Talcot Raid

Indiscriminate and beligerant European encroachment brought Indian retaliation in New England, culminating in Metacomet’s Rebellion, better known as King Philip’s War, in 1675. Native inhabitants came close to pushing English colonists out of New England. Victories including a raid on Plimouth Plantation gave brief hope of success, but European settlers rallied. Metacomet was killed in August 1676, but empowered militiamen weren’t satisfied. The war’s final, shocking clash came three days later, somewhere in the Housatonic River valley.

Major John Talcot was stationed at Westfield with a detachment of Connecticut militia. Scouts advised that some 200 Indians were fleeing toward the Hudson River. Epaphras Hoyt wrote: “Talcot immediately took the trail, and pressed on to overtake the Indians, and on the third day, discovered them encamped on the west bank of the Housatonic river, in the most perfect security. Being late in the day, he resolved to postpone an attack, until next morning, and drawing back, lay upon his arms in the most profound silence. Towards the dawn of day, forming his troops into two divisions, one to pass the river below the Indians, make a detour, and attack them in their rear, while the other was to approach by a direct route opposite to their camp, and open a fire across the river the moment the attack commenced on the opposite side.

The plan was partially frustrated. One of the Indians left the camp in the night, and proceeded down the river for the purpose of taking fish, and as the troops who had crossed the river, as had been ordered, were advancing to the attack, he discovered them, and gave the usual cry, Awanux! Awanux! On which he was instantly shot. Talcot, now opposite to the Indian camp, hearing the report, instantly poured in a volley, as the Indians were rising from their slumbers. A complete panic ensued, and they fled in confusion into the woods, followed by Talcot, and most who escaped the first fire made good their retreat. The division below was too far distant to sahre in the victory. Twenty five Indians were left on the ground, and twenty were made prisoners, and among the former was the sachem of the Quaboag. Talcot lost but one, and he a Mohegan.*

“* This affair took place in the upper part of Sheffield, in Massachusetts and the spot is still known to the inhabitants.”

William Hubbard wrote: “Major Talcot, he with the soldiers of Connecticut colony under his command, both Indians and English, pursued after them as far as Ausotiunnoog river (in the middle way betwixt Westfield and the Dutch river, and Fort Albany) where he overtook them, and fought with them;* killing and taking 45 prisoners, 25 of whom were fighting men, without the loss of any one of his company save a Mohegin Indian: Many of the rest were badly wounded, as appeared by the bushes being much besmeared with blood, as was observed by those that followed them further.”

A later editor noted *: “This battle was probably fought in Stockbridge, near where the meeting house now stands.” Grace D. Wilcox (1891‐1968), director of the Stockbridge Library, in the 1950s offered words (see Carmen) from a manuscript by Oliver Partridge (1751‐1843) that mentions bones found during the construction of a meeting house in 1784: “finally we built on this place… very uneven on which were a number of little hillocks in leveling of which we plowed up the bones of 13 Indians who were probably some of the Nipnet and Pacomtuck Tribes whom Maj. Talcot and company pursued from Westfield and killed on this spot in 1676 — 120 year ago — see Hubbard’s Indian Wars.”

John Warner Barber located the skirmish as far south as Salisbury. Lion G. Miles believes they got as far as Lower Parrish in Sheffield.

A commemorative stone marker placed at the Bridge Street bridge during Old Home Week in 1904 in Great Barrington — purported to be the old fordway, with scant evidence — is cited in some histories as sufficient proof of the location of the fighting. Others point to the terrain as improbably being the site of a fordway.

The marker reads: “Twenty rods north of this stone was the old Indian Fordway on the Middle trail from Westfield to the Hudson River. Nearby was the site of the Great Wigwam where Major John Talcott overtook and dispersed a party of Indians, August, 1676.”

SOURCES

  •   Barber, John Warner Barber. Connecticut Historical Collections. New Haven: Durrie & Peck and J.W. Barber, 1836.

  •   Carmen, Bernard, “Blood on the Housatonic,” Berkshire Eagle, 1 February 1956.

  •   Drew, Bernard A. Henry Knox and the Revolutionary War Trail in Western Massachusetts. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2012.

  •   “Historical Marker Dedicated,” Springfield Republican, 3 August 1904.

  •   Hoyt, Epaphras. Antiquarian Researches: Comprising a History of the Indian Wars. Greenfield, Mass.: Ansel Phelps, 1824.

  •   Hubbard, William. Indian Wars in New‐England From the First Planting Thereof in the Year 1607, to the year 1677. Brattleboro, Vt.: William Fessenden, 1814.

  •   Miles, Lion G., “Enduring myth of Indian massacre,” letter, Berkshire Eagle, 17 June 2000.

  •   “On Scene of Maj. Talcott’s Victory; Great Barrington Dedicates Monument at Old Indian Fordway,” Boston Daily Globe, 3 August 1904.

  •   “Talcott’s Fight,” Berkshire Courier, 2 January 1889.