Natives v. Settlers: the Battle of Wyoming, July 8, 1778

In a few recent posts, we've run across the name Wyoming, having nothing to do with the current western U.S. state of Wyoming.  The state received its name from a poem written about the battle.  So let's sort out the confusion here.

As we're aware, the Iroquois Nations largely sided with the British, though the Tuscarora, Oneida and some individuals threw in their lot with the Americans.  After the defeat of Burgoyne's forces at Saratoga, the French came into the Revolutionary War on the American side.  The British were worried that the French would try to retake New France, the swath of territory beyond the Appalachian Mountains stretching from Quebec to New Orleans.  Little did the British know that the Franco-American treaty forming the alliance expressly forbid this.  Or maybe they did now, and realized that most treaties weren't worth the paper they were written on.  Either way, the British began recruiting Loyalists and Natives to harass the frontier borders of their former colonies, again using the Natives to create panic and hopefully scare Americans into loyalty and obedience to Britain. 

Loyalist Major John Butler, who'd already taken part in the Battle of Oriskany in 1777, augmented his force, known as the Queen's Rangers.  Butler had a reputation similar to that of Bannistre Tarleton in South Carolina.  His men were known for their violence in battle and willingness to lay waste any Patriot farms or towns they came across.  Unlike Tarleton, who didn't ally with Natives, Butler had convenient scapegoats, Seneca warriors under Cornplanter and Mohawk warriors under Joseph Brant.  Butler and his Native allies began raiding settlements along the Susquehanna and Allegheny Rivers and eventually decided to split up.  Butler and Cornplanter would turn their attention to the Wyoming Valley, in what is now the Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Hazleton area, while Brant and his men went further North. 

The British forces arrived in the Valley on June 30, 1778 and Butler sent a surrender demand to Fort Wintermoot.  Meanwhile, defenders were gathering at nearby Forty Fort, where the present-day town now stands.  As they marched to the defense of Fort Wintermoot on July 3, 1778, Butler and his Native allies, who had remained hidden in the brush, rushed on them in ambush.  A running battle ensued.  As the American troops fled the field, the Iroquois pursued.  Only sixty Patriots managed to escape and five later survived being taken prisoner.  Butler later reported that the warrior with him took 227 scalps.  The next day, the Americans surrendered Forty Fort and two other forts.  These soldiers were paroled and allowed to march away unharmed.  Both Butler's account and accounts from the Patriot side indicate that anyone who had surrendered or who had not taken part in the battle was unharmed.  Patriot burial parties found 60 bodies on the battlefield and 36 more along the line of retreat.  Loyalist/Native losses were 3 killed and 8 wound.  American losses were about 340 killed and 20 captured.

The disproportionate share of American losses set the frontier propaganda machine in full swing and this encounter, which was more properly a battle as both sides were under arms, became for many years the Wyoming Valley Massacre.  That the British were using Native allies against Americans only fueled American anger and commitment to the fight.  John Butler was vilified as a monster but the man who got the lion's share of the blame was Joseph Brant, who hadn't even been there but who was more well-known among Settlers than Cornplanter.  Patriot leaders were eager for a means of punishing Brant personally and knocking the Iroquois out of the War, which was the object of the Sullivan Expedition in 1779.  Meanwhile, the Battle itself was destined to become a footnote in the larger American Revolutionary War.

Enter a Scottish poet named Thomas Campbell, who wrote a poem called "Gertrude of Wyoming", about a young girl who is taken prisoner after the battle by none other than Joseph Brant, the Monster himself.  Campbell had never been in the Revolution, nor had he been to Pennsylvania, or talked to anyone involved in the Battle.  His version of the poem caught on like wildfire and was popular for decades after its publication in 1809.  In 1865, when Congress was considering a bill to make Wyoming a territory, Congressman Mitchell Ashley of Ohio came up with the name Wyoming for the territory, because "Gertrude of Wyoming" was his favorite poem.  Later, half a world away, in Gosford, New South Wales, Australia, Federick Augustus Haley gave one of the suburbs of the town the name Wyoming after the poem, not after the battle.  As for Joseph Brant, it would take scholars until the 20th century to set the record straight on how monstrous he wasn't during the Revolution., including the fact that he often spared prisoners after battles and, had he been present at the Battle of Wyoming, likely would have done so.