1704 Raid on Deerfield

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Deerfield Massacre

Part of Queen Anne's War (1702-1713)

Date	February 29, 1704
Location	Massachusetts
Result	French and Native American victory

Belligerents

Colonists, predominantly from England

France

Commanders

Capt. Thomas Wells

Lt. Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville

Strength

16 garrison soldiers, 50 town residents

47 French Canadian militians,
200 native warriors

Casualties and losses

Over 56 killed,
109 captured and forced to trek to Quebec; of the latter, some died or were killed by their captors along the way

40 killed, "many" wounded

The Deerfield massacre occurred during Queen Anne's War on February 29, 1704, when joint French and Native American forces under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville attacked the English Puritan settlement at Deerfield, Massachusetts just before dawn, razing the town and killing fifty-six colonists. De Rouville's forces consisted of forty-seven French and French Canadian soldiers and two-hundred Native Americans, mostly Abenaki, Kanienkehaka and Wyandot, accompanied by a few Pocumtuck. Of the colonists killed, twenty-two were men, nine were women, and twenty-five were children.

One hundred and nine residents, including the women and children who had survived the attack, were taken captive and forced on a months-long, three-hundred-mile trek to Quebec in harsh winter conditions; twenty-one of them died along the way.^[1] More than sixty of those who reached Quebec were eventually ransomed or otherwise managed to make their way back to New England, but a number of others, including Eunice Williams, the young daughter of Deerfield's pastor, chose to remain in French and Native communities, such as Wendake, Quebec, for the rest of their lives.^[2]