USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Maynard > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wayland > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland, and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wayland > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland, and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Maynard > The annals of Sudbury, Wayland, and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts > Part 5
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While the prospect was thus threatening, the design of the Indians for a season was effectually stayed, and a disastrous invasion prevented by a bold move made by the inhabitants of the town. The event referred to occurred March 27, 1676. A force of savages, near three hundred in number, were within about a half mile of Sudbury's western boundary. The force was led by Netus, the Nipmuck captain. This band was intent on mischief. It was on the trail for prey. Flushed with the expectation of easy victory, they waited the dawn of day to begin their foul work, and seize such persons and spoil as were found outside the garrisons. On Sabbath night they made their en- campment within half a mile of a garrison. Their mischievous course through the previous day had been so little opposed that they felt sccure as if in a world of peace. But the English were on their track. Intelligence of their presence at Marlboro'had reached
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Sudbury, and a movement was made to oppose them. A score of bold citizens set forth for the beleaguered place. On their arrival at Marlboro' they were rein- forced by twenty soldiers, who weretaken from the garrisons, and the two forces went in search of the enemy. Before daybreak they discovered them asleep about their fires. The English, in night's stillness, crept close upon the camp. Wrapped in slumber, and unsuspicious of what was so near, the Indians were suddenly startled by a destructive volley from an unexpected foe. The English took thein by com- plete surprise. So effectually had they directed their fire that the Indians speedily fled. About thirty of their number were wounded, of whom it is said four- teen afterwards died. Not only were the Indians numerically weakened, but demoralized somewhat by such a bold and unlooked-for assault. Probably this act saved Sudbury for a time. Netus was slain, and for nearly a month there was a cessation of hostilities within and about the town.
That Sudbury people in this affair acted not simply in their own defence is implied in "The Old l'eti- tion," in which it is stated that " the Indians in their disastrous invasions were resolved by our ruine to re- venge ye reliefe which our Sudbury volunteers ap- proached to distressed Marlborough, in slaying many of ye enemy & repelling ye rest."
ATTACK ON THE TOWN BY KING PHILIP .- Al- though this sudden assault on the savages may have checked their course for a time, they soon rallied for further mischief. In the following April a large force, headed by Philip in person, started for Sudbury. At the time of the invasion there was nothing west of Sudbury to obstruct his course. The last town was Marlboro', and this was devastated as by a close gleaner in the great field of war. The people had almost wholly abandoned the place ; the dwellings were re- duced to ash-heaps, and a few soldiers only were quartered there to guard the road to Brookfield and the Connecticut. Sudbury at this time was the objec- tive point of King Philip. That he had a special pur- pose in assailing the place, other than what led him to conduct the war elsewhere, is implied in "The Old Petition," in the words before quoted, where the object of revenge is mentioned. Certain it is, he had a strong force, and fought hard and long to destroy the place.
DATE OF PHILIP'S ATTACK ON THE TOWN .- Before entering, however, on the details of the conflict, we will notice the time at which it occurred. Previous to the discovery of " The Old Petition," two dates had been assigned, namely, the 18th and the 21st of April. Various authorities were quoted in support of each. So important was the matter considered, that a com- mittee was appointed to examine evidence on the sub- ject. The committee reported in favor of the 21st. (Report of Kidder and Underwood.) Notwithstand- ing this decision, opinions still differed ; but the dis- covery of " The Oid Petition" has fully settled this
matter, and established beyond question that the date of Philip's attack on the town and the garrisons, and the "Sudbury Fight," was the 21st. We can under- stand how, before the discovery of this paper, opinions might vary ; how an historian might mistake as to a date, and a monument might perpetuate the error. When President Wadsworth erected a slate-stone at the grave of Captain Wadsworth, the date inscribed might have been taken from the historian Hubbard, who might have received it from an unreliable source. But we can hardly suppose that a mistake could occur in the paper above referred to concerning the date of this event. This paper is a cahn, deliberate docu- ment, signed by inhabitants of Sudbury, and sent to the Colonial Court less than six months after the in- vasion by Philip. It gives the date of the invasion in the following words: " An Account of Losse Sus- tained by Severall Inhabitants of ye towne of Sudbury by ye Indian Enemy 21st April 1676."
