ARP376 Battle of Wabash

In late 1791, the US Army faced its first real challenge in battle.  The stakes were whether the Ohio  Territory would become part of the United States, or remain Indian territory.

Ohio in 1790

The Ohio territory was seen as the future of the United States.  Congress was counting on land sales there to help finance the federal government, and to begin paying off war debts.  The Northwest Ordinance had divided up the land and outlined how it would be auctioned and sold to settlers moving into the territory.  Virginia had already begun settling veterans on land north of the Ohio River.  The Ohio Company had established Marietta in 1788 and began selling land and settling the territory.

Arthur St. Clair had been appointed as Governor of the Northwest Territory.  To the extent the US had any army at all, almost all of it was located in Marietta with the purpose of making sure settlement proceeded as planned and for purposes of Indian pacification.  As I mentioned back in Episode 359, Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harmar remained in command of the US Army.

Battle of Wabash

Back in Episode 336, we covered how the US had entered into a series of treaties in 1785 giving it the legal possession of most of the Ohio Territory.  Many of the Indians who lived there, however, did not recognize the validity of those treaties, and were determined to keep the Americans from settling on their side of the Ohio River.

One of the leaders of this resistance was the Miami war chief Mihšihkinaahkwa, also known as Little Turtle.  We first discussed Little Turtle back in Episode 271, when he intercepted a force of French soldiers that were trying to advance through his territory toward Detroit in 1780.

His warriors massacred the soldiers, prisoners were tortured, mutilated, and burned alive, with a a few released so they could tell the story.  The purpose of this treat was a warning to stay out of Miami territory.  Little Turtle received some British support in his efforts to keep the Americans out of his territory.

With the arrival of US settlements at the end of the War, Little Turtle joined the Northwestern Confederacy, an alliance with other tribes including the Shawnee and Delaware, as well as the Iroquois under Joseph Brant.

Native warriors regularly conducted raids on settlements, killing settlers, burning their farms, and often kidnapping their children.  They did not restrict their raids to the Ohio territory.  Many raids crossed into Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Harmar Expedition

Harmar, by this time a general by brevet, and his officers regularly met with tribal leaders in hopes of establishing diplomatic understandings or trade agreements.  The army did not report engaging in any attacks on Indians.  In fact, Harmar had orders from the Secretary of War not to engage in any offensive operations.  The US wanted to avoid provoking a war.

Josiah Harmar

Frontier communities were largely responsible for their own protection.  They formed militias which were not afraid to engage with native tribes when they thought it was necessary.  But the growing presence of more and more settlers on what the Indians still regarded as their lands led to increased Indian attacks.  Territorial governor Arthur St. Clair reported that the Indians had killed, wounded or captured over 1500 men women and children since the end of the Revolutionary War.  St. Clair warned that if the government failed to act, the settlers would take increasingly aggressive actions on their own.  The Indians were also getting supplies and support from the British outpost still occupying Detroit.

US Officials determined that some of the most aggressive raids were coming from the Miami and neighboring tribes along the Wabash River, which mostly runs through what is today the State of Indiana.

Officials in Philadelphia, including President Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox, concluded that the army needed to engage in a sudden stroke with a large force to “chastize” the hostile tribes for their continued attacks.  This expedition would be similar to the Sullivan Expedition in New York during the Revolutionary War.  The army would march in force, burning crops and villages. Their ultimate target would be the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph Rivers, called Kekionga, near modern day Fort Wayne, and where a concentration of Native warriors were gathering.

The US Army, however, did not have nearly enough soldiers for such a mission.  Although Congress had recently authorized recruitment of nearly 1300 officers and men, the current US Army was probably closer to 500.  Many of these were spread out across outposts that could not simply be abandoned.  General Harmar was able to assemble about 320 officers and men for his expeditionary force.  He augmented this force by calling out the militia in Kentucky and western Pennsylvania.

Harmar Campaign

This raised over 1100 men, bringing the total to nearly 1500.  Harmar complained about the condition of the militia.  Many of those who turned out were hired substitutes.  Many were boys or old men.  The majority had not come with guns.  

The main army assembled primarily at Fort Washington, modern day Cincinnati, and marched into Indian territory in September.  A second smaller group of several hundred marched east from Vincennes.

Much of this area was wilderness, requiring the army to cut its own roads.  Progress was slow, often only a few miles per day.  Cold weather, disease, and insufficient rations soon began to take its toll.  Many militiamen, including at times entire units, tried to desert.

The force that marched east from Vincennes, never made it to their goal.  The group consisted of only about 50 regulars and over 250 militia.  Given the hardships of the march and a lack of food, the militia mutinied and abandoned the mission.  They ended up burning one small village and returning to Vincennes.

This second force from Vincennes, however, had been providing a distraction for the Indians, making it difficult for them to concentrate on Harmar’s main force.  As Harmar’s army advanced through the wilderness, they encountered little resistance.  Natives were well aware of the approaching army and fled their homes.  As a result, Harmar divided his forces so they could cover more ground, burning more villages and crops.

Battle of Kekionga

By October 17, the army reached Kekionga.  Harmar deployed Colonel John Hardin with about 300 men, mostly Kentucky militia, to take out a village several miles away, the home of Little Turtle.  Instead, they walked into an ambush set by Little Turtle.  The surprised militia panicked and ran away.  Many threw down their arms and fled without firing a shot.

Little Turtle

The result was a slaughter, about 100 men were killed, about one-third of the total force.  The US army commander with the force, Captain Armstrong reported hiding in a swamp that night, listening to the Indians celebrating their victory over the corpses of their vanquished.

Back at the main camp, Warriors began harassing the soldiers.  The Indians, who probably numbered over 1000, and could probably have taken the force, did not attack directly.

The army burned the village and destroyed an estimated 300 homes and 20,000 bushels of corn.  Unable to get the Indians into a decisive battle, the army began to withdraw.

A couple of days later, Colonel Hardin took another 400 men and returned to the village, hoping to catch the Indians by surprise and exact some revenge for the ambush he suffered earlier.  Little Turtle set up another ambush and attacked. This force of mostly regulars suffered about 80 killed.  The battle was a fierce one with a number of Indians killed as well, although exact numbers are unknown.  The brigade withdrew and the Indians did not pursue.

On November 3, Harmar’s army returned to Fort Washington, having lost a total of 183 men.  Harmar reported that the mission was a success.  They had burned a number of towns and set up a string of outposts in Indian territory.  As for the casualties, Harmar blamed the militia, referring to their "ignorance, imbecility, insubordination and want of equipment". 

Despite the rosy picture Harmar tried to paint, the consensus was that the mission was a failure. A court of inquiry cleared Harmar of any wrongdoing, and blamed the militia for the shortcomings of the campaign.  Despite being cleared, public opinion, including civilian leadership, were highly critical.  Many feared that the inconclusive attack would serve as a provocation and result in more attacks on settlements. 

