The Raid on Deerfield, also known as the Deerfield Massacre, was an attack on February 29, 1704, of French and Native American forces on the English colonial settlement of Deerfield, Province of Massachusetts Bay. Springing just before dawn, raiders under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville burned parts of the town and killed 47 colonists. They left with 112 colonists as captives, whom they took overland the nearly 300 miles to Montreal; some died or were killed along the way because they were unable to keep up. Roughly 60 colonists were later ransomed by their associates, while others were adopted by Mohawk families at Kahnawake and became assimilated into the tribe.
In this period, English colonists and their Indian allies were involved in similar raids against French villages along the northern area between the spheres of influence. Typical of the small-scale frontier conflict in Queen Anne's War, the French-Indian forces consisted of French soldiers and about 240 Indian warriors, mostly Abenaki (from what is now Maine), but including Wendat (Huron) from Lorette, Mohawk from Kahnawake (both mission villages), and a number of Pocomtuc who had once lived in the Deerfield area.
Given the diversity of personnel, motivations, and material objectives, the raiders did not achieve full surprise when they entered the palisaded village. The defenders of some fortified houses in the village successfully held off the raiders until arriving reinforcements prompted their retreat. However, the raid was a clear victory for the French coalition that aimed to take captives and unsettle English colonial frontier society. More than 100 captives were taken, and about 40 percent of the village houses were destroyed.
Although predicted because of existing tensions during the war, the raid shocked colonists throughout New England. Conflict increased with the French and French-allied Indians. Frontier settlements took actions to fortify their towns and prepare for war. The raid has been immortalized as a part of the early American frontier story, principally due to the published account by a prominent captive, Reverend John Williams, who was the principal leader of the village. He and much of his family were taken on the long overland journey to Canada. His seven-year-old daughter Eunice was adopted by a Mohawk family; she became assimilated, married a Mohawk man, and had a family with him. Williams's account, The Redeemed Captive, was published in 1707 soon after his release, and was widely popular in the colonies. It became part of the genre known as captivity narratives.
Background When European colonists began in the 17th century to settle in the middle reaches of the Connecticut River valley (where it flows through the present state of Massachusetts), the area was inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Pocomtuc nation.Melvoin, pp. 26–29 In the early 1660s, the Pocomtuc were shattered as a nation due to conflict with the aggressive Mohawk, the easternmost of the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who were located west of Albany in the Mohawk Valley and raided into New England. They also had suffered population losses due to high mortality from the new, chronic infectious disease carried by traders and colonists, to which Native Americans had no acquired immunity.Melvoin, pp. 39–47Haefeli and Sweeney, pp. 273–274
In 1665, English colonists from the Massachusetts settlement of Dedham were given a grant in the Connecticut Valley area, and acquired land titles of uncertain legality from a variety of Pocomtuc Indians. They established a village in the early 1670s, at first called "Pocumtuck", but later, "Deerfield".Melvoin, pp. 52–58 Located in a relatively isolated position in the Massachusetts colony, on the edge of English colonial settlement, Deerfield became a target of frontier conflict between the French and English and their respective Native American allies.
The colonial outpost was a traditional New England subsistence farming community. The majority of Deerfield's settlers were young families who had moved west in search of land.
Previous raids on Deerfield By 1675 the village had grown to a population of about 200. In that year, conflict between English colonists and Indians in southern New England erupted into what is now known as "King Philip's War".Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 20 The war involved all of the New England colonies, and the colonists fought most of the Indian nations in the region. There were many casualties among them and the New England colonists.
Deerfield was evacuated in September 1675 after a coordinated series of Indian attacks, culminating in the Battle of Bloody Brook, resulted in the deaths of about half the village's adult men. The village was one of several in the Connecticut River valley abandoned by the English, and it was briefly reoccupied by the warring Indians.Melvoin, pp. 108,114Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 21 The colonists regrouped, and in 1676 a force of mostly local colonists slaughtered an Indian camp at a site then called "Peskeompscut". It is now called "Turners Falls", after William Turner, an English colonist who was killed in the action.Melvoin, p. 115
Ongoing raids by the Mohawk forced many of the remaining Indians to retreat north to French-controlled Canada or to the west.Melvoin, p. 121 Those going west joined other tribes that had formed a peace of sorts with the authorities in the eastern area of the Province of New York. During King William's War (1688–1697), Deerfield was not subjected to major attacks, but 12 residents were killed in a series of ambushes and other incidents. Supposedly friendly Indians who were recognized as Pocomtuc were recorded as passing through the area. Some claimed to have participated in attacks on other frontier communities.Haefeli and Sweeney, pp. 29–30
English attacks on the frontier communities of what is now southern Maine in the Northeast Coast Campaign of 1703 again put Deerfield residents on the alert, as they feared retaliation. In response to their own losses in the Campaign, the French planned an attack on Deerfield with their native allies. They were specifically seeking to capture a leader of high enough rank to propose a prisoner exchange.
