The Wyoming Massacre takes place

On this day in history, July 3, 1778, the Wyoming Massacre takes place on the Pennsylvania frontier. After the American Revolution began, the British army in Quebec rallied Loyalists and Indians in the New York area to make attacks on colonial settlements. The Iroquois Confederation, made up of six separate tribes, split in its loyalties. 4 tribes fought with the British, while two sided with the Americans.

Major John Butler recruited Loyalists into a regiment known as "Butler’s Rangers." Along with a large group of mostly Seneca Indians, he launched an attack on the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania in the vicinity of modern-day Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. The Wyoming Valley at the time had around 3,000 settlers in small villages and farms. A string of "forts," many of which were merely fortified houses or blockhouses, guarded the valley.

The invading force arrived on June 30, 1778. Settlers had received word that the invasion was coming and gathered into the forts. The largest group gathered at Forty Fort with the local militia, comprised of about 300 untrained farmers. The valley had sent most of its able bodied men away to fight in the Continental Army and the remaining militia was mostly made up of the old, the young and the feeble.

Major Butler quickly captured Fort Wintermute and Fort Jenkins with no resistance from the settlers. The militia at Forty Fort was in a quandary. Should they attack the invaders now, before their forces swelled even larger? Or should they wait for reinforcements to come? A vote was taken and 300 men marched out of Forty Fort on July 3.

When Major Butler learned of the approaching militia, he ordered Forts Wintermute and Jenkins to be set ablaze and ordered his forces to take up battle positions. When the patriots saw the smoke rising from the burning forts, they believed the attackers had begun a retreat and marched onward all the more quickly – right into an ambush. Butler had ordered his Indian allies to lie flat on the ground to conceal themselves and not to attack until the patriots were on top of them.

The patriots fired several rounds, but the Seneca attacked from their hiding places when the militia was only a hundred yards away. Trapped between the Seneca on one side and the Loyalists on the other, the militia quickly fell apart and a complete rout ensued. Over 200 of the soldiers were killed in the chase and some were tortured. Major Butler boasted that 227 scalps were brought to him after the battle.

The settlers at Forty Fort quickly surrendered under favorable conditions. After signing the agreement, Major Butler left the area, but the Indians broke the agreement and plundered the entire valley. Over 1,000 homes were destroyed. Crops were burned. Clothing and goods plundered. Some settlers were killed if they resisted, but most were allowed to leave if they went peaceably. Nearly all the settlers fled the valley, with some dying from exposure or starvation in the wild.

The Wyoming Massacre and other attacks provoked a full military invasion by the Continental Army the following year. General George Washington sent the Sullivan Expedition under General John Sullivan, which destroyed numerous Iroquois villages. The attacks continued, but many Indians starved or were forced to flee to British Canada, never really recovering from the invasion.

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com  

Jack Manning

President General

2019 – 2021

National Society Sons of the American Revolution

www.sar.org

"It is a misfortune, inseparable from human affairs, that public measures are rarely investigated with that spirit of moderation which is essential to a just estimate of their real tendency to advance or obstruct the public good; and that this spirit is more apt to be diminished than prompted, by those occasions which require an unusual exercise of it."
James Madison (1788)

The real Declaration of Independence is made

On this day in history, July 2, 1776, the real Declaration of Independence is made. But wait! Don’t we celebrate the Declaration of Independence on July 4th? It’s true. We do celebrate our nation’s independence from Great Britain on July 4th, but the actual date of the vote for independence was July 2nd!

During the time leading up to the American Revolution, many American colonists held out hope of reconciling with Great Britain. Letters were written and petitions made to King George detailing their grievances, but none of them made a difference. Once the Battles of Lexington and Concord took place, it became apparent to many that Britain was bent on military dictatorship, but not to all.

Even when the Second Continental Congress met in response to the first bloodshed, the majority was not ready to declare independence. They sent King George an "olive branch," known as the Olive Branch Petition, which was one last attempt at reconciliation. The King wouldn’t even receive the petition. He declared the colonies in full rebellion and made it an act of treason to support the colonists in any way.

By mid-1776, full blown battles had been waged at Bunker Hill and Quebec, naval battles had occurred in various places, Norfolk had been burned to the ground and British invasion attempts were made in North Carolina and South Carolina. These events finally convinced enough colonists that reconciliation was impossible. They would have to win a military victory over Great Britain, or be reduced to slaves.

