USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Deerfield > History of Deerfield, Massachusetts: the times when the people by whom it was settled, unsettled and resettled, vol 1 > Part 13
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At the town Sergt. Freegrace Norton fell mortally wound- ed, while fighting by the side of Maj. Appleton. The lattter lost a lock of hair by an Indian bullet. "A few barns and other buildings were burnt."
The savages moved into the west woods with their prison- ers. One of these was barbarously murdered on the 21st, after being grievously tormented for the amusement of the savages. "They burnt his nails & put his feet to scald against
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THE CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN.
the fire & drove a stake through one of his feet to pin him to the ground." The Sachems, knowing Appleton was seeking their main body to attack it, hoped through the device of the fires in the woods to draw his army into an ambuscade and there cripple or destroy it. when the town would be an easy prey. The Indians, like the English, differed as to the best method of conducting the war. The policy advocated by the young warriors was to ent off the soldiers; this done, the in- habitants would be at their mercy. Their method had been adopted, but they had succeeded only when able to surprise their enemy. Not the smallest defended post had been carried. Being defeated in their great attempt on Hatfield they were discouraged, and the counsels of the old men, to break up in- to small bodies, hover about the settlements, kill, pillage or burn, as chance gave opportunity, were now heeded. It was seen that however great their numbers, they were no match for the English in open combat, and rarely or never, was so large a force again seen together in the field. The Nipmucks gradually drew off to their own country. The Pocumtueks sent a party of thirty to their old allies, the Mahicans, on the Hoo- sick river ; and here the remainder of them-after harassing the frontier some ten days longer-joined them about Nov. 7th, and were made welcome.
A few days after the Hatfield affair, an attempt was made on Northampton ; but on the approach of the ubiquitous Maj. Treat, the assailants fled, after burning four or five houses and a few barns. On the 27th, Pynchon and five or six Springfield men were ambushed on their return from Westfield, where they had been looking for ore. John Dumbleton of Spring- field, William and John, sons of William Brooks, an early settler of Deerfield, were shot down, while the rest escaped. At another time one Granger was wounded, and several houses and barns were burned at Westfield. Oct. 29th a party of Northampton farmers who had gone into the mead- ows to gather some crops were fired upon, and Thomas Sal- mon, Joseph Baker and his son Joseph, were killed. The Indians then made an attempt to burn Northampton mill, but a guard stationed there beat them off. The next day the frightened cattle came running out of the woods into Hat- field, thus giving notice of the presence there of a party of the enemy. A company was sent out, but their tracks only
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PHILIP'S WAR.
were discovered. On the 31st, Appleton crossed the river and scoured the woods for ten or twelve miles round without success. Nov. 4th a large force ranged toward Deerfield. The search was continued for a few days longer, but no trace of a present enemy was discovered. The Indians had left for Hoosick river. Appleton, believing they had returned to their old haunts eastward, prepared to follow Capt. Sill, who had already been ordered to Hassenimisset.
Garrisons were established in the valley towns ; thirty-nine men under Pynchon, at Springfield ; twenty-nine at Westfield, under Capt. Aaron Cooke; twenty-six at Northampton, under Lieut. Wmn. Clark ; thirty-six at Hatfield, under Lieut. Wm. Allis; and thirty remained at Hadley, under Capt. Poole.
Nov. 16th, Maj. Treat led home the Connecticut forces. A few days later Maj. Appleton appointed a Council of War, made up of Capt. Poole, Lieut. David Wilton of Northamp- ton, Dea. Peter Tilton of Hadley, Sergt. Isaac Graves of Hat- field, with the commissioned officers of these three towns- Poole to be President, and presumably Commander-in-Chief.
About Nov. 20th, Appleton and Moseley, with all the sol- diers not in the garrisons, marched for the Nipmuck country. The Nipmucks, on their return home, had begun depreda- tions on their frontiers ; and early in November Capt. Hench- man had been sent against them. Meeting some reverses, he was reinforced by Capt. Sill and other troops. The In- dians soon after disappeared, probably going to the region about Northfield and Vernon, where their non-combatants had before taken refuge. A large quantity of corn was de- stroyed in the Nipmuck country, which was a serious blow to the enemy, and before spring they were reduced to the verge of starvation. Appleton, on his arrival, finding all quiet in the interior, continued his march to Boston, and joined the expedition against the Narragansets, Dec. 10th, as the commander of the Massachusetts forces.
