The Wyoming Massacre

On July 3, 1778, there occurred one of the most important events of the American Revolution — not so much because of what actually happened, but because of how it was remembered.

The event became known to history as The Wyoming Massacre — and the name itself is symbolic of that historical memory. For the “massacre” was actually a battle; one that went very, very badly for American militia forces. I will be taking it on in detail in the next episode of the Frontier Partisans Podcast, so I’ll only sketch in the details here:

In the summer of 1778, Major John Butler led a strong contingent of Loyalist Rangers and Iroquois warriors — mostly Seneca — on a deep penetration raid that carried them into northeastern Pennsylvania near present-day Wilkes-Barre.

The Valley was a breadbasket for General George Washington’s Continental Army, and as such an attractive target for the British and their Indian allies. The location of the raid is indicative of how far east the “frontier” had been pushed. Butler was knocking on the back door of the Continental Army’s area of operations.

Butler and his mixed force, about 600 strong, entered the valley along the Susquehanna River in late June and began burning farms. A couple of small garrisons surrendered to the raiders. The main American militia force in the region, 300-400 strong, forted up in an installation called Forty Fort.

Unaware of the size of the raiding force, and unwilling to watch smoke columns rise as their farms and homes were destroyed, the militia elected to sally forth to confront the raiders.

The Loyalist Butler lured the American militia toward his force, bidding his Seneca warriors to hit the dirt to remain hidden from view. The militia made no attempt to reconnoiter the Rangers’ positions and were unaware of the hidden force of warriors.

After the Americans fired three ineffective volleys at long range, the Rangers fired and charged from a range of about 100 yards, and the Senecas sprang up on the militia’s front and flank and engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.

The Americans tried to refuse their flank (turn their line to face the enemy), but the order to do so was misinterpreted as an order to retreat, and retreat almost immediately became a rout. As always, getting caught in a rout was deadly. The rangers took three killed and eight wounded, while taking 227 scalps. American accounts list even higher KIA — more than 300.

The Seneca — and some of their Ranger comrades, too — simply ran the Americans down as they tried to escape into the river and butchered them wholesale with melee weapons: tomahawks, war clubs, bayonets and spears.

Only a small percentage of the American force escaped the carnage, as depicted in Don Troiani’s painting.

Forty Fort surrendered on terms, and non-combatants were allowed to depart the Valley unharmed — though their hardships were terrible. About 80 percent of the Valley’s population fled.

There was no massacre of women and children. The Seneca and many Rangers did indulge in wholesale looting, which was against the capitulation terms.

Rumor and propaganda almost immediately caught fire, depicting the  battle as a terrible massacre, with savage warriors rampaging through the Valley and committing atrocities. One lurid tale, now considered by most historians to be a legend, had an Iroquois woman known as Queen Esther bludgeoning 14 or more American captives to death, their heads forced down upon a rock as she beat out their brains with a war club in revenge for the death of her son.

At all times — and especially in wartime — what actually happened was not nearly as important as what people believed happened. The myth of the Wyoming Massacre had real impact.

In a thesis on the Wyoming battle in American memory, William R. Tharp writes:

While the Battle of Wyoming amounted to a small-scale conflict that only had minor effects on the military situation during the Revolutionary War, this brief encounter along the Susquehanna River took on massive proportions in the American imagination that reached far beyond its limited military significance.

Ignited by sensational rumors in the aftermath of the battle, an incendiary myth took root just days later … This myth, which this thesis terms the legend of the Wyoming Massacre, played an integral role in the struggle for independence, the formation of national identity, and the outcome of the war on the frontier. 

The Wyoming Massacre was a major impetus for Washington ordering the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition the following year to penetrate into Seneca country and destroy their war-making capacity.

The “massacre” legend helped set Americans’ image of the birth of the nation beset by cruel and savage foes.

Cultural memory of the event persisted well into the 19th Century, and shaped attitudes toward the native peoples east of the Mississippi. It fueled a belief that American civilization could not tolerate the presence of “Red Devils” in its midst and gave momentum to the effort to remove the native peoples west of the Mississippi River.

The Seneca warriors who fought at Wyoming were incensed at the atrocity stories that grew out of the battle, when they had behaved with what they considered to be genuine restraint. They were also enraged that American officers who gave their parole in surrender, agreeing not to fight again, violated their pledge and returned to conduct raids of their own on Iroquois towns.

Their anger would bear bitter fruit later in the year; they seemed to take on an attitude that if they were to be treated as devils, they would act like devils. They would, in fact, murder civilians in another attack in Cherry Valley.