Wednesday, September 7, 2022 (7:00pm) to Saturday, September 10, 2022 (5:00pm)
Headquarters: Victor, NY
Led by: Glenn F. Williams
Registration Fee: $550 Cash or Check – $573 Credit Card
The Sullivan-Clinton campaign against the Iroquois in 1779 has been described as implementing a “scorched earth” policy for no useful purpose other than eradicating Indians, or a failed attempt to capture Fort Niagara. No campaign of the American War for Independence has been more inaccurately described or remains more controversial than the Continental Army’s invasion of the Iroquois Confederacy in 1779. This tour is designed to follow the main effort of that offensive as conducted by troops commanded by Major General John Sullivan. Sullivan’s troops took the war to the very heart of the territory controlled by the Six Nations of Haudenosaunee who had allied themselves with the British Crown. At the tour’s end you’ll decide if the campaign was a success or a well-executed failure; justifiable retribution for the raids and Cherry Valley massacre in 1778 or unvarnished genocide.
On our first day will travel to Verona Beach State Park where Wood Creek empties into Lake Oneida to discuss Colonel Goose Van Schaick’s expedition and attack on the Onondaga in April 1779. We’ll visit the Fort Brewerton site in Cicero, a former French and Indian War fort where patriot troops land before marching cross-country to Lake Onondaga and then the site of an Onondaga Town that existed prior to the 18th century at Pompey. After lunch we will visit the Gonandagan State Historic Site with its excellent museum and reconstructed Iroquois longhouse. Here we will focus on the political and military structure of the Six Nations, the decision of four of tribes to side with the British and two to become allies of the United States, with a resulting internal civil war. Gonandagan was a highlight of the tour the last time we did it.