Battle of Turner's Falls (Peskeompscut)

Prelude

On the evening of May 18, 1676, the people at Peskeompskut enjoyed a rare meal of beef and milk seized during the Hatfield raid, served alongside their usual salmon. Once the meal ended, the warriors went back to their own camp, leaving the larger settlement without protection. Meanwhile, farther south in Hatfield, Captain Turner assembled his surviving troops along with settlers drawn from the region's northernmost towns, all preparing to strike the camp at Peskeompskut. Most of these men had little training or combat experience, yet they intended to confront a hardened band of sixty to seventy warriors on ground the warriors knew intimately. Turner's force counted on sheer numbers, more than 160 men, and on catching their opponents unaware to offset this disadvantage.

Setting out once darkness fell, the militia rode through a violent thunderstorm that likely kept them hidden from Nipmuc lookouts stationed nearby. Rather than ford the Connecticut River where sentries typically watched, they crossed instead near the mouth of Sheldon's Brook. Their route across the Green River likewise avoided detection, taking them past the mouth of Ash Swamp Brook and around the eastern edge of the great swamp. By the hours before dawn on May 19, 1676, Turner and his companions had reached elevated ground just south of Mount Adams, with Peskeompskut spread out below them. There they dismounted, leaving their horses behind, and made their way on foot toward the sleeping camp. After settling on a signal that would mark the start of their assault, they pressed forward until they stood at point-blank distance from the wetus.

Engagement

At first light, on Captain Turner's signal, his soldiers unleashed volleys into the wetus, with some positioned at the doorways so no one could slip away. What followed was described as "a great and notable slaughter." The people who survived that first onslaught bolted toward the Connecticut River, hoping to escape by canoe or by swimming across. As they ran, some cried out "Mohawk! Mohawk!" The canoes quickly became crowded past capacity with those desperate to flee.

Turner's soldiers took positions along the bank and fired upon everyone in the water, whether swimming or paddling. Bullets were not the only danger; several were swept downstream over the falls, and others who hid beneath overhanging rocks were tracked down and killed there too. One account states that "Captain Holyoke" killed five people of all ages "with his own Hands from under a bank," and he was said to have killed four native children in a single stroke of his blade. A person who lived through the attack recalled that "shot came as thick as rain." By the end, more than a hundred bodies lay along the shore, and roughly one hundred thirty more had died in the river itself. Not a single one of Turner's soldiers fell to enemy fire, although one man was killed by his own comrades, who mistook him for a native as he stepped out of a wetu.

Despite recognizing that warriors were likely still in the area, Turner gave the order to raze the encampment. His men set fire to every wetu along with its contents and destroyed the supplies of dried and smoked fish stored there. They also came across two blacksmith forges together with tools meant for repairing weapons and casting ammunition, and rather than take these tools with them, they cast them into the river. The soldiers seized whatever goods they could carry off and liberated an English captive, who warned them that King Philip and a thousand warriors were close by. It was around this same moment that warriors camped elsewhere launched a coordinated assault, prompting Turner to call for an immediate withdrawal.

Once back on their horses, Turner's company began retreating along the same westward path they had used to arrive, though this time lacking the darkness and thunderstorm that had concealed their advance. Warriors from Peskeompskut who had survived pressed against the r

Aftermath

The river held Captain Turner's body for days before anyone recovered it. Out of the 160 men who had struck Peskeomskut, thirty-eight died in the retreat itself or under torture afterward, nearly a quarter of the entire force. Six others went missing, though they turned up later, and countless survivors carried wounds that cut their lives short. Then, on May 30, 1676, some 250 warriors who had survived the Peskeomskut assault struck back at Hatfield. That attack failed to break through, yet it still claimed five settlers' lives, destroyed twenty houses and barns by fire, killed numerous cattle, drove