This fear proved correct.  Native raids on towns in Ohio picked up over the winter and into the spring of 1791. Many Americans believed that the army had abandoned the region.  This resulted in more squatters moving into the territory as well.  Government officials needed to act decisively or the plans for the Northwest Territory would fail.

A New Army

Washington removed Harmar from command, reactivated the territorial Governor, Arthur St. Clair as a major general, and put him in command of the Army.  St. Clair, of course, had been a  major general during most of the Revolutionary War.  While returning to active service, St. Clair retained his position as territorial governor.  Washington also appointed an experienced second in command. Richard Butler had served as a colonel during the war, operating as a regimental commander in the Saratoga Campaign, later he transferred to Valley Forge, fighting at Monmouth and Yorktown. Washington personally recognized his abilities and gave him a brevet to brigadier general before the Revolution had ended.

Arthur St. Clair

After the war, Butler became a large land owner in Western Pennsylvania, and also served as a state judge in Pittsburgh, as well as a member of the state’s General Assembly.  Butler returned to full service as a full brigadier.

Knox requested that Congress authorize an expansion of the army to 3000.  The final law passed by Congress in March 1791 authorized a second regiment of 912 men, 2000 short term enlistments, and to call out the militia for six months.  

Another, former Continental General, Charles Scott, also took command of a militia army from Kentucky.  Scott’s first experience fighting Indians had been in the Braddock Campaign of 1755.  After the war, Scott had moved into the Kentucky territory to take his share of veteran’s land.  Two of his adult sons were killed by Indians, one of them in Harmar’s expedition.

The goal of this overwhelming force was to impress on the Indians and others, the power of the US Army and the futility of resistance. The goal, once again, was to burn Indian villages, and focus on the target at the center of the Wabash territory, controlled primarily by the Miami Indians who had defeated Harmar. 

There was some opposition.  Thomas Jefferson feared that the action would create a permanent need for a larger standing army and would increase the national debt. In an effort to resolve the issue, Washington agreed to send an emissary, the Chief Cornplanter of the Iroquois, along with Colonel Thomas Procter who had been a Continental officer who fought in the Sullivan expedition against the Iroquois.  The goal was to convince the western tribes to accept peace or else, as Knox put it, they would “send forth such number of warriors as would drive you entirely of the country” resulting in “absolute destruction to you, your women, and your children.”

In the end, Cornplanter refused to go, and Procter needed help getting across Lake Erie, which British officials refused to allow.  There were a few other half-hearted attempts to make diplomatic overtures, but none of these had any impact.  The consensus was that they needed to display overwhelming force before the Indians would come to heel.

The initial plan had been to organize the military campaign in the spring, and for the expedition to embark in July.  St. Clair had returned to Philadelphia for consultations and left for the west a few weeks after Congress passed the law authorizing the larger army in March, 1791.  St. Clair, however, was sick with gout and found it hard to travel.  He did not reach Fort Washington until mid-May.  When he got there, he found only about 150 regulars present and fit for duty.  

St. Clair’s first action was to deploy 500 of the mounted Kentucky militia to attack and distract the Indians from his primary target.  The commander of this secondary force was former Continental Colonel James Wilkinson.  You may recall Wilkinson from the Revolution, when he was an aide to General Horatio Gates.  Wilkinson had to resign in 1778 for his role in the Conway Cabal.  He later served nearly two years as the Continental Army’s Clothier General, but resigned from that position as well, generally considered a failure.

After the War, Wilkinson moved to the Kentucky territory, where he was a leader in the effort to separate Kentucky from Virginia.  He strongly opposed the ratification of the Constitution and was much more interested in an independent State of Kentucky.  What most people did not know at the time was that after Virginia ratified the Constitution, Wilkinson traveled to meet with the Spanish Governor in New Orleans.  His aim was to make a deal that would make Kentucky part of the Spanish Empire, and for this service he would receive a grant of 60,000 acres.  While Spain was not fully ready to put such an ambitious plan into effect, they did begin providing funds to Wilkinson for him to act as a Spanish agent.

For now though, Wilkinson’s interest aligned with the United States.  He wanted to stop the Indian raids on Kentucky.  Wilkinson and the Kentucky militia rode out in May toward the Wabash Valley.  At first he marched north toward Kekionga, but that was a feint.  He then rode his army west attacking villages further south along the Wabash River.

His attack on one village surprised the residence.  His soldiers managed to kill six men, two women, and one child.  He also captured 38 prisoners among those captured was Little Turtles daughter and grandchild.  He continued his rampage on a series of towns through August, burning homes and destroying crops.  After deciding his work was done, Wilkinson and his militia returned to their homes in Kentucky.

St. Clair's Camp Nov 4, 1791

Wilkinson’s raids were supposed to be a distraction while St. Clair’s main force made its attack. But the main army waited at Fort Washington.  It was not until September that General Butler arrived with the additional regulars.  The army set out in September, again moving slow as they cut their way through the wilderness.  To speed up the process Butler abandoned St. Clair’s orders to cut two parallel lines for the army, and instead focused on just one.  When St. Clair rejoined the army a few days later, he reprimanded Butler for violating orders. The result was a rift between the first and second in command of the army. The two men refused to speak to one another for the remainder of the campaign.

By October 12, the army reached Fort Jefferson, one of the outposts established by the Harmar Expedition.  This was less than half the distance of their 150 mile march to Kekionga.  By that time, frost was killing the forage and a lack of supplies was causing food shortages for the army.  St. Clair’s gout got so bad he could no longer ride a horse.  He continued in a litter carried between two horses.  After 60 of the Kentucky militia still with the main force deserted, St. Clair had to send about 300 soldiers to go after them.  St. Clair feared the deserters might capture the food supply wagons that they so desperately needed.

St. Clair had left Fort Washington with over 2400 men.  By the end of October, he had only less than 2000. After deploying a regiment to go after the deserters, he had at most 1700 men in the main body, although some estimates say this was as few as 1400.  There were also several hundred camp followers, women and children who were related to the soldiers.

The Battle

On November 3, the army reached the Wabash River and established a camp.  They had seen no organized enemy and did not bother to set up any real defenses.  

There was, however, a large force of Indians in the region.  The Wilkinson Expedition a few months earlier had motivated the tribes to form an army of their own.  Led by Little Turtle and the Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket, the Indian army consisted of between 1100 and 1400 warriors.

At around dawn the following morning, the Indians attacked the camp.  The surprise attack was devastating.  Most of the militia fled immediately.  Reports say that many of them simply dropped their guns and ran without firing a shot.

