1892-93.] MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN WALTER BUTLER. 285 



two officers as being in command of a small party of whites and Indians 

 of whom he was one, that defeated a superi£)r force of Americans near 

 Isle Aux Noix soon afterwards, taking many prisoners. Butler then 

 drops out of sight for a year. 



He appears to have gone with his father to Fort Niagara, where a part 

 of his regiment was stationed, and remained there until the spring of 

 1777. The monotony of garrison duty in a lonely frontier fort became 

 insupportable and he begged eagerly for employment in the field. 

 Carleton wrote approvingly in reply to Captain Lernoult (2nd February, 

 1777,) "Ensign Butler has testified a desire to serve, for which he is 

 much to be commended, and as he seems a promising young man, jn 

 case any part of the regiment moves in the spring, I should be glad he 

 was to accompany them." Accordingly he was one of the officers of 

 that regiment selected for the expedition against Fort Stanwix in the 

 summer of that year. In July he was appointed captain of a company 

 of Loyalist refugees enlisted by his father to serve as rangers with the 

 Indians and with the special object of " controlling and restraining them 

 from committing acts of cruelty." In command of this he took part in 

 the bloody battle of Oriskany, in which General Herkimer's relieving 

 force was defeated. His knowledge of the country and the people then 

 caused him to be selected by Colonel St. Leger to carry a flag of truce 

 and a proclamation of amnesty to the inhabitants of the German Flats 

 who were reported to be anxious to return to their allegiance. A large 

 number of these had accordingly assembled at the house of Rudolph 

 Shomaker, a magistrate and a Loyalist, but who had remained inactive, 

 within two miles of Fort Dayton, and Butler was addressing the gather- 

 ing when the house was surrounded by the advance guard of General 

 Arnold's army on its march to relieve Fort Stanwix and he was taken 

 prisoner with the whole of his party. Heedless of his flag of truce and 

 the purpose of his visit, Arnold directed him to be tried by a drum-head 

 court-martial as a spy. That compliant tribunal promptly found him 

 guilty and sentenced him to death although he produced his instructions 

 and commission as an officer of the British army. Arnold at once 

 approved their finding and ordered the sentence to be executed next 

 morning. But a number of officers of the ist New York regiment 

 startled at such severity petitioned for a respite, which was finally granted, 

 and he was sent a close prisoner to Albany. He was there confined in 

 a small and filthy cell in the common jail, heavily ironed and treated 

 with the utmost harshness. In the course of some months he became 

 seriously ill. Col. Butler declared his belief that he was treated with 

 such extraordinary severity simply because he was his son, and naturally 

 made every effort to cbtain his exchange. Fortunately, General 



