The Pennamite-Yankee Wars

Pennamites - Pennsylvanians

Yankees - Connecticut Settlers

Rangers - Paxtang Rangers

The Paxtang Rangers had been outlawed by Pennsylvania and with prices on their heads had openly defied
Pennsylvania authority for years. The Rangers drove the Pennamites from the Wyoming Valley in February of
1770.

Captain Zebulon Butler assumed command of the Yankees in January of 1770 and recruited Lazarus Steward
and the Paxtang Rangers to the Yankee cause. He compensated them with the grant of Hanover Township.

The Second Pennamite-Yankee War began when Colonel Plunkett (Pennamite) invaded Westmoreland with six
hundred Pennsylvania militia in December 1775.

Colonel Zebulon Butler (Yankee) posted his regiment behind a natural rampart of rocks above Nanticoke Falls
on the west side of the river.

The Rangers occupied the east side and protected the Yankee flank. Plunkett advanced on the morning of
December 25 and thus began the Battle of Rampart Rocks. The battle raged all Christmas day.

The Pennamites suffered severe casualties and broke and fled shortly before dark. Yankee losses were slight.

Westmoreland furnished two full companies to the Continental Army plus numerous individual enlistments.
Zebulon Pike was appointed colonel of a Connecticut regiment of the Continental line.

The British invaded Westmoreland on July 1, 1778, with two hundred rangers commanded by Colonel John
Butler and five hundred Seneca led by Sayenqueraghta.

The British occupied Fort Wintermute, and took no action on the 2nd. The Yankees fled to Forty Fort where
most of the Twenty Fourth Regiment was assembled on July 3, 1778.

The Yankees made a serious mistake and decided to meet the British in open battle. At one o’clock they
formed a line of battle and advanced to face the British line which was drawn up from Fort Wintermute
westward. The Yankees opened the firing but were only able to get off about three volleys before they were
flanked on the left by Sayenqueraghta and his warriors.

What followed is known as the Wyoming Massacre. Of the three hundred men who went into battle about two
hundred were killed. The prisoners were clubbed to death that night, only two prisoners escaped. Forty Fort
surrendered on the of July 4, 1778. The women and children were spared but the Indians plundered and burned
the settlements. General Sullivan destroyed the Indian villages in western New York in 1779 in retaliation.

Upon ratification of the Articles of Confederation, by Maryland on March 1, 1781, Pennsylvania petitioned
Congress to adjudicate the controversy under Section II Article 9. The commission appointed began hearings
on November 18, 1782, and handed down a decision, known as the Trenton Decree, in favor of Pennsylvania on
December 30, 1782.

There was considerable opinion at the time, backed up by a large body of evidence, that the decision of the
court was a predetermined political decision and not a judicial determination.

Previous boundary adjustments had left the actual occupiers of the land secure in their ownerships and
possessions and only the political jurisdiction had changed. Pennsylvania's Plan of Compromise, however, was
the Bitter Pill known as To the Conqueror Belong the Spoils.

The Pennsylvania land speculators appointed Alexander Patterson to represent them. Patterson drafted the
Plan of Compromise, styled himself chairman of the Pennsylvania Landholders Committee and completely
dominated the commission of which he was not a member. The commissioners approved Patterson's plan and
presented it to the Yankees.

The five point plan called for:

1. Pledges of obedience to be given.

2. A written and public disclaimer of all claim to land held under title from Connecticut.

3. The settler to take a lease of half of his farm for about eleven months and immediate surrender of the other
half together with abandonment of all claim to his house and possessions by April 1st following.

4. Extension for one year of leases to widows of those slain by the Indians.

5. Extension for two years of the lease to Rev. Jacob Johnson the minister at Wilkes-Barre.

The Yankees rejected these harsh terms and the third Pennamite-Yankee War began.

The Pennsylvania Legislature confirmed Patterson's actions and he returned to Wyoming as dictator, judge,
jury and executioner.

