USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > The History of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 1836 > Part 9
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t " It was the same day, 24 June, on Thursday, being a fast appointed by the Governour of Plymouth, on hearing what took place the 20th. See H. Adams's Hist. of New-England, p. 120 .- Note by Drake.
#" In Swansey."-1b. Church, speaking of the march of the English into " the neck," on the 29th of June, says, "They marched until they came to the narrow of the neck, at a place called Keekamuit, where they took down the heads of eight Englishmen that were killed at the head of Metapoiset neck, and set upon poles, after the barbarous manner of those savages."
A note appended to the word " Keekamuit," in the first edition of " Church's History of Philip's War," says that Keekamuit is the " upper part of Bris- tol." To this Drake has added another : "Now the upper part of Warren, which has been taken from Bristol. It is called on the map of Rhode-Island, Kickemuet, or rather the bay, which makes this neck on one side, is so call- ed. Warren river makes the other side."
By " Warren river," is probably meant Palmer's river, near its mouth where it widens, forming an arm of Narraganset Bay.
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State of New-England with respect to the Indian War,") once before quoted, it is stated, that " the first that was killed was June 23d :" a man with his wife and son who had adventured to go to his house " to fetch them corn and such like things." " They also the next day," continues the same writer, " killed six or seven men at Swansey, and two more at one of the garri- sons ; and as two men that went out of one of the garrisons to draw a bucket of water, were shot and carried away, and after- wards found with their fingers and feet cut off, and the skin of their heads flayed off." [p. 5.]
The following account is given by Hubbard of the shedding of the first blood in Philip's war :*- " On the 24th of June, 1675, was the alarm of war first sounded in Plymouth Colony, when - eight or nine of the English were slain in and about Swansey ; they " (the Indians) "first making a shot at a company of English as they returned from the assembly where they were met in a way of humiliation on that day, whereby, they killed one and wounded others, and then likewise, at the same time, they slew two men on the highway, sent to call a surgeon ; and the same day barbarously murdered six men in and about a dwelling house in another part of the town : all which outrages were committed so suddenly, that the English had no time to make any resistance." [Hub. Nar. p. 59.]
"On the morning of June 24th," says Huchinson, " one of the inhabitants of Rehoboth was fired upon by a party of In- dians, and the hilt of his sword shot off. The same day in the afternoon, being a fast, as the Swansey people were coming from public worship, the Indians attacked them, killed one and wounded another, and killed two men who were going for a sur- geon, beset a house in another part of the town, and there mur- dered six more." [Vol. I. p. 5.]
We have now the principal accounts of this event before us. Though the length and number of the quotations may possibly appear like tedious and useless repetition ; yet they are inserted with the hope, that they may gratify the critical reader, and
* This account is contained in the early part of his narrative; in the latter part he recapitulates the sufferings and bravery of the people of Bridgewater, from which Messrs. Baylies and Mitchell derive their authority for the state- ments contained in the quotations before given. In the one instance Hubbard states that the first blood was spilled in Philip's war on the 22d of June ; and in the other represents the alarm of war as having been first sounded in Plymouth colony on the 24th, two days later.
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direct the attention of antiquarians and the future writers of this part of our history to this point.
Neither Church, Hubbard nor Huchinson, informs us of the time of the arrival of the Plymouth forces at Swansey, nor whether they were there at the time when the first English were killed : which, according to the least questionable authori- ties, appears to have been on the twenty fourth of June. From Church it appears that the Plymouth forces set out on their march, on Monday, June the twenty-first, and were to rendez- vous at Taunton, Monday night ; which must have given them ample time to have reached Swansey during the afternoon of the next day, the 22d ; and the slaughter did not take place till the 24th. It is possible that, on their arrival at Taunton they might have learned more favourable accounts of Swansey, and there- fore concluded to await the approach of the forces from Massa- chusetts. For, had the Plymouth troops been at Swansey on the 24th, it seems hardly possible, that they could have been so remiss in their duty, as not to have protected the inhabitants while publicly observing the fast ; and had the people considered themselves in great danger, it is little probable that they would have left their garrison houses to have gone to the meeting house, guarded or not guarded. And, had several been slain so near as Metapoiset, before the 24th, the soldiers, having once arrived at Swansey, would have been little likely to have re- turned so soon ; and still less probable is it, that the inhabitants had they considered their situation dangerous, would have ven- tured from their garrisons without sufficient protection, so that had the soldiers once arrived, they would probably have re- mained ; and had the danger been considered sufficient to re- quire their presence, the people would not have gone forth un- protected. Either way, it appears pretty conclusively that no blood was spilled till the 24th ;* and there is reason for suppos- ing that the Plymouth forces were not at Swansey at the time of the first attack of the Indians upon that town.
