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American Revolution (view source)

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The British provided arms for the Indians, under Loyalist leadership, to raid frontier settlements from the Carolinas to New York, massacring the men, women and children they caught, especially in Pennsylvania. The most prominent was Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, who led a band of 300 Indian warriors and 100 white loyalists multiple attacks on small settlements in New York and Pennsylvania in 1778 and 1780 .<ref>see Barbara Graymont, "Thayendanegea," [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=36808&query=joseph%20AND%20brant ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''] </ref> In 1776 Cherokee war parties attacked all along the southern frontier.<ref>Tom Hatley, ''The Dividing Paths: Cherokees and South

Carolinians through the Era of Revolution'' (1993); James H. O'Donnell, III, ''Southern Indians in the American Revolution'' (1973)</ref>

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While the Indians could launch raids with up to 100 warriors, they could not mobilize enough forces to fight a major invasion of thousands of soldiers, so the Americans sent invasion armies against the Cherokees in 1776 and 1780. In 1779 Washington sent General [[John Sullivan]] with four brigades of Continental soldiers to drive the Iroquois out of upstate western New York. There was little combat but Sullivan systematically burned 40 (empty) Indian villages and, most important, destroyed about 160,000 bushels of corn that comprised the winter food supply. Facing starvation the Iroquois permanently fled to the Niagara Falls area and to Canada, where the British fed them.<ref> Joseph R. Fischer, ''A Well-Executed Failure: The Sullivan Campaign against the Iroquois, July-September 1779'' (1997).</ref> At the peace conference the British ignored their allies, who now came under American control.

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At the peace conference the British abandoned their Indian allies, and the Americans took possession of all the land west of the Mississippi and north of Florida. Calloway concludes:

:Burned villages and crops, murdered chiefs, divided councils and civil wars, migrations, towns and forts choked with refugees, economic disruption, breaking of ancient traditions, losses in battle and to disease and hunger, betrayal to their enemies, all made the American Revolution one of the darkest periods in American Indian history.<ref>Calloway (1995) p. 290</ref>

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The British, however, did not give up their forts in the west until 1796 and kept alive the dream of one day forming a satellite Indian nation in what is now the Ohio to Wisconsin part of the Midwest. That hostile goal was one of the causes of the [[War of 1812]].<ref> Dwight L. Smith, "A North American Neutral Indian Zone: Persistence of a British Idea" ''Northwest Ohio Quarterly'' 1989 61(2-4): 46-63</ref><ref> Francis M. Carroll, [http://books.google.com/books?id=1AjlS20Q5J8C&pg=PA24&dq=barrier+intitle:Good+intitle:and+intitle:Wise+intitle:Measure+intitle:The+intitle:Search+intitle:for+intitle:the+intitle:Canadian-American+inauthor:Francis+inauthor:M+inauthor:Carroll&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2009&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=2009&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES ''A Good and Wise Measure: The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783-1842''], 2001, page 23 </ref>

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The British, however, did not give up their forts in the west until 1796 and kept alive the dream of one day forming a satellite Indian nation in what is now the Ohio to Wisconsin part of the Midwest. That hostile goal was one of the causes of the [[War of 1812]].<ref> Dwight L. Smith, "A North American Neutral Indian Zone: Persistence of a British Idea" ''Northwest Ohio Quarterly'' 1989 61(2-4): 46-63</ref><ref> Francis M. Carroll, [http://books.google.com/books?id=1AjlS20Q5J8C&pg=PA24&dq=barrier+intitle:Good+intitle:and+intitle:Wise+intitle:Measure+intitle:The+intitle:Search+intitle:for+intitle:the+intitle:Canadian-American+inauthor:Francis+inauthor:M+inauthor:Carroll&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2009&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=2009&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES ''A Good and Wise Measure: The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783-1842''], 2001, page 23 </ref>

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While the Indians could launch raids with up to 100 warriors, they could not mobilize enough forces to fight a major invasion of thousands of soldiers, so the Americans sent invasion armies against the Cherokees in 1776 and 1780. In 1779 Washington sent General [[John Sullivan]] with four brigades of Continental soldiers to drive the Iroquois out of upstate western New York. There was little combat but Sullivan systematically burned 40 (empty) Indian villages and, most important, destroyed about 600,000 bushels of grain that comprised the winter food supply. Facing starvation the Iroquois permanently fled to the Niagara Falls area and to Canada, where the British fed them.<ref> Joseph R. Fischer, ''A Well-Executed Failure: The Sullivan Campaign against the Iroquois, July-September 1779'' (1997).</ref> At the peace conference the British ignored their allies, who now came under American control.

==The Southern Campaigns of 1778-81==

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