USA > Connecticut > The Connecticut River and the valley of the Connecticut, three hundred and fifty miles from mountain to sea; historical and descriptive > Part 12
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fort. The wigwams, " at least five hundred in number," were set afire, and many old warriors, women, and children perished in the flames ; the winter's stores were consumed ; and of four thousand Indians estimated to have been in the fort, nearly two-thirds were killed, burned, or captured. But the English losses also were heavy, with six captains among the slain.
There soon followed the news of the junction of the sur- viving Narragansetts with the Nipmuck "hostiles " and a remnant of Philip's men ; then startling reports of ravages of frontier Massachusetts settlements on the road to Con- necticut. In February came the destruction of Lancaster, with the slaughter of most of the men of its fifty or sixty families, and the capture of the women and children, in- cluding Mrs. Rowlandson, the minister's wife; ten days after, the partial destruction of Medfield, farther eastward ; the next day, the attack upon Weymouth, nearer Boston. Five days later followed the first attack upon Groton; after an interval of a week, a second assault, and four days later a third, so disastrous that the town was deserted. At the opening of March the enemy were again gathered in force in the Valley, this time northward, at the chief rendezvous at Squakheag, where had been Northfield, and whose territory included the present Vernon, Vermont side, and Hinsdale and Winchester, New Hampshire.
Major Thomas Savage of Boston was now sent up from the east with companies of foot and horse to join with the Connecticut forces in again protecting this frontier. In a fortnight hostilities had reopened in the Valley.
A formidable spring campaign had been planned by the Indian chiefs in council in the northern camps. Shel- don gives the scheme in fullest detail. The Pocumtucks
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and Wampanoags, with new allies,-young warriors from the Mahicans and the Mohawks of the west, and some In- dians from Canada, - were to rendezvous at Squakheag and thence sweep down upon the Valley towns in large bodies, while the Nipmucks and Narragansetts were simul- taneously to ravage the Bay frontiers eastward, so heading off aid from that quarter. Thus the Valley was to be speedily cleared of the English. With this accomplished, headquarters were to be established about Deerfield, " the non-combatants collected, the fields planted with Indian corn, and a winter's stock of fish laid up from the abun- dance of the streams." The victors were to be under the protection of the French, who were to come down from Canada and settle among them in place of the English. With the driving of the English from the Valley the " traitorous Mohegans " would be annihilated. This great scheme, however, the too artful Philip spoiled through his overreaching diplomacy. After the Narragansetts had been drawn in he bent his energies to embroiling the fierce Mohawks. He had so far reconciled them with the Pocum- tucks whom they had fought, that they agreed to join in warring against the Mohegans ; but they would not consent to fight the English. Thereupon the cunning diplomat, with the unscrupulousness that has sometimes distinguished the modern kind, played his trump card. Secretly causing a number of Mohawks to be killed, he accused the English of their murder. But the result which he counted upon failed to follow, through an extraordinary happening. One of the victims, supposed to be surely dead, revived, and reaching his people reported the true circumstances of their undoing. Enraged at the trick, the Mohawks fell upon the tribes in the Pocumtucks' camp, killing and capturing many. Thus an old enemy was newly aroused instead of
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won as an ally, and the union of all the clans in a common cause made impossible. After the Mohawk attack Philip and the discomfited Pocumtucks fled to the Sqaukheag rendezvous, which they reached toward the close of Feb- ruary.
There were now in the Squakheag camps, Canonchet, -young, able, haughty, tall and commanding, with the " well-knit form of an athlete "; twelve hundred of his Narragansett warriors and their sachems; bands of Nip- mucks; Philip and the chief men of his tribe ; the sur- vivors of the Pocumtuck confederation ; a few western volunteers ; some Abenakis from the east and north ; and a number of the apostate Christians from the Bay towns of " Praying Indians " -those " pious lambs " who " proved the worst wolves of the whole bloody crew." Canonchet was the real leader.
