by the Americans and held captive at Albany
for nearly five years. Once in Canada, Guy
Johnson disputed the intended role of the In-
dians with the governor-general, SirGuy Car-
leton, and he departed for England to resolve
the issue at London. In his absence, Butler
was appointed acting superintendent with ex-
plicit instructions from Carleton to keep the
Indians at Fort Niagara neutral but friendly to
Great Britain. Given his great tact and ease in
dealing with Native Americans, Butler accom-
plished this handily, and the following year he
was accorded greater responsibility over
these unpredictable allies.
By 1777, the British government had de-
cided to employ the Iroquois in offensive oper-
ations to assist Gen. Sir John Burgoyne’s op-
erations in northern New York. Accordingly,
Butler recruited a force of 350 Senecas who
were attached to the column under Lt. Col.
Barry St. Leger, assisted by Chiefs Joseph
Brant andCornplanter. The British then de-
parted from Oswego intending to link up with
Burgoyne in the vicinity of Saratoga. However,
St. Leger met and defeated a militia force at
Oriskany, New York, on August 6, 1777, but ca-
sualties among Butler’s Indians were particu-
larly heavy. The dispirited Native Americans
were further disheartened when American
Gen. Benedict Arnoldsent an insane person
in their midst, claiming that the rebels oppos-
ing them “outnumbered the leaves on the
trees.” Native Americans, who regarded per-
sons with such affliction as sacred, began de-
serting the British despite Butler’s best efforts.
In light of all these difficulties, St. Leger aban-
doned his siege of Fort Stanwix, which was a
contributing factor in the surrender of Bur-
goyne that fall. Butler subsequently traveled
back to Quebec to confer with Carleton, who
now commissioned him a major in the British
army. Furthermore, he gained authorization to
raise a provincial ranger battalion from Loyal-
ist refugees. In time, this unit became feared
throughout New York and Pennsylvania as the
notorious Butler’s Rangers.
The frontier regions of the American Revolu-
tion were far removed from laws governing
conventional warfare and were, consequently,
the scene of considerable atrocities by both
sides. In July 1778 Butler commanded his force,
a Loyalist regiment, and 500 Iroquois under Old
King during a celebrated sweep of the Wyoming
Valley in Pennsylvania. During this operation,
the Loyalists and their Indian allies defeated a
patriot force under Col. Zebulon Butler, killing
300 men and chasing the survivors into nearby
Fort Forty. When that place was subsequently
stormed, Butler was unable to control the In-
dian force, who tortured and murdered another
60 men. This event, reviled as the Wyoming
Massacre, exuded military consequences, for it
forced the Americans to divert badly needed re-
sources from elsewhere and concentrate them
against the Iroquois. Happily, the hostages
taken during son Walter Butler’s subsequent
Cherry Valley Massacre allowed John Butler to
exchange them for his own wife and children,
whom he had not seen for five years.
In the summer of 1779 a major punitive ex-
pedition was launched from Pennsylvania to
western New York under Gen. John Sullivan.
Butler’s Rangers and Joseph Brant’s Mohawks,
badly outnumbered, gave battle to the in-
vaders at Newtown on August 29, 1778, but
were driven off. Once the Americans devas-
tated the region, the surviving Indians were
forced to relocate to Fort Niagara for British
rations. However, Sullivan made no advance
upon Fort Niagara, and by 1780 Butler, pro-
moted to lieutenant colonel, was back harass-
ing American settlements ranging from New
York to Kentucky. After the war ended in 1783,
he disbanded his force and set up residence
near Fort Niagara. When treaty negotiations
later gave that entire region to the newly inde-
pendent United States, it fell upon Butler to
explain to his helpless Iroquois allies that their
traditional homelands were gone forever.
In June 1784, Butler and many of his former
soldiers were settled in the region of Newark,
Ontario. As compensation for the property
lost in New York, the Crown awarded him 500
acres of land and half-pay of a lieutenant
colonel for life. Butler remained active in com-
munity affairs, alternately serving as a militiaBUTLER, JOHN