USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 22
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at once to resist the approaching fire, and the cruel enemy, they are forced to quit that advantageous post in disorder." The historian Hubbard says nothing about the fire ; he states, however, " The night drawing on, and some of the English beginning to scatter from the rest, their fellows were forced to follow them so as the enemy taking the chase, pursued them on every side as they made too hasty a retreat." That Hubbard mentioned no fire may naturally occasion surprise; but the silence of one historian concerning an event should not invalidate the affirmation of it by another, especially since by a little reflection it may be a matter of surprise that the English should retreat in such haste without the menace of some new peril, when night's friendly help was so near. The statement then of one author, with no reason to doubt his veracity, but a strong presumption to confirm his words, may remove any doubts that might be suggested by the silence of others.
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 some- thing melancholy indeed attendant on that precipitous flight. For hours, shoulder to shoulder, those 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 mer- ciful than the flames from which they had been forced to retire. Their defenders 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.
Historians agree that the rout was complete. Hubbard mentions the too hasty retreat, "by which accident, being so much overpowered by the enemy's numbers, they were most of them lost." Says "The Old Indian Chronicle," " The Indians taking advantage of [the rout] came in upon
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them like so many tigers, and dulling their active swords with excessive numbers obtained the dishonor of a victory. Our two Captains after incomparable proof of their resolu- tion and galantry, being slain upon the place with most of their men." So closed the scene on Green Hill, as the fitful gleam of the forest conflagration lighted the night shadows and revealed the terrible work.
The flight of the men to the mill was doubtless attended with fearful loss. It was situated at what now is South Sudbury village, on the site of the present 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 slaughter great. A break in the ranks, and the foe could close in, and the tomahawk and war-club could do a terrible work. It is said that a small company broke away from the enemy. Says "The Old Indian Chronicle," "But those few that remained escaped to a mill which they defended until night." This statement indicates that the rout began before night, while Hubbard says " the night drawing on." This disparity of statement is slight. Each may mean the same thing, if the rout occurred about night, as it probably did. We would expect Philip's strategy to be employed before the day closed, as he wished to scatter the English before darkness afforded the means of escape. Gookin informs us that " Wadsworth's men were generally cut off, except a few who escaped to a mill which was fortified but the people were fled out of it, and the enemy knew not of their flight." Other authorities give different estimates. Hubbard states, "scarce twenty escaping in all."
Thus closed that tragic day. The firing had ceased. Silence settled with the nightfall over that usually peaceful spot; yet night's natural stillness was not undisturbed. The shouts of the captor as he exultingly looked over his fallen foe, the groans of the wounded white man and savage, the gathering of Philip's scattered forces, each to narrate the deeds of that eventful day, the blaze of the Indian's night-fire, and the strange forms that flitted to and fro, - all together might present a scene that was dismal, weird, and strange.
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LOSS OF THE ENGLISH.
As to the number of English slain, accounts somewhat differ. This is not strange, when men differ as to the num- ber 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 captain and his fifty perished that time of as brave soldiers as any who were 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 Archives), says, " This morning about sun two hours high ye enemy alarmed us by firing and shouting toward ye gov- ernment garrison house at Sudbury." He goes on to state that " soon after they gave a shout and came in great num- ยท bers 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 apprehend to be five hundred at the most, others think a thousand." The Indians informed Mrs. Rowlandson that "they killed two captains and almost an hundred men." She states, "One Englishman they brought alive with them, and he said it was too true, for they had made sad work at Sudbury."
. 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 removed, to perish near or remote from the field of battle.
According to the testimony of Mrs. Rowlandson, the bodies of the slain were plundered. She remarks, that, " after the
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master came home, he came to her and bid her make a shirt for his pappoose of a pillow-bier." She says also, " About that time there came an Indian to me and bid me come to his wigwam that night, and he would give me some pork and ground nuts. I did, and as I was eating, another Indian said to me, he seems to be your good friend, but he killed two Englishmen at Sudbury, and there lie the bloody clothes behind you, I looked behind me, and there I saw the bloody clothes behind me with bullet holes in them." No signs of equipments or attire were found in the grave when the remains were disinterred ; and it is probable that the slain were stripped by the savages, and the garments and equip- ments were carried away.
LOSS OF PHILIP.
As to the number of savages slain on that day, we can hardly expect to obtain any accurate knowledge. The Indians would intend to leave no traces of what havoc the English had made. They would likely care for their wounded, and remove or conceal their dead. Tradition states (" History of Framingham"), that one of the sons of Eames of Framingham was present as a captive at the attack on Sudbury, and he is said to have reported that the Indians suffered severely by the fire from the garrison ; and that an aged squaw lost six sons, all of whom were brave and distin- guished warriors.
