USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the colonial period. 1492-1692 v. I > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
1 Hubbard, 58; London Tract of Oct., 13.
: Military Papers, 2. 106-7 ; Hub- bard, 58 ; Mass. Rec's., vol. 5; Plym. Rec's., of Dec. 27, 1675. On the 6th of January, the Commissioners 'ordered one thousand recruits for Gen. Winslow, to be mustered at head quarters before the 20th inst. Military Papers, 2. 111-12.
3 Hubbard, 60, Mather, 22; Trumbull, 1. 341.
+ Military Papers, 2. 131; Hub- bard, 55, 60; Mather, 22. On the 7th of Feb., an order was passed for billeting the Plymouth forces at Marlborough. Military Papers, 2. 131.
433
LANCASTER ATTACKED.
effecting a junction ; and it was reported by the Praying CHAP. Indians, sent out as spies, that " a man from Canada had XVI. been amongst them, animating them against the English, 1675-6. and promising them a supply of ammunition." 1 Thus encouraged, their first principal attack was upon Lancaster, a village of fifty or sixty families ; and, early in the morn- Feb. 10. ing, the assault was commenced in five different places. Most of the unfortified houses were burned, and several persons were killed ; but the only garrison destroyed was that at and around the house of Mr. Rowlandson, the min- ister, in which forty-two of the soldiers and inhabitants had taken refuge. This was set on fire ; and the flames spread with such rapidity, that the only alternative left to the inmates was to surrender or die. The few who attempted to escape were instantly shot, and the survivors reluctantly consented to yield. Most of the men were slain without mercy ; but the women and children, above twenty in num- ber, were carried into captivity ; and among these was the wife of Mr. Rowlandson, with three of her children, one of whom died of its wounds in the wilderness. The father was at Boston when the attack occurred, or he too would have perished with the males of the garrison. And who can paint the anguish of his soul, when the tidings reached him of the fate of his family ? Yet it pleased God to sus- tain him, and he confidently believed that the prisoners would be restored. The sufferings of Mrs. Rowlandson were exceedingly severe, and her narrative is one of thril- ling interest. She was redeemed in a few months, and May 3, restored to her home ; and her children, a month later, Jun. 28. were also returned.2
Upon the news of the disaster at Lancaster, Capt. Wads- worth was sent to its relief ; and recovering a bridge which
1 Hubbard, 76. These Indians
' Mrs. Rowlandson's Narr .; Hub- were sent out Dec. 25. Military bard, 60-1, 82 ; Mather, 28, 37. Papers, 2. 105.
37
434
ATTACK ON MEDFIELD. - MORE TROOPS. LEVIED.
CIIAP. the enemy had partially destroyed, he entered the town XVI. with his forty men, unknown to the Indians, and fell upon 1675-6. them with such courage that they were forced to retire; but the village had suffered so much that it was "aban- doned to the pleasure of the insulting foe."1
Mond'y Feb. 21. A few days later, two or three hundred Indians "wheeled - down to Medfield," which they surprised early in the morning; and, though there were a number of soldiers garrisoned in the town, nearly half the houses were burned and about twenty persons killed, before the troops rallied.2 In consequence of these tragedies, a day of fast- Feb. 23, ing and prayer was held; but in the midst of the observ- ances, in " the old meeting house in Boston," there were rumors that the Indians were but ten miles distant ; and Feb. 24. the next day Weymouth was attacked, and seven buildings were burned.3
Feb. 8.
Previous to this date, a meeting of the Commissioners had been held at Boston, at which the speedy prosecution of the war was recommended ; and six hundred additional soldiers were ordered to be levied, to meet within three weeks at Quaboag, or some other rendezvous. The colony of Connecticut was desired to enlist the Pequots and Mohe- -. gans in its service ; and, as Maj. Winslow, through indis- position, was unable to resume his post as Commander-in- chief, it was voted that the Commander-in-chief of the colony in which the war should be, should act as chief over the whole.4 In accordance with these votes, companies of volunteers from New London, Stonington, and Norwich, were formed under Maj. Palmes, and Capts. Denison, Avery, and Stanton ; Mohegans, Pequots, and friendly Nar- ragansets were associated with them; and towards the
1 Hubbard, 61.
2 Military Papers, 2. 139 ; Hub- bard, 61, 63, 83; Mather, 23 ; Lon- don Tract of Oct. 13, p 3.
: Hubbard, 66 ; Mather, 23.
