USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > History of Rehoboth, Massachusetts; its history for 275 years, 1643-1918, in which is incorporated the vital parts of the original history of the town > Part 8
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East Providence, R.I.); and the third near Miles' Bridge in the northern part of Swansea. This was called "Miles' Garrison," from the Rev. John Miles, the minister of Swansea, whose house was garrisoned. It stood a short distance west of Miles' Bridge which crosses Palmer's River. Woodcock's Garrison was named from John Woodcock, who built his house and occupied it before the war and after it during his life, for a public tavern. This garri- son was near the Baptist Meeting-House in North Attleborough, on the spot afterwards occupied by Hatch's tavern.
The old garrison, after standing one hundred and thirty-six years, was torn down, its timbers "pierced by many a bullet received in Philip's War." The principal garrison-house at Seekonk stood on the southeast side of the Com- mon, on the spot afterwards occupied by Mr. Phanuel Bishop's house. There were other houses occasionally resorted to as garrisons, as that of Major James Brown in Swansea and of one Bourne at Mattapoiset.
1 At the west end of Miles' Bridge, just south of the Rehoboth line, is a tablet of bronze set in a granite boulder and inscribed as follows :---
"Near this spot stood the John Miles Garrison House, the place of meeting of the troops of the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies commanded by Major Thomas Savage and James Cudworth, who marched to the relief of Swansea at the opening of King Philip's War A.D. 1675. Then fell in Swan- sea, slain by the Indians, Nehemiah Allen, William Cahoone, Gershom Cobb,
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On arriving at Mount Hope the troops found that Philip and his Indians had fled out of that peninsula across the channel, and later it was learned that they had gone to Pocasset. The English erected a fort on Mount Hope Neck, leaving in it a garrison of forty men.
Major Thomas Savage arrived from Boston on the evening of June 29th with men and supplies, bringing with him also Capt. Paige's troop of thirty-six men. The accounts of the next few days are somewhat vague, but it appears that on the 29th and 30th the troopers, supported by Capt. Mosely's volunteers, scouted through the whole Mount Hope peninsula, driving some Indians into a swamp with a loss of five or six, while Ensign Perez Savage was severely wounded on the English side. A day or two after- wards Capts. Henchman and Prentice searched the swamps of Swansea and Rehoboth, finding very few Indians, except at the latter place, where they saw some Indians burning a house. Lieut. Oakes of Prentice's troop pursued them, killing four or five, one of whom was known to be Thebe or Peebee, a sachem of Mount Hope, after whom was named Peebee's Neck in Barrington; an- other of them was a chief counselor of King Philip. In this raid the Lieutenant lost one of his company, John Druce of Roxbury, to the great grief of his companions.
As no more Indians were discovered in this section, Major Savage and his troops were ordered into the Narragansett country to treat with that tribe, who were suspected of favoring the cause of Philip; but they found the young warriors gone to the Connect- icut River with their sachem Canonchet. A treaty was concluded with the old men of the tribe, which Canonchet rightly regarded as a farce. The remaining forces sought Philip at Pocasset and found that, having laid waste the town of Dartmouth, he had taken refuge in a swamp. Capt. Henchman built a fort on its border, hoping to subdue the savages by hunger. The Indians by a feint drew the English far into an ambuscade, fired upon them and killed about fifteen of them. This was on July 18, 1675. Before this, however, Captain Fuller of Plymouth and Benjamin Church, commissary, hoping for an opportunity to treat with the
John Druce, John Fall, William Hammond, John Jones, Robert Jones, Joseph Lewis, John Salisbury, William Salisbury. To mark this Historic Site this monument was erected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, A.D. 1912." Its initiative was due to the Rhode Island Citizens Historical Society.
