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"Folklore" history.. Watch this account being related by a folklore historian. He seems sincere, but very single sided.
The title..THE SULLIVAN~CLINTON CAMPAIGN AS GENOCIDE..
Yes, the Sullivan~clinton campaign was in some ways brutal, but I submit it was a defensive action.
hSullivan campaign was from
June 17 through Oct 3, 1779..Clinton started at Oswego Lake, coming down the Sesquehanna in bateau, to meet with Sullivan at Tioga, PA. From there, they proceeded up the Chemung river, then up the Genesee river, driving th eIroquois Indians before them.
It was a "scorched earth" policy.. The only Indians who were hurt or killed, were those who resisted. The rest fled, ending up as boarders with the British at Fort Niagara..it was a tough winter for them.
But of course...and this 'historian' doesn't mention it; this did not happen in a vacuum..the Iroquois made a poor choice from the start. Five of the six united nations sided with the British during the Revolutionary War, the Oneidas being the only ones who sided with the Americans..obviously a poor choice.
Then they allowed the British to use them in brutal massacres.. British Col Butler, formed a small group of rangers..and joined in with the Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant to raid many homes, towns outposts and forts..(or fortified houses).... and they took very, very few prisoners.
Our erstwhile "folk historian" fails to mention, the events of the preceeding summer of
1778, when the Brits and the Iroquois ran roughshod over farmers and tradesman in such villages and towns...
A partial list of towns and outposts who were subject to Surprise attacks and massacres, the
summer and fall of 1778...the year
BEFORE the Sullivan campaign.
Cobleskill6/11/1778, Forty Fort 7/03/1778, Wilkes Barre 8/03/1778 and Cherry Valley, NY 11/11/1778
Gen Washington decided that the Iroquois must be settled down, so as not to have to be obliged to deploy needed tropps from the important parts of the war, yet to be fought. This campaign actually "broke the back" of the Iroquois confederacy...and caused them to burden the British at Ft Niagara, rather than to be a constant 'thorn in the side' of the continental army.
The story I presented concerning the "torture Tree" was the fate of a couple American soldier/scouts, captured by the Senecas, near the foot of conesus Lake..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSEnwndx8L4 ...
