MOHAWK - Discovering the Valley of the Crystals Copyright 2004
Chapter 8 - Revolution
Running Battle of West Canada Valley
(The following is an excerpt from the book Kuyahoora - Discovering West Canada Valley.)
Near
the end of the Revolutionary War a 600-man army of British regulars, Loyalists
(Tories) and Iroquois, commanded by Major John Ross, left the British Fort
at Oswego and marched to the Mohawk Valley. The 150 Rangers and 130 Indians
in this army were commanded by Captain Walter Butler.
Butler had led an attack on Cherry Valley three
years before that resulted in the death and mutilation of 47 men, women
and children. Word of the attack spread throughout New York. The Cherry
Valley Massacre was the worst atrocity of the war and Walter Butler its
worst villain.
When the British army marched into the Mohawk Valley
on October 24, 1781, it bypassed the western outposts at Fort Herkimer
and Fort Dayton (Fort Stanwix had been damaged by fire and abandoned.)
and attacked settlements further down the valley, taking prisoners and
foraging for supplies.
When Colonel Marinus Willet heard of these attacks,
he rushed with his command at Fort Rensselaer (Fort Plain) to meet the
enemy, gathering additional troops from other forts along the way. They
met Ross's army at Johnstown on October 25, 1781 and won the day.
On the 27th, Willet marched his troops to Fort Herkimer and remained in the area for two days procuring provisions and additional fighting men for a five-day pursuit of the enemy. On the 29th, 400 hand-picked troops and 60 Oneida warriors marched up West Canada Valley to a trail north of the present village of Middleville, traveled northeast to Jerseyfield Road, and then north through a hardwood forest towards the Jerseyfield Patent.
That evening after a forced march of 20 miles, snow falling throughout the day, they camped on high ground overlooking Black Creek Valley, some three miles from Black Creek.
Ross's
army entered West Canada Valley that same day on the Mount's Trail west
of Salisbury, heading northwest to the Jerseyfield. The trail for
much of its length passed through a very wet forest of giant spruce, balsam
and hemlock, mixed with hardwood ridges of maple, beech and cherry. One
of these hardwood ridges offered a well-drained and defensible campground
for more than 500 men . . . and there was a rushing brook nearby.
(The campsite was henceforth called Butler's Ridge)
That evening---for the fourth day in a row---Ross's army ate its allotment of a half-pound of horsemeat per man. A mile away, Willet's army ate full rations. Willet sent out scouts that located the enemy. Ross probably did the same.
Both armies broke camp around daybreak on October 30th and marched a collision course. Each army moved through the wilderness with a party of scouts well in front of the main body and a rear guard well behind. On a narrow trail through the wilderness the rear guard could effectively delay the progress of a pursuing army.
West Canada Creek. Today Butler's Crossing is under Hinckley Reservoir.
When Willet's advance party reached Black
Creek they collided with Ross's rear guard. The ensuing skirmish resulted
in the capture of an enemy officer and the death or capture of most of
his command.
For the rest of the morning a running battle ensued. The retreating
army discarded their packs and other gear to increase their speed through
the conifer wilderness. Many of the pursuers did likewise in an attempt
to overtake them.
They ran north on Mount's Road, crossed the North
Branch of Black Creek, Mount's Brook and Mount's Clearing before turning
west towards West Canada Creek. At every opportunity the rear guard fired
on their pursuers to give Ross's army enough time to cross the West Canada
and set up a defensive position further down the trail on the other side
of the river.
After the main body crossed the river, Captain Walter
Butler and some of his rangers lined the riverbank and waited for their
pursuers to descend the steep hill leading to the crossing before firing
on them. Except as a delaying tactic, their fire was ineffective.
During the ensuing skirmish Butler was shot in the
head and fell to the ground near some shoreline trees. When the rear guard
fled into the woods, an Oneida warrior ran across the river, killed
the wounded Butler with a tomahawk to the head and then scalped and stripped
him. Waving the scalp in the air, the Oneida and the other warriors chorused
a war cry that could be heard by all. When the action was over the British
had five men killed, three wounded and four taken prisoner. (This ford
on West Canada Creek was henceforth called Butler's Crossing.)
Willet's army chased the enemy a few more miles
before calling off the pursuit. In his report of the action he included
the following:
"We have lost but one man in the pursuit. Our
Indians were very useful, and behaved with their usual alertness upon such
occasions. Your Lordship knows they are the best cavalry for the service
of the wilderness. Strange as it may appear it is true, that not withstanding
the enemy had been four days in the wilderness with only half a pound of
horse-flesh per man per day. Yet in this famished situation, they trotted
30 miles before they stopped. Many of them indeed fell sacrifice to such
treatment. Their packs and blankets were strewed through the woods. All
their horses, except five which were sent a considerable distance forward
in their van, with their wounded and a few prisoners fell into our hands.
"In this situation, I left the unfortunate Major
Ross; unfortunate I call him, for he was surely so in taking charge of
so fine a detachment of men to execute so dirty and trifling a piece of
business as he was sent on at such immense hazard and exquisite toil.
To fatigue the brave troops any longer, appeared unnecessary. The enemy,
who continued their flight great part of the night, had got greatly the
start of us, and almost certain destruction appeared before them. -- A
seven days march, rivers passable but upon rafts, a barren wilderness,
in an inclement season of the year, to be encountered with, before they
can obtain provisions; besides, our situation, had we pursued them a day
or two longer, might become little better than theirs; for our Indians,
and many of the troops, in order to pursue them with greater vigour, had
thrown aside their blankets and provisions, which were now 20 miles or
more in the rear; in fine, we left them in a situation, perhaps, more suited
to their merit than a musket ball, a tomahawk, or captivity."
After waiting for a day at a defensible position further along the trail,
Major Ross continued his march to Carleton Island and arrived there with
most of his command on November 6.
While this conflict was not as significant militarily
as the Battle of Oriskany, it was a shot in the arm for the morale of a
war-weary Mohawk Valley. The word of Captain Walter Butler's demise spread
throughout the region. His scalp was sold in Albany, his Jacket was sold
in Schenectady, and the running battle through the West Canada Valley
wilderness became a part of American history . . . and the stuff of legends.
