The Sudbury Fight (April 21, 1676) was a battle of

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

, fought in what is today

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

and

Wayland, Massachusetts Wayland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town was founded in 1638, and incorporated in 1780 and was originally part of neighboring Sudbury (incorporated 1639). As of the 2020 United States Census, the population wa ...

, when approximately five hundred

Wampanoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 17 ...

Nipmuc The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who historically spoke an Eastern Algonquian language. Their historic territory Nippenet, "the freshwater pond place," is in central Massachusetts and nearby part ...

, and Narragansett Native Americans raided the frontier settlement of Sudbury in

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

. Disparate companies of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

militiamen A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

from nearby settlements marched to the town's defense, two of which were drawn into Native ambushes and suffered heavy losses. The battle was the last major Native American victory in King Philip's War before their final defeat in southern

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

in August 1676.

Background

The winter of 1676 brought a lull in the fighting of King Philip's War in eastern

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, but come spring Native American forces resumed their raids on the area's

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

towns. The Native coalition attacked the strategically significant fort at

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high technology industry in the ...

on both March 16 and April 7, destroying most of the settlement and forcing a partial evacuation of its residents. In response to these attacks, as well as the recent abandonment of Lancaster and Groton, the colonial Council of War dispatched Captain Samuel Wadsworth and fifty men to Marlborough to reinforce the frontier. Wadsworth's company passed through Sudbury on the evening of April 20. Meanwhile, a large group of Native warriors departed the Nipmuc stronghold of

Mount Wachusett Mount Wachusett is a mountain in Massachusetts. It straddles towns of Princeton and Westminster, in Worcester County. It is the highest point in Massachusetts east of the Connecticut River. The mountain is named after a Native American term me ...

and gathered on Pompositticut Hill (also known as Summer Hill in what is now

Maynard, Massachusetts Maynard is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 22 miles west of Boston, in the MetroWest and Greater Boston region of Massachusetts and borders Acton, Concord, Stow and Sudbury. The town's population w ...

). After a

pow wow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or pu ...

, the group decided to attack Sudbury instead of

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

.Gutteridge, William H. (1921). ''A Brief History of the Town of Maynard, Massachusetts''. Maynard, MA: Town of Maynard, p. 13-1

/ref> Tradition holds that

Metacomet Metacomet (1638 – August 12, 1676), also known as Pometacom, Metacom, and by his adopted English name King Philip, though no primary sources corroborate it. Local historians have suggested that Nipmuc

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

Muttawmp Muttawmp (died September, 1676) was a sachem of the Nipmuc Indians in the mid-17th century, originally based in Quaboag. He participated in King Philip's War, taking part in most of the major engagements as one of the most important chiefs who fough ...

held overall command.

Battle

Native forces infiltrated Sudbury during the night and attacked at dawn, burning houses and barns, as well as killing "several persons," according to Puritan historian William Hubbard. Many English residents of Sudbury (most of whom lived on the east bank of the

Sudbury River The Sudbury River is a tributary of the Concord River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 Originati ...

, in present-day Wayland) abandoned their homes and sought refuge in the town's fortified garrison houses. The Natives besieged the Haynes garrison house on Water Row Road all morning but faced a stout defense from the English civilians within. At one point the Natives rolled a flaming cart full of

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

downhill toward the garrison, only for the contraption to hit a rock and spill over before doing any damage. The Haynes garrison held throughout the battle, though authors George Ellis and John Morris have speculated that the siege was a

feint Feint is a French term that entered English via the discipline of swordsmanship and fencing. Feints are maneuvers designed to distract or mislead, done by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, or e ...

meant to draw English reinforcements to the area. "Hearing the alarm," about a dozen men of Concord marched to Sudbury's defense. They were ambushed and massacred within full view of the defenders of the Haynes garrison. Only one of the Concord men escaped with his life, and the dead were buried in a mass grave just east of

Old Town Bridge Old Town Bridge (Norwegian: Gamle Bybro or Bybroa) is located in Trondheim, Trøndelag County, Norway. History Gamle Bybro crosses the Nidelva River from the south end of the main street Kjøpmannsgata connecting to the Trondheim neighbor ...

in Wayland. Flushed with victory, Native forces crossed the river and set about pillaging the central settlement of Sudbury. Shortly before noon, English militiamen from

Watertown Watertown may refer to: Places in China In China, a water town is a type of ancient scenic town known for its waterways. Places in the United States *Watertown, Connecticut, a New England town **Watertown (CDP), Connecticut, the central village ...

