As a part of the original scheme, a simultaneous movement from Fort Pitt against the Indian towns on the Alleghany was ordered. The difficulty of communication between the two forces led to the abandonment of all idea of co-operation. Colonel Brodhead, who had charge of the movement on the Alleghany, was left to pursue his own course. On August 11th he left Pittsburgh at the head of six hundred and five rank and file, with one month's provisions. With this force he proceeded up the river by boat to Mahoning; there the stores were loaded on pack-horses, and the march was begun. On the way to the Indian towns the advance guard came in contact with a party of between thirty and forty warriors, whom they put to flight. The detachment marched for a distance of about two hundred miles from Pittsburgh, and destroyed the Indian settlements along the Alleghany extending for eight miles, and consisting of one hundred and thirty houses. The growing crops and provisions were ruined. This extraordinary march was made without the loss of a single man, and without meeting any warriors except the party already mentioned.
On October 20, 1779, Washington wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette, saying: "General Sullivan has completed the entire destruction of the country of the Six Nations, driven all the inhabitants, men, women, and children, out of it, and is at Easton on his return." He further said that Colonel Brodhead had inflicted similar chastisement on the "Mingo and Muncey tribes", living on the Alleghany, French Creek, and other waters of the Ohio. Washington concluded with these words: "These unexpected and severe strokes have disconcerted, humbled, and distressed the Indians exceedingly, and will, I am persuaded, be productive of great good; as they are undeniable proofs to them that Great Britain cannot protect them, and that it is in our power to chastise them whenever their hostile conduct deserves it."[1312] The cruel steps taken against the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas were probably justifiable as war measures. War against these Indians without the adoption of their own tactics could only be prosecuted at a great disadvantage.[1313] The destruction of their homes and the consequent removal of the natives to a point more distant from the American settlements, together with the necessity thus thrown upon the British government of providing for their allies, undoubtedly affected the aggressive power of the Indians and diminished the value of their alliance. But if it was expected that raids upon the border settlements would be stopped by this campaign, then the authorities must have been disappointed. The border knew no peace until the war was ended.
The Indians, driven out of their own country and left without shelter and without food, took refuge at Niagara for the winter. The Oneidas feared an attack, and abandoned their castles. About four hundred of them placed themselves under the protection of the government at Schenectady. In April, 1780, the settlement at Harpersfield was destroyed, and a scouting party of Americans which happened to be in the neighborhood was captured. Repeated blows were struck at the scattered, poorly defended settlements along the border. The lower Mohawk was invaded by a force under Sir John Johnson, and the local histories, in their records of the work of the summer of 1780, have a melancholy monotony of conflagration and plunder. In August the settlement at Canajoharie was laid waste by Brant, and several small settlements adjacent to Canajoharie, and at Norman's Kill, not far from Albany, were ravaged. From the valley of the Mohawk the enemy moved southward, destroying a number of houses and capturing prisoners in Schoharie Valley. In October, 1780, Schoharie Valley was again ravaged, this time from the south, by an invading force of about one thousand in all, under Sir John Johnson, which consisted of Tories, together with Brant and his Mohawks, and Cornplanter with a body of Senecas. They had, by way of artillery, two small mortars and a brass three-pounder.[1314] There were three forts in the valley, in which the inhabitants took refuge. The invaders did not succeed in capturing either of the forts, and the loss of life in them was small, but they left scarcely a building standing in the whole valley.
After thoroughly completing the work of destruction in Schoharie Valley, the invaders proceeded to the valley of the Mohawk, and ravaged the country on the north side of the Mohawk from Caughnawaga to Stone Arabia and Palatine. A little force from Stone Arabia, acting, it is supposed, under a promise of support from General Van Rensselaer, undertook to check them. The general had collected some of the militia, and was to fall upon the rear of the enemy. The promised support was not furnished. Colonel Brown, who led the attacking party, was killed, and his followers were badly cut to pieces. After this encounter Sir John's forces renewed their work of destroying property in the neighborhood of Stone Arabia, and then moved slowly up the river, ravaging the country as they went. The invaders were followed by the Americans, whose numbers increased as they moved, until they were numerically stronger than the enemy. There were some Oneidas with the Americans, under command of one of their own number holding a commission from the Continental Congress as lieutenant-colonel. On the afternoon of October 20th, just at nightfall, a skirmish took place between the two commands at the spot selected by Sir John for his evening bivouac. It was soon terminated by the increasing darkness, of which the Americans took advantage to withdraw to a camping place about three miles back, and the invaders, availing themselves of the opportunity, hurriedly sought the woods. During their flight the enemy captured a party of Americans which had been dispatched to destroy their boats.[1315] After this raid the upper Mohawk Valley and the Schoharie Valley rivalled in their desolation the region of the lakes which had been invaded by Sullivan the preceding year. Numbers of prisoners had been carried off during these raids, some of whom were liberated shortly after capture. Others were detained till the close of the war. In one instance a child was returned by Brant, with a letter, in which he said "I do not make war upon women and children. I am sorry to say that I have those with me in the service who are more savage than the savages themselves."
