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Sullivan’s Soldiers Discover The Genesee Valley

By Chris Carosa on June 2, 2026

Today, we call it the Genesee Valley. To Sullivan’s soldiers, the broad plain surrounding the great Seneca town of Chenussio was the Genesee Flatts, a beautiful vista that remained etched in memory long after the campaign ended. Soon, very soon, to American pioneers scanning maps of the western frontier, the entire region would come to be known simply as the Genesee Country.

Before that, however, there was the Sullivan Expedition. It entered the Genesee Valley as a military campaign. It left behind something far more enduring. More than 4,000 soldiers carried home eyewitness accounts of a fertile country few Americans had ever seen.

Shortly after noon on Tuesday, September 14^th, 1779, Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty and his fellow soldiers had finished destroying a “great abundance” of corn and beans.¹ He—and the men with him—were about to behold a sight unlike anything they had seen before. For a Continue Reading “Sullivan’s Soldiers Discover The Genesee Valley”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Adam Hubley, Daniel Livermore, Erkuries Beatty, Genesee Country, Genesee Flats, Genesee Flatts, Genesee River, Genesee Valley, John Burrowes, Lake Ontario, Paris Peace Treaty, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Sullivan Campaign, Sullivan Expedition, Western New York

The Roman Hamburger That Wasn’t

By Chris Carosa on May 26, 2026

You can add the Roman hamburger myth to the list of hamburger origin untruths outlined in a previous column (see “Top Ten Myths About The Origin of the Hamburger,” Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, May 26, 2022). What better day to address this than today?

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer cookout season. Fittingly, National Hamburger Day falls on May 28, right in the middle of both National Hamburger Month and National Beef Month.

Which explains why hamburger stories suddenly begin appearing everywhere this time of year. Among the most persistent is the claim that the Romans invented the hamburger nearly fifteen centuries before the Menches Brothers arrived at the Erie County Fair.

The Real Roman “Hamburger” Recipe

For the last decade or so, the “Roman Hamburger” has become one of the most widely repeated hamburger stories in the media. Since the story appears to have originated in Continue Reading “The Roman Hamburger That Wasn’t”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind

Washington’s Gamble – The Sullivan–Clinton Campaign

By Chris Carosa on May 19, 2026

Washington’s Gamble began when frontier war threatened the survival of the Revolution itself. The growing violence on the western frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York left him little choice. It was one he had hoped to avoid. But it was the response demanded by Congress. The steady stream of reports from the frontier forced them to act.

Zebulon Butler, who led the defense (and retreat) during the Wyoming Massacre, attested to continued incursions. In a letter to General Hand on March 23, 1779, the Pennsylvanian wrote, “…after severe skirmishing for two hours and a half, the enemy carried off sixty head of horned cattle, 20 horses, and shot my riding horse, which they could not catch, and burnt five barns that were partly full of grain and hay, and 10 houses, which the inhabitants had deserted. They shot a number of hogs and sheep, that they left lying.” He asked that the information be relayed to General Washington.¹

Even before Butler’s letter to Hand, Congress had received letters from the governors of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York. On February 25, 1779, they appointed their Commander-in-Chief to raise five companies of rangers. The resolution directed Washington to Continue Reading “Washington’s Gamble – The Sullivan–Clinton Campaign”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Allegana, America250, Battle of Newtown, British, Canada, chain of forts, Cherry Valley, Congress, Connecticut, Continental Army, Continental Congress, Denonville, Elmira, Erie, Fort Niagara, France, French, French and Indian War, Frontier, General Hand, Geneseo, George Washington, Greater Western New York, Hudson Valley, Iroquois, Iroquois Confederacy, John Butler, Joseph Brant, Major General John Sullivan, Mohawk, New York, New York City, Newtown, Pennsylvania, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Sullivan's Expedition, Susquehanna River, Thomas Boyd, Walter Butler, Wyoming Massacre, Zebulon Butler

Democracy Dies On The Blackboard

By Chris Carosa on May 12, 2026

“Democracy dies in darkness.” When the Washington Post formally adopted this phrase in 2017, critics immediately questioned the implication hidden within it. Why?

Perhaps because the phrase originated in a judicial ruling that echoed a modern myth about the role of newspapers in our country’s history. Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit wrote in his opinion for the court in Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, 303 F.3d 681 (6th Cir. 2002): “Democracies die behind closed doors. The First Amendment, through a free press, protects the people’s right to know that their government acts fairly, lawfully, and accurately in deportation proceedings. When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people.”