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Sakonnet and Pocasset Indians before Philip could pledge them, had crossed over to Pocasset with a force of thirty-six men, and nearly succeeded in ambuscading the Indians when some of Fuller's men in striking fire from flint to smoke tobacco gave them warn- ing and caused them to flee. Dividing the company, Captain Fuller pursued the savages in one direction and Church in another. Fuller's party had two men wounded in a skirmish and were driven to a deserted house whence they succeeded in getting on board a vessel. Church and his followers encountered a large force of the enemy and were in extreme danger when they were rescued by Roger Goulding in his sloop, the stern of which the Indians filled with bullets. Weetamoo, the queen sachem of the Pocassets, was much perplexed, being inclined to take sides with the English, but Philip's presence had the effect to bring her warriors and finally herself over to his side, doubtless against her better judgment. Possibly the fact that she was the sister of Philip's wife may also have influenced her. But much to the sur- prise of the English, Philip with his warriors, accompanied by Weetamoo, coming out of the swamp by night, made good his escape over Taunton River and directed his flight towards the Nipmucks, a numerous tribe living mostly in Central Massachu- setts. In crossing the great Seekonk plain in Rehoboth they were discovered by some of the settlers, who with a small party of Mohegans pursued them under the leadership of Rev. Noah New- man, their minister, killing twelve of Philip's men. Hubbard's account of the affair varies somewhat from this and is as follows: "The Mohegans, with the men of Rehoboth and some of Prov- idence, came upon their rear over night, slew about thirty of them, and took much plunder from them without any considerable loss to the English."
According to Bodge (pp. 30, 31), the Rehoboth men with some volunteers from Providence and Taunton led by the Mohegans, were joined in their pursuit of Philip by Lieutenant Nathaniel Thomas with eleven men of his Mount Hope garrison and by James Brown of Swansea with twelve men. Their united force pushed on across the Blackstone River, and having rested over night surprised the Indians early in the morning at what proved to be Weetamoo's camp at a place called Nipsachick (now Burrill- ville, R.I.). Some twenty-three of the enemy were killed, in- cluding a prominent chief, Woonashum or Nimrod. Of the Eng-
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lish two were killed and one wounded. Near the close of the fight Rev. Mr. Newman and a party came up bringing supplies. Philip then got away to the westward, and Weetamoo and her people (except the fighting men) turned off into the Narragansett country.
Inasmuch as Rehoboth was represented in the great Narragan- sett Swamp Fight by at least fifteen soldiers, a brief account of that fierce and decisive battle is here set forth: -
In December, 1675, the Narragansett Indians had gone into winter quarters at South Kingston, R.I. Their rendezvous was an immense fort on an island of five or six acres in the center of a swamp. This fortress was surrounded by high palisades, with the entrance at one corner having a sort of blockhouse and flankers. The space within the fort area was dotted with wigwams, in which were gathered the old men, women, and children of the Narragan- sett tribe, besides many refugees of the Wampanoags and Pocas- sets. It is stated that more than 3,000 Indians were spending the winter in this fortified retreat.
The English troops, with Major Josias Winslow in command numbered about fifteen hundred men besides two hundred Indian allies, mostly Mohegans. This army was sent from the United Colonies for the purpose of crushing the assembled Indians at a single stroke. They were conducted to the stronghold by an Indian called Peter, who turned traitor to his people. The night of December 18th was cold and stormy, and some three inches of snow covered the ground. The house on their route (Bull's Garrison) in which they expected to pass the night was burned by the Indians before their arrival and they had no shelter. At the dawn of day (Sunday, December 19th) they resumed their march of fifteen miles and at 1 o'clock reached the margin of the swamp. The Indians were driven to their stronghold, and the troops rushed impetuously to the attack. They were met by a heavy fire of musketry. In the first charge several brave officers were killed and many of their men. Others, however, pressed boldly forward from the rear and were soon within the fort, where the carnage raged with fiendish cruelty for some three hours and the dead lay in heaps. Finally the Indians were driven from the enclosure. The wigwams were fired and an immense number of non-com- batants were burned alive. It has been stated that the number of wigwams burned was about one thousand. (Drake's Indian Chronicle, p. 183.) Others say five hundred.
1
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It was a decisive but dearly bought victory for the English. Trumbull states that including the Indian allies 299 were killed and 513 wounded. Of the allies he gives 51 slain and 82 wounded.1 Six brave captains were slain: Davenport, Gardiner, Johnson, Gallop, Seily, and Marshall; Lieut. Upham was mortally wounded and Captain Gorham of Barnstable was stricken with a fatal fever. The loss on the Indian side was, according to Potock, a counselor among them, 700 fighting men slain and 300 wounded. Their chief, Canonchet, escaped. The number of old men, wo- men and children burned in their wigwams, and that died from hunger and cold, must have been very great.
The loss of this fort with so many of its defenders and its ample stock of provisions was severely felt by the Indians, who were com- pelled to leave that part of the country. After the battle the Eng- lish withdrew from the fort, marching sixteen miles through snow and storm to Wickford. Many of the wounded died on the way and great hardship was endured by all.
