Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1933-05-03
THE BUTLER HOME At sUTLERseURT ny

Since Walter Butler was the apotheosis Of the
worst type of enemy to the cause of Liberty,
IL would seem natural that our information about
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 a
great myth about him that got into every Amer
lean history in the Nineteenth century. Lafay-
cite Is said to have been his friend but there
Is no authority for 1t. 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 Haldlmand ap-
proving of his conduct that November day. He
appears plainly to have broken his parole as q
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 paladin. Mortified
at Buffers excuses. Yet Simms, the gossip OF
the Revolution, In The Frontiersmen of New
York. tlresome 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 enterprisine
leader, eager, ambitious, ~tireless, offering to
cover Albany, Fort Pitt and Detroit for HaldI
mand, ~grasping early In the war the grand STRAIT,
egg of the long Northwestern flank. impatient
of older men, defending his every action at Cher
nv Valley, scorning to make war on women anC
children, while pointing out the treatment Of
his mother and sister held as hostages In AL
bany. He is condemned for his red allies ant
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 Butlersbury, seeing his ia
Their and Sir William Johnson returning In tri
umph at the head of Colonial troops from thu
wars with the French. We see him busy at hl
law studies in Albany and as a rising young
lawyer at the outbreak of the Revolution. Their
when the break comes In 1775 and those VIII,
live In New York province must choose between
King and their native land, he casts his lot will
the Loyallsts (who were decidedly In the ma
jority In that province). But the Patriot force
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 Butle
and Walter Butler and Joseph Brant of the Mo
! hawks 20 TO Oswego.