NUMBER OF THE ENEMY .- Philip arrived with his force at Marlboro' on or about the 18th of April, and soon started for Sudbury. The number of his warriors has been variously estimated. In the " Old Indian Chronicle " it is given as " about a thousand strong." Gookin states, in his history of the Christian Indians, " that upon the 21st of April about mid-day tidings came by many messengers that a great body of the enemy not less as was judged than fifteen hundred, for the enemy to make their force seem very large there were many women among them whom they had fitted with pieces of wood cut in the forms of guns, which these carried, and were placed in the centre, they had assaulted a place called Sudbury that morn- ing, and set fire of sundry houses and barns of that town ... giving an account that the people of the place were greatly. distressed and earnestly desired succor."
THE ATTACK .- During the night of April 20th Philip advanced his force and took position for the coming day. It was early discovered by the inhabit- ants that during the night-time the Indians had got- ten possession of everything in the west part of the town but the garrisons, and that they had become so scattered about in squads, and had so occupied various localities, that at a given signal they could strike a concerted blow. Says the "Old Indian Chronicle," "The houses were built very scatteringly, and the enemy divided themselves into small parties, which executed their design of firing at once." The smoke of dwellings curled upward on the morning air, the war-whoop rang out from the forest, and from the town's westerly limit to the Watertown boundary the destructive work was begun. It is said by tradition that the Indians even entered the Watertown terri- tory, and set fire to a barn in what is now Weston.
About the time of firing the deserted houses the Indians made their attack on the garrisons. The de- tachments for this work were probably as specifically set apart as were those for burning the dwelling-
ISTORANT-Q -BOT-DE
THE HAYNES GARRISON HOUSE.
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places ; and doubtless hours before daybreak the foe lay concealed in their picked places, ready to pour their shot on the wall. The attack on the Haynes house was of great severity. The position of the building favored the near and concealed approach of the enemy. The small hill at the north afforded a natural rampart from which to direct his fire ; behind it he could skulk to close range of the house and drive his shot with terrible force on the walls. There is a tradition that, by means of this hill, the Indians tried to set the building on fire. They filled a cart with flax, ignited, and started it down the hill towards the house; but before it reached its destination it upset, and the building was saved. Tradition also states that near the house was a barn, which the In- dians burned : but that this proved advantageous to the inmates of the garrison, as it had afforded a shel- ter for the Indians to fire from. Probably this barn was burned with the expectation of setting fire to the house.
But it was not long that the Indians were to fight at close range; the bold defenders soon sallied forth, and commenced aggressive warfare. They fell on the foe, forced them back, and drove them from their "skulking approaches." The service at the other garrisons was probably all that was needed. That none of these houses were captured is enough to indi- cate a stout and manly defence. They were all cov- eted objects of the enemy, and plans for the capture of each had been carefully laid.
While the town's inhabitants were defending the garrisons, reinforcements were approaching the town from several directions. Men hastened from Concord and Watertown, and some were sent from the vicinity of Boston. The Concord company consisted of "twelve resolute young men," who endeavored to render assistance in the neighborhood of the Haynes garrison-house. Before they had reached it, how- ever, and formed a junction with the citizens of the town, they were slain in a neighboring meadow. The men thus slain on the meadow were left where they fell until the following day, when their bodies were brought in boats to the foot of the old town bridge aud buried. The reinforcements from Watertown were more fortunate than those from Concord, and were spared to assist in saving the town. They were led or sent by the gallant Hugh Mason, of Water- town, and assisted in driving a company of Indians to the west side of the river.
