In the aftermath of the British defeats at Oriskany, Bennington and Saratoga, the Iroquois Confederation of Native Americans, most of whom had actively allied themselves with the English in hopes of stopping colonial intrusions into their territory and perhaps winning back some of their lost lands, concluded that there was little point in joining the redcoats in large pitched battles. Native American warfare had always traditionally been a matter of hit-and-run raids and ambushes, and now it was this style of fighting that the Iroquois turned to. Their target was Pennsylvania.
The Wyoming River Valley, just north of present-day Scranton, had already been the scene of conflict. The colonies of Pennsylvania and Connecticut both claimed title to the territory, and there had been a steady influx of Connecticut settlers. The Iroquois, meanwhile, also regarded the Wyoming Valley as theirs, and launched war parties on occasional raids. When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, the local population became separated into Patriot and Loyalist militias, influenced as much by which side they thought would support their land claims. So when the Iroquois war leaders Joseph Brant and Cornplanter planned a series of raids from the area around Fort Niagara into the Wyoming Valley in the summer of 1778, they were joined by local Loyalist militia and a unit of British Rangers under Captain John Butler. Altogether, the combined Iroquois/Loyalist force numbered about 1000. The local Continental Army commander, Colonel Zebulon Butler, had only a force of around 400 local militia.
On July 1, the Loyalists occupied the virtually-undefended Fort Wintermoot, near present-day Wilkes-Barre PA. The next morning, about 500 Loyalists and Iroquois moved on to Forty Fort, which was occupied by the Patriot militia under Colonel Zebulon Butler. Colonel Butler knew that he was safe inside the Fort, but he also knew that with Washington’s troops tied up in New Jersey, he had no chance for reinforcement and could not withstand a long siege. So, with little choice, he decided to move out and attack his besiegers. Butler and his 400 militia marched towards the British at Fort Wintermoot.
The British commander Captain John Butler, upon hearing that the rebel force was approaching, set up a trap. Hoping to convince the colonials that he had withdrawn, Butler ordered his own Fort to be set on fire and set up a battle line in the nearby woods.
When Colonel Butler and his rebel militia arrived that afternoon, however, they spotted the Loyalists lying in wait and, forming into a line of their own, attacked. But their advance was halted by Loyalist fire, and the Iroquois circled around behind them and swarmed out of the woods. Surrounded and trapped, the colonials were massacred. Those who tried to surrender were cut down. British reports declared, “In truth, the Indians gave no quarter,” and noted that the Iroquois warriors had taken 227 scalps, with some of the captured militiamen reportedly taken back to nearby Native American villages and ritually tortured before being killed. It became known as the “Wyoming Massacre”. Of the 387 colonial militia who marched towards Fort Wintermoot, only 60 or so escaped, including Colonel Zebulon Butler.
The Patriots blamed the British for the killings, and the massacre galvanized popular opinion in Pennsylvania against the Crown. A Continental Army regiment under Colonel Thomas Hartley was moved to the area and fought a few skirmishes with the Iroquois.
When the Native American raids continued in the spring of 1779, General Washington dispatched General John Sullivan to lead a campaign into Pennsylvania and New York to eliminate the Iroquois as a threat. Washington ordered a “scorched earth” policy: “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.”
Sullivan left the town of Easton PA on June 18, 1779, with 4000 Continental troops and militia. The Iroquois did not have the strength to face such a force, and the only real fighting happened at Newtown, in which Sullivan smashed a Seneca attempt at ambush. By September, the colonials had penetrated deep into New York, destroying at least 40 Iroquois villages along the way. As Sullivan’s troops left to rejoin Washington’s army in New Jersey, the Iroquois had been crushed, their military power destroyed, and their territory reduced to ruin. Most retreated to English-held Canada. Shortly after the Revolutionary War ended, the Natives would surrender nearly all of their territory to the US in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.
In the aftermath of the Wyoming Massacre, the bodies of almost 100 victims were buried at the battle site. In 1833 a stone memorial was erected, and the bones were reburied underneath. Today, the Battle of Wyoming Monument is owned and maintained by the Wyoming Monument Association. In 2010, the stone memorial was restored after being struck by lightning.
Some photos.