ountry of the Senecas, on the left, extended to Genesee; on
the right, detachments reached Cayuga lake. After destroying eighteen
villages and their fields of corn, Sullivan, whose army had suffered for
want of supplies, returned to New Jersey."[93]

Mr. Hildreth's account of this expedition, though brief, is more
comprehensive and satisfactory than that of Mr. Bancroft. Mr. Hildreth
says:

"The command of the enterprise against the Indians, declined by Gates,
was given to Sullivan. Three brigades from the main army, under Poor,
Hand, and Maxwell--New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey
troops--were assembled at Wyoming. A New York brigade ('upwards of 1,000
men,' says Dr. Ramsay), under General James Clinton, hitherto employed
in guarding the frontier of that State, crossed from the Mohawk to Lake
Otsego (one of the sources of the Susquehanna), dammed the lake, and so
raised its level, and then by breaking away the dam produced an
artificial flood, by the aid of which the boats were rapidly carried
down the north-east branch of the Susquehanna, to form a junction with
Sullivan. * *

"Sullivan's army, amounting to 5,000 men, passed up the Chemung branch
of the Susquehanna. At Newton, now Elmira, they encountered a strong
body of the enemy,[94] partly Indians and partly Tories, under Brant,
the Butlers and Johnson, entrenched on a rising ground and disposed in
ambuscade. Sullivan detached Poor to gain the rear, while he attacked
them in front with artillery. Having put them to rout, he crossed to
the hitherto unexplored valley of the Genesee. That want of food might
compel the Indians and their Tory allies to emigrate, everything was
ravaged. The ancient Indian orchards were cut down; many bushels of corn
were destroyed, and eighteen villages, composed largely of frame houses,
were burned. Provisions failed. Such at least was the reason that
Sullivan gave, and the attack upon Niagara, the great object of the
enterprise, was abandoned.

"A simultaneous expedition from Pittsburg ascended the Alleghany, and
visited with similar devastation all the villages along the river.
Pending these operations, and to prevent any aid from Canada, divers
artifices were employed by Washington to create the belief of an
intended invasion of that province."[95]

The account of this expedition given by Dr. Ramsay corresponds, with
some additional particulars, with that given by Dr. Andrews, as above
quoted, and almost in the same w