The
Clopton Chronicles
A
Project of the Clopton Family Genealogical Society
Sweet Be the Sleep of Those
Who Prefer
Liberty to Slavery
Regarding
Jerimiah Coleman &
His Brother, Jesse
By John Henry Knowlton, [email protected] [1]
The terrified refugees of
the Wyoming Valley settlements arriving in Poughkeepsie on the 20th
of July 1778 had a traumatic tale of terror to tell. Their settlements had been attacked and they had narrowly escaped
with their own lives. They had
left the bodies of their loved ones lying where they were killed by the savages
that had attacked their lovely valley.
This is their story.
A Charter from the King
By 1776 the residents of the Valley had become
a large supplier to the
Continental Army of George Washington.
This did not go unnoticed by
the British commanders in New York.
The Colony of Connecticut
received a charter from King Charles II in 1662 to colonize the land from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. On
December 28, 1768 a meeting was held in Hartford, Connecticut to arrange for
settling the Wyoming Valley[2]
by the Susquehanna Company. Arrangements were made to buy the valley from the
Iroquois. However, when the
first settlers from Connecticut arrived at Plymouth in 1769, they
found settlers from Pennsylvania already occupied some of the land. It seems that the royal government had
not paid attention to the boundaries of the Connecticut charter and issued a
charter in 1681 to Pennsylvania with overlapping areas of territory. Words lead to acts of hostility, and
the result was a war between the Connecticut Yankees and the Pennsylvania
Pennamites. This was the First
Pennamite War. The first group of Yankee settlers was lead by Zebulon Butler, a
veteran ranger of the French & Iroquois War.[3] The Pennamites were driven out of the
valley and the Connecticut Yankees settled down to building their farms. The original Yankee settlers were
quickly reinforced by a second group of settlers. However, the Pennamites would
not forget this insult.
Within the third group of
Yankee settlers were Clopton descendents Jerimiah Coleman and his brother
Jesse.[4] They arrived about 1772.[5] The Coleman brothers established farms
at Plymouth in Luzerne County. Gilbert Denton and his daughter Elizabeth Denton[6]
arrived about the same time or shortly after the Coleman brothers. Gilbert Denton was intent upon building a mill in
Plymouth. Jerimiah and Elizabeth
were married in 1776.
Other settlers poured into the valley until, by 1775, there were nearly
5,000 people in the Wyoming Valley.
The Valley had rich farmland that produced an abundance of grains and cattle. They exported their products to the east over the mountains to New Jersey. By 1776 the residents of the Valley had become a large supplier to the Continental Army of George Washington. This did not go unnoticed by the British commanders in New York.
The area shown in reverse color was claimed by both
Connecticut and
Pennsylvania. The area circled in
red
Is the Wyoming Valley
Off to War
Jesse was left by himself
and spent the winter of 1778
at Valley Forge with General Washington's
army.
The Iroquois[7]
who had sold them the valley began to show up in increasing numbers. Several outlying farms had been
attacked further to the west and the settlers of the Wyoming Valley began to
get concerned about their safety.
Tories[8] among the
settlers told them they would pay dearly for supporting the Revolution. The Yankees petitioned Congress asking
permission to form two companies of militia to defend their valley from attack
of the British and their Iroquois allies. The Congress authorized two companies to be formed for local
defense on August 26,1776.[9]
Before long both
companies had been filled with men from the settlements who had joined under
the condition that the companies were for local defense only. Jerimiah and Jesse Coleman joined
Captain Robert Durkee’s 1st Independent Company along with 80 other
men from Plymouth. Later that
year, on December 12, 1776, orders arrived instructing the two companies to
report immediately for duty with the 4th Connecticut Regiment in
General Washington's army in New Jersey.
There was some grumbling, but they all obeyed and marched out of the
Valley with the promise that they would be released to come back if the Valley
was threatened.
