HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



29 



It is evident that the expedition was too much engaged 

 in pursuing the main body of the Indians and Tories north- 

 ward to pay much attention to the upper valley of the Che- 

 mung till after the return to Newton, on the 24th of Sep- 

 tember. We give the following extracts from journals 

 respecting the movements of this period : 



Col. Hubley's journal : 



" Sept. 27. The detachment ordered to march yesterday moved this 

 morning up the Tioga branch to an Indian village about twelve miles 

 from this place, with orders to destroy the same. At dark this evening, 

 the detachment which moved this morning returned, after destroying 

 a considerable quantity of corn, beans, and other vegetables, sixteen 

 boat-loads of which they brought with them for the use of the army. 

 They also burned a small village." 



Jenkins' Journal notices the same facts of this date, with 

 the addition that the detachment was commanded by Col. 

 Spalding. 



James Norris' Journal : 



" Sept. 28. The same party that was sent yesterday was sent again 

 to-day farther uj) the river to destroy a Tory settlement that a small 

 party discovered yesterday." 



Gen. John S. Clark, who has a fine collection of docu- 

 ments on the Sullivan Campaign, and who has studied that 

 subject, as well as the Indian antiquities of this State, very 

 thoroughly, thinks that there were three villages destroyed 

 on the Chemung above Elmira, — one at or near Big Flats, 

 another near the present site of Corning, and the third at 

 Painted Post. Speaking of the " Tory settlement" re- 

 ferred to in the journal of Norris, he says : " This last 

 place, according to the accounts, appears to have been at 

 Painted Post, where was also a considerable village in 

 1764, called Assinnissink, a Monsey town, near the con- 

 fluence of the Canisteo and Tioga. It was the residence of 

 Jacheabus, the leader of the war-party that committed the 

 massacre of the Mahoney in 1755. The exact location 

 of this more ancient town is somewhat uncertain. The 

 Pennsylvania Historical Map places it in the forks of the 

 two rivers in the town of Erwin." * 



We do not know of any other authority for the Tory 

 settlement than the journal above quoted. Such a settle- 

 ment or collection of Indians and British traders of the low 

 sort may have existed here at the time of the Sullivan expe- 

 dition, and been so effectually destroyed as to leave no trace 

 of it at the time of the early settlement. There can be no 

 doubt but that some one of the detachments sent up the 

 Chemung penetrated this county as far as the confluence of 

 the Canisteo and Tioga Rivers, and destroyed everything 

 in the shape of cornfields, buildings, and orchards which 

 came in their way. The only Indian orchard that re- 

 mained standing when the first settlers came into this part 

 of the Chemung Valley was that on an island near Fox & 

 Weston's steam-mill, two miles above Painted Post, which 

 was probably overlooked when they destroyed the cornfields 

 and orchards of the adjoining valley. 



* Near the junction of the Canisteo and Tioga Rivers, on the farm 

 of Mrs. E. E. Townsend, just north of the present school in that part 

 of the town of Erwin, is an ancient Indian burying-ground, which 

 has been much noted and commented upon by the settlers since the 

 first advent of the whites to this part of the country. It probably 

 belonged to the period of the Indian settlement above referred to. 



Thus far it will be conceded that we stand on firm 

 historic ground. Whether a battle was fought or an en- 

 gagement of any kind was had with the Indians within 

 the limits of this county during the Sullivan campaign is 

 another question. It is claimed by some local writers and 

 newspaper correspondents, chiefly on traditional authority, 

 that a detachment of Maxwell's brigade came up the Che- 

 mung and had an engagement with the Indians at the 

 mouth of a little creek, since called Bloody Run, about two 

 and a half miles below Corning, on the north side of the 

 river, on lands now owned by Mr. James Smith, on the 

 4th or 5th of September, 1779. Others, again, deny this 

 chiefly on the ground that no allusion is made to any such 

 battle or engagement in any printed or published account 

 of the expedition. That we may do justice to both parties 

 in this controversy, which has filled a score of newspaper 

 columns during the past year, we propose to give the sub- 

 stance of the arguments on both sides, and leave the reader 

 to judge of their respective merits. In one of the news- 

 paper articles referred to we find the following : 



" Well-attested tradition avers that a battle was fought here between 

 a detachment of Sullivan's army and a force of Indians, in September, 

 1779. Mr. John Patterson, whose integrity none will question, says 

 the place was indicated up to the year 1814, by seven oak-trees that 

 stood near the highway. On three of these trees was carved the hie- 

 roglyphical representation of Indians with tomahawks drawn. On 

 four of the trees there was carved the representation of soldiers with 

 guns in their hands. These were considered by the primitive settlers 

 as relics of this engagement. . . . 



"There is no doubt that links in the chain of Sullivan's campaign 

 have been lost, and have remained unsupplied to this day ; conse- 

 quently we must rely on the statements of those old patriots who ore 

 gone, and much of the story of this engagement is buried with them. 

 They are gone but not forgotten; they need no statue or inscription 

 to reveal their greatness,- their deeds are monuments more lasting 

 than the fanes reared to the kings and demi-gods of old. 



" Belonging to the detachment that Sullivan sent up the Chemung, 

 was Lieut. Nathan Dascum, William Mapes, and Abijah Ward, who 

 have left a verbal history of the engagement that took place at Bloody 

 Run, and they all agree as to location. Dascum was a lieutenant in 

 this detachment, and belonged with Mapes to Maxwell's Brigade. He 

 lived at Geneva, and died at Big Flats in the year 1840. He was the 

 grandfather of Calvin Lovell, Esq., of Painted Post, and Reuben 

 Lovell, Esq., of Big Flats. In the year 1835, on a visit to his daughter 

 at Big Flats, he expressed a wish to visit the field of Bloody Run, 

 where he had met the red man in deadly conflict fifty-six years be- 

 fore. Calvin Lovell went with him, and the old patriot pointed out 

 to him, with tears in his eyes, the position and the very ground occu- 

 pied by the detachment and the location of the Indians, which was 

 behind a swamp covered with bushes. Mr. Lovell says the recital 

 was one of thrilling interest to him. The engagement took place 

 over this swamp, the soldiers firing over the bushes, the Indians fall- 

 ing back and taking position on the side of the hill. After the battle 

 the Americans crossed the river and followed up the west side until 

 they came to a fording-place, there recrossed and joined a detachment 

 that went up on the east side of the river. Uniting, they went west 

 as far as Switch Bottom Flats (which is in the vicinity of Fox, Weston 

 & Co.'s mills), the old veteran pointing out the very spot of ground 

 where they encamped. 



" Dascum corroborates Mapes. Their account of the battle and 

 what took place subsequently are almost identical with Abijah 

 Ward's, who died at Painted Post about forty years ago. . . . 



..." His statement is that they met the Indians at Bloody Run, 

 concealed in a swamp ; that the enemy fired on them as they came 

 up ; that after the battle the detachment went back and joined the 

 main army. He agrees with Dascum and Mapes, with the exception 

 of the farther advance west." 



Another writer, on the same side of the question, under 

 date of Aug. 26, 1878, says : 



