[FN-1] One of the old names of Unadilla.
[FN-2] This letter was recently found among the papers of General James Clinton.
Having thus, in a great measure, disencumbered themselves of their prisoners, the enemy proceeded on their journey by their usual route at that period, down the Susquehanna to its confluence with the Tioga, thence up that river into the Seneca country, and thence to Niagara. Mrs. Cannon, an aged lady, and the mother of Mrs. Campbell, was likewise held in captivity; but being unfitted for traveling by reason of her years, the Indian having both in charge despatched the mother with his hatchet, by the side of the daughter, on the second day of their march. Mrs. Campbell was driven along by the uplifted hatchet, having a child in her arms eighteen months old, with barbarous rapidity, until the next day, when she was favored with a more humane master. In the course of the march a straggling party of the Indians massacred an English family named Buxton, residing on the Butternut Creek, and reduced their buildings to ashes. [FN]
[FN] There is some reason to doubt whether this murder of the Buxtons was not the work of the Oneidas, during their excursion to Unadilla and the Butternuts.
Thus terminated the expedition of Walter N. Butler and Joseph Brant to Cherry Valley. Nothing could exhibit an aspect of more entire desolation than did the site of that village on the following day, when the militia from the Mohawk arrived, too late to afford assistance. "The cocks crowed from the tops of the forest trees, and the dogs howled through the fields and woods." The inhabitants who escaped the massacre, and those who returned from captivity, abandoned the settlement, until the return of peace should enable them to plant themselves down once more in safety; and in the succeeding Summer the garrison was withdrawn and the post abandoned.
Next to the destruction of Wyoming, that of Cherry Valley stands out in history as having been the most conspicuous for its atrocity. And as in the case of Wyoming, both in history and popular tradition, Joseph Brant has been held up as the foul fiend of the barbarians, and of all others deserving the deepest execration. Even the learned and estimable counselor, who so long reported the adjudicated law of the State of New-York, [FN-1] in the tribute to the memory of the late John Wells, with which he closed the last volume of his juridical labors, has fallen into the same popular error; and applies the second stanza in the striking passage of "Gertrude of Wyoming," which called forth the younger Brant in vindication of his father's memory, to the case of his departed and eminent friend. [FN-2] It was indeed most true as applied to the melancholy case of Mr. Wells, of whose kindred "nor man, nor child, nor thing of living birth," had been left by the Indians. But it may be fearlessly asserted that it was not true as coupled with the name of Joseph Brant. It has already been seen that Brant was not the commander of this expedition; and if he had been, it is not certain that he could have compelled a different result. But it is certain that his conduct on that fatal day was neither barbarous nor ungenerous. On the contrary, he did all in his power to prevent the shedding of innocent blood; and had it not been for a circumstance beyond his control, it is more than probable that the distinguished counselor referred to, would not have been left "alone of all his race." Captain Brant asserted, and there is no reason to question his veracity, that on the morning of the attack, he left the main body of the Indians, and endeavored to anticipate their arrival at the house of Mr. Wells, for the purpose of affording protection to the family. On his way it was necessary to cross a ploughed field, the yielding of the earth in which, beneath his tread, so retarded his progress, that he arrived too late.
[FN-1] William Johnson, Esq. long reporter of the Supreme Court, the Court of Errors, and the Court of Chancery of this State.
[FN-2] The passage referred to—as unjust as it is poetical—will be found near the close of the second volume of the present work, in the sketch of the life of the younger Brant.