How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [22]
Now, in 1778, finding themselves at risk of being surrounded by 600 Indian warriors who had joined forces with the British, Stewart and his fellow Paxton Boys impressed upon the Connecticut soldiers the extreme jeopardy they were in. Butler, facing disapproval and terror among his men, and not entirely certain they were wrong, reversed his order and agreed to a counterattack. Their position was weak, however, and they were promptly outflanked. Butler ordered his men to retreat but, in the confusion of the rout, many never received the order.
Then came payback time. The Indians tortured and murdered the captured men, including Stewart. Despite efforts by the British to restrain them, the warriors spread into the neighboring communities, plundering and burning homes and barns.
The poison of prior conflicts did not end there. Connecticut blamed Pennsylvania for not sending nearby troops to protect the civilian population. Pennsylvania, in turn, blamed Butler for undertaking a foolhardy counterattack before the arrival of reinforcements. In similar fashion, the venomous relations between the Americans and the British explain what came next. Despite the fact that no civilians were killed during the rampage, and despite the fact that the British commander immediately offered sanctuary to those left homeless and restitution for their property, the American press blamed England for the disaster.3 To this day, accounts of the Wyoming Massacre, as it has come to be known, often perpetuate this wartime propaganda.
The Continental Congress did not blame Butler, who was soon promoted to colonel. He continued to serve in the Wyoming Valley and elsewhere along what was then America’s western frontier.
Congress also created a commission to rule on the Connecticut and Pennsylvania boundary dispute. It ultimately decided in favor of Pennsylvania. The decision was based on the fact that Connecticut had made no prior effort to assert its claim for nearly a hundred years, that it had previously (during a boundary dispute with New York) recognized that it was bounded on the west by New York, and that it had never asserted claims to areas of New York and New Jersey that it could have asserted for the same reasons it used in Pennsylvania.4
Zebulon Butler accepted the ruling. After the Revolution, he worked to validate the settlers’ land titles in Pennsylvania. His efforts led to his being arrested four times, though he was never indicted. Violence erupted again in March 1784 following a flood that wiped out fences, houses, and barns in the valley. When the residents commenced rebuilding, they were driven away and ordered to evacuate by Pennsylvania troops still on active duty. Numerous men, rather than evacuate, hid in nearby caves and engaged in insurgent attacks. Butler was not among them. His fighting days were over.
When Pennsylvania’s troops in the Wyoming Valley were finally discharged, Butler and his fellow settlers returned, and issues involving land titles were eventually resolved. Butler lived out his days in what became Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
VERMONT, NEW YORK
ETHAN ALLEN
Vermont: The Fourteenth Colony
Lately purchased by Allens and Baker, in company, a large tract of land situate[d] … on Lake Champlain containing about forty five thousand acres.… The land will be sold at a moderate price. Whoever inclines to be a purchaser may, for further particulars, apply to Ethan, Zimry and Ira Allen or Remember Baker on the premises, or Heman and Levi Allen of Salisbury, per Ethan Allen & Company.
—ADVERTISEMENT IN THE CONNECTICUT COURANT, 17731
Ethan Allen was not a furniture maker. He did, however, burn a good deal of it as the leader of a self-proclaimed military force known as the Green Mountain Boys. Their mission was to defend homesteads whose land titles had been issued in New Hampshire but were being claimed by New York.
The dispute, based on conflicting colonial charters, had actually