Philip, as before noted, left this region for Narraganset, after the burning of Springfield. The Indians seen at Glas- tonbury, on the 7th, were probably part of his force. Philip reached his destination about Oct. 10th, loaded with spoils from the English. From the first outbreak the young Nar- ragansets had been forward to join in the war. The inva- sion of their country and the treaty of peace forced upon
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CANONCHET DEFIES THE ENGLISH.
them, July 15th, by Hutchinson, Moseley and others, "with a Sword in their Hands," could not be forgiven. On the first hostile movements of the English, Philip had sent all the women and children of his tribe to the Narragansets for pro- tection. One provision of the treaty was that all subjects of Philip should be given up. The fact that the Narragansets were an independent nation was ignored, and the treaty was signed while the Sachems were virtually looking into the muzzles of the English muskets. One of the strongest un- written statutes of the Indian was the law of hospitality. This they were called upon ruthlessly to violate. When the pressure was withdrawn, the great hearted Canonchet assert- ed his manhood, and declared boldly that he " would not give up a Wampanoag, nor the paring of a Wampanoag's nail," and otherwise little regard seems to have been paid to the treaty.
The successful Philip found in Canonchet an instrument by which he could gain time, and surely involve the Narra- gansets in the war. It is easy to believe that it was by his instigation that Canonchet negotiated the treaty of Oct. 18th, at Boston. If this was a deliberate act of treachery, as gener- ally accounted, it is the only dishonorable act recorded against Canonchet. From what we know of the character of the two men, may we not presume that the impulsive Canon- chet was deceived in some way by the artful Philip? Es- pecially as the high minded Narraganset, shortly after his return, sent back word to Boston that the treaty must be con- sidered null and void. It could not be enforced without the co-operation of Philip. By its terms the Narragansets en- gaged to deliver up within ten days all hostile Indians among them, including the followers of Philip, of Weetemo, and the Pocumtucks. There was no intention on the part of Philip of allowing this clause to take effect. It was only a blind to allay suspicion awhile longer. Philip's hand is plainly seen in this transaction. Exactly the same tactics were employed successfully by him at Springfield two weeks before. Not unlikely he expected, before the ten days were out, to be on his way to Pocumtuck, with a strong war party of Narragansets. If so, he failed in this, but he had surely involved that fated tribe in the war.
Nov. 2d the Commissioners, now assured of the hostile dis-
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PHILIP'S WAR.
position of the Narragansets, formally declared war against them, and raised one thousand soldiers to prosecute it. Dec. 19th the stronghold of the tribe was stormed and hundreds of them slain. The remainder were scattered in the wilder- ness, their wigwams burned, their winter store of provisions destroyed. Many were killed or captured by ranging parties of the English, and others perished by cold and hunger. The warriors who escaped, fled northward to the Nipmucks, and their avenging blows were soon felt on the English frontiers. The loss of the English in the attack on the fort was eighty killed and about one hundred and forty wounded.
The prudent Philip, in the meantime, to secure himself from the rising storm, had left the Narragansets and joined the Pocumtucks at the Hoosick river, where we shall soon follow him.
After Nov. roth no Indians were seen in the Connecticut valley. The route to Boston by the Bay Path was shut up by the Nipmucks, and the only communication with the govern- ment was by means of the soldiers in the Narraganset war. Through these the results of the rupture with that powerful tribe became known, and the inhabitants of the river towns lived in constant fear of an attack. Citizens and soldiers were alike busy in fortifying houses and building stockades about the towns, and fearful were the forebodings of the coming spring. Events leading to the next hostile attempt in this valley will now be briefly sketched.
PHILIP IN THE WINTER OF 1675-6.
There is very little direct information as to the movements of Philip during the fall and winter of 1675-6. By carefully collating all accessible contemporaneous accounts, the con- clusions given below seem to be well sustained. Better evi- dence on some points would be more satisfactory.
When Philip joined the Pocumtucks, who were with the Mahicans west of the Hoosick mountains, he had a purpose besides that before mentioned. Knowing that the Mahicans and other Hudson River Indians had formerly been confed- erates of the Pocumtucks in their wars with the Mohegans, he hoped, the tribes being now together, the alliance might be renewed, and so a new force enlisted in the war. Philip met a friendly reception and such measure of success as to
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SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATION.
secure at least a supply of ammunition, and not unlikely a promise of co-operation. In December the hostile clans from the east established winter quarters in the valleys of Manchester and Sunderland, Vermont, not far from the head waters of the Pocumtuck. Sancumachu, the Pocumtuck Sa- chem, was in command. Philip was reported ill, but prob- ably he was on a secret expedition to Canada. On his recov- ery, or return, the wily chieftain undertook the delicate task. of reconciling the Pocumtucks and the Mohawks for the pur- pose of uniting them against a common enemy. We have seen that previous to the rupture twelve years before, these tribes had been allies in fighting the Mohegans. Philip so far succeeded in his plan that the Mohawks were willing to join the hostile forces in warring against Uncas, but they would not consent to fight the English.
