Zebulon Butler
Zebulon Butler Zebulon Butler was born in Lyme, Connecticut on January 23, 1731, and died on July 18, 1795. " He commenced his military career as an Ensign and soon rose to Captain. He participated in the memorable hardships of the campaign of 1758 on the frontiers of Canada: Fort Edward, Lake George, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point. In 1762, he was at the protracted siege of Havana. He was on board one of the six shipwrecked vessels on his way. All on board narrowly escaped a watery grave. They were on the beach nine days before they were relieved. On the 9th of August, the last of the fleet arrived before Havana. The defense was obstinate, the sufferings of the besiegers great.Capt. Butler shared the dangers of the attack and the glories of the victory. He sailed for his long-absent home on the 21st of October in the Royal Duke. He encountered many perils during the voyage. On the November 7th, the ship began to leak so rapidly that it was with difficulty that her crew were transferred to another vessel nearby before she went to the bottom. He arrived in New York on the December 21st, and once more met the warm embrace of anxious relatives and friends. He had won enduring laurels, stood high as a brave and skillful officer, and was an esteemed and valued citizen. He then left the army and enjoyed the peaceful pleasures of private life until the revolutionary storm began to concentrate its fearful elements. He was ready to brave its pitiless peltings. He had rendered arduous and valuable service to the mother country; he was well qualified to repel her ungrateful conduct and render efficient aid in defending his native soil. The goadings and insolence of British hirelings had deeply penetrated his patriotic soul and prepared him for bold and noble action. He was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Connecticut line and repaired to the post of honor and danger. He was actively engaged in the campaigns of 1777, 1778, amd 1779. During the last year, he was commissioned Colonel of the 2nd Connecticut regiment. He was with Washington in New Jersey and greatly esteemed by him.
A short time previous to the revolution, he was one of a company from his native place that had purchased Wyoming Valley from the Indians for a fair consideration. Many settlers had located there and cleared up much of the forest. Although fully reimbursed for their lands according to a contract made with the Chiefs in the grand council assembled. The red men were unwilling to leave a place so enchanting and agreeable with their views of happiness. They fancied the Great Spirit had his dwelling place in that salubrious vale, fringed with hills and mountains on all sides. They gave them an audible audience as echo reverberated their stentorian yells from hill to peak and back to the shores of the majestic Susquehanna. As the towering forest fell before the axe of the white man, the Indians murmured and designed the extermination of the pale faces. In this, they were encouraged by the British and black-hearted Tories, most of the inhabitants having declared for liberty. Most of their effective force of nearly 200 men was in the American army. Soon after the departure of these troops, the savages assumed a menacing attitude, and manifesting a disposition to violate the terms of peace they had solemnly sanctioned when paid for their lands. Several stockade forts were erected and a company of rangers was organized and placed under the command of Captain Hewitt.
It soon became evident that they were preparing for a bloody sacrifice. An express was despatched to the board of war representing the approaching danger, requesting the return of the troops who had recently joined the army, and leaving their homes exposed to all the horrors of savage cruelty rendered awful by the more bloodthirsty stories. But it was too late to ward off the fatal slaughter and carnage when these brave men were within a day's march of their murdered wives, children, and friends who slumbered in death, deeply gashed with the tomahawk.
