USA > Connecticut > The Connecticut River and the valley of the Connecticut, three hundred and fifty miles from mountain to sea; historical and descriptive > Part 9
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Next the manner of attack was warmly debated, and in this Mason proved the better strategist of the group. He was for a land attack in the rear by way of the Narra- gansett country. It was known that the Pequots kept a constant guard upon the Pequot River, hard by their strong- hold, expecting attack at that point; that their numbers were great, and that they were well supplied with guns ; and he reasoned that being on land and swift of foot they might impede a landing there, while if approached and attacked from the rear they might be surprised in their manœuvers; and at worst the English would be on firm
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land as well as they. The particulars of the Pequots' strength and preparedness had been learned from the two Wethersfield girls, who fortunately were now at Saybrook Fort, restored by the Dutch, who had retaken them from their captors, "a very friendly office and not to be for- gotten," as Mason generously recorded, regardless of the strained relations between the Dutchmen and the English.
The other captains and Mason's principal men long stood out stoutly against his plan as involving too great dangers in an extended march through a hostile wilderness, and too long a campaign. A more speedy despatch of their business was deemed necessary that the yeomen might get back to their farms. Withal it was contrary to the terms of their commission, which expressly enjoined the landing of Mason's forces at Pequot (New London) harbor. And moreover this order was backed by a supplementary letter of instructions from the magistrates. At length, neither side yielding, Mason proposed that the question should be left to the prayers of the chaplain for decision. It was a master-stroke, for it is reasonable to assume that he knew his chaplain. The proposition meeting the ap- proval of all, Mr. Stone was sought aboard the pink, and importuned to " commend " their business "to the Lord that night." Mr. Stone promised his prayers, and all re- tired to await the result. Bright and early the next morn- ing the chaplain came ashore to the major's chamber, and informed him that the night of prayer had "fully satisfied" him that they should sail for Narragansett. Thereupon the council was reconvened, and the astute major's plan was adopted without further ado. All, seemingly, were assured in their Puritan minds, unvexed by theological doubts, that it had divine indorsement in direct response to their chaplain's petition.
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Mason, disciplined soldier that he was, frankly pointed out, in his Narrative of after years, the hazard of such de- parture as his from the definite instructions of official su- periors, and justified it only on the ground of necessity. " I declare not this," he wrote in his quaint way, " to en- courage any soldier to act beyond their commission, or con- trary to it: for in so doing they run a double hazard. There was a great commander in Belgia who did the States great service in taking a city ; but by going beyond his commission lost his life. His name was Grubben- dunk." If, however, a war is to be managed by judgment and discretion, " the Shews are many times contrary to what they seem to pursue : whereof the more an Enter- prise is dissembled and kept secret, the more facile to put in Execution : as the Proverb, the farthest way about is some times the nearest way home." So, - and here he struck a note which has been echoed by many a trained captain since his day, -"in Matters of War those who are both able and faithful should be improved, and then bind them not up into too narrow a Compass. For it is not possible for the ablest Senator to forsee all Accidents and Occurrents that fall out in the Management and Pur- suit of a War. Nay, although possibly he might be trained up in Military Affairs ; and truly much less can he have any great Knowledge who hath had but little experience therein."
Mason's campaign, under all the circumstances, was the most remarkable of colonial wars. The expedition set sail on a Friday for Narragansett Bay and arrived at their port toward evening of Saturday. There they kept Sunday aboard their boats. High winds obliged them to remain off shore for two days longer. After sunset of Tuesday a
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landing was effected, and Mason with a guard marched up to the chief sachem's wigwam, where the chief was met. With the formality dear to the Indian heart the captain explained their appearance in arms in the sachem's country and stated their desire only to pass through it to the Pequot land. The English doubted not his acceptance of their coming, " there being love betwixt himself " and them, since their object was to avenge themselves, "God assisting," upon his own enemies, as well as theirs, for the "intolerable wrongs and injuries " that had been done. The chief approved their design, but " spake slightingly " of them in saying that he thought their numbers too weak to deal with this enemy, who were " very great captains, and men skilful in war." Mason, however, let the slight pass, for the free thoroughfare desired was attained.
