USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 11
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The Indian of that day,-the one with whom the early settlers had to deal,-was a heathen of the most untameable species. He would readily fall into vicious habits, but if he made any advance in civilization, it was accompanied with a tendency to relapse, which rendered it necessary to be cautious in trusting him, even when he seemed the safest. Vagrancy was his nature and his habit, and he was moreover deceitful and thievish beyond remedy.
With such a people swarming around them, the path of the settlers, however beautifully embellished with roses in other respects, was beset with troublesome thorns. There is no race of men whom it has been found so difficult to civilize and Christianize, and at the same time to pre- serve and render prosperous, as the Aborigines of America. A change of their wild habits leads by degrees, more or less rapid, to extinction.
The conversion of these Indians was a cherished object with the Rev. Mr. Fitch. He continually sought opportunities for sowing the seed, and his earnest faith and large-hearted charity made him hopeful of the har-
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vest. He cultivated an intercourse with the tribe, and made use of every opportunity for acquiring their language.
Most of the early settlers of Norwich gleaned enough of the Indian tongue to be able to chaffer and chat with their vagrant visitors, and learn the general news of the tribe. The Indians on their part were equally venturesome and successful in their inroads upon the English speech. But Mr. Fitch, having a great purpose in view, pursued the study of the native tongue with system and a fair measure of success. After a few years he was able not only to instruct in private, or with an interpreter, but could speak in a way to be understood and appreciated in assemblies of the tribe.
With the sachems and chiefs, Christianity was never popular; not all their reverence for Mr. Fitch and the benefits he heaped upon them, could induce them to accept his doctrine and worship the Being whom he adored. Uncas and Owaneco, it is true, fluctuated somewhat in their bearing toward the subject, but at heart were never its favorers, and Wawequaw, the brother of Uncas, a chief of power and influence, if we may believe tra- dition, was invariably hostile.
But among the poorer, gentler, and more scattered families, particularly among the tributaries and those adopted from other tribes, who were often oppressed by Uncas, Mr. Fitch found willing ears and accessible hearts. Here the gospel seemed to come as into a prepared place, bringing with it peace and comfort. Mr. Fitch rejoiced over these poor people as over lost children that had been found, and collected them into a small commu- nity, setting over them instructors and guardians from among themselves, whom he himself taught and trained for their office.
The war with Philip commenced in June, 1675, and raged about fifteen months. Mr. Fitch was an active agent and valued counselor of the gov- ernment. Norwich and Stonington were frontier towns, and consequently kept during the whole course of the war in a state of excitement and apprehension. Alarming rumors swept over them with every wind. Sol- diers from all quarters, horse and foot, came among them for rendezvous ; bands of friendly Indians, apparreled for war, made these their starting- points ; and often other parties, connected with the hostile tribes, forlorn, abject, famished, came from their haunts to take whatever doom-kind- ness, captivity, or death-might be awarded to them.
Of these incidents, interesting and exciting as they are, the town records furnish no information. Indian regulations and warlike proceedings were affairs of the general government, and not of selectmen and constables. We must therefore look elsewhere for mementoes of the war .*
* The author has very carefully prepared the following review of Philip's war. The principal facts may be verified from the second volume of Conn. Col. Records, but various hints, dates and minor circumstances have been gathered from county court papers, and other local MSS., public or private.
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A rapid sketch of the shifting scenes presented to the inhabitants of Norwich during this period of alarm, is all that can be here attempted. The picture would serve, with a change of names and some variation of detail, for almost every town then lying upon the barbarian frontier.
In July, 1675, those vague alarms that had occasionally swept out of the wilderness, became embodied in startling reports of hostile Indians prowling in the vicinity. An invasion was apprehended, a night watch I was established ; several houses at intervals along the street were fortified, and householders lay down to sleep with loaded muskets by their side.
