Cherry Valley Massacre 1778: Alden's Ignored Warning and a Masonic Plea

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In November 1778, a British allied force of loyalists under Captain Walter Butler and Seneca and Cayuga warriors joined by Mohawk leader Joseph Brant marched on Cherry Valley in upstate New York. The raid followed a cycle of retaliation: Brant's raids for provisions, the Patriot destruction of Unadilla and Onaquaga, Patriot newspaper accounts accusing the Seneca of atrocities at Wyoming Valley, and militiamen who broke their parole to attack Tioga. Butler's envy over Brant's recruiting led him to threaten to withhold food from Brant's volunteers, and 90 of them left the expedition. At Cherry Valley, Colonel Ichabod Alden of the 7th Massachusetts had about 300 soldiers and a palisaded fort with artillery, and Oneida scouts warned him on November 8 that an attack was coming.

Alden dismissed the warning, refused to let settlers move valuables into the fort, and kept his headquarters at the Wells House, 400 yards outside the walls. After a fireless cold camp in freezing rain, the attackers struck on November 11. Alden ran for the fort, turned to fire, and was killed by a thrown tomahawk when his wet pistol misfired. Seneca warriors under Little Beard killed all 12 members of the Wells family, and the raid left 14 soldiers and 30 civilians dead and 70 captives taken. Governor Frederick Haldimand of Quebec refused to meet Butler afterward, and in 1779 George Washington sent Major General John Sullivan to destroy more than 40 Haudenosaunee villages, which only escalated the raids in 1780.

• Captured Lieutenant Colonel William Stacy survived after appealing to Brant as a fellow Freemason.
• Stacy's son Benjamin and cousin Rufus sprinted a quarter mile through gunfire to reach the fort.
• Brant was reportedly horrified at the killing of civilians, including families he knew such as the Wellses, Campbells and Dunlops.
• Butler later secured the release of about 40 of the 70 captives but insisted he was powerless to stop the killing.
• In 1878, 10,000 people gathered at Cherry Valley to dedicate a monument to the victims.