The opinion, and many subsequent interpretations of it, overstate the importance of Continue Reading “Democracy Dies On The Blackboard”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, History, Media, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Advertising, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Athens, Charles Yancey, Constitution, Damon J. Keith, democracy, democratic republic, Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, dictatorship of the mob, Enlightenment, Federalist Papers, First Amendment, Founding Fathers, George Washington, investigative reporting, Montesquieu, New Journalism, newspaper, pamphlets, Republic, Revolutionary War, Roman Republic, Spirit of Law, Thomas Jefferson, Washington Post, watchdog, Watergate

The River Ran Red With Blood

By Chris Carosa on May 5, 2026

Incident in Cherry Valley – fate of Jane Wells / from the original picture by Alonzo Chappel (1828-1887); Thomas Phillibrown, engraver. Jane Wells is pleading for her life, and a man attempts to protect her from an Indian who is about to kill her. House behind them is being burned by Loyalists and Indians led by Major Walter Butler and Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, Cherry Valley, New York. Published: N.Y. : Martin, Johnson & Co. publishers, c1856. via Wikimedia

Heart pumping, Hugh Mitchell rushed into his burning home. Face covered against the smoke, his mind raced. Where could he begin? But his mind emptied of all thought when he saw what lay before him. The bloodied bodies of his wife and four children.

Hugh had been out working the fields when he saw the raiders approaching. Too far away to run to his house, he fled into the nearby woods, hoping the Indians would show mercy to his family should they have failed to escape. He hurried to his home as soon as it was safe to do so, only to find his worst fears confirmed.

With melancholy remorse, he extinguished the fire before returning to the corpses. One still breathed—barely. Extending his arms under her, he gently lifted her, then placed her at the door for fresh air. As he bent down to examine the extent of her injuries, he saw another party heading toward the house. He barely had time to hide undetected behind a log fence.

He did not move. He could not. He watched helplessly as one of Butler’s rangers, later identified as Sergeant Newbury, stepped up to the girl and, with a single blow of his hatchet, killed Mitchell’s last surviving child.¹

A year later, Hugh Mitchell would testify to this brutal act at Newbury’s trial. The British soldier was found guilty and hanged for his crime.²

But justice was the exception.

And in 1778, exception was giving way to pattern.

* * * * *

The fate of Mitchell’s family in the Cherry Valley Massacre reveals how warfare intensified in Continue Reading “The River Ran Red With Blood”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Adam Crysler, Albany, Alexander Hamilton, Battle of Oriskany, Battle of Wyoming, Benedict Arnold, British, Butler's Rangers, Cayuga, Cherry Valley, Cherry Valley Massacre, Cobleskill, Continental Army, Fort Niagara, Fort Stanwix, General Clinton, General Schuyler, George P. Ransom, German Flatts, Hugh Mitchell, Indian, Iroquois, Iroquois Confederacy, Jane Wells, Jasper Parrish, John Butler, John Montresor, John Wells, Joseph Brant, Lebeus Hammond, Loyalist, Massacre, Mohawk, New York, Oneida, Onondaga, Patriot, Philip Schuyler, Robert Wells, Rudolph Shoemaker, Seneca, Sergeant Newbury, Sir William Johnson, The Federalist Papers, Tuscarora, Unadilla, Upper Mohawk Town, Walter Butler, Walter Campbell, Wyoming Massacre

Are You A Promoter Or A Closer?

By Chris Carosa on April 28, 2026

They don’t teach you this in business school. But they’ll still give you an “A” for it.

The textbook teaches you how to draft a presentation. It doesn’t teach you how to deliver it. Here’s what happened in real life:

The MBA course focused on communications. It wasn’t a marketing course; it was a corporate governance course. The professor assigned a final project requiring us to form teams, with each team offering their presentation to the class.

We had a week to complete the presentation. It was the week I was away attending my company’s annual strategic planning meeting. I couldn’t help craft the presentation. This was OK. I was the only one on the team willing to give the presentation. I’d be back in time for that, but not back in time to rehearse.

One of my teammates didn’t like that. She was nervous about the grade. The other teammates apparently trusted me and let me go in front of the class.

I gave the performance you’d expect from a former AM disc jockey. It mentioned all the facts, but it was animated, entertaining, and completely different from what the class expected. My nervous teammate fumed.

The professor gave us an “A.”

Here’s the funny thing. I may have hit it out of the park in front of the large group, but if the Continue Reading “Are You A Promoter Or A Closer?”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life Tagged air force, army, business, closers, dealers, finishers, marketing, promoters, promotion, public relations, sales, selling, Simon School

The British–Iroquois Alliance and the Fractured Confederacy

By Chris Carosa on April 21, 2026

$Iroquois Confederacy fracture$

Portrait of Samuel Kirkland by Augustus Rockwell

Internal disputes weren’t limited to the Green Mountains on the Province of New York’s eastern edge. But what unfolded there would pale in comparison to what was about to erupt on the western frontier.

Here, in the wild, untamed forests, far beyond the reach of authority, conflict took on a different character. Courts gave way to violence. Diplomacy gave way to force. Far from the centers of power, restraint disappeared. Local actors dictated events, and alliances, long maintained, began to crack.

