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 54
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June 11th, Gershom Hawks and Elisha Nims, two young men from Deerfield, posted at Fort Massachusetts, were sent to do some work about sixty rods from the fort, with Ben- jamin Taintor as guard. They fell into an ambuscade. Nims was killed, Hawks wounded and Taintor captured. On the account book of Joseph Barnard I find the Province charged "for my horse to Hoosock after Gershom Hawks, wounded."
By the following it would seem that the assailants did not get off scot-free :-
Deerfield Oct. 16, 1747.
These may certify that James Rider & Salah Barnard both of Deerfield were at Fort Massachusetts in June 1746 presently after ye attack there & saw the scalp taken off from ye Indian there found
To the Truth of which they made Solemn Oath
June 2d, 1746, Gov. Shirley issued a proclamation for rais- ing troops for the invasion of Canada. Capt. Ephraim Wil- liams, afterwards colonel, the founder of Williams College, had been in command at Fort Massachusetts. In 1746, he
543
CAPTURE OF FORT MASSACHUSETTS.
was in the army which made the futile attempt to invade Can- ada, and left a small garrison at the fort under John Hawks, now Sergeant. Nothing new will be added to the many ac- counts of the capture of this fort; but as the " Hero of Fort Massachusetts" was one of our citizens, it seems fitting to in- sert a brief account of the affair.
Pierre Francois Rigaud de Vaudreuil, a brother of Gov- ernor Vaudreuil, so often mentioned, left Canada August 3d with 440 French and 300 French Mohawks and Abenakis. His route was up the lake to Fort Frederick, where he was joined by Lieut. DeMuy as second in command, thence up the lake, up Wood Creek, and over the divide to the Hoosac Valley; his destination Fort Massachusetts. August 18th, the main body encamped on the Hoosac river, four miles be- low Fort Massachusetts.
An advance guard had been skulking about the fort, and a party had been several days before stationed in ambush on the road to Deerfield, to cut off reinforcements. Signs of the enemy had been discovered by scouts, and on the 16th Hawks sent a party of fourteen men to Deerfield for ammunition and supplies. With this party was Dr. Thomas Williams, surgeon to the line of forts. They passed within a few feet of the en- emy in ambush, but were not molested, the object of that party being to prevent the increase, but not the depletion of the garrison. Nor did they wish to raise an alarm. Sergt. Hawks had but twenty-one men under him, of whom eleven were on the sick list with dysentery. Several of them were new recruits, but each of them proved true as steel, and their names should be recorded here :-
Sergt. John Hawks, Deerfield, Chaplain John Norton, Fall Town, John Aldrich, Mendon, killed,
Jonathan Bridgman, Sunderland, killed,
Nathaniel Eams, Marlboro',
Phineas Forbush, Westboro',
Samuel Goodman, Hadley, Nathaniel Hitchcock, Springfield,
Thomas Knowlton, wounded,
Samuel Lovett, Mendon, John Perry, Fall Town,
Amos Pratt, Shrewsbury, Josiah Reed, Rehoboth,
Joseph Scott, Hatfield,
Moses Scott, Fall Town,
Stephen Scott, Sunderland, Jacob Shepherd, Westboro',
Benjamin Simons, Ware River,
John Smead, Athol,
John Smead, Jr., Athol,
Daniel Smead, Athol,
David Warren, Marlboro'.
Adding to the numbers, and perhaps to the strength of the garrison, were Mary, (Allis) wife of John Smead, with three young children, Elihu, Simon and Mary. Miriam, wife of
544
THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
Moses Scott, with children, Ebenezer and Moses ;* and Re- becca, wife of John Perry-thirty souls in all. These inmates of the fort were now called upon to confront in a deadly as- sault 750 fighting men-more than thirty against one.
On the morning of August 19th, De Vaudreuil left his camp, and at about half-past eight o'clock he appeared before Fort Massachusetts. He advanced his colors, which his stand- ard bearer displayed from behind a tree at a distance of thirty rods, when the whole horde rushed towards the fort from every side, with hideous shouts and showers of bullets. Hawks was on the alert, and stationed his men, sick and well, each at his post. He watched the surging mass in silence until it was within twenty rods, and every sharp-shooter had covered his man, then sent a deadly volley, which stopped the advance and sent the assailants to cover. From behind logs and stumps the firing was kept up, and returned as chance offered a mark. The chief of the St. Francis Indians exposed himself while urging his warriors forward, when a bullet from the gun of Sergt. Hawks left the tribe without a leader. All day long this assault continued, the enemy creep- ing nearer and nearer whenever shelter could be gained. Bullets becoming scarce, Hawks set his non-combatants to molding more, when he found to his dismay that the supply of lead was nearly exhausted. Thereafter not an ounce of lead was allowed to leave a musket unless it was pretty sure to be a messenger of death. During the day De Vaudreuil joined his standard bearer, but having been observed by one of the besieged, he was soon sent back by a shot in his right arm.
