ican Revolution in 1775,
was a respected leader of
some consequence.
The ensuing war be-
tween Great Britain and
the United States placed
the Iroquois confedera-
tion in a difficult and dan-
gerous position. Repeated
intertribal meetings were
held and hot debate en-
sued as to what course of
action to take. The Mo-
hawk faction under
Joseph Brantwas firmly
in the English camp and
called upon the six tribes
to fight the Americans.
However, the Senecas,
being closer to American
settlements—and hence
more vulnerable to Amer-
ican military power—
were undecided. Cornplanter and his half-
brother Handsome Lake, soon celebrated as a
religious prophet, argued forcefully and with
great conviction that the tribes should not be-
come ensnared in a squabble between white
people. He strongly argued in favor of neutral-
ity. Cornplanter was consequently and bitterly
denounced as a coward by Brant. After fur-
ther deliberations, the bulk of the Six Nations
opted to align themselves with the British in
- Cornplanter, good warrior that he was,
then took up the war hatchet on behalf of his
people and against the United States. He was
subsequently elected a war chief to assist the
elderly Chief Old Smoke.
Cornplanter and Old Smoke led a party of
Seneca warriors that accompanied the expe-
dition of Col. Barry St. Legeragainst Fort
Stanwix, New York, in August 1777. He was
presented during the violent repulse of a re-
lief column under Col. Nicholas Herkimer at
the Battle of Oriskany, in which the Senecas
sustained 35 of 50 Indian casualties; American
losses were estimated to between 200 and 500
killed or wounded by comparison. Nonethe-
less, Seneca war parties
could not sustain such los-
ses, and thereafter Corn-
planter avoided pitched
battles in favor of frontier
raiding. He was present
under Col. John Butler
during the large raid
against the Wyoming Val-
ley, Pennsylvania, on July
3, 1778, in which more
than 300 Americans were
killed and eight forts de-
stroyed. Cornplanter dis-
tinguished himself in ac-
tion and subsequently led
a war band that repulsed
an American raid at
Wyalusing the following
month. In November
1778, his warriors were
present during Maj. Wal-
ter Butler’sbloody foray
against the Cherry Valley, New York, one of
the war’s worst atrocities. This activity only
stimulated a stiff response from the Ameri-
cans, and throughout the summer of 1779 a
large force under Gen. John Sullivan attacked
and ravaged Seneca lands in western New
York. Having defeated a combined Indian-
Loyalist force at Newtown on August 28,
1779, Sullivan proceeded to torch 40 Seneca,
Cayuga, and Delaware villages. The Ameri-
cans hoped that by such retribution the Iro-
quois would rethink their alliance with Great
Britain and remain neutral.
Sullivan’s raid did great damage to and in-
flicted considerable hardship upon the Iro-
quois, but it did nothing to sway Cornplanter’s
resolve. The tribesmen regrouped and hit
back at their antagonists the following sum-
mer with a vengeance. Cornplanter helped or-
chestrate a violent raid against the Schoharie
Valley on August 2, 1780, burning grain fields,
stealing livestock, and taking many white
prisoners. One of them, apparently, was Corn-
planter’s father, John O’Bail. He was brought
before the war chief and questioned closely—CORNPLANTER
Cornplanter
New York Historical Society