Brewster, Mason, and Tracy, the train-band officers of the town, were summoned to attend upon Capt. Wait Winthrop, with a certain number of men, and assist in an expedition into the Narragansett country, to prevent that tribe, if possible, from joining the party of Philip .* Uncas came to . consult with Mr. Fitch, and Mr. Fitch visited the Pequots to see if all was right in that quarter. The Indians consented to join the English, but apparently with a doubtful mind, and inclined to take that side only because it was the strongest.i
Of Uncas the English had at first deep distrust. He professed great friendship in his consultation with Mr. Fitch, but the latter thought it prudent that he should be induced to commit himself as soon as possible, by some act of hostility against Philip. The sachem saw where his inter- est lay, and consented to engage in immediate action. Before the end of July, fifty Mohegan warriors, staunch and well caparisoned, under the command of Owaneco, who had two other sons or near relatives of Uncas with him, were ready to start for Boston, there to offer their services against the Pocasset chief. They paused in Norwich to obtain letters from Mr. Fitch and Lieut. Mason, and then proceeded to the Bay. At Boston the two younger chiefs were retained as hostages, but Owaneco and his men were dispatched to join the Massachusetts forces then in the field. It was this party that on the 1st of August fell upon the rear of Philip's retreating force, at Rehoboth plain, and killed a number of his men,-among them one of his bravest captains, named Woonashum, alias Nimrod.#
Major Pynchon of Springfield, in a letter to Gov. Winthrop of Con- necticut, Aug. 7, 1675, observes :
" If ye Pequot Indians and Molieags would now pursue Philip while he is faint and weary it would be the best service, and so likewise for our army : for ye Indians say he hath left his country wholly ; so that it is to noe purpose to be there, neither is there any need of fear about Norwich."§
* Lieut. Tracy was the Quartermaster or Commissary of the expedition. Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 332. f Ibid., 2, 336.
# Increase Mather's Hist. of Philip's War, Drake's excellent edition, p. 65.
§ Ibid., Appendix, p. 238.
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At this time, Joshua, another son of Uncas, took the field with a band of thirty Indians, and went up by the way of Hartford, to scour the woods in the route of the retreating foe. He was at Hadley, Aug. 9th .*
In the latter part of August, a body of Nipmug Indians, comprising twenty or thirty families, 126 in all, surrendered themselves to Uncas. Lieut. Mason also, with a party of volunteers, whites and Indians, made a hasty march into the wilderness, to secure a troop of timid, unsettled, wan- dering Indians, allies of Philip, that had been arrested in their flight west- ward by. the friendly Wabequassets, and detained for English supervision. t These were brought to Mohegan and delivered in charge to Uncas, but the greater part were afterward transferred to Boston.
During the month of September, the Mohegans and Pequots were out with their whole force. Every able-bodied man among them was engaged in the various forays against the enemy, generally attached to some Eng- lish command, but under little restraint in regard to forage and plunder.
Major Pyncheon, in a letter to the Council of Connecticut, notices among the forces in the field, "Those English that have gone out of Nor- wich with Lt. Browne and about 80 Pequots and some Mohegans.";
Lieut. Mason, also, had a hundred or more of the warriors of these tribes under his command, and marched with them to Hartford, from whence they joined the expedition into western Massachusetts under Major Treat.§ Smaller scouting parties under Uncas himself, or some of his family, were frequently making excursions towards the Nipmuck country, and bringing home prisoners or booty.
In October the alarm increased. A portion of the enemy were retiring from Narragansett to the interior, and were supposed to be gradually ap- proaching Norwich. The wildest rumors prevailed, and great apprehen- sion was excited. The power and resources of Philip and the number and strength of his allies were greatly exaggerated. At length a report came that Philip with 400 men was meditating a desperate attack upon Norwich, and on the 15th of October the Council at Hartford ordered forty soldiers to march immediately to the defence of the place. The rumor seems to have been without foundation, but when the next levies were made, New London County, being considered in jeopardy, was exempted from furnishing its quota. A company was however organized from the four towns, to hold themselves in readiness for any exigency, and placed under the command of Capt. John Winthrop. Norwich furnished twenty men, to whom were joined a band of Mohegan auxiliaries, forming a company, with Capt. Mason and Lieut. Leffingwell for their immediate officers.
* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 348, 49.
# Ibid., 2, 348.
t Ibid., 2, 355.
§ Ibid., 2,-366.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
On the 2d of November, the Commissioners declared war against the Narragansetts, and the whole country started into immediate action. A thousand men were to be raised : the proportion of Connecticut was 315; of New London County, 70; of Norwich, 18 :- all to be equipped with arms and ammunition and to be in the field by the 10th of December.