Richard Butler

Those who remained, including most of the regulars, were surrounded.  The Indian warriors overran the American artillery and killed the soldiers manning those guns.  The infantry fought mostly in hand to hand combat with bayonets.  St. Clair led a bayonet charge and had two horses shot out from under him during the battle. Although he had several bullet holes in his uniform, he managed to survive unscathed.  General Butler was shot twice.  He retired to his tent, where he died.

Some of the female camp followers took up arms and fought with the army.  Some of these women were killed in battle as well.  

The battle raged for about four hours.  Eventually, St. Clair ordered a breakout charge, leaving behind the wounded and their supplies.  Those who survived the charge and escaped returned to Fort Jefferson.  Any wounded left behind were killed and scalped.  The Indians did not pursue the retreating column for very long.  The Indians realized they were missing out on the spoils left in camp and returned to claim their share.

Aftermath

Although records differ, there were probably somewhere between 600 and 800 soldiers killed, and another 300 wounded.  As I said, those wounded who did not escape were killed.  So the wounded who did escape were able to run or ride a horse. US Army casualties were about two-thirds those involved in the battle.  Total losses cut the entire size of the US Army in half.

The Indians captured six cannons, 1200 muskets and ammunition, hundreds of horses, and wagons full of other supplies.  Indian casualties seem to have been rather light.  Little Turtle reported 21 killed and 40 wounded.

The American battlefield deaths were worse than any American battle during the Revolutionary war.  Many of the wounded were brought back to Fort Jefferson where they received inadequate medical care.  Most of them died there.

The entire campaign was an utter defeat.

Next week: we will look at the government’s response to this defeat, including some legislation that is still part of the government today.

- - -

Next Episode 377 Washington's First Veto

Previous Episode 375 Ratifying the Bill of Rights 

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Further Reading

Websites

Battle of Kekionga: https://archfw.org/heritage-trail/kekionga/the-battle-of-kekionga

A Narrative of Harmar’s Defeat: October 22nd, 1790 https://fortwaynehistory.com/2021/12/a-narrative-of-harmars-defeat-october-22nd-1790

Warner, Michael S. “General Josiah Harmar’s Campaign Reconsidered: How the Americans Lost the Battle of Kekionga.” Indiana Magazine of History, vol. 83, no. 1, 1987, pp. 43–64. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27791042.

St. Clair's Campaign of 1791: A Defeat in the Wilderness That Helped Forge Today's U.S. Army: https://www.army.mil/article/65594/st_clairs_campaign_of_1791_a_defeat_in_the_wilderness_that_helped_forge_todays_u_s_army

Eid, Leroy V. “American Indian Military Leadership: St. Clair’s 1791 Defeat.” The Journal of Military History, vol. 57, no. 1, 1993, pp. 71–88. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2944223

Nelson, Paul David. “General Charles Scott, the Kentucky Mounted Volunteers, and the Northwest Indian Wars, 1784-1794.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 6, no. 3, 1986, pp. 219–51. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3122915.

Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar: https://pasocietyofthecincinnati.org/gallery_post/lt-col-josiah-harmar

General Richard Butler: https://www.butlerhistory.com/richardbutler

The Battle of the Wabash: The Forgotten Disaster of the Indian Wars https://armyhistory.org/the-battle-of-the-wabash-the-forgotten-disaster-of-the-indian-wars

Fort statue honors Indian war survivor: https://dailystandard.com/archive/2009-04-17/stories/8528/fort-statue-honors-indian-war-survivor

Congress’ First Investigation, St. Clair’s defeat: https://sitemap.carllevincenter.org/congress-first-investigation-general-st-clairs-defeat

The First Congressional Investigation: St. Clair's Military Disaster of 1791: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA517709.pdf

VIDEO: St. Clair’s Defeat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDoLu_97IoE

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

General Harmar’s Campaign, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1954. 

Little Turtle, Chief of the Miami, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1954. 

Scott’s Wabash Expedition, 1791, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1953 (borrow only). 

St. Clair’s Defeat, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1954. 

Jarrold, Rachel Marian Arthur St. Clair: Governor of the Northwest Territory 1787-1802, Univ. of Illinois [Master’s thesis], 1909. 

Matthaidess III, Maj. Edwin D. “Our Loss Was Heavy”: Brigadier General Josiah Harmar’s Kekionga Campaign of 1790. Fort Leavenworth: School of Advanced Military Studies, 2015 (from Defence Technical Information Center).  

Potterf, Rex M. Little Turtle : 1752-1812, Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society, 1960. 

Smith, William Henry The St. Clair Papers, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, Cincinnati: Clarke, 1882. 

Young, Calvin M. Little Turtle (Me-she-kin-no-quah): The Great Chief of the Miami Indian Nation, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1917 (1956 reprint). 

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Calloway, Colin G. The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army, Oxford Univ. Press, 2014. 

Carter, Harvey L. The Life and Times of Little Turtle: First Sagamore of the Wabash, Univ. of Ill. Press, 1986. 

Gaff, Alan D. Field of Corpses: Arthur St. Clair and the Death of an American Army, Knox Press, 2025. 

Locke, Steven P. War Along the Wabash: The Ohio Indian Confederacy's Destruction of the US Army, 1792, Casemate, 2023. 

Schoenfield, Rick M. The Soldiers Fell Like Autumn Leaves: The Battle of the Wabash, Westholme Publishing, 2024. 

Winkler, John F. Wabash 1791: St Clair’s Defeat, Osprey Publishing, 2011.  

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

ARP262 Piqua Raid

In our last episode, the British in Georgia and South Carolina forced what was left of any organized resistance into the western mountains.  Leaders including Elijah Clark, Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter all had to escape from the British and loyalist forces under the overall command of General Charles Cornwallis.

Cornwallis’ main focus in late 1780 was in securing the more heavily-settled eastern parts of the southern colonies and moving north to secure North Carolina and hopefully eventually Virginia.  With a limited number of men, his main focus kept him looking forward.  As I discussed last time, Cornwallis devoted almost none of his resources to securing the lands in Georgia and South Carolina that were already considered retaken. 

Major Patrick Ferguson had the responsibility to raise new provincial regiments from within the conquered colonies, mostly with the support of provincial regiments that had been sent south from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.  Raising new regiments and pacifying the colonies had proven disappointing.  But as the summer of 1780 wore on, the British position seem to improve, especially following the destruction of the Continental Army at Camden.

The British also hoped to recruit more Native warriors to support the king in his time of need.

Native Views on the Revolution

As I’ve discussed before, a great many native tribes really hoped to remain neutral in what they saw as a fight between two different groups of Europeans.  That is mostly what the Continentals wanted since if the natives did take a side, it would likely be with the British.

