Dummer's War

Dummer's War
Battle of Norridgewock (1724): Death of Father Sebastian Rale
Date July 25, 1722–December 15, 1725 Location Northern New England and Nova Scotia Result Negotiated peace treaty, 1725.
Belligerents
New England Colonies Mohawk	Wabanaki Confederacy Abenaki Pequawket Mi'kmaq Maliseet
Commanders and leaders
Massachusetts Governor William Dummer, Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor John Doucett, Colonel Thomas Westbrook, Captain John Lovewell †	Gray Lock, Father Sebastian Rale †, Chief Paugus †, Chief Mog †

Dummer's War (1722–1725), also known as Lovewell's War, Father Rale's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the 4th Indian War or the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722–1725, was a series of battles between British settlers of the three northernmost British colonies of North America of the time and the Wabanaki Confederacy (specifically Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and Abenaki), who were allied with New France. The war took place variously in Nova Scotia, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts (which included present-day Maine and Vermont). The root cause of the conflict was tension over the ownership of these regions. The New Englanders were led primarily by Lt. Governor of Massachusetts William Dummer, Lt. Governor of Nova Scotia John Doucett and Captain John Lovewell. The Wabanaki Confederacy was led primarily by Father Sébastien Rale, Chief Gray Lock and Chief Paugus.

The treaty that ended the war marked a significant shift in European relations with the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet. For the first time a European power formally acknowledged that its dominion over Nova Scotia would have to be negotiated with the region's indigenous inhabitants.

The final major battle of the war - the Battle of Pequawket, or "Lovewell's Fight" - was fought between Captain Ranger John Lovewell, who led the New England troops, and Chief Paugus, who led the Abenaki. Both leaders were killed in the conflict. The battle marked the end of hostilities between the English and the western Wabanakis of Maine. This conflict was a turning point. So important was it to western Maine, New Hampshire and even Massachusetts colonists that the Fight was celebrated in song and story, and its importance was not eclipsed until the American Revolution. More than one hundred years later Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poem, "The Battle of Lovells Pond"), Nathaniel Hawthorne (story, "Roger Malvin's Burial") and Henry David Thoreau (passage in the book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers) all wrote about Lovewell's Fight. Paugus Bay, the town Paugus Mill (now part of Albany, New Hampshire) and Mount Paugus in New Hampshire were named after Chief Paugus.

Historical context

The war occurred as a result of an expansion of New England settlements along the Kennebec River (in present-day Maine) and of the movement of more New England fishermen into Nova Scotia waters (particularly at Canso). The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ended Queen Anne's War, had facilitated this expansion. The treaty, however, had been signed in Europe and had not involved any member of the Wabanaki natives. None had been consulted, and they protested through raids on British fishermen and settlements. For the first and only time, Wabanaki would fight New Englanders and the British on their own terms and for their own reasons and not principally to defend French imperial interests. In response to Wabanaki hostilities toward the expansion, the governor of Nova Scotia, Richard Phillips, built a fort in traditional Mi'kmaq territory at Canso in 1720, and Massachusetts Governor Samuel Shute built forts on traditional Abenaki territory around the mouth of the Kennebec River: Fort George at Brunswick (1715); St. George's Fort at Thomaston (1720); and Fort Richmond (1721) at Richmond. The French claimed the same territory on the Kennebec River by building churches in the Abenaki villages of Norridgewock and Medoctec (on the St. John River, four miles upriver from present-day Meductic, New Brunswick).

These fortifications escalated the conflict. A Jesuit missionary named Sébastien Rale (also spelled Rasles) was stationed at Norridgewock, while an Abenaki named Gray Lock led raids against the encroaching New England settlements. In the fall of 1721, the Abenakis burned the farms and killed livestock in the settlements around Casco Bay.

Raid on Norridgewock (1722)

Father Rale's Strongbox

Governor Shute chose to launch a punitive expedition against Father Rale at Norridgewock in March 1722. Under the command of Colonel Thomas Westbrook of Thomaston, Maine, the New England Rangers were unsuccessful in capturing Father Rale, but they plundered the church and Rale's cabin. While most of the tribe was away hunting, Westbrook's 300 soldiers surrounded Norridgewock to capture Rale, but he was forewarned and escaped into the forest. Found among the priest's possessions, however, was his strongbox with a hidden compartment containing letters implicating Rale as an agent of the French government, promising Indians enough ammunition to drive the English from their settlements.

