the French, establishing a strong bond between England and the Six Nations while establishing his own empire of land and influence. Though Sir Johnson was to die in 1774 and prior to the first shots of the American Revolution, his prodigies, John Butler and Butler’s son Walter Butler and Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), a mason who was classically educated and toured London, would carry the yoke of British sway among the Iroquois and, when the colonies rebelled against England, used it as a hammer against the rebel settlers.

Revolution Forces Colonials and Native Americans to Choose Sides

During the French and Indian War, the Cherry Valley residents supported the British against the French and were allied to the Iroquois. That was to change when thirteen British colonies organized militarily during their disputes with their mother country. A Committee of Safety (military arm of local legislatures) was established at Cherry Valley in 1775. This forced both colonials and Native Americans to choose sides; those who favored the Crown or Loyalists, those rebellious against England’s ‘iron hand’ calling themselves Patriots, and in the case of the Iroquois, two nations siding with the rebels while four aligned to England.  In the summer of 1777, when British regulars, along with local Loyalist and Iroquois forces, advanced from Fort Niagara to Fort Stanwix, just north of Cherry Valley on the Mohawk River to support British General ‘Johnny’ Burgoyne’s invasion, the Cherry Valley militia marched to the Mohawk River. They joined other militias from the Mohawk Valley and fought at the Battle of Oriskany; many losing their lives in the American defeat that pitted rebel militia against the combined British force.

Frontier Warfare

The failure of British General John Burgoyne’s invasion to capture Albany and his defeat at the Battle of Saratoga in October, 1777, helped propagate France’s siding with the American rebellion. England’s tactics shifted to defense in the north and exploring an offence in the southern colonies. British troops and supplies in Canada were channeled south while remaining regulars manned the forts. This left any offensive campaigns up to Loyalist and Native American forces, morphing upstate New York and the frontier of Pennsylvania into a frontier war.

The fertile Mohawk Valley continued to supply food and material for the American forces. British authorities in Quebec sought to sever those ties by supporting Loyalist and Native American partisan fighters. During the winter of 1777-1778, Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant and Loyalist leader Colonel John Butler of newly established Butler’s Rangers, developed plans to attack American frontier settlements in New York and Pennsylvania.  Joseph Brant’s base of operations was at Onaquaga (present day Windsor, New York) upon which he recruited a mix of Iroquois and Loyalists estimated to number around 300 men.

After sending out parties to attack isolated farms, Brant carried out his first large-scale raid in the Mohawk Valley in early May of 1778. His objective was Springfield, at the head of Lake Otsego, a little less than 10 miles northwest of Cherry Valley and 20 miles southeast of Herkimer and its fort along the Mohawk River. Brant took the town without loss of life and burned all the houses but one, moving all the women and children into that house for safety.

Continental Troops Sent to Schoharie Valley and the Raid at Cobbleskill

The Cobbleskill Raid occurred on May 30, 1778 that resulted in the defeat of a detached company of Continental soldiers and the destruction of ten settlements. After the affair at Springfield, Captain William Patrick and one company of the 7^th Massachusetts Continental Regiment (Alden’s Regiment), stationed at Albany, New York, were dispatched to the Schoharie Valley Region that included Cherry Valley with instructions to “keep continual scouting parties in the adjacent country…to discover the motions and movements of our enemy.”  On May 25^th, after receiving word of a possible attack by Brant’s forces, the local militia asked Captain Patrick for assistance. He responded by leading 33 of his men to the Cobbleskill area.

Cobbleskill was a settlement of 20 houses 45 miles west of Albany and 20 miles southeast of Cherry Valley. On May 30^th, Patrick’s Continentals spotted a few Iroquois and chased after them, despite a warning of a possible trap. Shortly thereafter, Patrick’s men were surrounded by approximately 300 warriors and loyalists. After a running fight, fifteen troops lay butchered, including Patrick. Accounts differ reporting four to seven having been captured, in which only a dozen escaped with three wounded. In the settlement, 7 militiamen were killed including five who had taken refuge at the Warner home and were burned to death when the building was torched. After destroying ten homes, Brant retreated. An objective of the raid was to acquire additional provisions for both Brant’s growing force and those under the command of Colonel John Butler, who was planning attacks against patriot fortifications and settlements in the Susquehanna River Valley and at Wyoming.