Battle of Piqua

The history of native involvement in the Revolution follows a similar sad pattern to native interactions with the Europeans both before and after the war.  For the most part, tribes wanted to stay out of fights between others.  But they frequently had to deal with encroachments into their land. When they saw an opportunity to do something about it, they would fight, often brutally.  But almost always, the enemy would mount an even larger and more brutal campaign against them, usually forcing them to cede more land and move further west with their survivors.

I’ve already covered the Iroquois in western New York, who largely sided with the British operating out of Quebec and who had been forced by the Sullivan Campaign (see Episode 230) in 1779 to move into what is today Canada.

To the south of the Iroquois were the Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee who controlled the Ohio Valley.  Below them were the Cherokee, who controlled the areas west of settlements in Virginia and North Carolina.  South of the Cherokee were the Creek and Choctaw, which dominated the areas west of Georgia and South Carolina, as well as parts of Florida.  None of these tribes were particularly unified and there were many sub-tribes within these larger populations, which I won’t discuss too much as I could probably write an entire book on that topic alone.

I have discussed in earlier episodes how especially the Cherokee had tried to take advantage of the divisions early in the war to take back territory in the Carolinas, only to be beaten badly and forced to cede more land.

British agents hoped to use this discontent to encourage the native warriors to back British efforts to subdue the rebellious colonies.  They argued convincingly that the government in Britain was the Indians’ best hope of holding back the westward expansion that the colonists wanted.  As such, many local tribes were willing to give some backing to the British, but it never became the united all-out effort that might have made some difference.

Retreat to the Watauga Valley

As I mentioned last week, Colonel Thomas Brown was meeting with Creek leaders in Augusta, Georgia when they were attacked by Elijah Clarke’s militia.  This resulted in the British chasing Clark’s militia into the western part of North Carolina, which was still being disputed by settlers and natives.  Most of those doing the chasing were Creek and Cherokee warriors who had been the main defense available to Brown at Augusta.

Fort Watauga, NC

This loyalist force chased down and hanged many of the men they captured.  They burned the farms that belonged to families of the men who had taken up arms against Britain and were by this time on the run.  As a result, Clarke’s forces in North Carolina left them with about 300 militia and about 400 women and children who were families of his militia.

Although the British still considered the area where Clarke’s men ended up to be Cherokee Territory, the Cherokee had been forced to cede it after their 1775 uprising.  As a result, Clarke’s men and their families received a friendly welcome by the settlers living there.  These settlers were patriots by temperament, probably at least in part because the British government did not recognize the legality of their land claims in this area, but the patriot government did.  

Clarke’s retreat into this region spurred many of the locals, known as the “overmountain men” to activate their militias and move east to confront the loyalist forces under Patrick Ferguson, eventually leading the Battle of King’s Mountain, which I hope to get to soon.  Had the Cherokee still been in control of this region, Clarke might have found himself with nowhere to go. His men would have had to surrender or fight to the death.  Fortunately for them, the patriots still had this haven west of the mountains where they could regroup and attack again.

Patriot-Controlled Kentucky

To the North of Watauga, the Virginians under George Rogers Clark, no relation to Elijah Clarke, had secured most of the land up to the Ohio River in what was known as the Kentucky County of Virginia.  There were really no British settlements in the region.  The few non-Indian settlements in the region were Spanish or French settlers.  As I’ve discussed most recently, in Episode 249, George Rogers Clark had been fighting off encroachments mostly supported by British agents opening out of Detroit.  Most of those who Clark and his Virginians were facing were native warriors.

The most recent offensive against the Virginians had come in the Spring of 1780 when tribes, mostly from Canada, came down armed with British weapons and supplies, to attack the Spanish in Saint Louis and the Clarke’s Virginians in Cahokia.  The closest Continentals were up in Fort Pitt, in what is today western Pennsylvania.  

George Rogers Clark

Although Clarke had fought off the spring offensive, war chiefs among the Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo thought that they were in grave danger of losing their lands and had formed mutual defense pacts to support one another.  Further, small raiding parties from across the Ohio River continued to incite terror among isolated farms in the region.

In June, British officers supplemented by native warriors conducted several raids into the Kentucky region of Virginia.  Captain Henry Bird (aka Byrd), a British regular officer stationed in Detroit, marched a war party over 600 miles as part of the effort to retake the region.  Byrd’s warriors secured Martin’s Station, where he used field artillery to threaten the stockade.  The people inside surrendered.  As the natives plundered their property, Byrd took charge of the prisoners and eventually marched them back to Detroit over a six week period.  Byrd went on to destroy a number of other outposts before his return to Detroit.

The Virginians under Colonel Clark had built Fort Jefferson near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  The fort was named after Virginia’s current Governor, Thomas Jefferson.  While the fort itself was secure, and established Virginia’s presence in the region, it did not protect the many farms and homesteads in the region.

Clark determined that he would need to lead a force across the Ohio River to exact retribution and deter further attacks.  In late July, Clark assembled a force of about 1000 men.  Most of these were locals who turned out with the militia, but it also included his regiment of Virginia regulars.  All of these men were experienced Indian fighters, including Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone.

With Clark was Colonel Benjamin Logan, a veteran of Pontiac’s Rebellion and Lord Dunmore’s war.  He had been raised in Virginia and was one of the early settlers in Kentucky.  Logan would lead one of the three divisions.  

Colonel William Lynn (aka Linn) also took command of a division. Lynn had served as a scout for the Braddock expedition to Fort Duquesne back in 1755.  He also served on the Forbes Campaign of 1758, along with Colonel George Washington, in the second British effort to take Fort Duquesne. He was wounded during his service in Lord Dunmore’s war in 1774.  It is likely during this conflict that he first met George Rogers Clark.  Like the others Lynn had settled in Kentucky and was regularly involved in actions against the natives.

Also joining the expedition from Louisville was a Battalion under the command of James Harrod, a Pennsylvania native who had settled in Kentucky in 1774. Colonel Clark also took with him an artillery company with a brass six-pounder field gun that he had captured at Vincennes the year before.

Even as Clark gathered his army, the native forces were on alert and hostile to any movements.  A small hunting detail from the Louisville militia moved away from the main force as it traveled to meet up with Clark.  They stumbled across an abandoned Indian camp and were shortly thereafter ambushed by a small group of native warriors. The group suffered ten casualties, including two killed and two wounded so badly they had to be returned to Louisville for care.  

The other six wounded were able to make it to the rendezvous at Licking, where they remained to convalesce and protect the supplies left there.  The fort that Clark established there at Licking, as a supply base, later became the site of the town of Cincinnati.

Kentucky Theater - 1780

On August 2, despite insufficient food supplies, the army began its march north.  Clark’s division led the column, with Logan’s division protecting the rear.  To guard against ambush, Clark deployed the men in four lines about 40 yards apart, with flankers to monitor for attackers.  The seventy-mile march was a difficult one, given that the men had to cut a road for wagons and the artillery.

