Everything about The Great Swamp Fight totally explained
The
Great Swamp Fight was a crucial battle fought during
King Philip's War between the combined colonial militia in New England and the
Narragansett tribe.
On November 2 1675,
Josiah Winslow led a combined force of over 1000 colonial militia including about 150
Pequot and
Mohegan Indians against the
Narragansett tribe living around
Narragansett Bay. Most of the Narragansett tribe hadn't yet been directly involved in the war, but they'd sheltered many of King Phillip's men, women and children and several of their warriors had reportedly been seen in several Indian raiding parties. The whole tribe wasn't trusted by the colonists. Several abandoned Narragansett Indian villages were found and burned as the militia marched through the cold winter around
Narragansett Bay. The tribe had retreated to a large fort in the center of a swamp near
Kingston, Rhode Island.
Led by an Indian guide, on December 16, 1675 on a bitterly cold storm-filled day, the main Narragansett fort near modern South Kingstown, Rhode Island was found and attacked by the colonial militia from
Plymouth Colony,
Connecticut Colony and
Massachusetts Bay Colony. The massive fort occupying about five acres of land and was initially occupied by over a thousand Indians was eventually over run after a fierce fight. The Indian fort was burned, its inhabitants killed or evicted and most of the tribe's winter stores destroyed. It's believed that about 300 Indians were killed (exact figures are unknown) in the fighting. Many of the warriors and their families escaped into the frozen swamp. Facing a winter with little food and shelter, the whole surviving Narragansett tribe was forced out of quasi-neutrality some had tried to maintain in the on going war and joined the fight alongside Philip. The colonists lost many of their officers in this assault and about 70 of their men were killed and nearly 150 more wounded. The dead and wounded colonial militia men were evacuated to the settlements on
Aquidneck Island in
Narragansett Bay where they were buried or cared for by many of the
Rhode Island colonists until they could return to their homes.
The Great Swamp Fight was a critical blow to the Narragansett tribe from which they never fully recovered. In April 1676 the Narragansett were completely defeated and their chief, Canonchet, was killed.
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