The 7th Massachusetts (Alden’s Regiment) is Dispatched to Cherry Valley

Brigadier John Stark of New Hampshire assumed command of the Northern Army from General Horatio Gates on April 17, 1778. After the attack against Cobbleskill on May 30th, he decided the region needed to be defended against future attacks and ordered Colonel Ichabod Alden to march his 7^th Massachusetts to Cherry Valley. When Alden arrived at Cherry Valley with his regiment of approximately 300 Continental soldiers on June 6th, he found the inhabitants living in the church for protection from attack. Alden immediately ordered them to return to their homes. Shortly after the regiment began building a more suitable palisaded fort, Alden began sending out scouting parties to keep abreast on Brant’s movements. The fort was finished in two months’ time and mounted with cannon. On August 15^th it was christened Fort Alden. To the residents, the fort projected an air of confidence that the region was amply protected by the army’s strong presence. It was a show of aplomb that would in three months’ time prove to unravel with tragic results.

Three Major Events in Lead up to Cherry Valley Attack

In three months, from late June to mid-September, 1778, besides single and small-scale attacks on isolated farms and small communities by British partisan war parties, there were three largescale raids, two British and one American, that foreshadowed and fueled the attack on Cherry Valley; The Wyoming Massacre at present day Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, Hartley’s Retaliatory Expedition against Iroquois Villages along the Susquehanna River, and the attack on German Flatts at Herkimer, New York on the Mohawk River.

Wyoming Massacre (July 4, 1778). In June, a force of 400 Native Americans and 400 Tories under Colonel John Butler and his son, Captain Walter Butler (Joseph Brant was not present) departed Tioga, the current site of Athens, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River 3 miles south of the New York border. They headed downriver with sights set on the Wyoming Valley and present-day Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. This group was reinforced by 200 Seneca warriors near the mouth of Bowman’s Creek. On June 30, 1778, the raiders fought a skirmish with a party of troops from Fort Jenkins, about 75 miles downriver from Tioga on the northern portion of the valley. On July 3rd, Butler demanded the surrender of all forts, Continental soldiers and stores in the Wyoming Valley. A Patriot force instead moved out to engage the enemy, but on the 4^th, was routed with a great loss of life and captives. The victors then swooped down on the Wyoming community and burned the settlement, killing some while taking several captive, including women and children. Some accounts detailed the brutal murder of some soldiers taken prisoner. Butler’s Iroquois and Delaware claimed taking 227 scalps, while Colonel Nathan Denison of the Connecticut militia reported 301 dead.  While Butler and his main force returned victorious upriver on July 8th, the last of the settlers in the Wyoming Valley headed for safety by July 18^th.

Colonel Hartley’s Retaliatory Attack on Iroquois Villages (Mid-September 1778). During the Wyoming raid, Fort Muncy, which had been built the month before the attack to protect the valley was torched. Colonel Thomas Hartley’s Additional Continental Regiment (later renamed the 11^th Pennsylvania) was ordered to the Wyoming Valley. He arrived at the burned-out fort on August 28^th and began rebuilding the palisade fortification. It was generally completed by September 8, 1778. It was from Fort Muncy that Col. Hartley staged a counter raid against three Iroquois towns. Along with a small force of militia, he advanced 200 men up the Susquehanna River around 80 miles as far as Tioga and Wyalusing. After having torched the settlements around Tioga that included Unadilla and Onaquaga, he and his men returned to Fort Muncy. This action angered the Seneca and Cayuga nations which would contribute to the ferocity of the Cherry Valley raid.

Joseph Brant Raids German Flatts (September 17, 1778). Occurring shortly after Colonel Hartley’s retaliatory raid on Seneca villages, Joseph Brant fell upon the frontier settlement of German Flatts on the Mohawk River, about 25 miles northwest of Cherry Valley; now present-day Herkimer, named for General Nickolas Herkimer who was killed at the Battle of Oriskany, Aug. 14, 1777.

When Brant’s men attacked, they found only a scattering of residents; the settlement had been forewarned by Adam Helmer, a survivor of an attacked scouting party who ran 26 miles to sound the alarm. This gave most of the settlement time to find safety within the region’s stockades. Brant destroyed over 80 homes and barns, leaving only three dead and a small number captured. The 1936 novel Drums Along the Mohawk, by Walter D. Edmonds, used this raid as inspiration which was also turned into a John Ford movie of the same title in 1939.

