Nine Generations

October 25, 1775, the General Assembly commissioned Asaph Whittlesey to be Ensign of the 3d company or trainband in the 24th Regiment of this colony. [Colony of Connecticut Records.] In May, 1777, he was commissioned Captain of the same company and regiment in this state.

This company was raised at Plymouth for the state service in the Wyoming Valley, where occurred on the Susquehanna River above Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in July, 1778, an event well known wherever Campbell's poem "Gertrude of Wyoming" has been read. Few death scenes and few conflicts embrace so many horrible details.

The Confederate Congress paid little attention to the frontier settlers of the valley, partly from the want of troops, and in part because they were regarded by the Pennsylvanians as intruders. The state had a claim to so much of the colony of Pennsylvania as lies north of the 41st parallel of north latitude. She had issued land scrip to her citizens and soldiers who located there and organized a county which was republican in the Assembly.

As soon as spring opened in the year of 1778, the British, Tories and Indians from the north began to harass this isolated colony. The usual distress of the border settlements occurred. Here persons were fired upon from the woods and, if killed, were scalped and mutilated.

The settlement had furnished two companies to the Continental Army. Self-defense being the highest law of our nature, the officers of one company resigned; most of the privates deserted and hastened home to protect their substance and their families.

In May the enemy had collected their forces at Elmira, New York, under the command of Col. John Butler, Col. John Johnson, and Thayendanegea, or Brant. As usual in Indian wars, there was to every group of families a station or blockhouse, often called a fort, where they collected in case of alarm. The uppermost station was known as Fort Jenkins, which was captured by the British under Col. John Butler on the 2d of July.

Left to their own resources, the militia and all citizens who were able to fight assembled at a station a few miles below on the west bank of the river known as "Forty Fort."

Capt. Hewett and his absconding Continentals, Capt. Asaph Whittlesey and forty-four men from Plymouth, and four other companies from the local militia, represented about three hundred men who were organized as a battalion. Col. Zebulon Butler was placed in command, with Col. Dennison, Col. Durkee, and Lieut.-Col. Dorrance as field officers.

The company officers, and most of the men, were clamorous for an advance. With the excitement, contrary to their judgment, the field officers were overruled. A forward movement took place immediately, and about noon the enemy was found near Fort Wintermoot.

Col. Zebulon Butler formed his line of battle at right angles to the river, its right near the bank. They advanced, firing occasionally, until within one hundred yards of the British line, which lay flat upon the ground according to Indian tactics, and did not return fire.

Brant was not present. Captain Whittlesey occupied the extreme left at a swamp, in front of which Gi-enwahtoh, a Seneca chief, had the position suited to his savage troops. He begged the British commander to be allowed to raise the war whoop and fall upon the flank.

At this moment the crack of their guns and the infernal yell of his Indians rang through the woods. The British and Tories rising, joined the attack. There were already Indian scouts well around toward the rear of both flanks. Col. Dennison, who commanded the left, directed Capt. Whittlesey to change front to rear in order to face Gi-enwahtoh, but some of his men regarded it as a retreat, confusion was inevitable, and the savages at once pressed up to the disorganized mass.

To this time the Americans were making a serious impression on the British lines with a good prospect of success. The officers appear to have behaved with uncommon courage and energy. Their men still continued fighting, well knowing the desperate consequences of defeat. Every company lost its captain.

Ammunition, as usual in such engagements, began to fail, a disorderly retreat commenced about four o'clock p.m., followed by one of those human butcheries which are not common in war, and which has not yet ceased to shock mankind.

The Tories, many of them from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, personal acquaintances and often relatives of the settlers, exhibited more of the savage than the savages themselves. With Indian scalping, mutilation, and torture, a part of the usages of war, the fugitives running and skulking through the forest were tomahawked, maimed, and murdered until the sun went down.

Fortunate were those who fell dead on the line of battle, for they were insensible to torture and the insults put upon their bodies by allies of Great Britain.

Two hundred and twenty-seven were killed or murdered, five saved as prisoners, and one hundred and forty escaped.

How many were made orphans and widows on that day in the beautiful valley of Wyoming with the distress of soul and body that followed are subjects not belonging to statistics, but to the imagination. Forced to its utmost capacity we shall fail to conceive the full measure of their sorrows. Most of the houses were burned, their crops destroyed, and their horses and cattle taken by the enemy. To them there was only left a choice of dispersion or starvation.

[Col. Charles Whittlesey, "Military Records of the Descendants of John Whittlesey and Ruth Dudley."]

Captain Whittlesey died at the head of his men, July 3, 1778.²