+ Baylics, 3. 108.
--
435
MEASURES FOR DEFENSE.
last of the month, they began to range the Narraganset CHAP. country, and to harass the enemy, continuing their incur- XVI. sions until they had driven them from those quarters. 1 Feb. 27. 1675-6.
The ravages of the Indians in Massachusetts were now renewed, and Groton was attacked, and several houses Mar. 2. were rifled ; a week later further damage was done ; and Mar. 9. four days after there was a third attack, which resulted so Mar. 13. disastrously that the town was deserted, and in the course of a few weeks the garrison and stores were removed. 2 Apr. 17, 1676.
For the protection of the western frontier, Maj. Savage, of Boston, was sent thither in the beginning of March, to join with the Connecticut forces ; and a few days after his arrival, Northampton was attacked, and the palisades Mar. 14. forced ; but no sooner had the Indians effected an entrance, 1675-6. than they were vigorously assaulted, and compelled to retreat with such precipitation that they escaped with diffi- culty without the barrier, and sustained considerable loss before they could accomplish that object.3
The government of Massachusetts, apprehensive of the Mar. 15. dangerous condition of her frontier towns, appointed a committee to devise means for their safety ; and a line of stockades was proposed from the Charles river to the Mer- Mar. 23. rimack ; but, on account of the difficulties of the enterprise, it was abandoned, and garrisons were ordered to be estab- Mar.28. lished in each town, and a select number of minute men, 1676 who, upon the first approach of the savages, were to spread the alarm. Scouting parties were also advised to be kept constantly ranging.4
Meanwhile the colony of Plymouth again became the theater of war, and an attack was made upon Plymouth
1 Trumbull, 1. 343; Ilist. N. M. H. Coll., 1. 68-70; Trumbull, 1. London, 185 .- Hubbard says this 356, &c. was in March. + Military Papers, 2. 174; Mass. 2 Hubbard, 72-6; Mather, 23-4; Rec's., vol. 5 .; Ilist. Concord, 55-7, London Tract, of Oct. 13, p. 4. Charlestown, 180, and Newbury, 118.
3 Hubbard, 77; Mather, 23; 3
-
436
CAPT. PIERCE AMBUSHED AT SEEKONK.
CHAP. itself, and twelve persons were murdered. The govern- XVI. ment was aroused ; and, as danger impended over all the
1676. settlements, Capt. Pierce, of Scituate, was ordered to march in pursuit of the enemy ; and reaching Seekonk with about Mar. 25. fifty men, and twenty Indians from Cape Cod, an attack was made upon a party in that vicinity, which was without loss on his side. Passing the night in the village, on the Mar. 20. next day he prepared for a second engagement. At a short distance from the town, four or five Indians were dis- covered, limping as if wounded. Suspecting no treachery, the company eagerly followed them, and found themselves in the presence of an overwhelming force. To escape was impossible ; to retreat was desperate. A furious attack ensued ; and a fresh body of Indians appearing, the gallant band, like the Spartans at Thermopyla, were completely surrounded, and after a brave resistance of above two hours, in which Capt. Pierce and his men fought in a double ring, he was totally defeated. Nearly all the English fell, besides several of their allies. Of the assailants, over a hundred are supposed to have been slain. The people of Rehoboth hastened to the rescue, but erc they arrived, the deed was done. The soldiers lay " on the bed of honor," and nothing remained but for the " spectators to perform the last office of love to them."1
Mar. 28. Soon after, a party of the Indians crossed the river to Seekonk Common, and late in the night, or very early in the morning, laid the town completely in ashes. Only two houses escaped the conflagration ; one, the garrison on the Plain, and the other, at the south end of the Common, which was preserved by arranging blackened sticks around, to give it at a distance the appearance of being guarded. At sunrise the village was a smouldering ruin. But one
1 Military Papers, 2. 177; Hub- man's Lett., in Deane, 122, and bard, 64-7; Mather, 25 ; London Bliss, 91.
Tract, of Oct. 13, 1676, p. 5 ; New-
437
A COUNCIL OF WAR CONVENED.
