Butler's Rangers Part 1

, Butler’s Rangers1 Earl Plato
Sir Ernest Cruikshank from his Garrison Road Fort Erie home made the following statement in February 27th, 1893. “The story of the Butler’s Rangers has never yet been told from a sympathetic or even a fair-minded point of view. The present narrative is based chiefly upon unpublished official documents but every book and pamphlet bearing in any way upon the subject within this writer’s reach has also been consulted.”
Writer’s Note: No foot notes or references throughout his book - Butler’s Rangers. Remember he had direct access to first hand documents in the Ottawa National Archives where he researched for his 121 page book. I will use his definitive work in the weeks ahead. My hope is to inform the readers of our Fort Erie heritage. Following are part of his opening words:
PREFACE: “Many thousand descendants of the brave men who formed Butler’s Rangers are now living in Ontario and other provinces. I hold that they have no reason to be ashamed of ancestors who were eminently distinguished by the none too common virtues of inalterable loyalty, unfailing courage, and unconquerable endurance, and who sacrificed everything for the cause which they embraced.” Wow! That’s quite a sentence above Sir Ernest. Just a thank you.
I will look only at a few of the raids made by Joseph Brant and the Butler Rangers in the Mohawk Valley of New York and environs. Along with Cruikshank’s work I will cite from American historians Howard W. Swiggett and E.R. Eastman. Swiggett in his well foot noted War Out Of Niagara gives a fair view of Butler’s Rangers exploits while Eastman like many American historians of the day gives a one sided view of the Corps in my estimation. Thanks to Lt.Colonel William Smy U.E. we now have the recently published book, Year of the Hangman, by Glen F. Williams. Smy in a book review says this, “... he ( Williams) deals with Joseph Brant and John Butler in a very fair and even handed way.” That’s good to know. ***
First the setting: It begins in the Mohawk Valley of Colonial New York in the 1770’s. Remember the majority of the first soldier/settlers of Fort Erie were from this British Colony of New York. Quoting from Cruikshank we read the following: “In the year 1774 the Province of New York although probably the wealthiest and undoubtedly the most flourishing of the British Colonies in America, did not contain a population much exceeding a quarter of a million. Of these 39,000 were freeholders, entitled to vote at elections.”
Writer’s Note: I know at least two of these freeholders who would lose their homes - two men who served in Butler’s Rangers and who settled in Fort Erie after the American Revolution. Next: Search your roots.