Cherry Valley massacre The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Iroquois forces on a fort and the village of Cherry Valley in eastern New York on November 11 , 1778 , during the American Revolutionary War . It has been described as one of the most horrific frontier massacres of the war . A mixed force of Loyalist s , British soldiers , Seneca and Mohawks descended on Cherry Valley , whose defenders , despite warnings , were unprepared for the attack . During the raid , the Seneca in particular targeted non - combatants , and reports state that 30 such individuals were slain , in addition to a number of armed defenders . The raiders were under the overall command of Walter Butler , who exercised little authority over the Indians on the expedition . Historian Barbara Graymont describes Butler ' s command of the expedition as " criminally incompetent " . The Seneca were angered by accusations that they had committed atrocities at the Battle of Wyoming , and the colonists ' recent destruction of their forward bases of operation at Unadilla , Onaquaga , and Tioga . Butler ' s authority with the Indians was undermined by his poor treatment of Joseph Brant , the leader of the Mohawks . Butler repeatedly maintained that he was powerless to restrain the Seneca against accusations that he permitted the atrocities to take place . During the campaigns of 1778 , Brant achieved an undeserved reputation for brutality . He was not present at Wyoming , although many thought he was , and actively sought to minimize the atrocities that took place at Cherry Valley . The massacre contributed to calls for reprisals , leading to the 1779 Sullivan Expedition which drove the Iroquois out of western New York . Background . With the failure of British General John Burgoyne ' s campaign to the Hudson after the Battles of Saratoga in October 1777 , the American Revolutionary War in upstate New York became a frontier war . The Mohawk Valley was especially targeted for its fertile soil and large supply of crops farmers were supplying Patriot troops . British leaders in the Province of Quebec supported Loyalist and Native American partisan fighters with supplies and armaments . During the winter of 1777 – 78 , Joseph Brant and other British - allied Indians developed plans to attack frontier settlements in New York and Pennsylvania . In February 1778 Brant established a base of operations at Onaquaga ( present - day Windsor , New York ) . He recruited a mix of Iroquois and Loyalists estimated to number between two and three hundred by the time he began his campaign in May . One of his objectives was to acquire provisions for his forces and those of John Butler , who was planning operations in the Susquehanna River valley . Brant began his campaign in late May with a raid on Cobleskill , and raided other frontier communities throughout the summer . The local militia and Continental Army units defending the area were ineffective against the raiders , who typically escaped from the scene of a raid before defenders arrived in force . After Brant and some of Butler ' s Rangers attacked German Flatts in September , the Americans organized a punitive expedition that destroyed the villages of Unadilla and Onaquaga in early October . While Brant was active in the Mohawk valley , Butler descended with a large mixed force and raided the Wyoming Valley of northern Pennsylvania in early July . This action complicated affairs , for the Seneca s in Butler ' s force were accused of massacring noncombatants , and a number of Patriot militia violated their parole not long afterward , participating in a reprisal expedition against Tioga . The lurid propaganda associated with the accusations against the Seneca in particular angered them , as did the destruction of Unadilla , Onaquaga , and Tioga . The Wyoming Valley attack , even though Brant was not present , fueled among his opponents the view of him as a particularly brutal opponent . Brant then joined forces with Captain Walter Butler ( the son of John Butler ) , leading two companies of Butler ' s Rangers commanded by Captains John McDonell and William Caldwell for an attack on the major Schoharie Creek settlement of Cherry Valley . Butler ' s forces also included 300 Senecas , probably led by either Cornplanter or Sayenqueraghta , and 50 British Army soldiers from the 8th Regiment of Foot . As the force moved toward Cherry Valley , Butler and Brant quarreled over Brant ' s recruitment of Loyalists . Butler was unhappy at Brant ' s successes in this sphere , and threatened to withhold provisions from Brant ' s Loyalist volunteers . Ninety of them ended up leaving the expedition , and Brant himself was on the verge of doing so when his Indian supporters convinced him to stay . The dispute did not sit well with the Indian forces , and may have undermined Butler ' s tenuous authority over them . Massacre . Cherry Valley had a palisade d fort ( constructed after Brant ' s raid on Cobleskill ) that surrounded the village meeting house . It was garrisoned by 300 soldiers of the 7th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army commanded by Colonel Ichabod Alden . Alden and his command staff were alerted by November 8 through Oneida spies that the Butler – Brant force was moving against Cherry Valley . However , he failed to take elementary precautions , continuing to occupy a headquarters ( the house of a settler named Wells ) some from the fort . Butler ' s force arrived near Cherry Valley late on November 10 , and established a cold camp to avoid detection . Reconnaissance of the town identified the weaknesses of Alden ' s arrangements , and the raiders