Fort Durkee was renamed Fort Dickinson and Wilkes-Barre was renamed Londondary. Troops were quartered in
private homes. People were arrested and jailed without warrants or formal charges.

Colonel Zebulon Butler was imprisoned. Major Alden, a feeble old man, had his staff broken by Pennsylvania
troops who compelled him to hobble and crawl to Wilkes-Barre.

Prisoners were crowded into packed cells without blankets or food and water. They were forced to lie on muddy
dirt floors and the guards had instructions to: Blow out the brains of anyone who tries to rise.

A devastating flood of the Susquehanna washed away all buildings in the lowlands during March of 1784 and a
petition to the Pennsylvania Executive Council for assistance and relief was denied out of hand.

Zebulon Butler petitioned Congress to constitute a court to try the private right of soil and Congress fixed the
fourth Monday of June for the court to convene.

The Pennsylvania land speculators began to fear for their profits and on May 13, 1784, an operation
commenced that would have made Sherman proud.

Patterson ordered the land depopulated. Roads were destroyed, fences torn down, land monuments
obliterated, water supplies were polluted and wells filled up.

One hundred and fifty families were driven from their homes at the point of Pennsylvania Bayonets.

Women, children, feeble old men, all were driven at the bayonets point to Fort Dickinson and confined in a pen
like animals without food or water.

Over eight hundred souls were driven through the Lackawaxen wilderness without food or water. Heavy rains
flooded the Wallenpaupack and women and children waded for miles through waist deep mud and water. Little
children cried for bread.

The weak died in the mud without the benefit of clergy given to felons. The nightmare continued for fourteen
days.

Spring was late and the icy water was bitterly cold.

The dangerous path through the wilderness to the Delaware by way of the Lackawaxen was deliberately
chosen to produce as many casualties as possible.

A route down the river or over the mountains to the friendly German settlements would have been too humane
to suit the Pennsylvanians.
All would have probably perished if the good people of the Delaware and Neversink Valleys had not packed
their horses with food and clothing and met the starving exiles on the trail.

The atrocity was so egregious that even some of the less callused Pennsylvanians were offended.

The exiles were urged to return, the troops dismissed and Patterson along with forty-five of his men were
arrested by Sheriff Antis and indicted, tried, convicted and fined by the Northampton County court for their
part in the eviction.

The land speculators backed Patterson to the limit. The discharged soldiers were hired and organized under
Patterson's command in an attempt to maintain the eviction by force.

The returning exiles were denied access to their homes, which were occupied by Patterson's men and forced to
take shelter in a rocky cleft of the Wilkes-Barre Mountain which they named Fort Lillo-pe.

Anyone captured attempting to forage for food was stripped and chased back to the mountain.

A band of armed Yankees was assembling and under their protection the refugees were able to abandon Fort
Lillo-pe and occupy and fortify three deserted buildings on Richard Brockway's farm near Abrahams Creek in
Kingston Township.

On July 20 Patterson attacked twenty three Yankees, killing two before his troops broke and fled from a
withering Yankee fire.

The Yankees reoccupied Kingston, Plymouth and Hanover a few days later and drove the Pennamites into Fort
Dickinson which they then besieged.

The siege continued until August 6 with the loss of several lives. Pennsylvania now ordered the Northampton
militia to support Patterson.

Major Moore, under indictment in Northampton County for his part in the May eviction, was ordered to return
and complete his work. A party of forty Yankees intercepted Moore's force at Locust Gap on August 2 and
turned him back.

Negotiators then attempted to arrange a truce in the siege. The Yankees were promised that the Sheriff would
disarm the Fort if the Yankees would lay down their arms. The Yankees complied on August 6 but Patterson
refused to disarm so the Sheriff returned the Yankee's weapons and asked them to give up the siege and go
home but to feel free to defend themselves if disturbed by the Pennamites.

