Sullivan has been ridiculed for the language used in describing the Indian settlements; but his descriptions, though misleading, are the natural expressions of a man who found in these settlements evidences of a higher civilization than he had expected. A comparison of the entries in the various diaries and journals will show that many were surprised at the excellence of the Indian houses, while others saw only the discomforts of life under such surroundings.[1400] General Sullivan has been assailed because he did not attack Niagara. There had been some discussion about a second campaign against Canada and an attempt on Niagara, but Washington's correspondence shows that it had been abandoned in connection with the campaign against the Indian towns, unless it could be accomplished through the Indians themselves. The instructions to Sullivan show this,[1401] and a letter from Sullivan, given in the Laurens Correspondence (p. 141), shows that Sullivan did not conceive it to be a part of the campaign, even if he had deemed an attack on Niagara possible.
In his report to the Committee of Congress, January 15, 1776, Washington discusses the possibilities for the forthcoming campaign.[1402] For the reduction of Niagara he estimates that an army of twenty to twenty-one thousand men would be required; thirteen thousand to remain in the East, and seven or eight thousand to operate against Niagara. The expenses incident to such a campaign, and the great number of men required, practically put it out of the question, and his conclusion was as follows: "It is much to be regretted that our prospect of any capital offensive operations is so slender that we seem in a manner to be driven to the necessity of adopting the third plan,—that is, to remain entirely on the defensive; except such lesser operations against the Indians as are absolutely necessary to divert their ravages from us." January 18 he wrote to General Schuyler: "It has therefore been determined to lay the Niagara expedition entirely aside for the present, and to content ourselves with some operations on a smaller scale against the savages and those people who have infested our frontier the preceding campaign."[1403]
The details of the work performed by the New Jersey contingent have been fully set forth in General Maxwell's Brigade of the New Jersey Continental line in the Expedition against the Indians in the year 1779. By William S. Stryker, Adjutant-General of New Jersey (Trenton, 1885), a paper read before the New Jersey Historical Society, January 17, 1884.[1404] Various order-books of the campaign have been preserved.[1405]
The Centennial Celebration of General Sullivan's Campaign against the Iroquois in 1779. Held at Waterloo, September 3d, 1879 (Waterloo, N. Y., 1880), was edited by Diedrich Willers, Jr., and contains a carefully prepared and clearly written historical address by the Rev. David Craft, which the editor calls "the most complete and accurate history of General Sullivan's campaign which has yet been given to the public." The diligence of Craft in his search for the sources of authority for the campaign is shown in his "List of Journals, Narratives, etc., of the Western Expedition, 1779"[1406] (Mag. of Amer. Hist., iii. 673), in which the titles of nineteen journals, narratives, etc., which had at that time been published, are given, with information as to the places of deposit of the MSS., and as to the newspapers, magazines, or books in which they were published. The titles and what was known about the places of deposit of eight journals, etc., which had not been published, and of one journal which relates to the Onondaga expedition, and which had been published, are also given.[1407] Of the journals which had not been published when Craft wrote, three, or portions of three, were used by Gen. John S. Clark in his account of the Sullivan campaign in the Collections of the Cayuga Historical Society, Number One (Auburn, 1879,—250 copies), including the journal of Lieut. John L. Hardenburgh, of the Second New York Continental Regiment, from May 1 to October 3, 1779, with an introduction, copious historical notes, and maps of the battlefield of Newtown and the Groveland ambuscade. General Clark also makes use of "parts of other journals never before published,"[1408] which give the work of detachments, thus placing before the reader a complete account of the whole work of the expedition, in the words of those who participated in it, together with a list of journals, etc., similar to that of Craft, but sufficiently different in details to show independent work.
The remains of Lieutenant Boyd and those who fell with him, in their desperate attempt to cut their way through the enemy by whom they were surrounded, were in 1842 removed from their place of burial, and deposited with appropriate ceremonies at Mount Hope. A collection of the various proceedings on this occasion was edited by Henry O'Reilly, as Notices of Sullivan's Campaign, or the Revolutionary Warfare in Western New York; embodied in the addresses and documents connected with the funeral honors rendered to those who fell with the gallant Boyd in the Genessee Valley, including the remarks of Gov. Seward at Mount Hope (Rochester, 1842).
Brodhead's campaign against the Indian settlements on the Alleghany, in Western New York and Pennsylvania, was carried out while Sullivan was on his march. Like Van Schaick's raid on the Onondaga towns, although independently executed, it formed part of the scheme of the season's work. In Gay's Popular History of the United States (vol. iv.) there is a good general account of Sullivan's campaign, but in a note (p. 7) it is said that "Brodhead's expedition has usually been considered of little moment, and it has been denied, or doubted, by some writers, that it ever took place. Its incidents are for the first time collated and fully told by Obed Edson, in the Magazine of [Amer.] History, for November, 1879." As a matter of fact, however, there has never been occasion for investigators to doubt that this campaign had taken place, or to underestimate its value. The report of Brodhead was given to the public at the time,[1409] and was published in full in the Remembrancer (ix. p. 152). Washington, in his letter to Lafayette, which has already been quoted, mentioned the work done by Brodhead with evident appreciation of its extent and value.[1410]
The details of the Mohawk Valley invasions are given in the works by Stone, Simms, and Campbell, which have so frequently been quoted, and in the Remembrancer.[1411] The joint expeditions in 1780 were separately treated by Franklin B. Hough in the Northern Invasion of October, 1780 (New York, 1866,—no. 6 Bradford Club Series; 75 copies printed). The work is described as "a series of papers relating to the expedition from Canada under Sir John Johnson and others against the frontiers of New York, which were supposed to have connection with Arnold's treason, prepared from the originals, with an introduction and notes." Reference has already been made to the fact that Hough differed from Stone as to the cause for the removal of the Oneidas from their castles in the winter of 1779-1780, and their establishment near Schenectady. Hough says (p. 32): "Some of the Oneidas evinced a willingness to join the enemy. To prevent such a misfortune, four hundred of their people were removed to the neighborhood of Schenectady, and there supported at public cost." In a note he adds: "We find nothing among the Clinton Papers to justify the statement of Colonel Stone[1412] (Brant, i. 55) relative to the destruction of the Oneida settlements by the enemy during the winter of 1779-80, and are led to believe that the removal of these people to a place of safety in the interior was a measure of policy rather than of actual necessity from the presence of the enemy." There is among the Sparks MSS. actual evidence that Hough's conclusion was correct. In a letter from General Haldimand, dated at Quebec, Nov. 2, 1779, he says: "He [Sir John Johnson] halted at Oswego, with an intention to cut off the Oneida nation, who have uniformly and obstinately supported and fought for the rebels, notwithstanding the united remonstrances and threats of the Five Nations, joined to every effort in our power to reclaim them. In this he has likewise been disappointed, the Indians of Canada refusing their assistance", etc.[1413] A letter of Guy Johnson to Lord Germain makes the same statements.