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

This week episode 250, the Mohawk Valley raids.

We last looked in on the Indian warfare in upstate New York back in episode 230.

The Iroquois under leaders like loyalist John Johnson and Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant,

also known as Theandenaga, had been terrorizing settlers in New York who sided with the Patriots.

The Patriot leadership had forced all loyalists to flee to

Niagara or further north into Quebec territory or they would face arrest and

property confiscation. Failure to swear allegiance to the new independent state government was grounds for such treatment.

In addition to the Iroquois, many loyalist New Yorkers of European descent also fled to Canada.

Many of these formed loyalist units, including Butler's Rangers, under the command of John Butler

and often led by his son Walter.

The Rangers, the Iroquois, and other loyalists waged a campaign attempting to destroy food

and property, as well as capture or kill Patriots, in an attempt to get the Patriots to seed the region.

These raids had already resulted in numerous massacres including the Wyoming Valley

massacre and the Cherry Valley Massacre.

Now in response to these earlier raids, General Washington ordered an equally harsh response by the Continental Army.

He ordered General Sullivan to take an army through the heart of Iroquois

territory and visit devastation on all the Iroquois villages other than the Oneida and a few others who had already cast their lot with the Patriots.

Many of the Iroquois tribes attempted to remain neutral,

but these neutral villages provided support to fellow Iroquois who were on raiding parties against Patriot Homes and Villages.

The Continental's hoped that by burning these neutral Indian villages and destroying their food, that they would have no choice

but to abandon the region entirely. And the Sullivan campaign did exactly that.

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