Massachusetts, before this, had determined to raise 100 men for the assistance of Plymouth ; but before they marched it was
" The 24th of June, 1675, seems, by the common consent of historians, to be allowed to be the date of the shedding of the first blood in Philip's war ; and Hubbard, the only authority for an earlier date, tells us that " on the 24th of June, 1675, was the alarm of war first sounded in Plymouth Colony, when eight or nine English were slain in and about Swansey." [Hubbard's Narra- tive, p. 59.]
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thought best to send messengers to Philip at Mount Hope, to divert him, if possible, from his design. But the messengers seeing some of the Swansey men lying murdered in the road, did not think it safe to go any farther, and returned as fast as they could with their intelligence to Boston. On the 26th, a compa- ny of foot under Captain Henchman, and a troop under Captain Prentice, marched from Boston towards Mount Hope. During their march, they observed an eclipse of the moon, and some imagined that they discerned a black spot on the face resemb- ling the scalp of an Indian; others fancied that they saw the form of an Indian bow. "But after the moon had waded through the dark shadow of the earth," says Hubbard, " and borrowed her light again, by the help thereof, the two companies marched on towards Woodcock's house,* thirty miles from Bos- ton, where they arrived next morning ; and there retarded their motion till the afternoon, in hope of being overtaken by a com- pany of volunteers, under the command of Captain Samuel Mosely ; which accordingly came to pass, so as on June 2Sth, they all arrived at Swansey, where, by the advice of Capt. Cudworth, the Commander-in-chief of Plymouth forces, they were removed to the head-quarters, which for that time were appointed at Mr. Miles' house, the minister of Swansey, within a quarter of a mile of the bridge, leading into Philip's lands. They arriving there some little time before night, twelve of the troop unwilling to lose time passed over the bridge,+ for discov- ery in the enemy's territories, where they found the rude wel- come of eight or ten Indians firing upon them out of the bushes, killing one William Hammond, wounding one Corporal Belcher, his horse being also shot down under him ; the rest of the said troops having discharged upon those Indians that run away after their first shot, carried off their two dead and wounded compan- ions, and so retired to the main guard for that night, pitching in a barricado about Mr. Miles's house."
This skirmish took place June 28th, the same day that the troops arrived from Boston. Col. Church was in this skirmish, and evinced that firmness and bravery for which he was after- wards so distinguished in Philip's war. The next morning,
* Woodcock's garrison, on the spot where Hatch's tavern now stands in the town of Attleborough.
t This was " Miles's Bridge." Mr. Miles's house (which was garrisoned,) stood upon the west side of Palmer's river, a short distance from the bridge ; and the skirmish here related, took place on the east side of the river.
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June 29th, the troops commenced their pursuit of the In- dians. Passing over Miles's bridge, and proceeding down the east bank of the river till they came to the narrow of the neck, at a place called Keekamuit, or Kickemuit, they found the heads of eight Englishmen, that the Indians had murdered, set upon poles by the side of the way .* These they took down and buried. On arriving at Mount Hope the troops found that Philip and his Indians had left the place and gone to the east side of Taunton river. They erected a fort on Mount Hope neck, and leaving in it a garrison of 40 men, the troops with Capt. Cudworth, and some of the Plymouth forces, passed over to Rhode Island, and the rest under Major Savage, returned the next morning to Swansey. The night following (which must have been June 30th,) " Captain Prentice's troop," says Hubbard, [p. 63, Boston ed. 1775,] for conveniency of quarters, as also for discovery, was dismissed to lodge at Seaconke or Re- hoboth, a town of within six miles of Swansey. As they return- ed back in the morning, Capt. Prentice divided his troop, deliv- ering one half to Lieut. Oakes, and keeping the other himself, who, as they rode 'along, espied a company of Indians burning an house ; but could not pursue them by reason of several fen- ces, that they could not go over till the Indians had escaped, into a swamp. Those with Lieut. Oakes had the like discovery, but with better success, as to the advantage of the ground, so as pursuing of them upon a plain, they slew four or five of them in the chase, whereof one was known to be Thebe, a sachem of Mount Hope, another of them was a chief counsellor of Phil- ip's; yet in this attempt the Lieutenant lost one of his company, John Druce by name, who was mortally wounded in his bowels, whereof he soon after died, to the great grief of his com- panions. After the said troop came up to their head-quarters at Swansey, they understood from Capt. Cudworth that the enemy were discovered upon Pocasset,t another neck of land lying over an arm of the sea, more towards Cape Cod : however it was resolved that a more narrow search should be made after them, both upon Mount Hope and upon the ground between Swansey and Rehoboth to scour the swamps, and assault them if they could find where they were entrenched."