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented the Lee Resolution to Congress. The resolution called for three things, a joint declaration of independence from Great Britain, the formation of alliances with foreign powers against Britain and a plan of union for the colonies.

By this time, the attitude of most of Congress was in favor of independence, so committees were made to deal with each of the proposals. A date was set for the formal vote on the independence question for July 2nd. During the interim, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. When July 2nd arrived, 12 of the 13 colonies voted for independence with New York abstaining, making July 2nd the official day of American independence.

For the next 2 days, Congress debated the wording of its official announcement of independence, making several revisions to Jefferson’s declaration. The final version of the Declaration was adopted on the 4th. So independence was voted on officially on the 2nd, but the wording of the official announcement was adopted on the 4th. That evening, printer John Dunlap made the first copies, which were sent to various leaders around the colonies.

The first public announcement that independence had been declared was in the July 5th edition of the German language Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote. On July 6th, the full text was printed for the first time in the Philadelphia Evening Post. The first public readings of the Declaration occurred in Philadelphia, in Easton, Pennsylvania and in Trenton, New Jersey, on the 8th. As public announcements and readings took place around the colonies, public celebrations were held for the first time, but they occurred whenever the news arrived, not on the 2nd or on the 4th!

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com  

Jack Manning

President General

2019 – 2021

National Society Sons of the American Revolution

www.sar.org

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
John Adams

A Cherokee war campaign against the southern colonies begins

On this day in history, July 1, 1776, a Cherokee war campaign against the southern colonies begins. The Cherokee tribe was traditionally located in the area of northern Georgia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Warfare arose periodically between the Cherokee and the encroaching white settlers from the time of their first contact, but a new wave of conflict arose after the French and Indian War.

The Proclamation Line of 1763 forbade British settlers from settling west of the Appalachians in an effort  to limit conflict between settlers and Indians who had supported the British against the French during the war. Some settlers had other ideas though and tried to settle in the area. In the late 1760s and early 1770s, the first several settlements began in what is now eastern Tennessee in Cherokee territory. The settlers believed they were in western Virginia, but a survey proved they were actually outside colonial territory. They were ordered to leave the Cherokee territory by the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The Cherokee chiefs, however, said they could stay as long as no more settlers came.

In 1775, Richard Henderson of North Carolina made a deal with Cherokee leaders to purchase most of modern day Kentucky. The sale did not take into account the fact that other tribes claimed this land, nor the fact that it was illegal according to British law as defined by the Proclamation Line of 1763. The "sale" caused a rift in the Cherokee tribe. A young rebel named Dragging Canoe angrily challenged the older leaders who made the deal and started gathering a coalition around him of those who were disenchanted with their elders for making deals with and selling land to the settlers.

When the American Revolution broke out, the settlers in Cherokee territory decided that British law no longer applied to them and they could live wherever they wanted. Since they had made a treaty with the Cherokee, they were on the land legitimately in their view. In May of 1776, a coalition of northern tribes allied with the British convinced Dragging Canoe and his band to join them in fighting the colonists.

A plan was hatched whereby simultaneous raids would be led against the settlers in Cherokee territory, as well as on frontier settlements in Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. The campaign began on July 1, 1776. In some places, settlers had been warned and took refuge in various forts. In other places, settlers were massacred and homes and villages were destroyed.

The Cherokee attack led to a massive response from the combined colonial militias of the attacked colonies. Thousands of militia members marched on Cherokee territory, burned dozens of villages, destroyed crops and killed those who resisted. Even those who were not involved in the attacks suffered. Over a period of several months, the Cherokee campaign was put down with a resounding colonial victory.

The colonial victory led to peace treaties established with the older and wiser Cherokee chiefs who understood they could not win this fight. The younger Dragging Canoe moved south with a growing group of rebels where he continued to work with the British and launch attacks against white settlers for years to come, which were known as the Chickamauga Wars, named for the region in which Dragging Canoe settled near modern day Chattanooga, Tennessee.

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com  

Jack Manning

President General

2019 – 2021

National Society Sons of the American Revolution

www.sar.org

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”
Samuel Adams (1781)