Battle of Pequawket | |||||||
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Part of Father Rale's War | |||||||
Death of Chief Paugus |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Abenaki | English colonists | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Paugus † | John Lovewell † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
approximately 66 | 33 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
unknown | unknown |
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The Battle of Pequawket (also known as Lovewell's Fight) occurred on May 8, 1725, during Father Rale's War in northern New England. Ranger Captain John Lovewell led the New England troops, and Chief Paugus led the Abenaki at Pequawket,[1] the site of present-day Fryeburg, Maine. The battle was related to the expansion of New England settlements along the Kennebec River (in present-day Maine).
The battle marked the end of hostilities between the English and the western Wabanakis of Maine. 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.[2]
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The Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which ended Queen Anne's War, had facilitated the expansion of New England settlement. The treaty, however, had been signed in Europe and had not involved any tribes of the native's Wabanaki Confederacy. Since they had not been consulted, they protested this incursion into their lands by conducting raids on British fishermen and settlements.[3] 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.[4] 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, Nova Scotia in 1720, and Massachusetts Governor Samuel Shute built forts on traditional Abenaki territory at the mouth of the Kennebec River. The French claimed the same territory on the Kennebec River by building churches in the Abenaki villages of Norridgewock and Medoctec further upriver.[5] These fortifications escalated the conflict.
In early September 1724 some Indians came to Dunstable and captured two men. When they did not return from work a party of ten or more men started in pursuit. One man, Josiah Farwell, warned the leader of the possibility of running into an ambush. Despite this the posse rushed ahead with Farwell following behind. They were ambushed and eight of the men were killed and the others, excepting Farwell who barely escaped, were captured.
Because of these attacks it was thought best to carry on the war more vigorously. Bounties for scalps were again offered by the government and volunteer companies were formed. Favored by a grant from the Assembly, John Lovewell, whose maternal grandparents had been killed and scalped by Indians, raised a company of thirty men and was commissioned a captain. In part because of Farwell's commonsense Lovewell selected him as his second-in-command and he was made Lieutenant. Lovewell and Farwell went on three scalp hunting expeditions from December to May.
Lovewell's third expedition consisted of only 47 men, many of whom were unfamiliar with ranging.[6] With men who were more inexperienced and far fewer in number than in the earlier expeditions, they left from Dunstable (present day Nashua, New Hampshire) 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 village of Pequawket, located near the Saco River. On May 8, as the militiamen were being led in morning prayer by chaplain Jonathan Frye, a lone Abenaki warrior was spotted hunting at the lakeshore.[7][8] Suspecting that that this man was a decoy and that there was an Indian force in front of them, nonetheless the rangers decided to hide their packs and proceed cautiously.[7][8] Lovewell's men waited until the warrior was close and, although accounts differ in who fired first, the Abenaki did have a chance to fire his fowling piece loaded with beavershot at close range, wounding Lovewell and another.[7][8] Further fire from the rangers killed the Indian.[7][8] Chaplain Frye is reported to have scalped the dead Indian.[7]
Meanwhile, the rangers' packs had been discovered by an Abenaki war party (some accounts say two) who, seeing that they out-numbered the rangers, hid in ambush. When the rangers returned to their packs (in single file) the Abenakis fired at the front and rear and charged. Lovewell was killed in the first volley along with eight others. Lovewell's lieutenants, Josiah Farwell and Jonathan Robbins, were among the wounded at this point (they critically). Ensign Seth Wyman organized the defence and was in command of the rangers during the rest of the fight.
In return, the Indian war chief Paugus was shot. There is debate over who shot him. Some posit that he was shot by John Chamberlaine (see "John Chamberlain, the Indian fighter at Pigwacket"), while others report that it was Ensign Seth Wyman, who killed the warrior with the next shot. With the death of Paugus the rest of the Indians soon vanished into the forest.
The story of the Battle of Pequawket recounted below was originally told by a daughter of Powack, a chief of the Penobscots, another Indian nation allied with the Abenaki in the Wabanaki Confederacy. It was retold though generations until written down. It appears, as written, in Kayworth and Potvin (pp. 157-58.)
Powack wanted peace with the English. He called a council which then sent him as an envoy to the Pequawkets. Powack took his daughter and Little Elk, her betrothed.
While they are staying with the Pigwacketts, Paugus, a non-Pequawket, comes to the village to recruit for a raiding party against the English. He leads all the warriors down the Saco River to English settlements in Maine. The remaining villagers fish at the south end of Saco (Lovewell) Pond until the raiding party finally returns to be the vangard back to the village. On the way back to the village the Penobscots hear gunfire from the battle.
"Paugus tell Powak he come on packs of white men. He count packs and know he has many more braves than whites so he attacks"
Powack and Little Elk remain at the battle while all the non-combatant Abenaki skirt the battle to return to the village.
""Long after moon is up, braves come to village only few. Say Paugus is killed, Powak is killed, Little Elk is killed."
The remaining Pequawkets move to Canada and Powack's daugther goes with them until she finds someone to take her back home.
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.