Great Swamp Fight
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- Date:
- December 19, 1675
- Location:
- Great Swamp
- Rhode Island
- United States
- Participants:
- Narraganset
- American Indian
- England
- Context:
- King Philip’s War
- Key People:
- Metacom
- Josiah Winslow
Great Swamp Fight, critical battle of King Philip’s War, fought on December 19, 1675, in which the Native peoples of New England fought English settlers and their Mohegan and Pequot allies in what is believed to be the bloodiest conflict per capita in U.S. history. Sometimes called the “Great Swamp Massacre,” it took place in the area of West Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Mutual animosity fueled by ongoing land disputes between English settlers and the Pokanoket (Wampanoag) and other Indigenous groups in the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies erupted into open war in 1675. Chief Metacom (a.k.a., King Philip) organized Native American resistance to colonial authority.
The ill-trained English militia made a poor showing as attacks continued through the summer and autumn of 1675. King Philip and his men eluded efforts to trap them in the coastal swamps and consistently defeated the militia companies. King Philip’s success as a rebel leader brought other tribes to join him.
In September, the New England colonies declared war against King Philip. Efforts to make a truce failed, and Indian attacks grew in severity, with more English towns destroyed. In December a deserter from Philip’s forces guided Governor Josiah Winslow of Plymouth and his small army through a snowstorm to a large Narragansett winter camp in the Great Swamp near West Kingston, Rhode Island. The Narragansett had endeavored to remain neutral in the fight, but because they refused to surrender any Pokanoket living among them they were declared enemies by the English, who assumed without evidence that they harbored Philip as well.
Winslow’s Puritan army arrived at the fortified camp, violating both Rhode Island’s sovereignty and its pledge to remain neutral as well. Two companies attacked the Narragansett before the rest of the army was in position. They were driven back with heavy losses. Captain Benjamin Church led another coordinated assault across the frozen swamp in which his mounted scouts broke through the log palisade. Despite fierce resistance, the fort was finally taken and set ablaze; as many as 600 Narragansett, including old people and women and children, were burned alive, which is why this incident has also been termed a massacre. Some of the Narragansett escaped through the swamp, but many of them died of exposure.
One of the survivors was Canonchet, the son of the Narragansett sachem (tribal leader) who provided the land on which Roger Williams founded Providence. Declaring his people to be members of Philip’s coalition, Canonchet gathered a force of Narragansett fighters and, rebuffing Williams’s offer of peace, burned Providence. They then waged a guerrilla campaign against English settlers in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts until Canonchet was captured and executed in April 1676.
A monument commemorating the battle was erected in the swamp in 1906 and now stands along a hiking trail. The exact location of the Narragansett fort is unknown.
Losses: Colonies, about 70 dead, 150 wounded; Native American, at least 150 (perhaps hundreds) dead, with an unknown number wounded and captured.