Raid on Brunswick (1722)

In response, on June 13, the Abenakis from Norridgewock raided Fort George at Brunswick, a British settlement at Merrymeeting Bay near the mouth of the Kennebec River. The fort was under the command of Captain John Gyles. The Abenakis burned the homes of the village and took 60 prisoners.

Raid on Thomaston (1722)

On 15 July 1722, 500-600 Maliseet laid siege to Fort St. Georges in Colonel Thomas Westbrook's home town of Thomaston for twelve days. They burned their saw-mill, a large sloop, and sundry houses, and killed many of their cattle. Five New Englanders were killed and seven were taken prisoner, while the New Englanders killed twenty Maliseet warriors.

Following this raid, Brunswick was raided again and burned.

Blockade of Annapolis Royal (1722)

In Nova Scotia, the Mi'kmaq raided the new fort at Canso (1720). In response to the New England attack on Father Rale at Norridgewock in March 1722, 165 Mi'kmaq and Maliseet troops gathered at Minas to lay siege to the Lt. Governor of Nova Scotia at Annapolis Royal. Under potential siege, in May 1722, Lieutenant Governor John Doucett took 22 Mi'kmaq hostage at Annapolis Royal to prevent the capital from being attacked. In July 1722 the Abenaki and Mi'kmaq blockaded Annapolis Royal with the intent of starving the capital. The natives captured 18 fishing vessels and prisoners from present-day Cape Sable Island to Canso. They also seized prisoners and vessels from the Bay of Fundy.

As a result of the escalating conflict, Massachusetts Governor Shute officially declared war on the Abenaki on July 25, 1722. Shute, who had ongoing political disputes with the Massachusetts assembly, abruptly sailed for England on January 1, 1723, leaving Lieutenant Governor William Dummer to manage Massachusetts involvement in the war.

Northern New England theatre

Lt. Governor of Massachusetts William Dummer

1722

Raid on Arrowsic (1722)

On September 10, 1722, in conjunction with Father Rale at Norridgewock, 400 or 500 St Francois (Odanak, Quebec) and Mi'kmaq Indians fell upon Arrowsic, Maine. Captain Penhallow discharged musketry from a small guard, wounding three of the Indians and killing another. This defense gave the inhabitants of the village time to retreat into the fort. In full possession of the undefended village, the Indians killed fifty head of cattle and set fire to twenty-six houses outside the fort. The Indians then assaulted the fort, killing one New Englander, but otherwise making little impression.

That night Col. Walton and Capt. Harman arrived with thirty men, to which were joined about forty men from the fort under Captains Penhallow and Temple. The combined force of seventy men attacked the natives but were overwhelmed by their numbers. The New Englanders then retreated back into the fort. Viewing further attacks on the fort as useless, the Indians eventually retired up the river.

Raid on Richmond (1722)

During their return to Norridgewock the natives attacked Fort Richmond at Richmond, Maine. Fort Richmond was attacked in a three-hour siege. Houses were burned and cattle slain, but the fort held. Brunswick and other settlements near the mouth of the Kennebec were destroyed.

1723

Monument of Chief Grey Lock in Battery Park (Burlington, Vermont)

Raid on Penobscot (1723)

On March 9, 1723, Colonel Thomas Westbrook led 230 men to the Penobscot River and traveled approximately 32 miles (51 km) upstream to present-day Old Town, Maine, next to the Indian Island. They marched through the woods for days and found a large Penobscot fort—70 yards (64 m) by 50 yards (46 m), with 14-foot (4.3 m) walls surrounding 23 wigwams. There was also a large chapel (60 by 30 feet). The village was vacant of people, and the soldiers burned it to the ground.

Throughout 1723 Father Sebastian Rale and Chief Gray Lock orchestrated a total of fourteen raids on the Protestant settlements, primarily in present-day Maine. In April 1723, there was a raid on Falmouth in which the raiders mistook Chubb to be Captain Harmen and killed him. On April 19, 1723, Scarborough was raided, in which Roger Deering, his wife, two other inhabitants, and two soldiers were killed. Taken captive were three adults and three of Deering's children.

