Attack on Springfield
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The siege of Springfield was a siege of the
colonial New England The New England Colonies of British America included Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, and the Province of New Hampshire, as well as a few smaller short-lived colon ...
settlement of
Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...
by Native Americans during
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 ...
. Springfield was the second colonial settlement in
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 ...
to be burned to the ground during the war, following
Providence Plantations Providence Plantations was the first permanent European American settlement in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It was established by a group of colonists led by Roger Williams and Dr. John Clarke who left Massachusetts Bay ...
. King Philip's War remains, per capita, the bloodiest war in American history.


Background

English colonists from
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 ...
established a settlement on the
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...
in 1636. They maintained a complex relationship with local Indian tribes. The
fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...
stood at the heart of their economic interactions, a lucrative business that guided many other policy decisions. The colonists traded wampum, cloth, and metal in exchange for furs. The tribes sometimes used land as collateral in exchange for colonial goods on the future promise of beavers. However, trade with the colonists made pelts so lucrative that the beaver was rapidly overhunted. The volume of the trade fell from a 1654 high of 3,723 pelts to a mere 191 a decade later, which resulted in the tribes forcibly ceding land which they had put up for security. Springfield colonist Samuel Marshfield acquired land from the Indian inhabitants of Agawam so rapidly that they soon had "little left to plant on", to the point where the
Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...
stepped in and forced Marshfield to allocate them 15 acres. Some tribes began to construct and gather in palisaded forts; the Agawam fort outside of Springfield was on Long Hill, although it is commonly believed that it stood in a modern-day park called "King Philip’s Stockade". In 1675, Eastern Massachusetts Wampanoag Indian sachem Metacomet (known as "King Philip" to the colonists) led his tribe against the
New England Colonies The New England Colonies of British America included Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, and the Province of New Hampshire, as well as a few smaller short-lived colon ...
after the untimely death of his brother Wamsutta, and the conflict rapidly spread through New England.


The Siege

As the conflict grew in its initial months, the leaders of Springfield were deeply concerned with maintaining peaceful relations with the tribes around them. The Agawams cooperated, even providing valuable intelligence to the colonists. In August 1675, colonial soldiers in Hadley demanded a fort of Nonotuck Indians be disarmed, but they were unwilling to relinquish their weapons and left in the night of August 25. A hundred soldiers pursued them, catching up to them at the foot of Sugarloaf Hill. The colonists attacked, but the Nonotucks forced them to withdraw and were able to keep moving. Lisa Brooks writes that this "invok dthe narrative of the Great Beaver," an ancient story of a giant beaver who was killed to protect the balance of life in the region and whose body became Sugarloaf itself, "provoking a wide network of relations in Kwinitekw Valley and beyond." Colonial leaders knew that Springfield could be endangered by the attack on the Nonotucks. Authorities from Connecticut advised John Pynchon “against disarming… but rather … to take hostages for the security of the fidelity of their Indians." Pynchon agreed, sending Agawam hostages to be kept in Hartford. This threat, however, was not enough to prevent the Agawams from rising up against the colonists. While John Pynchon and his soldiers were fighting their kin in Hadley, hundreds of Indian tribesmen prepared to attack Springfield and escape from the area. In advance of the attack, they sent a small group to rescue the hostages in Hartford. They likely passed through Windsor, Connecticut, where an Indian named Toto - a laborer for the wealthy Wolcott family - may have learned about the impending action against Springfield. Accounts differ as to what happened next - whether Toto was coerced or volunteered the information himself - but Toto informed the colonists of the impending attack. Despite the advance warning, the Agawam burned 45 of Springfield's 60 houses to the ground, as well as its grist and saw mills, which belonged to village leader John Pynchon. Much of the town became smoldering ruins, and the colonists considered abandoning it entirely. The residents of Springfield endured the winter of 1675 under siege conditions. John Pynchon's brick house served as a refuge for many residents during the siege, while Pynchon himself was away leading troops at Hadley. Springfield's Captain
Miles Morgan Miles Morgan (1616 – 28 May 1699) was a Welsh colonist of America, a pioneer settler of what was to become Springfield, Massachusetts. Being one of the few settlers whose homesteads were successfully defended during the Attack on Springfield, Mo ...
and his sons became known in the village for having defended their settlement, as well. Their
blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
was another shelter during the attack and was one of a handful of homesteads to survive the siege. The Indians burned colonial mills throughout New England during King Philip's War, which affected the colonists' food supplies in some areas. After the loss of their mill, the people of Springfield were forced to walk to Westfield for grain, and Indians attacked them in transit.


Aftermath and legacy

During King Philip's War, more than 800 settlers were killed and approximately 8,000 Indians were killed, enslaved, or made refugees. Some histories mark the end of the war with the death of Metacom in the summer of 1676, although the conflict extended into Maine, where the Wabanaki Confederation fought the colonists to a standstill and a truce. Following the war, the greater part of the Indian population left Western Massachusetts behind, although land deeds between Indian tribes and settlers continued into the 1680s. Many refugees of the war joined the Wabanaki Confederation in the north, where their descendants remain today. Indian warriors returned to Western Massachusetts alongside the French during the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754†...
, and oral histories recall Abenaki visitors to Deerfield as recently as the 1830s. The Student Prince and The Fort Restaurant in Springfield has a plaque by its entrance to commemorate the site of Pynchon's brick house, which was known as the "fort house". Bronze statues have been erected for Miles Morgan and Toto commemorating them for their roles in defending the settlement from the siege. The Miles Morgan statue stands in front of
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, the Toto statue in King Philip's Stockade of
Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China *Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fores ...
, Springfield.


References

{{Reflist
Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...
History of Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...
Military history of the Thirteen Colonies Native American history of Massachusetts 1675 in Massachusetts