Such were the swarms collected and making ready for action when on March 2 (O.S.) Major Savage's forces joined those of Major Treat at Brookfield. In Major Savage's command again came Captain Moseley, now with a com- pany of infantry. Major Treat had three or four com- panies, foot-soldiers and troopers. After a few days spent in beating the woods about Brookfield on the trail of the Narragansetts, but meeting none, Major Savage moved up to Hadley, and Major Treat to Northampton. Captain William Turner of Major Savage's forces, was stationed with his company at Northampton; and Captain Moseley at Hatfield.
Unaware of these later movements, and so believing the River towns to be free from troops, two days after Canon- chet's arrival at Squakheag the council of chiefs convened, and ordered the opening of the campaign with an attack upon Northampton.
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The night before the departure of the force was given up to a great war-dance by the braves, while the women prepared the supplies for the expedition. Just before day- break on the morning of the 14th (O.S.) the enemy arrived at the sleeping town, behind the line of palisades erected in the winter. Noiselessly the palisades were broken in three places and through the gaps thus made the hordes crept in. At daylight they began the assault by firing the houses. Ten were ablaze before the garrison was fairly aroused. Then, to the amazement of the assailants, the troops of Major Treat and Captain Turner were upon them. Attempting to scatter, they found themselves "as in a pound." Panic stricken, they rushed pellmell for the gaps by which they had entered, and, under a galling fire, tumbled through and incontinently fled. Next they made for Hatfield, expecting to find that settlement an easier prey. But here they were again confounded by encoun- tering Captain Moseley, who gave them a warm reception and speedily drove them off. Angered by these repulses, they now planned a night surprise upon Northampton. At about two o'clock on the morning of the 16th (O.S.) they stealthily crept up to the town from two directions. But the sentinels discovered their approach and gave the alarm. So this game was lost and they instantly vanished. The main body returned dejectedly to the Squakheag camps taking with them the little plunder that they had secured, mainly horses and sheep; while small bands remained behind to hover about the outskirts of the town and harass the people whenever and wherever chance offered.
The failure of the Northampton expedition, with the dis- covery of troops again in force in the Valley, gave a radical turn to affairs at Squakheag. Philip moved his camp from
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the west side of the River to the east side where Canon- chet's councils were held. A few days later five hundred Nipmucks were sent down to Deerfield to guard the Indian frontier there. Discontent began to manifest itself in the Squakheag camps. This feeling was soon heightened by news of the failure of an expedition to Canada for powder in exchange for captives taken at Lancaster. The expedi- tion had been intercepted on the way by Mohawks, and two of the Pocumtucks in it were among the killed. Upon Philip alone was charged the new enmity of the Mohawks, and the disposition to desert him gained threatening head- way. The exhaustion of the winter's stock of provisions and the lack of seed for planting added to the distress of the situation. Canonchet advised the occupation of the Deerfield meadows for a general planting place. Of seed there was a plenty in the "barns " (excavations in the earth for storing provisions) at Narragansett, and he en- gaged himself to go and obtain a supply of it. With an escort of thirty reluctant volunteers, for there was no glory and much peril in the adventure, he started at once upon this mission. He was never more seen in the Valley.
While these things were going on in the Indian camps the marauding bands, shifting hither and thither in the country below, were committing frequent depredations about the lower Valley towns. To prevent surprises by them, the war council at Hartford devised a system for the continual guarding of the settlements. The night watch in each town was required to call up its inhabitants every morning, " an hour at least before day," who were to arm and stand upon guard at assigned posts till the sun was half an hour high. Then their places were to be taken by the wardens; while two mounted scouts, one at each end of the town, were to spend the day in scouring the
Tree-clad Rocky Point.
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neighboring woods. At this time the roving enemy toward the eastward were creating fresh alarms in Bay Colony towns, and also in Plymouth Colony. On the 17th of March (O.S.) Warwick, Rhode Island, was burned. So alarming was the situation becoming that the Bay Colony war council advised Major Savage to desert all the Valley towns except Springfield and Hadley, and to concentrate his strength at these points, "the lesser towns to gather to the greater." This advice was sent out from Boston on the 20th (O.S.).
Within a week a series of assaults upon widely separ- ated communities happened on a single day. This was the 26th of March, a Sunday. In the Valley there was a raid upon Windsor; the plantation of Simsbury, newly formed from the west side of Windsor, was burned; and villagers of Longmeadow, next below Springfield, were cruelly assailed. To the eastward, Marlborough in the Bay Colony was burned; and in Plymouth Colony a com- pany of Scituate soldiers were massacred in ambush near Rehoboth.
