| Boyd and Parker ambush | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAmerican Revolutionary War | |||||||
 Groveland Ambuscade Park commemorating the ambush | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |  Great BritainSeneca | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lieutenant Thomas Boyd † | Major John Butler Cornplanter Little Beard | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 24 | 400 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 14 killed 3 captured and killed 7 escaped | 1 Seneca killed | ||||||
TheBoyd and Parker ambush was a minor military engagement in what is nowGroveland, New York, on September 13, 1779, during theAmerican Revolutionary War. A scouting patrol of theSullivan Expedition was ambushed byLoyalist soldiers, led by MajorJohn Butler, and theirSeneca allies, led byCornplanter andLittle Beard.
Following Native American raids inUpstate New York, GeneralGeorge Washington sent Major GeneralJohn Sullivan with several thousand soldiers into theFinger Lakes Region to displace the Seneca andCayuga; destroy their villages, crops, and food stores; and remove the threat to settlers.
Butler and the Seneca war chiefs had roughly 800 men to defend Seneca territory includingButler's Rangers.[1] Sullivan had marched fromEaston, Pennsylvania to theWyoming Valley, then ascended theSusquehanna River to its confluence with theChemung River.
After defeating Butler at theBattle of Newtown, Sullivan headed north into the Seneca homeland. His brigades proceeded up the eastern side ofSeneca Lake toKanadaseaga before heading west towardsChenussio, also known as Little Beard's Town.
Sullivan had camped at the site of Foot’s Corners inConesus on Sunday, September 12, 1779, after marching fromHoneoye Lake. That night, Lieutenant Thomas Boyd received orders to organize a scouting party to locate and reconnoiter Chenussio. Boyd took 26 soldiers with him, including Sergeant Michael Parker. Also with him was Thaosagwat, anOneida guide also known as Han Yost.[2]
Meanwhile, about 400 Rangers and allied warriors were preparing to ambush the vanguard of Sullivan's army as it emerged from the marshy area south of Conesus Lake, unaware that Boyd's patrol had unknowingly passed them in the night.
The following morning, Boyd's patrol reached an abandoned village, which he believed was Chenussio. After sending four runners back to Sullivan, they spotted a group of four Seneca entering the village, and a brief skirmish followed. One Seneca was killed. Boyd then decided to return with his patrol to Sullivan's camp. On the trail, they spotted five Iroquois who fled. Thaosagwat warned Boyd not to follow, but he ignored the warning, and the patrol stumbled upon the enemy’s lines. Surrounded and outnumbered, fourteen of Boyd’s men were killed. Seven escaped, while Boyd, Parker, and Thaosagwat were captured. Thaosagwat was immediately executed by Little Beard.[3]
Boyd and Parker were taken to Chenussio, where Butler questioned them. After Butler departed, Little Beard had Boyd and Parker tortured, mutilated, and decapitated in anger over the destruction of Seneca villages. According to one source, Boyd and Parker had their entrails secured to a tree and were then forced to circle the tree so that their innards were drawn out. However, this particular detail is not included in the journals kept by several members of the Sullivan Expedition, which describe the condition of the mangled bodies in gruesome detail.[4][5]
A tree, thought to be the tree to which Boyd was bound, is located in theBoyd and Parker Park inLeicester, New York.
The bodies of Boyd and Parker were discovered by Sullivan's forces on September 14, and the men were buried with full military honors. Chenussio was razed to the ground, and the extensive fields of corn and vegetables surrounding it were destroyed.[6] Sullivan then turned his army around and headed back towards Seneca Lake. The bodies of Thaosagwat and the 14 soldiers who died at the ambush site were discovered two days later.[5]
Besides Boyd, Parker, and Thaosagwat, the names of 12 of the killed are known and are inscribed on a memorial located inRochester, New York.[7] One name on the memorial, Corporal Calhoun, refers to a soldier who died of his wounds in a separate encounter the same day as the Boyd and Parker ambush.[5]
The remains of Boyd and Parker were left buried at the site of their deaths until 1841, when they were re-interred at Rochester'sMount Hope Cemetery in a ceremony attended by New York GovernorWilliam H. Seward.[8]
Today, theBoyd & Parker Park and Groveland Ambuscade marks the site of the ambush inside a small park, which was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 2009. In September 2004, the ambush's 225th anniversary was commemorated at the site with a reenactment.[9]
The ambush is featured as a key event in the episode “Eerie Hall: Part 3” of theNetflix seriesTrue Haunting.
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