1896-97-] BRANT IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 257 



more emphatic in his praise. " Mr. Brant opened the campaign by 

 attacking a party of Continental troops, joined by nearly 300 militia, 

 who immediately were put to flight, and the Continental troops cut to 

 pieces all but an officer and four privates taken prisoners, and the 

 country laid waste, distinguishing at the settlement of loyalists, and not 

 molesting a woman or child of the rebels. This occasioned such an 

 alarm that all the inhabitants farther down the river fled towards 

 Schenectady and the rebels were obliged to send several battalions to 

 oppose Mr. Brant's operations, and the harvest about Schenectady, 

 Cherry Valley, and adjacent places being thereby neglected, proved very 

 detrimental to the supplies of the rebel army, that being the best grain 

 country they depend upon ; and, in short, Mr. Brant was the dread and 

 terror of the whole country." 



Even General Haldimand, lately appointed to succeed Carleton as 

 Governor-General of Canada, who was ordinarily reserved in his judg- 

 ments, expressed warm approbation. " Butler's success in harassing the 

 enemy," he said, "must be greatly attributed to the Indian, Joseph 

 Brant, whose attachment to government, resolution, and personal exer- 

 tions makes him a character of a very distinguished kind, and I humbly 

 consider him entitled to some particular mark of the King's favour." 



In August, Butler states that Brant was again at Oquaga with Captain 

 Caldwell, whom he had left in command of his rangers, engaged in 

 scouting towards the Delaware River, "as low as the Minnesinks and 

 Schoharie, as well to annoy the enemy as to gain intelligence." None 

 of Butler's letters indicate the least trace of that pronounced dislike 

 towards the ambitious young Indian which Claus attributes to him ; on 

 the contrary he constantly refers to him in terms of the frankest 

 approval. Thus, a few weeks later, he informed Haldimand that " Mr. 

 Joseph Brant, whose activity during the summer is really deserving of 

 praise, stayed at Aughquaga with Captain Caldwell, where he has not 

 only been very attentive and vigilant, but at the same time, from his 

 perfect knowledge of the country, particularly serviceable in directing 

 the routes of their parties who are constantly moving about and alarm- 

 ing the enemy's frontier." 



He next accompanied Caldwell in a raid on Burnetsfield, at the Ger- 

 man Flats, which resulted in the ruthless devastation of a rich tract of 

 couutry for ten miles on either side of the Mohawk River. They rushed 

 upon that place in the gre>' light of a September morning, hoping to 

 surprise the forts which were known to be well garrisoned. There was 

 little bloodshed, as the inhabitants had been warned of their approach, 