The Longmeadow affair was the most distressing of the events in the Valley on this direful day.
The people attacked were in a cavalcade on their way to meeting at Springfield for the first time since the winter had set in, for the road through the woods was now deemed safe, no " hostiles " having been seen for some time in the vicinity. There were sixteen or eighteen men with their women and children in the party, under a military escort. All were on horseback, the women and children riding on pillions. Two of the women hugged infants to their breasts. The company were jogging along placidly through the wintry woods, strung out in a straggling line, when suddenly the rear was surprised by an attack from a
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neighboring cover at the foot of Long Hill, where the road crosses Pecowsic Brook. At the first fire one man, John Keep, and a maid were killed, and two men were wounded. The two women with the infants, -John Keep's wife, Sarah, the other not named in the accounts, - were captured and carried off into the woods. Leaving the captives to their fate, the escort rushed the cavalcade for- ward to a point of safety in Springfield. Then the men returned to the scene of the attack but no trace of the assailants and their captives could be found. Major Pyn- chon also sent out a mounted party of searchers from Springfield ; and the next morning sixteen men from Had- ley, sent down by Major Savage, joined in the hunt. At length the tracks were struck, and soon after the party were discovered. As the pursuers approached, the culmi- nating scene of the tragedy was enacted. The Indians seized " the two poor infants and in the Sight of both the Mothers and our Men, tossed them up in the Air and dashed their Brains out against the Rocks, and with their Hatchets knokt the Women, and forthwith fled." Such was Major Savage's report. The place being rocky with a swamp just by, the pursuers could not follow with their horses, and the savages made good their escape. Poor Mrs. Keep died from her wounds and horror at the fate of her babe. The other woman lived and gave a report of what the captors had told of the enemy's condition and plans, which proved of value to the war councils. The assailants were all Indians of the Agawam tribe who had lived at Longmeadow before the burning of Springfield, and their victims were old neighbors. When it was found how small their numbers were, the escort of the cavalcade came in for sharp censure for running from instead of after them. The council at Boston characterized the
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captain's conduct as "a matter of great shame, humbling to us." And it inspired this couplet :
"Seven Indians, and one without a Gun, Caused Captain Nixon and forty men to run."
Through April the enemy were comparatively inactive in the Valley, and did their greatest mischief in ravaging eastward in the Bay Colony, and in Plymouth Colony. Early in the month Major Savage was recalled with the larger part of his force by the Bay council, leaving Cap- tain Turner in command at headquarters in Hadley, with small garrisons at Hatfield, Northampton, and Springfield, to guard the inhabitants while at their occupations. Major Treat and his troops were drawn off to protect the lower Connecticut Colony towns. Meanwhile the government at Hartford was advancing overtures for peace with the enemy in the Deerfield and Squakheag camps, which over- tures had been begun at the close of March.
While negotiations were pending, runners brought to the Squakheag camp from the Narragansett country the crushing news of the capture of Canonchet and his execu- tion there. This sharply changed the current of things. Within a week followed word of the slaughter of several counsellors and sachems near the place where the chieftain had been taken, which intensified their confusion.
Canonchet, it appeared, had been seized at the Paw- tucket River, Rhode Island, on the second of April, by Con- necticut troopers with a band of Mohegans led by Oneko, and had been executed the next day by an Indian's hand. He had succeeded in his mission, and, despatching his es- cort on the return journey with the coveted planting seed, had tarried behind to follow later with the fighting men of the tribe who were now in that region. The attacking party
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surprised him in camp with only six or seven sachems on the bank of the Pawtucket. He fled from the overwhelm- ing numbers, and casting aside his blanket and the silver- laced coat which the Bay leaders had given him as a pledge of friendship, sprang into the river. But slipping somehow, he fell, and his gun, wet in the fall, became useless. So one of Oneko's Indians, who had plunged in after him, effected his capture with ease.