In May 1723, the natives killed two people in a raid on Berwick, one at Wells and two on the way to York.

Raid on Arrowsic (1723)

In the summer of 1723, Arrowsic, Maine was attacked by the Norridgewocks and their 250 Indian allies from Canada. Incited by French missionary Sebastien Rale, they burned 37 dwellings and killed 300 cattle. The 40 inhabitants fled to the garrison, with only a child lost.

On August 13, 1723 Gray Lock raided Northfield, Massachusetts, and four warriors killed two citizens near Northfield. The next day they attacked Joseph Stevens and his four sons in Rutland. Stevens escaped, two boys were killed, and the other two sons were captured. In August and September 1723, there were also raids on Saco, Maine and Dover, New Hampshire.

Battle at Richmond (1723)

Captain Heath and 13 men including two Mohawks met with 30 natives in the battle at Richmond, Maine. They killed two and drove off the rest. One New Englander was killed and two wounded.

On October 9, 1723, Grey Lock struck two small forts near Northfield, inflicting casualties and carrying off one captive. In response, Fort Dummer was built near Brattleboro, Vermont. The fort became a major base of operations for scouting and punitive expeditions into Abenaki country.

In an October raid at Mount Desert, one Capt. Cogswell and his crew were surprised and taken as they were stepping ashore; and about the same time, Smith and Bailey were killed at Cape Porpoise, one on Vaughan's Island, and the other on the seashore, not far from the site of the old meeting-house.

Raid on Thomaston (1723)

On December 25, 1723, 60 natives again laid siege to St. Georges fort in Westbrook's home town of Thomaston, Maine for thirty days. But Capt. Kennedy, the commanding officer, held out till Col. Thomas Westbrook arrived and put the enemy to flight. The Indians killed another man, Reverend Willard.

1724

During the spring of 1724, primarily in present-day Maine, Father Sebastian Rale and Chief Gray Lock orchestrated orchestrated ten raids which killed, wounded or imprisoned over 30 New Englanders. On March 23, the fort at Cape Porpoise was attacked and a sergeant was killed. On April 17 a farmer was killed at Black Point, while his two sons were imprisoned at Norridgewock. In Kennebunk harbor, a sloop was taken, and the whole crew was put to death. About the same time, three men were killed at a saw-mill on the same river.

At Berwick in May, a father was killed, one of his children was imprisoned, and the other escaped being scalped but was seriously wounded. Another man also survived a scalping attempt although his body was badly mangled. One other person was killed.

Raid on Thomaston (1724)

In the spring of 1724 the command of St Georges Fort at Thomaston was given to Capt. Josiah Winslow. On 30 April, 1724, Winslow and Sergeant Harvey and 17 men in two whale boats left Georges Fort and went downriver several miles to Green Island. The following day, the two whale boats became separated and approximately 200-300 Abenaki descended on Harvey’s boat, killing Harvey and all of his men except three native guides who escaped to the Georges fort.

Captain Winslow was then surrounded by 30 to 40 canoes, several with four or six men apiece aboard, which came off from both sides of the river and attacked him with great fury. With the Indians closing on him with their canoes, Winslow fired upon them when they were almost aboard him. After hours of fighting, Winslow and his men were killed, except for three friendly Indians who escaped back to the fort (one was named Wm. Jeffries of Harwich). The native Tarrantines were reported to have lost over 25 warriors.

On May 27 at Purpooduck, the natives killed one man and wounded another. On the same day, a man was killed at Saco.

On June 18, 1724 Grey Lock attacked a group of men working in a meadow near Hatfield, Massachusetts. Grey Lock retired from the area and killed men at Deerfield, Northfield, and Westfield over the summer. In response to the raids, Dummer ordered more soldiers for Northfield, Brookfield, Deerfield and Sunderland.

On July 17 at Spurwick, one New Englander was killed and one native.