The town's palisade, constructed during King William's War, had been rehabilitated and expanded.Melvoin, p. 213 In August of that year, the local militia commander called out the militia after he received intelligence of "a party of French & Indians from Canada" who were "expected every hour to make some attaque on ye towns upon Connecticut River".Melvoin, p. 212 However, nothing happened until October, when two men were taken from a pasture outside the palisade. Militia were sent to guard the town in response, but these returned to their homes with the advent of winter, which was generally not the period for warfare.
Minor raids against other communities convinced Governor Joseph Dudley to send 20 men to garrison Deerfield in February. These men, minimally trained militia from other nearby communities, had arrived by the 24th, making for somewhat cramped accommodations within the town's palisade on the night of February 28.Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 98Melvoin, pp. 215–216 In addition to these men, the townspeople mustered about 70 men of fighting age; these forces were all under the command of Captain Jonathan Wells.
Organizing the raid The Connecticut River valley had been identified as a potential raiding target by authorities in New France as early as 1702.Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 38 The forces for the raid had begun gathering near Montreal as early as May 1703, as reported with reasonable accuracy in English intelligence reports. However, two incidents delayed their execution of the raid. The first was a rumor that Royal Navy warships were on the Saint Lawrence River, and the French sent a significant Indian force to Quebec for its defense. The second was the detachment of some troops for operations in Maine; critically, these forces included Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville, who was intended to lead the raid on Deerfield. In addition, his raid against Wells raised the frontier alarms at Deerfield. Hertel de Rouville did not return to Montreal until the fall of 1703.Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 99
The force assembled at Chambly, just south of Montreal, numbered about 250. It was a diverse collection of men.Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 100 The 48 ethnic Frenchmen, were made up of Canadien militia and recruits from the troupes de la marine, including four of Hertel de Rouville's brothers.Calloway, p. 31 Several men among the French leadership had more than 20 years' experience in wilderness warfare. The Indian contingent included 200 Abenaki, Haudenosaunee (mostly Mohawk from Kahnawake), Wendat (also known as Huron, from Lorette), and Pocomtuc, some of whom sought revenge for incidents by whites that had taken place years earlier. As the party moved south toward Deerfield in January and February 1704, this force was joined by another 30 to 40 Pennacook warriors led by the sachem Wattanummon, raising the troop size to nearly 300 by the time it reached the Deerfield area in late February.Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 111Calloway, p. 47
The expedition's departure was not a secret. In January 1704, the Haudenosaunee warned New York's Indian agent Pieter Schuyler of possible action by the French and their allies. He notified Governor Dudley and Connecticut's Governor Winthrop; they received further warnings in mid-February, although none was specific about the target.Haefeli and Sweeney, pp. 110–111
Raid
The raiders left most of their equipment and supplies 25 to 30 miles (40 to 48 kilometers) north of the village before establishing a cold camp about from Deerfield on February 28, 1704. From this vantage point, they observed the villagers as they prepared for the night. Since the villagers had been alerted to the possibility of a raid, they all took refuge within the palisade, and a guard was posted.Melvoin, p. 216
The raiders had noticed that snow drifts extended to the top of the palisade; this simplified their entry into the fortifications just before dawn on February 29. They carefully approached the village, stopping periodically so that the sentry might confuse the noises they made with more natural sounds. A few men climbed over the palisade via the snow drifts and opened the north gate to admit the rest. Primary sources vary on the degree of alertness of the village guard that night; one account claims he fell asleep, while another claims that he discharged his weapon to raise the alarm when the attack began, but that it was not heard by many people.Melvoin, p. 217 As the Reverend John Williams later recounted, "with horrid shouting and yelling", the raiders launched their attack "like a flood upon us".
As the morning progressed, some of the raiders began moving north with their prisoners, but paused about a mile north of the town to wait for those who had not yet finished in the village. The men in the Stebbins house kept up the battle for two hours; they were on the verge of surrendering when reinforcements arrived from the south. Early in the raid, young John Sheldon managed to escape over the palisade and began making his way to nearby Hadley to raise the alarm. The fires from the burning houses had already been spotted, and "thirty men from Hadley and Hatfield" rushed to Deerfield.Melvoin, p. 219 Their arrival prompted the remaining raiders to flee; some abandoned their weapons and other supplies in the rush.Melvoin, p. 220