Cherry Valley massacre

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Cherry Valley Massacre Part of the American Revolutionary War "Incident in Cherry Valley - fate of Jane Wells" from the original picture by Alonzo Chappel, engraved by Thomas Phillibrown. Date November 11, 1778 Location New York Result British victory Belligerents United States Great Britain Commanders Ichabod Alden†, William Stacy {c} Walter Butler, Cornplanter Joseph Brant, Little Beard Strength 7th Massachusetts Regiment 250 settlers and militia 321 Brant's Volunteers and other Iroquois 150 Butler's Rangers, 50 8th Regiment of Foot Casualties and losses 14 soldiers killed, 11 soldiers captured, 30 inhabitants killed, 34 Inhabitants captured 5 wounded

v • d • e Northern frontier after 1777 Cobleskill – Wyoming Valley – Big Runaway – German Flatts – Carleton's Raid – Cherry Valley – Minisink – Sullivan Expedition – Newtown – Royalton Raid – Klock's Field – Johnstown

The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Seneca Indian forces on a fort and village in eastern New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, and has been described as one of the most horrific frontier massacres of the Revolution.^[1]

The Senecas were angered over the burning of Tioga by forces under Colonel Thomas Hartley, his accusations of atrocities by the Iroquois at Wyoming,^[2] and the recent destruction of their settlement of Onoquaga.

Contents 1 Massacre 2 Aftermath 3 Memorial 4 References 5 Bibliography 6 External links

[edit] Massacre

Captain Walter Butler (the son of Colonel John Butler) led two companies of Butler's Rangers commanded by Captain John McDonell and Captain William Caldwell. There were also about 300 Seneca and 50 from the 8th Regiment of Foot. Cornplanter and the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant were the major Indian leaders. Brant's force of Brant's Volunteers was seriously reduced because of contention with Butler.

The fort, actually a palisade around the village meeting house, could not be taken, but the town was destroyed. Sixteen of the defenders were killed, including garrison commander Ichabod Alden while running from the Wells house to the fort. Lt. Col. William Stacy, second in command, who was also quartered at the Wells house, was taken prisoner. Stacy's son Benjamin, and cousin Rufus Stacy, achieved the safety of the fort, running through a hail of bullets. Stacy's brother-in-law Gideon Day was killed. Despite the efforts of Butler and Brant to stop it, more than thirty women and children and several Loyalist townspeople were killed and scalped.

The Indians were frank in admitting their reasons for killing women and children.^{[citation needed]} First they had been falsely accused of committing atrocities at Wyoming. Secondly, Colonel Denisson and his men had laid down their arms at Wyoming and promised not to take up their arms again during the war, but shortly thereafter were engaged in a destructive expedition into Indian country. Also their own town of Onoquaga had been attacked by the Americans the previous month where the Americans destroyed all their houses and killed some of their children. This meant that in the future the Indians would give no quarter.

[edit] Aftermath

Butler purchased the captured officers from the Indians and arranged for some of the women and children prisoners to be freed.

The Americans had the previous year decided to attack the Iroquois and their villages. Cherry Valley along with the accusations of murder of non-combatants at Wyoming, helped pave the way for the launch of the Sullivan Expedition, commissioned by commander-in-chief General George Washington and led by Major General John Sullivan, which destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages in their homelands of central and western New York.

[edit] Memorial

A monument was dedicated at Cherry Valley on August 15, 1878 at the centennial anniversary of the massacre. Former New York Governor Horatio Seymour delivered a dedication address in Cherry Valley at the monument to an audience of about 10,000 persons. Quoting from the newspaper article, “The Cherry Valley Massacre, Unveiling of the Monument to Those Who Fell on Nov. 11, 1778”, The New York Times newspaper, New York, New York (August 16, 1878):

“I am here today,” said the speaker, “not only to show reverence for those dead patriots, but to offer my respects and heartfelt gratitude to the living descendants of those illustrious persons of the early settlements, who have erected this memorial stone. It is to be hoped that their example will be copied; that the report of these commemorative exercises will move others to like acts of pious duty. Let every son of this soil uncover reverently as this monument is unveiled, and do reverence to their sturdy patriotism, made strong by their grand faith, their trials, and their sufferings, and show that the blood of innocent children, of wives, of sisters, of mothers, and of brave men, was not shed in vain. Let us show the world that 100 years have added to the value of that noble sacrifice. Thus we shall leave this sacred spot better men and women, with a higher and nobler purpose of life than that which animated us when we entered this domain of the dead.”

Years after the massacre, Benjamin Stacy's home village of New Salem, Massachusetts celebrated the annual Old Home Day holiday with a Benjamin Stacy footrace, honoring his escape at Cherry Valley.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Murray, Smithsonian Q & A: The American Revolution, 64.
2. ^ Graymont, pg. 181
3. ^ Lemonds, Col. William Stacy, 21.

[edit] Bibliography

• Cruikshank, Ernest, Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara, 1893
• Goodnough, David: The Cherry Valley Massacre, November 11, 1778, The Frontier Massacre that Shocked a Young Nation, Franklin Watts, New York (1968).
• Graymont, Barbara, The Iroquois in the American Revolution, 1972, ISBN 0-8156-0083-6
• Lemonds, Leo L.: Col. William Stacy – Revolutionary War Hero, Cornhusker Press, Hastings, Nebraska (1993) pp. 19-25.
• Murray, Stuart A. P.: Smithsonian Q & A: The American Revolution, HarperCollins Publishers by Hydra Publishing, New York (2006) p. 64.
• Sawyer, John and Little, Mrs. William: Abstracts from History of Cherry Valley from 1798 to 1898 and The Story of the Massacre at Cherry Valley, reprint of 1890 publication, Heritage Books, Westminster, Maryland (2007).
• Williams, Glenn F. Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois. 2005: Westholme Publishing, ISBN 1-59416-013-9.
• Young, Edward J.: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. II – Second Series, 1855-1886, University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1886) section entitled Journal of William McKendry, pg 436-478. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Young (1886).

[edit] External links

• Sullivanclinton.com - historic context
• Town of Cherry Valley, Historian's website
• Photos of the Cherry Valley monument
• Cherry Valley KIA & POW
• Maine Men serving in Col. Alden's Regiment
• [Cherry Valley survivor Captain Holden]

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