Warnings Unheeded

In the weeks after the German Flatts raid, rumors continued to arrive about a possible attack on Cherry Valley. The scouting detachments had various small encounters, but nothing substantial occurred.  By November, it was believed the season of war had passed. The Continental troops relaxed somewhat and let down their guard; as did residents who became less fearful and focused on harvesting and preparing for winter. On the 4^th, payroll arrived with the troops finally enjoying the fruits of weighted purses. On the 8th of November, three days before the attack, fresh rumors surfaced from Oneida allies that a raid was imminent; led by both Brant and Captain Walter Butler, John Butler’s son. The residents took the news to heart and begged Colonel Alden to allow them to move their possessions into the fort for safety.  Alden flatly refused to do so. He and his officers believed that though the ‘savage hordes’ prowling the wilderness may readily attack outlying settlements defended by militia, they would dare attack highly disciplined Continental troops.

Alden continued to ignore the reports of imminent danger even after two reliant sources had expressed preparations against a most likely assault on the region.  Prior to the raid, a letter arrived from Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix), under the command of the highly respected and experienced ‘Indian fighter,’ Colonel Peter Gansevoort, warning Alden of an impending attack. So too, Brigadier Edward Hand had expressed concerns over the growing reports of an enemy attack.  The previous month, in October, Hand had replaced General John Stark as commander of the Army of the North stationed in Albany. He visited the fort at Cherry Valley and met with Alden. After having referred to officers and local residents, including Oneida scouts who reported the approach of a large war party, he recommended precautionary measures that allowed the townspeople to move their selves and belongings within the fort’s protective stockade.

Both recommendations by Colonel Gansevoort and General Hand were ignored by Alden. The older settlers attributed this to the fact that Alden and his regiment were eastern men, many from settled Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, and as such, were unaccustomed to Indian warfare. Others stated that he “seemed one of that vain type of man who ridicules actual dangers, with the Godlike presumption that no men exist who would dare to harm him.” Though adequately warned of a possible strike, Alden did little to bolster defenses or alert his troops. While his men went about their normal stockade duties, he and his officers continued to live in the private residences outside the fort. Alden did send out fresh scouting parties along the common routes into town; a move that would, in all probability, contribute to the loss of the colonel’s life.

The Attack

The number of Native Americans and Tories under Mohawk Chief Captain Joseph Brant and Captain Walter Butler of Loyalist Rangers engaged at Cherry Valley has been variously estimated at from seven to eight hundred.  On November 10^th, the day before the attack, the British partisan forces neared the Cherry Valley community. These combatants more than doubled the American garrison numbered at around 300 soldiers. That morning, one of Alden’s scouting parties under the command of Sergeant Adam Hunter, was discovered and captured with one of the party, Robert Bray, killed. It is believed one of the scouts readily told his captors all he knew of his regiment’s strength, the location of officer’s quarters outside the fort, gun placements, etc., which greatly facilitated the success of Brant’s and Butler’s attack.

The British allies arrived at Cherry Valley later that night and established camp outside of town. They sent in stealth scouts to reconnaissance the area and fort to establish what they had been told of the Continental garrison’s defenses and verify the weaknesses of Alden’s arrangements. Butler and Brant held council that night and decided to send one force against Col. Alden’s headquarters at the Well’s Farm, which housed most of the garrison’s officers, about 400 yards outside the fort, and another against the Fort Alden itself. It was reported that at that council, Butler extracted promises from his native allies that they would not harm noncombatants.

November 11, 1778 was a dreary morning. A few inches of snow lay on the ground and a light rain shrouded the region with a heavy fog. Undeterred by reports of enemy patrolling nearby, and bolstered by the belief that combatants did not campaign during winter months, the 7^th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army [mistaken as the 6^th in second-hand historical accounts] went about their normal morning routines. Some were at the stream doing their laundry. A few visited amongst the town’s residents. Meanwhile, officers and their staff housed at Well’s residence enjoyed the dry warmth of the farmhouse while breakfast was prepared by their hosts; all outside the safety of the fort’s walls.

Accounts vary from 10 o’clock that morning to just before noon when a few outlying residents heard a shot in the distance. Some overeager warriors had fired upon settlers cutting wood nearby. One of the townsmen, a lone horseman named Hamble, escaped and charged in from the distant fields shouting something. Suddenly through the fog, hundreds of British Rangers and Iroquois came into view and advanced upon the village. What had been labeled the Cherry Valley Massacre had begun. The first person who reportedly was killed in the assault was James Gault, one of the region’s original settlers. His homestead was the furthest northern residence, about half a mile from the others. Gault was immediately killed while the rest of his family was taken captive.

