A TRAGEDY

“...and thus began the war between the Indians and us in these parts."

~ Lietutenant Lyon Gardner

battle for Connecticut

The first full scale war between the colonists and Native Americans happened in Connecticut. The brutality of this war forecast future events as these two cultures continued to clash over the ensuing years.

Contrary to some popular belief, Native Americans were not all peace loving folk turned bad when the colonists came. There were many fierce, aggressive bands that strove to subjugate other tribes in their area. The Pequot tribe had not been long in Connecticut when the first settlers arrived, but they had already overrun the smaller tribes and had also made an enemy of the powerful Narragansett. The Pequots claimed their right to the land in the Connecticut Valley by “right of conquest.” Also vying for this land at that time, however, were the Dutch and the English.

Fur, a highly desirable commodity, caused much of the furor. Trade with Native Americans was a hotly contested issue amongst the differing European nations settling in the New World. When the English arrived in 1630, the Dutch and Pequot already had a good thing going in Connecticut and weren't interested in sharing the wealth. The English, absorbed with other concerns, took little notice until 1633 when the Dutch built a trading post in Hartford which both the Pequot and the Narragansett approved.

Tension escalated between the English, Dutch, and Native Americans. The inability of these groups to distinguish between one another only added to the conflict. When Dutch traders killed a Pequot sachem (chief) in 1634, seven Englishmen were killed by the Pequot as reprisal. Their explanation of the misidentification did nothing to quell the anger of the English.

Odos' uncle builds a fort!

Enter John Winthrop, Jr., son of Governor John Winthrop, Sr., founder of Ipswich, future governor of Connecticut and 9th great-uncle by marriage to Odos Clanin III. He understood the importance of that area and, in 1635, engaged a Scotsman to build and command a fort there.  Saybrook Fort was the first fortified settlement in New England. It was built not only as a place of defense and protection, but also refuge for wealthy gentlemen from England who sought political, economic, and religious freedoms in New England. Connecticut fell into that category of outlying colonies, like Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, where settlers could live away from authoritarian Puritan rules.

Winthrop's fort was prophetic of the troubled times to come.

Representation of Fort Saybrook during the Pequot War

the man who is credited with beginning the war

John Oldham emigrated to the Plymouth Colony in 1623. Sadly, he didn't turn out to be Pilgrim material. Oldham almost immediately started trouble in the colony. He refused to stand watch, drew a knife on Miles Standish "unprovoked," and angrily denounced him as a "beggarly rascal." He wrote to friends in England of his complaints, criticizing the Pilgrims' religious practices, the bad water, thievery in the community and, for good measure, too many mosquitoes. Oldham was put on trial by the Pilgrims for "plotting against them and disturbing their peace..." He was forthwith banished from Plymouth.

So when John Oldham was killed by members of the Manisses tribe in July of 1636, was the militia sent from Massachusetts to deal with the perpetrators really about him? Or was it an excuse for the Bay Colony to get their foot in the door on the trade benefits in Connecticut? In any event, Massachusetts was quick to respond. In August of 1636, Massachusetts Bay organized a force of 90 soldiers under the command of Colonel John Endicott. This group launched a punitive expedition against the Manisses of Block Island. The English burned five or six villages and destroyed several cornfields. Ironically, the Manisses tribe was affiliated with the Narraganset who would soon ally themselves with the English against the Pequot.

The militia then went after the Pequot, who had nothing at all to do with the death of John Oldham. Endicott attacked a Pequot village on the coast. Most of the villagers escaped, but the English burned the settlement to the ground.

escalation

The Pequot, viewing the attack as unprovoked, retaliated. They laid siege to Saybrook Fort. This would prove to be the longest engagement of the war, from September 1636 through mid-April 1637.  The Pequot did what they could to harass the English living there. They attacked soldiers and anyone who ventured too far from the fort, destroyed cornfields and cattle, and burned warehouses used to store trade goods.

All attempts by the Pequot to enlist the aid of neighboring tribes had failed due to the years of mistrust and warfare, particularly with the Narragansett. That didn't stop them, however, from furthering their attacks on the English with little provocation needed. In April of 1637, an elderly Pequot leader was thrown off land granted to him by colonial authorities. The Pequot struck back by raiding an English settlement at Wethersfield, CT. They killed six men and three women, destroyed property and took two young female hostages.

It was after the Wethersfield attack that seventeen men from Ipswich, MA marched to Salem to join the gathering army. Six more followed in May, among them Edward Lummis (9GGF). The Massachusetts militiamen “engaged with some Pequods, and pursued them until their amunition became exhausted, when they used their muskets as clubs.” Also answering the call was Thomas French (10U) who served as a sergeant. In the appendix of Soldiers in King Philip's War, George Madison Bodge lists the men who served in the Pequot War. Thomas Howlett (9GGF) is listed in that book as Ensign in the Ipswich Militia, so most probably he saw action in this war as well.

the massacre at Mystic

The attack of the Pequot's fort on the Mystic River was headed by Connecticut Captains John Mason and John Underhill. Key to the success of the Connecticut militia was aid given to them by the Pequot's rival tribe. Narragansett guides led Mason to a secret Pequot fort on the Mystic River where the women, children and aged of the tribe were sheltered. Avoiding the village where the warriors lived, Mason attacked the fort on the Mystic River, killing women and children and setting the wigwams ablaze. Those that were not burned in the village were shot as they tried to flee the blaze. The appalled Narragansett had never seen such a display of savagery. They reported that of 400 people in the fort only about 5 escaped.

John Underhill's woodcutting depicting the Battle of Fort Mistick

destroying a people

The Pequot warriors set out to avenge their people, but were no match for Mason's army which was able to acquire reinforcements and force a Pequot retreat. The destruction of the entire village at Mystic Fort coupled with the loss of even more warriors during the withdrawal pursuit broke the spirit of the Pequot. They decided to abandon their villages and flee westward to seek refuge with the Mohawk tribe. However, they never found this refuge.

Unwilling to let the conflict end there, in mid-June John Mason set out from Saybrook Fort with 160 men. He and his men caught up with the refugees and surrounded the swamp where they crouched hidden. Some hundred people were allowed to surrender, mostly women and children. The rest were killed.

Below are the major battlefields of the war.

Orange = Swamp massacre Green = Wethersfield attack Red = Saybrook Fort Blue = Mystic massacre Purple = Block Island

Only about 200 Pequots survived this bloody war. Those remaining finally gave up and submitted themselves to the authority of the sachems of the Mohegans or Naragansett. The Colonies then declared the Pequots "extinct" by prohibiting them from using the name any longer.

Note: The Pequot did survive as a people. Connecticut established two reservations for them in 1683. In 1910, the census numbered them at 66 persons. Today the Pequots have raised their numbers to 16,000.

In the end, the English eliminated both the Native American and Dutch threats. That left them free to colonize Connecticut as they saw fit.

The colonists attributed their victory over the hostile Pequot tribe to an act of God:

"Let the whole Earth be filled with his glory! Thus the lord was pleased to smite our Enemies in the hinder Parts, and to give us their Land for an Inheritance." ~ John Mason