Iroquois Indian Chief Joseph Brant Leads War Party to Attack central New York Settlers, the Cherry Valley Massacre - 1778-79 Newspaper
Edinburgh, Scotland: The Edinburgh Advertiser, 1778-79. 1st Edition. Very Good. Item #19386
An original 1778-79 newspaper with an inside-page report announcing the attack on the settlements of the Cherry Valley of central New York by Iroquois War Chief, Joseph Brant and his band, an event known as the Cherry Valley Massacre.
"The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) forces on a fort and the town of Cherry Valley in central New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. It has been described as one of the most horrific frontier massacres of the war. A mixed force of Loyalists, British soldiers, Senecas, and Mohawks descended on Cherry Valley, whose defenders, despite warnings, were unprepared for the attack. During the raid, the Seneca in particular targeted non-combatants, and reports state that 30 such individuals were killed, in addition to a number of armed defenders.
"The raiders were under the overall command of Walter Butler. However, he had only tenuous authority, at best, over the Indian warriors on the expedition. Historian Barbara Graymont describes Butler's command of the expedition as "criminally incompetent". The Seneca were angered by accusations that they had committed atrocities at the Battle of Wyoming, and the colonists' recent destruction of their forward bases of operation at Unadilla, Onaquaga, and Tioga. Butler's authority with the Indigenous People was undermined by his poor treatment of Joseph Brant, the leader of the Mohawks. Butler repeatedly maintained that he was powerless to restrain the Seneca, despite accusations that he permitted the atrocities to take place." - wiki
There is also an inside-page detailed report with a printing of an exchange of letters regarding a controversy involving the Continental Congress imprisoning two British soldiers attempting to deliver "Manifestoes" to the Continental Congress under a flag of truce, and their pilot being sentenced to death for being a traitor.
"The incident was the capture and imprisonment of Royal Navy lieutenant Christopher Hele and his crew. In early October 1778, Hele left New York aboard the sloop Hotham carrying a final message to Congress from the Carlisle Peace Commission, which had attempted for months to negotiate an end to the war and return the colonies to the imperial fold. While sailing up the Delaware River, the Hotham was wrecked and Hele and his crew spent three days aboard the partly submerged vessel before they were seized by the revolutionaries. Two sailors died before the crew was captured, “and those who escaped with life, were confined by order of Congress in a miserable dungeon in Philadelphia.” Because the British vessel was sailing under a flag of truce, the British Commissary for Navy Prisoners, James Dick, wrote to Congress on October 27 demanding the release of Hele and his crew. However, John Beatty, Commissary-General of Prisoners for Congress, refused in a reply of November 14. He cited an act of Congress exempting anyone carrying “seditious papers” from the protection of a flag of truce. His assertion was dubious, since the act had been passed on October 16, at least a week after the crew was captured, and it was something of a stretch to claim that a message to Congress from British peace commissioners should be considered “seditious.” - Jim Piecuch, Journal of the American Revolution
This December 29, 1778-January 1, 1779, 1779 issue of the Edinburgh Advertiser is complete in eight pages. Mild foxing and edge wear. #2I-045.
Price: $325.00