THE WADSWORTH FIGHT .- Another company of reinforcements were commanded by Samuel Wads- worth, of Milton, who was sent out for the assistance of Marlborough. The number in this company had been variously estimated. Mather sets it at seventy. "The Old Indian Chronicle" says, "Wadsworth being designed of a hundred men, to repair to Marl- boro, to strengthen the garrison and remove the goods." Hubbard says, "That resolute, stout-hearted soldier, Capt. Wadsworth being sent from
Boston with fifty soldiers to relieve Marlboro." 4 It is not remarkable that estimates should differ with re- gard to the number in this company, since all the men who accompanied Wadsworth from Boston were not in tlie engagement at Sudbury. When Capt. Wadsworth reached Marlboro' he exchanged a part of his younger men, who were wearied with the march, for some at the garrison, and accompanied by Captain Brocklebank, the garrison commander, started back to Sudbury. Lieutenant Jacobs, who commanded the garrison in the absence of Brocklebank, in re- porting to the authorities in regard to the number of men left with him, states as follows: "There is re- maining in our company forty-six, several whereof are young soldiers left here by Captain Wadsworth, being unable to march. But though he left a part of his men he took some from the garrison at Marlboro." From what we know of the fate of a large part of this company, and the circumstances attendant upon the expedition, we conclude the number en - gaged in the Sudbury fight was not much over fifty. If twenty-nine men were found slain after the battle, and fourteen escaped, and about a half dozen were taken captive, the number would not be far from the foregoing estimate.
Captain Wadsworth arrived at Marlboro' some time during the night of the 20th. Upon ascertaining that the Indians had gone in the direction of Sud- bury, he did not stop to take needed refreshment, but started upon the enemy's trail.
The English encountered no Iudians until they had gone some distance into Sudbury territory, when they came upon a small party, who fled at their approach . Captain Wadsworth with his company pursued until they found themselves in an ambush, where the main body of Philip's forces lay concealed. The place of the ambush was at what is now South Sudbury, a little northeasterly of the village and on the west- erly side of Green Hill.
The force that lay concealed is supposed to have been quite strong. Gookin speaks of "the enemy being numerous." "The Old Indian Chronicle" speaks of it as about a thousand. As the foe appeared, the English pursued, and followed hard as they withdrew. But the pursuit was fatal. The Indians retreated until the place of ambush was reached. Then suddenly the foe opened his fire from a chosen place of concealment, where each man had the oppor- tunity of working to advantage.
But, though suddenly beset on all sides, they main- tained a most manly defence. It may be doubtful if there is its equal in the annals of the early Indian wars. From five hundred to one thousand savages, with Philip himself to direct their manœuvres, pour- ing their fire from every direction, and this against about four-score of Englishmen, hard marched, in an unfamiliar locality, could do deadly work. Yet there is no evidence of undue confusion among the ranks of the English.
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The sudden onslaught of the savages was attended, as usual, with shoutings and a horrible noise, which but increased the threatening aspect, and tended to indicate that things were worse than they were. In spite of all this, the brave company maintained their position, and more than held their own. Says Mather, "They fought like men and more than so." Says " The Old Indian Chronicle," "Not at all dismayed by their numbers, nor dismal shouts and horrid yell- ings, ours made a most courageous resistance." Not only was the foe kept at bay, and the English force mainly kept compact, but a movement was made to obtain a better position ; hard by was the summit of Green Hill, and thitherward, fighting, Wadsworth directed his course. This he reached, and for hours he fought that furious host, with such success that it is said he lost but five inen.
THE FOREST FIRE .- But a new element was to be introduced. The fight had doubtless been prolonged far beyond what Philip had at first supposed it would be. Desperate in his disappointment that the English had not surrendered, they again resorted to strategy to accomplish their work. The day was almost done. Philip's force had been decimated by Wadsworth's stubborn defence. Darkness was soon to set in, and under its friendly concealment the English might make their escape. New means must be employed, or the battle to the Indians was lost, and the fate of Philip's slain warriors would be unavenged. Wadsworth might form a junction with the soldiers at the east side of the town, or make his way to the Goodnow Garrison just beyond Green Hill. A crisis was at hand. Philip knew it, and made haste to meet it. The fight began with strategy, and he sought to close it with strategy. He set fire to the woods and the flames drove Wadsworth from his advantageous position.
THE RETREAT .- With this new combination of forces pressing hard upon them, nothing was left but retreat. But the results of the retreat were disastrous and exceedingly sad. There is something melancholy indeed attendant on that precipitous flight. For hours, shoulder to shoulder, these men had manfully stood. Inch by inch they had gained the hill-top. The wounded had likely been borne with them, and laid at their protectors' feet; and the brave company awaited night's friendly shades to bear them gently to a place of relief. But they were to leave them now in the hands of a foe less merciful than the flames from which they had been forced to retire. Their de- fenders had fired their last shot that would keep the foe at bay, and in hot haste were to make a rush for the Hop Brook Mill. It was a race for life; a gauntlet from which few would escape.