under the command of Captain Hugh Mason arrived and successfully repelled the raiding party. As Mason took back control of the town, Captain Wadsworth approached from the west with about seventy men, his numbers bolstered by Captain Samuel Brocklebank's garrison at Marlborough. Wadsworth's men had rested only briefly in Marlborough before their march back east to defend Sudbury; they were hungry, exhausted, and completely ignorant of their enemy's position. A mile from town, Wadsworth's men spotted about a hundred armed Natives darting off into the woods. Believing that "these they might easily deal with," the militia set off in pursuit. The Natives led the militia to the low ground between Goodman's Hill and Green Hill in present-day Sudbury, where they sprang an ambush, surrounding the small English force. Wadsworth fought his way to the summit of Green Hill, ordering his men to form a square, and repulsed multiple Native charges. The fighting went on all afternoon. The Watertown militia and two companies of English cavalry repeatedly attempted to rescue Wadsworth, but ultimately failed to break the Native envelopment and were forced to retreat. Native warriors then set fire to the dry brush of the hill, choking Wadsworth's beleaguered company with smoke. In a panic, the English broke and ran. Half the militiamen were killed in the

rout A rout is a panicked, disorderly and undisciplined retreat of troops from a battlefield, following a collapse in a given unit's command authority, unit cohesion and combat morale (''esprit de corps''). History Historically, lightly-equi ...

, including Wadsworth and Brocklebank. The survivors fled south toward the Goodenow garrison house on

Boston Post Road The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States. The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Ro ...

, where Mason's company and the cavalry were regrouping. Thirteen or fourteen militiamen also took refuge in the fortified Noyes

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

until they were eventually rescued. According to

Increase Mather Increase Mather (; June 21, 1639 Old Style – August 23, 1723 Old Style) was a New England Puritan clergyman in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and president of Harvard College for twenty years (1681–1701). He was influential in the administrati ...

, the Natives took "five or six of the English alive" and "stripped them naked, and caused them to run the gauntlet, whipping them after a cruel and bloody manner, and then threw hot ashes upon them; cut the flesh of their legs, and put fire into their wounds, delighting to see the miserable torments of wretched creatures." Hubbard also claims English captives were tortured, but

Mary Rowlandson Mary Rowlandson, née White, later Mary Talcott (c. 1637January 5, 1711), was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans in 1676 during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. In 1682, six years after h ...

, a captive of the sachem

Weetamoo Weetamoo (c. 1635–1676), also referred to as Weethao, Weetamoe, Wattimore, Namumpum, and Tatapanunum, was a Pocasset, Massachusetts, Pocasset Wampanoag people, Wampanoag Native Americans in the United States, Native American Chief. She was ...

who was present in the Native camp during the battle, makes no mention of it in her memoirs.

Aftermath

As night fell, Native forces withdrew from Sudbury. Early the next day, English soldiers, together with a group of allied

Praying Indians Praying Indian is a 17th-century term referring to Native Americans of New England, New York, Ontario, and Quebec who converted to Christianity either voluntarily or involuntarily. Many groups are referred to by the term, but it is more commonly ...

, set out to the battlefield to bury the dead. Rowlandson claims that despite their victory, morale among the Native coalition was low after the Sudbury Fight:

"They came home without that rejoicing and triumphing over their victory which they were wont to show at other times; but rather like dogs (as they say) which have lost their ears. Yet I could not perceive that it was for their own loss of men. They said they had not lost above five or six; and I missed none, except in one wigwam. When they went, they acted as if the Devil had told them that they should gain the victory; and now they acted as if the Devil had told them they should have a fall. Whither it were so or no, I cannot tell, but so it proved, for quickly they began to fall, and so held on that summer, till they came to utter ruin."

Hubbard and Mather disagree with Rowlandson, putting the Native dead at a "hundred and twenty," and in the autumn of 1676, prominent citizens of Sudbury recounted that they had made a "considerable slaughter" of Native attackers. On the morning of April 22, Native warriors taunted militiamen in Marlborough by shouting seventy-four times to indicate the number of their enemy they believed they had killed at Sudbury.

Legacy

In 1730, Samuel Wadsworth's son

Benjamin Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...

(then president of

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

) dedicated a memorial stone over the mass grave where his father had been buried alongside his men. In 1852, the remains of Wadsworth's militia were excavated and reinterred fifty feet north to the site of a new monument near the base of Green Hill. Both memorials incorrectly date the battle to April 18, likely an error of Hubbard's that was subsequently reprinted. The date is April 21 in Mather's contemporary chronicle, and a letter dated April 21, 1676 from the colonial government of Massachusetts Bay to

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the British America, first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the pa ...

governor

Josiah Winslow Josiah Winslow ( in Plymouth Colony – 1680 in Marshfield, Plymouth Colony) was the 13th Governor of Plymouth Colony. In records of the time, historians also name him Josias Winslow, and modern writers have carried that name forward. He was b ...

states, "This day we have intelligence in the general that Sudbury was this morning assaulted and many houses burnt down." A handful of other monuments and markers in Sudbury and Wayland commemorate the Sudbury Fight, most of which were erected in the 1930s to celebrate Massachusetts's

tricentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saint ...

. The battlefield around Goodman's Hill and Green Hill is now the site of an affluent residential neighborhood.

References

{{reflist 1676 in Massachusetts 1676 in the Thirteen Colonies Battles in Massachusetts

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Sudbury, Massachusetts Wayland, Massachusetts