Zebulon Butler was an American soldier and politician from Connecticut. He was military leader of the Connecticut settlers in the Pennamite Wars and served as director of the Susquehanna Company.
Background
Zebulon Butler was born on January 23, 1731 at Ipswich, Massachussets, the son of John and Hannah (Perkins) Butler and the grandson of Lieutenant William Butler of Ipswich. His youth was spent in Lyme, Connecticut, where his parents settled in 1736 and where he is usually alleged to have been born. Here he engaged in the West India trade, owning one or more sloops.
Career
In the French and Indian War Zebulon Butler saw service as ensign (1757), lieutenant and quartermaster (1759), and captain (1760). Ordered to Cuba in 1762, he was shipwrecked during the voyage but arrived in time to participate in the latter part of the siege of Havana.
Returning to civilian life at the close of the war he led a band of Connecticut settlers to the Wyoming Valley (now Luzerne County, Pennsylvania), where they settled along the Susquehanna (1769) on land claimed by Connecticut by virtue of her charter and through purchase from the Indians.
In the ensuing Pennamite Wars between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, Butler acted as leader of the Connecticut settlers, serving as director of the Susquehanna Company and representing Wyoming in the Connecticut Assembly (1774 - 76).
In July 1771 he laid siege to Fort Wyoming, garrisoned by Pennsylvania troops, forced its capitulation, and later repulsed Colonel Plunkett's invasion of the valley in a battle at the Nanticoke Gap (1775). With the outbreak of the Revolution he was commissioned colonel of the Connecticut militia. He later became lieutenant-colonel (1776) and colonel (1778) of the Continental line.
In March 1778 invasion of the valley became imminent, and Butler, acting on behalf of the "Town of Westmoreland, " appealed to the Board of War for its protection, the Wyoming regiments then being with the Continental army.
Before aid arrived, the valley was invaded by the New York Loyalist leader, Major John Butler, with an army consisting of Rangers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson's loyalist regiment (the King's Royal Regiment of New York), and several hundred Indians led by the Seneca chief Old King (Sayenqueraghta).
Lieutenant-Colonel Zebulon Butler, home on leave, on assuming command of the Continental forces, found himself at the head of barely sixty regulars and about 300 militia consisting largely of "the undisciplined, the youthful, and the aged. "
He wished to await reinforcements but was overruled by his council of war, and it was decided to leave Forty Fort and seek battle, an unfortunate decision that made victory for the invaders almost a certainty. Outnumbered, and the Indians making a flank attack, the Continental forces fled to the fort (July 3, 1778), which capitulated on the following day, Butler fleeing to prevent capture. While there were many atrocities committed, there was not the wholesale massacre so vividly described by Thomas Campbell in Gertrude of Wyoming (London, 1809).
After the departure of the invaders Butler returned to Wyoming as commandant, where he remained during the Sullivan expedition of 1779 against the Iroquois confederacy. The expedition detached by General Sullivan, September 20, 1779, to destroy the Indian villages east of Cayuga Lake, frequently credited to Colonel Butler, was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Butler of the 4th Pennsylvania regiment.
On December 29, 1780, Butler was recalled from Wyoming by Washington at the request of Congress to prevent any recurrence of friction between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and he was then stationed at West Point, retiring from the army at the close of the Revolution.
He died at Wilkesbarre at the age of sixty-four leaving children by each of his three wives.
Zebulon Butler was married three times: first, on December 23, 1760, to Anna Lord, who died in 1773; second, in August 1775 to Lydia Johnson, who died on June 26, 1781; third, in November 1781 to Phebe Haight.