USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume III > Part 14
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Surprising as it may seem, the first Indian battle in King Philip's War fought on Rhode Island soil, and in which the first Rhode Island blood was shed, has been overlooked by most of the Rhode Island historians. Staples, in his Annals of Providence (1843), made no mention of the Pocasset Swamp Fight or of Philip's escape and the subsequent battle in the north end of the town of Providence. Arnold, in his History of the State of Rhode Island (1859), vol. I, p. 399, devoted four lines to the Pocasset Swamp Fight and disposed of the Providence fight by saying that Philip, accompanied by Weetamoe, withdrew from the swamp and hastened to join the Nipmucks.
Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, wife of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, was taken captive by the Indians on 10 Feb. 1676 at the burning of Lancaster and later escaped to the English. She wrote an interesting narrative of her captivity. She stated that "she was purchased by a Narragansett chief named Quinnapin [Panoquin, Sowagonish], nephew of Miantonnomo, who had three wives, one of whom was Weetamoe. The third squaw was a younger one by whom he had two papooses. My master had three squaws living sometimes with one and sometimes with another. Onux, the old squaw at whose wigwam I was and with whom my master had been the past three weeks".
Mrs. Rowlandson, who served Weetamoe as a slave, described her as "a severe and proud dame she was; bestowing every day in dressing herself near as much time as any of the gentry of the land: Powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with her necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampom and beads. On one occasion she was dressed in a kersey coat covered with girdles of wampom. Her arms from her elbows to her hands were covered with bracelets; there were handsful of necklaces about her neck and several sorts of jewels in her ears. She had fine red stockings, and white shoes, her hair powdered, and her face painted red, that was always before black" [Narrative of the Captivity, Suffering and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Boston, Ed. 1773), p. 29].
Weetamoe returned to Plymouth Colony with Philip; arriving at Mattapoiset, she was pursued by a company of English, and in attempting to raft herself across to Pocasset was drowned, 6 Aug. 1676, and her body washed ashore at Mattapoiset where the English found it, cut off the head, carried it to Taunton and stuck it on a pole without knowing whose head it was until some Indian prisoners cried out that it was their queen's head. Six days later, 12 August, Philip was killed at Mount Hope by Alderman, one of Weetamoe's Pocasset warriors who early joined the English.
At the Court Martial of the Indians held at Newport, R. I., 24 Aug. 1676, "Quanopen [husband of Weetamoe] admitted that he was in arms against the English; that he was in the Swamp Fight; had nothing to say against the Indians burning and destroying Pettacomscutt; was at the assaulting of Mr. William Carpenter's garrison at Pawtuxet; and that he was in arms at Nashaway and assisted in distroying and burning the town and taking and carrying away about twenty English captives. Sentenced to be shott to death in this Towne on the 26th instant at about one of the Clock in the Afternoone An Indian with one Eye, Quanopen's Brother, said his brother Quanopen was a com- mander in the warr but he was not, he being soe defective in his Eye Sight, that he was incapable -"Judgment at present suspended".
25 August-"Sunkeecunasuck said that he was at the burning and destroying of Warwick and that Wenunaquabin, and an Indian now in prison was at the burning and destroying of Warwick with him at the same time; that his brother Quanopin was the second man in Command in the Narraganset Cuntry, next to Nenanontentt. Voted guilty and to suffer death the same Time and Place with his Quanopen" [Court Martial Records, Newport, R. I.].
Courtesy of The Essex Institute
GOVERNOR JOHN LEVERETT
Born in England in 1616, he returned there late in 1655 as agent for the Massa- chusetts Bay and remained until 1661. He served as Captain of Horse under Cromwell during the Civil War. In 1663 he succeeded Denison as Major General of the Massachusetts Military Forces. He was governor of the Massachusetts Bay from 1673 to his death in 1679. His daughter Ann married John, son of Rev. William Hubbard, the historian; another daughter, Mary, married Paul Dudley, son of Gov. Thomas Dudley and brother of Gov. Joseph Dudley; and his youngest daughter, Sarah, married Col. Nathaniel Byfield.
During King Philip's War, Capt. Daniel Henchman was engaged in building a fort at Pocasset (now Tiverton, R. I.) which he named "Fort Leverett", in honor of the governor. This was an elaborate work, planned to be seventy feet square with large flankers, two long houses, a magazine house, and a smith's forge.