Early that
spring, on March 6, 1777,
Elizabeth gave birth to a son whom she would name Jerimiah Coleman,
after her husband. The child would
become the third Jerimiah Coleman in the line. Disease was a major problem in the army that summer, and in
1777, Jerimiah succumbed to smallpox at Morristown., New Jersey.[10]
Jerimiah may have never seen his
young son. Tragedy struck again
when his brother, Jesse, also died at Morristown of smallpox.
The Friendly Iroquois
Suspecting something was afoot,
they took one the Iroquois aside
and gave him liquor until he was drunk.
In the Valley the citizens were becoming alarmed at their lack of
defenses again. They petitioned
Congress to return their two companies.
It was denied. They formed
militia companies at each of the settlements in the Wyoming Valley and
requested permission to build forts from Congress. Permission was granted and they began building forts at
Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Jenkins, and the biggest at Wyoming itself,
called Forty Fort, which was centrally located. They also sent out regular scouting patrols.
In the spring of 1778, in
northern New York at Fort Niagara, British Colonel Guy Johnson ordered Major
John Butler to take his loyalist Tories, referred to as Butler’s Rangers,[11] and their Iroquois allies, and disrupt the Wyoming Valley to
stop the flow of supplies eastward.
Iroquois began to appear in the Valley claiming that they simply wanted
to trade. Suspecting something was
afoot, they took one of the Iroquois aside and gave him liquor until he was
drunk. He then
divulged the plans to attack the settlements that summer.
To Arms!
It was a day of alarm,
excitement and terror;
a day of preparation, running
to and fro,
fleeing and seeking shelter
from impending wrath and
death
The alarmed residents
of the once peaceful valley began sending out regular scouting patrols to
detect the presence of any approaching hostile force. Starting in late June these scouts came under fire whenever
they went up river to the northwest.
Captain Hewitt[12]
went upriver with a scouting party from his company at Forty Fort on the 26th
of June and returned on the 30th with word that he had run into a
large war party upriver.
In the meantime
a group of twelve Yankees from the Fort Jenkins garrison, not knowing of the
scouting party's discovery, went upriver to tend their farm fields and were
attacked. Four were killed
immediately and four were captured and tortured to death that night by the
Iroquois.[13] The remainder escaped downriver to warn
the settlements. On the 2nd
of July the mainly Tory garrison of Fort Wintermoot threw open the gates to the
war party. The war party that
Hewitt had discovered consisted 400 of Butler's Rangers[14]
and about 700 Senecas of the Iroquois nation.
Major Butler had
traveled from Fort Niagara and picked up the Iroquois allies on the way. Fort
Wintermoot now became their headquarters for the attack on the Wyoming Valley.
The next day
Major Butler sent Captain William Caldwell, one of his company commanders, to
take Fort Jenkins. Fort Jenkins
garrison had been depleted by the previous fight upriver and had no way to
resist an attack. They surrendered honorably.
News of the fall
of Wintermoot caused the settlers to gather at Forty Fort with all the forces
they could muster and with their women and children. "It was a day of alarm, excitement and terror; a day of
preparation, running to and fro, fleeing and seeking shelter from impending
wrath and death."[15]
Forty Fort was
four miles from Fort Jenkins and was the largest fort in the Valley. Settlers also gathered at the forts at
Pittston, Wilkes-Barre, and Plymouth.
There were 78 men at Wilkes-Barre and 44 men at Pittston. Elizabeth
Coleman and little Jerimiah gathered with the other frightened women and
children of Plymouth at the small fort on "garrison hill" in Plymouth
called Shawnee Fort.[16] The remainder had come to Forty
Fort. Colonel Nathan Dennison was
in command of the fort and the 24th Connecticut Regiment gathered
there. Colonel Zebulon Butler, of
the 4th Connecticut, was home on leave from his regiment and assumed
overall command of all the settlers.
Gilbert Denton
reported for duty along with the rest of the Plymouth company commanded by
Capt. Asaph Whittlesey. He had
joined his fellow settlers militia company from Plymouth as a private. Captains Ransom and Durkee, who had
resigned from their commands of
the two independent companies that were attached to the 4th Connecticut
of the Continental Army to return home to defend their valley, joined as
privates also but were still referred to by their Captains rank. One must
remember that officers in the militia were elected by their men and these two
were now joining different companies. In one company prior to the battle the company
commander resigned and a private was elected to command the company in a
disagreement over whether they should attack or defend.