The conflict did not simply reach the frontier. It entered the Confederacy itself.

Once inside, it would tear it apart.

Samuel Kirkland became that inside man. Ironically, long-time British Superintendent of Indian Continue Reading “The British–Iroquois Alliance and the Fractured Confederacy”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Battle of Oriskany, British, Cayuga, College of New Jersey, Colony, Connecticut, Council Fire, Dartmouth, Eleazar Wheelock, Fort Stanwix Treaty, Guy Johnson, Iroquois Confederacy, Joseph Brant, Mohawk, Moor’s Charity School, New Hampshire, New York, Oneida, Oneida Castle, Onondaga, Patriot, Princeton University, Province, Red Jacket, Revolutionary, Samuel Kirkland, Seneca, Sir William Johnson, Six Nations, Tuscarora, Tyerhansera

The Shot Not Heard ’Round the World: Vermont’s First Taste of Independence

By Chris Carosa on April 14, 2026

High above the Connecticut River sits a mile-long shelf comfortably nestled within the broad curve of the oxbowing waterway in the fertile eastern valley beneath the rolling foothills of the Green Mountains. It had long attracted inhabitants, but the vagaries of violence had repeatedly forced them out.

The land lies dormant. But enticing. Open. Exposed. Its potential untapped.

Beyond the mountains, out of sight, Albany holds court, too distant to exercise its authority over the outer reaches of its boundary. Closer, on the opposite shore of the river, New Hampshire saw it as an avenue of expansion.

Both colonies claimed it. Neither controlled it.

Yet, into that void, settlers arrived.

The first colonists to settle what would become Westminster, Vermont, came from Continue Reading “The Shot Not Heard ’Round the World: Vermont’s First Taste of Independence”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Albany, Albany County, Asa Averill, Azariah Wright, Benning Wentworth, Bennington, Cadwalladar Colden, Colony, Connecticut, Connecticut River, Cumberland, Ethan Allen, French, French and Indian War, Gloucester, Governor Clinton, Green Mountain Boys, Green Mountains, Indian, John Averill, King George, King George's War, Liberty Men, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Bay Colony, New Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Hampshire Grants, New Taunton, New York, New York Patents, Outlawry Act, Pennsylvania, Province, Robert Cockran, Rockingham Company, Seth Warner, Township Number One, Vermont, Westminster, Westminster Massacre, William French

A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters

By Chris Carosa on April 7, 2026

By the eve of the Revolutionary War, with the French out of the way, Great Britain held dominant power in eastern North America—especially our region.

Or so it would appear.

Greater Western New York had been claimed many times before it was ever governed. European powers declared it theirs, and when Britain removed its rivals, the claims didn’t disappear—they multiplied. Now they came from within, as competing colonial charters layered atop one another. At one point, no fewer than five colonies claimed the region.

Yet, not one ever truly governed it.

Authority did not collapse at the forest’s edge. It contradicted itself at the source.

Long before a single settler felled a tree in Western New York, the kings of England were Continue Reading “A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 42nd parallel, 43rd parallel, Atlantic Ocean, Batavia, British, Buffalo, Canandaigua, Charter for the Province of Pennsylvania, Charter of Connecticut, Charter of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, Connecticut Charter, Connecticut River, Duke of York, Dutch, French, Great Britain, Green Mountains, King Charles II, King James I, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Bay Colony, New England, New Hampshire, New York, New York Patent, Pacific Ocean, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Sea to Sea, Second Charter of Virginia, South Sea, Treaty of Paris, Virginia, Virginia Company of London, Western New York, William Penn

European Rivals and the Seneca Frontier

By Chris Carosa on March 31, 2026

The stagnant heat draped over the weary marchers like a heavy blanket. The still air muffled any sound. The eerie silence only gnawed at their nerves.

Suddenly, the quiet forest erupted with sharp cries.

The startled Frenchmen stopped in their tracks. Before they could think, puffs of smoke popped from the thicket before them. Instantly, speeding musket balls whizzed through the ranks.

In an instant, two soldiers lay dead. Stunned by the ambush, the remaining staggered. But Continue Reading “European Rivals and the Seneca Frontier”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Bloomfield, Champlain, Denonville, France, Irondequoit Bay, Lima, Mendon, Seneca, Victor

Chris Carosa

Sullivan’s Soldiers Discover The Genesee Valley

The Roman Hamburger That Wasn’t

The Real Roman “Hamburger” Recipe

Washington’s Gamble – The Sullivan–Clinton Campaign

Democracy Dies On The Blackboard

The River Ran Red With Blood

Are You A Promoter Or A Closer?

The British–Iroquois Alliance and the Fractured Confederacy

The Shot Not Heard ’Round the World: Vermont’s First Taste of Independence

A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters

European Rivals and the Seneca Frontier

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