Battle of Wyoming The Battle of Wyoming ( also known as the Wyoming Massacre ) was an encounter during the American Revolutionary War between American Patriots and Loyalists accompanied by Iroquois raiders that took place in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania on July 3 , 1778 . More than three hundred Patriots were killed in the battle . After the battle , settlers claimed that the Iroquois raiders had hunted and killed fleeing Patriots before using ritual torture against thirty to forty who had surrendered , until they died . Background . In 1777 , the British General John Burgoyne led a campaign to gain control of the Hudson River in the American Revolutionary War . Burgoyne was weakened by loss of time and forces after the Battle of Oriskany and forced to surrender after the Battles of Saratoga in October . News of his surrender prompted France to enter the war as an American ally . Concerned that the French might attempt to retake parts of New France that had been lost in the French and Indian War ( something they did not know the Franco - American Treaty of Alliance specifically forbade ) , the British adopted a defensive stance in Quebec . They recruited Loyalist s and allied Indians to engage in a frontier war along the northern and western borders of the Thirteen Colonies . Colonel John Butler recruited a regiment of Loyalists for the effort , while Seneca chiefs Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter recruited primarily Seneca warriors , and Joseph Brant recruited primarily Mohawk men for what essentially became a guerrilla war against frontier settlers . By April 1778 the Seneca were raiding settlements along the Allegheny and Susquehanna Rivers , and by early June these three groups met at the Indian village of Tioga , New York . Butler and the Seneca decided to attack the Wyoming Valley while Brant and the Mohawks ( who had already raided Cobleskill in May ) went after communities further north . American military leaders , including Washington and Lafayette , also sought to recruit Iroquois , primarily as a diversion to keep the British in Quebec busy . Their recruitment attempts met with more limited success . The Oneida and Tuscarora were the only two of the Six Nations to become Patriot allies . Encounter . The British forces arrived in the valley on June 30 , having alerted the settlers to their approach by killing three men working at an unprotected gristmill on June 28 . The next day Colonel Butler sent a surrender summons to the militia at Wintermute ' s ( Wintermoot ) fort . Terms were arranged that the defenders , after surrendering the fort with all their arms and stores , would be released on the condition that they would not again bear arms during the war . On July 3 , the British saw that the defenders were gathering in great numbers outside of Forty Fort . William Caldwell was destroying Jenkin ' s fort , and when the Americans were still a mile away , Butler set up an ambush and directed that Fort Wintermute be set on fire . The Americans , thinking this was a retreat , advanced rapidly . Butler instructed the Seneca to lie flat on the ground to avoid being seen . The Americans advanced to within one hundred yards of the rangers and fired three times . The Seneca came out of their positions , fired a volley , and attacked the Americans in close combat . Accounts indicate that the moment of contact was followed by a sharp battle lasting about 45 minutes . An order to reposition the Patriot line turned into a frantic rout when the inexperienced Patriot militia panicked . This ended the battle and triggered the Iroquois hunt for survivors . Only sixty of the Americans managed to escape , and only five were taken prisoner . Some of the victorious Loyalists and Iroquois killed and tortured an unknown number of prisoners and fleeing soldiers . Butler reported that 227 American scalps were taken . Colonel Dennison surrendered Forty Fort and two other forts along with the remaining soldiers the next morning . The Americans were paroled on the condition that they refrain from hostilities for the remainder of the war . These soldiers were not harmed . Colonel Dennison and the militia did not honor the terms of their parole , and they were under arms within the year , participating in later attacks on Iroquois villages . Most non - combatants were spared and almost no inhabitants were injured or molested after the surrender of the forts . Colonel Butler wrote : " But what gives me the sincerest satisfaction is that I can , with great truth , assure you that in the destruction of the settlement not a single person was hurt except such as were in arms , to these , in truth , the Indians gave no quarter . " An American farmer wrote : " Happily these fierce people , satisfied with the death of those who had opposed them in arms , treated the defenseless ones , the woman and children , with a degree of humanity almost hitherto unparalleled " . According to one source , 60 bodies were found on the battlefield and another 36 were found on the line of retreat . All were buried in a common grave . Aftermath . Out of 1 , 000 men available , John Butler reported only two Loyalist Rangers and one Indian killed , and eight Indians wounded . He claimed that his force took 227 scalps , burned 1 , 000 houses , and drove off 1 , 000 cattle plus many sheep and hogs . Of the 60 Continentals and 300 militiamen involved , only about 60 escaped the disaster . The Iroquois were enraged at the accusations of atrocities which they said they had not committed , as well as at the militia taking arms after being paroled . Later that year , they retaliated in the Cherry Valley massacre . Reports of the massacres of prisoners and atrocities at Wyoming infuriated the American public . Afterward , Colonel Thomas Hartley arrived with Hartley ' s Additional Continental Regiment to defend the valley to try to harvest the crops . They were joined by a few militia companies , including that of Captain Dennison , who violated his parole to join the force . In September , Hartley and Dennison ascended the east branch of the Susquehanna with 130 soldiers , destroying Indian villages as far as Tioga and recovering a large amount of plunder taken during the raid . They skirmished with the hostile Indians and withdrew when they learned that Joseph Brant was assembling a large force at Unadilla . In summer 1779 , the Sullivan Expedition commissioned by General George Washington , methodically destroyed 40 Iroquois villages , and an enormous quantity of stored corn and vegetables throughout upstate New York . The Iroquois never recovered from the damage inflicted by Sullivan ' s soldiers , and many died of starvation that winter . The tribes allied with the British continued to raid Patriot settlements until the end of the war . Legacy . The massacre was depicted by the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell in his 1809 poem " Gertrude of Wyoming " . Because of the atrocities involved , Campbell described Joseph Brant as a " monster " in the poem , although it was later determined that Brant was not present . Brant was at Oquaga on the day of the attack . The western state of Wyoming received its name from the U . S . Congress when it joined the Union in 1890 , much to the puzzlement of its residents . The battle and massacre is commemorated each year by the Wyoming Commemorative Association , a local non - profit organization , which holds a ceremony on the grounds of the monument dedicated to the battle . The Wyoming Monument is the site of a mass grave containing the bones of many of the victims of the battle and massacre . The commemorative ceremonies began in 1878 , to mark the 100th anniversary of the battle and massacre . The principal speaker at the event was President Rutherford B . Hayes . The annual program has continued each year since then on the grounds . One hundred and seventy - eight names of Patriots killed in the battle are listed on the Wyoming Monument , as well as the names of about a dozen militia who were killed or died in captivity a day or so prior to the main battle . A possible explanation for the difference between the number of names on the monument ( 178 ) and the reported number of scalps taken in the battle ( 227 ) is that allegedly numerous civilians ( perhaps as many as 200 ) — instead of surrendering to Colonel Butler — elected to flee and died of exposure in a swamp known as the " Shades of Death " after the battle . Order of battle . In the battle :