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King Philips War (1675 - 76) is an event that has been largely ignored by the American public and popular historians. However, the almost two-year conflict between the colonists and the Native Americans in New England stands as perhaps the most devastating war in this countrys history. One in ten soldiers on both sides were wounded or killed. At its height, hostilities threatened to push the recently arrived English colonists back to the coast. And, it took years for towns and urban centers to recover from the carnage and property damage.
The war is named for King Philip, the son of Massasoit and chief of the Wampanoag nation. In his language, his name was Metacom, Metacom et, or Po metacom. In 1662, the court at Plymouth Colony arrogantly summoned the Wampanoag leader Wamsutta to Plymouth. Major Josiah Winslow (later Colonel) and a small force took Wamsutta, Philips brother, at gunpoint. Soon after questioning, Wamsutta sickened and died and his death infuriated the Wampanoag nation. Upon the death of his brother, whom the Indians suspected the English of murdering, Philip became sachem and maintained a shaky peace with the colonists for a number of years.
Friendship continued to erode over the steady succession of land sales forced on the Indians by their growing dependence on English goods, and Plymouth's continued unyielding policy toward Native leaders, it is reported by the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars (web) and other sources. Suspicions of the Indians remained, and in 1671, the colonists questioned Philip, fined him and demanded that the Wampanoag surrender their arms, which they did. War Flames Are Ignited In January 1675, the Indian John Sassamon died at Assawampsett Pond, about 15 miles north of present-day New Bedford. Sassamon was literate and a Christian convert. He may have been acting as an informer to the English and was murdered, probably at Philips instigation. Increase Mather, writing after the war, suggested he was killed out of hatred for him for his Religion, for he was Christianized, and baptized, and was a Preacher amongst the Indians...
and was wont to curb those Indians that knew not God on the account of their debaucher eyes (1) Events moved quickly, and on June 8 Sassamon's alleged murderers were tried and executed at Plymouth. Three days later, Wampanoags were reported to have taken up arms near Swansea, about 15 miles from Providence By the mid- 17 th century, settlements had been established throughout southeast Massachusetts. Though there were many events that led to the war, the attack on the settlement on the banks of the Kickemuit River may be attributed to the growing perception that Indian land had been increasingly encroached upon by settlers, leaving cornfields overrun by settlers' livestock and traditional hunting grounds inaccessible. In fact, since the arrival of the English at Plymouth Rock in 1620, land under Native control had been reduced from all of Southeastern Massachusetts to merely the area of the Mount Hope peninsula. (A map and local points related to the war can be found at web) Less than a week later, authorities in Rhode Island, Plymouth, and Massachusetts attempted negotiation with Philip, and sought guarantees of fidelity from the Nipmuck's and Narragansetts. However, before the end of the month, Wampanoags made a sudden raid on the settlement of Swansea on the Taunton River. On June 26, Massachusetts troops marched to Swansea to join Plymouth troops.
When news of the attack on Swansea reached Boston, the Massachusetts Bay Colony quickly came to the aid of The Plymouth Colony. An example of the orders of the General Court is the following: To the Militia of the Town of Boston, Cha. Camb. Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Brantrey, Weymouth, Hingham, MauldenYou are hereby required in his Majesty's name to take notice that Govr & Council have ordered 100 able shoulders forthwith impressed out of the several Towns according to the proportions hereunder written for the aid and assistance of our confederate Plymouth in the design afoot at the Indians, and accordingly you are to warne and proportions to be ready at an hours warning from Capt Daniel Henchman who is appointed Captain and Commander of the Foote Company that each shoulder shal have his armes compleat and Snalsack ready to march and not file to be at the rendezvous.
In the coming days, Wampanoags attacked Rehoboth and Taunton, eluded colonial troops, and left Mount Hope for Pocasset. Meanwhile, the Mohegans of Connecticut traveled to Boston and offered to fight on the English side. Other raids followed; towns were burned and many whites men, women, and children were slain. Unable to draw the Indians into a major battle, the colonists resorted to similar methods of hit-and-run warfare in retaliation, and antagonized other tribes.
The Wampanoag were joined by the Nipmucks and by the Narragansett (after the latter were attacked by the colonists), and by that summer of 1675 all the New England colonies were involved in the war. While English encroachments on Native American land may be a general cause of the war, three cultural points are worth noting as incendiaries that inflamed the English: &# 61548; The English, many of whom were veterans of Europe's Thirty Years War, were introduced to guerrilla warfare by necessity. Indians fought from behind trees and, according to a poet of that period, every stump shot like a musketeer / And bows with arrows every tree did bear. (2) Worse yet, the new continent featured dark forests and swamp lands that made it impossible to maintain orderly battle lines. To the colonists, swamps were hideous and dangerous places, the most foreign and un-English land in all the New World.
The word itself, swamp only entered the English language with the first reports from North America in 1624. (3) &# 61548; English houses had evolved from wattle and daub huts to framed structures by the mid- 17 th century, and the loss of English houses was a major crisis of the war. The loss of property was, at that time, often counted first before the loss of human life. &# 61548; And, the English had insurmountable differences with the Native Americans. They were deeply suspicious even of Indians who had learned to read and write English. Further, nakedness signaled both cultural and spiritual depravity.
In other words, the Native Americans were not civilized. Adding indignity to injury during the war, the Indians sometimes stripped dead men and women of their clothes, leaving them lying prominently naked. Other raids followed; towns were burned and many whites men, women, and children were slain. In September, George Ingersoll described in a letter how he arrived at a neighbors farm after hearing gunshots: When I came to the place, I found an house burnt down, and six persons killed, and three of the same family could not be found.
