Showing posts with label massacres. Show all posts
Showing posts with label massacres. Show all posts

Friday, March 10, 2017

General Washington Retaliates Against the Hostile Indians in New York

General Washington Retaliates Against the Hostile Indians in New York





Under these incentives many savage cruelties were enacted, sometimes by the Indians alone and sometimes by British troops accompanied by Indians. The little village of Springfield at the head of Otsego Lake was destroyed in the spring of 1778, by Brant and his warriors. In July, 1778, the terrible massacres at Wyoming* on the Susquehanna were perpetrated. The whole country was aroused, and the result was the sending of the Sullivan expedition, in order to exact due vengeance for the numberless barbarities which had been committed on the frontiers. This expedition was planned by General Washington who insisted on the adequate punishment of the hostile Indians, who for so many years had acted as the willing agents of the British in harrying and raiding the New York settlements. The forces of the expedition were to consist of two parts;—one under the command of General Sullivan, which was to ascend the Susquehanna; the other under the command of General James Clinton (the father of De\Vitt Clinton) which was to be gathered in the Mohawk valley, to ascend the river in boats to Canajoharie, drag the 210 boats across the portage of twenty miles to the head of Otsego Lake, launch them there and traverse the lake to the outlet of the Susquehanna, thence to descend the river and join the first division at the junction of the Chemung and Susquehanna. The task of this second division was most diflicult, but was performed with promptness and entire success. One difliculty General Clinton surmounted in a most original and effective manner. It was in August, 1779, that he and his expedition arrived at the outlet of the lake. The drought had so lessened the flow into the river that it was too low to float the boats which had been brought thither with such labor. Clinton had a dam erected across the outlet by which the flow was interrupted. In a few days the water of the lake was raised to the necessary height. The boats had been in the mean time moored in the stream below the lake. Then when everything was ready the dam was removed, and the boats were carried down on the crest of the swollen stream, until they arrived August 22 at the designated place of rendezvous. The westward campaign at once began, under the command of General Sullivan. A considerable battle was fought at Newtown the site of the present city of Elmira. It is called the battle of the Chemung. A combined force of Indians under Brant and of British troops under Colonel John Butler, opposed Sullivan’s army. But the British and Indians were swept away and the march westward continued. The Indian towns which were found were everywhere deserted, and as a revenge for the long series of depredations upon white settlements, these towns and the crops about them were destroyed. The beautiful country* of the Cayugas and Senecas was the blossom of the highest Indian civilization. The Indians everywhere fled as Sullivan’s expedition advanced. A slight and ineffective stand was made before Sullivan entered the beautiful valley of the Genesee. Everything was devastated and destroyed. The ripening crops on which the Indians depended for their winter’s supply were burnt. “ The town of Genesee contained one hundred and twenty-eight houses, mostly large and very elegant. It was beautifully situated, almost encircled with a clear flat extending a number of miles; over which extensive fields of corn were waving, together with every kind of vegetable that could be conceived.”This town with all its accumulated supplies was utterly destroyed, besides forty other Indian towns and villages. One hundred and sixty thousand bushels of corn were burned or cast into the river. Fruit trees were cut down and fields of growing vegetables were utterly devastated. On the 16th of September Sullivan re-crossed the Genesee river and commenced his return. It had been intended that he should advance on Fort Niagara and reduce this principal stronghold  But perhaps fearing that his force had been too much reduced to undertake such a task, he did not venture upon the advance. He had accomplished the immediate object of his campaign. He had administered a stern and unsparing punishment upon the Indians for their barbarities committed upon the white settlements.   Perhaps such cruelties are justifiable under such circumstances; but modern rules of warfare would not justify the destruction of peaceful towns and villages, without absolute evidence that they belonged to the guilty authors of the depredations.

                                          57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture






Wednesday, December 28, 2016

The Massacre at the Zeimer Cabin



The Massacre at the Zeimer Cabin







The History Ashland County, Ohio  1909

PURSUIT AND CAPTURE. 
"They knew no dread of danger, When rose the Indian's yell; Right gallantly they struggled, Right gallantly they fell." The massacre at the Zeimer cabin aroused the feelings of the people, not only in Richland, but in other counties, almost to frenzy and companies were organized at Wooster, New Philadelphia and other places to protect the settlers. Captain Mullen commanded the Wooster company and Alex McConnel the one at New Philadelphia. Of the five Indians who committed the Zeimer-Ruffner murders, two had been killed by the heroic Ruffner in his defence of the Zeimer family ere he himself fell in the murderous assault of the savages. Some weeks later the three surviving Indians of that murderous gang, after having been seen lurking near Odell's lake, were captured at Fern Island, five miles down the Tuscarawas river from New Philadelphia. Fern Island is now a famous picnic resort and is reached by steam and electric cars both from New Philadelphia and Urichsville. The Tuscarawas is, perhaps, the most poem-inspiring river in the state. It courses through one of Ohio's most fertile valleys with an ease and grandeur that is both restful and inspiring. As rays of light shine upon its dark waters they reflect emerald tints as though the bottom was paved with precious stones. But the Indians had not sought that locality for its romantic beauty, nor because the waters of the Tuscarawas were wont to dazzle one with their diamond-like gleams, but for the protection the dense forests of that secluded isle would give them. The mark of Cain was upon them and the avenging Nemesis was following their trail. In that forest-embowered isle stood armies of ferns with nodding plumes and crimson falchions and among these the tired savages laid down to sleep.
  Captain McConnel, hearing that Indians were upon the Island, marched his company over the "Plains" and when the destination was reached he left.


                                                 57 gruesome tales of Indian capture and torture