Throughout 1778, Iroquois war parties repeatedly raided the frontiers of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. In 1779, General George Washington decided to punish them. He sent Major General John Sullivan into the Iroquois country with orders to make it uninhabitable. "Scorched Earth - General Sullivan and the Senecas" tells how Sullivan's invasion force of thousands of soldiers marched it into the Pennsylvania hinterland, up the Susquehanna River, and into the Iroquois homeland. Along the way, the troops burned every village and destroyed every farm they found. As the army advanced, the Indians - men, women, and children - fled. Drawing upon first-person accounts kept by Sullivan's officers, author John L. Moore chronicles how the troops devoted much more time to laying waste to cornfields than they did to fighting Iroquois warriors. Washington himself was ecstatic. "Their whole country has been overrun and laid waste," he said. In the end, many more Indians starved during the following winter than were killed in battle with Sullivan's soldiers.

Author Biography

John L. Moore of Northumberland is a writer and storyteller whose subjects deal with real people and actual events in Pennsylvania history. "Scorched Earth: General Sullivan and the Senecas" is his second book in his "Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series," which tells the stories of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvanians caught up in the American Revolutionary War. The volume is the author's tenth non-fiction book. It is a companion to "Tories, Terror, and Tea," which came out in 2017. Sunbury Press, Inc., published the eight non-fiction books in Moore's "Frontier Pennsylvania Series" in 2014. Mr. Moore has participated in several archaeological excavations of Native American sites. These include the Village of Nain in Bethlehem, Pa.; the City Island project in Harrisburg, Pa., conducted by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; a Bloomsburg University dig in 1999 at a Native American site near Nescopeck, Pa.; and a 1963 excavation of the New Jersey State Museum along the Delaware River north of Worthington State Forest. Mr. Moore's 45-year newspaper career (1966-2011) included stints as a reporter for "The Wall Street Journal"; as managing editor of "The Sentinel" at Lewistown, Pa.; as editorial page editor, city editor and managing editor of "The Daily Item" in Sunbury, and as editor of the "Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal" in Bethlehem, Pa. He was also a Harrisburg correspondent for Ottaway Newspapers in the early 1970s. A professional storyteller, Moore specializes in historically accurate stories about Pennsylvanians. Wearing 18th century-style clothing, he often appears in the persona of Susquehanna Jack. For information about Mr. Moore's storytelling programs and books, please contact: John L. Moore 552 Queen Street Northumberland, Pa. 17857 Telephone (570) 473-9803 Email: tomahawks1756@gmail.com