Boyd and Parker ambush The Boyd and Parker ambush was a minor military engagement in Groveland , New York on September 13 , 1779 , during the American Revolutionary War . A scout group of the Sullivan Expedition was ambushed and captured by Loyalist s and their Seneca Indian allies led by Little Beard . Background . Native American raids in Upstate New York compelled General George Washington to send General John Sullivan with some 3500 men into Western New York to displace the Senecas ; destroy their crops , villages , and food supplies ; and remove the threat to settlers . Prelude . Iroquois Chief Joseph Brant and British Colonel John Butler had some 800 men and were in defense of the region . Sullivan marched from Easton , PA through Pennsylvania and into Western New York . They camped at the site of Foot ’ s Corners in Conesus on Sunday , September 12 , 1779 , after traveling from Honeoye Lake . That night Sullivan ordered Lt . Thomas Boyd to organize a scouting party to discover the location of the Seneca village . Boyd took 23 men with him including Sergeant Michael Parker . They left late that night and passed by Butler ’ s ambush party without either group knowing of the other . Ambush . During the next day the scouting party spotted a group of four Indians along the trail and a brief gun fight occurred . One Indian was killed , and Boyd and Parker started to return to Sullivan . On the trail they spotted five Indians who fled . Boyd ’ s guide told him not to follow , for it was a trap , but he ignored the warning . They were led into the enemy ’ s lines , surrounded , and outnumbered . Fifteen of Boyd ’ s men were killed , eight escaped , while Boyd and Parker were captured . Estimates from contemporary Journals is that the Boyd party numbered 29 of whom 17 were killed ; 5 returned and 7 escaped . Besides Boyd and Parker , there are 12 known names of Boyd - Parker party who were killed . ; one name on this monument " Corporal Calhoun " refers to a NCO who died of wounds in an ambush which occurred separate from the Boyd - Parker ambush . The two were taken to Little Beard ' s Town , now Cuylerville , where Brant questioned them . After he left , Little Beard and his men tortured and executed Boyd and Parker in anger over the presence of American troops in the area . Boyd was tied to a tree by his own intestines and forced to run around the tree until he fell dead . The tree is still located in the commemorative park . Aftermath . Two days later the ambush site was discovered by Sullivan ’ s army and the men were buried with military honors . The army went on , as instructed by George Washington , to destroy acres of crops and burn Little Beard ’ s town to the ground . Many of the men in the army were so impressed with the agricultural abilities of the land that they returned with their families to this region after the war . Memorials . The bodies of Boyd and his men were left at the site of the battlefield until 1841 , when they were re - interred at Rochester , New York ' s Mount Hope Cemetery in a ceremony hosted by New York Governor William H . Seward . Today the Groveland Ambuscade Monument marks the site along with a small town park , which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . In September 2004 the site commemorated the event ' s 225th anniversary with a series of reenactments .