Walter N. Butler

Background

Walter Butler was born in 1752 near Johnstown, New York, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Butler by his wife Catherine.

Education

Walter studied law at Albany but with the outbreak of the Revolution he joined his father and the other Loyalist leaders of the Mohawk Valley in flight to Canada.

Career

Accompanying St. Leger on his march down the valley in 1777, Ensign Butler was active in exhorting the Loyalists to rise. Soon after his father, Colonel Daniel Claus, and Sir John Johnson had issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of Tryon County, he was captured while attending a nocturnal conference at the house of a Loyalist.

He was ordered court-martialed by Arnold and was condemned as a spy, but, upon the intercession of Continental officers whom he had known while a law student in Albany, he was reprieved and imprisoned in that town. When he became ill, his friends prevailed upon General Lafayette to place him under guard in the home of a family with secret Loyalist sympathies, from which he escaped by eluding a conveniently inebriated sentinel. Governor-General Sir Frederick Haldimand approving the plan, Captain Butler, commanding his father's Loyalist troops (Butler's Rangers) and accompanied by a number of Indians led by the famous Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), made an attack on Cherry Valley, November 11, 1778, in which he is generally alleged to have shown great cruelty, suffering his Indian allies to commit many atrocities.

His mother and the younger children, held as hostages at Albany, he exchanged for Cherry Valley captives (1779). In October 1781 he accompanied Major Ross in a raid on the Mohawk Valley, with regular troops, Rangers, and Indians. Repulsed by Colonel Marinus Willett, the British forces retreated, Butler commanding the detachment covering the retreat. They had succeeded in crossing West Canada Creek when the fog that hung over the stream lifted and Butler was shot from the opposite bank by the pursuing Continental scouts.

Historians of the Revolution have invariably depicted Butler as a fiend incarnate because of the Cherry Valley massacre.

Achievements

• Butler volunteered to lead a recruiting expedition behind enemy lines. But his name is forever connected with the Cherry Valley massacre.

Views

Quotations: To General Schuyler he declared that "I have done everything in my power to restrain the fury of the Indians from hurting women and children, or killing the prisoners who fell into our hands, " and he wrote to Gen. James Clinton that "the inhabitants killed at Cherry Valley do not lay [sic] at my door--my conscience acquits me. "

"Albany 23 Nov. 1778. Dear Brother . . . . . . the devastation at Cherry Valley are marked with Such scenes of Cruelty as surmount perlays any attempt of the kind during the War. the City Militia returned from Schohary (which they guarded while Col. Butler went with his men to meet the Enemy, ) of last Saturday Evening Col Alden is killed, the Leut Col. a prisoner. between 30 & 40 Women & Children butchered in the most unheard of manner. there is an Anecdote of the famous Brant mentioned upon this occasion which deserves to be made public & if true reflects immortal infamy upon the Tory rabble who have fled among the Savages & upon every occasion prove themselves worse than the heathen. it is Said when this party Came out, their Orders were read by young Butler upon which Brant turned himself round & wept and then recovering himself told Butler; that he was going to make war against America but not to murder and Butcher; that he was an Enemy from principle but he would never have a hand in Massacring the Defenceless Inhabitants upon which the bloody department was committed [upon] a Seneca Indian whilst the noble Brant with another party attacked the fort. had the British leaders or the British King been actuated by Sentiments of this sort the American War wod not have been Stained with such unparalleled cruelty, nor the name of Briton so justly execrated throughout these States. the Savage Brant stands foremost in the List of Heroes where How, Burgoyne, Clinton, and even George are named. but the Clock Strikes & warns me to close by telling you that both of us Sincerely love you both. May he whose Love is Stronger than Death protect & Bless you. J H Livingston"

Personality

It is quite possible that he may not have been able to prevent the Cherry Valley massacre (like his father in his attack on Wyoming Valley), but it is also true that he was a sterner man than John Butler, and is described as morose, vindictive, and governed by strong passions.

Connections

Father:

John Butler

Mother:

Catherine Butler

References

• The Story of Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara (Dodo Press)
• War Out Of Niagara; Walter Butler And The Tory Rangers