Butler's Rangers (1777–1784) was a Loyalist provincial military unit of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, raised by American loyalist

John Butler John Butler may refer to: Arts and entertainment *John "Picayune" Butler (died 1864), American performer * John Butler (artist) (1890–1976), American artist *John Butler (author) (born 1937), British author and YouTuber *John Butler (born 1954), ...

. Most members of the regiment were Loyalists from

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

and northeastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Their winter quarters were constructed on the west bank of the Niagara River, in what is now

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of On ...

. The Rangers fought principally in New York and Pennsylvania, but ranged as far west as

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, and as far south as

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. The Rangers were engaged in numerous violent raids that characterized the northern frontier of the American Revolutionary War, such as the

Battle of Wyoming The Battle of Wyoming, also known as the Wyoming Massacre, was a military engagement during the American Revolutionary War between Patriot militiamen and a mixed force of Loyalist soldiers and Iroquois raiders. The clash took place in the Wyom ...

in July 1778 and the

Cherry Valley massacre The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Iroquois forces on a fort and the town of Cherry Valley in central New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. It has been described as one of the most horrific ...

of November 1778. These actions earned the Rangers a reputation for ruthlessness.

Formation

Similar to other Loyalist regiments that fought for the British Crown during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, for example the

King's Royal Regiment of New York The King's Royal Regiment of New York, also known as Johnson's Royal Regiment of New York, King's Royal Regiment, King's Royal Yorkers, and Royal Greens, were one of the first Loyalist regiments, raised on June 19, 1776, in British Canada, duri ...

, Butler's Rangers was made up of American Loyalist refugees who had fled to Canada following the outbreak of the American Revolution.

was a French and Indian War veteran-turned landowner with a 26,000 acre estate near Caughnawaga in the Mohawk Valley. On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Butler abandoned these landholdings and fled to the

Province of Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

(now Canada) in the company of other Loyalist leaders, such as

Daniel Claus Christian Daniel Claus (17271787) was a Deputy Agent in the British Indian Department and a prominent Loyalist during the American Revolution. He was born September 13, 1727, at Bönnigheim, Württemberg the son of Adam Frederic Claus and hi ...

and the

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

leader, Joseph Brant. During the war, John Butler also served as a deputy superintendent in the

British Indian Department The Indian Department was established in 1755 to oversee relations between the British Empire and the First Nations of North America. The imperial government ceded control of the Indian Department to the Province of Canada in 1860, thus setting ...

under

Guy Johnson Guy Johnson ( 1740 – 5 March 1788) was an Irish military officer and diplomat. He served on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War, having migrated to the Province of New York as a young man and worked with his uncle, Sir Wi ...

, another prominent loyalist from the Mohawk Valley.Bowler, R. Arthur and Wilson, Bruce G. “Butler, John,” in ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 4, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed December 22, 2022. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/butler_john_1796_4E.html A number of Black Loyalists also served in Butler's Rangers. Most prominent among these was

Richard Pierpoint Richard Pierpoint (Bundu – Canada ), also known as Black Dick, Captain Dick, Captain Pierpoint, Pawpine, and Parepoint was a British soldier of Senegalese descent. Brought to America as a slave, he was granted freedom to fight on the side of t ...

, formerly a slave in the northern Thirteen Colonies. After the war, Pierpoint settled with the disbanded Rangers in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Campaigns

During the 1777 Saratoga Campaign, Butler persuaded about 350

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

warriors to participate in the

Siege of Fort Stanwix The siege of Fort Stanwix (also known at the time as Fort Schuyler) in 1777 began on August 2 and ended August 22. Fort Stanwix, in the western part of the Mohawk River Valley, was then the primary defense point for the Continental Army against ...

, and led a group of unorganized loyalist rangers at the Battle of Oriskany. As a result, Butler was granted permission in September 1777 to raise a “corps of rangers,” and was commissioned as its major commandant. The Rangers would be based at

Fort Niagara Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great Lakes. The fort is on the river's e ...

, and would work closely with Britain’s native allies. Over the course of the war, the Rangers slowly grew from two companies in February 1778 to 10 companies by September 1781. Although the Rangers were headquartered at Fort Niagara, one company was later stationed at

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

.Cruikshank, Ernest. ''Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara''. Welland, Ontario, 1893. In the summer of 1778, 110 Rangers under the command of Major Butler, accompanied by 464 mostly Seneca warriors, led by

Sayenqueraghta Sayenqueraghta (1786) was the war chief of the eastern Seneca tribe in the mid-18th century. His name in the Seneca language, meaning "Disappearing Smoke", is phonetically rendered as Kaieñãkwaahtoñ, and was spelled in a variety of ways, inclu ...

and

Cornplanter John Abeel III (born between 1732 and 1746–February 18, 1836), known as Gaiänt'wakê (''Gyantwachia'' – "the planter") or Kaiiontwa'kon (''Kaintwakon'' – "By What One Plants") in the Seneca language and thus generally known as Cornplant ...