During this campaign, assisted by the Mi'kmaq from Cape Sable Island (present-day southwest Nova Scotia}, the natives also engaged in a naval campaign. In just a few weeks they had captured 22 vessels, killing 22 New Englanders and taking more prisoner. They also made an unsuccessful siege of St. George's Fort.

To defend against Gray Lock attacks at Northfield and Rutland, the English built Fort Dummer, near present-day Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1724. The Native campaign was so successful along the Maine frontier that Dummer ordered its evacuation to the blockhouses in the spring of 1724.

Battle of Norridgewock

Main article: Battle of Norridgewock

In the second half of 1724, the New Englanders launched an aggressive campaign up the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers. Never before had the New Englanders been so successful in penetrating Abenaki lands.

On August 22, 1724, Captains Jeremiah Moulton and Johnson Harmon led 200 rangers to the main Abenaki village on the Kennebec River, Norridgewock, Maine, to kill Father Sébastien Rale and destroy the settlement. There were 160 Abenaki, many of whom chose to flee rather than fight. At least 31 chose to fight, which allowed the others to escape. Most of the defenders were killed. Rale was killed in the opening moments of the battle, a leading chief was killed, and the rangers massacred nearly two dozen women and children. The English had casualties of two militiamen and one Mohawk. Harmon destroyed the Abenaki farms, and those who had escaped were forced to abandon their village and moved northward to the Abenaki village of St Francois (Odanak, Quebec).

After Norridgewock, the natives settled at St. Francis and Becancour.

On October 11, 1724, the French attacked Dummer Fort and killed some soldiers.

Raid on Winnipiscogee Lake

On December 10, 1724, Captain John Lovewell along with a company of rangers killed two Abenakis.

Lovewell and his militia company (often called "snowshoe men") of 30 men left Dunstable, New Hampshire on their first expedition in December of 1724, trekking to the north of Lake Winnipesaukee ("Winnipiscogee Lake") into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. On December 19, 40 miles (64 km) north of Winnipesaukee, the troop came upon a wigwam, where they killed and scalped an Abenaki man and took an Abenaki boy captive in response to the abduction of two men from Dunstable and the ambush and killing of eight others by Abenaki warriors. The company was paid 200 pounds for the scalp (150 pounds plus 50 pounds over and above).

1725

Battle of Wakefield

In February 1725, Lovewell made a second expedition to the area and killed another ten Indians near Lake Winnipesaukee.

On February 20 they came across a recently inhabited wigwam and followed tracks for some five miles. On the banks of a pond at the head of the Salmon Falls River in the present town of Wakefield, New Hampshire they came upon more wigwams with smoke rising from them. Some time after 2:00 AM Lovewell gave the order to fire. A short time later ten Indians lay dead. The Indians were said to have had numerous extra blankets, snowshoes, moccasins, a few furs and new French muskets, which would seem to indicate that they were on their way to attack frontier settlements. Preventing such an attack is probably the true success of this expedition.

Early in March Lovewell's troops arrived in Boston. They paraded their Indian scalps through the streets, Lovewell himself wearing a wig made of Indian scalps. The bounty paid was 1000 pounds (100 per scalp).

Battle of Pequawket

Death of Chief Paugus

Main article: Battle of Pequawket

During his last expedition, Lovewell died in a fight against the Pequawket tribe at Fryeburg, Maine, on May 8, 1725.

The third expedition consisted of only 46 men and left from Dunstable on April 16, 1725. They built a fort at Ossipee and left 10 men, including the doctor and John Goffe, to garrison the fort while the rest left to raid the Abenaki town of Pequawket, now Fryeburg. On May 9, as the militiamen were being led in prayer by chaplain Jonathan Frye, a lone Abenaki warrior was spotted. Lovewell's men waited until the warrior was close and fired at him but missed. The Abenaki returned fire, killing Lovewell. Ensign Seth Wyman, Lovewell's second in command, killed the warrior with the next shot. Chaplain Frye then scalped the dead Indian. The militia had left their packs a ways back so as to be unencumbered by them in battle. Two returning war parties of Abenaki led by Paugus and Nat found them and waited in ambush for the returning militia. Eight men were killed in the first volley by the Indian warriors. The battle continued for more than 10 hours until Ensign Wyman killed the Indian war chief Paugus. With the death of Paugus the rest of the Indians soon vanished into the forest. Only 20 of the militiamen survived the battle; three died on the retreat home. The Abenaki losses except for Paugus are unknown. The Abenaki deserted the town of Pequawket after the battle and fled to Canada.