While most of the partisan force attacked the fort, Seneca Chief Little Beard, Sigwaahdohgwih (spear hanging down), led Seneca warriors to surround the Well’s Farmhouse that served as Colonel Alden’s headquarters. It housed the Well’s family and Alden’s major officers. Realizing they were under attack, some of the officers ran for the fort, including Alden. For most it was too far and too late. According to Nelson Greene’s History of the Mohawk Valley, “Col. Alden, who was at the house of Mr. Wells and whose over-confidence was the cause of the massacre, hastened toward his command. He was hotly pursued by an Indian, who called upon him to stop. The order not being obeyed, the savage threw his tomahawk which hit the colonel in the head and this put him in the power of his dusky pursuer. He was killed and scalped.” Most accounts say that Alden was within reach of the gates when he was cut down. Reports vary as if he had turned to fire upon his pursuers prior to being struck by the tomahawk.

Lt. Colonel William Stacy, second in command and also quartered at the Wells’ house, made a dash for the fort, but was surrounded and taken prisoner; one of the few at the residence to survive. His brother-in-law Gideon Day was killed while his son Benjamin and cousin Rufus Stacy ran from the house through a hail of bullets to reach the fort safely. Those attacking the Wells house eventually gained entry, leading to hand-to-hand combat inside. After killing the soldiers, which proved to be where most troopers died during the attack, the Senecas slaughtered the entire Wells household; Mr. Robert Wells and his wife, her mother, their four children, a brother and sister named John and Jane, and three servants – twelve in all.

At the fort, the raiders’ attack proved unsuccessful. Without the use of cannon, they were unable to breach the stockade’s palisade. Meanwhile cannon grapeshot from the fort repelled any serious assault. Lt. William McKendry, the regiment’s quartermaster, described the initial attack in his journal: “Immediately came on 442 Indians from the Five Nations, 200 Tories under the command of one Colonel [Captain] Butler and Captain Brant; attacked headquarters; killed Col. Alden; took Col. Stacy prisoner; attacked Fort Alden; after three hours retreated without success of taking the fort.”

Frustrated by their lack of piercing the fort’s defenses, the attackers gave up. While Loyalists guarded the fort, the Native Americans rampaged  through the rest of the settlement. Groups of Iroquois (as many as 400 warriors) dispersed throughout the settlement and unleashed their fury, killing and destroying everything in their path. The Senecas, seeking revenge for Colonel Hartley’s destruction of their villages in September were especially brutal; reported to have slaughtered anyone they encountered.

The men in the fort were helpless to assist the town. Their leader was dead, they were outnumbered over two to one, and they had very little ammunition on hand. Assigned to defend the inhabitants of Cherry Valley, the soldiers were forced to stand by the ramparts as they watched and listened while the town and its inhabitants were destroyed..  “The Indian war whoop was heard in every direction, mingled with the screams of the affrighted and the cries and shrieks of the wounded and dying.”  Orderly Sergeant John Dain recorded in his journal, “…this Morning About ten a Clock the Enemy Surrounded the Fort the Number of them we Cannot tell We think there Was betweain [sp] Seven or Eight hundred of them…In the first phase thay Killed the Cheaf Col….Is Killed A Good maney of our men…thay used in the Most Barbous Maner and Also all the Enhabbitance Men Women and Children  thay Used in the same Manner…”  

Many of the settlers were in the fields or among livestock when the attack occurred. Some raced home to defend their loved ones. Others put self-preservation first and either ran for the protection of the fort, or hid in the woods until the attack was over. Among the settlers’ accounts, the Reverend Dunlop was home and had been spared by Seneca Chief Little Aaron who had in the past witnessed Dunlop preach. But not so Dunlop’s wife who was cut down before him. He and his child were taken prisoner. Later, Brant would see to the release of the reverend and his daughter. Rev. Dunlop would not return to Cherry Valley, but move to New Jersey where he died the following year.

Hugh Mitchell was outside his home at the start of the raid and was one of those who put his own life before his ‘loved ones.’ Rather than run to his family’s defense, he hid himself in the woods. When the Native Americans had left his home, he cautiously entered and found his wife Mary and three children dead; a fourth one wounded. At that point he heard the warriors returning. He immediately left his wounded child where he found her and hid once more, watching a Loyalist he recognized as Gilbert Newberry kill his daughter. Newberry, along with fellow Butler Ranger Rolf Hare, would be hanged the following year at Canajohaire for their role during the Cherry Valley attack.  Mitchell would be granted a long life from having placed his welfare above his wife and children, finally dying in 1822 at the ripe old age of 101. His obituary claimed a fifth child, a son, was taken captive during the raid and later released. However, he did not have a son who survived; the son John, referenced by some accounts as taken captive, was born to his second wife after the massacre.