Clark’s targets were two Indian towns that operated as supply bases for the raiders: Chillicothe and Piqua.  The force reached Chillicothe the evening of August 5.  Reconnaissance found the villagers were in the process of abandoning their homes.  Word of their arrival had reached the inhabitants, who fled their homes.  The column rushed ahead to attack whoever might be left, but found Chillicothe empty, although food left cooking over the fires indicated that some had fled just moments before their arrival.

The Shawnee had set on fire a council house and a fort. The Virginians then went about looting what they could in the town and burning what they could not carry.  This included all the buildings and several hundred acres of crops.

Clark received word that the local Shawnee were prepared to stand and fight an Piqua, about twelve miles away.  After two days in Chillicothe, Clark ordered his Virginians on a night march through a downpour.  The weather forced the column to stop, so that they did not reach the fort until the following afternoon, August 8.

Piqua

Piqua was a center of activity for the Shawnee, who had settled in this region about twenty-five years earlier.  It consisted of large log houses in a line that stretched about three miles.  The homes were spread out so that residents could grow beans and corn in large gardens around the homes.  On an elevation the people had built a stockade for defense.  It was also used as a meeting place for political gatherings and for the local council.

Black Hoof

Some records indicate that about 3000 people lived at Piqua before the war.  With the advance of the Virginians, most of the women and children fled the town.  They had received a warning in advance from French settlers in Vincennes, or from a deserter from Clark’s army.  Remaining to defend the town were about 450 warriors.  Most were local Shawnee, but were being supported by Mingo, Wyandot, and Delaware, as well as a handful of loyalists, all facing about one thousand attackers.  A chief named Black Hoof led the Shawnee into battle.

Black Hoof was an experienced warrior.  Twenty-five years earlier he had been a warrior at the Battle of the Monongahela, near modern day Pittsburgh.  He and his fellow warriors decimated the British Army under General Braddock, and gave young Colonel George Washington his first experience in a major battle.

It is believed he also participated in the Battle of Point Pleasant during Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774, and was involved in the siege of Boonesborough in 1778.  He had devoted his entire life to staving off the encroachment of Virginians into his tribe’s land.

The Attack

Clark divided his men into three divisions.  Colonel Logan led one division along the river to prevent any Shawnee from escaping from Piqua to the east.  Colonel Lynn led a second division against the defenders’ left flank.  Colonel Clark brought his regulars and artillery against the center toward the stockade.

Upon seeing the size of the attacking force, many of the Shawnee warriors withdrew from the town.  They were able to escape because Colonel Logan’s forces, who were supposed to be in a position to attack these retreating men, got mired down in a swamp turning their march, and were unable to get into position in time.

Piqua Battle Map

A portion of Shawnee stood and fought in Piqua, among them was the loyalist Simon Girty, who remained on the field, despite the fact that the Americans had a price on his head, dead or alive for his treason and his support of Indian warriors who tortured and killed American prisoners.

The fight lasted for several hours, with each side attempting to outflank the other, and sometimes involving brutal  hand to hand combat.  The Virginians had to ford a river while taking enemy fire Eventually the defender’s of Piqua withdrew and made their escape from the much larger force of attackers.  

After some time, Clark managed to bring up his canon, which fired about fifteen rounds into the stockade.  The native defenders attempted to sally forth and take the cannon.  Clark ordered two white flags raised and called for a cease-fire.  The native warriors continue to move forward, causing the artillery company to abandon the cannon.  At that point, Rogers order the white flags lowered and fired on the enemy.  The advancing warriors quickly dispersed and fled into the cornfields to make their escape.

During the battle, an American prisoner of the Shawnee, Joseph Rogers, attempted to escape and flee to the American lines.  He was shot during the battle but managed to reach his cousin, George Rogers Clark, before dying in the colonel’s arms.

The Virginians spent the rest of the day trying to track down and kill any remaining enemy. That night, they camped around the burned remains of the enemy fort.  The following day, the Virginians found a native man in a field tending to his wounded son.  They executed both of them.  They also executed a female prisoner that they had captured.  They also dug up several graves for the purpose of obtaining loot and scalps.

In response after the army withdrew, the Shawnee brought several militia prisoners who had been captured weeks earlier.  At the site of the destroyed town, the natives tied their prisoners to stakes and burned them alive. They also dug up the graves of several attackers who died in battle and scalped the corpses. 

Total casualties for the battle are unclear.  Clark reported only fourteen of his men killed and thirteen wounded.  However, a review of other witness accounts indicates that American casualties were probably three times that number.  Clark also noted only five enemy dead, and three wounded, but since the Shawnee often carried off their casualties, and we have no good records for them, their losses were almost certainly much higher as well.

Aftermath

With Piqua in the possession of the Americans, Clark and his men set about burning the town and all of the surrounding corn fields.  They also burned a nearby British trading post known as Loramie’s Store. Passing through Chillicothe on their return, they continued to destroy more crops in that area. Once back across the Ohio River on August 14, they separated, and the militia returned to their homes.  Clark would travel east back to Richmond, where he attempted to get Governor Jefferson to back a larger invasion force to take Detroit from the British.

Among the witnesses of the destruction at Piqua was a twelve year old boy named Tecumseh.  The future war chief observed the destruction of his hometown personally and carried the pain of the destruction with him for the rest of his life.  The Shawnee abandoned Piqua and established a new town about twenty miles further north.  The loss of their crops led to a hungry winter, and a desire to seek revenge in the following spring.

- - -

Next Episode 263 Hartford Conference 

Previous Episode 261 Augusta Raid

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Further Reading

Websites

Martin’s Station: https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/443

Destruction of Ruddle’s and Martin’s Fort: https://kynghistory.ky.gov/Our-History/History-of-the-Guard/Documents/DestructionofRuddlesandMartinsFort.pdf

Fraser, Kathryn M. “Fort Jefferson: George Rogers Clark’s Fort At The Mouth Of The Ohio River, 1780-1781.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 81, no. 1, 1983, pp. 1–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23379603

Rauch, Steven J. “Southern (Dis)Comfort: British Phase IV Operations in South Carolina and Georgia, May–September 1780.” Army History, no. 71, 2009, pp. 34–50. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26296758

Conkwright, Bessie Taul. “A Sketch OF THE Life and Times OF GENERAL BENJAMIN LOGAN.” Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, vol. 14, no. 41, 1916, pp. 19–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23368558

Colonel William Lynn: https://filsonhistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/publicationpdfs/20-3-4_Pioneer-Linns-of-Kentucky_Beattie-George-William-Helen-Pruitt-Beattie.pdf

J. Martin West, George Rogers Clark and the Shawnee Expedition of 1780 http://npshistory.com/series/symposia/george_rogers_clark/1991-1992/sec1.htm

Battle of Piqua http://touringohio.com/history/battle-of-piqua.html

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Bodley, Temple George Rogers Clark: His Life and Public Services, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1926. 

