The Coolidge examiner., 1933-05-05

Since Walter Butler was the apotheosis OF the
worst type of enemy to the cause of Liberty
ii would seem natural that our information about
him should be fairly complete. And yet as the
author of "War Out of Niagara" says: "There
is an absorbing mystery about his life and char
acter. The date of his birth is unknown. :.
There is no physical description of him except
in fiction. Letters about him in catalogues, even
OF the Schuyler Papers, the Gates Papers, the
Library of Congress and many other papers are
mysteriously marked missing Timothy Dwight
the President of Yale university. invented
great myth about him that got into every Amer
lean history In the Nineteenth century. Lafay-
ette Is said to have been his friend but there
is no authority for It, Haldimand British com
mander in Canada) is said TO have refused to
receive him after Cherry Valley and this book
contains an original letter from Haldimand ap-
proving of his conduct that November day. He
appears plainly to have broken his parole as a
prisoner but with every horror of massacre and
rapine laid at his door, for some reason that
seems to have escaped notice Brant, the In
dian, Is portrayed as a noble paladn. Mortified
at Buffers excesses. Yet Simms, the gossip of
the Revolution, in The Frontersmen of New
York., tiresome in the multiplicity of Its detail,
never places Walter Butler at the scene of any
of the atrocities in the North. Thousands of
men are mentioned by name but young Butler
Is mentioned only at Cherry Valley"
But thanks to the researches of this histori-
an, some of the mystery of Walter Butler Is dis
solved and we see him, not as the "bloody mon
ster," painted by the early historians. Instead
there stands forth IAN amazing fgure-a young
man who could not have been over twenty
eight when he was killed, to the rejoicing of all
New York, a most dauntless and enterprising
leader, eager, ambitious tireless, offering to
cover Albany Fort Pitt and Detroit for Haldi-
mand, grasping early in the war the grand STRAIT
egy of the long Northwestern flank. impatient
of older men, defending his every action at Cher
ry Valley, scorning to make war women and
children, while pointing out the treatment of
his mother and sister held as hostages in Al
bany. He is condemned for his red allies and
was himself killed and scalped by an Indian ally
of the Continental army and the newspapers an
nouncing his death say, The Oneida Indians be-
haved well in the action and deserve much
credit"
So in "War Out of Niagara" we see Walter
Butler as a boy at Butersbury, seeing his fa-
ther and Sir William Johnson returning in tri-
WARS with the French We see him busy at his
law studies in Albany and as a rising young
lawyer at the outbreak of the Revolution. Then
when the break comes in 1775 and those who
live in New York province must choose between
King and their native land, he casts his lot with
the Loyalists (who decidedly in the ma
jority in that proyince). But the Patriot forces
under General Schuyler gain temporary ascend
ancy and Guy Johnson and Sir John Johnson,
nephew and son of Sir William and his success
ors in charge of Indian affairs, Col. John Butler
and Walter Butler and Joseph Brant of Il No
hawks 60 to Oswegc,