Jane Wells pleads for her life as a man pleads with an American Indian not to kill her. The house behind them is being burned by Loyalists and American Indians. The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Iroquois forces on a fort and the village of Cherry Valley in eastern New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. A mixed force of Loyalists and British soldiers, led by Major Walter Butler along with Seneca and Mohawks, led by Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant descended on Cherry Valley, whose defenders, despite warnings, were unprepared for the attack. During the raid, the Seneca in particular targeted non-combatants, and reports state that 30 such individuals were slain, in addition to a number of armed defenders. Jane Wells was one of thirty non-combatants killed during the massacre. Engraving by Thomas Phillibrown was based on the painting by Alonzo Chappel.