n Courtlandt and Dayton were detached upon a similar
service--for the destruction of large fields of corn growing upon the
banks of the Tioga and its tributaries."

"The army then resumed its march, and passing through Wyoming, arrived
at Easton on the 15th of October. The distance thence to Genesee Castle
was 280 miles. With the exception of the action at Newton, the
achievements of the army in battle were not great. But it had scoured a
broad extent of country, and had laid more towns in ashes than had ever
been destroyed on the continent before. The red men were driven from
their beautiful country, their habitations left in ruins, their fields
laid waste, their orchards uprooted, and their altars and the tombs of
their fathers overthrown."[98]

All the devastations of settlements, burnings and slaughter committed by
the "Tories and Indians" during the whole war shrink into insignificance
in regard to extent of territory, the number of inhabitants and towns,
the extent of cultivated farms and gardens, when compared with General
Sullivan's one vast sweep of ruin and misery, in the course of which, as
the historian says, "_the Indians were hunted like wild beasts, till
neither house nor fruit tree, nor field of corn nor inhabitant, remained
in the whole country_."

All this was done by an express order of Congress to the
Commander-in-Chief; and for doing this General Sullivan and his army
received the cordial approbation and thanks of the Congress.

It was very natural that the survivors of the Six Nations and the
"Tories," who took refuge and resided among them, should seek revenge on
every possible occasion, in months following, in the regions of their
own sufferings, especially upon those individuals and communities who
they knew had prompted and aided the executioners of Congress. There
were partizan leaders, with adventurous followers, on both sides, in the
Southern as well as in the Northern States, who inflicted many acts of
barbarity and desolation; but these retaliatory cruelties and raids of
destruction acquired a greater intensity of bitterness and cruelty after
the terrible ravages and cruelties perpetrated by General Sullivan and
his army.

Besides, the history of the Indians, as well as of the "Tories,"
throughout the whole war, was written by their adversaries, and it was
considered a master-stroke of policy to exaggerate the alleged misdeeds
and paint the character of both the Indians and Tories in