Major General James Clinton leads an expedition down the Susquehanna River after making the upper portion navigable by damming up the river's source at Otsego Lake, allowing the lake's level to rise, and then destroying the dam and flooding the river for miles downstream. (This event is described by James Fenimore Cooper in the introduction to his popular novel The Pioneers.)

At Tioga, New York, Clinton had met up with General John Sullivan's forces, who had marched from Easton, Pennsylvania.

Together on August 29, they defeat the Tories and natives at the Battle of Newtown (near today's city of Elmira, New York), where Brant finally meets his defeat.

This becomes known as the "Sullivan-Clinton Campaign" or the "Sullivan Expedition."

Brant and Loyalist commander John Butler had not wanted to make a stand at Newtown, proposing instead to harass the enemy on the march, but they had been overruled by Sayenqueraghta and other chiefs.