Clark, George R. George Rogers Clark Papers 1771-1781, Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1912. 

James, James A. The Life of George Rogers Clark, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1928. 

Randall, E. O.  History of Ohio; The Rise and Progress of an American State, vol. 2, New York: Century History Co. 1912.

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995 (read on archive.org). 

Harrison, Lowell Hayes George Rogers Clark and the War in the West, Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1975 (read on archive.org). 

Nester, William R. George Rogers Clark: “I Glory in War”, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2012. 

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

ARP230 Sullivan Campaign

Over the summer and fall of 1779, the Continental Army, in concert with New York militia, embarked on a campaign of destruction against the Iroquois.  It became known as the Sullivan Expedition, after the commanding officer, General John Sullivan.  The goal of the expedition was to wipe out the remaining Iroquois villages in update New York that had been supporting raids against settlers.

The Americans had already gone on a similar mission against one of the Iroquois tribes, the Onondaga.  This action was focused primarily against the Seneca and Cayuga tribes, the two western most tribes in the Confederacy.  The Mohawk had already largely been displaced, and the Oneida and Tuscarora were mostly allied with the Americans.  The Seneca was the largest of the Iroquois tribes, making up nearly 50 percent of the Iroquois Confederacy.  Seneca land, on the western part of the Iroquois Confederacy, had historically faced the brunt of most warfare, leading to a reputation of the Seneca being particularly ferocious warriors.

The Continental Congress’ Board of War had proposed a similar campaign for 1778, with Horatio Gates leading the assault, and including the capture of Fort Detroit.  Gates, however, was never able to get the resources and never even really even began efforts to execute such an expedition.  

Iroquois Raids

Joseph Brant, 1776

The Iroquois, under leaders such as Joseph Brandt and Cornplanter, and with loyalist support from leaders like John Butler and his son Walter Butler, conducted regular raids throughout upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania, including what became known as the Wyoming Valley Massacre and the Cherry Valley Massacre.  These raids were designed to force settlers to withdraw from the area, and to return lands to the Iroquois, who would operate under crown protection from Quebec.  Iroquois and loyalists killed or captured numerous settlers, destroyed property and food, hoping that the survivors would move to safety, further to the south and east.

The settler population did decrease, but many remained, living near one of the many numerous small forts that were built to defend against the constant threat of raids and surprise attacks.  Those settlers who lived in harm’s way, appealed to the state government and to the Continental Army for protection and assistance against the attacks.

American Response

Washington had discussed the Iroquois problem at length with the Continental Congress during his visit to Philadelphia over the prior winter. Initially, initially, Gates was offered the command of the expedition in 1779, but he declined.  Washington then turned to General John Sullivan.

Sullivan, by this time, was a reliable veteran of several campaigns, most recently the assault on Newport, Rhode Island.  In May 1779, George Washington gave orders to General Sullivan to assemble an army of annihilation.

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.

So Washington's made very clear here, he was not talking just about attacks against hostiles.  He was talking about wiping out all of the Indian settlements in the region that might be able to provide any assistance to enemies going forward.  In doing that, they were to destroy their homes, destroy their food, destroy everything, and force them to leave the area.

The plans called for a three-pronged attack.  General Sullivan would assemble an army at Easton, Pennsylvania, and move north up the Susquehanna River.  Sullivan’s Continentals included New Hampshire and Massachusetts regiments under the command of General Enoch Poor, The New Jersey Brigade under William Maxwell, and Pennsylvania regiments under General Edward Hand.

A second force under Brigadier General James Clinton would move from Otsego Lake, down the Susquehanna to meet up with Sullivan at Tioga.  A third division under Colonel Daniel Broadhead would leave Fort Pitt, in Pennsylvania, moving north into western New York.  Eventually, the plan called for all three Armies to merge and attack Fort Niagara.  However, the main goal was for these to destroy all enemy towns and villages, and to kill or capture any members of hostile tribes that they encountered.

Slow Start

Washington had hoped that the armies would begin marching in spring.  General Sullivan delayed as he called for more food and supplies to support his army of over 3000 men while on the march. Sullivan arrived in Easton on May 7.  He remained there for about six weeks before leaving in mid-June.  He marched north for a few days before reaching the Wyoming Valley, where he camped again and awaited more supplies.  

 Gen. John Sullivan

Sullivan complained that the food shipped to his army was moldy or otherwise inedible.  Supplies of clothing were inadequate.  Even the cattle were so weak that they could not walk.  Sullivan also complained that he still did not have enough men.  Even though 3000 was a large number, Sullivan had to leave behind men to guard his rear, meaning his forces would already be depleted before they could reach the enemy.  He had been promised another 750 Pennsylvania Rangers who never arrived.  Sullivan even bypassed Washington to write President John Jay directly with his concerns.

Finally, Sullivan departed Wyoming for New York on July 31.  By that time, he was so laden down with supplies that his soldiers complained that it was nearly impossible to get all the wagons through the wilderness trails.

The delay also meant that any element of surprise was lost.  British General Frederick Haldimand in Quebec had received reports about Sullivan’s Army.  He did not send any forces to engage though.  Haldimand believed that the Americans would move to assault Fort Niagara and then march into Quebec. So the British mostly reinforced their defensive positions in Canada and awaited that attack.

As Sullivan’s army made its way up the Susquehanna, they found abandoned Indian villages, which they pillaged and burned.  Although the Indians could not assemble the numbers to challenge the Continentals, they did make their presence known.  On July 15, they killed and scalped one man and wounded another who were driving horses to the army.  Two days later, they killed and wounded two more.  Soldiers had to stay on alert at all times, and keep together as much as possible.  Several other soldiers died of heat exhaustion or drowning during this difficult march.

By mid-August, Sullivan reached his first goal, Tioga.  There, they built a fort with a stockade.  As Sullivan awaited the arrival of General Clinton’s division, he sent a scouting party to the Indian village of Chemung, a dozen miles to the north.  The scouts reported several hundred Indian warriors. 

Sullivan took the bulk of his army to surround the village, but found it deserted.  The Indians had abandoned the village to the superior force.  The Continentals burned the forty houses in the village, as well as crops growing in the field.  General Hand led a brigade further north in search of the Indians.  He ran into an ambush but, with his larger numbers, quickly overwhelmed his attackers.  The natives abandoned the attack after killing seven Continentals and wounding thirteen more.

