June 24, 1776
From its earliest drafts in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, the Declaration of Independence included a description of Native people as “merciless Indian Savages.” The report from the Battle of the Cedars helps to inform why the delegates in the Continental Congress were thinking about Native violence as they considered independence.
This “authentic account” in the Pennsylvania Packet on June 24 described the capture of American forces as a “scene of Savage barbarity” and claimed that soldiers were “sacrificed” to the “fury” of Native warriors, “butchered with tomahawks and other instruments of murder.” The combined Native and Canadian forces then “stripped the prisoners almost naked, and drove them to the fort.” In this single report from the Cedars, there are five uses of “Savage” and its derivations, and the details are exaggerated, but would have been believable to newspaper readers in Philadelphia, as well as members of the Continental Congress.
Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet or, the General Advertiser
Printed by John Dunlap
NEW-YORK, June 20.
The following authentic account is communicated by an officer of the detachment it principally concerns
“On advice that a reinforcement was necessary at the Cedars, a small fort 45 miles S. W. from Montreal, where a party of 400 men, under the command of Major Butterfield, were posted; on the 16th of May, 140 men under the command of Major Henry Sherburne, were detached from Montreal. He met with great difficulties at the lake, which after crossing, he was obliged to repass and cross again, so that it was the 20th before he could proceed from thence with 100 men, including himself, the rest being left for guards and other necessary services. About 11 or 12 o’clock they set out for the Cedars, distant 9 miles, and having marched about 5, they were attacked by a large body of Savages and Canadians, who under cover of a wood fired upon them; our people though entirely exposed, without shelter, maintained an obstinate engagement for one hour and forty minutes; when the Savages having surrounded, rushed upon and disarmed them; then a scene of Savage barbarity ensued, and many of our people were sacrificed to their fury, butchered with tomahawks and other instruments of murder. The enemy consisted of about 100 Canadians and 400 Savages, who immediately stripped the prisoners almost naked, and drove them to the fort, where they were delivered to Capt. Foster, of the 8th regiment, who had with him about 40 regulars, and then commanded the fort, which had been the day before surrendered to him, with little if any resistance, by Major Butterfield, an event which was neither known, nor in the least suspected, by Major Sherburne.
Capt. Foster and the regulars, kept within the lines, and were not of the party who surrounded and so barbarously used our people; but after they were brought to the fort, they were repeatedly stripped of the small remainder of their cloaths, till many of them had not sufficient to hide their nakedness. Our loss in the whole action was about 38, viz. killed and wounded in the action and killed afterwards in cold blood, about 20; carried off by the Savages, 7 or 8. Of the enemy were killed 22, whose deaths were ascertained, and among them a chief warrior of the Seneca tribe, on whose account our prisoners were probably used with the more cruelty, insult and abuse. Major Sherburne and the other officers were sent to an Indian town called Connasadoga, at the lake of the two Mountains; the private men to a desolate island in the middle of the lake, where they were very scantily supplied with provision, barely sufficient to keep them from starving, and though the weather was cold, without any clothes, and without any covering but the canopy of heaven, for eight days, when they were released on a cartel agreed to between General Arnold and Capt. Foster, viz. That there should be an equal exchange of prisoners, within two months, allowing for casualties, and for the performance, on our part were pledged the bodies of four Captains, who were left as hostages, viz. Capt. Sullivan, (or other to the General) Capt. Bliss, of Major Sherburne’s part, Capts. Stephens and Green, of Major Butterfield’s party.
General Arnold, with a party of about 8 or 900 men, arrived the 26th, and tho’ with about 500, he appeared upon the lake, happily for the prisoners he did not cross it. If he had, it appeared from every circumstance, that they would have been all murdered, dispositions having been made for that purpose; nor was it certain, considering the difficulty of access to the enemy, that he could have obtained any considerable advantage over them, or if he had, that he could possibly have cut off their retreat.