The flight of the men to the mill was doubtless at- tended with fearful loss. It was situated at what now is South Sudbury Village, on the site of the pres- ent Parmenter Mill. The distance from the top of Green Hill is from a quarter to half a mile. This
distance was enough to make the stanghter great. A break in the ranks and the foe could close in, and the tomahawk and war-club could do a terrible work.
LOSS OF THE ENGLISH .- As to the number of English slain, accounts somewhat differ. This is not strange, when men differ as to the number engaged. Mather says " that about fifty of the men were slain that day." Gookin speaks of "thirty-two besides the two captains." Hubbard says, " So as another cap- tain and his fifty perished that time of as brave sol- diers as any who werc ever employed in the service." Lieut. Richard Jacobs, of the garrison at Marlboro', in his letter to the Council, dated April 22, 1676 (Vol. LXVIII., p. 223, State Archive-), says, " This morn- ing, about sun two hours high, ye cnemy alarmed us by firing and shouting toward ye government garrison house at Sudbury." He goes on to state that " soon after they gave a shout and came in great numbers on Indian Hill, and one, as their accustomed manner is after a fight, began to signify to us how many were slain ; they whooped seventy-four times, which we hope was only to affright us, seeing we have had no intelligence of any such thing, yet we have reason to fear the worst, considering the numbers, which we ap- prehend to be five hundred at the most, others think a thousand."
Thus, according to the various accounts, by far the greater part were slain. There is one thing which goes to show, however, that Mather may not be far from correct,-that is, the evidence of the exhumed remains. When the grave was opened a few years ago, parts of the skeletons of twenty-nine men were found. We can hardly suppose, however, that these were all the slain. Some who were wounded may have crawled away to die. Others, disabled, may have been borne from the spot by the foe; and, in various ways, the wounded may have been remor- ed, to perish near or remote from the field of battle.
THE CAPTURED .- But the sad story is not wholly told when we speak of the slain. The tragedy was not complete when the surviving few had left the field and taken refuge in the mill. Some were cap- tured alive. These were subjected to such atrocious treatment as only a savage would be expected to give. Says Hubbard, " It is related by some that afterwards escaped how they cruelly tortured five or six of the English that night." Mather says, "They took five or six of the English and carried them away alive, but that night killed them in such a manner as none but savages would have done, . . . delighting to see the miserable torments of the wretched creatures. Thus are they the perfect children of the devil."
THE SURVIVORS .- The few English who escaped to the mill found it a place of safety. Says tradition, this was a fortified place, but it was then left in a defenceless condition. This latter fact the Indians were ignorant of, hence it was left unassailed. The escaped soldiers were rescucd at night by Warren and Pierce, with some others, among whom was Captain
OLD SAW AND GRIST-MILL,
MILL VILLAGE.
See page 206.
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Prentis, " who coming in the day hastily though some- what too late to the relief of Capt. Wadsworth having not six troopers that were able to keep way with him fell into a pound or place near Sudbury town end where all passages were stopped by the Indians." Captain Cowell also gave assistance, and thus these weary, war-worn men, the remnaut of the gallant company that fought on that memorable day, were conducted to a place of safety.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD .- The morning light of the 22d of April broke upon a sad scene in Sudbury. The noise of the battle had ceased, and the fires had faded away with the night-shadows. Philip had betaken himself from the field of his hard-earned and unfor- tunate victory, and nothing of life was left but the leafless woods, and these charred as if passed over by the shadow of death. It was a scene of loneliness and desolation. The dead, scalped and stripped, were left scattered as they fell; while their victors by the sun-rising were far on their way back over the track which they had made so desolate. This scene, how- ever, was shortly to change. Warm hearts and stout hands were pushing their way to see what the case might demand, and, if possible render, relief.
