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Show WALTER BUTLER , Jj "J JUuckless Figure cf H ' "' if 1 - I MAR1NU5 WILLETT I ' By ELMO SCOTT WATSON . 17' - ' I i 1 Bit a century and a half he has t'Zi ' 'S:,..J - " " V W"3! been written down In . presumably '- J K4 I accurate histories as the "arch-fiend JOSEPH BRAN I ' J -rj I of the Revolution." With Simon f "? . ,: -. ..JX,-'--'. Girty, "the notorious renegade," he I 'Tit t i2- I has shared the unenviable reputa- 4 f t y.r7TJ tion of being (the words are those , , , , miM Ji KU M JpViof a weI1-kuown historian) "mis- A . , f j Iff f I tf yirA creants who present no redeeming g- ht ss-srass-ssaww - i fiw--, - (Wfl"cv quality to plead for excuse." Still . - . ,L-jLL--- - - . 'Vc'rr'.lfrii--3 another historian characterizes him '-. - as "a man of enterprising bold- v 4 t , , ti -- S ness, whose heart was a compound of ferocious V - 'c . r -.'"- t hate. Insatiable cruelty and unappeasable re- " ?-" "j rrJ jf? - v ... But the novelists more than the historians --vS rzEjf ESS- " have made his name a word of loathing almost -rysc cA-;Tl F" AT F-r -gasipjijszs- , as much as the name of Benedict Arnold. One r Dt KiiirADA i'S& l?gfS!rgs. iff of them writes of "Cherry Valley, where, through FORT NIAGARA Mfl "'' f , wsfft' i the wintry dawn, young Walter Butler damned fBSS3S vMS) ' his soul for all eternity while men. women and a-i, fvM- B3jBSlS v 2ff $0- -j children, old and young, died horribly amid the ? -jjgB&y -a j - dripping knives and bayonets of his painted il? J4 ;'i - fiends, or fell under the butchering hatchets of NggS fSlg-j Zq 'so. after reading for so long that Walter But- T"i krfggSrr':?-" : i ler was a villain of the deepest dye. It Is all the LCSy SiS-Z. 3B ' Ebf5E more amazing to pick up a book and read that vx-vS -glijf'Ijjj VVUTS'jizr : "Obviously he was no scoundrel, and certainly jr S. fv'jVfcL ' zrL'tzIt -f ' ) ' . no murderer of women and children as all the If S&rf- books have said. He is the typical, proud, rest- II feS1SvTSy''l'V less, unhappy, luckless figure of romance, who J J T 1 J arSgr ' -'"'C'V'' ' throws away his life for a lost cause" obvi- I I Vf M I I 'gS.t.-p-- jjSf '- ously the stuff of which heroes are made. The J J ''j-SFvw e-mi' ,lft3!$i - book Is "War Out of Niagara Walter Butler I .fffc,. : anrjt' v. Torv Rangers." pnliliKhed recentlv bv - y-Ovs, I -L'L.J.-aia,jrE r TSgjpBES: the Columbia' rniversity Press for the New York VO 5'v 7 " jlHT "g State Historical Hssoclatlon. and tlie man who has XQlQXV 'w3rw l-'S,tJ?sS'. . painted a new portrait of the "infamous Walter "-tiT:;?::!;;, Butler" Is Howard Swlggett, author of a care- THE DUTLER BADGE ' - fully-documented biography, based upon source THE BUTLER. HOME AT BUTLERS BURY, N.Y. mnterinl hilhorfn nn Innnlioil h ,f .-t,.-t ., 1 4 f By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 1 "ult a century and a half he has W25 been written down In . presumably K4 8 accurate histories as the "arch-fiend H 5 of the Revolution." With SimoD $ I Girty, "the notorious renegade," he i2 I has shared the unenviable reputa-sYfK reputa-sYfK ti()" ot beinS 'tlle words are those iVV1pV'I of' a W(sll-known historian) "mis-creants "mis-creants who present no redeeming 3pJjS quality to plead for excuse." Still t(".nf,j3 another historian characterizes him as "a man of enterprising boldness, bold-ness, whose heart was a compound of ferocious hate. Insatiable cruelty and unappeasable revenge." re-venge." But the novelists more than the historians have made his name a word of loathing almost as much as the name of Benedict Arnold. One of them writes of "Cherry Valley, where, through the wintry dawn, young Walter Butler damned his soul for all eternity while men. women and children, old and young, died horribly amid the dripping knives and bayonets of his painted fiends, or fell under the butchering hatchets of his Senecas." So. after reading for so long that Walter Butler But-ler was a villain of the deepest dye. It Is all the more amazing to pick up a book and read that "Obviously he was no scoundrel, and certainly no murderer of women and children as all the books have said. He is the typical, proud, restless, rest-less, unhappy, luckless figure of romance, who throws away his life for a lost cause" obviously obvi-ously the stuff of which heroes are made. The book is "War Out of Niagara Walter Butler and,t" Toj-v Rangers." published recently by the Columbia' University Press for the New York State Historical association, and the man who has painted a new portrait of the "infamous Walter Butler" Is Howard Swlggett, author of a carefully-documented biography, based upon source material hitherto untouched by the historians. Why has the name of Walter Rutler for so long been tarnished with ill