Pennsylvania then appointed Colonel John Armstrong, author of the infamous Newburg Address, and secretary
of the Executive Council along with John Boyd, a member of the Council, as Commissioners to drive out the
Yankees, and for that purpose gave them four hundred Northampton County militia.

Armstrong faithfully promised the Yankees that he would compel Patterson and his men to disarm if the
Yankees would lay down their arms and pledged his sacred honor to do justice.

The Yankees surrendered their arms and having done so were immediately seized by the militia as Armstrong
intoned You are prisoners.

The Yankees were handcuffed in pairs and denied food and water as was the Pennsylvania custom. While
imprisoned they were given water and a loaf of bread a day. The Northampton County grand jury ignored the
bill of indictment and Sheriff Antis released his prisoners on bail.

Armstrong arriving in Philadelphia to bask in the praise of his masters, the land speculators, was astonished to
learn that the Yankees were again on the march and that his troubles were just beginning.

He immediately returned with a force of fifty men and occupied the Fort at Wilkes-Barre.

Some Green Mountain Boys, getting a little bored after settling with their land speculators and successfully
establishing an independent Republic, were starting to drift down. Thus reinforced, the Yankees again besieged
the fort at Wilkes-Barre but were forced to abandon the siege due to the strong resistance of Patterson and
Armstrong.

The Pennsylvania Council of Censors issued a manifesto on September 11th condemning the Pennsylvania
authorities in no uncertain terms for the inhuman and illegal actions undertaken on behalf of the land
speculators.

An Act of the Assembly passed on September 15th restored the Yankees to their possessions. The land
speculators were not discouraged.

The corrupt Assembly advanced Armstrong to Adjutant General of Pennsylvania and authorized him to raise
the militia of Bucks, Berks and Northampton Counties and ordered him to proceed to Wyoming and complete
the expulsion of the Yankees.

President Dickinson wrote to the Executive Council objecting to Armstrong's appointment and the proposed
plan of conquest.

The Council, which was as corrupt as the Assembly, and with its pockets also overflowing with the land
speculators gold, not only overruled Dickinson but offered rewards for eighteen of the principal Yankees.

Armstrong hastened back to Wilkes-Barre but was only able to raise forty men to accompany him. The back of
Armstrong's forces was broken when they assaulted a heavily fortified Yankee position during the Battle of
Brockway's Farm.

Armstrong evacuated the fort at Wilkes-Barre on November 27, 1783. The Yankees burned the fort on
November 30th ending the third and last Pennamite-Yankee War.

Congress had managed to avoid acting on Zebulon Butler's petition to determine the private right of soil under
Section 9 of the Articles of Confederation by shuffling it about and finally denied it on September 21, 1785.

The war was over but the ill will lingered on. The Yankees had been abandoned by Connecticut and wanted no
part of Pennsylvania.

The idea of a new state began to form in the minds of the Yankees. In April of 1786 General Ethan Allen
showed up in Wyoming in full regimentals. Allen said he had formed one new state and that with one hundred
of his Green Mountain Boys and two hundred riflemen he could establish another one.

Pennsylvania not only abandoned the military occupation of Wyoming but also civil jurisdiction. Sheriff Antis
served no writs against Yankees and only one Pennsylvania magistrate, David Meade, remained in the area
with no means of enforcing a decision even if anyone had asked him to make one.

Meade issued a warrant for the arrest of several Yankees who had harvested his hay and carted it off. He
attempted to try the case himself in his capacity of Justice.

The prisoners before the bar did not answer the complaint but threatened Meade. One responded by advising
Meade to quit Wyoming.

Meade was informed:

Squire Meade it is you or us. Pennamites and Yankees can't live together in Wyoming. We give you fair notice
to quit and that shortly.

Meade left August 8th and as far as is known he was the last Pennamite in Wyoming. Left to themselves the
Yankees formed committees, set up courts, collected taxes and raised a militia regiment.

Public schools were opened, the roads were repaired and in short all the machinery of a functioning
government was being set in place.