After twelve hours of incessant firing, the main body re- tired to their camp. A night assault with an attempt to burn the fort was expected. Every vessel was filled with water and every possible preparation was made to resist the storm - but not one man suggested the white flag of surrender. At daylight the next morning the firing began again and was continued until twelve o'clock, when De Vaudreuil stepped forward with a flag and called for a parley. Hawks and Nor- ton went out to meet him. He promised good quarter if they
* There is a tradition in Bernardston, that this family was captured in that town.
545
THE BARS FIGHT.
would surrender, and Hawks told him he would give an an- swer in two hours.
After prayer, a consultation was held. One man had been killed and two wounded, but the men still believed that, al- though there were but eight inen in health, they could repel another assault. When it was found out, however, that only three rounds of ammunition per man remained, further de- fense became impossible, and at three o'clock the heroic gar- rison surrendered upon honorable terms. The accounts of De Vandreuil's loss vary from forty to seventy men killed and wounded.
The prisoners were kindly treated ; the wounded, the dis- abled and the children were carried on the return march. On the evening of the second day Mrs. Smead gave birth to a daughter. The baby was baptized the next morning by the chaplain, and named Captivity. The mother and child were henceforth carried upon an extemporized litter by French soldiers.
August 22d, the affair of Fort Massachusetts being un- known, ten men left Deerfield for Colrain. They were fired upon from an ambush, and Constance Bliss of Hebron, a sol- dier from Connecticut, was killed and scalped. The rest fled, presumably to the Colrain forts. In their flight they left some rum, with which the Indians became drunk. When they awoke from their drunken frolic, the next morning, they found themselves very near one of the forts in Colrain, but they escaped thence undiscovered.
The Bars Fight. The Indians who killed Bliss belonged to a party of sixty which left De Vaudreuil after the surrender of Fort Massachusetts. According to the best information attainable, they were dissatisfied with the small number of prisoners, and came over the Hoosac by the Indian Path, and down the valley of the Deerfield, to secure captives to grace their triumphant return to Crown Point and sell to the French in Canada. Sunday, August 24th, they observed some partly made hay in Stebbins Meadow, near the foot of Still- water. Judging that the workmen would return to the place, the next day they formed an ambush in the thicket, at the foot of a hill hard by, and waited a favorable opportunity to accomplish their object. The hay belonged to the Allens and Amsdens.
546
THIE OLD FRENCH WAR.
Monday morning, August 25th, the hay-makers went to their fate. As far as known the party were Samuel Allen, aged 44; his children-Eunice, 13, Caleb, 9, and Samuel, 8; Oliver Amsden, 18, and Simeon, 9, orphan sons of John Ams- den.
The Allen and Amsden families lived at the Bars, on the table land just south, but had deserted their homes to lodge in the forts, at Wapping, or at the Street. Two soldiers seem to have been sent out with them as a guard,-John Saddler, a townsman, and Adonijah Gillett from Colchester, Conn. With the party was Eleazer Hawks, brother-in-law to Allen, who, being out of health, was on a fowling excursion. He was the unconscious marplot of the occasion.
The news of the assault on Fort Massachusetts had not yet been received by the commander here, and presumably he was ignorant of the attack at Colrain, or a larger guard would have been sent out and a more vigilant watch kept. Capt. Holson (or Hopkins, by another account), a Connecticut man, was stationed here with a party of Connecticut soldiers, who were the "standing guard."
The hay-makers went to work in the very jaws of the ene- my, with no examination of the thicket, and, so far as ap- pears, no precautions against surprise. Had not prisoners, instead of scalps, been their object, the Indians might have killed the whole party at a single volley. They were wait- ing, however, for a favorable moment for stealing between the men and their guns, when the whole party would become an easy prey. Their action was precipitated by Hawks, who, going into the copse in search of partridges, stumbled upon the ambush. He was shot, the war-whoop given and a rush made for their victims.
