The old colonel had mustered 600 well-armed and well-equipped men and the march was taken up at Fort Augusta, December 15, 1775.
In order that the proposed expedition might be considered of a civil rather than a military character, this small army was denominated the “posse comitatus of Northumberland.” Moreover it was to be accompanied on its march by William Scull, the newly elected Sheriff of Northumberland County, within whose jurisdiction the Wyoming lands lay, if to be considered a part of the Province of Pennsylvania.
He was provided with a train of boats, with two small field-pieces, one of which was mounted on the largest and leading boat, ready for action on board or to be landed if necessary. There was a second field-piece mounted on one of the other boats, a large supply of ammunition for cannon, rifles and muskets, supplies and stores.
About the time Colonel Plunket began active preparations for his expedition Benjamin Harvey, Jr., and another Yankee settler and trader of Wyoming Valley, who were returning from Harris Ferry in bateaux laden with supplies, and laboriously and slowly pulling their boats up the Susquehanna toward home, were seized by the Pennsylvanians as they reached Sunbury, thrown into jail, and their boats and cargoes confiscated.
When Plunket was ready to proceed up the river he placed Harvey in the leading boat, with orders to pilot the flotilla of the expedition to its destination.
Pennamites Humiliatingly Defeated by
Yankees, December 25, 1775
On December 20, the very day on which Congress adopted resolutions calling on Pennsylvania and Connecticut to cease armed conflict during the period of the Revolution, it was learned by the Yankee scouts that Colonel William Plunket and the Pennamites had pushed their flotilla up the North Branch of the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of Nescopeck Creek, about nineteen miles below Nanticoke Falls, but that they were advancing slowly on account of the snow, which was then falling, and the ice which was gathering on the river.
Colonel Zebulon Butler quickly mustered his available force, which numbered about 400 men and boys, on Saturday, December 23, and marched to the left bank of Harvey’s Creek, where he encamped for the night on a level stretch of land near the river.