* Church's Hist. of Philip's War, ed. by S. G. Drake, p. 34.
t " The main land over against the easterly end of Rhode Island, where is now Tiverton, &c. was called Pocasset." [Note to Hubb, Narr.]
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The troops scoured the country, but found none of the In- dians ; and were soon ordered to march into the Narraganset country, to treat with the Narragansets, who were strongly sus- pected of favouring the interests of Philip.
About the Middle of July, Philip was found encamped in a swamp in Pocasset (now Tiverton, R. I.,) and the Massachu- setts and Plymouth forces marched immediately to attack him. But he retired far into the swamp, where the English found it so difficult and dangerous to approach him, that they abandoned their plan of direct and open attack, and resolved to subdue him by starvation. But, suspecting their designs, Philip, much to the surprise of the English, who now looked upon him as already within their grasp, made good his escape over Taunton river, and directed his flight towards the Nipmucks, a tribe of Indians living principally in Worcester county. But Philip in crossing the great plain of Seekonk was discovered by the peo- ple of Rehoboth, who, headed by the Rev. Noah Newman, their minister, and accompanied by a small party of Mohegans, gave him a close and brisk pursuit, killing twelve of his men,* without sustaining any loss on their part. Hubbard, [p. 73] says, "The Mohegins with the men of Rehoboth, and some of Providence, came upon their rear over night, slew about thirty of them, took much plunder from them, without any considera- ble loss to the English." Mr. Hubbard makes the following mention of Mr. Newman, in relating this transaction : " Mr. Newman, the minister of Rehoboth, deserved not a little com- mendation for exciting his neighbours and friends to pursue thus far after Philip, animating of them by his own example and presence."
Philip having deserted Mount Hope, and gone to the Nip- mucks, nothing occurred to Rehoboth farther with the Indians, till the spring of the next year, 1676, when we find it the scene of one of the bloodiest battles fought in Plymouth Colony dur- ing Philip's War. This was called " PIERCE's FIGHT," from Capt. Michael Pierce, of Scituate, Mass. who commanded the English engaged in it, and who, with his band of brave soldiers fought and bled, with a valour of which the annals of history, ancient or modern, can seldom boast.
* This number is given by Mr. Baylies as killed by the Rehoboth men. [Vol. Il. part 3, p. 39.]
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The place where this battle was fought is still pointed out. It is between the villages of Pawtucket and Valley Falls, nearer the latter, at a spot, which, I have been told, was formerly called " The Many Holes." It commenced on the east side of the river, but the severest part of the action was on the west, imme- diately on the bank of the stream. Some have placed the site of this battle considerably farther up the river, between the bridge, called "Whipple's Bridge" and "Study Hill," the for- mer residence of Blackstone. But from this battle having been sometimes styled by the older inhabitants " The Battle of the Plain," from its having been fought on the border of the great "Seekonk Plaine ; " the former spot, tradition being equally strong in its favour, seems to possess the highest claims to being the battle ground.