The Susquehanna Company held a meeting on September 27, 1785, and appointed a board of commissioners
with plenary powers. No explicit reference was made to a new state but the resolutions adopted support the
inference that the commissioners constituted the provisional government of a new state.

There is evidence that Oliver Wolcott drafted a constitution for a new state named Westmoreland. William Judd
was to be governor, John Franklin lieutenant governor and Ethan Allen was to be in command of the militia.

Pennsylvania passed an Act establishing Luzerne County in Wyoming and appointed Colonel Timothy Pickering,
Colonel Zebulon Butler and Colonel John Franklin, commissioners for an election to be held on February 1,
1787, to elect a councilor, a member of the assembly, a sheriff, a corner, three commissioners and justices of
the peace.

Franklin refused to sign the notice of election and opposed any submission to Pennsylvania authority.

Franklin also petitioned Congress to reopen the Trenton decision on the grounds that Pennsylvania had
suppressed important evidence.

The House of Representatives passed the resolution but it was defeated in the Senate. A public meeting at old
Forty Fort to discuss the election ended in riot.

Franklin began touring the area exhorting the people to not submit to the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania until the
land titles were irrevocably confirmed by a Congressional tribunal.

Chief Justice McKean issued a warrant for the arrest of Franklin on a charge of treason. Franklin contended that
his civil disobedience was not treason as he had not taken an oath of allegiance or submitted to Pennsylvania
jurisdiction. Franklin felt that he should be treated as an alien enemy.

Captain Craig of the Northampton County militia was charged with arresting Franklin.

Craig was instructed to consult with Pickering on the best method of apprehending Franklin. Craig and his men
sneaked up behind Franklin outside the Red Tavern in Huntington about 2 o’clock on October 2, 1787.

Franklin put up a furious resistance and Pickering fearful that he might escaped ran from his house with a
loaded pistol to assist Craig.

It took three attempts to mount Franklin on a horse and tie his legs under its belly. Franklin was taken to
Philadelphia and was confined in the dungeon of the city jail in chains. The State of Westmoreland was dead.

Fearing for his life, for his part in the abduction of Franklin, Pickering slipped out the back of his house and hid
in the woods.

Returning at nightfall the following day he was informed by friends that a large force was crossing the river
from Kingston.

Taking a loaded pistol and a few biscuits he fled to Wilkes-Barre Mountain. Two days later he was able to obtain
a horse about twenty miles from Wilkes-Barre and rode post haste to Philadelphia.

Pickering returned to Wilkes-Barre in January 1788 and went about his business until June 26th. About 11
o'clock on June 26th Pickering was awaken from sleep and taken into custody by Gideon Dudley and the Wild
Yankee Boys.

The following morning there was a great commotion in Wilkes-Barre. Captain John Paul Schott assembled his
troop of horse and started up the river in pursuit.

He was quickly followed by the Hanover, Wilkes-Barre and Kingston companies. All were sworn as a posse
under command of Sheriff Butler. The posse searched in vain for Pickering and his abductors. Pickering was
released by the Wild Yankee Boys on July 16th.

The Wild Yankee Boys were indicted and tried in Luzerne County. Seven were convicted and sentenced to brief
sentences and fines. All were soon released or escaped except Stephen Jenkins who refused to leave the jail
until pardoned.

Franklin's health was broken by his harsh treatment in the Philadelphia jail and all efforts to have him released
on bail were rebuffed by the courts.

He was shuffled back and forth between the Philadelphia and the Easton jail. He was imprisoned solely to
break him.

He was never tried and there is doubt that the state had enough evidence to convict. Franklin was released by
the Supreme Court sometime in 1789 and pardoned by Governor Mifflin on January 9, 1792.

Franklin was elected High Sheriff of Luzerne County in 1792 and duly commissioned chief executive officer of
the territory by Governor Miffllin.

Pickering left Wilkes-Barre and was appointed postmaster general of the United States by his old friend George
Washington.