The astounded men did the best they could. They urged the children to fly to the fort, while they tried to check the pursuit by a fighting retreat to the mill. They were so hard pressed, however, they could not reach it, but took shelter under the bank of the river near it, on the flank of the line of pursuit. Here they made a stand, hoping to divert the at- tention of the enemy from the fleeing children. The odds were too great. Allen shot the foremost Indian, but he and Gillett were soon overpowered and killed. Saddler, amid a shower of bullets, dashed through the water to a thicket on
547
NOAH WRIGHT'S ACCOUNT.
an island in their rear, and so escaped across the river. Meanwhile part of the assailants had been busy with the chil- dren. Oliver Amsden fell early in the attack. He was scalped and his head severed from his body. His brother Simeon was overtaken and killed after a brave defense, his hands and arms being cut in pieces by the knives of his captors. Caleb Allen escaped by dodging about and hiding in a field of corn. Samuel was caught by a young Scatacook Indian, his pursuer, and after a sharp resistance with teeth, nails and feet, was se- cured unhurt as a prisoner, and carried to St. Francis. Eu- nice was the last to be overtaken, but finally an Indian split her skull with his hatchet and left her for dead, not stopping, however, in his haste, to secure her scalp. Eunice survived the blow for seventy-two years, but she never fully recovered.
But a few moments were occupied by the Indians in the bloody work, when they made a hasty retreat with their cap- tive boy up the river and reached De Vaudreuil at Crown Point about noon, August 31st, with the scalps of the five killed at the Bars and that of Constance Bliss. The follow- ing concise account of the tragedy is given by Dea. Noah Wright, who was doubtless on the spot at the first alarm :-
Aug. 25, 1746. In the southwest corner of Deerfield Meadows a number of Indians came upon our men at work, killed and scalped Samuel Allen, Eleazer Hawks, and one of Capt. Holson's soldiers named Jillet, and two of the Widow Amsden's children, taken cap- tive, one boy of Samuel Allen's and chopped a hatchet into the brains of one of his girls. They are in hopes she will recover. One man killed one of the Indians, who got one gun from them, and lost three guns by them.
Rev. Mr. Doolittle of Northfield criticises the military of- ficers here for their neglect of discipline, saying "Had there not been a continual firing in the Town from Day to Day, the People would have took the Alarm, and might have been up- on the enemy before ever they could have got out of the meadow." This must refer to other parties working in the meadows. It could not apply to the garrison two miles away.
When the alarm reached the town there was vigorous ac- tion by her citizens. Lieut. Jonathan Hoyt with one party followed the trail of the marauders up the river, and it was probably Lieut. Joseph Clesson who led another party across the hills to intercept them at Charlemont. Neither party had any success.
548
THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
From the Massachusetts MS. archives we get the names of a few men who went to the rescue. It seems that Othniel Taylor rode so hard as to kill his mare, for which £6 was al- lowed him by the Province. In relation to this affair :-
Jona. Hoit testifies & says that when the Indians on the 25th of August last attacked & killed sundry persons in the south part of the town of Deerfield, on the aların in the town sundry persons were sent out to relieve those in distress &c, and as I was going to the field aforesaid, I came up with Othniel Taylor, on horseback, & or- dered him to put on faster. He told me his horse was about beat out. I ordered him to whip on as fast as he could to the mill & I myself continued the pursuit after the enemy, & when I returned I saw the mare that said Taylor rode lie dead near the mill, & I de- termine she was killed by riding as aforesaid.
Deerfield, Oct. 2, 1746. JONA. HOYT.
[Joseph Barnard certified that when he] came up to Taylor, near the mill, and when I was dismounting my horse, said Taylor spake & said he had killed his mare, & as I turned about I saw her fall on the ground, & when I returned from pursuing the Indians, I saw her lie dead on the spot & determine she was killed by riding in pursuit of the Indians.
The only other contemporaneous account of this affair, be- side those noticed, is the following effusion from the lips of "Luce Bijah." She was a bright negress, wife of Abijah Prince, "servant" of Ebenezer Wells and a member of the church in 1744. She has an interesting history, to be given by and by :-
August, 'twas the twenty-fifth, Seventeen hundred forty-six, The Indians did in ambush lay, Some very valient men to slay, The names of whom I'll not leave out: Samuel Allen like a hero fout, And though he was so brave and bold, His face no more shall we behold.
Eleazer Hawks was killed outright, Before he had time to fight,- Before he did the Indians see, Was shot and killed immediately.
Oliver Amsden he was slain, Which caused his friends much grief and pain. Simeon Amsden they found dead Not many rods distant from his head.
Adonijah Gillett, we do hear, Did lose his life which was so dear. John Sadler fled across the water, And thus escaped the dreadful slaughter.
