Cherry Valley massacre

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Cherry Valley Massacre Part of the American Revolutionary War "Incident in Cherry Valley - fate of Jane Wells" from the original picture by Alonzo Chappel, engraved by Thomas Phillibrown. Date November 11, 1778 Location New York Result British victory Belligerents United States Great Britain Commanders Ichabod Alden†, William Stacy Walter Butler, Cornplanter Joseph Brant, Little Beard Strength 7th Massachusetts Regiment 250 settlers and milita 321 Brant's Volunteers and other Iroquois 150 Butler's Rangers, 50 8th Regiment of Foot Casualties and losses 14 soldiers killed, 11 soldiers captured, 30 inhabitants killed, 34 Inhabitants captured 5 wounded

v • d • e Northern theater after 1777 Cobleskill – Wyoming Valley – Big Runaway – Rhode Island – German Flatts - Carleton's Raid – Cherry Valley – Stony Point – Minisink – Penobscot Expedition – Sullivan Expedition – Newtown – Battle of Young's House  -Springfield – Royalton Raid - Klock's Field  - Groton Heights  - Johnstown

Monument to the victims of the Cherry Valley massacre

The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Seneca Indian forces on a fort and village in eastern New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War.

The Senecas were angered over the burning of Tioga by forces under Colonel Thomas Hartley, his accusations of atrocities by the Iroquois at Wyoming,^[1] and the recent destruction of their settlement of Onoquaga.

Captain Walter Butler (the son of Colonel John Butler) led two companies of Butler's Rangers commanded by Captain John McDonell and Captain William Caldwell. There were also about 300 Seneca and 50 from the 8th Regiment of Foot. Cornplanter and the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant were the major Indian leaders. Brant's force of Brant's Volunteers was seriously reduced because of contention with Butler.

The fort, actually a palisade around the village meeting house, could not be taken, but the town was destroyed. Sixteen of the defenders were killed, including garrison commander Ichabod Alden; Lt. Col. William Stacy was taken prisoner. Despite the efforts of Butler and Brant to stop it, more than thirty women and children and several Loyalist townspeople were killed and scalped.

The Indians were frank in admitting their reasons for killing women and children. First they had been falsely accused of committing atrocities at Wyoming. Secondly, Colonel Denission and his men had laid down their arms at Wyoming and promised not to take up their arms again during the war, but shortly thereafter were engaged in a destructive expedition into Indian country. Also their own town of Onoquaga had been attacked by the Americans the previous month where the Americans destroyed all their houses and killed some of their children. This meant that in the future the Indians would give no quarter.

Contents 1 Aftermath 2 References 3 Bibliography 4 External links

[edit] Aftermath

Butler purchased the captured officers from the Indians and arranged for some of the women and children prisoners to be freed.

The Americans had the previous year decided to attack the Iroquois and their villages. Cherry Valley along with the accusations of murder of non-combatants at Wyoming, helped pave the way for the launch of the Sullivan Expedition, commissioned by commander-in-chief General George Washington and led by Major General John Sullivan, which destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages in their homelands of central and western New York.

[edit] References

1. ^ Graymont, pg. 181

[edit] Bibliography

• Cruikshank, Ernest, Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara, 1893
• Graymont, Barbara, The Iroquois in the American Revolution, 1972, ISBN 0-8156-0083-6
• Williams, Glenn F. Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois. 2005: Westholme Publishing, ISBN 1-59416-013-9.
• Young, Edward J.: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. II – Second Series, 1855-1886, University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1886) section entitled Journal of William McKendry, pg 436-478. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Young (1886).

[edit] External links

• Sullivanclinton.com - historic context
• Town of Cherry Valley, Historian's website
• Photos of the Cherry Valley monument

v • d • e New York in the American Revolutionary War Pre-war Sons of Liberty 1770 Battle of Golden Hill 1775 Capture of Fort Ticonderoga – Invasion of Canada 1776 New York and New Jersey campaign – Battle of Long Island – New York Prison Ships Begin – Landing at Kip's Bay – Battle of Harlem Heights – Great Fire of New York – Execution of Nathan Hale – Battle of Valcour Island – Battle of Pell's Point – Battle of White Plains – Battle of Fort Washington 1777 Meigs Raid – Saratoga campaign – Battle of Ticonderoga – Battle of Hubbardton – Battle of Fort Ann – Battle of Oriskany – Battle of Saratoga – Battle of Freeman's Farm – Battle of Bemis Heights 1778 Setauket Spy Ring Launched – Battle of Cobleskill – West Point established – Cherry Valley massacre 1779 Battle of Stony Point – Sullivan Expedition – Battle of Newtown 1780 First Purple Heart – André Capture Reveals Traitor Benedict Arnold 1781 HMS Culloden Runs Aground at Montauk – Washington Calls Off Invasion of New York to Support Yorktown 1782 Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh – Newburgh letter – British Evacuate New York – Washington's Farewell to His Officers