A rough granite shaft was put up on the spot, Oct. 20, 1906. It rises from a mound at the four corners of which are four mas- sive stones representing the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The following inscription cut in slate rests upon the top of the mound:
"Attacked Within their fort upon this Island
The Narragansett Indians Made their last stand in King Philip's War and were crushed by the united forces of the Massachusetts Connecticut and Plymouth Colonies in the 'Great Swamp Fight' Sunday, Dec. 19, 1675."
1 There is much discrepancy between different authors respecting the number slain and wounded. The Rev. Increase Mather, whose history is dated 1676, says: "Of the English there were killed and wounded about two hundred and thirty, whereof only eighty and five persons are dead." The London pamphlet (February, 1676), gives the total of killed and wounded as two hundred and seven. The truth may lie somewhere between these state- ments and that of Trumbull.
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This record was placed by the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars, 1906.
Another monument at the swamp was erected by the Rhode Island Historical Society, Nov. 3, 1916, inscribed as follows:
"In memory of Major Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, Mass., who commanded the Massachusetts forces and led the victorious storming column at the Great Swamp Fight, Dec. 19, 1675."
Now that Philip had deserted the Mount Hope region and gone to the Nipmucks, affairs were comparatively quiet in Rehoboth and vicinity until the spring of 1676, when the terrible battle occurred known as "Pierce's Fight," so called from Captain Michael Pierce, who commanded the English and perished with his men in an ambuscade on the West bank of the Blackstone, in what is now Central Falls, R.I. Just before this, many hostile Indians coming eastward from the Connecticut River were carry- ing war like a whirlwind into the settlements of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay. On February 25 they assaulted Wey- mouth and burned seven or eight houses and barns. On March 12 the Indians had penetrated to the town of Plymouth, destroyed Clark's garrison, killed its defenders, eleven in number, and se- cured its provisions without loss to themselves. On March 17 they burned Warwick. Almost daily there was some outbreak by the savages, thirsting for revenge for the slaughter of their wives and children who three months before had been roasted alive in the Narragansett Swamp fight. Owing to the terror of the white settlers at this time, Captain Michael Pierce of Scituate was ordered to make aggressive war on the enemy. His com- pany consisted of fifty English soldiers (one account says sixty- three) and twenty friendly Indians, the latter led by "Captain Amos," a Wampanoag from Cape Cod.
Captain Pierce with his company at once proceeded to Seekonk Common in Rehoboth (now East Providence, R.I.), where he arrived on Saturday, March 25, 1676. Hearing that Indians were in the vicinity, he hastened in pursuit and had a skirmish with them, sustaining no loss on his part and believing that he had con- siderably damaged them. Night coming on, Captain Pierce with his men retired to the garrison house on the Common.
The next morning, Sunday, March 26, obtaining several guides from among the Rehoboth men, Captain Pierce again moved in
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pursuit of the Indians. He had not proceeded far when, in an obscure, woody place, he discovered a few rambling Indians who seemed in haste to get away but limped along as if they had been seriously wounded. These men the English pursued and soon found them to be decoys leading them into an ambuscade. Suddenly Captain Pierce found himself in the presence of an overwhelming force of the enemy. Before leaving the garrison in the morning he had sent a messenger to Captain Edmunds of Providence, asking him to co-operate in an attack upon a large body of Indians then at Pawtucket Falls. As it was Sunday morning the messenger delayed giving his message until after the morning service, when Captain Edmunds chided him and declared it was then too late, as it proved. It is doubt- ful if any reinforcements could have saved Captain Pierce and his men after they had crossed the river, as the Indians had every advantage. He found himself outgeneraled and outnum- bered. At one point the 500 Indians surrounding him seemed to give ground, but when 400 more came up, they outnumbered his men five or six to one. The English, forming a circle, made a brave resistance for about two hours, during which time Cap- tain Pierce, his Lieutenant, Samuel Fuller, and, according to New- man, fifty-two English soldiers were slain besides eleven friendly Indians. On the side of the enemy more than a hundred were killed. Rev. Noah Newman, in a letter to Rev. John Cotton of Plymouth, dated the day after the battle, after giving the number killed as above, goes on to state their names as follows:
From Scituate, 15 Slain.
Capt. Pierce, John Lothrope, Thomas Savery, Jeremiah Barstow, Joseph Perry,
Samuel Russell, Gershom Dodson,
Benjamin Chittenden,
Samuel Pratt, William Wilcome,
Joseph Wade, John Ensign, Joseph Cowen, ?
John Rowse,
Marshfield, 9 Slain.
