User:Coachscott3/Great Swamp Fight

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The Great Swamp Conflict (sometimes referred to as The Great Swamp Massacre or The Great Swamp Fight) was one of the most consequential events of what has come to be known as King Philip's War. The war pitted Indigenous communities throughout New England (also known as the Dawnland) against the United Colonies of New England and their Native allies. On 19 December 1675, the United Colonies attacked a Narragansett stronghold located in a large swamp in what is now known as South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The fighting that ensued has been described as "one of the most brutal and lopsided military encounters in all of New England's history." Because Native peoples throughout the Dawnland used swamps as areas of refuge during times of war, it is believed that many of those killed during the attack were non-combatants. Since the 1930s, Narragansett and Wampanoag people commemorate the battle annually in a ceremony initiated by Narragansett-Wampanoag scholar Princess Red Wing.

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The Pokanoket Indians had helped the original pilgrim settlers to survive, under the leadership of Massasoit. His sons Wamsutta and Metacom took on the English names of Alexander and Philip, respectively. Alexander became sachem of the Pokanokets on the death of his father, but he died within a year and Philip succeeded him in 1662.[citation needed]

Philip began laying plans to attack the colonists in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and he slowly built a confederation of neighboring Indian tribes. He also gathered muskets and gunpowder for the eventual attack, but only in small numbers in order that the colonists would not be alarmed.

Several Wampanoag men attacked and killed colonists in Swansea, Massachusetts, on June 20, 1675, and that began King Philip's War. The Indians laid siege to the town, then destroyed it five days later and killed several more people. A full eclipse of the moon occurred in the New England area on June 27, 1675 (O.S.) (July 7, 1675 N.S.; See Old Style and New Style dates), and various tribes looked at it as a good omen for attacking the colonists. Officials from the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies responded quickly to the attacks on Swansea; on June 28, they sent a punitive military expedition which destroyed the Wampanoag town at Mount Hope in Bristol, Rhode Island.[citation needed]

The Indians waged attacks on settlements in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but Rhode Island was spared at the beginning. In October, the Indians struck again with raids on the towns of Hatfield, Northampton, and Springfield, where almost the entire settlement was burned to the ground. As winter set in, the attacks diminished.[citation needed]

The Narragansetts remained officially neutral in the war due in part to the urging of Roger Williams, signing a neutrality treaty with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in October of 1675. Although not involved in the war, they had sheltered many of King Philip's men, women, and children, and several of their warriors had participated in Indian raiding parties. The colonists distrusted the Narragansetts and feared that the tribe would join King Philip's cause in the spring, which caused great concern due to the tribe's location. The militia burned several abandoned Narragansett villages as they marched around Narragansett Bay, as the tribe had retreated to a large fort in the center of the Great Swamp near Kingston, Rhode Island. On November 2, 1675, Josiah Winslow led a combined force of over 1,000 colonial militia, including about 150 Pequot and Mohegan Indians, against the Narragansetts living around Narragansett Bay.[citation needed] ''Philip. King of Mount Hope, caricature by Paul Revere, illustration from the 1772 edition of Benjamin Church's The Entertaining History of King Philip's War''

One colonist was accused of fighting on the Indian side of the battle. Joshua Tefft reportedly wounded Captain Nathaniel Seely of Connecticut (son of Captain Robert Seeley), who subsequently died. An Indian spy reported that Tefft "did them good service & killed & wounded 5 or 6 English in that fight & before they would trust him he had killed a miller an English man at Narragansett and brought his scalpe to them."