fame? There are two reasons, closely associated. Even before the outbreak of the Revolution there was enmity en-mity between some of the "half-feudal aristocracy" aristoc-racy" of the Mohawk valley, notably the Johnsons John-sons and the Butlers, and the Dutch and German Ger-man peasantry of that region. So when the conflict came nnd Walter Butler cast his fortunes with the logical cause for him to espouse. It is small wonder that these commoners should refuse to credit him with being be-ing actuated by as much sincerity and high principle prin-ciple ns they were In making their choice. His father,. John Butler, was an assistant to the great Sir William Johnson, the King's superintendent superin-tendent of Indian affairs In the Northern department de-partment nnd a lieutenant-colonel In a Colonial militia regiment. Brought up in the belief that the greatest chance for honorable advancement lay in "the King's service," what more natural than thnt this young aristocrat should choose the side of His Majesty rather than that of the "rebels"? It must he remembered that the Revolution was more than a conflict between a stubborn foreign king nnd Ids rebellious subjects. It was also a civil war in which one group of native Americans, called Patriots, was pitted against another group of native Americans, culled Tories or Loyalists. There is no war more bitter than civil war and no crime too black for one side to charge against the oilier, when families ore divided among themselves and rrlend turns against friend. O . So the legends of Tory Infamy began growing early among the I'ntriom and the first historians histori-ans who gathered their material among the survivors sur-vivors of the Revolution nnd who do not seem to have been animated by any too-scrupulous regard re-gard for accuracy, accepted most of these legends leg-ends as f:iets. Then. too. they seem to have hail the riulle-understatidahle desire (a desire still In evidence iniong some Americans of today, even though It Is not so unilernliindnblo) to try to make' the Patriots and their cause seem all the whiter and purer by painting the Tories a;id their cause all the blacker and more liil'ainous. Unfortunately for Walter Butler they made him the scapegoat for most of their Tory hatreds. ha-treds. No doubt the particular reason for Ibis was that the Butlers, father and son, were Instrumental In-strumental In winning the Iroquois Indians to the British side and I nine leaders of the par tlsan forces with which these Indians co uper aled. So they were bitterly haled because tboy "enlisted red savnges as Ihelr allies, loosed tliei'n on the frontiers and encouraged their alrocllles by Imitation anil a horrible commerce In scalps of men, women anil children." But the Indignation of .ie early historians against the use of the IiiiWiius by the British ami Ihe Tories would he more convincing If they did not overlook or Ignore these fuels; that these same I'nlriols, as English colonists during u, wars wllli Ihe French, had been glad enough to have Ihe Iroquois as allies against the French that early In the Revolution Ihey had tried ,, v, In !'( warriors of the Long Mouse to 'I'll hill: 'I'1'" ""'I 'hi'l 'lui-iii': the Revolution , the Cuiiliiienlal commanders, as well as Ihe l'.rll ish, did use Indians iih allies. Since Walter Butler was the apotheosis of the worst type of enemy to the cause of Liberty. It would seem natural that our Information about him should be fairly complete. And yet, ns the author of "War Out of Niagara" says: "There Is an absorbing mystery about his life and char actor. The date of his birth Is unknown. . . . There is no physical description of him except In fiction. Letters about him In catalogues, even of the Schuyler Papers, the Gates Tapers, the Library of Congress and ninny other papers are mysteriously marked missing. Timothy Dwight. the President of Yale university, invented a great myth about him that got Into every American Amer-ican history In the Nineteenth century. Lafayette Lafay-ette Is said to have been his friend hut there Is no authority for It. Haldimand (British com mnntler in Canada) Is said to have refused to receive him after Cherry Valley and this book contains an original letter from Haldimand approving ap-proving of his conduct that November day. lie appears plainly to have broken Ills parole as a prisoner but. with every horror of massacre and rapine laid at his door, for some reason that seems to have escaped notice. Brant, the Indian, In-dian, is portrayed as a noble paladin, horrified at Butler's excesses. Yet Simms, (lie gossip of the Revolution, In 'The Frontiersmen of New York,' tiresome In the multiplicity of Its detail, never places Walter Butler at the scone of any or the atrocities in the North. Thousands of men arc