Thomas Little, John Burrows, John Low,
John Eams, Joseph White, Joseph Phillips, Samuel Bump, More - -? John Brance.
Duxbury, 4 Slain.
Benjamin Soal, Thomas Hunt, Joshua Fobes.
John Sprague,
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Benjamin Nye,
Sandwich, 5 Slain. Daniel Bessey, Caleb Blake, John Gibbs, Stephen Wing.
Barnstable, 6 Slain.
Lieut. Fuller,
John Lewis, Eleazer Clapp,
Samuel Linnet,
Samuel Childs,
Samuel Bereman.
Yarmouth, 5 Slain.
John Mathews,
John Gage, William Gage,
Henry Gage, Henry Gold.
Eastham, 3 Slain.
Joseph Nessefield, John Walker, John M
(Rehoboth?) 2 Slain.
John Fitz, Jr. John Miller, Jr.
The paper is much worn and mutilated, so that the names of several are lost. It is said that Miller and Fitz (or Fitch) were of Rehoboth, and probably others.
In a chart of the descendants of John Read of Rehoboth, pub- lished by Orin Read of Providence in 1859, it is stated that John Read's second son, John Read, Jr., was one of the Rehoboth soldiers killed in this fight.
A tablet at Central Falls, R.I., marks the place of this fierce battle and is inscribed as follows :-
"Near this spot Capt. M. Pierce And his Company of Plymouth Colonists Ambuscaded and outnumbered were Almost annihilated by the Indians March 26, 1676. Erected by the State of Rhode Island 1907."
There is a tradition that on the same day with Pierce's Fight, nine men became detached from a company, or possibly were hastening to the relief of Captain Pierce, when they were am- bushed by a great body of Indians, and all slain and left unburied at a place known as "Camp Swamp" or "Nine Men's Misery."
--
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Their bodies were found and buried by friends in one grave. The spot is in Cumberland, R.I., a short distance above Lonsdale, and is marked by a rude pile of stones. It is within the woodlands belonging to the Cistercian Monastery, half a mile away.
In the vital record of Rehoboth are the names of four men who were slain on March 26, 1676, the date of Pierce's Fight. Two of these were John Fitch, Jr., and John Miller, Jr. The other two, not mentioned in Pastor Newman's letter, were Benjamin Bucklin (old spelling Buckland) and John Read, Jr.
This was perhaps the worst defeat the English sustained during the war. It is probable that Canonchet, the great Narragansett sachem, directed the campaign in person, and was assisted by the ablest warriors picked from all the tribes. It was a signal victory for the Indians and confirmed Canonchet as the ablest military leader of his race; King Philip being rather a statesman and diplomat than a soldier. Elated by victory, Canonchet may well have dreamed of re-establishing his people in the land; but treachery, that bane of the Indian chieftains, was lurking near, and the hero's doom was sealed.
On March 28, two days after this battle, a party of the Indians crossing the river made a furious attack on Rehoboth, burning some forty houses and thirty barns. These houses were around the "Ring of the town." The garrison house was spared and an- other house at the south end of the Common which had black sticks set up around it to look like sentinels. Tradition says that the fires were kindled early in the evening, so that when the sun arose the next morning it beheld a circle of smoking ruins. One person was slain at this time, Robert Beers, an Irish brick-maker, who refused to leave his own house for the garrison house, thinking the Bible he held in his hand would protect him; but he was shot through the window and fell dead.1
On the 29th the savages appeared at Providence and burned
1 There is a tradition that a certain chair which for many generations be- longed to the Abell family of East Providence was wont to be sat in by King Philip on his visits to the family, and came to be known as "King Philip's Chair." At the burning of the town this chair was brought out and occupied by the chief (said to have been Philip). On leaving the house an Indian threw a fire-brand into the chair, which consumed the bottom and the four rounds to which it was attached, and scorched the legs, which still show marks of fire. Afterwards four rough rounds were hewn out and put in place of those burned. This chair, which is a large, heavy armchair, is now in possession of Rev. L. S. Woodworth, who was for a number of years pastor of the New- man Church at East Providence.
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some thirty houses there. After that they broke up into small prowling bands, which scouted upon the borders of the outlying towns, making an assault here and there as opportunity seemed to offer; April 9 at Billerica; April 19 at Andover, where they killed Joseph Abbot and captured his younger brother Timothy, burned the house of Mr. Faulkner and wounded Roger Marks; while another band the same day burned the deserted houses at Marl- borough; and still another party appeared at Hingham and Wey- mouth, where they killed two men, one at each place.
