Cherry Valley Massacre
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The Cherry Valley Massacre was an attack by British and Seneca Indian forces on a fort and village in eastern New York on November 11, 1778 during the American Revolutionary War.
Captain Walter Butler (the son of Colonel John Butler) led two companies of Butler's Rangers along with about 300 Indians. Joseph Brant was also present, but with his forces seriously reduced due to contention with Butler. The Senecas were angered over the burning of Tioga by forces under Colonel Thomas Hartley.
The Fort, actually a pallisade around the village meeting house, could not be taken, but the town was destroyed. Despite the efforts of Butler and Brant to stop it, more than thirty women and children, and several Loyalist townspeople were killed and scalped. This, together with the massacre at Wyoming Valley helped pave the way for the Sullivan Expedition into the Iroquois homelands of central and western New York to neutralize the threat of future incursions.