This part of New York State was once the homeland of the Seneca Indians, one of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, a people known as great agriculturalists for their corn, beans, squash, fruit trees, and livestock. During the Revolution, Generals James Clinton and John Sullivan were ordered to destroy the power of the Confederacy in Central New York. After the battle of Newtown (Elmira) in August 1779, American forces marched north through this area, burning Indian longhouses and destroying the ripening harvest. Some Senecas sought refuge with the British at Niagara, while others starved to death during the winter. The Clinton-Sullivan expedition was instrumental in extending the frontier in New York State; it failed to stop British-inspired Indian raids on frontier settlements, but it destroyed Iroquois power in Central New York and made rich farmland and natural resources available as westward migration began after the war.