The wily savages skulked from one place to another or hid themselves in the deep woods by day, to steal out of their lairs at dusk and swoop down upon their victims like a noiseless scourge; then, by the flare of a burning cabin, to fade away as they came, into the silence of the darkness. "It was a short shrift; - a few musket shots or crashing blows of a tomahawk, the kindling of a fire, and the morning sun betrayed a heap of smoking embers and the stark victims of a warfare against which no human foresight could prevail; only the stout garrison-house or the sentineled fort afforded safety, and even that was preserved only by a sleepless vigilance or an indomitable courage."
On April 9, 1676, Canonchet was found on the Blackstone River near the village of Pawtucket. (Bodge, p. 383.)
Capt. George Dennison of Stonington, Conn., and Capt. Avery of New London, having raised forty-seven English with eighty Indians, marched to Pawtucket in search of Canonchet. They captured one of his guards, with two women, one of whom confessed that Canonchet was near by with only a small guard. When he found that the enemy were close upon him he seized his gun and sought to escape with a party of scouts at his heels. In crossing a small stream his foot slipped on a stone and he fell, wetting his gun. He was captured by Monopoid, a Pequod Indian, who rec- ognized him because in his flight he was obliged to cast off his blanket, and then his lace coat, which he had of late received from the English, and then his belt of wampum. But though helpless and a captive he was still the proud and unconquered chief, and when young Robert Stanton, an interpreter, came up and ven- tured to question him, this dignified sachem turned away saying, "You much child, no understand matters of war, let your older brother or your chief come, him I will answer." When told that he might save his life by commanding his people to yield to the
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English, his resolution was not to be shaken by any threats or bribes. And when he was told of his sentence of death, he replied that he "liked it well, that he should die before his heart was soft or he had spoken anything unworthy of himself." He was taken to Stonington and there shot by Oneco, son of Uncas, his life-long enemy, and two sachems of the Pequods, of equal rank.
Reverend John Cotton of Plymouth, in a letter dated April 19, 1676, mentions the death of this chief sachem as follows: "On Lord's day April 9, some Connecticut forces, Capt. George Denison being chiefe, tooke and killed forty-two Indians of which Quanonshet was one who was taken in that coat he received from Boston. His head is sent to Hartford, his body is burnt." "There is no nobler figure in all the annals of the American Indians," says Bodge, "than Canonchet, son of Miantonomoh, sachem of the Narragansetts. As he had become the real head and life of the Indians at war, so his capture was the death-blow to their hopes."
The next notice we have of the Indians, relative to Rehoboth, is that "In the road (from Wrentham) to Rehoboth they assaulted one Woodcock's house; killed one man and one of his sons; wounded another and burned his son's house." The name of the son slain was Nathaniel (May, 1676). He was buried in the yard where he fell, which ever since has been reserved for a burying-ground. Woodcock was a man of resolute and determined character, who swore never to make peace with the Indians, but ever after hunted them like wild beasts. (See Daggett's Hist. of Attleborough, p. 47.)
In the Rehoboth record of deaths and burials we read: "Nehe- miah Sabin, slain and buried in June, 1676."
Weetamoo had for a time found an asylum among the Narra- gansetts, but when their power was broken she had come back to the vicinity of Pocasset among familiar scenes, but only to be be- trayed by one of her own people. About the 7th of August a small party of English went out from Taunton River and captured twenty-six of her Indians, but she herself, attempting to escape across the river on a small raft, was drowned, and her body being found a few days later, her head was severed, and being placed on a pole was paraded in the streets of Taunton. Hubbard re- marks that when this was known by some Indian prisoners there, it "set them into a horrible lamentation."
August 12, 1676, was a memorable day in King Philip's War.
1
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KING PHILIP'S WAR
The brave king of the Wampanoags had been deprived of wife, child, kindred, and nearly all his followers and friends; it only remained for him to pay the last full measure of devotion to the cause dearer to him than life. He was now being hunted down by the English and Indians on every side, and had retired with a few of his staunch friends to his old retreat in a swamp at Mount Hope. Benjamin Church was then in command of a scouting company of English and Indians from Plymouth. Leaving most of his company at Pocasset, he passed over to Rhode Island and was joined by Captains Roger Golding and Peleg Sanford of Rhode Island, and Captain John Williams of Scituate. The Indians with Captain Church were mostly of the Sakonnet tribe, whose queen was Awashonks of Little Compton.
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