The Chaplain Prepares
The necessity of a just & speedy retaliation for British & savage barbarity prompts the Army to encounter every fatigue & surmount every difficulty. Havock – devastation & waste salute our Eyes where – flourishing, now desolated Country. -- & these objects create strange feelings in the breast – a just indignation & deep abhorrence of pretended British Clemency once so much boasted of – now blended with savage barbarity. Upwards of one hundred & fifty widows [sic] were here made upon this ground – in the spaced of one hour and a half about a year from this time. Are these the fruits & effects of thy Clemency O George – thou tyrant of Britain & scourge to Mankind! May he, to whom Vengeance belongs pour forth his righteous Indignation in due time.
Rev. Samuel Kirkland
Chaplain of the S/C Campaign
On the Way into Iroquoia
July 5, 1779
Samuel Kirkland's complex career combined that of a sincere evangelist, who Christianized the Oneidas, and brought them into the Yankee fold during the American Revolution; with becoming a witting instrument of politicos like Philip Schuyler & land speculators who then helped to dispossess the Oneidas after the English were defeated and ousted.
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