"Cherry Valley Massacre" Topic

"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…"

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Armand

I grew up in that region of NY. Now I liive close to Oriskany. Herkimer (German Flatts) is not far off. And the Mohawk River is crossed nearly every other day. Lots of history in this neck of the woods.

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Armand

The whole frontier was replete with tit for tat raiding.

Cherry Valley and Wyoming are especially noteworthy for being badly mishandled by the rebels, hence the focus on "massacres."

Both sides were equally brutal and vicious. Neither are without blame. Whites treated other whites no better in many cases and the tribes treated other tribes just as badly.

"He established a repour with the Iroquois"

"His prodigies [Butler and Brant] would carry the yoke of British sway among the Iroquois…"

Another article from the pen of the not-entirely authoritative Harry Schenawolf.

(Did he mean "protegés"?)

Thanks

Armand