During the military operations which followed this important transaction, Cornplanter fought against the United States. It is said that he was in the bloody battle of Wyoming, which occurred on the 3d of July, 1778. It is considered to be a doubtful point, whether the celebrated Brant was in that battle. There is high poetical authority[N] in favor of it, and some corroborative evidence of the fact. But there is no evidence that has come under my notice, that Cornplanter was present.
[N] Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming.
Cornplanter was with his tribe, in endeavoring to resist the advance of General Sullivan into the country of the Six Nations, in the year 1779. He was present and took part in the battle of New Town, the present site of Elmira, New York, where the Indians and British troops, the latter under the command of Colonel John Butler, were signally defeated. Cornplanter and Red Jacket were with the Senecas. We do not know which of these Chiefs had the immediate command of the warriors of that tribe. It is known, however, that Brant, who had by general consent a superior authority, charged Red Jacket with being the principal cause of the disaster of that day, and said that although he was a great orator, he was no warrior; on the contrary, he was a coward. In a council held some years afterwards, Cornplanter made a similar charge against Red Jacket, to which the latter replied, "I am an orator—I was born an orator."
This decisive action on the Chemung, was followed by the devastation of the Indian towns and settlements throughout the country of the Senecas and Cayugas. They had several towns and many large villages laid out with a considerable degree of regularity. They had framed houses, some of them well finished, and painted and having chimneys. They had broad and productive fields, and in addition to abundance of apples, they had orchards of peaches, pears and plums. But after the battle of New Town, terror led the van of the invader, whose approach was heralded by watchmen stationed upon every height, and desolation followed weeping in his train. The Indians every where fled, as Sullivan advanced, and the whole country was swept as with the besom of destruction. Towns were burned, fields laid waste, cattle destroyed and the orchards cut down.[O] Cornplanter was a sad witness to the destruction of his own home and village, and that of his people. He refers to these scenes most eloquently, in his address to Washington, in 1792. "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you the "town destroyer;" and to this day, when that name is heard, our women look behind them, and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers. Our councillors and warriors are men, and cannot be afraid, but their hearts are grieved with the fears of women and children."
[O] Stone in his Life of Brant.
This expedition of General Sullivan's, was followed by numerous retaliations by the Indians. The most prominent of which was the invasion of Schoharie and its destruction, together with the towns and settlements in the valley of the Mohawk. Whilst Sir John Johnston and Brant had the principal command, Cornplanter led his tribe in this invasion, and was in the battle of Klock's Field, on the Mohawk river; the result of which was a decided check upon the Indians and their allies, and compelled them to fall back to Oswego.
The residence of John ABeel, the father of Cornplanter, was in the vicinity of the recent battle ground. Before retiring with his warriors, Cornplanter made a detour in the direction of his father's residence, and took him prisoner. After taking him a few miles into the forest, he made to him the following address: "My name is John ABeel, commonly called Cornplanter. I am your son. You are my father. You are my prisoner, and subject to the customs of Indian warfare. But you shall not be harmed. You need not fear. I am a warrior. Many are the scalps I have taken. I am your son. I was anxious to see you, and greet you in friendship. I went to your cabin and took you by force; but your life shall be spared. Indians love their friends and their kindred, and treat them with kindness. If you choose to follow the fortunes of your red son, and live with our people, I will cherish your old age with plenty of venison, and you shall live easy. But if it is your choice to return to your friends, and live with your white children. I will send a party of my trusty young men to conduct you back in safety. I respect you, my father. You have been friendly to Indians. They are your friends." This address shews the magnanimity of Cornplanter, and that he could forget his father's neglect to supply him with a "gun and kettle," on the occasion hereinbefore mentioned. The elder ABeel declined the offer. His son fulfilled his word, and gave his father a suitable escort. He returned to his dwelling in safety. The proud Seneca and his warriors moved off to their own wilds.[P] These events transpired in 1780. Of the subsequent military career of Cornplanter, little is known. He probably participated in the skirmishes and expeditions during the subsequent years of the Revolutionary war and until its close. He never spoke in after life of his career as a Chief or warrior; and history gives us no details of these expeditions and skirmishes, except as to the second invasion of the Mohawk valley, and the battle of Durlagh, in 1781, in which there is no mention of Cornplanter being present.
[P] This anecdote is related in Mary Jamison's narrative, and is cited by Mr. Stone, in his interesting life of Brant, wherein the author says "In every instance in which he has had an opportunity of testing by other authorities, the correctness of Mary Jamison's statement, they have proved to be remarkably correct." Mr. Stone adds: "Cornplanter was an able man, distinguished in subsequent negotiations; he was an eloquent orator and a great advocate for temperance."
The United States successfully maintained by the sword the principles announced on the 4th of July, 1776, at Philadelphia; and England, at the close of the war in 1783, acknowledged their independence. From that period Cornplanter became the friend of the United States, and the uniform and consistent advocate for peace. He put forth, on all occasions, his best efforts to secure the friendship of the United States, and to preserve his nation from the destruction which seemed so eminently impending. England, in her treaty of peace, made no provision for her allies of the Six Nations. Many of the Chiefs of the latter were disposed to make common cause with the other Indians of the continent, and continue the war. But the sagacious mind of Cornplanter led him to the just conclusion, that a continuance of the war would be the destruction of his nation and tribe. He was the chief instrument in effecting the treaty of peace at Fort Stanwix, in 1784.
There had been a former treaty at Fort Stanwix, namely: on the 5th of November, 1768, between the Proprietors of Pennsylvania and the Chief of the Six Nations. The territory granted to Pennsylvania, is particularly described in the second volume of Smith's Laws of Pennsylvania, page 122-3. At the second treaty of Fort Stanwix, held in October, 1784, the Pennsylvania commissioners inquired what creek was meant by Tiadaghton, also the Indian name of Burnett's hills, which was left blank in the deed of 1768. The Indians then said that Tiadaghton, is the same creek which the whites called Pine creek, (now in Lycoming county). As to Burnett's hills, they called them the "Long mountains," and knew them by no other name. The boundaries established by the treaty of October 23, 1784, made the said Pine creek the line, and down the same to its mouth, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna; thence up the south side thereof to the fork of the same river, which lies nearer to a place on the Ohio river, (Allegheny,) called Kittanning, and from the fork by a straight line to Kittanning, and thence down the said river Ohio, to where the western bounds of Pennsylvania crosses the same river.