Eunice Allen see the Indians coming, And hopes to save herself by running;
549
LOCKE'S ISLAND.
And had not her petticoats stopped her, The awful creatures had not catched her, Nor tommy hawked her on the head, And left her on the ground for dead. Young Samuel Allen, Oh, lack-a-day! Was taken and carried to Canada.
The mill spoken of in the narrative belonged to Samuel Dickinson, and was known later as Locks' mill; it stood on the bank of the Deerfield river, a little north of the spot where the ruins of the " John De Wolf house" now stand. It was at the outlet of a brook, which, coming from the south, divided Stebbins Meadow into two parts. Its bed is now to be seen, but its waters were cut off in 1796, when the canal was dug which supplied power to Stebbins's mill and other works at the Mill village.
The place where Allen and Gillett fell is believed to be against Locke's Island, a few rods above the mill. There is a tradition in the Allen family, that Samuel Allen stopped in the open field, exposing himself to certain destruction, that he might check the onset of the foe, and give one moment more for his children to escape. This tradition will be stoutly maintained by some of his descendants, but it has no histori- cal support, and the probabilities do not favor it, if Samuel Allen was as prudent and collected as he was brave. His ob- ject would be more effectually accomplished under the par- tial shelter of the ravine, on the bank of which there used to be a stone, said to mark the spot where he fell.
A post sent from Deerfield to Fort Massachusetts returned August 30th, and brought the first news of its capture. Prob- ably he turned back at once on coming in sight of the ruins, for the letter which Chaplain Norton nailed on to the well crotch does not appear here until September IIth.
Beside plundering some houses and killing cattle at North- ampton about this time, nothing more is heard of the enemy this year in the Connecticut Valley. The reason may have been that parties of Mohawks had begun to make forays on the Canadian frontiers. To encourage these inroads the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts offered them these bounties : £40 for male prisoners over twelve years, and £38 for their scalps. For women and boys under twelve made captive, £20; for their scalps, £19. It does not appear by this schedule that the desire to secure captives was particularly urgent, or that
550
THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
many of the redskins were likely to be brought in alive from Canada.
The Mohawks did very effective service against the French and their allies, and created a general alarm in Canada, thus seriously interrupting operations against our frontiers.
1747. Three companies of the valley soldiers had been or- ganized as "Snow Shoe Men." The northern company was commanded by Elijah Williams, with John Catlin as lieuten- ant-both Deerfield men. March 3d, Maj. Israel Williams sent Capt. Williams ten pairs of moccasins. March 6th, Col. William Williams delivered him fifty pairs more, and the same day, Moses Nims of Deerfield handed over to him sixty pairs of snow shoes, which he had made for this company. With this equipment these men could traverse on the deep, soft snow, the otherwise impassable woods.
During the winter No. 4 had been deserted, and the set- tlements at Winchester, Hinsdale and Keene were left ten- antless. These towns had been settled under the authority of Massachusetts, but on establishing the north line of the state they had fallen into New Hampshire. The Massachu- setts soldiers were withdrawn and New Hampshire had re- fused to provide for their defense. Fort Dummer, however, was not wholly deserted.
It was seen on all hands, that the maintenance of these posts north of the line were essential to the safety of Massa- chusetts towns; and on the opening of spring forty men were sent to Fort Dummer under Lieut. Dudley Bradstreet, Capt. Phineas Stevens with thirty men, was sent to No. 4, and all the block houses and other defenses on the northern frontiers were reinforced. Fort Massachusetts was rebuilt under the direction of Col. William Williams, then living here.
Meanwhile large parties were being fitted out in Canada and sent against us. March 30th, Shattuck's fort in Hinsdale was surprised, and partially burned the night following. But the brave inmates were not overcome, and the assailants withdrew the next morning, burning on their retreat the deserted settlements at Winchester, Hinsdale and Keene. On the alarm reaching this town, Joseph Severance rode post to Northampton to give the alarm. Lieut. Jona. Hoyt at once led a party to the spot. They were Matthew Clesson
.
551
DEFENCE OF NO. 4 BY CAPT. STEVENS.
Ebenezer Hinsdale, David Field, Asa Childs, Daniel Nash, Jonathan Severance, Gideon Bardwell, David Hoyt, Samuel Belding and Joseph Barnard. They hastened to Northfield and joined the force of Capt. Benjamin Melvin in a pursuit as far as Great Meadows, where there was an ineffectual skirmish. This party was paid by the Province for two days' service, at 2 s 6d per day.
