Battle of Newtown | |||||||
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Part of Sullivan Expedition during American Revolutionary War | |||||||
View from the summit of Sullivan Hill, looking into Hoffman Hollow | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States |
Great Britain Iroquois | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
John Sullivan James Clinton Enoch Poor Edward Hand William Maxwell |
John Butler Walter Butler Sayenqueraghta Cornplanter Joseph Brant Fish Carrier | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
3,200 Continental regulars 2 companies of militia 9 artillery pieces |
200–250 Butler's Rangers 300–350 Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk, and Munsee Delaware 14 British regulars (8th Regiment of Foot) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
8 killed 31 wounded |
12 Iroquois & 3 British killed 9 Iroquois & 3 British wounded 2 British captured |
The Battle of Newtown (August 29, 1779) was the only major battle of the Sullivan Expedition, an armed offensive led by Major General John Sullivan that was ordered by George Washington to end the threat of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War. Opposing Sullivan's four brigades were 250 Loyalist soldiers from Butler's Rangers, commanded by Major John Butler, and 350 Iroquois and Munsee Delaware. Butler and Mohawk war leader Joseph Brant did not want to make a stand at Newtown, and instead proposed to harass the enemy on the march, but were overruled by Sayenqueraghta and other Indigenous war leaders.
This battle, which was the most significant military engagement of the campaign, took place at the foot of a hill along the Chemung River just outside what is now Elmira, New York.