The dignified bearing and the splendid nerve of the fallen chief marked him for the first rank among the heroes of his vanished race. The first of the English to approach and question him was a youth of twenty-one, - Robert Stanton, son of the interpreter with the troops. " But the chieftain haughtily repelled his advances: 'You too much child: no understand war. Let your chief come, him I will answer.' He was offered his life on condition of his sub- mission ; but, 'like Attilius Regulus,' the offer was refused. He was then sentenced to die. 'I like it well,' was the reply. 'I shall die before my heart is soft, and before I have spoken anything unworthy of myself.'" His only request was that he might be saved the indignities of tor- ture, and his executioner might be Oneko, whom he acknowl- edged as a fellow prince. He was taken to Stonington and there beheaded by the son of Uncas, who had been the exe- cutioner of his father - Miantonomo - thirty-three years before. His head was sent to Hartford.
With the news of Canonchet's fall the Pocumtucks were ready to throw up their hands and "to seek peace with the head of Philip." Thereupon the cautious Philip moved with his followers across country eastward to the fastnesses of Mount Wachusett, in Princeton, and established a new ren- dezvous there. Passacus, the dead Canonchet's successor as chief of the Narragansetts (he was a brother of Mianto-
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nomo, and had been regent for twenty years during the minority of Canonchet) took charge of the disorganized masses remaining in the River camps. Toward the close of April their scouting parties were again skulking about the towns and taking off horses and cattle. As the spring advanced, with the opening of the fishing season, food became more plentiful, and confidence was restored among the "hostiles." Camps were now scattered along the River at the various fishing points as far north as the confluence of the Ashuelot, in Hinsdale.
The principal fishing place was at the head of the rapids on the right bank of the River, known then as the Great Falls, now Turner's Falls. Another important one guarded the ford of the Deerfield below. While throngs were fish- ing and drying fish to store in the "barns," others were planting. On the twelvth of May (O. S.), Passacus, learn- ing from his scouts that large herds of stock had been turned into the Hatfield meadows to feed, sent out a raiding band, and that night some seventy or eighty head of this cattle were run off, to the great loss and indignation of the people.
A week later came the "Great Falls Fight," with an English victory followed by a disastrous rout.
From Thomas Reed of Hatfield and two Springfield lads, by name Edward Stebbins and John Gilbert, who had been captives of the Indians and had escaped, it was learned that the enemy "were carrying themselves unguardedly," on account of their knowledge of the withdrawal of troops from the frontier towns. Thereupon the people of these towns, glad to avenge themselves for the taking of the Hat- field cattle, "and other preceding mischiefs," at once raised a volunteer force to join with the garrison troops in an assault upon the Great Falls camp. Thus were assembled
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a little company of one hundred and forty-one, composed of the garrison men and volunteers from Hadley, Hatfield, Northampton, Springfield, and Westfield, under Captain Turner, the commander at Hadley. The Rev. Hope Ather- ton of Hatfield joined as chaplain.
On the 18th all were marshalled on Hatfield Street, well mounted, and at sunset were ready for the start. After a prayer by the chaplain the cavalcade moved off. Guided by Benjamin Waite and Experience Hinsdell, they made their way cautiously up the Pocumtuck Path ; past the gruesome scene of the Battle of Bloody Brook; along the edge of Deerfield; across Deerfield River above the guarded ford ; two miles through the unbroken wilderness; across Green River and along the present Greenfield main street, on to a plateau north of Mount Adams of the Green- field hills. Here, within about a mile of their destination, they halted to dismount and make the remainder of the distance on foot. Leaving their horses with a guard, they resumed their march across Fall River, up an abrupt hill, and out upon a slope, below which lay the sleeping camp at the head of the Falls.