In September 1725, a scouting party of six men was sent out from Fort Dummer. Grey Lock and 14 others ambushed them just west of the Connecticut River – killing two and wounding and capturing three others. One man escaped, while two Indians were killed.

Nova Scotia theatre

Main article: Battle at Winnepang (Jeddore Harbour)

The first battle of Dummer's War happened in the Nova Scotia theatre. In response to the blockade of Annapolis Royal, New England launched a campaign to end the blockade at the end of July 1722, and retrieved over 86 New England prisoners taken by the natives. One of these operations resulted in the Battle at Winnepang (Jeddore Harbour), in which 35 natives and five New Englanders were killed. Only five native bodies were recovered from the battle, and the New Englanders decapitated the corpses and set the severed heads on pikes surrounding Canso's new fort.

In 1723, the village of Canso was raided again by the Mi'kmaq, who killed five fishermen. In this same year, the New Englanders built a twelve-gun blockhouse to guard the village and fishery.

The worst moment of the war for Annapolis Royal came on 4 July 1724 when a group of sixty Mi'kmaq and Maliseets raided the capital. They killed and scalped a sergeant and a private, wounded four more soldiers, and terrorized the village. They also burned houses and took prisoners. The British responded by executing one of the Mi'kmaq hostages on the same spot the sergeant was killed. They also burned three Acadian houses in retaliation. As a result of the raid, three blockhouses were built to protect the town. The Acadian church was moved closer to the fort so that it could be more easily monitored.

In 1725, sixty Abenakis and Mi'kmaq launched another attack on Canso, destroying two houses and killing six people.

Aftermath

On 31 July 1725, Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Dummer announced a cessation of arms. Negotiations began in Boston on 11 November, and peace treaties were signed in Maine on 15 December 1725 and on 15 June 1726 in Nova Scotia.

Unlike the Abenaki in Maine, the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet of Nova Scotia refused to declare themselves British subjects. The war had been as much a native victory as it was a British one. The British were forced to acknowledge that the natives had a right to possess their land.

The goal of the colonies was less the defeat of the aboriginal populations than influencing the Wabanaki to become allies of the British king and enemies of the French.

The peace in Nova Scotia would last for eighteen years.

See also

• Father Le Loutre's War
• Colonial American military history

References

Sources

• William Durkee Williamson. The history of the state of Maine: from its first discovery, A.D ..., Volume 2. 1832.
• Haynes, Mark. The Forgotten Battle: A History of the Acadians of Canso/ Chedabuctou. British Columbia: Trafford. 2004
• John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire. University of Oklahoma Press. 2008
• John Grenier. The first way of war: American war making on the frontier, 1607-1814. 2003. 47-52.
• William Wicken. Mi'kmaq Treaties on Trial. University of Toronto Press. 2002.
• John Mack Faragher. A Great and Noble Scheme. New York; W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.
• William Wicken. "Mi'kmaq Decisions: Antoine Tecouenemac, the Conquest, and the Treaty of Utrecht". In John Reid et al. (eds). The Conquest of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial and Aboriginal Constructions. University of Toronto Press. 2004.
• Cyrus Eaton. Annals of the town of Warren

• The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800: War, Migration, and the survival of an Indian people, by Colin G. Calloway (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990)
• The Original Vermonters: Native Inhabitants, Past and Present, by William A. Haviland and Marjory W. Power (University Press of New England, 1994)
• In Search of New England's Native Past: Selected Essays, by Gordon M. Day (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998)
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Endnotes

External links

• A Military History of the United States of America: Dummer's War, 1724-1725 at Motherbedford.com
• Facts about the History of Vermont at Facts-about.org.uk
• Fort Dummer State Park, Vermont State Parks Bureau
• Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Richelieu River History Timeline; Part 1 - New France and New England: Discovery and Exploration, Time Span 1609-1645, James P. Millard, Historiclakes.org