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Field, in his History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1902), pages 402 and 403, gave a brief narrative of the Nipsachuck fight based on the copy of Lieut. Nathaniel Thomas' letter as printed by Drake in 1862. Following this letter he was led into the mistake of stating that there were several Providence men wounded in this fight instead of only one. Also, without the benefit of the original Newman letter, first printed in the following pages, he said Philip and his Indians crossed the Blackstone River at "Martin's Wade" a short distance south of the present village of Ashton, instead of at the "wading place" at Pawtucket River.
Mather and Hubbard, both writing histories which they intended to publish, apparently felt that they could not afford to say anything that would antagonize the Massachusetts General 'Court, which might later be asked to license the printing. One of these histories, Hubbard's, was subsequently licensed by the court, which also made its author a grant of £50 for a second history.
The two historians were also under the additional handicap of be- ing Massachusetts ministers, which linked them still closer with the court, for under the existing State-controlled church form of govern- ment no man could be a voter without being a member of the Con- gregational Church. And then it must be remembered that the court did make the voters support the ministers.
Understanding this situation, we can readily see why at times the two ministers appear to have been such poor historians and were particularly so silent on the unfortunate withdrawal of the Massa- chusetts forces just at the critical time when the war could have been easily ended. Then, of course, the confidence in and strong backing of Capt. Daniel Henchman by the Massachusetts General Court precluded the minister historians from making any mention of his military incompetence, but for which the war would have ended by the death or capture of Philip.
The whole Massachusetts strategy seems to have been to prevent the Narragansett and Nipmuck Indians from joining Philip in Plymouth Colony and then to let that colony attend to him, as it said it could. It was supposed that the Treaty of Peace made with the Narragansetts on 15 July, putting a price on Philip's head, would effectually prevent the Narragansetts from joining him in Plymouth Colony.
With Philip cornered in the Pocasset Swamp when the fight stopped on 19 July, Massachusetts left Capt. Daniel Henchman with a company of more than 100 men to help the Plymouth forces handle Philip, and ordered three companies to Boston and one to Mendon to take care of the Nipmuck Indians.
Realizing that the Narragansett and Nipmuck Indians were ef- fectively blocked from joining him in Plymouth Colony where the Plymouth forces held him trapped in the swamp, Philip was more afraid of the roving Captain Cudworth* than he was of Captain
* Of the seven Plymouth Colony Assistants who were in office 1 June 1675, five took the field and served in King Philip's War. These were Majors James Cudworth and William Bradford, Com- missary Constant Southworth, Capt. John Freeman, and Lieut. James Brown. Gov. Josiah Win-
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Henchman who was devoting his whole attention to building Fort Leverett on the southwest end of the swamp. So Philip out-ma- neuvered the high command by having his Indians attack Dart- mouth in order to split the English forces at Pocasset. The strategy worked, for on 29 July, ten days after the five English companies first cornered him in the Pocasset Swamp, Captain Cudworth marched his Plymouth forces to the relief of Dartmouth. That same night Philip escaped out of the north end of the swamp, followed the Massachusetts troops into Massachusetts and there joined the Nipmuck Indians who had been prevented from joining him in Plymouth Colony.
Philip's strategy was probably not anticipated by the high mili- tary command. The net result of the Massachusetts Expeditionary Army's campaign in Plymouth Colony was to drive Philip out of that colony into Massachusetts. Philip in Massachusetts, with nearly all of the New England tribes in sympathy with him, was far more dangerous than at Pocasset. On the loose with a com- pany of his warriors, he roamed as far as the woods above Albany, where the Dutch plentifully supplied him with arms and ammunition.
It was not until Philip's escape from the Pocasset Swamp, followed immediately by a second escape from Capt. Daniel Henchman and his union with the Nipmuck Indians at Quabaug (Brookfield), that Massachusetts recognized the war for what it actually was-a general Indian uprising throughout the whole of New England. The full realization did not come until the whole line of Massachusetts border towns was in flames.
Following are the various accounts of Philip's escape as written by the four contemporary historians, Mather, Hubbard, Church, and the Merchant of Boston in his letters to his friend in London,- an escape which was to cost New England the additional loss of up- wards of 600 lives, some 1,000 dwellings, and prolong the war for another year at a cost of more than £100,000.