In the heat of the attack, Mrs. Eliz’th Dickson hid in the woods with her children. Thinking the worst was over, she later left her children concealed in the forest and returned to the house for some food. She was captured and shortly afterward killed. The children were found cold but alive the next day. Col. Samuel Campbell of the local militia was not at home at the time of the raid. On his return, his family was missing. He later learned that when the house was attacked, it had been vigorously defended by his wife’s father, Mr. Cannon who was wounded. He and his wife, along with Jane Campbell and her four children were made prisoners. A fifth child was later found; hidden by their nursemaid, an African American Slave.

Early historian Nelson Greene wrote, “In a few hours the work of destruction and desolation was complete. What was at sunrise a fair and flourishing settlement, with comfortable houses, well filled barns and lowing herds was at sunset a homeless waste, with only here and there a house, while amid the smoldering embers of the burned buildings were found the charred bones of the victims of the unholy massacre.”

It was later learned that Brant and Butler had attempted to restrain their men’s actions, but were unsuccessful. After the raid, Brant shortly brokered the release of most of the captured settlers. He was dismayed to learn that a number of families known to him, some he had counted as friends, had borne the brunt of the Seneca rampage; particularly Wells, Campbell, Dunlop, and Clyde families. However, historian Barbara Graymont considered Butler’s inaction to see to the safety of civilians, as overall commander of the expedition, “criminally incompetent.”  In his defense, Butler wrote that “notwithstanding my utmost Precaution and Endeavors to save the Women and Children, I could not prevent some of them falling unhappy Victims to the Fury of the Savages,” but also reiterated that he spent most of his time guarding the fort during the raid.

Aftermath

With the attack complete, Loyalist Rangers guarding the fort added salt to the wound by torching the captured regimental colors in full view of the fort’s garrison. All livestock had been killed or taken away and all the buildings, except those within the walls of the palisade, were burned to the ground. When the smoke settled, soldiers ventured from the fort. Regimental quartermaster Lt. McKendry identified Continental soldier fatalities of the massacre as Colonel Alden and thirteen privates.  Other reports gave the number of slain soldiers at sixteen; the largest number having been  at the Well’s house.  Thirty-two civilian bodies were found, among them women and children, whereas some accounts place the number as high as forty. All the bodies were found mutilated.

Up to seventy of the town’s residents were taken captive. Four officers were made prisoner along with at least one sergeant and ten privates. Of the privates killed and captured, as many as nine were in the scouting party taken the day before. Accounts surrounding the capture of Lt. Col. Stacy report that he was about to be killed, but Brant intervened. “[Brant] saved the life of Lieut. Col Stacy, who […] was made prisoner when Col. Alden was killed. It is said Stacy was a freemason, and as such made an appeal to Brant, and was spared.” Over the course of the war, there were several other instances, including others concerning Brant, whereas captive lives would be spared after one of the capturing officers learned that the prisoner was a fellow mason.

As to the captives, historian Greene wrote, “As morning drew on, the prisoners assembled together and commenced their weary march down the valley, in a pitiless November storm. They encamped about two miles from the village and, after a sleepless night, upon the dismal morning of the twelfth again started on their doleful way. Mrs. Cannon, Mrs. Campbell’s mother, on account of her age and otherwise enfeebled condition not being able to keep up with the party, was killed and left by the roadside. A sad day’s march and another sorrowful night, and then came the joyful announcement that the women and children were to be sent back with the exception of the families of John Moore and Samuel Campbell…” It was considered Brant’s greatest act of mercy in securing the quick return of the captured women and children.That he did not also release the Campbell and Moore families owed to the fact that Walter Butler insisted on retaining them. He had escaped imprisonment after the failed attempt to take Fort Stanwix the previous year and thereby hoped to affect an exchange for his wife, who was still held captive by the authorities of Tryon County, New York.

Two hours after Brant and Butler had departed, a company of Continental troops under command of Col. James Gordon, accompanied by a regiment of the Mohawk Militia under Col. Klock, arrived at the fort, having been notified by some of the fugitives of the attack on the settlement. They were too late to do more than help in collecting the fugitives hidden in the woods and assist in burying the dead. “The charred and mutilated remains of those who had perished were collected and consigned to a common grave in the village cemetery. It was decided to abandon the settlement in which nothing was left except the fort, the church, and here and there a house. The cattle had been killed or driven away; the grain burned, and the vegetables destroyed by fire or frost.”  Most of those who survived the massacre wended their way to the Valley of the Mohawk, where they remained until the close of the war. The fort was occupied until the following summer, when the regiment was ordered to join Clinton in the Sullivan expedition.