It was now a little before daybreak. The night before the Indians had held a great feast, warriors, women and children, all gorging themselves with rich salmon from the River, and fresh beef and new milk from the Hatfield raid. During the festivities fishers were out in canoes spearing salmon by torchlight, till a sudden shower extin- guished their torches. The same shower had covered the frontiermen's advance. The revels had been carried long past midnight, and when the satiated throng lay down to sleep, not a sentinel was posted, not a scout was abroad. As silently as they had come, the attacking party approach- ing the camp at the rear, pressed up to the wigwams and
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thrust their guns directly into them. At a given signal all fired. Many of the inmates were killed in their sleep. The unhurt, awakened in terror, cried out "Mohawks ! Mohawks ! " imagining their old enemy upon them; and fled wildly hither and thither. Numbers leaped into the River and, carried over the falls, were drowned. Others rushed for the canoes and were shot down as they paddled or floated away. Others attempted to hide about the River's bank and were ruthlessly put to the sword. The slaughter was indiscriminate, women and children falling with the rest. The wigwams were burned, and provisions and ammunition destroyed. Two forges that had been used in mending arms were demolished, and " two great piggs of lead " for making bullets were cast into the River.
This was the extent of the victory. To this point it was complete, with scarcely any loss to the English and with ruin to the Indians. But the victors tarried too long on the scene; then scattered unwisely. Thus fresh Indians from other camps - on the opposite bank and at Smead's Island below the Falls - were given time to come up and gather about them. Drawing off in disorder they rushed for their horses with the new horde at their heels. A band of twenty chasing some loaded canoes up the River were left behind when the retreat began. They fought their way back to their horses but were surrounded while mounting. One of them, Jonathan Wells, a youth of sixteen (the story of whose adventures and hairbreadth escapes is an oft told romance of the wars in the Valley), managed to break away, though sorely wounded. Catch- ing up with the main body he urged Captain Turner to turn back to their relief. The Captain could only reply, in the desperate strait of his shattered command, " Better save some than lose all." Their two guides differed as to
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the safest route to take on the retreat. So the command broke up into bands, some following Waite, some Hins- dell, others taking a third course. Those who followed Hinsdell were all lost with him in a swamp. Throughout the dense forest the fleet-footed enemy " hung like a mov- ing cloud on flank and rear" of the fugitives. Turner, enfeebled by sickness, became exhausted, and was shot down while crossing Green River. With his death the lead devolved upon Captain Samuel Holyoke, an intrepid young soldier of Springfield. Displaying great courage, fighting with vigor when his horse was shot under him, he brought something like order into the demoralized ranks. But the enemy kept up the pursuit through the Deerfield meadows and along the length of Deerfield Old Street.
When finally Hatfield was reached and the force was mustered, nearly a third were missing, and two of those present mortally wounded. Six of the missing straggled in later, worn and disheartened. The others were dead. The chaplain, Mr. Atherton, was of the latest to come in. He had been unhorsed and would have surrendered to the Indians; but they would not receive him, running off scared by his parson's garb whenever he approached them to give himself up. They thought he was "the English- men's God."
A month after the retreat a band of English scouts ranging the woods discovered the body of Captain Turner and gave it burial. A few years ago what was believed to be Turner's grave was found on the bluff west of where he fell, and marked by a tablet. Earlier the Great Falls had become Turner's Falls in remembrance of him. The scene of the Falls Fight is also marked by a monument.
The destruction of the Great Falls camp bore heaviest
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upon the Pocumtucks. Their power was now broken be- yond recovery. "From this time and place," says Sheldon, " they pass into oblivion."
The immediate result of this fight was the formation of guards and scouts from the militia of the towns systemati- cally to cover the frontiers. The system was established none too soon, for on the 30th of May the enemy reappeared in force at Hatfield, presumably to avenge the Great Falls affair.
Another hot fight here ensued. Seven hundred warri- ors comprised the attacking swarm. At first they had their own way, driving the few townspeople inside the stockade, burning and pillaging houses and barns outside the pale, and running off cattle. But soon, in the height of the looting, " twenty-five resolute young men," crossing from Hadley in a single boat, and fighting off a crowd who attempted to prevent their landing, charged upon the ma- rauders with signal effect. The gallant twenty-five fought their way up to the front of the fort, where, hardest pressed, five of them fell. The others were saved by the Hatfield men who sallied out to their relief. Then, after more des- perate work, the Indians ran. Meanwhile a band had made an ambush on the Northampton road to head off reinforcements who might appear from that direction, while another guarded the Hadley crossing. The latter band prevented the crossing of a relief force who had come from Northampton by a roundabout way through Hadley. When the enemy fled the town they withdrew up the River driving the whole Hatfield stock of sheep be- fore them.
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