desolation. Forty Indian
towns, the largest containing 128 houses, were destroyed. Corn, gathered
and ungathered, to the amount of 160,000 bushels, shared the same fate;
the fruit trees were cut down; and the Indians were hunted like wild
beasts, till neither house, nor fruit tree, nor field of corn, nor
inhabitant remained in the whole country. The gardens were enriched with
great quantities of useful vegetables of different kinds. The size of
the corn-fields, as well as the high degree of cultivation, excited
wonder, and the ears of corn were so remarkably large that many of them
measured twenty-two inches in length. So numerous were the fruit trees,
that in one orchard they cut down 1,500."

"Having completed the objects contemplated by the expedition to the
point at which he had arrived, General Sullivan recrossed the Genesee
with his army the 16th of September, and set out on his return. Why he
did not follow up his success, and strike the enemy's citadel at
Niagara, which at that time was in no situation for formidable
resistance, is a question difficult of solution. Unquestionably, in the
organization of the expedition, the conquest of Niagara, the
headquarters of the foe of all descriptions, and the seat of British
influence and power among the Indians, was one of the principal objects
in view. Certain it is, that the most important feature of the
enterprise was not undertaken; and it will be seen in the sequel that
but small ultimate advantage resulted from the campaign. Stimulated by a
keener thirst for revenge, clouds of savages were again and again seen
to sweep through the valley of the Mohawk with the scalping knife and
the torch."

"The return of the army was along the same tract by which it had
advanced. On the 20th, having recrossed the outlet of Seneca Lake,
Colonel Zebulon Butler was detached with the rifle corps of 500 men to
pass round the foot of Cayuga Lake, and lay waste the Indian towns on
its eastern shore; while Lieutenant-Colonel Dearborn, with 200 men, was
detached to perform the same service on the south-western shore. The
main army pursued the most direct route to the Chemung and Tioga. On the
26th Colonel Dearborn's detachment returned, and on the 28th they were
rejoined by Colonel Zebulon Butler, who had burnt three towns of the
Cayugas, including their capital. Dearborn had burnt six towns in his
route, destroying at the same time large quantities of corn. On the same
day, Colonels Va