| Show WALT tata J ER BU Y T TD a S IT 4 nr 9 y A am asure tf of aia o mance C 3 I 1 11 A BUTLER RANGER by ELMO SCOTT WATSON at tl a century and a halt he has been written down in presumably accurate histories hIs is As the archfiend arch fiend of 0 f the revolution with simon girty garty the notorious renegade nde he lins ling deputa don of being the words are those of r a well known historian mis who iho present no redeeming do quality to t biond for excuse 11 still li fan an another historian characterizes him as a mail imi of enterprising boldness bosc bhoge heart was a compound of ferocious linte hato insatiable cruelly and unappeasably re lenge dut but the noc lists more thin than the historians liae have made ills his name a word of loathing almost as much as the name of benedict arnold one of them writes rites of cherry valley where here through the wintry down young walter butler damned ills his soul for pit nil eternity while hlll men women and children old and young died horribly amid the dripping knives and bayonets of ills hla painted fiends or fell under tinder the butchering hatchets of lilt his Sene seneca ens s so after reading for so long that walter butler ans ns a of 0 the deepest lye de it Is nil nl the more mor e amazing to ta pick ock up tip a hook and read that obviously ile he was no scoundrel nil certainly no murderer of women ani children ns as nil all the books lime have said ile ie is the tycen ril proud roud rest less jess unhappy luckless figure of romance who lio anav hla his lire life for a lost cause olal out lie stuff of which heroes tire are brinde the took I 1 to ar out of niagara walter butler 11 f ry rangers hanger published recently bv the columbi press tor the new york cal lion and the nin man n who v ho lias fins painted a new portrait alt of the infamous walter butler 13 Is howard Swig ged author of it carefully documented biography based basea upon source material hi hitherto therlo untouched by the historians why hits has the name of walter for so long been tarnished with ill nine fame there are two reasons closely associated even hefcke baft rt the outbreak of the revolution there was e enmity it between some of flip ilief half feudal fendal aristocracy of the mohawk valley alley notably the john song cons and the butlers arid the dutch ditch and flerman peasantry of that region so when the conflict came and walter butler cost his fortunes the logical cause ter for jilin to espouse it Is small wonder that these commoners should refuse to credit illin him with being actuated by ns as much sincerity ind and high prin caple us its they the were in biking their choice ills fattier father john butler Ij was hn assistant to the great sir william Jo 1 linson the kings of findlan affairs in the northern northera department part ment and a lieutenant colonel in it colonial militia regiment brought up lit in the belief that the greatest chance for honorable hono advancement lay lit in the kings service what more natural than that this young oung aristocrat should choose the lie side of ills majesty rither rather than th m that of the rebels it must be remembered that flint the revolution was more than a conflict between a stubborn tub born foreign king hing and ills hla rebellious subjects it was also a civil war in which one group of native aserleans Amer leans called patriots was pitted against another group of tint native I 1 veA americana merlen nil called tories or loyalists there Is no war nr more bitter than civil war var and no crime too black for one side to charge against the he other when families are divided among themselves and friend turns against friend so the legends of tory infamy began growing early among the patriots and the first fistori hI stori ans anns who gathered their material among the survivors of the revolution and who to do not seem to have been animated by any too ton scrupulous re gard for accuracy accepted most of these leg ends as facts then too they deeni to lune have had find the quite understandable desire a desire still in evidence among some americans of today even though it Is not so understandable to try tr to make the Ilat riots and their cause seem all the whiter anil and purer by painting the tories and their cause nil all the blacker and more infamous unfortunately for walter butler they madr mm hint the alie scapegoat for most of their rory fory ha lieda no doubt the particular reason for tills was vas that the butlers father and son were in in u winning inning the iroquois indians to the british aldi and became leaders of the par aisan forces with which these indians indiana cooper co oper hinted so they wore were bitterly hated because they enit enlisted sted red images as their allies loosed them on the frontiers ona encouraged encourage their by imitation wid a horrible commerce in scalps of met women and children nut but the indignation atlon of the early historians against flip use of the indians by the british arid the tories would 1 te e more inore convincing it they did not louk or ignore these facts that these bum saing patriots os as english colonists during the wars with the file french had been glad enough to julye wo the ni as allies against the Frenc ti tant early li lit the revolution they lind find tried to win the of the rong long house to THEIR mid and g mhd some of file lie commanders as ho well weil v n the lie url brit fill illi ld dap dtp it indians jis As alik all ei MARINUS WILLETT ja SEPH NT THE ASTLE CASTLE C AT FORT t G R NE BUTLER HWE AT NY since walter butler was wag the apotheosis of the worst type of enemy to the cause of liberty it would seem natural that our information about him should ho he fairly comp complete lefe and yet us as the author of war out of niagara says sais there Is s an absorbing mystery about his life and character the date of ills his birth Is unknown there Is no physical description of hint him except in fiction letters about him in catalogues cataloguer catal even of the schuyler papers the cafes papers the library of congress and many other papers tire are mysteriously marked missing timothy dwight the president of yale vale university invented a great loyth about him that sot got into every amerlean american history in the nineteenth century