Wyoming Valley

On July 3, 1778, militia loyal to the Patriot cause clashed with a combined force of Loyalist troops and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) fighters in Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley, an area now part of Luzerne County. This clash, known to history as the Battle of Wyoming, ended in a crushing loss for the Patriot side. Because roughly 300 Patriots died, a great many of them cut down by Haudenosaunee warriors while running from the fighting or after surrendering as captives, the encounter has come to be called the "Wyoming Massacre."

In the aftermath, buildings across the valley were plundered and set ablaze, though those not involved in the fighting escaped physical harm. The majority of residents sought safety by crossing the Pocono Mountains toward Stroudsburg and Easton, while others traveled down the Susquehanna River to reach Sunbury. Not long afterward, a newspaper account that circulated widely, despite being riddled with inaccuracies, alleged that hundreds of women and children had lost their lives in a massacre. For many decades, numerous authors treated this distorted narrative as established truth, though it has since been thoroughly disproven.

Battle

Departing Tioga Point on June 27, Major Butler led a force of 110 Rangers alongside 464 Indigenous warriors, reaching the upper Wyoming Valley within three days. Seneca and Cayuga fighters made up the bulk of these allies, guided by Sayenqueraghta, Cornplanter, and Fish Carrier, with smaller groups of Lenape, Onondaga, and Tuscarora rounding out their numbers. Word of the approaching force reached the Americans only after a dozen settlers, caught working a field and a nearby tannery, came under attack.

Panic sent residents scattering toward the valley's scattered defenses, among them Fort Wyoming at Wilkes-Barre and Fort Pittston. At the same time, militia loyal to the Patriot cause gathered at Forty Fort, placed under Lieutenant Colonel Zebulon Butler, a Continental Army officer then home on leave.

The first of July brought the bloodless capitulation of Fort Wintermoot, positioned at the valley's northern edge. By that same evening, Fort Jenkins had also given up the fight following a short clash. Both surrenders came with assurances that the residents inside would go unharmed.

When Forty Fort received similar demands, its defenders refused outright. Though Butler and his ranking officers, Colonel Nathan Denison and Lieutenant Colonel George Dorrance, pushed for holding their ground within the fort's walls, the men beneath them, rallying behind Lazarus Stewart, pressed hard for taking the fight to the enemy instead. Butler eventually relented, and by mid afternoon on July 3, roughly 375 soldiers, split across five militia companies and a single company of Continentals, marched out from the fort's protection.

Indigenous scouts tracked every step the Americans took. Seeking to mislead them into believing a retreat was underway, Major Butler had Fort Wintermoot set ablaze. He then arranged his troops within a stretch of open woodland, placing the Rangers along the left flank and his native allies to the right, instructing everyone to stay low and hold fire until given the signal.

As the American column advanced toward the burning fort, it formed into battle lines. Three volleys went out unanswered while the militia closed to within a hundred yards of Butler's hidden position, never realizing that Seneca and Cayuga fighters were already moving around their side. A crushing volley from the Rangers and their allies broke the standoff, and the Seneca and Cayuga surged from concealment, falling upon the Americans with mauls, tomahawks, and spears.

Roughly half an hour settled the engagement. What began as an effort to rally the American line collapsed almost immediately into chaos, the untested militia breaking ranks and fleeing outright. What followed was less a retreat than a desperate scramble for survival, with only about sixty men, Lieutenant Colonel Butler and Colonel Denison among them, managing to get away. Those caught by the pursuing Seneca and Cayuga mostly met death and scalping on the spot, though a portion were dragged off as captives, later subjected to torture before being put to death.

Writing afterward to the officer commanding Fort Niagara, Major Butler claimed his native allies had gathered 227 scalps along with five prisoners. Denison, for his part, put the death toll to him at 302.

American order of battle

Zebulon Butler, a lieutenant colonel, held overall command of the American forces that day.

Within the Continental Army stood Hewitt's Company, forty six officers and men strong, under Captain Detrick Hewitt, who did not survive the fighting.

The 24th Regiment of Connecticut Militia answered to Colonel Nathan Denison and to Lieutenant Colonel George Dorrance, the latter also among the fallen. Its companies were organized as follows. The Shawnee Company, forty officers and men, was led by Captain Asaph Whittlesey, who perished in the engagement. The Hanover Company numbered thirty officers and men and saw both of its captains, Wm McKarrchen and Lazarus Stewart, die in action. Thirty eight officers and men made up the Lower Wilkes-Barre Company, commanded by Captain James Bidlack Jr., another casualty of the day. The Upper Wilkes-Barre Company counted thirty officers and men under Captain Rezin Geer, who also lost his life. Forty officers and men served in the Kingston Company, led by Captain Aholiab Buck, likewise killed. A detachment drawn from the Huntington and Salem Company, under Lieutenant Stoddard Brown, rounded out the regiment.

A group of supernumerary officers took part as well, including Captain Robert Durkee, Captain Samuel Ransom, Lieutenant Peren Ross, Lieutenant James Wells, and Lieutenant Timothy Pierce, all of whom died, along with Ensign Matthias Hollenback and