life was lost, - that of Robert Beers,1 a religious enthu- CHAP. siast, who refused to flee, and died with his Bible in his XVI. hands, which he had seized as a talisman to secure him 1676 from harm.2 The next day Providence was attacked, and thirty houses were burned.3
Alarmed at the destruction of Rehoboth, and at the " near approach of the enemy," the Council of War of the Old Colony was convened, and it was voted that three Mar. 29. hundred English, and one hundred Indians should be raised, to take the field by the 11th of April ; but at the next meeting of the Council, it was found that it had been impossible to muster so many men. A " special deficiency of Scituate and Sandwich " was complained of ; but the first of these towns had suffered by the loss of Capt. Pierce and his men, and was too weak to furnish its quota of fifty. The defense was accordingly left to the towns. Yet there was no deficiency of zeal in the colony ; and besides pro- tecting their own firesides, we shall find them hereafter sending out as many as were apportioned to them in the fall of 1675, and doing good service in ending the war.+
The day of the defeat of Capt. Pierce, was a day of calamity in the Massachusetts colony ; for Marlborough Mar 26. was attacked, the greater part of the town was burned, and the place was so desolated that it was abandoned by its inhabitants.5 At Long Meadow, near Springfield, a party of eighteen English were assailed on their way to attend public worship, and "a man and a maid" were killed, others were wounded, and two women and children were seized as captives. The next day an attempt was made for
1 Not Wright, as in the London Tract of Oct. 13, p. 6, and in Bay- lies, 3. 113.
2 Hubbard, 67, 133; Mather, 26; Bliss, 95-6.
3 Mather, 26; Staples, Ann. Prov., 162-8.
Deane, 124; Winsor's Duxbury, 1 37*
105 .- In Military Papers, 2. 196-7, are Letters from Plymouth, of Mar. 31, recommending the establishment . of a flying army, and from the Coun- cil of Mass., of Ap. 3, in reply, ob- jeeting to the same.
5 Military Papers, 2. 180, 181; Hubbard, 79; Mather, 24-5, 27.
-
438
THE SUDBURY FIGHT-DEATH OF WADSWORTH.
CHAP. their rescue, but " the two children were knocked on the XVI, head as they were sucking their mother's breasts," and
1676. the mothers were wounded : yet "one was alive when the soldiers came to her," and able to state " what the Indians had told her." 1
The fate of Capt. Pierce was a prelude to that of the unfortunate Wadsworth ; and the Sudbury fight is as mem- orable in the annals of the Massachusetts Colony, as is Pierce's Fight in the annals of the Plymouth Colony. It Apr. 21. was on the morning of Friday2 that this attack commenced, when a body of Indians, said to have numbered fifteen hundred, fell upon the village, consumed several houses and barns, and killed several persons. A company from Watertown, aided by citizens of Sudbury, were the first who engaged the assailants, on the East bank of the river ; but after a severe contest they were compelled to retreat. Immediately a corps from Concord was detached, and, as they arrived near Haynes' garrison, they were ambushed, and ten of them slain, - one only escaping. Capt. Wads. worth, of Milton, had just arrived at Marlborough ; and learning the danger of Sudbury, he hastened to its relief, with all his soldiers, and Capt. Brocklebanck, of Rowley. These recruits arrived in the afternoon, and about three o'clock were ambushed, and all, but a few who escaped to a mill, were slain. In the course of the morning, messen-