The rendezvous was at New London. The towns were scoured for provisions ; the county was embargoed for two months, and wheat, cheese, beef, pork, Indian corn, oats and rum were seized and sequestered for the army wherever they could be found in quantities beyond the necessary demands of their owners. Wheat to the amount of three hundred bushels was hastily baked into biseuits. Ten men from every county were fur- nished with hatchets, instead of swords and guns, to clear the way through the thickets.
Major Treat went forward with the army. Norwich was on the frontier, and at the mercy of hostile Indians who might suddenly cross the Quine- baug and make a dashing raid upon the settlement, with every prospect of success, while so many of her best men were in the field. In great alarm she applied to the Council of War for a guard, and twenty-six men were accordingly detailed "to lye in garrison at Norwich."
And now the colonies resounded with the deep echoes of the Narragan- sett fort fight, which gave such a mournful notoriety to December 19th. Eighty out of Major Treat's little army were slain or fatally wounded, 138 more disabled from duty, and he hastened back to New London with his battered forces. The gallant Capt. Jolin Mason, fearfully wounded, but not yet despairing of recovery, was brought by the aid of his Indian warriors with great care to his own home. Nine of his little company were killed or badly wounded, one of whom was Thomas Howard, who is usually classed among the first band of Norwich proprietors. He was left dead upon the field of battle. Capt. Mason also ultimately died of his wounds, Sept. 18, 1676 .*
This was emphatically the winter of gloom. Norwich was a garrisoned town ; twenty or thirty soldiers were quartered upon the inhabitants; a block-house was built ; private houses were fortified. It was a general order throughout the colony, that the inhabitants should carry arms and ammunition with them to every public meeting ; but at this time, upon the frontier, it was necessary to keep a loaded musket continually at hand, and to be well armed in passing from house to house, and especially in driving
* Capt. Gallop of Groton, who commanded the Mohegans and Pequots, was slain in the battle.
" It hath pleased God to humble us, by translating to rest out of the bed of honour in the service of Christ, severall worthy and valiant comanders and souldiers both of ours and yours." Letter from Gov. and Council of Mass. to Gov. and Council of Conn. after Narragansett fort fight. Col. Rec. Conn., 2, 399.
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cattle or tending sheep. The woods were supposed to be haunted with prowling enemies. The Indians around them, quick, fearful, and imagin- ative as children, with their rumors and fancies increased the general excitement. Uncas, though in the main a valuable ally to the whites, and attesting his friendship by numerous expeditions and blows in their behalf, yet conceiving that his own interest might be served by keeping his neigh- bors in a state of alarm, did not hesitate to make use of that advantage. He blew up the coals and cried loudly, fire ! fire ! that he might have the credit of quenching the flames. This was the cunning streak conspicuous in the character of Uncas : wily is the most expressive epithet that can be attached to his name.
On the 25th of January, 1676, Major Treat left New London on a second expedition into the wilderness, with a force of about 300 men .* Mr. Fiteh accompanied him as chaplain,-Uncas and his warriors as sconts. They were absent twelve days, and killed and captured about seventy. During this interval, Norwich experienced something more than rumor and panic. The tomahawk swept along her eastern border, and left slaughter in its traek. A band of Indians, supposed to be Nar- ragansetts, prowling on the east side of Shetucket, killed two men, and carried off a young lad as prisoner.
The only cotemporary account of this affair is contained in a letter from Major Palmes of New London to the Council of War, dated Jan. 29th:
" This morning early came post from Norwich with the sad intelligence of two men and a boy being taken and killed, who went over Showtnckett River to spread flax, viz. Jos: Rockwell and his boy of 15 or 16 years ould and John Renolls Jun. of Nor- wich. The said Jos: Rockwell and Renalls ware found dead and thrown downe ye River banke, theire scalps eutt off : the boy is not yett found, supposed to be caryed away alive."t
Mr. Fitch was absent with Major Treat's expedition at the time of this outrage, otherwise we might have looked for an account of it from his pen, as he usually kept the authorities at Hartford well informed of occurren- ces in his neighborhood. No allusion to it is to be found on the records of the town. The deaths of the two men are registered without notice of their tragie end. The captive boy, Josiah Rockwell, Jr., was soon after- ward recovered by the aid of a friendly Indian.}
* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 402. Trumbull in Hist. of Conn. does not mention this sec- ond expedition.
t Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 403.
