Washington did not simply want to remove the Iroquois from the American Revolution, he wanted them utterly destroyed...he wanted to deflect a potential future threat.
When planning his strike into the heart of Iroquoia, George Washington was quite clear as to the outcome; the Iroquois Confederation would be unable to support its own citizenry and forced to withdraw from active combat. This outcome, however, also had another benefit that the general was well aware of. The Iroquois would no longer be a threat to the any American regime. Being a strong, sustained alliance of powerful Indian tribes, the Iroquois were a force to be reconned with--a force that could have been a potential rival to the fragile new republic once the British were thrown out. Rather than combat this possibility, Washington elected to crush the Iroquois and leave them dependant on American generosity. The first objective was to move into the heart of the Iroquois military powerbase, Niagara, New York. This was where Brant and his Iroquois forces were supplied by the British and if the Americans could route Brant they could score a major victory along this front. The Sullivan-Clinton strategy, however, was flawed in that it failed to take into effect the home court advantage. The Iroguois were aware of the American advance but avoided becoming entailed in minor skirmishes so that they could continue to focus on more pressing concerns, like removing the rebels from New York and destroying the intrusive boreder settlements. What the Iroquois were not aware of, however, was the second aspect of Washington's plan--the scroched earth campaign meant to bring low the Six Nations. Rather than simply focusing on the Iroquois that allied with the British, the Sullivan-Clinton campaign was indiscriminant in its destruction of Iroquois settlements. It was a total war waged against enemy and ally alike. It was a strategy undeserving of any praise that has been associated with it...it was nothing more than an act of savage warfare.
