Great Swamp Fight

Historical context

Before the fighting began, the Pokanoket had kept the earliest pilgrim arrivals alive, guided by Massasoit's leadership. Two of his sons, Wamsutta and Metacom, took up the English names Alexander and Philip. When Massasoit died, Alexander stepped into the role of Pokanoket sachem, only to die himself within the year; Philip then took over in 1662.

From that point, Philip quietly worked toward striking the settlers spread across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, gradually knitting together an alliance among nearby tribes. Muskets and gunpowder were collected as well, though he kept the quantities modest so as not to tip off the colonists to what was coming.

The spark came on June 20, 1675, when a group of Wampanoag men killed colonists in Swansea, Massachusetts, setting King Philip's War into motion. The town endured a siege before being burned down five days later, with additional deaths following. New England witnessed a total lunar eclipse on June 27, 1675 by the old calendar (July 7 under the new one), and several tribes read the event as a favorable sign for continuing their campaign against the settlers. The colonial governments of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay moved swiftly once Swansea was attacked, dispatching a retaliatory force on June 28 that leveled the Wampanoag settlement at Mount Hope in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island.

Assaults on Massachusetts and Connecticut communities followed, though Rhode Island initially escaped harm. By October, the violence had spread to Hatfield, Northampton, and Springfield, the last of which saw nearly its entire settlement reduced to ashes. The onset of winter brought a lull in the hostilities.

Largely through Roger Williams's influence, the Narragansett tribe stayed formally uninvolved, putting their name to a neutrality agreement with Massachusetts Bay Colony in October 1675. Despite this official stance, they had given refuge to numerous Wampanoag men, women, and children tied to Philip, and some of their own fighters had joined in raids alongside the enemy. This bred suspicion among the colonists, who worried that come spring the Narragansetts might throw in fully with Philip's forces, a fear made more pressing by where the tribe was situated. As colonial forces circled Narragansett Bay, they set fire to Narragansett villages already left empty, since the tribe had pulled back to a fortified position deep within the Great Swamp near what is now Kingston, Rhode Island. Then, on November 2, 1675, Josiah Winslow marched a militia force exceeding 1,000 men, along with roughly 150 Pequot and Mohegan allies, toward the Narragansetts settled along the bay.

Amid this campaign, suspicion fell on one colonist said to have sided with the Indians. Joshua Tefft was accused of wounding Connecticut's Captain Nathaniel Seely, son of Captain Robert Seeley, a wound that later proved fatal. According to an Indian informant, Tefft had rendered aid to the Narragansett side, killing or wounding five or six English combatants during the fight, and before earning their trust he had also killed an English miller near Narragansett and delivered the man's scalp to them.

Battle

Talks between Stonewall John and the militia collapsed, and on December 15, 1675, Narragansett fighters struck the Jireh Bull Blockhouse, leaving at least 15 dead. Among those inside was James Eldred, just fifteen years old, who managed to flee the structure only to be chased over a long distance. A tomahawk hurled at close range failed to bring him down, and he lived through a hand-to-hand struggle with one of the warriors before reaching safety. The chase unfolded near Indian Run Brook in what is now Wakefield-Peacedale, Rhode Island. For the Narragansetts, swamplands offered natural strongholds during wartime, and this belief drew them to settle within the Great Swamp as the conflict wore on.

Four days passed before the next clash erupted: the Great Swamp Battle, fought amid brutal cold and stormy weather on December 19, 1675. An Indian scout known as Indian Peter guided militia units drawn from Plymouth, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Bay toward the primary Narragansett stronghold in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Thanks to the freezing temperatures, the water encircling the encampment turned to ice, giving the colonial soldiers an easy path across what would normally have been a natural barrier. Sprawled across roughly 5 acres (20,000 m2), the great fort had sheltered more than a thousand people at the outset, but after a brutal clash it fell to the attackers. Flames consumed the settlement afterward. Those who lived there, among them countless women, children, and elderly people who took no part in the fighting, perished, with most burned alive in horrific fashion. The destruction claimed most of the tribe's stockpiled winter provisions, condemning survivors to death by starvation or by freezing within the swamp itself. Estimates suggest that at minimum 97 Narragansett fighters died, alongside somewhere between 300 and 1,000 civilians, although the true totals remain uncertain. Stonewall John's forge was also destroyed by the attacking forces, but he himself managed to flee, only to be killed months afterward.

Numerous fighters and their relatives fled into the icy swamp, and hundreds among them succumbed there, their injuries compounded by the brutal elements. The assault also cost the colonial side heavily, with several officers among the fallen, roughly 70 men dead, and close to 150 others wounded. Wounded and deceased militiamen alike were transported to communities on Aquidneck Island within Narragansett Bay, where Rhode Island colonists took on the task of burying the dead and tending to the injured.

Notable officers and Indian chiefs

Among the men who led forces into this engagement was Governor Josiah Winslow, alongside Major Samuel Appleton and Captain James Avery. Major William Bradford also held a command role, as did Captain Benjamin Church and Captain George Denison. Captain Joseph Gardner led the Salem Company into the fight.

John Gorham I served as well; he lent his name to what would become Gorham, Maine, and stood as great grandfather to John Gorham 4th. Three officers did not survive the fighting: Captain Isaac Johnson fell in action, Captain Samuel Marshall of the Windsor Horse Troop met the same fate, and Captain Nathaniel Seeley died at age 48, having been the eldest son of Robert Seeley, a Puritan settler of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Rounding out the Plymouth militia's leadership was Captain Josiah Standish, while Governor Robert Treat contributed his own command to the effort.

On the other side stood three prominent chiefs: Canonchet, Metacomet, and Uncas.

Aftermath

The Narragansett tribe never truly recovered after the devastating losses inflicted at the Great Swamp. By the spring of 1676, Canonchet had rallied roughly 2000 warriors into a confederation and launched a counter-offensive, one that saw Providence go up in flames, taking Roger William's home with it. That resistance collapsed, however, once Canonchet himself was seized and put to death in April of that year, leaving the tribe on the brink of total defeat. More losses followed on July 2, when the female sachem Queen Quaiapen was caught in an ambush while fording a river during the Second Battle of Nipsachuck, and Stonewall John, an Indian mason of some renown, fell as well. The conflict's final blow came on August 12, when Philip was gunned down by John Alderman, an Indian soldier serving under Benjamin Church. In the aftermath, surviving Narragansetts faced grim fates: enslavement, execution, or flight to seek refuge among neighboring peoples such as the Niantics.