We’ll Catch ‘em by Surprise
All through its dark shadows, the Iroquois and
Tories,
like beasts of prey, prowled along the line of
flight,
hunting out those who had concealed themselves,
slaying them on the spot, and tearing off their
scalps,
or capturing and reserving them for torture.
Major Butler sent
a messenger to Forty Fort under a flag of truce with a demand for their
surrender and the surrender of all war materials in the fort, plus the surrender of the entire
company of Capt. Hewitt to Major Butler as prisoners. Stalling for time until reinforcements could arrive, the
demand was refused by Col. Denison, then in command “but the refusal was
accompanied with a suggestion that he would like time and opportunity to
consult with Col. Butler and other officers, who were not then present."[17][
Each time a
white flag was sent out from the fort it was fired upon by Butler's men. Within the fort Dennison and others
wanted to wait for reinforcements that were on the way. Another group called them cowards for
hiding in the fort while they could see their homes being burned.
They could see
parties of Iroquois scattered across the valley. They thought that if they could catch them when they were
scattered they could defeat the main force at Fort Wintermoot. On July 3rd the 24th
Regiment marched northward out of Forty Fort hoping to catch them by surprise.
They advanced cautiously, stopping occasionally to scout ahead. Ahead they saw the smoke from Fort
Wintermoot that the British had set afire.
The militia
deployed into battle line and began their advance toward the burning fort. They did not know they were advancing
into a semicircular ambush set up by Major Butler and his officers. Shots began ringing out along the
battle line and fire was returned as the militia advanced.
A halt was
called as the fire had become intense.
For forty-five minutes the opposing sides kept up a heavy fire. Then on the left Colonel Zebulon Butler
noticed that the enemy was beginning to encircle the flank. Gilbert Denton was with these men. A repositioning of the line was ordered
with the idea that the line would pivot back from left to right. The officers lost control of the
inexperienced militia. Confusion
lead to panic and panic lead to a route of the entire line. Small pockets of veterans such as
Gilbert Denton and others tried to stand their ground. The Iroquois had seen
the backward movement begin and charged with all their fury into the line.
This caused
further panic and the line disintegrated. The veterans who stood and fought
like Gilbert Denton, Ransom and Durkee were overrun and killed instantly, if
they were lucky, or taken prisoner, if they were not.
"The men
fled generally back to the fort [Forty Fort] on the route they had marched out,
or to the river, pursued closely by the British, Iroquois and Tories. It would be difficult to tell which
took most delight in shooting and cutting down the fugitives. No quarter was granted. All were [in]discriminately
slaughtered, wherever found. Men
seemed transformed into demons. It
was a dreadful hour."[18]
"Many other fugitives were … lured to
shore, by promises of quarter or safety, and … slain, too many to be recounted
on this occasion."[19] "Night came, but it did not put an
end to the work of death. All
through its dark shadows, the Iroquois and Tories, like beasts of prey, prowled
along the line of flight, hunting out those who had concealed themselves,
slaying them on the spot, and tearing off their scalps, or capturing and
reserving them for torture."[20]
Of the 434
defenders who marched out that afternoon, only 173 made it back to Forty Fort
alive. Gilbert Denton was not one
of them. He is buried with the
others in a mass grave under the battle monument.
The unfortunate
who were taken prisoner were tortured to death around and in the fires of the
Iroquois that night. The garrison
at Pittston saw fires across the river that night and went down to their side
of the river to see what was happening.
They witnessed their neighbors being tortured[21]
to death by the Iroquois.
Surrender or Die
They were met with scenes or
horror.
They set about burying the dead
and began to rebuild their homes.
But they would get their revenge.