Simultaneously with the operations in the Mohawk Valley, the enemy ascended Lake Champlain and captured Forts Ann and George. Portions of Kingsbury, Queensbury, and Fort Edward were burned. A branch of this expedition destroyed the settlement at Ballston. At the same time, a party of about two hundred, chiefly Indians, under Major Haughton of the 53d, left Canada, and destroyed several houses in the upper part of the Connecticut Valley, and carried off thirty-two inhabitants as prisoners.[1316]
The work of retribution on the part of the Indians did not stop with what has been recorded. Even during the succeeding winter Brant was on the war-path, appearing now here and now there in the Mohawk country cutting off stragglers and detached parties. Great difficulty was experienced in furnishing the garrisons at the outposts with provisions. Distress ensued, and there was serious danger that the outlying defences could not be maintained. Fort Stanwix was badly damaged in May, 1781, both by flood and by fire, and in consequence the post was shortly afterward abandoned. The command of the Mohawk Valley was this season assigned to Colonel Willett. He carefully acquainted himself with its condition, and infused a portion of his own active spirit into the management of affairs. Very shortly after he assumed command, on June 30th, Currietown, a village near the mouth of the Schoharie, was destroyed. With a small force, Willett pursued the raiders, overtook them, and routed them with severe loss. In July, Colonel Willett wrote that the number of men in Tryon County liable to bear arms did not exceed eight hundred. At the beginning of the war the enrolled militia numbered 2,500 men. He accounted for this reduction by supposing that one third had been killed or made prisoners, one third had gone over to the enemy, and one third had abandoned the country. Indeed, life in the valley had become almost unendurable. The only places of safety were within the walls of the stockaded forts which were scattered through the region. All through the summer of 1781 detachments of the enemy struck blows at different points along the border. The most conspicuous of these desultory acts of devastation was the destruction of the little town of Wawarsing. Unsuccessful efforts were made this season to seize the persons of both General Gansevoort and General Schuyler. The active movements of the year closed with a foray on the Mohawk by Sir John Johnson and Major Walter N. Butler, in the latter part of October. When the Americans learned the approach of the invaders, Colonel Willett gathered a force together, with which, although inferior in numbers to the enemy, he attacked them at Johnstown. The varying fortunes of the day were, on the whole, with the Americans. The enemy fled, after dark, to the woods. Willett followed them for some days, and had a collision with their rear guard, in which the notorious Major Walter N. Butler was shot through the head and left on the field.[1317] The difficulties of the military as well as the political situation had been greatly complicated this summer by the menacing aspect of the British forces on Lake Champlain, and doubts as to the fidelity of certain of the leaders in Vermont, whose hostility to the threatened extension of the authority of New York over the inchoate State had been pronounced in terms of bitter earnest.
During the summer of 1782, although the frontiers of New York were not altogether quiet, the scene of activity in border warfare was transferred further west. There were none of the organized raids of the enemy in the valleys of the Mohawk and Schoharie, with which the inhabitants had become so familiar.
In February, 1783, the last movement of the war on the border took place in this region. It was an attempt by Colonel Willett to surprise the garrison at Oswego. A forced march of a night and a day was made through the trackless forests, on the snow, from the Mohawk Valley to the vicinity of the fort. Then preparations for the assault were made, but when the column advanced the guide became confused and lost his way. As surprise was essential for success, the attempt was abandoned. Willett and his men found their way back as best they could, enduring on the return march intense suffering from fatigue, cold, and exposure. Colonel Willett then proceeded to Albany, at which place he arrived in time to hear peace proclaimed.
The story of this chapter opened with the determination of a boundary line between the king of Great Britain and his allies. It closes with an assurance on the part of the Continental Congress, which is intended to pacify the Indians, that, "as the country is large enough to contain and support us all, and as we are disposed to be kind to them, to supply their wants, and to partake of their trade, we, from these considerations and from motives of compassion, draw a veil over what is passed, and will establish a boundary line between them and us, beyond which we will restrain our citizens from hunting and settling, and within which the Indians shall not come, but for the purpose of trading, treating, or other business equally unexceptionable."[1318] The discussion of how far the kindly spirit which pervades these promises has been maintained in subsequent dealings with the Indians does not fall within the subject of this chapter.