, destroyed the settlements in the

Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...

in northeastern Pennsylvania.Watt, Gavin K. ''Fire & Desolation: The Revolutionary War's 1778 Campaign as Waged from Quebec and Niagara Against the American Frontier''. Toronto: Dundurn, 2017. At the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1779, between 300 and 400 Patriot militia and Continentals were thoroughly routed by Butler's forces. The battle is frequently referred to as the Wyoming Massacre due to the large number of American soldiers who were scalped and killed by the Seneca as they fled the battlefield.Schenawolf, Harry
"Battle of Wyoming – American Defeat or Massacre?"
''Revolutionary War Journal'', July 21, 2021. A sensationalist and widely distributed newspaper report published a few weeks later falsely accused the Rangers of slaughtering women and children in the aftermath of the battle. In September 1778, Captain William Caldwell’s company participated in the Attack on German Flatts that destroyed about 63 houses as well as barns and mills.Kelsay, Isabel Thompson. ''Joseph Brant, 1743-1807: Man of Two Worlds''. Syracuse University Press, 1984. Two months later, Major Butler’s son, Captain Walter Butler, commanded about 150 Rangers at the

Cherry Valley Massacre The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Iroquois forces on a fort and the town of Cherry Valley in central New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. It has been described as one of the most horrific ...

. Unlike at Wyoming where few if any non-combatants were killed, Captain Butler was unable to prevent the Seneca killing 32 civilians including children. About 70 of the inhabitants were taken captive but most of the women and children were released two days later. At the Battle of Newtown in August 1779, the Rangers, Brant’s Volunteers and a contingent of

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

and Munsee Delaware were unable to turn back the invasion of Haudenosaunee territory by the Continental Army during the genocidal Sullivan Campaign. The Rangers were forced to withdraw under sustained artillery fire when Major Butler became aware that his position was being flanked. John Butler was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel in the winter of 1780. In October 1780, houses, barns, mills, and stores of grain and hay were burned as loyalist forces led by

Sir John Johnson Brigadier General Sir John Johnson, 2nd Baronet (5 November 1741 – 4 January 1830) was an American-born military officer, magistrate, landowner and colonial official in the British Indian Department who fought as a Loyalist during the America ...

marched down the Schoharie Valley to the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

, then headed west to destroy Stone Arabia. Four companies of Butler’s Rangers under the command of Lt. Col. Butler took part in this action. Albany and Tryon County militia under the command of Brigadier General

Robert Van Rensselaer Robert Van Rensselaer (December 16, 1740 – September 11, 1802) was Brigadier General during the American Revolutionary War, a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and later a member of the New York State Assembly in the ...

engaged Johnson's men west of Stone Arabia at the inconclusive

Battle of Klock's Field A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

on October 19, 1780. A year later, Major John Ross, commanding the 2nd Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, led a raid on the Mohawk Valley that destroyed Warrensborough to the east of

Fort Hunter Fort Hunter is a hamlet in the Town of Florida in Montgomery County, New York, United States, west of the capital at Albany, on the south bank of the Mohawk River and on the northeast bank of Schoharie Creek. The hamlet developed around a fort of ...

before heading to Johnstown. With Ross were three companies of Butler's Rangers commanded by Captain Butler. On October 25, 1781, Ross engaged several hundred patriot militia commanded by Colonel Marinus Willett at the

Battle of Johnstown The Battle of Johnstown was one of the last battles in the northern theatre of the American Revolutionary War, with approximately 1,400 engaged at Johnstown, New York on October 25, 1781. British regulars and militia, commanded by Major John R ...

. Five days later, as Ross withdrew towards Oswego, a rear-guard action at

West Canada Creek The West Canada Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in upstate New York, United States. West Canada Creek is an important water way in Hamilt ...

resulted in the death of Captain Butler. In June 1782, Captain William Caldwell’s company and their Shawnee allies forced Colonel

William Crawford William Crawford may refer to: Entertainment * William Broderick Crawford (1911–1986), American film actor * Bill Crawford (cartoonist) (1913–1982), American editorial cartoonist * William L. Crawford (1911–1984), U.S. publisher and editor ...

’s expedition to withdraw at the Battle of Sandusky. Caldwell was wounded early in the battle. In August, Caldwell crossed into Kentucky and after an unsuccessful attack on Bryan Station, defeated the patriot militia at the

Battle of Blue Licks The Battle of Blue Licks, fought on August 19, 1782, was one of the last battles of the American Revolutionary War. The battle occurred ten months after Lord Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, which had effectively ended the war in the east. ...

. A month later Captain Andrew Bradt’s company was present at the unsuccessful Siege of Fort Henry, in what is now Wheeling, West Virginia.