Early the next morning, leaving their vessels under pro- tection, the overland march was begun, along Indian trails. That day eighteen or twenty miles were made, and " Nay- anticke " (Niantic) was reached, where was a fort of another Narragansett sachem, Miantonomo, on the Pequot frontier. The Indians here appeared haughty and carried themselves "very proudly." They would not permit Mason's men to enter their fort. This lofty attitude was met with prompt and effective action. A guard was posted about the fort and all were imprisoned within their own stronghold, warned that none should stir out under peril of his life. And none did. Thus, also, they were prevented from dis- covering the little army to the foe. That night the Eng- lish quartered serenely near the fort, no " hostile " ventur- ing to disturb them. The following morning several of Miantonomo's men came forward to enlist in the expedi- tion, and soon others were encouraged to join. Gathering into a ring, one after another made " solemn protestations
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how gallantly they would demean themselves, and how many " of the enemy " they would kill." At eight o'clock the march was resumed with some five hundred of these Indians added to the line. A toilsome tramp of about twelve miles brought the invaders to the Pococatuck River, between the present Westerly and Stonington, at a ford where they were told the Pequots usually fished. Now the Narragansetts who had so boasted of their prowess began to show fear, and many turned back homeward.
Three miles farther on the army came upon a field newly planted with Indian corn. At this evidence that the enemy was nigh, a council of war was held. The Narragansetts still remaining informed them of two Pe- quot forts, both almost impregnable. It was resolved to assault both at once. But learning that they were a long march apart, the English were constrained to accept the nearest ; "much grieved " thereat, because the farther one was the stronghold of Sassacus, whom they were impatient to fight. Moving now "in a silent manner," the march was continued for about an hour into the moonlit night. Then coming upon a swamp between two hills, in the present town of Groton, they pitched their little camp, much wearied with hard travel. "The rocks were their pillows," yet "rest was pleasant." Their sentries, posted at some distance forward, "heard the enemy singing at the fort, who continued that strain till midnight with great in- sulting and rejoicing," for, having seen the pinnaces sail by them some days before, they believed that the English were "afraid and durst not come near them."
Soon after daylight the men were roused. "Briefly commending themselves and their design to God," they were prepared immediately for the assault. Only two miles more were to be covered before the enemy were met.
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Reaching the foot of a hill, Mason was told that the fort was on its top. Now the remnant of the Narragan- sett allies had faded from sight.
The fort consisted of a long palisade strengthened with trees and brushwood, elevated above the Mystic River, near its head. There were two entrances. Within were clus- ters of wigwams occupied by the families of the braves and containing their stores. It was decided to force both entrances at the same time. Accordingly the army was divided, Mason leading one division, Underhill the other. Again " commending themselves to God," the ad- vance was silently begun. When Mason's band had ap- proached within a rod of the entrance chosen for their attack, a dog was heard to bark inside the fort. Then a startled Indian cry rang out, - ""'Owanux ! Owanux !' which is, 'English ! English.'" Rushing up, the force opened fire through the palisade; then, wheeling, fell upon the entrance, the bulky Mason at the head clambering over brush breast-high which blocked it. The surprise was complete. The fighting men were in heavy sleep pro- longed by their night's feasting and dancing when the Eng- lish were upon them. Dazed by the suddeness of the on- slaught, they caught up their weapons for defence, but too late. Encountering no Indian at the entrance, Mason strode forward to the first wigwam. Entering, he was be- set by a numher who had been here concealed watching his movements and ready " to lay hands on him." A hot fight ended in their vanquishment; one Indian was killed, the others fled. The captain then passed beyond into the lane or street, and followed it toward the end where Underhill's division had entered, the Indians be- tween them scattering and shooting their arrows as they ran. Then " facing about," he marched "a slow pace "
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back along the lane, much blown by his exertions. Near the entrance he observed " two soldiers standing close to the palisade with their swords pointed to the ground." Joining them he declared that the enemy could never be killed off in that way ; " we must burn them !" And rush- ing back to the wigwam that he had first entered, he seized a firebrand and applied it to the dry mats which served as covering. Instantly the tent was ablaze, and the flames ran fiercely through the enclosure.
