For Lesson 4 – Problems And Events Leading Up To The Attack Of 1704

Excerpts from
Soldiers In King Philip’s War
by George M. Bodge, 1906

Upon September 18th Capt. Lathrop with his company was sent to convoy [escort] teams bringing loads of grain from Deerfield to Hadley. A strong ambuscade [hiding place for attackers] was made at a place known since as “Bloody Brook,” and there the Indians encompassed [surrounded] and massacred nearly the whole company, some eighty, including the teamsters. Only eight or ten escaped. The number killed was between sixty and seventy. Capt. Mosley came hastily from Deerfield upon hearing the shots, and engaged the great company of several hundreds of Indians, charging in amongst them with intrepid [brave] fury which drove them headlong before him into the woods and swamps.

George Madison Bodge, A.M–(1841-1914), a reverend from East Boston, MA, was a member of the New England Historical Genealogical Society and chaplain for the Massachusetts Society of Colonial Wars (a hereditary society).

Excerpts from
The Redeemed Captive Returning To Zion
by John Williams, 1706, pgs. 99-101

…an event occurred which clothed the country in sackcloth [clothing worn to mourn someone’s death] and ashes,- “the blackest day ever noticed in the annals [records] of New England.”

A large quantity of grain, probably wheat, had been harvested and stacked at Deerfield. Captain Lathrop, and a company of eighty men, besides a number of teamsters with their teams, were sent by Major Treat from his place to thrash out the grain [beat it to remove the seeds] and carry it to Hadley.

Captain Lathrop and his men… loaded the carts, and commenced [began] their return to Hadley on the morning of the 18th, feeling themselves in perfect security. Unfortunately he was not so well versed in modern warfare as to know the necessity of flank [rear] guards, or he was totally unapprehensive [not worried] of the danger which threatened him. After they had proceeded about four miles and a half through the country, which was then covered with woods, and had just passed the little stream now called Bloody-Brook,… they were attacked, probably by King Philip himself and seven or eight hundred ferocious Indians, howling for vengeance [punishment], brandishing the deadly tomahawk and murderous scalping-knife.

More than one account states that many of the soldiers had attacked or laid down their guns, and, in conscious security, were regaling themselves upon [enjoying] the delicious grapes which were found there in great abundance.

In a moment the guns of the whole body of Indians, who were lying in wait for their victims, poured destruction upon their ranks, accompanied by the terrific yells of the savage war-whoop.

Of nearly one hundred men who entered that field of death on that fatal morning, in the bloom of health, of youth, of manly beauty, only seven or eight remained to tell the melancholy [sad] tale. All the rest were inhumanly butchered…

These young men have always been considered “the flower of the county of Essex,” and descended from the most respectable families there.

Rev. John Williams–Deerfield’s minister at the time of the 1704 attack. Two of his children were killed during the attack, and his wife was killed during the march north. He was captured along with five of his children. One child, Eunice would never return.

Excerpts from
The History Of Deerfield, Vol. I
by George Sheldon, 1895, pgs. 100-103

Early in the morning of Sept. 18, 1675-..”that most fatal day, the saddest that ever befell New England,” Capt. Lothrop, “with his choice company of young men, the very flower of the County of Essex,” followed by a slowly moving train of carts, marched proudly down the old Town Street,…to the heavily wooded plain stretching away to Hatfield meadows. The carts were loaded with bags of wheat,…

Southward along the narrow Pocumtuck Path, through the primeval [primitive] woods, moved Lothrop and his men- brave, fearless, foolish. Confident in their numbers, scorning danger, not even a van-guard or flanker was thrown out [no guard was put in front or back].

Meanwhile the whole hostile force was lying like serpents in the way; but unlike the more chivalric [dignified] of these reptiles, their fangs will be felt before a warning is given. The probable leaders were Mattamuck, Sagamore Sam, Matoonas and One Eyed John, of the Nipmucks; Anawan, Penchason, and Tatason, of the Wampanoags, and Sangmachu of the remnant [remainder] of the Pocumtucks. There is no evidence that Philip was present,…

The soldiers crossed the brook and halted, while the teams should slowly drag their heavy loads through the mire [deep mud]; “many of them,” says Mather, “having been so foolish and secure as to put their arms in the carts and step aside to gather grapes, which proved dear and deadly grapes to them.” Meanwhile the silent morass [marsh] on either flank was covered with grim warriors prone [lying flat] upon the ground, their tawny [tanned] bodies indistinguishable from the slime in which they crawled, or their scarlet plumes [feathers] and crimson paint from the glowing tints of the dying year on leaf and vine. Eagerly but breathless and still, they waited the signal. The critical moment had come. The fierce war-whoop rang in the ears of the astonished English…

The men of Pocumtuck sank, the Flower of Essex withered before it, and the nameless stream was baptized in blood.

Mather says, “This was a black and fatal day, wherein there was eight persons made widows, and six and twenty children made orphans, all in one little Plantation.” That little plantation was Pocumtuck [Deerfield]; and these were the heavy tidings [news] which the sad, worn out soldiers brought to our stricken inhabitants.

Of seventeen men of Pocumtuck who went out in the morning as teamsters, not one returned to tell the tale. The torturing anxiety and sickening fear, crowding the hearts of the distracted women the live-long day, now only gave place to the awful certainty of the worst. Their husbands, fathers, brothers, were slain…Their mangled bodies now lay uncared for in the dark morass at Bloody Brook.

George Sheldon–descendant of John Sheldon, who was living in Deerfield at the time of the 1704 attack. John Sheldon’s wife and one child were killed during the attack and three children were taken captive, to be later redeemed. George Sheldon was one of the founders of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, dedicated to preserving the memory of Deerfield’s earliest settlers, both Native American and White. He also served as the organization’s first president. He was a historian, genealogist and author.