Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906]New York State Historical Association. Meeting
History
Proceedings of the New York Historical Association [1906]
New York State Historical Association. Meeting
New York (State) -- History -- Periodicals; New York State Historical Association -- Periodicals
Pawling did not arrive, but returned to Kingston on September 1st and
reported his inability to join Clinton, owing to the swollen streams
and bad roads. Proceeding on their way, the Right Division passed
several Tuscarora villages, which they destroyed, with the crops.
Arriving at the mouth of the Chenango Creek, a small detachment was sent
four miles up that stream to destroy the village of Chenango, consisting
of about twenty houses.
On the 19th they joined the detachment of General Poor, burning the
villages of Chukkanut and Owagea, and three days later arrived at the
encampment of the main division at Tioga. On the 23d of August, by the
accidental discharge of a musket, Captain Kimball was killed and a
Lieutenant wounded.
Leaving a garrison to defend Fort Sullivan, at Tioga, the whole army
proceeded, on the 26th, taking the route up the Tioga branch of the
Susquehanna. About sixteen miles up this stream was a village called
Newtown, which they reached on the 29th. Here the light troops, which
were marching ahead, discovered a breastworks, artfully masked by green
bushes, extending for about half a mile, in an advantageous place,
protected by a high mountain on one side, the river on the other, and a
large creek in front, behind which the enemy were entrenched. Here
occurred the most important fight of the campaign. The design of the
enemy appears to have been primarily, an ambuscade. His force of British
regulars, consisting of two battalions of Royal Greens and Tories, was
led by Col. John Butler, with Captains Walter Butler and Macdonald as
subordinates. The Indian forces were commanded by the great Mohawk
chief, Joseph Brant. All the cunning of the Indians, combined with the
trained tactics of the British regulars, were here exerted to check the
advance of Sullivan's invading army. Had the Americans not discovered
the trap in time to avoid it, the story of this campaign would have
ended here in a tale of butchery hardly equaled in the annals of war.
But three companies of Morgan's riflemen, the pride of Washington, were
in advance; veterans of a hundred battles, and in no way inferior to the
enemy in Indian craft; and the ingenious device for drawing our forces
into an ambush was thwarted. For hours the battle waged fiercely. By
skillfully maneuvering his troops Sullivan had nearly succeeded in
surrounding the enemy, when, admirably commanded, and wisely discreet,
the signal for retreat was sounded just in time to escape. The entire
loss to the Americans was three killed and thirty-nine wounded. Twelve
Indians were found dead on the field, but the number of their wounded
is unknown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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