decided to send one force against Alden ' s headquarters and another against the fort . Butler extracted promises from the Indians in the party that they would not harm noncombatants in a council held that night . The attack began early on the morning of November 11 . Some overeager Indians spoiled the surprise by firing on settlers cutting wood nearby . One of them escaped , raising the alarm . Little Beard led some of the Senecas to surround the Wells house , while the main body surrounded the fort . The attackers killed at least sixteen officers and troops of the quarters guards , including Alden , who was cut down while he was running from the Wells house to the fort . Most accounts say Alden was within reach of the gates , only to stop and try to shoot his pursuer , who may have been Joseph Brant . His wet pistol repeatedly misfired and he was killed by a thrown tomahawk hitting him in the forehead . Lt . Col . William Stacy , second in command , also quartered at the Wells house , was taken prisoner . Stacy ' s son Benjamin and cousin Rufus Stacy ran through a hail of bullets to reach the fort from the house ; Stacy ' s brother - in - law Gideon Day was killed . Those attacking the Wells house eventually gained entry , leading to hand - to - hand combat inside . After killing most of the soldiers stationed there , the Senecas slaughtered the entire Wells household , twelve in all . The raiders ' attack on the fort was unsuccessful — lacking heavy weapons , they were unable to make any significant impressions on its stockade walls . The fort was then guarded by the Loyalists while the Indians rampaged through the rest of the settlement . Not a single house was left standing , and the Senecas , seeking revenge , were reported to slaughter anyone they encountered . Butler and Brant attempted to restrain their actions but were unsuccessful . Brant in particular was dismayed to learn that a number of families who were well known to him and that he had counted as friends had borne the brunt of the Seneca rampage , including the Wells , Campbell , Dunlop , and Clyde families . Lt . William McKendry , a quartermaster in Colonel Alden ' s regiment , described the attack in his journal : Immediately came on 442 Indians from the Five Nations , 200 Tories under the command of one Col . Butler and Capt . Brant ; attacked headquarters ; killed Col . Alden ; took Col . Stacy prisoner ; attacked Fort Alden ; after three hours retreated without success of taking the fort . McKendry identified the fatalities of the massacre as Colonel Alden , thirteen other soldiers , and thirty civilian inhabitants . Most of the slain soldiers had been at the Wells house . Accounts surrounding the capture of Lt . Col . Stacy report that he was about to be killed , but Brant intervened . " [ Brant ] saved the life of Lieut . Col Stacy , who [ . . . ] was made prisoner when Col . Alden was killed . It is said Stacy was a freemason , and as such made an appeal to Brant , and was spared . " Aftermath . The next morning Butler sent Brant and some rangers back into the village to complete its destruction . The raiders took 70 captives , many of them women and children . About 40 of these Butler managed to have released , but the rest were distributed among their captors ' villages until they were exchanged . Lt . Col . Stacy was taken to Fort Niagara as a prisoner of the British . A Mohawk chief , in justifying the action at Cherry Valley , wrote to an American officer that " you Burned our Houses , which makes us and our Brothers , the Seneca Indians angrey , so that we destroyed , men , women and Children at Chervalle . " The Seneca " declared they would no more be falsely accused , or fight the Enemy twice " ( the latter being an indication that they would refuse quarter in the future ) . Butler reported that " notwithstanding my utmost Precaution and Endeavours to save the Women and Children , I could not prevent some of them falling unhappy Victims to the Fury of the Savages , " but also that he spent most of his time guarding the fort during the raid . Quebec ' s Governor Frederick Haldimand was so upset at Butler ' s inability to control his forces that he refused to see him , writing " such indiscriminate vengeance taken even upon the treacherous and cruel enemy they are engaged against is useless and disreputable to themselves , as it is contrary to the dispositions and maxims of the King whose cause they are fighting . " Butler continued to insist in later writings that he was not at fault for the events of the day . The violent frontier war of 1778 brought calls for the Continental Army to take action . Cherry Valley , along with the accusations of murder of non - combatants at Wyoming , helped pave the way for the launch of the 1779 Sullivan Expedition , commissioned by commander - in - chief Major General George Washington and led by Major General John Sullivan . The expedition destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages in their homelands of central and western New York and drove the women and children into refugee camps at Fort Niagara . It failed , however , to stop the frontier war , which continued with renewed severity in 1780 . Legacy . A monument was dedicated at Cherry Valley on August 15 , 1878 , at the centennial anniversary of the massacre . Former New York Governor Horatio Seymour delivered a dedication address at the monument to an audience of about 10 , 000 persons , saying : Years after the massacre , Benjamin Stacy ' s home village of New Salem , Massachusetts celebrated the annual Old Home Day holiday with a Benjamin Stacy footrace , honoring his escape at Cherry Valley .