Sancumachu, with about four hundred Pocumtucks and Wampanoags, had in the meantime, prudently taken post farther eastward. Young recruits, ready for blood and plun- der, flocked to the headquarters, from the Mohawks, Scata- kooks, Mahicans, and others, until about the middle of Jan- uary, fully fifteen hundred warriors were in arms. Soon aft- er this they were joined by five or six hundred French In- dians, from Canada. This army was ostentatiously paraded "in two ranks" for the inspection of the two English scouts who were captured at Hatfield, Oct. 19th. The captives were then released and sent to Albany, to report what they had seen. These men counted twenty-one hundred warriors, generally armed with good firearms. They said that Philip, whose "own men were not above a hundred," was with an- other party of four hundred ; but " he had little esteem or au- thority among them." About this time Sagamore Sam visit- ed the camp, and here the campaign for the spring was planned. This, as it appears in the light of subsequent events, was that the confederates here should rendezvous at Northfield, and from there swoop down upon the defenseless towns in the valley, while the Nipmucks and Narragansets were ravaging the frontiers of the Bay towns, and so pre- venting aid being sent to the river. In the valley thus cleared of the English, headquarters were to be established, the non-combatants collected, the fields planted with indian corn and a winter's stock of fish laid up from the abundance
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PHILIP'S WAR.
of the streams. They would be under the protection of the French, who were to come from Canada and settle among them. It was now indeed " full sea with Philip his af- fairs." He might well feel confident that in the coming campaign the traitorous Mohegans would be annihilated and the hated white men driven from the valley. To make the event more sure, the subtle Sachem sought to embroil the Mohawks with the English, as well as with the Mohegans. To that end he caused some Mohawks to be killed and ac- cused the English of being the murderers. This foul artifice was his fatal mistake. It cost him all he had gained during the winter, and changed all his future life. One of the Mo- hawks left for dead, revived and reached his home. When the truth became known, the enraged Mohawks fell upon the Eastern Indians, killed and captured many of them, and the great hostile army was scattered. Philip, with the Pocum- tucks and his few disheartened followers, fled over the Green Mountains and reached Northfield the last week in February.
As has been said, after the destruction of their fort in December, the scattered Narragansets joined the Nipmucks. The general rendezvous of the combined forces was at Wen- imisset. From thence war parties carried the musket and torch all along the frontiers of the Bay towns, with death and destruction in their train. Lancaster was surprised, Feb. Ioth, 1675-6. About fifty people were killed or captured. Among the latter was Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, wife of the minister, and their three children, Sarah, the youngest, five years old, being grievously wounded. The captives were taken to Wenimisset, where some of them were barbarously murdered. At this place, Feb. 18th, Sarah died of her wounds, and was buried the next day. By an erroneous but common- ly accepted tradition, this child died and was buried on a mountain in Warwick, which in consequence was named for her, Mount Grace. But Grace is not Sarah, and Warwick is many miles from Wenimisset.
Information of the gathering at Wenimisset was given to the English by Mary Shepherd, a girl of fifteen, captured at Concord, Feb. 12th, who escaped on a horse taken at Lancas- ter, and made her way through the woods to the settlements. An expedition was at once planned against the place. Three foot companies under Captains Turner, Moseley and Gillam,
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THE LAPWING STRATAGEM ON RETREAT.
and Capt. Whipple with a troop of horse, all under Maj. Sav- age, reached Quabaug, March 2d, where they met Maj. Treat, with three or four companies from Connecticut. The next day, leaving Turner to establish a garrison at Quabaug, the rest of the command marched against Wenimisset. Scouts from the Indians had doubtless reported the movements of their enemy, and the whole body, some two thousand men, women and children, made a hasty retreat northward. The fugitives reached the Paquayag river in the present town of Orange, March 3d, and before night on the 5th, had all crossed the river on rafts. They reached Squakheag in safe- ty on the 7th. On the 9th they crossed the Connecticut river and joined Philip and the forces which had recently come over the Green Mountains from the Hoosick valley.