¿ A mistake seems to have been made in his age. His birth as registered in Norwich was in June, 1662. He was therefore less than 14. The inventory of Josiah Rockwell, the father, was exhibited in the County Court in September, 1676. A wife and six children are mentioned. The oldest child was this Josiah; the youngest not born until after the father's decease.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Early in February an expedition of sixty or eighty impressed men, from the four towns of New London County, under Capt. Denison and Lieut. Minor, with Mohegan and Pequot flankers, assembled at Norwich and marched toward Wabequasset to disperse the lurking foe in that quarter. After this the noise of clashing arms and tramping hosts passed around to the north, the seat of war being transferred to the neighborhood of Connecticut river. Edward Culver and his Indian scouts trailed off in that direction, and in this county a short period of security intervened. The towns were nevertheless kept lively by frequent raids made by vol- unteer parties into Narragansett and the Nipmuck country, to hunt out the last remains of hostility and gather the scattered booty.
At this period of comparative serenity, the Fast Day, appointed by the Council (March 22d), was kept by Mr. Fitch and his congregation with unexampled solemnity. This will be more particularly noticed in another chapter.
Before the end of March the blast of war again veered toward Narra- gansett. Major Treat was ordered to march with a hundred men to Nor- wich, where recruits and provisions were to be collected for a fresh expe- dition against the foe. Before, however, the Major could reach the ren- dezvous, he was suddenly recalled and ordered to the defence of Simsbury, which had been attacked by the enemy. The contemplated expedition was therefore consigned to the charge of Major Palmes, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Fitch as counselor.
The force assembled consisted of 42 volunteers, 37 pressed men, and 100 Indians,-three parties not well inclined to act in concert. Major Palmes complains of them as a disorderly company,-"every man his own carver,"-and at the same time gives a side-thrust at Norwich for sending but 15 men, "which (he says) may well be furnished out, when 20 men are maintained in their place at the country's charge."*
The Major did not himself accompany the expedition. Its officers were Denison, Avery, Minor, and Leffingwell, and it proved one of the most successful forays of the war. They left Norwich, March 27th, and re- turned the 4th or 5th of April, having killed and captured forty-four of the natives. Among the captives was the brave sachem Canonchet or Nanunteno, the son of Miantonomoli, who was carried to Stonington, and there shot,-the unfortunate victim of a too stern vengeance.
In May a much larger force was raised by the colony. It was designed to consist of 350 men besides Indian auxiliaries, and was to be kept in service as a standing army during the war. The command was assigned to Major Talcott. Norwich was the place of rendezvous, and the first movement was to be made into the northern wilderness in search of the Pocomticks and Nipmucks. After long waiting for the necessary supplies,
* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 427.
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the Major left Norwich, June 2d, with a force of 250 English soldiers, all on horses, and 200 Indian warriors on foot, and reached Hadley on the 8th. Mr. Fitch accompanied the army as chaplain, and the Rev. Gershom Bulkley as surgeon. On the march they killed and captured above fifty forest wanderers, sparing the women and children and sending them to Norwich with a guard. Hadley was attacked by the Indians, June 12th, and but for the presence of this force from Connecticut, of whose arrival the attacking party seems not to have been aware, would probably have been destroyed. Major Talcott went as far north and west as Deerfield Falls, and returned to Connecticut after an absence of eighteen days.
Major Talcott left Norwich again on the 29th or 30th of June, and led his army toward Providence, and from thence south through the Indian territory to Point Judith, accomplishing with vigor and rapidity the work he was sent to perform. This expedition was pre-eminently successful, so far as slaughtering and making captives of the wretched savages may be called success : 238 were killed or taken prisoners, and among the latter was a well-known female chief called the Sunkesquaw. Mr. Fitch was the chaplain of this tour of service also.
Still another expedition into the Indian country was led by Major Tal- cott, the point of departure being this time New London, which had been the rendezvous of the army on its return from Narragansett. They left New London in the latter part of July, went first to Taunton, and from thence turned west, following the enemy to the Connecticut. The Indians crossed the river at the foot of the Great Falls, on rafts, August 11th. Talcott reached Westfield on the 12th, but being short of provisions, he sent back his horses and all his force except sixty soldiers and as many Indian warriors, and with these pursued the retreating foe to the Housa- tonick. He overtook them on the west side of that river, August 15th, killed and captured a considerable number, and dispersed the rest. He then returned to the settlements, half-famished and worn down with fatigue and exposure. This was the expedition afterwards distinguished as " the long and hungry march."* Its whole course was from New Lon- don to Taunton, and from thence through the wilderness to nearly the western limit of Massachusetts, and back to Hartford.