When Mather the minister, in his role as historian, came to write the account of the escape of Philip from Pocasset Swamp and con- sequent pursuit by Capt. Daniel Henchman, commander of a Massa- chusetts company of foot soldiers, he apparently found himself be- tween the devil and the deep sea. Here was a captain with the full confidence and backing of the Governor of Massachusetts Bay, the General Court, and of the Council of War, who through military incompetence, procrastination, or whatever we may call it, had per- mitted Philip and a few warriors to slip through his fingers, all of which was general knowledge.
Whatever Mather's reasons may have been, he completely failed as an historian to give anything like an accurate account of this important military action. He evaded making an adequate record of this pursuit of Philip, omitted any mention of Captain Henchman by name, and glossed over the whole episode with a little of that biblical comment which he so frequently substituted for history, and
slow also served as general and commander-in-chief of the United Colonies Army in the Narragansett Fort Fight.
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disposed of the whole matter in the following few inadequate lines:
"As yet Philip kept in the swamp at Pocasset, but August 1, (being the Lords day) he fled, The English hearing that Philip was upon flight, pursued him, with a party of Monhegins, i. e. Unkas (who approved himself faithful to the English almost forty years ago in the time of the Pequod Wars and now also this present War) his Indians, they overtook Philips Party and killed about thirty of his men, none of ours being at that time cut off. Had the English pursued the enemy they might easily have overtaken the Women and Children that were with Philip, yea and himself also, and so have put an end to these tumults: but though Deliverance was according to all Humane probability near, God saw it no good for us as yet. Wherefore Philip escaped and went to the Nipmuck Indians, who had newly (as hath been intimated) done Acts of Hostility against the English" [Mather's Brief History (Drake Ed., 1862), p. 65].
Hubbard,* working under the same handicap of possible court disapproval as did Mather, certainly gave a far better account of Philip's escape, for he does mention Captain Henchman by name, although carefully avoiding all direct criticism of him, and partially alibied his delay in the pursuit of Philip by citing the exhaustion of his company by the long twenty-two (nearer ten) mile march. From what Hubbard did say, however, and what can be read between the lines, he made it abundantly clear that there was much more which could be said. He called attention to the fact that this fight was the third opportunity the English had had to end the war. The second, of course, was ten days before, when the six English companies of sol- diers aided by the company of friendly Indians had Philip greatly out-numbered and cornered in the Pocasset Swamp and when on the verge of winning the fight and war the English sounded a retreat and came out of the swamp. Hubbard's account follows:
"But to return to King Philip who was now lodged in the great Swamp upon Pocasset-Neck of seven miles long: Captain Henchman and the Plimouth Forces kept a diligent Eye upon the Enemy but were not willing to run into the Mire and Dirt after them in a dark Swamp . . . They resolved, there- fore, to starve them out of the swamp where they knew full well they could no longer subsist.
"To that End they began to build a Fort t [Church said: 'the army now lay still to cover the People from Nobody, while they were building a Fort for Nothing '], as it were to beleager the Enemy and prevent his Escape out of the Place where they thought they had him fast enough. Philip in the meantime was not ignorant of what was doing without and was ready therein to read his own Doom, so as if he tarried much longer there he knew he should fall into their Hands from whom he could Expect no Mercy. The Case being therefore desprate, he resolved with an hundred or two of his best fighting men made an Escape by Water, all Passages by the Land being sufficiently guarded by the English Forces. The Swamp where they were lodged being not far from an Arm of the Sea, coming up to Taunton, they taking the Advantage of a low Tide, either waded over one Night in the End of July, or else wafted them- selves over upon small Rafts of Timber very early before Break of Day by which means the greatest Part of the Company escaped away into the woods leading into the Nipmuck country, altogether unknown to the English Forces
* William Hubbard's son John married Gov. John Leverett's daughter Ann; his daughter Margaret married Maj. John Pynchon of Springfield, one of the Assistants of the Massachusetts Court from 1674 to 1686. William Hubbard's brother Richard married Sarah, daughter of Gov. Simon Brad- street, and their daughter Sarah married Rev. John Cotton of Yarmouth.
t Capt. James Cudworth in a letter written from Mount Hope on 20 July 1675 to Governor Win- slow urged the building of a fort at Pocasset, saying that he considered it best to maintain his garri- son at Mount Hope with twenty men and that there be another garrison at Pocasset, and to have a flying army to be in motion with these two forts as bases. See his letter, ante, page 73.