1 Hubbard, 77-8; Mather, 25; Lett., from Gov. Winslow, of Ap. London Tract, of Oct. 13, p. 6.
2 The date on Wadsworth's mon- ument, is Ap. 18; and the London Tract, p. 10, says the 20th; but Mather, 27, Gookin, in Archacol. Am., Sewall, in his Diary, and the Middlesex Records, all say the 21st,
. which we regard as the true datc. Besides, in Military Papers, 2. 220, 234, are Letters from Mass., of Ap. 21, and from Plymouth, of Ap. 26, in reply, which agree in assigning
. the 21st as the day of the battle; and in fol. 243 of ibid., is another
30, corroborating the same. See further, N. E. Gen. Reg., 7. 221 .- Hubbard, 79, 135, is the only one who says the 18th. About this time, Ap. 21, a proposition from an unknown person was made to the Governor and Council of Mass., that dogs should be employed to hunt the Indians; but there is no en- dorsement of action in the premi- ses, nor does it appear that Mass. favored the bloody proposal. Mili- tary Papers, 2. 214-15.
.
439
SUFFERINGS OF THE INDIANS.
gers had been sent to Boston for aid ; and reaching Charles- CHAP. town at the beginning of the afternoon Lecture, Maj. XVI. Gookin and Mr. Danforth withdrew from the meeting 1676. house, and ordered a ply of horses, belonging to Capt. Prentice's troop, under conduct of Capt. Phipps, and an Indian Company, under Capt. Hunting, to march without delay. The Indian Company, forty in number, being on foot, did not reach Sudbury until " a little within night ; " and laying upon their arms until morning, after blackening Apr. 22. their faces they crossed the bridge to reconnoitre, but " the enemy were all withdrawn." The dead of Capt. Wadsworth's company lay scattered upon the ground, and were interred as decently as circumstances would permit.1 The same day, the Colonial Council ordered forty troopers, out of Suffolk, under the command of Cornet Eliot, and a like number from Middlesex, under Maj. Gookin, to march to Sudbury to watch the motions of the enemy.2
-
The Indians, by this time, were reduced to great suffer- ing, and were forced to live upon ground nuts and horse- flesh. This bred discases, of which numbers died. Besides, their season for planting had arrived ; something must be done to provide for the future ; and their fish for winter stores must be caught now if ever. The war had been pro- tracted to an unusual length ; they were unaccustomed to continue so long in a hostile position ; and their resources were rapidly and daily diminishing. Hence some of the chiefs were inclined to suspend hostilities ; and a person who was acquainted with the Indians about Lancaster adventured to treat with them, and redeemed Mrs. Row- landson. Encouraged by his success, the Council sent others to second his efforts, and a number of prisoners were ransomed and returned.3
1 There are the usual discrepan- cies in the accounts of this battle, and we have endeavored to recon- cile them as well as we were able.
3 Mather, 27; Mass. Rec's., vol.
5 .; Shattuck's Concord, 59.
" Hubbard, 81-2.
440
MOVEMENTS OF THE CONNECTICUT TROOPS.
CHAP. XVI. 1676. But if the Nipmucks were apprehensive of the prowess of the English, elsewhere the colonial troops were actively engaged ; and the Connecticut forces, under Capt. Denison, with his Indian allies, succeeded in capturing Canonchet, the chief sachem of the Narragansets, and the son of Mian- tonomo, who had ventured down early in April towards Seekonk, with about thirty of his warriors, for corn to plant in the deserted towns on the Connecticut. Learning Apr. 9. of his presence, Capt. Denison went in pursuit, and over- taking him near the Blackstone, fell upon his camp near the spot where Capt. Pierce had been slain. The surprise was complete. The chieftain fled, casting aside his silver- laced coat ; and, as he plunged into the river, he fell, and his gun was wet and rendered useless. This accident un- nerved him ; and one of the Pequots plunging in after him, with but a feeble resistance the sachem was seized. A youth of the English troops, Robert Stanton, was the first to approach him ; but the chieftain haughtily repelled his advances. "You too much child ; no understand war. Let your chief come, him I will answer." He was offered his life on condition of his submission ; but, " like Attilius Regulus," the offer was refused. He was then sentenced to die. "I like it well," was his reply, " I shall die before my heart is soft, and before I have spoken anything unwor- thy of myself." Such heroism evinces a dauntless spirit ; yet the captive was taken and shot at Stonington, by the Mohegans and Pequots, and his head was cut off and sent to Hartford. Policy dictated this step : "thereby the more firmly to engage the said Indians against the Narra- gansets." 1
Of the expeditions of the troops under Maj. Palmes, why need we speak ? Numbering less than seventy volunteers,
