Episode 30: The American Cause

While the assault of Canada during the French and Indian War was obviously pivotal to the English imperial expansion, it would also have unexpected benefits nearly two decades later.

During the previous war, William Johnson had made strong connections with the Mohawks during his diplomatic missions on behalf of Britain.

Most importantly was his marrying the daughter of the Mohawk chief, Kanwatsi Tsiayeni, also known as Molly Brandt.

Crucial to that war, Johnson was able to convince over a thousand Mohawk soldiers to fight for the British in the assault on Fort Niagara.

One of those soldiers was Molly's brother.

also known as joseph eighteen years later in the midst of john burgoyne's canadian expedition in the summer of seventeen seventy seven joseph brant was now the leader of a new mohawk army like in the previous war they were loyal to the british crown And while their size was dwarfed by the American and British armies, they struck fear in their enemies.

H.W. Brands, in his book Our First Civil War, states that, quote, though as a rule they had less tolerance for casualties than the whites did they were fewer in number and could spare fewer lost further they were motivated not by ideology or emotion but by a cool calculation of interest yet their demonstrated willingness to torture prisoners and mutilate bodies sent a shiver through nearly all the whites who found themselves arrayed against the indians Some of the whites knew exactly what to expect if they fell into Indian hands.

Two junior officers of a patriot militia attached to Fort Stanwix went on a scouting mission and were ambushed by Iroquois.

One was killed by rifle fire and scalped.

The other was shot but merely wounded, yet badly enough that he couldn't escape or continue to resist.

Fearing what awaited him if he was taken alive, he pretended to be dead.

the indians approached and pulled out their scalping knives one grabbed the militiaman's hair and began cutting the scalp the victim with almost unbelievable will-power did not make a sound or move a muscle as the rough surgery proceeded the indians took their bloody prizes and left the militiaman was saved when his dog appreciating its master's plight ran and summoned help the dog became a hero the man a walking reminder of the consequences of being caught out by unfriendly indians now to aid the british further in the spring of seventeen seventy eight brant would live up to the indian reputation and unleash a terror campaign throughout north central new york starting with the small village of cobleskill brant's raid parties would lure defenders out of their houses kill them or capture them then burn the villages destroy the stores and kill the livestock as violence spread either coordinated by brant or not there was also an attack on a patriot settlement in pennsylvania which killed some three hundred Fear spread alongside.

The frontier was abandoned as settlers moved towards safer regions.

Brant would continue attacking settlements and even took several patriot forts into the fall of 1778, earning him the nickname of Butcher.

To put an end to the terror, Washington sent General John Sullivan to chase down and destroy this army.

He wanted total victory.

Sullivan used all of the information he could gather to track down Brandt and destroy any Indian villages along the way.

After nearly a year, the two armies finally came to blows in August 1779 at Newtown, New York.

Brandt's army sat behind their defenses a mile outside the town awaiting Sullivan.

The Patriot army slowly advanced with their heavy guns in the front, with the rest of the army flanking them.

The battle opened with the American cannons bombarding the defenses, and it was over just as quickly as the defending army fled.

Though Brandt was not captured, the damage inflicted by the American army on the loyalist Mohawks put an end to the violence in the northern frontier.