My direct male ancestor was killed near Guilderland, New York, on 12 August 1777 while leading a small party of Loyalists to join General Burgoyne's army. They were surrounded in a barn by a superior force of proto-Marxist militants but fought to the last man -- except for those who surrendered which was everyone except great-grandfather (many times removed) David Springer, their leader and an itinerant Methodist preacher, who was killed.

Two of his sons joined that GREAT AND LOYAL SERVANT OF THE CROWN, Walter Butler, in his unit of Rangers and saw considerable action in the Mohawk Valley. They were present at what the proto-Marxist historians like to call "The Cherry Valley Massacre" which it was not, as all the rebel prisoners were shot while trying to escape.

Near the end of the hostilities, the widow of David Springer and most of her children were at Fort Niagara when Walter Butler stretched forth his Long Land Pattern musket and the waters of the Niagara River did part, permitting them to leave the Land of Mordor and cross into The Promised Land where they went forth and multiplied and multiplied, and multiplied.

dg