lafayette Is sald said to have been his friend but there Is no authority for it british commander in canada la Is said to have refused to receive hint him after cherry valley and this book beoh contains an original letter from approving of his conduct that november day lie ile appears plainly to have broken ills bis parole as aa a prisoner but with every horror of massacre and rapine laid at ills door for some reason that seems to have escaped notice brant the in dlan dian Is portrayed as a noble paladin ln hor horrified rIfled at butlers excesses yet simms the gossip of the revolution in the frontiersmen of new york tiresome in the multiplicity of it its g detail never places place walter butler tit nt the scene of 0 f any of the atrocities in the north thousands of men tire are mentioned by name hut but young butler Is mentioned only nt at cherry valley valey out but thanks to the researches of this historian got some I 1 w of the mystery of walter butler Is dissolved and we see him film not its HS the bloody loody li monster painted by the early historians instead there stands forth an figure a young man who could not no have been over twenty eight when tie he was killed to the r jol in arf all new york a most dauntless s an firl sing leader pager eager ambitious offering ng to cover albany port fort pitt ant and Det detroit rIt for roand mand grasping early in the war thi errand grand strategy of the long northwestern flank of older men defending ills his every action at ry valley scorn scorning lo to tf make war on women and children while pointing out ill the lie trent treatment ment of hla his mother anil and sister held its as hosang in albany lie Is condemned for ills red allies and was himself killed and scalper pei ty ny an indian ally of the continental nimy and ana isie newspapers announcing noun cing ills death guy any the onelda indians behaved well in the action and deserve much credit so lit in war out of 01 niagara we see sea walter valley butler as a boy at Butlers bury seeing his father and sir william johnson Johns returning return in in triumph at the head of colonial troops from the wars with the lr brench ench we see him busy at his law studies in albany and as a rising young lawyer at the outbreak of the revolution then when alien the lie break comes in 1775 and those who live in new york province must cloose cl between king ond and their native land ie he cals ansis ills lot with the lie loyalists abo were decidedly in the majority lit in that province hut the patriot forces under general schuyler gait gain ascendancy end and ouy guy Jo joinson linson and 81 sir john in ag i in nephew and son bon ot of sir william h 9 ors in chargo charge of andl indian I 1 n affairs rl col J JAI ler and walter butler nod and joaeph jo ifyu brant ale hf habis gc B to oswego i next nest we find walter butler its as an ensign in the eighth regiment the kings own in the fighting around montreal and quebec from there lie he goes to fort niagara which Is to be his principal headquarters as leader of 0 the butler rangers hangers front from that time on in 1777 he accompanies st leger in the expedition which with burgoyne coming down from the north and allowe coming up tip from the south Is to end the war in one campaign at old fort stanwix renamed fort schuyler the lie stubborn defense of colonels gansevoort and marinas willett hold up st legers advance and the moody bloody battle of Oris oriskany kany results finally in its defeat soon afterwards walter butler starts down the mohawk river toward german cerman flats to raise recruits for the he british army lie he Is captured tried as a spy before a court martial over which colonel willett sits as judge advocate and Is 19 sentenced to be hanged but general schuyler intercedes for him and ho he Is tal taken en to the albany jail from which he soon escapes to quebec the next year tie he goes again to niagara and leads he file expedition against cherry valley from which ho he Is 18 to return with the most hated name in new york for a hundred and fifty tears most of the historians who have written of this affair making butler we villain and brant the protector of the captured women and children lay emphasis upon the 31 11 people who were killed in the massacre but brings out the tact fact that it was butler who protected seven eighths of the inhabitants the lie survivors and offers strong evidence that it was brant who incited the indians to the killing of at least a part of the 31 the next two years find walter butler as captain of the corps of rangers fighting in the bat ties against general sullivan nn whom nhom ang washington bing has sent to smash tire power of the long house going on it 11 mission to detroit and maintaining the post of Ml arots its A cold and lonely outpost in the wilderness far west of detroit but in he Is hack back in n Slon montreal treal and again at niagara an from there th cre tho the next year lie he sets out upon ills last expedition itsou As second in command under major loss the raiding balding force of about Is 12 miles of schenectady on october 25 J 1781 they have left a trail of burning farmhouses mills and gra granaries narles behind them ns as they turn to retreat toward johnstown but Alart marenus nus willett and ills his continentals Continent als are hot on their trail aud atwil in he battle of johnstown closi and butler are de defeated rented the delsor garbed raiders must retreat through tho wilderness toward the north they rench reach canada creek and tit nt a ford there walter butler bitici Is covering the retreat when he to Is shot down and an onelda oneida scout in willetts willetta Wll letta command takes lakes his scalp visit the city of schenectady today and they will take you yon to historic old st georges church and tell you that the dust dint pt of walter butler lies iles under tinder its floor even pointing out the very pew under tinder which his body brought secretly by the tories front from the tha ford at canada creek Is supposed to have been burled tint but Sw legett doubts this it seeing unlikely he tiya says colvea are aro closing in on the albiny 11 and on that grisly note tho H raily frag rP oily ily ant and tho the mystery of walter butler ends it by western union |