Clinton’s March

James Clinton

General James Clinton had assembled his force of about 1600 Continentals and militia at Otsego, near modern day Cooperstown.  While he waited, he had his men dam the river.  On August 9th, as he prepared to march, his men destroyed the dam, sending flood waters down the Susquehanna.  Clinton had built 200 small boats carrying his supplies, which rode the flood waters downriver, at the same time destroying riverside villages and planting fields along the way.

The soldiers marched behind the flooding river, burning, looting, and destroying the villages that they found in their path.  After about ten days of marching Clinton’s forces met up with about 1000 men under General Poor that Sullivan had deployed in search of Clinton.  The combined force marched back to Tioga, arriving on August 22.  With Clinton’s arrival, Sullivan had an even larger force of about 4500 men under his command.

Newtown

This enlarged Army left camp on August 26, leaving a small garrison at Tioga, in the new Fort Sullivan. Sullivan deployed his army’s four divisions.  Hand’s division took the lead, including three companies of riflemen under Colonel Daniel Morgan.  Maxwell marched on the left flank and Poor on the right flank.  Clinton’s division marched in the rear.  Movement was slow as the men worked their way through the wilderness.  Moving ammunition wagons proved particularly frustrating.  Soldiers had cut up their tents to make canvas bags so that they could carry flour and other provisions on their backs rather than relying on wagons.

As they approached the Iroquois village of Newtown, scouts reported that the enemy was concentrating forces there.  Loyalist Colonel Walter Butler had combined his roughly 250 Butler’s Rangers with a 1000 man force of mostly Seneca warriors led by Sayenqueraghta [phonetically rendered as Kaieñãkwaahtoñ] and others Iroquois under Joseph Brandt and Cornplanter.

As Sullivan had slowly assembled his army all spring and summer, the loyalists and Iroquois tried to assemble an army to oppose them.  Without the cooperation of British Regulars though, the best they could do was a force that was somewhere between one-third and one-fourth size of the Continentals.  The Iroquois determined they would make their stand just outside of Newtown.  They built a redoubt at the top of a hill on the road leading to Newtown, giving them a view of the approaching enemy.  They also extended the defenses in a U shape down each side of the road, inside the forest line.  The hope was that the Continentals would approach the redoubt and begin battle.  Warriors would then emerge against the rear of the column on both sides of the road, throwing the Continentals into chaos and panic.

Battle of Newtown

The Americans approached Newtown on August 29.  Using a common tactic, Iroquois warriors fired on the front of the column, then retreated quickly down the road. They hoped to get the Americans to chase after them, leading them into that larger ambush.  The lead forces, however, under General Hand, experienced with Indian fighting, suspected a trap. They had Iroquois scouts of their own, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge warriors who predicted such a trap.  

Instead, Hand brought up a number of small field artillery to fire on the enemy redoubt from a distance.  At the same time, the two flanking divisions attempted to move around the enemy and surround the loyalist forces.  One flank would attack first as a feint, drawing more warriors to that side.  Then the other flank would strike the weakened other side and roll up the enemy.

It was a good plan, but did not execute very well.  The wilderness terrain made advancing slow and difficult.  The loyalists managed to see the trap unfolding in time to make their escape.  Most of the loyalist militia and Iroquois warriors escaped through a swampy area where the Americans did not follow.

The end result was what could have been a major bloody battle ended up with casualties of a skirmish.  Out of thousands engaged, the loyalists suffered only 17 killed, 16 seriously wounded and 2 captured.  The Americans suffered 11 killed and 32 wounded.  The bulk of the loyalists and Iroquois escaped, ceding the field to the Americans, but suffering few battle casualties.

The Americans then proceeded into Newtown, destroying all of the buildings, supplies, and surrounding fields.  After the battle, the loyalist forces were unable to regroup for another fight.  So, the Americans continued on their march, destroying more Iroquois towns and food supplies.

Broadhead Expedition

Around the same time as the battle of Newtown, Colonel Broadhead had left Fort Pitt and was marching up the banks of the Allegheny River into New York. 

Initially command of this expedition was going to fall to General Lachlan McIntosh.  You may recall that McIntosh had been involved in much of the early war events in Georgia.  After he killed Button Gwinnett, the President of Georgia, in a duel, Washington ordered McIntosh north to avoid any revenge attacks against him by Gwinnett allies.  McIntosh spent the winter in Valley Forge, then had taken command at Fort Pitt, where he had hoped to organize a campaign against Fort Detroit.

By the spring of 1779 though, when the Sullivan Expedition was getting organized, the British had captured Georgia and Washington had to recall General Robert Howe and replace him with Massachusetts General Benjamin Lincoln.  Washington decided that Georgia needed back its top officer in the Continental Army and sent McIntosh to serve under General Lincoln in the southern theater.

That left Colonel Broadhead in command at Fort Pitt.  Initially, General Washington wanted to call off the offensive from Fort Pitt entirely.  He wrote to Brodhead in April ordering the Colonel to remain at Fort Pitt and just be prepared to act against any Indian attacks against the settlers in Western Pennsylvania.  The Mingo Indians in that area were allied with their Seneca neighbors and quite hostile to the western settlers.   You may recall that this was right after the Americans had abandoned Fort Laurens in Ohio, when hostile local tribes had forced the withdrawal back to Fort Pitt.

As it turned out though, following the capture of British Governor Henry Hamilton, the Pennsylvania frontier seemed to settle down.  Violence continued, but only in relatively small and disorganized groups.  Brodhead made use of local militia to pacify the area around Fort Pitt for miles.  He informed Washington of the success he was having.  In July, Washington responded by giving approval for a move northward, hoping his raid would add continued distraction for the Indians already facing Sullivan’s offensive.

Brodhead left Fort Pitt in mid-August with about 600 or 700 soldiers, including allied warriors from the Delaware tribes, as well as companies from Virginia and Pennsylvania regiments.  Most of the Mingo had already received word of the Continental offensive in the region and had fled their homes.  Broadhead’s men encountered multiple abandoned villages, which they burned, along with the fields of growing food.  

The forward companies of the detachment did encounter a few dozen enemy warriors at Thomson’s Island.  There was a brief skirmish where perhaps five enemy were killed and a few wounded.  This may have just been a large hunting party that they had stumbled across.  That was really the only real resistance that he encountered. 

Brodhead continued his march of devastation, but never made it into New York.  He returned to Fort Pitt via a different path, plundering and burning more native villages during his return.  By the time he reached Fort Pitt in mid-September, his month-long expedition had levelled at least a dozen villages.  The raiders also returned with plundered supplies that would sell for over $30,000.

Teantontalago

Although Broadhead’s successful raid was relatively short, General Sullivan continued to reign destruction throughout upstate New York through most of September.  Following Newtown, the Army marched northward, through the Finger Lakes region, continuing to plunder and destroy more villages.  After Newtown, they did not even encounter even minor attacks against them.  The warriors had had enough and had retreated toward Quebec.

