nts were
set on foot to carry that part relative to the Indians into execution.
The first act was an expedition from Fort Schuyler by Colonel Van
Schaick, Lieutenant-colonel Willett, and Major Cochran, with about six
hundred men, who, on the 19th of April, surprised the towns of the
Onondagas, destroyed the whole settlement, and returned to the fort
without the loss of a single man.

The great expedition of the campaign, however, was in revenge of the
massacre of Wyoming. Early in the summer three thousand men assembled
in that lately desolated region, and, conducted by General Sullivan,
moved up the west branch of the Susquehanna into the Seneca country.
While on the way they were joined by a part of the western army under
General James Clinton, who had come from the valley of the Mohawk by
Otsego Lake and the east branch of the Susquehanna. The united forces
amounted to about five thousand men, of which Sullivan had the general
command.

The Indians, and their allies the tories, had received information of
the intended invasion, and appeared in arms to oppose it. They were
much inferior in force, however, being about fifteen hundred Indians
and two hundred white men, commanded by the two Butlers, Johnson, and
Brant. A battle took place at Newtown, on the 29th of August, in which
they were easily defeated. Sullivan then pushed forward into the heart
of the Indian country, penetrating as far as the Genesee River, laying
everything waste, setting fire to deserted dwellings, destroying
cornfields, orchards, gardens, everything that could give sustenance
to man, the design being to starve the Indians out of the country. The
latter retreated before him with their families, and at length took
refuge under the protection of the British garrison at Niagara. Having
completed his errand, Sullivan returned to Easton in Pennsylvania. The
thanks of Congress were voted to him and his army, but he shortly
afterward resigned his commission on account of ill health and retired
from the service.

A similar expedition was undertaken by Colonel Brodhead, from
Pittsburg up the Alleghany, against the Mingo, Muncey, and Seneca
tribes, with similar results. The wisdom of Washington's policy of
carrying the war against the Indians into their country, and
conducting it in their own way, was apparent from the general
intimidation produced among the tribes by these expeditions, and the
subsequent infrequency of their murderous incursions.