Butler;s Rangers 6

Butler’s6 Earl Plato
Last of the Cruikshank series: This writer has visited Cherry Valley, New York on two occasions. The first was in 1956 when I still believed in the American rendition of the Cherry Valley Massacre. Again in 1973 I visited the cemetery again. There proclaimed on the huge stone cenotaph was the sad story, You can see this site on line. Just type in Cherry Valley Massacre. It was in November 1778 that Walter Butler and Joseph Brant approached the beautiful little Cherry Valley. The Ranger/Indian plan was to capture the fort and lay waste to the settlement. This was war and terrible things are done in its name. Colonel Briggs U.E., curator of Johnson Hall, N.Y., in his letter to me told me to look more closely at the records. Contemporary American historian, Jared Rosman , blames Walter Butler, son of Colonel John Butler for what happened at Cherry Valley. Rosman contends that Walter Butler in a fit of revenge struck down the Cherry Valley Wells family because of the rough treatment he had received in the Albany prison of the Rebels. Wait. The Wells were Tory (that’s our side) sympathizers and friends of John Butler. Why would Walter tomahawk family friends? Many innocent people died at Cherry Valley. Motive? The American rebels had totally destroyed the Iroquois villages of Oquaga, Unandilla, Tioga and other Indian villages. Joseph Brant and his Mohawks had been accused also and Rosman says, “... he (Brant) was the vicious, bloodthirsty ringleader of the Cherry Valley Massacre.” Brant knew the Wells family too and denied the accusation all his life. Who then? We have a clue from American records. “...Senecas could take the opportunity to start the massacre.” Rosman still blames Walter Butler. Why? He and other American historians claim that he made no effort to stop them (the Senecas.) Walter Butler a monster? I don’t think so. Remember that Colonel Briggs U.E., curator of Johnson Hall, told me to check out the book, War Out of Niagara, by Howard Swiggett. Swiggett is an American historian who like Cruikshank had access to colonial records not in Ottawa but overseas in England. This is a well researched book and worthy of your reading. What does Swiggett say of Walter Butler’s death? On page 42 he wrote, “ This was the end of it all, the bright soldiery hopes of the little boy who had seen the red-coat riders coming home twenty years before from Niagara. The cool effrontery of a young man who had walked into the enemy lines with a flag to get prisoner exchanges.” Swiggett said of Walter Butler, “There was no question who was the best officer in command.” Thank you Ernest Cruikshank for finally trying to give us the truth.