" When [the fire ] was thoroughly kindled the Indians ran as men dreadfully amazed. And indeed such a dreadful Terror did the Al- mighty let fall upon their Spirits that they would fly from us and run into the very flames, where many of them perished. And when the Fort was thoroughly fired, command was given that all should fall off and surround the Fort which was readily attended by all. The fire was kindled on the northeast side to windward ; which did swiftly overrun the Fort to the extreme amazement of the enemy, and great rejoicing of ourselves. Some of them climb- ing to the top of the Palisado, others of them running into the very flames; many of them gathering to windward lay pelting at us with their arrows, and we repayed them with our small shot. Others of the stoutest issued forth, as we did guess to the number of 40, who perished by the sword .
" Thus were they now at their wits end, who not many hours be- fore exalted themselves in their great pride, threatening and resolv- ing the utter ruin and destruction of all the English, exulting and rejoicing with songs and dances. But God was above them, who laughed his enemies and the enemies of His People to scorn, mak- ing them as a fiery oven : Thus were the Stout Hearted spoiled, having slept their last sleep and none of their Men could find their Hands: Thus did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling the Place with dead Bodies !
"And here we may see the first judgment of God in sending even the very night before this Assault 150 men from their other Fort to join with them of this place, who were designed, as some of themselves reported, to go forth against the English at that very in-
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stant when this heavy stroke came upon them, where they perished with their fellows. And thus in little more than one hour's space was their impregnable Fort with themselves utterly destroyed to the number of 600 or 700, as some of themselves confessed. There were only 7 taken captive, and about 7 escaped. Of the English there were 2 slain outright, and about 20 wounded."
Such is the pious report of the valiant captain. Women and children perished in the flames, or in the slaughter. No quarter was given. " Bereaved of pity and without com- passion," the English struck the frenzied creatures down as they attempted to escape the awful fire. "Great and dole- ful," said Underhill in his narrative, " was the bloody sight to the view of young soldiers, to see so many souls lie gasping on the ground, so thick you could hardly pass along." It was a cruel and barbarous thing. But no more cruel and barbarous was it than the warfare that "Christian " peoples of our own " enlightened " times have waged upon foes we term savages, and probably not so fiendish, in the execution, as the fate which awaited the white men had the Pequots been successful in their own stratagems.
With the destruction of the fort the fighting was not ended. The army, again on the move, headed in the direction of Pequot harbor, where their vessels left at Narragansett Bay were to meet them. But there was no certainty that the boats would be there. As they marched their way was beset by perils. Somewhere, perhaps in their path, was the other fort whose warriors might at any moment be upon them. Several members of the little force were detailed to carry the wounded, and others their heavy arms, so that only about forty were available for action. Their ammunition was running short. All were weary from the recent conflict. The remaining Indian contingent, save Uncas and his men,
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were of little service to them, but rather a hindrance. They had proceeded only a short distance when the officers held a consultation as to what course to pursue. At this moment, from the high land overlooking the water, their vessels were espied sailing " before a fine gale of wind " into Pequot harbor. As they were rejoicing at the sight they saw the enemy from the other fort coming up the hill slope, three hundred or more strong. Immediately Mason led out a file or two and advanced upon them, " chiefly to try what temper they were in." They were soon scattered. Much elated, the army marched on, some of the allies now taking the burden of the wounded in place of their comrades, thus leaving the latter free for action. Shortly the routed Indians were again encoun- tered. They had come upon the ruined fort and the ashes of its inmates and had been thrown into great rage by the sight. Then they had turned about and started back for the English, leaping down the hill like a whirlwind upon them. Underhill held the rear of the marching army. When they had come within musket range his men faced about and poured a volley into the shouting horde Some were killed; the rest were made "more wary." There- after they hovered around the column, darting in and out of cover, from behind trees and rocks, firing their arrows much at random. So a running fight was kept up to within two miles of the harbor, with but slight hurt to the armored English. Here the enemy " gathered together" and left them ; while with their colors flying the victors marched to the hill-top adjoining the harbor. Seeing their vessels riding at anchor below, "to their great rejoicing," they hastened to the water-side and "there sat down in quiet."
