Tag «Iroquois»

Rachel Silverthorn: Paul Revere of the American Frontier

History treats the feats by men as fact; whereas woman’s accomplishments are legends. Women’s actions come with an accompanying tag line ‘fact or fiction,’ or are described by highlighting the myth. More often than not, a women’s achievements are either downplayed, or left out of history entirely. There is a simple reason for this; men …

Plum Tree Massacre and the “Bloodiest Day”

June 10, 1778, has been referred to as the ‘bloodiest day,’ in the history of Lycoming County; a span of settlements along the west branch of the Susquehanna River of northcentral Pennsylvania. The Plum Tree Massacre was one of three separate attacks in one day on settlers by a war party of Iroquois and Loyalists. …

Attack on German Flatts 1778

The raid on the frontier settlement of German Flatts occurred on September 17, 1778, at present day Herkimer, in central upstate New York on the Mohawk River. It was enacted by British partisan forces of Loyalists and four nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederation, mainly Mohawk and Seneca, under the overall command of Mohawk Chief …

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 …

Siege of Vincennes: Dedication, Sacrifice, and Bloody Murder

The Siege of Fort Vincennes, February 22 – 24, 1779, was a desperate attack by approximately 200 Virginia militia and French Volunteers to maintain the American momentum established in 1778; capturing British forts and settlements in the far western regions from Kentucky to the upper Mississippi River Valley. Colonel George Rogers Clark, older brother of …

General John Sullivan Soldier and Congressman

General John Sullivan of New Hampshire commanded troops in most of the American Revolution’s major battles. An ardent loyalist turned patriot; he was a member of the First New Hampshire Provincial Congress. He was voted to represent his state at the First and Second Continental Congress where he was commissioned as a Brigadier General, even …

Polly Cooper of the Oneida Helped Feed & Nurse Washington’s Army at Valley Forge

Polly Cooper’s generosity and courage have long been honored by the Oneida Native American people over the generations as exemplar of the indomitable spirt of the Oneida. With the unveiling of the Oneida memorial at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC that honors Polly and her people’s contribution to the American Revolution, the United States …