Cherry Valley massacre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Cherry Valley Massacre)

Cherry Valley Massacre

Image:Incident in cherry valley.jpg
"Incident in Cherry Valley - fate of Jane Wells" from the original picture by Alonzo Chappel, engraved by Thomas Phillibrown.

Date	November 11, 1778
Location	New York
Result	British victory

Combatants

United States

Great Britain

Commanders

Ichabod Alden

Walter Butler, and Joseph Brant

Strength

250 settlers and milita

400 regulars and 300 native warriors

Casualties

Over 70 killed
33 captured

Unknown

Northern theater after Saratoga, 1778–1781
Rhode Island – Wyoming Valley – Carleton's Raid – Cherry Valley – Stony Point – Penobscot expedition – Sullivan expedition – Newtown – Springfield – Groton Heights

The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Seneca Indian forces on a fort and village in eastern New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War.

Captain Walter Butler (the son of Colonel John Butler) led two companies of Butler's Rangers along with about 300 Indians. Joseph Brant was also present, but with his forces seriously reduced because of contention with Butler. The Senecas were angered over the burning of Tioga by forces under Colonel Thomas Hartley.

The fort, actually a palisade around the village meeting house, could not be taken, but the town was destroyed. Sixteen of the defenders were killed, including garrison commander Ichabod Alden. Despite the efforts of Butler and Brant to stop it, more than thirty women and children and several Loyalist townspeople were killed and scalped. This, together with the massacre at Wyoming Valley, helped pave the way for the Sullivan Expedition into the Iroquois homelands of central and western New York to neutralize the threat of future incursions.