The homeward journey was made overland, the wounded being conveyed by water. With the fleet met in
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Pequot harbor was Captain Patrick of the Bay Colony, who had come out in a bark from Boston with forty men. Some altercation took place between him and Captain Un- derhill; and Captain Mason was nettled at Patrick's inti- mation that he had come to their relief, thinking they were being pursued by the enemy. Matters, however, were amicably arranged; and the return to Saybrook Fort was made without further incident, Patrick accompanying Mason on the march through the woods. Reaching the east side of the River, the army were "nobly entertained " by Cap- tain Gardiner with a salvo of "great guns." The next morning they were transported across to the fort, where the gallant Gardiner extended further courtesies to them. Then they sailed back to their up-River homes, and there were received " with great triumph and rejoicing, and praising God for his goodness " in crowning them with success and restoring them with so little loss.
Note was made of various " special providences " in es- capes from death by the Indians' arrows. A unique case was that of Lieutenant Bull, who " had an arrow shot into a hard piece of cheese, having no other armour " : upon which Captain Mason shrewdly remarked that it might " verify the old saying, ' A little armour would serve if a man knew where to place it.'"
But the war was not yet over. The crippled Pe- quots were now to be destroyed as a tribe. Soon after Mason's army had departed from their country they aban- doned their remaining fort and their lands, scattering in bands. A few sought refuge with depending tribes. The great body turned toward Manhattan. Sassacus and sev- enty or eighty of his best warriors took the route to the Hudson. The flight had scarcely begun when the English
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were hunting them down. News of the exploit of the Connecticut force, carried to Massachusetts Bay by an In- dian runner sent out by Roger Williams at Providence, had roused the Eastern colonies. At once the Bay men des- patched their main army, recruited for this war, to the scene of action. The Plymouth Colony also engaged to send an expedition, with Lieutenant Holmes as leader. Meanwhile the River government had promptly taken steps to occupy the Pequot country. On the 23d of June the court at Hartford ordered that thirty men, " out of the three River plantations," be sent to " sett down " therein, to "maintain our right that God by conquest hath given us." A fortnight or three weeks later the Bay force ap- peared in Pequot harbor in a little fleet. It consisted of one hundred and twenty men, under Captain Israel Stough- ton, with John Wilson, first minister of Boston, as chap- lain. Almost simultaneously the Hartford Court ordered forward a new company of forty men, under Captain Mason, for " further prosecution of the war." This force immediately made a junction with Stoughton at Pequot harbor. Along with Mason went Ludlow, Haynes, and other principal men of the River towns for counsel. Miantonomo, the Narragansetts' sachem, and two hundred of his warriors, also came to the encampment. Uncas and his men, too, were on hand.
Then pursuit of the wretched fugitives began. En- cumbered by their women and children, and scantily pro- visioned, their flight was slow. One band, half-famished and miserable, were come upon by the Bay men in a se- cluded swamp in Groton. Of a hundred taken, the women and children, eighty of them, were reserved for bondage; while the men (except two sachems saved for a while be- cause they promised to track Sassacus) were "turned into
A Seaward Look across the Marshes, Saybrook.
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Charon's ferry boat under the command of Skipper Gallop," and " despatched " in the sea. The pursuit was followed westerly through the shore woods, the vessels sailing along the Sound as the troops marched. Our River was crossed to Saybrook Fort. A few miles beyond, at Menunketuck, now Guilford, the captured sachems were beheaded. The name, "Sachem's Head," still borne by the Point which here reaches into the Sound, denotes the place of their exe- cution. At Unquowa, now Fairfield, beyond the Housa- tonic's mouth, the final battle took place, the fiercest of all. This was the " Great Swamp Fight " in which Sassa- cus and his braves were encountered, with two hundred Indians of the neighborhood. The English won, but Sassa- cus with many of his warriors escaped, and fled to the Mo- hawks. After this fight the troops returned, while the Mohegans and Narragansetts kept up the chase of scattered bands, repeatedly bringing in to Hartford and Windsor in triumph gory heads of the slain. Sassacus met his fate at the hands of the Mohawks soon after joining them, and his scalp was sent to Hartford. In September, Ludlow, Pyn- chon, and several others journeyed overland to Boston, carrying a piece of the dead sachem's skin and a lock of his hair; and these they displayed before the Bay leaders as "a rare sight and a sure demonstration of the death of their mortal enemy." Then a great day of thanksgiving and prayer was held in the three colonies.
