FOOTNOTES:
[91] Dr. Ramsay's History of the United States, Vol. II., Chap. xix., p. 325.
"About four weeks after Colonel Zebulon Butler's return, some hundreds of Indians, a large body of Tories, and about fifty regulars, entered Cherry Valley, within the State of New York. They made an unsuccessful attempt on Fort Alden; but they killed and scalped thirty-two of the inhabitants, mostly women and children; and also Colonel Alden and ten soldiers."—Ib., p. 325. Then, on the side of the continentals, "Colonel G. Van Shaick, with fifty-five men, marched from Fort Schuyler to the Onondago settlements, and on the 19th of April, 1779, burnt the whole, consisting of about fifty houses, together with a large quantity of provisions. Horses and stock of every kind were killed. The arms and ammunition of the Indians were either destroyed or brought off, and their settlements were laid waste. Twelve Indians were killed and thirty-four made prisoners. This expedition was performed in less than six days, and without the loss of a man."—Ib., pp. 326, 327.
[92] Dr. Andrews' History of the Late War, Vol. III., Chap. xli., pp. 436-439.
[93] Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. X., Chap. x., pp. 230, 231, 232.
Mr. Bancroft's tame account of "the great expedition" against the Five Nations, limiting it to a chastisement of the Senecas, can only be accounted for from his contempt of General Sullivan, his desire to pass over as slightly as possible an expedition of destruction so disproportionate to the alleged cause of it, and against a whole rural and agricultural people for the alleged depredations of some of them. There were, as might be expected, marauding parties along the borders on the part of both the Indians and Americans, but the former always seem to have suffered more, and the latter to have excelled the former in their own traditionary mode of savage warfare.
"Other expeditions," says Mr. Holmes, "besides this decisive one were conducted against the Indians in course of the year. In April, Colonel Van Shaick, with fifty-five men, marched from Fort Schuyler, and burnt the whole Onondago settlements, consisting of about fifty houses, with a large quantity of provisions, killed twelve Indians and made thirty-four prisoners, without the loss of a single man. In the month of August, Colonel Broadhead made a successful expedition against the Mingo, Munsey, and Seneca Indians." (American Annals, Vol. II., p. 302.)
[94] Mr. Bancroft says that "the British Rangers and men of the Six Nations (who constructed the defensive breastwork at Newton) were in all about 800." (History of the United States, Vol. X., Chap. x, p. 232.)
It was certainly no great feat of military courage and skill for 5,000 men, with the aid of artillery, to defeat and disperse 800 Indians and Tories, without artillery, and then ravage and devastate an undefended country.
[95] Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. III., Chap. xxxix., pp. 287-289.