Maj. Savage, finding no Indians at Wenimisset, pursued on their trail, but deceived by the "lapwing stratagem " of their rear guard, he was kept on a false scent for two or three days, and only reached the Paquayag on the 6th, in time to see the smoking ruins of the Indian camp on the north shore. No attempt was made to cross the river, or pursue the enemy any farther. This retreat was skillfully planned and con- ducted.
Foreseeing the danger to which the river towns would now be exposed, Savage at once took up his march for Hadley. Capt. Turner, leaving a garrison at Quabaug, took his com- mand to Northampton. Maj. Treat, with two Connecticut companies, reached the same town the 13th, "in the even- ing." Capt. Moseley, with two companies, was stationed at Hatfield. As we shall see, these movements were made none too quickly.
ATTACK ON NORTHAMPTON.
Soon after the arrival of Philip at Squakheag, scouts were sent out to discover the condition of the settlements below. About the first of March, John Gilbert, a boy of seventeen, was captured, carried to Squakheag and closely examined. It does not appear from what place he was taken.
No other depredations hereabouts at this period are re- corded, except at Westfield, where March 9th, "five bushels of meal were stolen" and " a man wounded," two houses and a barn burned. About the same time, Moses Cook, a resident,
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PHILIP'S WAR.
and Clement Bates of Hingham, a soldier of Capt. Lothrop's company, were killed while out on a scout, probably in search of the depredators. This affair occurred the same day on which the mass of Indians from Wenimisset formed a junction with Philip, at Squakheag.
Two or three days later, doubtless on the return of the scouts, with reports that no Bay troops had come to the val- ley, a force was organized against Northampton, with the evident expectation of finding it an easy prey. On the morn- ing of March 14th they made an assault on the sleeping town. The defensive works-a single line of palisades, erect- ed during the winter-were quickly broken through in three places. Through the gaps thus made the horde crept in, and at daylight began the work of destruction. The assailants, ignorant of the newly arrived forces, had no fear of the small garrison, and no doubt of the speedy destruction of the town. Surprised by the appearance of the soldiers of Treat and Turner, they fell back, but in the attempt to scatter, in ac- cordance with their usual tactics, they found themselves in a pound. A panic followed. They rushed pell-mell for the three narrow breaks in the palisades, where they were ex- posed to the fire of the English while crowding through. Getting out proved more dangerous than getting in. This lesson was not forgotten. The Indians never again attempt- ed that method of attack, and these slight works proved a real defense.
Maj. Savage writing from Northampton, March 16th, gives the following brief report of this affair :- -
On the 14th just aboute breake of ye day the enemy fiercely assaulted Northampton in three places at once and forced within the lines or palisades and burnt five houses and five barns and killed four men and one woman and wounded six men more.
Ten buildings had been fired before the garrison was fair- ly aroused. Robert Bartlett, Thomas Holton, Mary Earle, of the inhabitants ; James McRennal of Turner's company, and Increase Whelstone, another soldier, were killed, and six other men wounded.
Driven from Northampton, the Indians at once made for Hatfield. Here another surprise awaited them. The gallant Moseley was on the alert, and they were easily repulsed. Grievously disappointed at the result of the expedition, from
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THE SPRING CAMPAIGN.
which so much had been confidently expected, the Indians were loth to return without one more effort, and an attempt was made for a night surprise of Northampton. About two o'clock on the morning of the 16th the sentinels discovered them approaching the town from opposite directions. On the alarm being given they disappeared. The main body, with a number of horses, sheep and other plunder, retreated to Squakheag ; but small parties remained hovering about, waylaying the English, as chances occurred. Several men were killed and others wounded in the towns about Hartford. Rev. John Russell, writing from headquarters, March 16th, to Governor Leverett, giving a detailed account of the attack on Northampton, says the assailants were "near 2000 as judged," which Judd calls a "strange delusion," and says, "there may have been 3 or 400." An average of these num- bers would probably be an underestimate. Philip was not present and the leaders are not named, but doubtless Canon- chet, and Sancumachu the Pocumtuck Sachem were promi- nent. Mr. Russell, in the letter above referred to, writes :-
Although the Lord has granted us an interval of quietness this win- ter, yet since ye coming on of ye spring, the war here is renewed, and like to be continued with more strength and violence here, than in any other part, while we remain. For as we had intelligence by the captive who is returned, (commonly called speckled Tom,) Phil- ip intended with his whole force to come upon these towns, and taking them, to make his planting place and fort this year at Deer- field * * Here also, above Deerfield a few miles, is the great place of their fishing, wh must be expected to afford them their pro- uision for the yeere. So that the swarm of them being here, and like to continue here, we must look to feele their utmost rage, ex- cept the Lord be pleased to break their power. My desire is, that we may be willing to do or suffer, live or dy ; remain, or be driven out from our habitations, as the Lord God would have us, & as may be conducible to the glory of his name, and the publike weale of his people.