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that lay encamped on the other Side of the Swamp About an hundred or more of the Women and Children which were like to be rather Burdensom than Serviceable were left behind who soon after resigned up themselves to the Mercy of the English.
"Philips Escape thus from Pocasset could not long be concealed after the Day appeared, there being much champaign Land [Seekonk Plains] through which he was to pass, so as being discovered to some of Rehoboth, the Inhabi- tants presently followed him, together with a Party of the Mohegans (that a little before came to Boston, offering their Service against Philip, and were sent up into those Parts to be ordered by Capt. [Daniel] Henchman, but before they came to him were easily perswaded to go along with any of the English that were engaged in the Pursuit of Philip). News also thereof was carried to Capt. [Daniel] Henchman, who as soon as he could get over with six Files of Men (rowing hard * all or most Part of the Day to get to Providence) followed after the Enemy. [28] The Mohegins with the Men of Rehoboth, and some of Providence, came upon their Reer over Night, slew about thirty of them, took much Plunder from them, without any considerable Loss to the English. Captain Henchman came not up to them (pursuing them only by the Tract) till the Skirmish was over; and having marched twenty two + Miles that Day, was not well able to go any further that Night; on the other Hand, the Forces that came from Rehoboth, and that belonged to Plimouth, having left their Horses three Miles off, could not go back to fetch them without much loss of Time; and therefore looking at it altogether bootless to go after them in the Morning, returned back the next Day, leaving Capt. Henchman with his six Files, and the Mohegins to pursue the Chase to Nipsachet, which he did the next Morning. Captain Henchman, that he might the better engage the Mohegins to march with him thirty Miles, gave them half his Provision, and was himself recruited again by the Care of Capt. [Andrew] Edmunds, of Provi- dence, and Lieutenant Brown, who brought Provision after him to the Nip- muck Forts.
"Mr. [Noah] Newman the Minister of Rehoboth deserved not a little Com- mendation for exciting his Neighbors and Friends to persue thus far Philip animating of them by his own Example and Preference: But what the Reason was why Philip was followed no further is better to suspend than to too critically Enquire. This is now the third time # when a good Opportunity for suppressing the Rebellion of the Indians was put into the hands of the English . .. But by this Means Philip escaped away to the westward, kindling the Flame of War in all the Western Plantations of the Massachusetts Colony wherever he came; so by this fatal Accident the fire that was in a likely way to be extinguished as soon almost as it began, did on the sudden break out through the whole Jurisdiction of the Massachusetts, both Eastward and Westward, endangering also the neighbor Colony of Connecticut
[30] "The next thing in order to be related, is the calamity that befel the Village of Brookefield, which notwithstanding all the care that was taken, fell into the hands of the perfidious Nipnet Indians, as shall here in the next place be declared; only as we pass along to remind the Reader in a few words, what was the issue of Captain Henchmans Pursuit of Philip: the Plimouth Forces being returned home, as was said before, Captain Henchman with his six Files
* Hubbard said that they "rowed hard all or most part of the Day to get to Providence". Almy's sloop was probably not over 60 or 70 feet long and in those days, and in fact up to the time of the installation of engines in boats, all large craft carried sweeps or oars 18 or 20 feet long which were used in emergencies in the absence of wind. Today, yachtmen familiar with these waters say that with an easterly wind the sailing time from Pocasset (Tiverton) to Providence is about three hours; with a northwesterly wind, about five hours; that at the end of July there are usually no winds and that to make the trip against the tides in a sloop by the aid of oars would take from ten to twelve hours, which is probably about the time that it took Almy's sloop to make the twenty miles to Providence.
+ An inspection of a modern map shows that the distance from Rehoboth to Nipsachet or Nipsa- chuck, where the battle was fought, in what is now Smithfield, R. I., was ten miles from Providence and not twenty-two miles as stated by Hubbard.
# The second lost opportunity of ending the war was when the English, after driving Philip into the swamp at Pocasset, 18 miles from Taunton, attacked him on the 19th of July but unfortunately withdrew their forces at nightfall when had they "followed the Indians but one-half hour or more Philip had come and yielded up himself. But God Saw we were not yet fit for Deliverance" [Ma- ther's Brief History (Drake Ed., 1862), p. 62].
