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The Seneca tribe kept fresh in memory their chiefs
and braves who fell in the conflict with the New York husbandmen at
Oriskany.
Their king, Sucingerachton, was both in war and in council the foremost man in all the Six Nations.
Compared with him, the
Mohawk,
Brandt, who had been but very lately known upon the war path, was lightly esteemed.
1 His attachment to the
English increased to a passion on the alliance of
America with the
French, for whom he cherished implacable hate.
Through his interest, and by the blandishments of gifts and pay and chances of revenge,
Colonel John Butler lured the
Seneca warriors to cross the border of
Pennsylvania under the
British flag.
The party of savages and rangers, numbering between five hundred and seven hundred men, fell down the
Tioga river, and on the last day of June hid in
the forests above
Wyoming.
The next day the two
northernmost forts capitulated.
The men of
Wyoming, old and young, with one regular company, in all hardly more than three hundred, took counsel with one another, and found no hope of deliverance for their families but through a victorious encounter with a foe of twice their number, and more skilful in the woods than themselves.
On the third of July, the
devoted band, led by
Colonel Zebulon Butler, who had just returned from the continental service, began their march up the river.
The horde of invaders, pretending to retreat, couched themselves on the ground in an open wood.
The villagers of
Wyoming 
