time was still surrounded by American forces,
and Butler was conspicuously engaged at the
Battle of The Cedars in May 1776, which
drove the besiegers off. He was then pro-
moted to lieutenant and posted with his fa-
ther at Fort Niagara with instructions to keep
the Seneca Indians neutral but friendly to-
ward England.
In the summer of 1777, the British govern-
ment authorized a major offensive under Gen.
Sir John Burgoyne, intending to cut off New
England from the rest of the colonies. As part
of this plan, a large British-Indian force under
Lt. Col. Barry St. Legerwould decamp from
Oswego, New York, and march overland with
reinforcements for Burgoyne. The Butlers, fa-
ther and son, were assigned to accompany a
large force of Seneca Indians under Chiefs
Joseph Brant andCornplanter. While be-
sieging Fort Stanwix, St. Leger was apprised
of an American relief force under Gen.
Nicholas Herkimer, and he sent Walter Butler
with his Indians and light forces to intercept
them. On August 6, 1777, the Seneca suc-
cessfully ambushed Herkimer’s column at
Oriskany, New York, and a bloody, protracted
fight developed. Both sides sustained heavy
losses, but at length the Indians grew discour-
aged and began drifting away from St. Leger’s
column. Soon after, Burgoyne’s column was
surrounded and captured at Saratoga, and
British operations in New York momentarily
ceased. However, the legacy of heavy losses
at Oriskany inflamed the passions of both
sides. Thereafter, the struggle for the Mohawk
Valley became a civil war characterized by no
quarter, fire, and sword.
Shortly after Oriskany, Butler volunteered
to carry out one of the most daring feats of
the war. Unarmed and under a flag of truce,
he reentered the Mohawk Valley to recruit
sulking Loyalists for the British cause. During
a midnight meeting he had called at Shoe-
maker’s House, American militiamen sud-
denly surrounded the place and took Butler
prisoner. On August 21, 1777, he was tried by
court-martial, found guilty of espionage, and
sentenced by Gen. Benedict Arnoldto be
hung. Fortunately, many Continental officers
who knew Butler before the war, including
Gen. Philip J. Schuyler, interceded on his be-
half and the sentence was commuted. He
spent the next several months imprisoned at
Albany before arranging a daring escape in
April 1778 with the help of Loyalist sympa-
thizers. Butler then made his way back to Fort
Niagara in western New York, now a staging
area for some of the war’s bloodiest raids.
In Butler’s absence, his father had been au-
thorized to raise a provincial battalion of light
infantry, or rangers, to fight in concert with
their Indian allies. This was a handpicked
force of mobile sharpshooters, adept at forest
warfare and clad in green jackets and black
caps. Butler himself was commissioned a cap-
tain in the outfit, which soon gained infamy as
Butler’s Rangers. However, he was visiting
Quebec when his father conducted a success-
ful raid in the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania,
whereby prisoners were murdered by Indians,
crops were burned, and livestock was de-
stroyed. Following his return that fall, it fell
upon Walter Butler to command a similar
foray against the Cherry Valley in New York,
as his father had been taken ill. On November
11, 1778, Butler’s 200 rangers, accompanied
by 600 Senecas under Brant, successfully at-
tacked and burned the village, although they
lacked artillery to storm the nearby fort.
Worse, many Indians, still seething over their
losses at Oriskany, savagely murdered 31
civilians, including women and children.
Their wrath proved so uncontrollable that
neither Butler nor Brant could stop them. The
Americans subsequently placed the blame
squarely on Walter Butler for what transpired
and branded him an outlaw, but in several of-
ficial letters he denied any personal responsi-
bility for the massacre. “I have done every-
thing in my power to restrain the fury of the
Indians from hurting women and children, or
killing the prisoners that fell into our hands,”
he remonstrated. “My conscience acquits
me.” It was nonetheless one of the war’s great
atrocities. Fortunately, Butler did manage to
take several hostages alive and subsequentlyBUTLER, WALTER