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of men, and the Mohegin Indians, having continued in the pursuit of Philip till they had spent all their provision, and tired themselves, yet never coming within sight of Philip; the Mohegin Indians in their company, directed them to Mendam, and then leaving them, returned also to their own country. Captain Henchman in his march towards Menham, or at Mendham, met with Captain Mosely coming up to bring him provision, and advising him of what success he had met withall in the pursuit; they altered their course, for Cap- tain Henchman was sent down to the Governour and Council, to know what they should do: they presently remanded him to Pocasset, and ordered him to stay there if there were need, or else to draw off, surrendering the fort he had been building, to Plimouth Forces, which last was chosen by those of Pli- mouth; whereupon Capt. Henchman returning to Boston, was ordered to dis- band his men" [Hubbard's Narrative (Drake Ed., 1865), vol. I, pp. 86-95].
Captain Church in his brief account of the pursuit of Philip across the Seekonk Plains, added some historical facts not recorded by either Mather or Hubbard. We learn from Church that the Plym- outh forces in Pocasset had been ordered to Dartmouth [29 July 1675] where the greater part of the town had been burned and many of the inhabitants killed. The departure of the Plymouth men for Dartmouth left Capt. Daniel Henchman and his company of some 100 men the only force remaining to watch Philip in the Pocasset Swamp.
The attack on Dartmouth was undoubtedly directed by Philip for the sole purpose of creating a diversion to divide the English forces. When the Plymouth command moved out of Pocasset, Philip was free to escape from the north end of the swamp, which he easily did without opposition, as the remaining half of the English forces, Cap- tain Henchman's company, was busily engaged in building Fort Leverett at the southwest of Pocasset Swamp.
While Captain Church did not mention Captain Henchman by name, he made it plain that he was the superior officer who took over the command from Capt. Andrew Edmunds and prevented him from further pursuing Philip. Church's account follows:
"Soon after this, was Philips head Quarters visited by some other English Forces; but Philip and his gang had the very fortune to escape that Weetamore and hers (but now mentioned) had: they took into a Swamp and their pur- suers were commanded back. After this Dartmouths distress required Suc- cour, great Part of the Town being laid desolate and many of the Inhabitants kill'd; the most of Plymouth Forces were ordered thither [116 men on 29 July]: and coming to Russels Garrison at Poneganset, they met with a number of the Enemy that had surrendered themselves Prisoners on terms promised by Capt. Eels of the Garrison and Ralph Earl that perswaded them (by a friend Indian) to come in. And had their promises to the Indians been kept, and the Indians fairly treated, 'tis probable that most if not all of the Indians in those parts had soon followed the Example of those who had now surrendered themselves, which would have been a good step toward finishing the war.
"But in spite of all that Capt. Eels, Church or Earl could say, argue, plead, or beg . . . and without any regard to the promises made them on their sur- rendering themselves, they were carried away to Plymouth, there sold and transported out of the Country; being about Eight-score Persons .* But
* At a meeting of the Council of War held at Plymouth 4 Aug. 1675, it was voted that the com- pany of 112 Indians, men, women, and children recently brought into Plymouth be sold into servi- tude, and the Treasurer was appointed to make sale of them in the "Countryes behalfe". On 2 Sept. 1675 the Council of War voted to sell into "perptual servitude" a parcel of 57 Indians "lately come into Sandwich in a submissive way to this Collonie" [Plymouth Colony Records, vol. V, pp. 173-4].
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while these things were acting at Dartmouth, Philip made his escape, leaving his Country, fled over Taunton-River, and Rehoboth-Plain, and Petuxet-River where Capt. Edmunds * of Providence made some spoil upon; and had prob- ably done more, but was prevented by the coming up of a Superior Officer [Capt. Daniel Henchman] that put him by. And now another fort was built at Pocasset that prov'd as troublesome and chargeable as that at Mount- hope; and the remainder of the Summer was improv'd in providing for the Forts and Fources there maintained while our Enemies were fled some hun- dreds of miles into the Country, near as far as Albany" [Church's Entertain- ing History (Dexter Ed., 1865), vol. I, pp. 44-48].
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