Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 5: Taunton in the Colonial Wars, 1924

Disarmament, now a dominant word of intermittent world-wide consideration, was held in little esteem when the New England colonies were setting forth upon their historic journey; and in Taunton the militant provision had never been lacking from the hour of the raising of the first domicile. The soldiery were themselves the builders of the towns; the men-at-arms were a necessity for home-making in the wilderness; the colony watchmen and police were the executives for the continuous protection of their own firesides. We have taken note of the fact that Taunton organized and reorganized its first companies of militia, and how the latter were placed for the purpose of guarding the town, and who presided over each contingent as officers. For years there was no special call for fighting men, though fighting men were prepared. The wise rule of the chief Massasoit had served to keep the Indians from outbreak up to the time of the King Philip War, in 1675, though rumors of insurrection and of "general conspiracy intended by the natives to cut off all the English in this land" were not infrequent.

There was a constant readiness on the part of the military companies of the town to repel invaders upon their preparations for permanent settlement, though for more than thirty years their services were not put into practice. On at least four occasions that ranged through the years from 1643 to 1671, for example, there came some sort of summons against incipient rebellion and conspiracy, though temporary disbandment was the usual outcome. Then, the King Philip War, the first serious set-to with the natives, roused the section to actual arms, both sides having their grievances that we can more generously gauge from where we now stand and behold the scene.

It was at Taunton that the first serious conference with Metacomet (King Philip) took place, and the gathering at the meeting house here is accounted one of the chief historic occurrences of that time. Within the first meeting house, then, the commissioners of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies met Philip and some of his counsellors, and they there put that chief to confusion when he was presented with proofs of his duplicity. As a leading result of that meeting, Philip consented to the surrender of their arms by his tribe; and he signed an agreement of his submission to the demands of the commission. Nevertheless, both his temperament and tactics being wholly unlike those of his father, Massasoit, he continued to plot against the English. Today the truth has become evident to us that the tribe had increased greatly during that first half century since the Pilgrims had landed, and the immediate descendants of the first owners, including Philip himself, wanted all the old possessions back that the English had paid for and were occupying. June, 1675, was the date when Philip began the war that is called by his name, and scores of possessors of the Bobbitt and Babbitt name here and throughout the country recall that it was in the same month that their ancestor, Edward Bobbit, whose gravestone is still preserved in Historical Hall in Taunton, was killed by the Indians in Berkley.

All roads led to Taunton for the militia of the different towns of the Old Colony, after their organization at Plymouth, and there they reported, June 28, 1675, Captain William Bradford of Plymouth in command.

Philip's career of bloodshed in the Taunton section was not accompanied with anything approaching the terrorism precipitated upon other parts of the province and colony, even. He was driven to Mount Hope, but on his way fled across Taunton river, burning the houses of John Tisdale and James Walker, and killing the former. It is evident that Philip was given plenty of time to repent, for it was not until October 4,

1675, that the colonies combined, through their commissioners, in a declaration of war. On that date, Major James Cudworth was appointed commander-in-chief of the general forces; Captain John Gorham was chosen captain of the Plymouth company, to which Taunton's quota was attached, with Ensign Jonathan Sparrow as his lieutenant; and Lieutenant John Brown was appointed captain of the guard of twenty-five men at Mount Hope.

With Taunton men in line, the forces of the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies marched to temporary headquarters at Wickford, Rhode Island, where they took part in that battle called the "Narragansett Swamp Fight," in which 300 Indians were killed and 700 were wounded, and 80 English were killed and 180 wounded, twenty members of the Plymouth companies being either killed or wounded. Of Taunton men, William Witherell, James Bell and one named White, were wounded; while Lieutenants Israel Dean and William Hoskins were present at the fight. Captain John Gallup, who had lived here a number of years, and who was in command of a Connecticut company, was among those killed.