The Massachusetts Council at this time had very imperfect information of the numbers or movements of the enemy, ap- parently supposing them to be all in one body. In a letter from their Secretary to Maj. Savage, of March 14th, which crossed that of Russell on the way, he is told that "the 150 troops and dragoons" which had been ordered to join him "are retarded by the appearance of the enemy on our fron- tier towns yesterday ;" that they had been "ordered to march o Groton and Lancaster ;" that they would not be sent to the
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PHILIP'S WAR.
river unless the enemy are heard of there. This letter was not received until March 26th-doubtless delayed by the danger of posting.
The depredations in Connecticut continuing, the Council of War ordered extraordinary precautions against surprise. In each town the night watch was directed to call up the in- habitants every morning "an hower at least before day," who were to arm and stand upon guard at their assigned posts " until sunne be half an hower high," when the " warders are to take their places * * * Two scouts from each end of every town " are to be sent out on horseback to spend the day in scouring the woods.
In Massachusetts the alarm seems to have been almost a panic. The activity and success of the enemy against the frontier towns of the Bay, was such that the Council thought it necessary, not only to detain the troops under orders for the Connecticut valley, but also to withdraw those already there ; and on the 20th of March another letter was sent Maj. Savage with "advice," which was equivalent to a command, "to desert all the towns" but Springfield and Hadley, and concentrate their strength there. "The lesser towns," they say, "must gather to the greater * * To remain in such a scattered state is to expose lives and estates to the merciless cruelty of the enemy, and is no less than tempting divine providence ;" that unless they come together and well fortify the large towns, " all will be lost * *
* the enemy being so many in these parts that our army must remove from thence * * * We cannot spare them or supply them with ammunition." Maj. Savage was instructed to act in ac- cordance with these views. Had this plan been adopted, the dissensions among the miscellaneous clans at Squakheag and Pocumtuck would have been healed and the whole become a unit. Philip would have been again in the ascendant, with every encouragement to prosecute the war with vigor and confidence. The order was not obeyed.
The new year opened gloomily for the colonists. The first Sunday in 1676, March 26th, by the old calendar, was a day of disaster. Had the present mode of communication existed, the devotions of Maj. Savage would have been inter- rupted by news of the raid on Windsor, and the burning of Simsbury, Connecticut; of the destruction of Capt. Pierce and
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A DAY OF DISASTER.
sixty men on Patucket river ; the desolation by fire of the greater part of Marlboro, and of the attack on the people at Longmeadow ; all of which occurred that day. In addition, an express arrived that day from Boston with the discourag- ing Council letters of March 14th and 20th before referred to, "advising" Savage to concentrate the inhabitants, and march his troops to the Bay.
From contemporary accounts of the last mentioned attack, we learn that " 8 Indians assaulted 16 or 18 men beside wom- en and children, as they were going to meeting," from Long- meadow to Springfield, on horseback. The rear of the caval- cade was surprised, John Keep " and a maid" were killed, and two men wounded at the first fire. Sarah, the wife of John Keep, and another woman, each with an infant in her arms, were seized by the savages in the confusion, and at once hurried into the woods. The escort, after depositing the rest of the women and children in a place of safety, re- turned to the scene of the disaster. Maj. Pynchon at once sent out a party in pursuit. These were joined the next morning by sixteen men, sent by Savage from Hadley, " who found their Track and soon after discovered them ; who, see- ing our men approach, took the two poor Infants, and in the Sight both of their mothers, and our Men, tossed them up in the Air, and dashed their Brains out against the Rocks, and "with their Hatchets knokt down the Women, and forthwith fled. The Place being exceeding rocky, and a Swamp just by, our Horse could not follow, and on foot were not able to overtake them." Mrs. Keep died; the other woman recov- ered. The conduct of the escort was characterized by the Council, "as a matter of great shame, humbling to us," and it was ridiculed in the following couplet :- .
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