Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-02-22
The Story of Wyoming

On the third of July, one hundred
years ago, q mob of tories, with four
hundred Seneca Indians, fifteen hun.
dred in all, came down the beautiful
valley of the Susquehanna between the
Luzerne county hills, fell upon the
peaceful village of Wyoming, and in
three days left it ghastly waste of
blood and ashes. The Indians we're led
by the half-breed wretch, Joseph
Brandt, and the control of the whole
force-so far as it was under any con-
trol-was in the hands of the infamous
"Col." John Butler. Many of the
tories were residents of Wyoming, alien
ated from their homes and kindred by
the unnatural partisan passion which
had divided families and made brothers
deadly foes. The little settlement
(mostly of hardy Connecticut farmers)
had raised and sent two companies of
militia to the aid of Washington, and
the few defenders of the place, after a
brief resistance, were driven to their
! forts, where also numbers of the women
and children of the patriot families had
fled for shelter and safety.
The smaller garrison soon yielded to
overwhelming numbers. and Forty Fort,
near Kingston, was next surrounded
| by the enemy, and summoned to sur
render. John Buffers cousin, Col.
Zebulun Butler, WAS the commander.
and unsuspicious, it would seem. of his
kinsman's utter want of honor, he pro
posed q parley. This was treacherously
agreed to, the tory leader called off his
| al, n,,tl opnI,oI N,,k
with four hundred and seventeen men
toward the river. into deadly ambus-
cade. Yells and musket shots burst
from behind every rock. and bush, and
tree and the doomed patriots fell in their
tracks, scarcely able to deliver return.
ing voilav on their skulking foe. OF
the four hundred and seventeen, only
fifty-seven escaped. 1t was an exploit
of murder worthy the hands of tho
Janizaries. Mad with the taste of blood,
the Tories and Indians rushed back to
the fort, swinging the hundreds of drip
ping scalps, and findi g its weakened
garrison determined on defence, trained
several field pieces to batter it down.
Col. Dennison held out for O day, and
when nearly all his men were disabled,
asked John Butler what terms of sur
render he would give. "The Ratchet"
was Buffers only reply. And he kept
bis word this time, as it became his
brutal nature to do. His fiendish in
vention even improved upon the ordi-
nary process of slaughter, for when at
last the fort was forced to capitulate, he
selected an insignificant number of
prisoners, and then shut up all the rest
in the barracks, men, women and chill
dren together, and burned them alive !
Meanwhile, gangs of destroyers were
sacking the town, carrying fire and car
mage everywhere. Even the savages,
in some instances, showed more human
feeling than their white allies. One
Indian. mindful of some former favor,
furnished some of his war-paint to dis
guise the wife and children of patriot
settler, and secure their escape. Capt.
Badlock was pierced with dry splinters,
and set on fire, as Nero made torches
of the martyrs and Ransom and Dur
kee were seized and held down in a
monsters in the Tory company who
took it upon themselves to slaughter
their own relatives, for espousing the
colonial cause. One young ruffian,
made devillish by political hatred, MUIR
dered his mother and sisters and their
little children, and made an end of his
whole family. A demon, named Partial
Terry, killed his father, mother, broth
ers and sisters, scalped them, and cut
off his fathers head. The frenzy of
barbarity did not spare even the cattle,
and many innocent COWS were MORALLY
wounded with bullets, or had their
tongues cut out, to die o lingering
death. Nothing in quality of cruel
wickedness was wanting to the Internal
work of the invaders.