You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello, and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week, episode 230, the Sullivan Expedition.

Over the summer and fall of 1779, the Continental Army, in concert with the New York

militia, embarked on a campaign of destruction against the Iroquois.

It became known as the Sullivan Expedition,

after the commanding officer General John Sullivan.

The goal of the expedition was to wipe out the remaining Iroquois villages in upstate New York

that had been supporting raids against the settlers. The Americans had already gone on a similar mission against one of the Iroquois tribes, the Anandaga.

This new campaign focused primarily against the Seneca and Cayuga tribes, the two westernmost tribes in the Confederacy.

The Mohawk had already largely been displaced and the Oneida and Tuskarora were mostly allied with the Americans.

The Seneca was the largest of the Iroquois tribes, making up nearly 50% of the entire Iroquois

Confederacy. Seneca land on the western part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Seneca Land on the western part of the Iroquois Confederacy

had historically faced the brunt of most warfare, leading to a reputation of the Seneca

as being particularly ferocious warriors.

The Continental Congress's Board of War had proposed a similar campaign for 1778 with Horatio Gatesiote leading the assault and including the capture of

Fort Detroit. Gates however was never able to get the resources and never really

even began efforts to execute such an expedition.

The Iroquois under leaders such as Joseph Brandt and Corn Planter,

and with loyalist support from leaders like John Butler and his son Walter Butler

conducted regular raids throughout upstate New York and Northern Pennsylvania,

including what became known as the Wyoming Valley Massacre and the Cherry Valley Massacre.

These raids were designed to force settlers to withdraw from the area and to return those lands

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