hio, were threatened with the tomahawk and the scalping
knife. Every representation from that country supported the opinion
that a war with the Indians should never be defensive; and that, to
obtain peace, it must be carried into their own country. Detroit,
whose governor was believed to have been particularly active in
exciting hostilities, was understood to be in a defenceless condition;
and congress resolved on an expedition against that place. This
enterprise was entrusted to General M'Intosh, who commanded at
Pittsburg, and was to be carried on with three thousand men, chiefly
militia, to be drawn from Virginia. To facilitate its success, the
resolution was also taken to enter the country of the Senecas at the
same time, by the way of the Mohawk. The officer commanding on the
east of the Hudson was desired to take measures for carrying this
resolution into execution; and the commissioners for Indian affairs,
at Albany, were directed to co-operate with him.

Unfortunately, the acts of the government did not correspond with the
vigour of its resolutions. The necessary preparations were not made,
and the inhabitants of the frontiers remained without sufficient
protection, until the plans against them were matured, and the storm
which had been long gathering, burst upon them with a fury which
spread desolation wherever it reached.

[Sidenote: Colonel John Butler, with a party of Indians, breaks into
the Wyoming settlement.]

About three hundred white men, commanded by Colonel John Butler, and
about five hundred Indians, led by the Indian chief Brandt, who had
assembled in the north, marched late in June against the settlement of
Wyoming. These troops embarked on the Chemung or Tyoga, and
descending the Susquehanna, landed at a place called the Three
Islands, whence they marched about twenty miles, and crossing a
wilderness, and passing through a gap in the mountain, entered the
valley of Wyoming near its northern boundary. At this place a small
fort called Wintermoots had been erected, which fell into their hands
without resistance, and was burnt. The inhabitants who were capable of
bearing arms assembled on the first alarm at Forty fort, on the west
side of the Susquehanna, four miles below the camp of the invading
army.

The regular troops, amounting to about sixty, were commanded by
Colonel Zebulon Butler;[13] the militia by Colonel Dennison. Colonel
Butler was desirous of awaiting the arrival of a small reinfo