Battle of Wyoming

Battle of Wyoming
	Part of the American Revolutionary War
	; Painting of the battle by Alonzo Chappel (1858)
Date	July 3, 1778
Location	Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania
Result	British-Iroquois victory
Belligerents
Great Britain ; Iroquois	United States
Commanders and leaders
John Butler ; Sayenqueraghta ; Cornplanter	Zebulon Butler ; Nathan Denisson ; George Dorrance
Strength
110 provincials ; 464 Indians	360 regulars, militia and irregulars
Casualties and losses
3 killed; 8 wounded	302 killed; 5 captured

The Battle of Wyoming was a military engagement during the American Revolutionary War between Patriot militia and a force of Loyalist soldiers and Iroquois warriors. The battle took place in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania on July 3, 1778 in what is now Luzerne County. The result was an overwhelming defeat for the Americans. There were roughly 300 Patriot casualties, many of whom were killed by the Iroquois as they fled the battlefield or after they had been taken prisoner.

Widespread looting and burning of buildings occurred throughout the Wyoming Valley subsequent to the battle, but non-combatants were spared. Most of the inhabitants fled across the Pocono Mountains to Stroudsburg and Easton or down the Susquehanna River to Sunbury.

Within weeks, a widely distributed but highly inaccurate newspaper report claimed that hundreds of women and children had been massacred. This false version of events was accepted as proven fact by many writers for decades afterwards but has been thoroughly discredited.

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