remained in use until after the end of the war. According to one source, Lieutenant Colonel George Dorrance was captured in the battle. On the 4th, as the victors were moving down to Forty Fort, the captors of Dorrance, two Iroquois, started to take him down to that post. Being an officer of prominence, dressed in a new uniform, with new sword and equipment, he had been spared under the idea that more could be obtained for his ransom than could be made from his slaughter. About a mile from the field he became exhausted, and was unable to proceed farther. They put him to death, one taking his scalp and sword, the other his coat and cocked hat with feather. One of the Indians went through the fort showing off this clothing and took particular pains to exhibit himself to Mrs. Dorrance, who sat grieving over the sad fate of her husband. Major Butler reported "one Indian killed, two Rangers and eight Indians wounded." He claimed that his force had burned 1,000 houses, and drove off 1,000 cattle as well as many sheep and hogs. Richard Cartwright, Major Butler's civilian secretary, recorded in his journal: "seven wounded, two of who died of their wounds." Butler and his forces departed the valley on July 8, and returned to Tioga Point. Later that month Butler returned to Fort Niagara while the Rangers, under the command of Captain William Caldwell proceeded to Onaquaga. In the aftermath of the battle, the settlers who had fled the Wyoming Valley spread reports and rumors about the American defeat that contributed to a general panic across the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. Some American newspapers picked up on these rumors and went even further, producing unsubstantiated accounts about the burning of women, children, and wounded soldiers inside Forty Fort on the day after the battle. The American public was outraged by such reports of a massacre and other atrocities. Many saw it as just one more reason to support American independence. In early August 1778, Lieutenant Colonel Butler returned to the Wyoming Valley with the Westmoreland Independent Company and a company of militia. In late August they were joined by a detachment from Hartley's Additional Continental Regiment. Some of the settlers who had fled in early July also began to return. In September the Westmoreland Independent Company and Hartley's Additional Continental Regiment participated in a