Battle of Wyoming

Battle of Wyoming
Part of the American Revolutionary War

Painting of the battle by Alonzo Chappel (1858)
DateJuly 3, 1778
Location
Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania
Result British-Iroquois victory
Belligerents
 Great Britain
Iroquois		  United States
Commanders and leaders
John Butler
Sayenqueraghta
Cornplanter		 Zebulon Butler
Nathan Denison
George Dorrance
Strength
110 provincials
464 Indigenous		 360 regulars, militia and irregulars
Casualties and losses
3 killed
8 wounded		 302 killed
5 captured

The Battle of Wyoming, also known as the Wyoming Massacre, was a military engagement during the American Revolutionary War between Patriot militia and a force of Loyalist soldiers and Iroquois warriors. The battle took place in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania on July 3, 1778 in what is now Luzerne County. The result was an overwhelming defeat for the Americans. The battle is often referred to as the "Wyoming Massacre" because of the roughly 300 Patriot casualties, many of whom were killed by the Iroquois as they fled the battlefield or after they had been taken prisoner.

Widespread looting and burning of buildings occurred throughout the Wyoming Valley subsequent to the battle, but non-combatants were not harmed.[1][2][3] Most of the inhabitants fled across the Pocono Mountains to Stroudsburg and Easton or down the Susquehanna River to Sunbury.

Within weeks, a widely distributed but highly inaccurate newspaper report claimed that hundreds of women and children had been massacred. This false version of events was accepted as proven fact by many writers for decades afterwards but has been thoroughly discredited.[4][5]

  1. ^ Harvey, Oscar Jewell (1909). A History of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Vol. 2. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.
  2. ^ Graymont, Barbara (1972). The Iroquois in the American Revolution. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. p. 171. ISBN 9780815600831.
  3. ^ Williams, Glenn F. (2005). Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign against the Iroquois. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholm Publishing. ISBN 9781594160134.
  4. ^ Schenawolf, Harry (2021). "Battle of Wyoming – American Defeat or Massacre?". Revolutionary War Journal. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  5. ^ Tharp, William R. (2021). Savage and Bloody Footsteps Through the Valley: The Wyoming Massacre in the American Imagination (MA). Virginia Commonwealth University.