Indian Attack on the Susquehanna River
About the 1st of June 1778, canoes were on the river just above the valley filled with Indian warriors. They attacked a party of the inhabitants at work on the bank of the Susquehanna,killing and making prisoners of ten. They were concentrating their forces for an attack upon the settlement. At that critical juncture, Colonel Butler arrived. A large body of the savages had assembled at the mouth of the Lackawanna at the head of the valley. The militia under the command of Colonel Dennison formed in the Fort at Wilkesbarre on the 1st of July. They scoured the borders of the valley and discovered the bodies of those massacred a few days earlier, killed two Indians, and returned. Not supposing danger so near, each man repaired to his own house for provisions. On the 3rd, most men could bear arms assembled at the Fort, amounting to about 350. Some remained in the smaller forts with their families, presuming on the delay of an attack. Colonel Butler assumed command of the troops. They were poorly armed and had but a small supply of ammunition. But few of them had ever been engaged in battle and were unfamiliar with military tactics. A few moments after Colonel Butler had assumed the command, news arrived that the enemy had entered the valley's upper end and was advancing rapidly. Fort Wintermote and another stockade fort were then in flames, and their inmates were weltering in blood and struggling in death. They attempted to march out and try to arrest the savages in their career of desolation and carnage. The troops proceeded some distance from the Fort and took an advantageous position on the bank of a creek where they supposed the enemy would pass on their way to the principal Fort. There, they remained for half a day without seeing the foe.The force of the enemy was concentrated at Fort Wintermote, amounting to nearly 1000 practical men commanded by Brandt, an Indian half-blood, and Colonel John Butler, not a relative of Colonel Zebulon Butler, as some writers have erroneously stated. Echo returned the demoniac yells of the savages from the surrounding hills, and the forest resounded with the appalling war-whoop. The ill-fated Americans committed another severe error. Not until they were upon the battleground did they learn the superior force of the vengeful foe. As the little band approached, they found the Indians and tories formed in a line, the right resting on a swamp commanded by Brandt, the left reaching Fort Wintermote headed by Colonel John Butler. Colonel Zebulan Butler led the right and Colonel Dennison the left of the Americans to the attack. So determined was this Spartan band on victory that the left of the enemy gave way in a few minutes, closely pursued by Colonel Butler. Colonel Dennison ordered his men to fall back. Many supposing he had ordered a retreat, the line became confused and broken. At that critical moment, Colonel Butler rode towards the left and first learned the misfortune of Colonel Dennison and saw his men retreating in disorder. He was then between two fires and near the advancing enemy. Before the troops on the right were told of the fate of the left, they were nearly surrounded by the savages and compelled to retreat hastily. But about 50 survived, including Colonels Butler and Dennison, who were more exposed than most others. The few who escaped that fatal day's dreadful carnage assembled at Forty Fort. So heart-rending was this defeat that the surviving inhabitants were willing to submit to any terms to save their lives. The enemy refused to treat any continental army officer as unquestionably advised by the hyena Tories. Nor would they give them or regular soldiers any quarter but insisted on their being delivered up to the Indians at discretion. Colonel Butler at once left and proceeded to Gradenhutten on the Lehigh. On July 4th, Colonel Dennison entered into a capitulation with Colonel John Butler and Brandt to surrender the Fort on condition the lives of the survivors should be preserved and not further molested in person or property. Tory Butler and Brandt solemnly agreed to these conditions but most disgracefully violated. As the Indians marched in, they commenced an indiscriminate plunder. Butler was appealed to and replied he could not control them, and walked out and left them to finish their work in their way. The man who could urge the savages on to murder could go them to rob the helpless, regardless of his sacred pledge of honor.
Finding themselves still at the mercy of the Indians, the inhabitants fled to the nearest settlement towards the Delaware, about 50 miles distant through a dense wilderness and over rugged mountains. So rapidly did they fly on the wings of terror that numbers became exhausted from overfatigue and hunger and were carried on the last day by the stronger ones. After their departure, the savage tories and red men laid waste the town of Wilkesbarre and most of the houses in the valley, plundering or destroying all the property they could find. They then drove the cattle and horses to Niagara.
Colonel Butler communicated the sad intelligence of the bloody massacre to the Board of War and then proceeded to Stroudsburg, then Northampton County, where he met the returning Wyoming troops and a few who had escaped on the day of the unfortunate battle. In August, he was ordered to return with such force as he could collect and take possession of Wyoming Valley. On his arrival, he found a few Indians collecting the cattle the main body had left. They fled precipitately without their booty. Colonel Butler erected a new fort at Wilkesbarre and established a well-regulated garrison, which he commanded until the winter of 1780, thus keeping the tories and savages at bay. The expedition of General Sullivan in 1779 paralyzed the Indian power upon the Susquehanna and restored a reasonable degree of confidence in the inhabitants.
In December 1780, Colonel Butler was ordered to join the Continental Army and left Capt. Alexander Mitchell in command of the Fort. "
Source: Edited from The Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll Judson