An old man and a woman were halfe in, and halfe out of the house neer halfe burnt. Their owne Son was shot through the body, and also his head dashed in pieces. The young mans Wife was dead, her head skinned. The woman was bigg with Child, and two of her children he reported as haveing their heads dashed in pieces. The three missing family members were taken captive. (4) Unable to draw the Indians into a major battle, the colonists resorted to similar methods of hit-and-run warfare in retaliation, antagonizing other tribes. The Wampanoag were joined by the Nipmucks and by the Narragansett (after the latter were attacked by the colonists), and by that summer of 1675 all the New England colonies were involved in the war.
On July 8, Wampanoags attacked Middle borough and Dartmouth. On the 14 th, Nipmuck's attacked Mendon. In the quickly changing tide of alliances, the Narragansetts signed a peace treaty with Connecticut on July 15 th, while a Massachusetts envoy attempted to negotiate with the Nipmuck's. On July 19 th, Philip and his troops escaped an English siege and fled Pocasset for Nipmucks territory. In a matter of a few days, the Nipmuck's attacked Massachusetts troops and besieged Brookfield about 10 miles west of present-day Worcester.
Most Natives who had converted to Christianity called Praying Indians or Christian Indians fought with the English or remained neutral. The English, however, did not always trust these converts and interned many of them in camps on outlying islands. Also, some Native communities on Cape Cod and the Islands did not participate in the war. On Aug. 13, the Massachusetts Council ordered Christian Indians confined to praying town dark foretaste of Americas suspension of civil liberties in later wartime's. But the carnage was continuing: On Aug. 22, a group of unidentified Indians killed seven colonists at Lancaster, Mass. Perhaps in retaliation, on Aug. 30, Capt.
Samuel Moseley arrested 15 Hassanemesit Indians near Marlborough for the Lancaster assault and marched them to Boston. The war was spreading to the West, and on Sept. 1, Wampanoags and Nipmuck's attacked Deerfield, Mass. Massachusetts forces under the command of Capt. Moseley attacked the town of Penna cook. By the 12 th of the month, colonists had abandoned Deerfield, Squakeag, and Brookfield. Warfare continued throughout the fall months.
The Narragansetts signed a treaty with the English in Boston. Massachusetts troops were ambushed near Northampton. Pocumtucks attacked and destroyed Springfield. For their part, the Colonists retaliated forcefully. The Massachusetts Council relocated Christian Indians to Deer Island in Boston Harbor and repelled Indians from Hatfield. And Commissioners of the United Colonies ordered a united army to attack the Narragansetts at the Great Swamp.
The Christian Indians may have been perceived as a possible threat, but they were also the enemy to the hostile Indians. Before the end of 1675, the Nipmuck's had taken captive Christian Indians at Magunkaquog, Chabanakongkomun, and Hassanemesit, including James Printer. Printer was not only a literate Christian Indian from Cambridge, he took the surname of the trade he pursued. A University of Massachusetts study notes, During September, 1675, bands of warriors roamed the Connecticut River valley, attacking villagers as they worked in the fields or traveled between villages on business. Unlike the English who were accustomed to fighting fixed battles on open plains, Amerindians fought from concealed spots and attacked small groups. This American way of fighting would be a problem for the British during the next century also.
The colonists used these same guerilla tactics, which they learned fighting the Amerindians, to fight against the British troops in the American Revolutionary War. (5) The Indians, it was said, were warrior societies. Despite the imbalance of arms, since they lacked cannon and depended upon the English or French for muskets and powder, they were effective against European military formations. Colonial militia, which quickly adopted the Indians style of guerrilla or insurgency warfare, were better able to deal with Indian tactics than the English officers, some of whom had fought under Cromwell in England. The new year of 1676 saw Philip weakened somewhat. In January, he and his band traveled further west to Mohawk territory, seeking, but failing to secure, an alliance.
The winter months saw pitched battles as the Narragansetts attacked Pawtuxet; Nipmuck's attacked Lancaster then Medfield. As Philip and the Wampanoags returned and attacked Northampton, the Massachusetts Council debated erecting a wall around Boston; assaults were taking place within ten miles of Boston. Fighting continued in March, as Nipmuck's attacked Groton; Longmeadow, Marlborough, and Simsbury were attacked; Nipmuck's attacked English forces near Sudbury. Then, Indians attacked Rehoboth, and Providence was destroyed. The Massacre at Cumberland One of the bloodiest massacres and darkest moments for the English occurred at Cumberland, R. I.
On Sunday morning March 26, 1676, after receiving word that a party of the enemy lay near Blackstone's house at Study Hill in Cumberland, Capt. Michael Pierce marched from Rehoboth, leading a company of 63 English and 20 friendly Wampanoag Indians. Pierce was born about 1615 in Bristol, England, and emigrated to America in about 1645. He settled in Hingham, Mass. , in 1646, moved to Scituate the following year, and was commissioned a Captain by the Colony Court in 1669. Upon reaching a ravine near Attleborough Gore on the Blackstone River above Pawtucket Falls, his company were ambushed by about 500 to 700 Narragansett led by chief sachem Canonchet. According to an account related by Hon.
Edwin C. Pierce of Providence, the English retreated across the river to set up a defense on the west bank (now part of the City of Central Falls), but were attacked by a blocking force of about 300 Indians. Pierce formed his men into a circle and they continued to fight in ever decreasing numbers for about two hours, until only a few remained. Pierce was killed early in the battle. A few of the Wampanoags managed to escape by disguising themselves as attackers. Nine English were captured and taken to a spot in Cumberland, now called Nine Mens Misery, where they were tortured to death.
Arriving too late, a relief force found and buried the bodies of the nine. A few days later, Canonchet was captured and executed. These were the essentials of the battle. A more personal and detailed account of the massacre of Pierces party by the Indians gives us a flavor of the emotion felt by the English: Sunday the 26 th of March was sadly remarkable to us for the...
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