He could have truthfully added that but twenty years after, similar deeds were committed without the aid of Indian auxiliaries, by order of the same government, when it crushed, in Ireland, the rebellion of 1798.
Many of those who then met their death by the bullet or bayonet, or swung from the gallows, were akin to hundreds who marched and fought under Sullivan in this campaign. A kinsman of one of them, Francis McKinley, who suffered death on the scaffold in Ireland at that time, is now president of the United States. The destruction of the thriving settlement of Wyoming and Cherry Valley, and the devastation along the banks of the Susquehanna, finally brought Congress to a realization of the situation.
That body adopted a resolution on February 27, 1779, authorizing General Washington to take the most effective measures for protecting the people and punishing the Indians, who were allies of the British. The commander-in-chief made no delay. An expedition consisting of four brigades, made up of some of the best troops in the Continental Army, was organized. Their composition was as follows: First Brigade, Brig.-Gen. William Maxwell, four regiments from New Jersey; Second Brigade, Brig.-Gen. Enoch Poor, three New Hampshire and one Massachusetts regiments. Third Brigade, Brig.-Gen. Edward Hand, three Pennsylvania regiments, a German battalion, three independent companies, and a battalion of Morgan’s riflemen. Fourth Brigade, Brig.-Gen. James Clinton, four New York regiments and a section of artillery.
The command of the expedition was first offered to General Gates, the hero of Saratoga, as a matter of courtesy, with the request, in case he did not desire to assume command, to turn it over to General Sullivan. The expected happened; it was refused, and the army was placed under Sullivan’s leadership. Washington’s instructions were, in short, to devastate, and, if possible, destroy the Indian settlements totally, and to capture as many persons as possible. Sullivan had no easy task before him. Difficulties, which are needless to mention here, beset him on all sides. Some of the troops were discontented, almost to the point of mutiny, on account of the worthless character of the Continental paper money paid them; and delays in furnishing supplies were not among the least annoyances of the situation.
Sullivan’s energetic disposition and tireless efforts, aided largely by Washington’s sympathetic encouragement, finally overcame all obstacles, and on June 14, 1779, his command had reached Wyoming. It is not necessary to describe in detail this campaign, for it is too well known.
Washington’s instructions were carried out to the letter. The powerful confederacy of the Indians, for more than a century the terror of the country and the peaceful settlers, was completely destroyed; their villages, orchards, and cornfields were devastated beyond reparation, and the greater part of themselves, not killed or captured, driven forever beyond the Canadian border. No repetitions of Wyoming and Cherry Valley were possible thereafter. For his conduct of the campaign, Sullivan was severely criticised. The destruction of property was cruel and needless, it was said, and the treatment of the Indians not in harmony with civilized warfare.
To these strictures no reply was made. Sullivan heard them in silence, and through life bore them uncomplainingly. He had obeyed the orders given him by General Washington, and time has done him justice. The great state of New York has ever held his name in grateful remembrance. It is borne by one of its counties. Nearly twenty years ago the people dwelling in the valleys through which marched his victorious troops, assembled at Newtown, Waterloo, Geneseo, and Aurora, to celebrate the first centennial of the campaign, which opened up the fertile lands of Central New York to the victors in the War of Independence.
The principal celebration was at Newtown. Among the participants were the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire, the provinces furnishing full three quarters of Sullivan’s soldiers; and Gen. William T. Sherman, then commander of the United States Army. In his address, he said: “Washington gave General Sullivan orders to come here and punish the Six Nations for their cruel massacre in the Valley of the Wyoming, and to make it so severe that it would not occur again, and he did so. General Sullivan obeyed his orders like a man and like a soldier.”
As a recognition of what had been done, Sullivan and his troops received the thanks of Congress, and were complimented in General Orders by Washington. At the conclusion of his military service, John Sullivan returned to his native state, where he lived to the hour of his death, honored and respected by those who knew him best. He was its third governor, its first United States judge, appointed by Washington, and the organizer, and for a time commander, of the state militia.
He was attorney-general of his state for years, and was succeeded later in the same position by his son and grandson. His great great grandson, Captain John Sullivan, was an officer in the Thirteenth N. H. Regiment in the Civil War. From the entrenchments round Boston in the winter of 1775 he wrote to the Committee of Safety of New Hampshire, in response to its request, giving his opinion of the kind of a government we ought to have for he was in favor of separation from the outset. On the line of his suggestions was drafted the State Constitution of 1776, which was the first to be adopted by any of the thirteen colonies, and this at a time when the minds of many, prominent in public affairs, were wavering on the question of independence. There was no intention to give, in this paper, any account in detail of the great events occurring between 1682 and 1779, save what is necessary to bring out as clearly as possible the characters and the deeds of a few men of Irish blood who aided largely in furnishing material for making American history, and as well to give the country which produced them the credit to which it is justly entitled.