mentioned by name but young Butler Is mentioned only at Cherry Valley." But. thanks to the researches of tills historian, histori-an, some of the mystery of Waller Butler Is dissolved dis-solved and we see him, not as the "bloody monitor," mon-itor," painted by the early historians. Instead fhoro stands forth "An amazing figure a young man who could not have been over twenty-eight twenty-eight when he was killed, to the rejoicing of nil New York, a most dauntless and enterprising leader, eager, ambitious, tireless, offering to cover Albany, Fort Pitt and Detroit for Maldi-niand, Maldi-niand, grasping early In the war (lie grand strategy strat-egy of the long Northwestern Hank, Impatient of older men, defending his every action at Cherry Cher-ry Valley, scorning to make war on women and children, while pointing .out the treatment of his mother and sister held ns hostages' In Albany. Al-bany. Me Is condemned for his red allies and was himself killed and scalped by an Indian ally of the Conl Inenlal army and the newspapers mi-nounelng mi-nounelng Ids death say, "I'lie Oneida Indians lie haved well In the action and deserve much credit.' " So In "War Out of Niagara" we s Walter Bui lor as a hoy at But lersbury, seeing his fa ther and Sir William Johnson rcl unilug In trl-""'I'll trl-""'I'll at the head of Colonial troops from Ihe wars with (he French. We see him busy at his law studies In Albany and as a rising young lawyer at the outbreak of the Revolution. 'Then when the break comes In !77r and those who live In New York province must choose between King and their native land, he oasis tils lot with Ihe Loyalists (who were decidedly In the tun '"''.v lu province). But the 'patriot forces under Cciicral Schuyler gain lompM srv ascend 1 -v ""'I ,;".v .lohnson nod Sir John ' Johnson nephew anil son of Sir William and his success '"' In charge of Indian affairs, Col, John Butler and Waller Butler ami Joseph r.-iut of the Mo haw Us go to Oswego. ' Next we find Walter Butler as anH&Vl the Eighth regiment, the King's. 0ra. - I lighting around Montreal and Que!' ' I there he goes to Fort Niagara, which . his principal headquarters as leader of tr lor Rangers from that time on. In 1777 I companies St. I.eger in the expedition I with Burgoyne coming down from tit -' and Howe coming up from the south, is'.:-the is'.:-the war In one campaign. At old For! (renamed Fort Schuyler) the stubborn is:;'1 of Colonels Gansevoort and Marinas YiiV"' up St. I.egor's advance and the hl'Xxlv Ps:':' Oriskany results finally in Its defwt Soon afterwards Walter Butler starts ff the Mohawk river toward German Pi.it? roc" mis for the British army. He is faP"i trv"il as a spy before a court martini. or ( ('(vlU'iel Willett sits ns Judge advocate, r sentenced to be banged. But Ocnoral .' intercedes for him and l.e Is taken to t-' liany Jail from which be soon escnpes to The next year he g.ves again to Vaan leads the expedition against Cherry Yailf? which he Is to return with "the most name In New York for a hundred r.J years."' Most of the historians who ha" vr"Jl this affair, making Butler the Tlll.-iin aud the protector of the captured women droit, lay emphasis upon the HI people ""'J killed in the massacre. Rut Swiett ; the fact that It Was Butler who FotootoJ ; eighths of ffie Inh.vMtanls. the '"o jj.. and o,vrs strong evidence thnt it '-J5 who Incited the Indians to the Killinc o. a part of the lit. The next two years find Walter l;i",,r f; tain of the corps of rangers tlghtirf 1" ties against General Sullivan. "Iioiu . ton has sent to smash the power of , Mouse, going on n mission to Detroit''"" , tabling the post of Mlamls," a oolil m outpost In the wilderness far west ot But In 17S0 he Is hack In MentivM '"'' at Niagara and Trout there the next v''a''Ji.i out upon his last expedition. As seoomi maud under Major Ross, the raiding 'j. about 700 Is within l'J miles of Schem'1 October 'Jo. 17S1. They have left ,ral Ing farmhouses, mills and granaries ho" ' as they turn to retreat t 'ward Joltnste"1 liivt Marlmis Willed and his Couli"1:, hot on their trail nnd In the ,lh,'j town, Ross and Under arc defeated. ganlzed raiders must retreat throituli J ness toward die north. They reach '!"1;"J and at n ford there Walter Butler Is 1 the retreat when he Is shot down ami W . scout in Wlllelfs coniiiiand takes Ills Visit the city of Schenectady ted.i.v , will take you to historic old St. ;i',"'",''f and tell you that the dust of Walter 1' '' under Its lloor even pointing "'lit !"' ) 1' under which his body, brought s'vl''' VV I'orles from the ford at Canndn crce I posed to have been buried. Rut this. "II seems iinlikclv ." he sav, ' I were closing In on the army." -'V ki t-.l v note Ihe tragedy and the m ler Puller ends. OC1 to- Uewtetn N t,ec'i i'11 ' |