A characteristic bill :-
Province of the - To Joseph Severance of Deerfield Dr Massachusetts Bay §
August [30] 1746 To myself & Horse Riding Post from Deerfield to Hatfield when Massachusetts Fort was Burnt. This Acc't was passed once but burnt with the Town House before paid
O 7 6
Dec. 1746. To myself & Horse Riding Post from Deerfield to North- hampton when the smoaks were Discovered 0 IO 0
Mch 31, 1747 To myself & Horse Going Post from Deerfield to Northampton when Shattucks Fort was Burnt O IO 0 May 1747. To my horse going part of the Way to Mass Fort to bring in a Soldier Taken Sick on the Road Two days the Horse O 7 6
I I5 O
Deerfield July 27. The above are Justly Charged by me Joseph Severance Hampshire S S
Deerfield July 27, 1749. The above Subscriber Joseph Severance appeared & made oath to ye above Acct. being Justly Charged & yt he as yet hath Re- ceived no consideration for the Service before me
This was "Examined & allowed by the { Thos Wells Justis peac Committee J. Osbonne"
April 7th, No. 4 was attacked by a large force under Chev- alier Jean Baptiste Boucher de Niverville, a French officer of the line. For unknown reasons this man's name is always given by English historians as Mons. Debeline. The fort was gallantly and successfully defended by Capt. Stevens. For a full and graphic account of this defense see Hoyt's An- tiquarian Researches. After a three days' siege, Niverville drew off his forces and steered for Northfield. There they formed an ambuscade at Pochague Hill, where they killed Nathaniel Dickinson and Ashael Burt, April 15th, and then returned to Canada.
Early in the season a large force.of "Canada men" was employed under Col. William Williams, in rebuilding Fort Massachusetts. When nearly complete, a detachment of one hundred men was sent to Albany, to bring out stores in wag- ons. Indian spies observing this movement, ran to Crown Point with the news of this good opportunity to capture the fort, there being but a small party left therein. Six hundred Indians at once left Fort Frederick; on reaching Hoosick,
552
THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
one-half made for Fort Massachusetts, while the rest marched to waylay the train from Albany. Had they been a day sooner the results might have been sadly different. The party sent to intercept the train struck the road in its rear. They were alarmed at the signs of the carts and men and dis- patched their swiftest runner to warn the other party at the fort, to look out for themselves, as a large army was march- ing from Albany. It so happened that the runner reached them just as they were creeping up to attack the fort, on the morning of May 25th. It also happened that the pioneers of the Albany train, that had been sent forward to repair the road, came up at the same moment. They discovered and fired upon the advancing party, and thus alarmed the work- men in the fort, who presently sallied out, and the Indians soon fled.
July 15th, Eliakim Sheldon, aged nineteen, who had re- moved two years before with his father, Lieut. Ebenzer Shel- don, from Deerfield to Fall Town, was shot while hoeing corn. He reached Sheldon's fort but died the night follow- ing. July 22d, John Mills of Colrain, while going home from South Fort, was fired upon and killed.
M. Rigaud de Vaudreuil had collected a force of ten or twelve hundred men, all but two hundred Indians, and gone up the lake to Crown Point and South Bay. Rumors of this movement reached here in July. Capt. Thomas Wells at once dispatched a scout to watch their motions. It consisted of John Nims, Jr., Samuel Stebbins, James Corse and Gideon Bardwell. They returned in safety.
A report had reached Gov. Shirley that Vaudreuil's party were fortifying somewhere about the head of Wood Creek, and by his order Col. William Williams organized a party under Lieut. Matthew Clesson, which left here August 4th, to scout up Black river and over the mountain and find out what the enemy were doing. With Clesson, were Moses Harvey of Sunderland, Aaron Terry of Springfield, Aaron Belding of Northfield, and Martin Severance of Deerfield. This delicate and dangerous service was satisfactorily per- formed, and the party returned after an absence of twenty- two days. Clesson received for the service, £8 5 s, and each of the others £5 5 s.
October 16th, a French partisan officer was wounded at
553
A FATED FAMILY.
Winchester, of which a further account will be given pres- ently. From there his party went southward, and on the 19th, between Northfield and Montague, they killed and scalped John Smead, one of the heroes of Fort Massachusetts. He had returned from Canada only about two months be- fore. His wife and two oldest sons, and the babe Captivity, had died in Canada of ship fever, which prevailed among the prisoners ; the surviving children returned with him.
October 22d, a party of thirty-five French and Indians from Fort Frederick, under Ensign de Lery, captured Jona- than Sawtelle, and burned Fort Bridgman, which they found deserted.
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