In the spring of 1676, the Indians, dispersing themselves in small parties through the country, were committing dreadful rav- ages both in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ; and had even penetrated as far as Plymouth, and killed a number of the in- habitants. On this alarm, Capt. Michael Pierce, of Scituate, with a force of sixty-three Englishmen* and twenty friendly Indians from Cape Cod, was ordered to pursue the Indians towards Rhode Island. He proceeded without any rencoun- ter to Seekonk, where he arrived on Saturday the 25th of March. Hearing of Indians in the vicinity, he immediately went in pursuit of them, and came to a skirmish with them, in which he met with no loss, but judged that he had occasioned considerable to the enemy. But as his force was small, he chose, in order, probably, to avoid the danger of surprise in the night, as well as to procure a recruit of men, to retire to the garrison at Seekonk. The next morning, being joined by sev- eral of Seekonk, who acted as guides, he again went out in pursuit of the enemy. A minute and apparently accurate ac- count of this battle is found in the " Continued Account of the
* This account differs somewhat from that given by Church and Hubbard, who state the number of Englishmen in Pierce's company to have been fifty. I have before me several accounts of this battle ; but the most minute, and the one on which I have most relied in this description is styled a " Continued Account of the Bloody Indian War, from March till August, 1676, printed at London, October, 1676," now in the possession of Samuel G. Drake, Boston. This pamphlet is part of a series of letters from a merchant in Boston to his friend in London, which were published from time to time as they were re- ceived. They contain a minute detail of many of the principal events of the Indian War.
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Bloody Indian War" (referred to in the last note,) which I shall not do better than present to the reader; that he may have not only the events of olden time, but the garb which they wore. " Sunday the 26th of March," says the author referred to, " was sadly remarkable to us for the tidings of a very deplorable disaster, brought unto Boston about 5 o'clock that afternoon by a post from Dedham, viz: That Capt. Pierce, of Scituate in Plymouth colony, having intelligence in his garrison at Sea- conicke, that a party of the enemy lay near Mr. Blackstone's, went forth with 63 English and 20 of the Cape Indians, (who had all along continued faithful, and joyned with them; ) and, upon their march, discovered rambling in an obscure woody place 4 or 5 Indians, who, in getting away from us, halted as if they had been lame or wounded. But our men had pursued them but a little way into the woods, before they found them to be only decoys to draw them into their ambuscade. For, on a sudden, they discovered about 500 Indians, who, in very good order, furiously attacked them, being as readily received by ours ; so that the fight began to be very fierce and dubious, and our men had made the enemy begin to retreat, but so slowly, that it scarce deserved that name; when a fresh company of about 400 Indians came in, so that the English and their few Indian friends were quite surrounded and beset on every side. Yet they made a brave resistance for above two hours, during all which time they did great execution upon the enemy, whom they kept at a distance, and themselves in order. For Captain Pierce cast his 63 English and 20 Indians into a ring, and fought back to back, and were double-double distance all in one ring, whilst the Indians were as thick as they could stand thirty deep : overpowered with whose numbers, the said captain, and 55 of his English, and 10 of their Indian friends were slain upon the place ; which, in such a cause, and upon such disadvantages, may certainly be styled the bed of honour. However, they sold their worthy lives at a gallant rate; it being affirmed by those few that (not without wonderful difficulty and many wounds) made their escape, that the Indians lost as many fight- ing men (not counting women and children) in this engage- ment, as were killed at the battle in the swamp near Narragan- set, mentioned in our last letter, which were generally compu- ted to be above three hundred."-[page 5 and 6.]
The number of the hostile Indians slain in this battle, is prob- ably estimated too high. Hubbard, and all the other authori-
12
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ties I have examined, state it at one hundred and forty. Hub- bard [p. 121] also relates, that Capt. Pierce pursued the slowly retreating enemy over the river ; and that, finding himself sur- passed by numbers, he withdrew to the side of the river, the better to prevent being surrounded ; but that the Indians, hav- ing a large disposable force, sent a body over the river to attack him in the rear. He farther relates, that, perceiving the danger he was in, Capt. Pierce despatched a messenger to Providence for aid, but that " the message was not delivered to them to whom it was immediately sent ; by accident only some of Re- hoboth understanding of the danger, after the evening exercise (it being on the Lord's day, March 26, 1676) repaired to the place, but then it was too late to bring help, unless it were to be spectators of the dead carcases of their friends, and to perform the last office of love to them." There is a tradition in See- konk, that Capt. Pierce sent a written message to Providence, before setting out on his march from the garrison, by a man who attended meeting in that town ; and that the messenger, not ar- riving till after the commencement of public worship, delayed, either through ignorance of the importance of the message, or some other unaccountable cause, to deliver the letter till the close of the morning service. The captain* to whom the letter was directed, is said, on the receipt of it, to have chided the messenger severely, and to have declared it too late to render any assistance, as the fate of Capt. Pierce and his men must have been decided before that time.
