History

History. Marching on Seneca Towns. In August of 1779, Colonel Daniel Brodhead and 605 American rebels passed two miles east of here. They were the Brodhead Expedition of the Revolutionary War, sent to punish the Munsee and Seneca Indians for siding with the British and raiding American settlements on the frontier. Brodhead and his troops destroyed several large villages, burning more than 150 houses and destroying more than 500 acres of corn. The expedition started at Fort Pitt and advanced up the Allegheny River, covering approximately 400 miles in 35 days traveling on foot. , According to Brodhead's reports, his troops had only one small skirmish, at the Battle of Thompson's Island, where they defeated a small party of Senecas. Seneca oral history suggests that several of Brodhead's men were later killed in the Seneca towns of the upper Allegheny, but Brodhead failed to report any such incidents. , Despite the disruptions and temporary hardships created by the expedition, the Senecas quickly resettled their towns in the spring of 1780. The Senecas, Tories and British renewed their raiding of frontier settlements, at a level significantly higher than in 1778. The expedition failed to permanently drive the Senecas from their villages or to deter raiding, and cemented the alliance between the British and the Senecas.