' The battle was inconclusive, so bitterly
was it contested; but it was successful in stemming the
advance of St Leger's forces.
The next year (1778) there was an outbreak of sporadic
raiding all along the border. Alexander Macdonell, the
former aide-de-camp of Bonnie Prince Charlie, fell with
three hundred Loyalists on the Dutch settlements of the
Schoharie valley and laid them waste. Macdonell's ideas
of border warfare were derived from his Highland ancestors;
and, as he expected no quarter, he gave none. Colonel
Butler, with his Rangers and a party of Indians, descended
into the valley of Wyoming, which was a sort of debatable
ground between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and carried
fire and sword through the settlements there. This raid
was commemorated by Thomas Campbell in a most unhistorical
poem entitled _Gertrude of Wyoming_:
On Susquehana's side, fair Wyoming!
Although the wild-flower on thy ruined wall
And roofless homes a sad remembrance bring
Of what thy gentle people did befall.
Later in the year Walter Butler, the son of Colonel John
Butler, and Joseph Brant, with a party of Loyalists and
Mohawks, made a similar inroad on Cherry Valley, south
of Springfield in the state of New York. On this occasion
Brant's Indians got beyond control, and more than fifty
defenceless old men, women, and children were slaughtered
in cold blood.
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