John Butler (pioneer) - Revolutionary War

Revolutionary War

Butler returned to service as a Loyalist when the American Revolution turned to war in 1775. In May, 1775, he left for Canada in the company of Daniel Claus, Walter Butler, Hon Yost Schuyler and Joseph Brant. On July 7, they reached Fort Oswego and in August, Montreal. He was involved in the defense of Montreal against an attack led by Ethan Allen. In November, Carleton sent him to Fort Niagara with instructions to keep the Indians neutral.

His oldest son Walter Butler served with him, but his wife and other children were detained by the American rebels.

In March, 1777 he sent a party of about one hundred Indians to Montreal to force the Americans out of Quebec. In May, Butler received instructions to employ a body of the Six Nations in an attack on New York. On June 5 he received instructions to send as many Indians as he could to Fort Oswego for an attack on Fort Stanwix as a part of the Saratoga campaign. He was put second in command of the Indians, under Daniel Claus.

He led the Indians and a small number of Loyalists in a successful ambush in the Battle of Oriskany. As a result, after this expedition he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and given authority to raise his own regiment, which became known as Butler's Rangers, initially with a strength of eight companies. He traveled back to Fort Niagara and the first company was completed in December.

In July 1778, Butler led his rangers and Iroquois allies at the Battle of Wyoming, in which he defeated Zebulon Butler and took Forty Fort. The Patriots suffered heavy losses, and after the battle many homes in the area were burned. Later, the battle was referred to as the Wyoming Valley massacre because some of the victorious Loyalists and Iroquois were said to have executed and scalped prisoners and fleeing enemy soldiers.

The American novelist, Joseph Altsheler referred to John Butler as "Indian Butler" in a novel about the Wyoming Massacre, and called him a turncoat and villain who sided with the Indians against the white settlers.

Later that year, after the burning of Tioga, his son Captain Walter Butler led two companies of rangers and 300 Iroquois allies in a raid which was later referred to as the Cherry Valley massacre. The name of Butler was thereafter anathema to the rebels.

His unit of rangers was spread through frontier outposts from Niagara to Illinois. Butler himself commanded from Fort Niagara. In 1779, he was defeated by the Sullivan Expedition at the Battle of Newtown, and withdrew to Fort Niagara.