Capt. Pierce is said to have fallen earlier than many others ; and it is due to the honour of one of his friendly Indians, called Amos, that he continued to stand by his commander and fight, until affairs had become utterly desperate; and that then he escaped by blackening his face with powder, as he saw the enemy had done, and so passing through their army unobserved.
Hubbard, Mather, and others, relate also interesting anecdotes of two or three other of Capt. Pierce's friendly Indians, who escaped by equally cunning artifices and presence of mind. One being closely pursued by a hostile Indian, sought shelter behind a large rock. Thus the two were watching, in awful suspense, to shoot each other. But Capt. Pierce's Indian, put- ting his cap on the end of his gun, raised it to the view of his enemy, who immediately fired at the cap, and the next moment
* Capt. Andrew Edwards. This tradition is mentioned by Backus, Hist. of the Baptists, vol. I. chap. 7.
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was shot dead by the friendly Indian. Another, in his flight, pretended to pursue an Englishman with an uplifted tomahawk, holding it in threatening attitude above his head, and thus escaped. A third, being closely pursued, took shelter behind the roots of a large tree that had been lately turned out of the ground ; and the hostile Indian, coming up upon the opposite side, was lying in wait to shoot him on his deserting his station ; when the friendly Indian, boring a hole through his broad shield, unobserved by the other, shot him dead.
It has been generally stated by historians, that have mentioned Pierce's Fight, that every Englishman engaged in it was killed ; but, besides the testimony already quoted from the letters to London, we are fortunately furnished with, probably, the most accurate and authentic account of the losses, that is extant. This is a letter from the Rev. Noah Newman, the second min- ister of Rehoboth, dated the day after the battle, to the Rev. John Cotton, of Plymouth .*
of the first " REHOBOTH, 27 A '76.+
" Reverend and dear Sir.
" I received yours dated the 20th of this instant wherein you gave me a doleful relation of what had happened with you, and what a distressing Sabbath you had passed. I have now, ac- cording to the words of your own letter, an opportunity to re- taliate your account with a relation of what yesterday happened to the great saddening of our hearts, filling us with an aweful expectation of what further evils it may be antecedaneous to, both respecting ourselves and you. Upon the 25th of this instant, Capt. Pierce went forth with a small party of his men and Indians with him, and upon discovering the enemy, fought him, without damage to himself, and judged that he had consid- erably damnified them. Yet he, being of no great force, chose rather to retreat and go out the next morning with a recruit of men ; And accordingly he did, taking pilots from us, that were acquainted with the ground. But it pleased the Sovereign God so to order it, that they were enclosed with a great multitude of the enemy, which hath slain fifty-two of our Englishmen, and
* The original copy of this letter is in the possession of the American An- tiquarian Society at Worcester, Mass.
t I have followed the original as nearly as possible in the date, as well as the rest of the letter.
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eleven Indians. The account of their names is as follows. From Scituate 18, of whom 15 were slain, viz : Capt. Pierce, Samuel Russell, Benjamin Chittenden, John Lothrope, Gershom Dodson, Samuel Pratt, Thomas Savary, Joseph Wade, William Wilcome, Jeremiah Barstow, John Ensign, Joseph Cowen, Joseph Perry, John Rowse [Rose]. Marshfield, 9 slain : Thomas Little, John Eams, Joseph White, John Burrows, Joseph Philips, Samuel Bump, John Low, More -, John Brance. Duxbury, 4 slain : John Sprague, Benjamin Soal, Thomas Hunt, Joshua Fobes. Sandwich, 5 slain : Benjamin Nye, Daniel Bessey, Caleb Blake, Job Gibbs, Stephen Wing. Barnstable, 6 slain : Lieut. Fuller, John Lewis, Eleazer C-, [probably Clapp], Samuel Linnet, Samuel Childs, Samuel Bereman. Yarmouth, 5 slain : John Matthews, John Gage, Wil- liam Gage, Henry Gage, Henry Gold. Eastham, 4 slain : Joseph Nessefield, John Walker, John M-, [torn off ], John Fitz, Jr., John Miller, Jr .* Thomas Man is just returned with a sore wound.
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