Officers

The company commanders of Butler's Rangers were: *Captain Andrew Bradt *Captain Walter Butler, John Butler's son, killed in action in 1781 *Captain William Caldwell, victor at the Battle of Sandusky and the

*Captain George Dame *Captain Bernard Frey *Captain Peter Hare *Captain John McDonell *Captain John McKinnon *Captain Benjamin Pawling *Captain Peter Ten Broeck *Captain Andrew Thompson, fell overboard and drowned in Lake Erie in the fall of 1781 when returning from Detroit

Uniforms and Weapons

There is an historical debate as to what the Butler's Ranger uniform actually looked like. *Variation A – Their uniforms consisted of a green woolen coat faced white and a white woolen waistcoat. Their pant garment was gaitered trousers made from Russia sheeting, a hemp product. Their hats were round hats, useful in shielding their faces from the sun. When in garrison or on parade, they could bring up the leaves of that hat to form a cocked hat. Their belting was black. *Variation B – Dark green coats faced with scarlet and lined with the same, a waistcoat of green cloth, and Buckskin Indian leggings reaching from the ankle to the waist...their caps were almost skull caps of black jacket leather or turned up felt with a black cockade on the left side. Their belts were of buff leather and crossed at the breast where they were held in place by a brass plate marked in the same manner and with the same words as the cap plate. This version is based on supposition rather than primary source materials. Butler's Rangers primarily used both the Long-Land and Short-Land forms of the

Brown Bess "Brown Bess" is a nickname of uncertain origin for the British Army's muzzle-loading smoothbore flintlock Land Pattern Musket and its derivatives. The musket design remained in use for over a hundred years with many incremental changes in its ...

musket. A mix of other firearms may have been used but would have created a supply issue due to calibre variations.

Resettlement in Canada

Butler's Rangers were disbanded in June 1784, and its veterans were given land grants in the

Nassau District The Home District was one of four districts of the Province of Quebec created in 1788 in the western reaches of the Montreal District and detached in 1791 to create the new colony of Upper Canada. It was abolished with the adoption of the county ...

, now the Niagara region of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, as a reward for their services to the British Crown. In 1788 the Nassau Militia was formed with John Butler as its Commander, filling its ranks with the demobilized officers and men of Butler's Rangers. In 1792 the county of Lincoln was formed and the name of the militia was changed to

Lincoln Militia , colors = , identification_symbol_2 = , identification_symbol_2_label = Tartan , identification_symbol_4 = , identification_symbol_4_label = Abbreviation , march = "The Lincolnshi ...

by 1793. The Lincoln Militia saw extensive fighting during the War of 1812 (1812–1815). The Lincoln Militia still exists today as

The Lincoln and Welland Regiment , colors = , identification_symbol_2 = , identification_symbol_2_label = Tartan , identification_symbol_4 = , identification_symbol_4_label = Abbreviation , march = "The Lincolnshi ...

, a primary reserve regiment of the Canadian Forces, based in St. Catharines, Ontario. Although the building that houses ''

Museum'' in Niagara-on-the-Lake is known as " Butler's Barracks", it is not the original barracks and never housed Butler's Rangers. It was built in the years following the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

to house the

Indian Department The Indian Department was established in 1755 to oversee relations between the British Empire and the First Nations of North America. The imperial government ceded control of the Indian Department to the Province of Canada in 1860, thus setting ...

, and received the name because Butler had been a Deputy Superintendent in that department.

References

Bibliography

* Cruikshank, Ernest. ''Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara''. Welland, Ontario, 1893. * Smy, William A. ''An Annotated Nominal Roll of Butler’s Rangers 1777-1784: with Documentary Sources''. Friends of the Loyalist Collection at Brock University, 2004. * Swiggett, Howard. ''War Out of Niagara: Walter Butler and the Tory Rangers''. Columbia University Press, 1933. * Williams, Glenn F. ''Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois.'' Westholme, 2006.

Novels

* Brick, John. ''The King's Rangers''. Doubleday and Company, 1954. * References to this war are described in the novel "Zach" by William Bell * Miller, Orlo. "Raiders of the Mohawk." Macmillian, 1966. A romanticized account based on the true life experiences of Daniel Springer, who served in the Rangers along with his older brother, Richard.

External links

* * * {{cite web, url=http://www.iaw.on.ca/~awoolley/brang/brunif.html, title=Uniforms, Accoutrements and Weapons, work=Butler's Rangers, access-date=2008-07-13, url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080606023444/http://www.iaw.on.ca/~awoolley/brang/brunif.html, archive-date=2008-06-06
Butlers Rangers history, photos, relationship to Six NationsThe Butler papers
Brock University Library Digital Repository
Butler's Corps of Rangers - Frey's Company, McDonnel's Company, and Bradt's Company, recreated unitsButlers Rangers, recreated unit
Loyalist military units in the American Revolution Military units and formations established in 1777 Military units and formations disestablished in 1784