The captured Pequot women and children were distrib- uted among the troops. Of those taken to Massachusetts some were sent to the West Indies and sold as slaves. The remnant of the tribe at length surrendered, and were amalgamated with the Mohegans and the Narragansetts. Their surviving chief men, through whom the surrender
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was made, came to Hartford and humbly offered to be ser- vants to the English. Only about two hundred adult males are said to have been left after eight hundred or more had been killed or taken. Their tribal name was blotted out. They were never more to inhabit their country. They were to pay an annual tribute to the Connecticut Colony, their lands were divided between Connecticut and Massa- chusetts. The Pequot River subsequently became the Thames. Captain Mason was made " public miltary offi- cer " of the plantations, and the train band was instituted.
This complete crushing of a great and domineering tribe by a handful of Englishmen had a salutary effect on all the other New England Indians, and while troubles with them were not wholly banished from the River towns, no open war was again had for nearly forty years. It cleared the country along Long Island Sound for settle- ment, and colonization at points above and below the River's mouth almost immediately followed.
The Heart of Old Saybrook.
IX Philip's War in the Valley
The Direful Conflict of 1675-1676 Centering in the Massachusetts Reach - Philip of the Wampanoags- The frontier River Towns - Hadley the Mili- tary Headquarters-Gathering of the Colonial forces - The " Regicide " Goffe perhaps a Secret Observer of the Spectacle - The apocryphal Tale of the " Angel of Deliverance " - First Assault upon Deerfield - Northfield Destroyed - Fatal March of Captain Beers toward Northfield - The Am- buscade on " Beers's Plain " - Ghastly Sight meeting the Gaze of a Relief Force - A Sunday Attack upon Deerfield.
I "N the autumn of 1675 the theatre of the so-called King Philip's War was transferred from the Narragansett country to the Connecticut Valley, centering about the frontier settlements of the Massachusetts Reach. This war was begun the previous summer with the outbreak of the Poconokets, or Wampanoags, led by Philip, or Metacomo, son and second successor of that Massasoit who welcomed the Pilgrims at their coming, and soon engaged the tribes of interior Massachusetts and involved all the New England colonies. While Uncas and his Mohegans, with the minor tribes within the jurisdiction of the Connecticut Colony, remained faithful to and fought together with the whites, almost every town in the Valley was endangered, and the whole region felt the effect of the conflict of nearly a year's duration, direful to the colonies and ruinous to the tribes.
The Indians of this war were a far more formidable enemy than the Pequots thirty-eight years before. Their weapons were no longer confined to the arrow, the toma- hawk, and the scalping knife. The "lust of gain " on
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the part of white men had supplied many of them, in de- fiance of prohibitory laws, with firearms, powder, and shot. They fought, as before, with stealthy surprise and from ambush, but with a much greater familiarity with the methods of the English. They had lived closer to the colonists, generally in amicable relations, and had thus become intimate with their homes and their customs, and they knew the most vulnerable points of attack. The English armies brought into the field were also vastly dif- ferent from the bands of yoemanry, intrepid though they were, who had overwhelmed the Pequots. They included troops of horse and infantry, enlisted in the several colo- nies, all under experienced officers, - none, however, abler or braver than Mason, Underhill, and Stoughton of the Pequot War. The Connecticut forces raised in the River towns were sometime under Major Treat, Mason's succes- sor as military chief of the colony; but at the outset Major John Pynchon of Springfield, son of the founder, William Pynchon, was the chief commander.
The war was shifted to the Valley upon the scattering of Philip and his warriors by the "Swamp Fight " at Tiverton, Rhode Island, in July, and their flight to the Nipmucks' country in central Massachusetts; and upon the seige and burning of Brookfield by the Nipmucks in August, just before Philip's arrival at their rendezvous. The conflict, impelled at the outset by the "impulse of suspicion on the one side and passion on the other," was now assuming what the colonists had feared and expected to prevent by the crushing of the Wampanoags in their own country, - the proportions of a general Indian up- rising.
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