1 Mather, 27; Hubbard, 67, 139- Prov., 168, says Canonchet was 41; London Tract, of Oct 13. p. 9; taken Ap. 4.
Trumbull, 1. 343-4 .- Staples, Ann.
-
441
ATTACK ON SCITUATE.
and a few over a hundred Indians, they scoured the country CHAP. until they had killed or captured upwards of two hundred XVI. of the enemy, and had driven out all the Narragansets, 1676. save those under Ninigret, and " all without the loss of one man, killed or wounded." 1
But if success attended the Connecticut forces, suffering and sorrow were in the homes of the Pilgrims ; for Ply- May 11. mouth was again assaulted, and several houses and barns were burned ; a few days after other buildings were burned in what is now Halifax ; and the remainder of the village of Middleborough was devoted to destruction. 2 Bridge- water was likewise attacked, with some damage, and in May 8. midsummer it was again assaulted ; but it is noted as a July little remarkable, that, although this was an inland village, 14, 15. and much exposed, not one of its inhabitants was slain throughout the war. The troops from this town were actively engaged, and more than once sent out parties to scout, who seldom returned without having met with some slight encounter & The attack upon Scituate was of more May 20 importance. The savages entered the town from Hingham, and burning the saw-mill of Cornet Stetson, on the third Herring brook, and the houses of Capt. Joseph Sylvester, William Blackmore, Nicholas the Swede, and others, and leaving unharmed Barstow's garrison, they came to Stock- bridge's garrison, near the lower part of the town, which was desperately besieged : but the Indians sustained such losses from the well directed shot from within, that they retreated in haste, and, after assaulting the Block-house, near the river, they withdrew from the town entirely. One incident is mentioned, which illustrates the perils and es- capes of every town. At the house of one Ewell, an infant was quietly sleeping in its cradle. The grandmother, on
1 Mather, 33, 39 ; Hubbard, 68, 142; Trumbull, 1. 345.
2 Hubbard, 83 ; Mather, 29.
8 Hubbard, 70-2 ; I. Mather, 29 ; C. Mather, Mag., b. vii. c. vi .; Mitch- ell's Bridgewater, 39.
442
PROCEEDINGS IN MASSACHUSETTS.
CHAP. the approach of the Indians, in despair or forgetfulness XVI. fled to the garrison, leaving it behind. The savages entered
1676. the house, and took the bread from the oven, but left with- out discovering the slumbering child. After their depar- ture, the grandmother, with palpitating heart, crept timidly back, and to her joy found the little one safe in its retreat. Taking it to the garrison, in a few hours the house in which it had been left was burned to the ground. The veteran Cornet Stetson was never more active than on this stirring occasion, for his own house was in danger, and all that were dear to him ; but, happily, his family for the most part escaped unharmed, though the buildings of some of his children were burned. Thirty of the soldiers of the town were absent when the attack was made ; fifteen had been slain with Pierce at Rehoboth ; and, so greatly was the strength of the settlement reduced, it was only by extraordinary efforts that any were saved. As it was, twenty-two dwelling houses and barns were destroyed; six heads of families, besides others, perished ; and seven were wounded and crippled for life. The loss of property was at least £500.1
. Meanwhile in the Massachusettss Colony vigorous meas- - ures of defense were adopted, and several companies of fresh soldiers, both horse and foot, were raised by order of the General Court, placed under the command of Capts. Sill, Cutler, Holbrook, Brattle, Prentice, and Henchman, Apr. 27. and sent out to " range the woods towards Hassanamesit," now Grafton, where they succeeded in capturing small par- ties of the enemy, among whom were some of " considera- ble rank ;" but the season proving rainy, and many being May 10, sick, after a short campaign the troops were released " for the recovery of their health," and returned, for the most
1 Winslow's Lett. to Hinckley, of Coll., 6. 92; Deane's Scit., 125-8, May 23, 1676, in Hinckley MSS. vol. 401. Cornet Stetson was the au- 1. fol. 5, Mass. Hist. Soc. ; 1 M. H. thor's maternal ancestor.
