The Rangers were engaged in numerous violent raids that characterized the northern frontier of the American Revolutionary War, such as the Battle of Wyoming in July 1778 and the Cherry Valley massacre of November 1778.

During the war, John Butler also served as a deputy superintendent in the British Indian Department under Guy Johnson, another prominent Loyalist from the Mohawk Valley.

[2] During the 1777 Saratoga Campaign, Butler persuaded about 350 Seneca warriors to participate in the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and led a group of Indian Department rangers at the Battle of Oriskany.

[4] In the summer of 1778, 110 Rangers under the command of Major Butler, accompanied by 464 mostly Seneca warriors, led by Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter, destroyed the settlements in the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The battle is frequently referred to as the Wyoming Massacre due to the large number of American soldiers who were scalped and killed by the Seneca as they fled the battlefield.

[6] A sensationalist and widely distributed newspaper report published a few weeks later falsely accused the Rangers of slaughtering women and children in the aftermath of the battle.

[3] In October 1780, houses, barns, mills, and stores of grain and hay were burned as Loyalist forces led by Sir John Johnson marched down the Schoharie Valley to the Mohawk River, then headed west to destroy Stone Arabia.

Albany and Tryon County militia under the command of Brigadier General Robert Van Rensselaer engaged Johnson's men west of Stone Arabia at the inconclusive Battle of Klock's Field on October 19, 1780.

[10] A year later, Major John Ross, commanding the 2nd Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, led a raid on the Mohawk Valley that destroyed Warrensborough to the east of Fort Hunter before heading to Johnstown.

[13] Butler's Rangers were disbanded in June 1784, and its veterans were given land grants in the Nassau District, now the Niagara region of Ontario, as a reward for their services to the British Crown.