Brutal Partisan Conflict Erupts in 1778

American Revolution
Written By Tom Hand

The Spring of 1778 in Pennsylvania and New York saw the opening of a terrible civil war and one of the most brutal phases of the American Revolution. With the Continental Army focused on Philadelphia, Joseph Brant, a charismatic Mohawk, began a guerilla war on the weakened American outposts in the Mohawk and Upper Susquehanna Valleys. While Brant was terrorizing the Mohawk Valley, Colonel John Butler and his Rangers, a unit of 400 Loyalists and 800 Seneca warriors, made their way into the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania and killed two-thirds of the American force they faced.

Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, explores this vicious chapter of the American Revolution, and why it still matters today.

Images courtesy of Library of Congress, Architect of the Capitol, The New York Public Library, Toronto Public Library, Wikipedia. 

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Tom Hand
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