.
413
.
SURPRISE OF THE INDIANS-DEATH OF CAPT. TURNER.
. part, to Boston.1 Nearly at the same time, scattering parties CHAP. XVI.
of savages were skulking about Springfield ; and, as there were many gallant officers in that region, Capt. Holyoke 1676. fell upon the enemy, with ten or twelve young men, and put them to flight. 2 Days of fasting and prayer continued to be held in the churches, to pray for the success of the English arms; and the tidings from all quarters began to be more hopeful. Letters from Connecticut stated that the May 10 Mohegans had joined the English ; that great sickness pre- vailed among Philip's men ; and that his ranks were fast thinning by death and desertion. 3
Upon the banks of the Connecticut, important events were transpiring. Reports reached Northampton and Had- May 18. ley, that there was a large body of Indians seated at the upper falls, engaged in fishing, and living so carelessly that they might be easily surprised. This was a stimulus to exertion, and a despatch was sent to Hartford for aid ; but before troops arrived, about a hundred and fifty of the most resolute, from Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton, under Capts. Holyoke and Turner, marched silently in the dead of night, and arrived at the camp of the Indians early in the morning. The savages, having "made themselves merry with new milk and roast beef," were buried in a profound slumber ; and the assailants dismounting, and fastening their horses, made a bold charge on foot, and with such success that a " great and notable slaughter was made amongst them." But a report being circulated that Philip was approaching at the head of a thousand warriors, the victors hastily retreated ; and being attacked on their march, and pursued several miles, a number were killed,-
1 Hubbard, 85 .- In the Military Papers, 2. 241, is a Lett. from Had- ley, of Ap. 29, relative to a proposed attack upon the Indians at their fishing stations. " Could we drive them from their fishing," it says, "and
keep out though but lesser parties against them, famine would subdue them."
2 Hubbard, 86.
3 Hubbard, 82-3 ; Mather. 29.
1
444
ATTACK ON HADLEY.
CHAP. among the rest Capt. Turner, who "received his fatal XVI stroke as he passed through the Green River," and whose
1676. name is perpetuated in that of the beautiful falls near which his corpse was afterwards found. 1
May 30.
A few days later Hatfield was attacked, and a number of buildings were burned ; but by the aid of a party from Hadley, the enemy were repulsed. Nearly a fortnight Jun. 12. later, and subsequent to the arrival of the troops from Con- necticut, Hadley itself was attacked, by a body of seven or eight hundred Indians, carly in the morning, who lay in ambush at one end of the town, while an alarm was spread at the other end ; but the forces from Connecticut, number- ing about five hundred, English, Pequots, and Mohegans, with those from Massachusetts left by Maj. Savage, and the troops of the neighborhood, formed a body so large that little could be accomplished by the assailants; and a "piece of ordnance " being discharged against them, completed their panic, and they hastily fled. 2
The Council of Massachusetts, warned by these proceed- ings that the Indians were still resolutely bent on war, ordered out again the troops who had been discharged May 30. shortly before ; and Capt. Henchman was sent to the West- ward, to assist in the expulsion of the savages from those parts. On his way he fell in with a few Indians near Lan- caster, who were captured ; and effecting a junction with the Connecticut forces, both banks of the river were scoured as far as the Great Falls.1 By these movements the haunts of the savages were broken up ; and becoming discouraged, the different tribes began to quarrel with each other - the " Hudson and Petumtuck " Indians charging their losses upon Philip ; and " every one shifting for himself," the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.