Pennamites Humiliatingly Defeated by Yankees, December 25, 1775

On December 20, the very day on which Congress adopted resolutions calling on Pennsylvania and Connecticut to cease armed conflict during the period of the Revolution, it was learned by the Yankee scouts that Colonel William Plunket and the Pennamites had pushed their flotilla up the North Branch of the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of Nescopeck Creek, about nineteen miles below Nanticoke Falls, but that they were advancing slowly on account of the snow, which was then falling, and the ice which was gathering on the river.

Colonel Zebulon Butler quickly mustered his available force, which numbered about 400 men and boys, on Saturday, December 23, and marched to the left bank of Harvey’s Creek, where he encamped for the night on a level stretch of land near the river.

The vanguard of Colonel Plunket’s expedition arrived at “Harvey’s Landing” shortly after the Yankees had gone into camp above Harvey’s Creek.

Major John Garrett was dispatched under a flag of truce to Colonel Plunket to ascertain the meaning of his approach with armed militia. The answer returned to Colonel Butler was that he came peaceably as an attendant to Sheriff Scull, who was authorized to arrest several persons at Wyoming for violating the laws of Pennsylvania, and he trusted there would be no opposition to a measure so reasonable and pacific. 906Major Garrett reported to Colonel Butler and advised him of the strength of the enemy.

Colonel Butler early Sunday morning (December 24) dispatched Ensign Mason F. Alden with a detail of eighteen men to remain on guard at Harvey’s Creek. Captain Lazarus Stewart, with twenty men, was detached to the east side of the river, above Nanticoke Falls, with orders to lie in ambush and prevent the landing on that shore of any boat’s crew.

Colonel Butler, with the remainder of his force, then retired up the river about a mile to a point of natural defense on the plantation of Benjamin Harvey, Sr., where a precipitous ledge of rocks extends from the Shawanese Mountains in a southerly direction almost to the bank of the river, a distance of nearly half a mile. The Yankees took up their position in this rocky rampart, and wherever it was defective for their defense they erected breastworks of logs and stones.

Later in the morning of Sunday about 11 o’clock, Ensign Alden, being apprised at the mouth of Harvey’s Creek of the approach of the Plunket expedition, retired with his men up the river and joined Colonel Butler.

Deploying his column on the flat just abandoned by the Yankees, Plunket directed a spirited advance in pursuit of Alden, not doubting but that the main force of the settlers was near and that the hour of conflict had arrived. In less than thirty minutes the advancing line was halted by Colonel Plunket, who exclaimed, “My God! What a breastwork!”

Scarcely had those words been uttered when there came a discharge of musketry, crackling from end to end of the long-extended rampart, and giving no uncertain notice that the unlooked-for barricade was garrisoned.

One of Plunket’s men, Hugh McWilliams, was killed and three others wounded, while the whole body of Pennamites was thrown into great confusion and without returning the fire of the Yankees immediately retreated to Harvey’s Creek.

They then brought two of their boats from Harvey’s Landing past Nanticoke Falls by land and made preparations to cross the river in detachments, in order to march by way of the eastern shore against the village of Wyoming, the objective point of the expedition.

After nightfall the boats, well filled with soldiers, started across the river some distance above the falls. In the bow of the first boat sat Benjamin Harvey, still held a prisoner by the Pennamites, and acting as pilot under compulsion, while Colonel Plunket himself occupied a place in the second boat.

When the boats nearly reached the opposite shore they were, without warning, fired upon by Captain Lazarus Stewart and his men, who were concealed in the thick brush on the river’s bank.

907Two or three men in the first boat were wounded, one of whom, Jesse Lukens, subsequently died. All the occupants of the boat would have been killed, probably, had not Harvey made his presence known to the Yankees. The boats were hurriedly backed astern, whereby they safely shot through the rifles and into the pool at Harvey’s Landing. Thus ended the occurrences of Sunday.

Early in the morning of Monday, which was Christmas, the Pennamites were astir. Colonel Plunket formed his men and marched them into two divisions toward the breastworks held by the Yankees. While one division stormed the works, the other ascended the mountain on their left in an attempt to turn the right flank of Colonel Butler’s defenders.

The conflict lasted, with frequent cessations, during the greater part of the day, and on the part of the Yankees three or four men were killed and three times as many more wounded. Toward the close of the day Colonel Plunket realized that the position of the Yankees was too strong to be carried by assault and he ordered a retreat down the west side of the river.

In this movement he was closely pursued by Captain Stewart and his party on the east side of the river, who determined, if possible, to capture at least one of the boats of the Pennamites. But Harvey, who was still a prisoner, called to them not to fire. So the expedition was permitted to float peaceably downstream toward Fort Augusta.

Colonel Zebulon Butler reported the battle to the Connecticut authorities under date of December 27, 1775, and stated the losses among the Plunket forces to have been fifty or sixty dead and wounded and that two were killed and three wounded of his own party and that one had since died.

The Pennamites reported the affair quite differently. William Scull, the Sheriff; Samuel Harris, Coroner; William Plunket, Samuel Hunter, Michael Troy and John Weitzel, Justices, wrote to Governor Penn under date Sunbury, December 30, 1775, in which they related the expedition as one to serve legal processes. They blamed the Yankees for firing upon the Sheriff’s posse without warning, and even with firing on the wounded as they retreated down the river.

The Governor transmitted this letter to the Provincial Assembly and asked them to pay the bills.

908Four days after the battle the inhabitants of Westmoreland assembled in town meeting, elected officers and appointed a committee to repair to Philadelphia to “lay before the Honorable Continental Congress an account of the late invasion made by the Tory Party of the Pennsylvania people.” It was also voted to collect funds for three women whose husbands were killed in the battle.

Jesse Lukens, who lost his life in this ill-fated expedition, was a young man of much promise, the son of John Lukens, who was the Surveyor General of Pennsylvania from 1769 till his death in 1789. Jesse was born August 8, 1748, and had only recently arrived at Sunbury on a vacation and joined the Plunket expedition as a lark.