Among the
Connecticut settlers in the
Wyoming Valley were some Scotch and
Dutch families from the
Mohawk Valley.
About thirty of them, suspected of being Tories, were arrested at the beginning of the war, and sent to
Connecticut for trial.
They were released for want of evidence, returned to the
Mohawk, joined the Tory partisan corps of
Johnson and
Butler, and waited for a chance of vengeance on their persecutors.
In June, 1778, a motley host of Tories and Indians, under the general command of
Colonel Butler, gathered at
Tioga, on the
Susquehanna River.
They entered the
Wyoming Valley July 2.
Among them were the vengeful Scotch and
Dutch.
Butler made his headquarters at the fortified house of Wintermoot, a Tory.
Two full companies, out of 3,000 inhabitants, had been raised in the valley for the
Continental army, and its only defenders were old men, brave women, tender youths, and a handful of trained soldiers.
These, 400 in number,
Col. Zebulon Butler, assisted by
Colonel Denison,
Lieutenant-colonel Dorrance, and
Major Garratt, led up the valley (July 3) to surprise the
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Wintermoot's |
invaders at Wintermoot's. They were terribly smitten by Tories and savages in a sharp fight, and more than one-half were killed.
Very soon 225 scalps were in the hands of the Indians.
A few of the smitten ones escaped, with
Colonel Denison, to Forty Fort, just above
Wilkesbarre, and
Butler himself fled to Fort Wilkesbarre.
In the former, families for miles around had taken shelter.
The night that followed was full of horrors.
Prisoners were tortured and murdered, and the fugitives were in continual
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An incident of the massacre. |
fear of death.
Unexpectedly to all, the leaders of the invaders offered humane terms of surrender to the inmates of Forty Fort, and they retired to their homes in fancied security, while
Colonel Butler left the valley.
In disobedience of his commands, the Indians spread over the valley before sunset (July 4), and when night fell they began the horrid work of plundering, murdering, and burn-
ing. The blaze of twenty dwellings lighted up the valley and the neighboring mountains at one time.
In almost every house and every field the murderous work was performed.
When the moon rose, the terrified survivors of the massacre fled to the
Wilkesbarre Mountains and to the morasses of the Pocono beyond.
In that dreadful wilderness called the “Shades of death” many women and children perished.
Those who survived made their way eastward until they reached their native homes in
Connecticut. Five miles and a half above
Wilkesbarre, near the pleasant village of
Troy, stands a monument, constructed of hewn blocks of granite, erected in commemoration of the slain in the battle who were buried at that spot.
It is 62 1/2 feet in height.
Upon two marble tablets are the names of those who fell, as far as could be ascertained, and also of those who were in the battle and survived.
This monument was not completed until more than sixty years after the sad event.
See
Campbell's
Gertrude of the Wyoming.