The settlers were cut off in detail. Marauding parties fell upon isolated families like bolts from the clouds, and the blaze of dwellings upon the hills and in the valleys nightly warned the yet secure inhabitant to be on the alert. Their dwellings were transformed into block-houses. The women were taught the use of weapons, and stood sentinels when the men were at work. Half-grown children were educated for scouts, and taught to discern the Indian trail, and every man worked armed in his field. Such was the condition of the dwellers of Tryon county during almost the whole time of the war.
Brant's first hostile movement of consequence, after his return to Oghkwaga, was the destruction of a small settlement at Springfield, at the head of Otsego lake, ten miles west of Cherry Valley. It was in the month of May. Every house was burned but one, into which the women and children were collected and kept unharmed. The absence of Tories in that expedition, and the freedom to act as he pleased on the part of Brant, may account for this humanity. Several men were made captive, and, with considerable property, were carried off to Oghkwaga.
In June, Captain McKean, at the head of some volunteers, was sent to reconnoiter Brant's encampment at Oghkwaga. M'Kean's headquarters were at Cherry Valley. On his way down the valley of the Charlotte River, he learned that large war-parties were out, and, fearing a surprise, thought it prudent to return. He halted an hour to refresh, and wrote a letter to Brant, censuring him for his predatory warfare; he intimating that he was too cowardly to show himself in open and honorable conflict, M'Kean challenged him to meet him in single combat, or with an equal number of men, to try their skill, courage, and strength; and concluded by telling him that if he would come to Cherry Valley, they would change him from a Brant to a goose. * This was an injudicious movement, and, doubtless, incited
* This letter was fastened to a stick and placed in an Indian path. It soon reached Brant, and irritated him exceedingly. In a letter written soon afterward to a Tory named Cass, he said, 'Who people of Cherry Valley, though bold in words, will find themselves mistaken in calling me a goose.
Battle in the Schoharie Country.—Arrival of Regulars.—Escape of Walter Butler.—Treachery of Great Tree
the sachem, in some degree, to join Butler, a few months later, in desolating that settlement.
There was an engagement on the 2d of July, on the upper branch of the Cobelskill, between a party of regular troops and Schoharie militia, fifty-two in number, and an Indian force four hundred and fifty strong. The Americans, commanded by Captain Christian Brown, were overpowered. Fourteen were killed, eight wounded, two were missing, and the remainder escaped. The dwellings were burned, and the horses and cattle, which the victors could not take with them, were slaughtered in the fields. At the same time, Colonel John Butler, who had penetrated the country from Niagara with a body of Indians and Tories, eleven hundred strong, broke into the Valley of Wyoming and laid it waste. July 3-4, 1778 Of this I shall write in detail hereafter. We have already considered the destruction of the settlement at German Flats, toward the close of this summer. Scalping parties continued to infest the Schoharie and neighboring settlements until quite late in September, when troops from the main army checked their depredations for a while. A few days after the battle of Monmouth, a Colonel William Butler, with a Pennsylvania regimentJune 23, 1778 and a detachment of Morgan's rifle corps, * was ordered to Tryon county, and took post at Schoharie, whence parties were sent out to chastise the white and red savages, and to protect threatened settlements. They accomplished but little, however, except in intercepting bands of Tories that were making their way from the Hudson River settlements to join Johnson at Niagara. One of these parties, collected in the vicinity of Catskill, under a Captain Smith, was dispersed, the Commander killed, and several of the men made prisoners. This, and a few other exploits of a similar character, inspired the people with confidence, and they anticipated a season of repose. But it was of short duration, for already a cloud was gathering in the west, full charged with desolation.
We have noticed the fact that Walter Butler, a son of Colonel John Butler, was arrested near Fort Dayton in August, 1777, tried, and condemned to death as a spy, but reprieved and sent a prisoner to Albany. He was closely confined in the jail there until the spring of 1778, when, through the interposition of his father's friends, some of them of the highest respectability, he was liberated from prison, and allowed to reside with a private family, having a single sentinel to guard him. This family proved to be Tories in disguise. The sentinel was made drunk, and young Butler, mounting a fleet horse, escaped, and joined his father at Niagara, just after the massacre of Wyoming. On his way through the Seneca country he excited the Indians, by tales of the extensive preparations which the Americans were making to penetrate and lay waste their country, and they were soon ripe for invading the white settlements.
About this time a Seneca chief, called Great Tree, who was with Washington during the summer, left for his own country and nation, with the strongest professions of friendship for the Americans. He promised to use his influence in keeping the Senecas neutral, and, if unsuccessful, he was to return with his personal adherents and join the friendly Oneidas. According to his own account, he found his people in arms, and uttering loud defiance against the whites. The chiefs and principal warriors were collected at Kanadaseago and Genesee; and Great Tree, believing the stories of Butler, and finding his people very united, resolved to join his nation in chastising any whites that might penetrate their county. He was a popular orator and warrior, and his adherence gave the Senecas much joy. The Indians west of the Oneidas "were thus prepared to follow a leader upon the war-path.
Walter Butler obtained from his father the command of a detachment of his Rangers, and permission to employ them, with the forces of Captain Brant, in an expedition against the