[FN] The late Secretary of War, General Peter B. Porter.
Having completed the objects contemplated by the expedition to the point at which he had arrived, General Sullivan re-crossed the Genesee with his army on the 16th of September, and set out an his return. Why he did not follow up his success and strike at the enemy's citadel at Niagara, which at that time was in no situation for formidable resistance, is a question difficult of solution. Unquestionably, in the organization of the expedition, the conquest of Niagara, the head-quarters of the foe of all descriptions, and the seat of British influence and power among the Indians, was one of the principal objects in view. But perhaps the forces of the American General had become too much weakened by sickness and fatigue, (they had not lost a hundred men in battle,) to allow of a farther advance. Certain it is, that the most important feature of the enterprise was not undertaken; and it will be seen in the sequel, that but small ultimate advantage resulted from the campaign. Stimulated by a yet keener thirst for revenge, clouds of savages were afterward again and again seen to sweep through the valley of the Mohawk with the scalping knife and the torch. The excuse offered by Sullivan himself was, the want of provisions; but this deficiency might have been most abundantly supplied from the ample stores of the Indians, which were either burnt or thrown into the river.
The return of the army was along the same track by which it had advanced. On the 20th, having re-crossed the outlet of Seneca Lake, Colonel Zebulon Butler was detached with the rifle corps and five hundred men, to pass round the foot of Cayuga Lake, and lay waste the Indian towns on its eastern shore; while on the next day, Lieutenant Colonel Dearborn, with two hundred men, was detached to perform the same service along the south-western shore. The main army pursued the most direct route to the Chemung and Tioga. On the 26th Colonel Dearborn's detachment returned, and on the 28th they were rejoined by Colonel Butler, who had burnt three towns of the Cayugas, including their capital. [FN] Dearborn had burnt six towns in his route, destroying at the same time large quantities of corn. On the same day Colonels Van Courtlandt and Dayton were detached upon a similar service, for the destruction of large fields of corn growing upon the banks of the Tioga and its tributaries.
[FN] The Oneidas, it will be recollected, had been interceding in behalf of the Cayugas, or at least a portion of them. Upon this point General Sullivan wrote in his official report as follows:—"I trust the steps I have taken in respect to the Cayugas will prove satisfactory. And here I beg leave to mention, that on searching the houses of these pretended neutral Cayugas, a number of scalps were found, which appeared to have been lately taken, which Colonel Butler showed to the Oneidas, who said that they were then convinced of the justice of the steps I had taken."
On the 30th of September the army reached its original point of concentration at Tioga, where, it will be recollected, a fort had been thrown up, and left in charge of a small garrison. This work was destroyed on the 3d of October. The army then resumed its return march, and passing through Wyoming, arrived at Easton on the 15th. The distance thence to the Genesee castle was two hundred and eighty miles. With the exception of the action at Newtown, the achievements of the army in battle were not great. But it had scoured a broad extent of country, and laid more towns in ashes than had ever been destroyed on the continent before. The red men were driven from their beautiful country—their habitations left in ruins, their fields laid waste, their orchards uprooted, and their altars and the tombs of their fathers overthrown.
There was, however, an episode to this campaign, if such a phrase may be allowed in military history, which, unexplained as it has been, appears like a very strange movement on the part of General Sullivan. It has been seen in the earlier portion of the present work, that when the great body of the Mohawks retired to Canada with the Johnsons, preparatory to taking up the hatchet against the Americans, the clan at the lower castle declined accompanying them. Thus far, moreover, during the whole progress of the war, they had preserved a strict neutrality. They had neither molested their white neighbors, nor been molested themselves; but were living quietly, cultivating their grounds in the midst of the best settled portion of Tryon County, or following the chase at their pleasure—and on terms of perfect amity and good-will with their white neighbors. By some means or other, however, General Sullivan had imbibed a distrust of these people, and on the 20th of September, while at the foot of Seneca Lake, he detached Colonel Gansevoort, with a corps of one hundred men, to Fort Schuyler From thence his orders were peremptory that he should proceed forthwith down the Mohawk to the said lower Indian castle, make all the Indians captives if possible, destroy their castle, and then proceed immediately with the said prisoners to head-quarters—the order explicitly forbidding that any of the prisoners so taken should be left at Albany; and the Colonel was at the same time enjoined, amidst all these measures of hostility, to show the Indians, so to be dispossessed and carried away by violence, "such necessary marks of civility and attention as might engage a continuance of their friendship, and give evidence of our pacific disposition toward them!" This was truly a surprising order, and, as the event proved, as uncalled for and unjust as it was incomprehensible. As Colonel Gansevoort's official report of his proceedings under this order will present the best view of the whole transaction, it is inserted entire:—
"Colonel Gansevoort to General Sullivan.
"Albany, October 8, 1779.