The Sullivan-Clinton Expedition of 1779

As we've seen with other Native tribes and alliances, War among the Colonial powers for control of North America often turned into civil war among the tribe or tribes most affected.  Another tragic case of this was the Six Nations of the Iroquois/Haudenosaunee in New York.  Key battles of the upcoming Revolution would be fought on their land and the price they would pay was a terrible one.

As the Revolutionary War loomed, opinion amongst the leadership of the Iroquois tribes was mixed.  A vocal majority, led by Joseph Brant of the Mohawk, believed that their best bet lay with the British.  Other leaders were not so sure.  Eventually, the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga and Onondaga, with some individuals and bands excepted, would declare for Britain.  The Oneida and Tuscarora, rallying behind Oneida leader John Shenandoah, chose the Americans.  We've already discussed Shenandoah's role in a previous post. 

Joseph Brant and Seneca war leader Cornplanter began staging raids against Settlers who had trespassed on Iroquois land.  They were working independently of Loyalist raiders, such as Butler's Rangers, who were also burning farms and settlements, mostly along the Mohawk River.  However, the Natives, particularly Brant, got raked over by the Patriot propaganda machine.  According to American news sheets, Brant was guilty of everything from scalping, looting and burning, to torturing babies and violating women.  He became known as "Monster Brant" in the American press.  Never mind that Brant intervened several times on behalf of prisoners after raids and battles, preventing their execution or torture and allowing them food and permitting their ransom.  Nor yet that it was Butler and another Seneca leader who were responsible for the Wyoming Massacre of July, 1778, and Butler again who was primarily responsible for the Cherry Valley Massacre of November, 1778.  Public opinion fixated on Brant with Cornplanter thrown into the mix. 

George Washington finally decided to send a punitive expedition against the Iroquois in general, and Brant, Cornplanter and Loyalist Butler in particular.  The Continental Congress and Washington's generals had been concerned about handling a major Indian war while trying to conduct the Revolution and plans for preemptive and punitive strikes had been in the works since 1778, but continued raids in New York cemented Washington's resolve.  He chose General John Sullivan of Pennsylvania, a man who had grown up on the frontier and new what Indian warfare could be.  Washington's orders to Sullivan read;

The Expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.

I would recommend, that some post in the center of the Indian Country, should be occupied with all expedition, with a sufficient quantity of provisions whence parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed.

But you will not by any means listen to any overture of peace before the total ruinment of their settlements is effected. Our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them.

Sullivan's expedition began with 3 brigades at what is now Easton, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River to Athens, Pennsylvania.  Meanwhile, New York General James Clinton was assembling another brigade at Schenectady, New York, to move up the Mohawk River toward the main Mohawk town at Canajoharie, and then to Otsego.  The two forces would then work toward each other, burning Native villages and destroying crops as they moved along.  Sullivan left Easton on June 18, 1779.  He met up with Clinton at the newly constructed Fort Sullivan where the Susquehanna and Chenung Rivers met.  On August 26, 1779, the combined armies continued their march.  They had one major battle, near Newtown on August 29, 1779.  They then penetrated deep into Seneca territory at what is now Cuylerville, New York before returning to Fort Sullivan and later rejoining Washington's main army at Morristown, New Jersey.  According to Sullivan's count, they had destroyed over 40 Native villages.  Another expedition, led by Col. Daniel Brodhead, whom we've already encountered in a previous post, marched against the Seneca and Delaware of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Southwestern New York, destroying 10 villages and likewise wreaking havoc.  The final outrage occurred at Lower Mohawk Castle, where Colonel Peter Gansevoort carried out orders to arrest every male Mohawk Native, no matter his age.  The men were rounded up and incarcerated at Albany until 1780.  The irony was that these Mohawks were neutral, having refused Brant's offer to join the British and were living peacefully on their farms.  After their families were evicted in their absence, White settlers were given these farms for their own.

These few numbers don't do justice to the terrible toll wrought on Iroquois families who were burnt out of their homes, their crops, livestock and farm implements destroyed.  Though the Americans lost a handful of men in encounters with Natives along their route of march, the death toll of warriors trying to defend their homes, and non-combatants uprooted and sent fleeing as refugees toward the British base at Fort Niagara was never tallied by either side.  Natives of all six tribes, and individuals of other tribes who had allied with them, crowded into refugee camps around Fort Niagara, dependent on the British for rations throughout a bitter winter.  While Washington and his men were freezing at winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey, in conditions as bad if not worse as Valley Forge, hundreds of Native men, women and children were doing the same, with even less in the way of shelter, clothing, blankets or rations.  Brant, Cornplanter and other leaders later negotiated with the British to settle most of these refugees in Canada.

Iroquois power in New York was crushed and most of their lands, with a few exceptions, were now in American hands.  The destruction of the Iroquois power base left open the Great Lakes region and the Ohio River Valley, where some of the bitterest fighting between Natives and Settlers would take place in the next four decades.  The stage was set for yet more conflict

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