Of those prisoners retained were Mrs. Samuel [Jane Canon] Campbell and her four children, Mrs. John Moore and three daughters, the surviving Mr. Canon, along with the four officers and privates. The soldiers were taken directly to Fort Niagara whereas they were eventually exchanged; Lt. Colonel Stacey in time to join the Sullivan Expedition against the Iroquois during the summer of 1779. The women and children retained by the Native Americans were taken west to the Iroquois village Kanedaseago. Mrs. Campbell carried a child of eighteen months the entire distance. Having arrived, the families were separated with several adopted into different native households. Mrs. Campbell spent about a year at Kanedaseago until removed to Niagara. There, she would wait until nearly the war’s end until arrangements were completed for her exchange. Meanwhile, her children were gathered together, with the exception of one boy of seven years. Later, having been transported to Montreal along with her children, she found her missing child waiting for her there. By then he had forgotten English and only spoke in one of the Iroquois tongues, most likely Seneca. Col. Samuel Campbell and his wife Jane Campbell would live long after the raid; 86 years and 93 years and lie buried in the Cherry Valley Cemetery.

News of the Cherry Valley attack appeared in The Boston Gazette on the 7th of December, 1778. Only the officers killed or missing were named. The year of 1778 proved momentous to influence the Continental Congress to take action against the Loyalist Rangers and mainly the Iroquois Nation. Tales of settler atrocities at the hands of ‘savages’ grew with each telling. Along with multiple small-scale attacks from Kentucky to New York, were the three major attacks at Wyoming, German Flatts, and lastly, Cherry Valley. Each was termed a massacre to which Congress, in 1779, funded a major retaliatory expedition against the Iroquois. General Washington would order one fourth of his entire army in a three-prong attack which has later been termed genocide; destroying over thirty major villages which basically eradicated the Iroquois culture. The Sullivan Expedition, August – October, 1779, led by New Hampshire Major General John Sullivan did little to stop the partisan and Native American raids on frontier settlements; however, with the Native American populace greatly reduced by the aftermath of starvation and loss of housing as they were pushed west, it would eventually open up the New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio region for rapid settlement after the war.

Cherry Valley Monument

In the Cherry Valley Cemetery, marking the boundary where Fort Alden once stood, a common burial mausoleum, 8 feet high, 7 long, and 5 wide, sits under which are the bodies of those killed during the attack. It was unveiled on August 15, 1877. Listed are the names of soldiers killed, including some of the estimated 32 settlers who died during the raid. So too, are a few other soldiers killed in other actions during the American Revolution.

It Reads in part:

• Soldiers killed the day of the Massacre: Ichabod Alden, Thomas Sheridan, Beig Worsley, Thomas Mires, Thomas Holden, David William, Rob Bray, Simeon Hopkins, Oliver DeBall, Daniel Dudley, Rob Henderson, Gideon Day, P. Adams, Thomas Noles, Enos Blakely
• Soldiers captured the day of the massacre: Lt. Col. William Stacy, Andrew Garret, Abraham Engle, Lt. Col. Aaron Holden, Suzer DeBeaver, and 10 others
  Lt. Col William Stacy • Andrew Garret • Abraham Engle • Lt. col Aaron Holde • Suzer DeBeaver • and 10 others
• 182 residents escaped death and captivity that fateful day.
  32 inhabitants and 16 soldiers were reported killed in the November 11th massacre

On the reverse are the following names of some of the victims of the Raid interned beneath:

• The wife of Rev. Samuel Dunlop
• Robt. Wells, his wife Mary Dunlop, their four children, Robt. Wells’ brother and sister John and Jane Wells, and three servants
• WM Gault, Mrs. Eliz’th Dickson, Mrs. Eleanor Cannon
• The wife and four children of Hugh Mitchell
• Mr. and Mrs. Gill, Mrs. Jane Scott
• Others, above forty in All, whose bodies lie near this spot

Also, in a common grave beneath this stone, the names of those who fell in other battles:

• Lt. Robt Campbell – killed at Oriskany
• Lt. Wormwood, shot by Brant [Joseph] at Tekaharawa
• Maj. Robt McKean and his men, who fell at Durlagh

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RESOURCE

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