In late September General Clinton’s division moved east, into Mohawk Territory.  They entered a village known at Teantontalago which was populated by Mohawk Indians who had pledge to remain neutral.  Not recognizing their neutrality, the Continentals ordered the male inhabitants arrested and sent to Albany to be held in custody.  

Peter Gansevoort

Most of the soldiers involved were local New York soldiers under Colonel Peter Gansevoort.  Many of them had friends or family who had been left homeless from prior Indian raids.  The Mohawk farms at Teantontalago were not burned.  Instead, the Americans allowed dispossessed settlers to take over these farms in this relatively safe and secure region of the state.  Buildings, horses, cattle, and crops were all made available to settler families who needed them.

This was one of the most highly controversial components of the whole expedition, because it involved confiscating property from Indians who had broken with their fellow Mohawks in order to remain neutral.  Some may have even performed services for the patriot cause.  Former Continental General Philip Schuyler, who had negotiated with these tribes years earlier, was outraged at this action against noncombatant people who posed no threat to the patriots.  Despite Schuyler’s objections, the actions stood.  General James Clinton’s brother, NY Governor George Clinton allowed the Mohawk to be held in Albany for the winter and never returned their property to them.

Continentals Celebrate

Overall, the Sullivan Expedition was considered a success.  Washington had hoped it would be capped off with the capture of Fort Niagara, but since Sullivan’s army did not have any heavy artillery, this did not really seem possible.

Most people in New York and New England approved of this effort to remove the Iroquois as a great victory.  The Continental Congress, however, was less than enthusiastic.  Sullivan’s continued demands for more supplies and his going over Washington’s head directly to Congress did not win him any friends in that body.  Given the popularity among the people for the action, elected officials did not go after him directly, but neither did they give him much praise for his victory.

Hard Winter in Quebec

The total warfare in upstate New York had its intended effect.  By one estimate, the Expedition had destroyed over 160,000 bushels of corn and levelled 40 Iroquois towns and villages.  More than 5000 Iroquois men, women, and children fled to Quebec, seeking assistance from the British.  The British garrison at Quebec had nowhere near the resources to feed and house all these people.  Over the harsh winter of 1779-1780, hundreds of Iroquois died from starvation or exposure.

Loyalist forces had lost access to friendly villages in New York.  Future raids from Canada would become more difficult and require carrying more of their own supplies.  Although raids would continue the following spring, the Sullivan Expedition effectively broke the hold of the Iroquois over their traditional homeland in upstate New York.  Only a few members of friendly tribes remained in the region.  

The Iroquois gave George Washington the nickname: Conotocaurius (Town Destroyer). This nickname would apply to future US Presidents as well.

Next Week: the British in New York City continue to conduct raids on New Jersey, including one at Paulus Hook.

- - -

Next Episode 231 Paulus Hook 

Previous Episode 229 Baton Rouge

 Contact me via email at mtroy.history@gmail.com

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American Revolution Podcast is distributed 100% free of charge. If you can chip in to help defray my costs, I'd appreciate whatever you can give.  Make a one time donation through my PayPal account. You may also donate via Venmo (@Michael-Troy-20), Zelle, or popmoney (send to mtroy1@yahoo.com)

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Further Reading

Websites

The Sullivan-Clinton Campaign: https://www.sullivanclinton.com

The Clinton-Sullivan Campaign of 1779: https://www.nps.gov/fost/learn/historyculture/the-western-expedition-against-the-six-nations-1779.htm

Soodalter, Ron Massacre & Retribution: The 1779-80 Sullivan Expedition https://www.historynet.com/massacre-retribution-the-1779-80-sullivan-expedition.htm

Sullivan's Expedition against the Iroquois https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sullivans-expedition-against-iroquois

Newtown, NY August 29, 1779: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/newtown

Crytzer, Brady J. “Allegheny Burning: George Washington, Daniel Brodhead, and the Battle of Thompson’s Island” Journal of the American Revolution, May 12, 2015: https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/05/allegheny-burning-george-washington-daniel-brodhead-and-the-battle-of-thompsons-island

Brodhead’s Raid on the Senecas https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/viewFile/1347/1195

Williams, Sherman. “THE ORGANIZATION OF SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION.” Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, vol. 6, 1906, pp. 29–36., www.jstor.org/stable/42889887

Crytzer, Brady J. "ALLEGHENY BURNING: GEORGE WASHINGTON, DANIEL BRODHEAD, AND THE BATTLE OF THOMPSON’S ISLAND" Journal of the American  Revolution, May 12, 2015 https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/05/allegheny-burning-george-washington-daniel-brodhead-and-the-battle-of-thompsons-island

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Cook, Frederick Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of the Iroquois, Knapp, Peck & Thomson, 1887. 

Craft, David The Sullivan expedition: an address delivered at the Seneca County Centennial Celebration at Waterloo, September 3, 1879, Waterloo, NY: Observer Book and Job Printing House, 1880. 

McKendry, William, Davis, Andrew McFarland, Winsor, Justin Sullivan's expedition against the Indians of New York, Cambridge: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1886. 

Rising, Oscar E; Hubley, Adam, A New Hampshire lawyer in General Washington's army; a biographical sketch of the Hon. John Sullivan, LL. D., major general in the Continental army, and an account of the expedition under his command against the Six Indian nations in 1779, Geneva, N.Y., Press of W. F. Humphrey, 1915.

Tiffany, Norton A. History of Sullivan's campaign against the Iroquois, Lima, NY: A.T. Norton, 1879. 

Tomlinson, Everett T. Marching Against the Iroquois, Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co. 1906. 

Trussell John B.B. Jr. The Sullivan and Brodhead Expeditions, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1976. 

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Boardman, Fon Wyman Against the Iroquois: The Sullivan Campaign of 1779 in New York State, H. Z Walk, 1978. 

Eckert, Alan The Wilderness War, Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2003. 

Fischer, Joseph R. A Well-Executed Failure: The Sullivan Campaign Against the Iroquois, July-September 1779, Univ. of SC Press, 1997. 

Graymont, Barbara The Iroquois (Indians Of North America), Chelsea Press, 2005. 

Hardenbergh, John L., William McKendry, & William Elliott Griffis Narratives of Sullivan's Expedition, 1779: Against the Four Nations of the Iroquois & Loyalists by the Continental Army, Leonaur, 2010. 

Stephens, Karl F. Neither the Charm Nor the Luck: Major-General John Sullivan, Outskirts Press, 2009. 

Taylor, Alan The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 

Williams, Glenn The Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois, Westholme Publishing, 2005.

Williams, Marie Danielle Annette The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks: Raids in the Wilderness, History Press, 2020. 

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