From all the circumstances, there is space for fair infer- ence that their loss was large. Wadsworth and Brocklebank were bold and sagacious men ; their soldiers were doubtless valiant to a great degree. During those hours of defensive work there is little doubt but the ranks of King Philip were greatly thinned. Encompassed as the English were by hun- dreds of combatants eager to rush in and close the contest with hatchet and club, it is safe to infer that only an effective and quickly repeated fire, such as would be deadly to many, would keep such a host at bay. The very fact that Philip by daybreak withdrew, after his destructive work at Green Hill, is a presumption that he was in a crippled state. With- out losses so severe as to make it utterly unwise to push on,
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flushed by Wadsworth's defeat, he would naturally move for- ward to destroy the east side settlement, and go with con- quering march toward the sea. But he retraced his steps westward.
A further evidence that the havoc in Philip's force was great, is the statement of Mrs. Rowlandson, "that they came home without that rejoicing and triumphing over their vic- tory which they were wont to show at other times ; but rather like dogs (as they say) which have lost their ears, yet I could not perceive that it was from their own loss of men. They said they lost not above five or six. And I missed none, except from one wigwam. When they went they acted as if the devil had told them that they should gain a victory, and now they acted as if the devil had told them they should have a fall. Whether it were so or no, I cannot tell, but so it quickly proved, for they quickly began to fall, and so they held on that summer till they came to utter ruin. They came home on a Sabbath day, and the powwow that kneeled upon the deerskin came home, I may say, without any abuse, as black as the devil." She further states that "it was their usual manner to remove when they had done any mischief, lest they should be found out; and so they did at this time. We went about three or four miles, and there they built a great wigwam, big enough to hold one hundred Indians, which they did in preparation to a great day of dancing. They would now say among them- selves that the governor would be so angry for the loss at Sudbury that he would say no more about the captives."
Hubbard says, "It was observed by some (at that time their prisoners, since released), that they seemed very pen- sive after they had come to ther quarters, showing no such signs of rejoicing as they were usually wont to do in like cases. Whether from the loss of some of their own com- pany in that day's enterprise (said to be an hundred and twenty) or whether it were the devil in whom they trusted, that deceived them, and to whom they paid their addresses the day before by sundry conjurations of their powwows, or whether it were by any dread that the Almighty sent upon their excreable Blasphemies which 'tis said they used in the
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torturing of some of their poor captives (bidding Jesus come and deliver them out of their hands from death if He could) we leave as uncertain, though some have so reported. Yet sure it is, that after this day they never prospered in any attempt they made against the English, but were continu- ally scattered and broken till they were in a manner all con- sumed."
As ultimate authority in this, as in other matters, we refer to "The Old Petition," in which it is stated as fol- lows of the Indians slain : "Secondly, ye service pformed at Sudbury by ye help of ye Almighty whereby ye Enemy lost some say 100, some 105, some 120, and by that service much damage prevented from hapning to other places whereby ye Country in Generall was advantaged, reason requires some favorable considerations to ye servants of Sudbury. For if it be considered what it hath cost our Country in sending out some forces some of which p ties have not returned with ye certaine newes of such a number slaine as with us."
These things indicate that Philip's loss was severe. He was stayed in his course; he was unable to reinforce his outstand- ing detachments in their attempt to destroy the town, and he quickly made his retreat. Wadsworth did not die in vain. Not only did he help save the east side settlement, but, keep- ing the foe hotly engaged for hours, he crippled their force to such a degree that they abandoned their plans of conquest in that vicinity.
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 captured 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 Eng- lish, 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."
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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 rescued at night by Warren and Pierce, with some others, among whom was Captain Prentis, " who coming in the day hastily though somewhat to 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 remnant of the gallant com- pany 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 unfortunate victory, and nothing of life was left but the leaf- less 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 sunrising were far on their way back over the track which they had made so desolate. This scene, however, 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, lit- tle, 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 Brocklebank were encompassed about by the foe, so that no communication could be conveyed to the English, who anxiously awaited tidings of their condi- tion. It was known at the easterly part of the town that hard fighting was in progress at or near Green Hill. The
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shouting, firing, and 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 Coun- cil that as it is said in the petition, that we drove two hun- dred 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 another 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 Charles- town. 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, "Behold God's thoughts are not as ours, nor His ways as ours, for just as these soldiers were ready to march upon the 21st of April, about midday, tidings came by many messengers that a great body of the enemy . . . had assembled at a town called Sudbury that morning." He says " that just at the beginning 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 sermon, being acquainted, he withdrew out of the meeting house, and immediately gave orders for a ply of horses belong- ing to Capt. Prentis's troop under conduct of Corporal Phipps, and the Indian company under Capt. Hunting, forthwith to march away for the relief of Sudbury; which order was ac- cordingly put into execution. Capt. Hunting with his Indian company being on foot, got not into Sudbury until a little
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within night. The enemy as is before [narrated] were all retreated unto the west side of the river of Sudbury, where also several English inhabited."
But though the rescuing parties were either repulsed, or too late to render assistance at the fight, they were on hand to bury the dead. Says Warren and Pierce: " After burry- ing the bodies of the Concord men at the bridge's foot, we joined ourselves to Capt. Hunting and as many others as we could procure, and went over the river to look for Capt. Wadsworth and Capt. Broklebank ; and we gathered them up and burried them."