Before nightfall of the 21st, so far as we have learned, little, if any intelligence was received by the parties who had rushed to the rescue, of the true state of things about Green Hill. Wadsworth and Brockle- bank were encompassed about by the foe, so that no communication could be conveyed to the English, who anxiously awaited tidings of their condition. It was known at the easterly part of the town that hard fighting was in progress at or near Green Hill. The shouting, firing aud smoke betokened that a battle was in progress, but how it would terminate none could tell. After the Sudbury and Watertown men had driven the Indians over the river, they strove hard to reach the force on the hill. Says Warren and Pierce, in their petition : "We who were with them can more largely inform this Honored Council that as it is said in the petition, that we drove two hundred Indians over the river and with some others went to see if we could relieve Capt. Wadsworth upon the hill, and there we had a fight with the Indians, but they being so many of them, and we stayed so long that we were almost encompassed by them, which caused us to retreat to Capt. Goodnow's garrison house, and there we stayed it being near night till it was dark."
But auother force had also striven to reach the town, and join in the work of rescue. This was a company from Charlestown, commanded by Captain Hunting. Of this company, Gookin says (" History of Christian Indians") : " On the 21st of April, Capt. Hunting had drawn up and ready furnished his company of forty Indians at Charlestown. These had been ordered by the council to march to the Merrimac river near Chelmsford, and there to settle a garrison near the great fishing places where it was expected the enemy
would come to get fish for their necessary food." But, says Gookin, " Bchold God's thoughts are not as ours, nor His ways as ours, for just as these soldiers were ready to march upon the 21% of April, about midday, tidings came by many messengers that a great body of the enemy . . . had assembled at a town called Sud- bury that morning." He says "that just at the begin- ning of the lecture there, as soon as these tidings came, Major Gooken and Thomas Danforth, two of the magistrates who were there hearing the lecture ser- mon, being acquainted, he withdrew out of the meet- ing house, and immediately gave orders for a ply of horses belonging to Capt. Prentis's troop under con- duct of Corporal Phipps, and the Indian company under Capt. Hunting, forthwith to march away for the relief of Sudbury ; which order was accordingly put into execution. Capt. Hunting with his Indian com- pany being on foot, got not into Sudbury until a little within night. The enemy, as is before [narrated], were all retreated unto the west side of the river ot Sudbury, where also several English inhabited."
But though the rescuing parties were either re- pulsed or too late to render assistance at the fight, they were on hand to bury the dead. Says Warren and Pierce,-"After burrying the bodies of the Con- cord men at the bridge's foot, we joined ourselves to Capt. Hunting and as many others as we could pro- cure, and went over the river to look for Capt. Wads- worth and Capt. Broklebank, and we gathered them up and burried them."
The manner in which this burial scene proceeded is narrated thus by Mr. Gookin (" History of Christian Indians"): "Upon the 22nd of April, early in the morning, over forty Indians having stripped them- selves and painted their faces like to the enemy, they passed over the bridge to the west side of the river, without any Englishmen in the company, to make discovery of the enemy (which was generally con- ceded quartered thereabout), but this did not at all discourage our Christian Indians from marching and discovering, and if they had met with them to beat up their quarters. But God had so ordered that the enemy were all withdrawn and were retreated in the night. Our Indian soldiers having made a thourough discovery and to their great relief (for some of them wept when they saw so many English lie dead on the place among the slain), some they knew, viz., those two worthy and pious Captains, Capt. Broklebauk, of Rowley, and Capt. Wadsworth, of Milton, who, with about thirty-two private soldiers, were slain the day before. . . . As soon as they had made a full discov- ery, [they] returned to their Captains and the rest of the English, and gave them an account of their mo- tions. Then it was concluded to march over to the place and bury the dead, and they did so. Shortly after, our Indians marching in two files upon the wings to secure those that went to bury the dead, God so ordered it that they met with no interruption in that work."
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Thus were the slain soldiers bnried on that April morning, in the stillness of the forest, far away from their kindred, friends and homes. Those who, through inability, had failed to defend them in the day of battle, now tenderly took them to their last, long resting-placc. A single grave contained them. Though scattered, they were borne to one conimou place of bnrial, and a rough heap of stones was all that marked that lone, forest grave. Such was that soldiers' sepulchre-a monnd in the woods, left to grow gray with the clustering moss of years, yet marking in its rnstic simplicity one of the noblest and most heroic events known in the annals of King Philip's War. They sleep
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