The next day
Major Butler sent a messenger to Forty Fort with the demand that they would
either surrender the fort to him, or he would attack and kill everyone in
it. He said they could leave
immediately. His terms were
accepted. The settlers began
walking east toward New Jersey.[22]
This was called
the "great runaway" as groups set off downriver in rafts or over the
mountains to New Jersey. Elizabeth Coleman and her infant, Jerimiah, went
downriver with the rest of the women and children from Plymouth.
Of those going
over the mountains, stragglers were killed by Iroquois who were following close
behind. As they neared the top of
the mountains east of the valley the reinforcements arrived and drove back the
Iroquois and acted as a rear guard.
There are no exact records of how many died in the Valley in those four
days. Estimates run from 400 to 500. Thousands ran for their lives to the
east and south.
The two
companies from the Valley, including Jesse Coleman, who were serving at Valley
Forge had been released by General Washington on June 15th but were
enroute when the battle and massacre took place.[23]
They were met
with scenes or horror. They set
about burying the dead and began to rebuild their homes. But they would get their revenge. The following year, the men marched
north with General Sullivan to attack and destroy the villages of the Senecas
who had participated in the Massacre.
The Iroquois villages were burned and the inhabitants driven north into
Canada.
The settlers
would return to reoccupy their land, Elizabeth would return with young Jerimiah. Jerimiah would farm the land. Later in his life young Jerimiah would
fight in the War of 1812, perhaps to avenge his father and grandfather. Then he moved to the Wellsburg area in
Chemung County, New York. Elizabeth went with him and was laid to rest there in
November of 1830. Jerimiah would marry Hannah Comfort and raise eleven
children, one of whom he would name Elizabeth. Jerimiah died on December 12th, 1850, peacefully
surrounded by his family far from the nightmare of 1778.
After the war a
Pennsylvanian named Justice Alexander Patterson would come north with a band of
rangers to evict the Connecticut settlers. Several families were cruelly evicted in mid winter and
forced to walk across the mountains into New Jersey.
In one attempted
eviction there was a skirmish in which several of the settlers were killed or
injured. The veterans rose up in
the Second Pennamite War and drove the Pennsylvanian, Patterson, from the
Valley. Help was sent in the form
of militia from Connecticut and Vermont.
The matter of ownership went to Congress to decide. Congress found for the Pennsylvanians
but also found that the settlers could keep the land for which they had shed so
much blood.
1. Jerimiah5 Coleman, Sr. (William4, William3,
William2, William1)1 was born 1728 in
Littleworth, Ulster County, New York, and died April 8, 1800. He married Sarah Collins
1748. She was born 1728, and died
March 20, 1817.
Children of Jerimiah Coleman
and Sarah Collins are:
2 i. Jerimiah6 Coleman,
Jr.1, born 1757; died Aft. February 10, 1777 in Morristown,
New Jersey of Smallpox while serving with General Washington's army2. He married Elizabeth Denton 1776 in
Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania; born 1753 in Goshen, Orange County, New
York; died November 24, 1830 in New York, probably, and buried November 1830 at
Wellsburg, Chemung County, New York.
3 ii. Anna Coleman, born 1749.
4 iii. Jesse Coleman, born Abt.
1751; died in Morristown, New Jersey of Smallpox while serving with General
Washington's army3.
Evidently he had a son because a Jesse Coleman, following the war, in
1794, is listed as farming on land owned by his father.
5 iv. Rachel Coleman, born 1753.
6 v. Phenihas Coleman, born Abt.
1755.
7 vi. Millescant Coleman, born Abt.
1759.
8 vii. Sarah Coleman, born Abt.
1762.
9 viii. Ruth Coleman, born Abt. 1762.
Endnotes
1. John Henry Knowlton, Jr. provided the information regarding
this family unless otherwise noted.
2. He signed a receipt for bounty money dated February 10, 1777.
3. Sons of the American Revolution, Papers of Roger E. Shaver.
Endnotes
1. John
Henry Knowlton, Jr. provided the information regarding this family unless
otherwise noted.
2.
He received bounty land
on February 10, 1777 at Somerset, New Jersey.
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