In July 1777, a young woman named Jenny McCrae found herself caught between loyalty to her patriot brother and love for a British loyalist fiancé, a conflict that would lead to one of the most notorious atrocities of the American Revolution. Jenny’s brother, Colonel John McCrae, served in the colonial militia and urged her to flee south to Albany with other American patriots as British forces under General Burgoyne advanced through New York from Canada, accompanied by allied Indian warriors. But Jenny’s fiancé, Lieutenant David Jones, had joined Burgoyne’s British army and begged her to come to him instead, proposing they marry immediately before the chaos of war separated them forever. The couple devised a risky plan.
Jenny would walk from the home where she was staying toward the British camp, while a small group of Indians led by a warrior named Doth would secretly escort her through the woods. Doth, a man Jones trusted completely, was to guide Jenny safely to a loyalist home, where Jones would meet her and a chaplain would perform the wedding ceremony. On the morning of July 27, 1777, Jenny dressed carefully in her finest clothes, her unusually long hair arranged beautifully. She watched for the signal indicating her escort had arrived.
When the signal came, she slipped quietly from the house and walked down the road toward her waiting future. At that exact moment, a group of American soldiers under Lieutenant VanVechten came retreating down the hill, pursued by a band of Wyandot Indians led by a chief named Le Loup, or “The Wolf. ”
These were the same warriors who had brutally slaughtered the Allen family the previous day, carrying their scalps on their war belts. The sudden gunfire and war cries sent Jenny running back to the house she had just left.
Le Loup and his men, spotting her, pursued and captured her along with the elderly Mrs. McNeil, a loyalist woman staying there. When Doth and his warriors confronted Le Loup’s band, a violent dispute erupted over who had the right to take Jenny to the British camp. Doth insisted she was promised to Lieutenant Jones and under his protection.
As the Indians argued, word came that American troops were approaching from the fort. Tension escalated, and Le Loup, enraged by Doth’s persistence, struck Jenny with his tomahawk. While she lay dying, he scalped her, and his men stripped the clothes from her body. Jenny McCrae was killed just moments before she would have reached the man she loved.
Mrs. McNeil was taken to the British camp nearly naked, where she encountered General Fraser, a relative, in deep embarrassment. Jones was devastated by the news, and Jenny’s body was later found and buried. The murder galvanized the American cause.
“Remember Jenny McCrae” became a rallying cry that spread through the colonies, driving many undecided colonists to support the revolution and fueling outrage against British use of Indian allies. The account of Jenny’s death comes from a book published in 1853 titled “The Life of Jane McCrae,” which is part of a larger series examining events surrounding Burgoyne’s campaign. CONTENT: