Sir Henry Clinton had ordered that officer from East Florida to cooperate with Colonel Campbell. On hearing that the troops from the north were off the coast he entered the southern frontier of Georgia (Jan. 9, 1779) and invested Sunbury, which, after a slight resistance surrendered at discretion. Having placed a garrison in the fort he proceeded to Savannah, took command of the army, and detached Colonel Campbell with 800 regulars and a few Provincials to Augusta which fell without resistance, and thus the whole State of Georgia was reduced.
1. Footnote: This officer was the same Grey who had surprised Wayne's detachment near the Paoli Tavern, in Pennsylvania (Sept. 20, 1777), as already related in the text. His merciless massacre of Wayne's men, with the bayonet, will ever be remembered. A monument is erected on the spot where the massacre took place, consecrated to the memory of the sufferers.
2. Footnote: The British government rewarded Grey for his cruelty by making him a peer. He was the father of Earl Grey, who became prime minister of Great Britain. This reward to Colonel Grey was in strict consistency with the spirit in which the whole war against the United States was conducted. Fortunately, the cruel and brutal outrages of the invaders reacted on themselves, and contributed greatly to the final result.
CHAPTER XVI. — WASHINGTON PREPARES TO CHASTISE THE INDIANS. 1778.
While the events were passing which are recorded in the preceding chapter a terrible war with the Indians was raging on the western frontier of the United States. While the British were abundantly able to supply the Indians with all those articles of use and luxury which they had been accustomed to receive from the whites, Congress was not in a condition to do anything of this sort to conciliate them or to secure their neutrality in the existing war. Stimulated by the presents as well as by the artful representations of British agents the Indians had consequently become hostile. Early in 1778 there were many indications of a general disposition among the savages to make war on the United States, and the frontiers, from the Mohawk to the Ohio, were threatened with the tomahawk and the scalping-knife. Every representation from that country supported Washington's opinion that a war with the Indians should never be defensive and that to obtain peace it must be carried into their own country. Detroit was understood to be in a defenseless condition, and Congress resolved on an expedition against that place. This enterprise was entrusted to General M'Intosh, who commanded at Pittsburgh, and was to be carried on with 3,000 men, chiefly militia, to be drawn from Virginia. To facilitate its success another force was to attack the Senecas, advancing from the east of the Hudson.
Unfortunately the acts of the government did not correspond with the vigor of its resolutions. The necessary preparations were not made and the inhabitants of the frontiers remained without sufficient protection until the plans against them were matured and the storm which had been long gathering burst upon them with a fury which spread desolation wherever it reached.
About 300 white men, commanded by the British Col. John Butler, and about 500 Indians, led by the Indian Chief Brandt, who had assembled in the north, marched late in June (1778) against the settlement of Wyoming. These troops embarked on the Chemung or Tioga and descending the Susquehanna, landed at a place called the Three Islands, whence they marched about twenty miles, and crossing a wilderness and passing through a gap in the mountain, entered the valley of Wyoming near its northern boundary. At this place a small fort called Wintermoots had been erected, which fell into their hands without resistance and was burnt. The inhabitants who were capable of bearing arms assembled on the first alarm at Forty Fort on the west side of the Susquehanna, four miles below the camp of the invading army.
The regular troops, amounting to about sixty, were commanded by Col. Zebulon Butler, {1} the militia by Colonel Dennison. Colonel Butler was desirous of awaiting the arrival of a small reinforcement under Captain Spalding who had been ordered by Washington to his aid on the first intelligence of the danger which threatened the settlement, but the militia generally, believing themselves sufficiently strong to repel the invading force, urged an immediate battle so earnestly that Colonel Butler yielded to their remonstrances, and on the 3d of July (1778) marched from Forty Fort at the head of near 400 men to attack the enemy.