The manner in which this burial scene proceeded is nar- rated thus by Mr. Gookin ("History of Christian Indians "): " Upon the 22nd of April early in the morning over forty In- dians having stripped themselves 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 discour- age 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. Broklebank 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 discovery, [they] returned to their Captains and the rest of the English, and gave them an account of their motions. 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."
Thus were the slain soldiers buried on that April morning, in the stillness of the forest, far away from their kindred, friends, and homes. Those, who through inability had
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failed to defend them in the day of battle, now tenderly took them to their last long resting-place. A single grave contained them. Though scattered, they were borne to one common place of burial, and a rough heap of stones was all that marked that lone forest grave. Such was that soldiers' sepulchre, a mound in the woods, left to grow gray with the clustering moss of years, yet marking in its rustic simplicity one of the noblest and most heroic events known in the annals of King Philip's War. They sleep -
" While the bells of autumn toll, Or the murmuring song of spring flits by, Till the crackling heavens in thunder roll, To the bugle-blast on high."
PLACE OF BURIAL.
The grave was made on the westerly side of Green Hill, near its base, and was in the northeast corner of the South Sudbury cemetery before its recent enlargement. In our recollection, the grave was marked by a rude stone-heap, at the head of which was a plain slate-stone slab. The heap was made of common loose stones such as a man could easily lift, and was probably placed there when the grave was made. It was perhaps three or four feet high, and a dozen feet wide at the base. The slab was erected about 1730 by President Wadsworth of Harvard College, son of Captain Wadsworth. As we remember the spot, it was barren and briar-grown ; loose stones, fallen from the top and sides of the mound, were half concealed in the wild wood grass that grew in tufts about it. It remained in this condition for years, and the villagers from time to time visited it as a place of interest.
In the year 1851 the town agitated the matter of erecting a monument, and the Legislature was petitioned for aid, which was granted. But the monument does not mark the original grave. The committee who had the matter in charge located it about fifty feet to the north. The old grave was at, or about the turn of the present avenue or path, at the northeast corner of the Adam Smith family lot, in the pres-
THE WADSWORTH GRAVE, So. Sudbury From an original painting by A. S. Hudson.
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ent Wadsworth Cemetery. After it was decided to erect the monument in its present position, the remains of the soldiers were removed. The grave was opened without ceremony in the presence of a small company of villagers. It was the writer's privilege to be one of the number, and according to our recollection the grave was about six feet square, in which the bodies were placed in tiers at right angles to each other. Some of the skeletons were large, and all well preserved.
In connection with the events just described, we will give a few facts concerning some of the men engaged in them.
CAPT. SAMUEL WADSWORTH.
Capt. Samuel Wadsworth was the son of Christopher and Grace Wadsworth of Duxbury. He was supposed to be their oldest child. It is stated that when he died he was forty-six years old, but this is uncertain. He married Abi- gail Lindall of Duxbury, and owned lands at one time in Bridgewater, which were a part of a grant to his father. These lands comprised one sixty-fourth part of Bridgewater when it included most of Hanson and Abington. In 1685 Captain Wadsworth's share is entered upon the Bridgewater records under the name of Widow Wadsworth. About 1660 Captain Wadsworth bought several hundred acres of land in Milton. A part of this estate was retained in the family to the eighth generation. His family consisted of six boys and one girl. His wife lived on the homestead many years after his death. Captain Wadsworth was an influential citizen, and took an active part in affairs both political and religious. At the time of Philip's War he was a captain in the militia of Milton. He was considered "a resolute, stout-hearted soldier," and " one worthy to live in our history under the name of a good man." (Genealogy of the Wadsworth Family).
CAPT. SAMUEL BROCKLEBANK.
Capt. Samuel Brocklebank was a citizen of Rowley, Mass. He was born in England about 1630. A few years after his arrival in this country, his mother, who was a widow, came
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over, accompanied by two children. Samuel Brocklebank shortly after becoming of age was chosen a selectman, and continued to hold important town offices until his death. He became a deacon of the church Feb. 18, 1665. In 1673 the Council appointed him captain of militia, and after the breaking out of Philip's War he was stationed at a govern- ment garrison at Marlboro, where he had command of some colonial soldiers, and from which place he went with Captain Wadsworth to Sudbury. At the time of his death he was about forty-six years old. He left a widow and six children, Samuel, Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Joseph, Cap- tain Brocklebank was an estimable citizen, a brave soldier, and a fit associate of Captain Wadsworth in his perilous work.
Lieutenant Sharp of Brookline and Lieut. Samuel Gardiner of Roxbury were, it is stated, brave and efficient men. And all the soldiers who were slain on that disastrous occasion were, we are informed, as brave soldiers as any who were engaged in the service at that time.
ROXBURY MEN.
The following is a list of the Roxbury men who were of Captain Wadsworth's company, and killed at the Sudbury fight : Thomas Baker, Jr., John Roberts, Jr., Nathaniel Seaver [or Leason], Thomas Hawley [or Romley], Sr., William Cleaves, Joseph Pepper, John Sharpe, Thomas Hopkins, Samuel Gardner.
CONCORD MEN.
John Barnes lived in Concord in 1661, and married Eliza- beth Hunt in 1664.
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