In the meantime Philip had been slain at Mount Hope, by a party of English and friendly Indians, under Capt. Church of Rhode Island, and there was very little more fighting to be done.
Though Connecticut suffered but slightly during this war, from any actual attack within her borders, she certainly bore her full part in its fightings, marchings, and privations.
* Trumbull has erroneously given this descriptive title to the expedition of Talcott in June.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
We have designed to rehearse the incidents of Philip's war only from a Norwich point of view, and to enter upon them no farther than as they affected her inhabitants and were connected with her history. But from this brief statement it appears that beside the various forays upon the enemy by volunteers under Captains Denison, Avery, Minor, and others, seven successive expeditions marched from New London County into the Indian territory in the space of little more than a year, under the direction of the Governor and Council of War.
1. July, 1675, from New London, under Capt. Wait Winthrop, who met the forces from Massachusetts, and a treaty of peace was concluded with the Narragansetts, July 15th.
2. Dec. 10th, from New London, under Major Treat : 300 soldiers and 150 Indian warriors. These took part in the Swamp fort fight.
3. Jan. 26th, 1676, from New London, under Major Treat. The army went through Westerly, Charlestown, Kingston, and Wickford ; united with the Massachusetts forces and pursued the enemy into the Nipmuck coun- try ; returned, Feb. 5th, to Norwich.
4. March 27th, from Norwich, prepared by Major Palmes, sent into Narragansett under Capt. Denison ; returned to Stonington, July 4th or 5th.
5. June 2d, from Norwich, under Major Talcott; went to Hadley and Deerfield ; 250 English and 200 Indians.
6. June 29th or 30th, the same army from Norwich, under Major Tal- cott ; scoured the Narragansett country, and returned to New London, July 8th, and recruited.
7. July 20th, from New London, under Talcott ; went first to Taunton, and from thence west to Housatonick river.
Since the settlement of our country, New England has known no war so terrific in its features as this; none that filled the country with such alarm and apprehension ; none attended with such burdensome toil both in marching into the wilderness and in keeping guard at home. The reg- ulations of the Council of War were exceedingly stringent. Great labor was expended upon fortifications ; a watch was kept night and day in every town through the colony, and in March, 1676, measures of extraor- dinary vigilance being considered necessary, all the effective inhabitants of every plantation were obliged to take their turn as watches or scouts .*
Soldiers engaged merely in defence of their own town or county, re- ceived no pay. The whites and Indians engaged in volunteer expeditions against the enemy, were compensated by the plunder they amassed. The forces raised by the colony were under pay at the following rates :
* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 417.
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Major, 30s. per week; Captain, 20s .; Lieutenant, 16s .; Ensign, 14s. ; Sergeant, 12s. ; a private soldier, 8s.
For a horse, 3s. per week was allowed.
For quarterage of a soldier, 5s. per week.
Pasturage for a horse, 4d. per day .*
Though Norwich during the whole of Philip's war was kept in continual alarm, and the town was often changed from a quiet village to a tumultuous camp, yet the only actual outrage upon the inhabitants was the slaughter of Reynolds and Rockwell. This is a remarkable fact, considering the recent origin of the town and its situation upon the frontier during a bar- barian war. The whole colony was indeed singularly favored with exemp- tion from the stain of blood. The two men above named, with three that were slain in the neighborhood of Hartford.f were the only English per- sons killed while the war lasted, within the bounds of Connecticut.
Surrenderers. During the war a considerable number of the Indians voluntarily gave themselves up to the English, or to the Mohegan sachem. Small tribes and companies, that had been necessarily forced into some degree of intercourse with the hostile bands, but had not taken arms, or committed any act of violence against the whites, found themselves in continual danger of being treated as enemies, and therefore sought pro- tection and safety under the shadow of the English settlements. Several of these companies came of themselves to Norwich, or were brought in by the soldiers ; others were collected by the Mohegan scouts. In August, 1676, no less than sixty-five men, with their retinue of old men, women, and children, at one time gave in their adhesion to Uncas.
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