The events that occurred nearer home, though of comparatively small affair to us, were of importance to the growing community. It was on April 15, 1676, that the Taunton inhabitants made their brave reply to friends at the Cape settlements who urged them to leave Taunton and go to a place of safety. That reply, still preserved, thanks their friends, but prefers remaining by the post of duty.

Venturing too far from safer conditions, five men of the Taunton colony were killed June 26, 1676, when Henry Andrews, son of Henry, one of the First Regiment, James Phillips, son of William, also one of the First Purchasers, and James Bell and his two sons, met their death at Nesquabenansett. The incident of the negro Jethro is also recalled at this time. It was he who, a member of the household of Captain Thomas Willett, upon escaping from imprisonment in the camp of Philip, was able to inform the Taunton settlement of an intended attack of Philip. The latter, on July 11th, approached the village, but, finding that the inhabitants were alert, he retreated, though he burned two houses on his way. It was at about this time that Captain Bradford, in command of the Plymouth forces, had his headquarters in Taunton.

The exploits of Captain Benjamin Church were now so directed as eventually to bring the insurrection of that one year in colonial history to its close. July 31, 1676, he started in pursuit of Philip, when he learned that the latter intended to make an attack upon both Taunton and Bridgewater. These intended attacks Church was enabled to foil.

But meantime, on August 6, through the faithlessness to his tribe of an Indian deserter, twenty men from Taunton captured twenty-six natives at Lockety-Neck, between the Rumford and Coweset rivers, in the present Norton; and close to that time, the incident is related that Taunton villagers exhibited the head of the Indian Princess Weetamoe upon a pole at the Green. Church continued upon the trail of Philip, which ended in the death of the latter at Mount Hope; and the slaying of Anawan, Philip's lieutenant, at the noted Rock in Rehoboth, shortly afterwards, brought the war to a close. Comparative quiet reigned here up to 1689, at the outbreak of the King William War, when the colonies, as a matter of course, stood ready to assist the crown so far as they might in the warfare against the French and Indians. Thereupon, orders came from the General Court for the establishment of a watch in the various towns. On the town's behalf, seven Taunton townsmen wrote in reply, to the effect that ammunition all ready for use had been placed in accessible locations throughout the town.

As has been the case ever since that hour, Taunton lost no time in raising her quota of men and money. Samuel Gallup had command of the company in which Taunton soldiers served in the expedition to Canada, his sergeants being William Hack and Samuel Sabin, and his corporals John Quirk and Nicholas Peck, and with fifty-seven men in the company. The names of these men, as well as of those who participated in all ensuing war-period events up to the time of the Revolution, have been recorded and may be found for genealogical purposes in Samuel Hopkins Emery's "History of Taunton."

Inpressment warrants were also served upon twelve others, and it is stated that there were nine volunteers besides, a number of whom were natives of the local tribes. Impressments, which were similar in purpose to the draft of today, but which sometimes were more severe in treatment, were frequent during all these troubles, and every Taunton house was represented by father or son, and sometimes by both, in the companies that went away to the frontiers. For examples of these, in July, 1692, there was an impressment of 30 men; again, in April, 1693, of 20; July 24, 1695, 6; July 31, 12; August 1, 8; March 13, 1695-6, 9; May 5, 1697, 20; July 25, 41. During these eight years, however, it will be seen that in one way and another Taunton was inclined to do her own share, whether by volunteer or draft. Then there came the call to the Queen Anne's War, 1702-13, in which the Colonists took part, and during the progress of the war on no less than fifteen occasions were press warrants issued in Taunton, including in their demands sixty men. In the so-called Eastward Frontier war that followed, in 1723, a Taunton man, Ensign William Canedy, was promoted to a captaincy.

There was scarcely any cessation of these border conflicts from now onwards, and it may well be supposed that the town of Taunton, always expectant of attack from one source or another, kept alive to the situation, with gifts of men and munitions. All the colonial towns felt that they were in a continuous state of siege, though the warfare did not approach their doors. But brave men who must go away from Taunton lost their lives, here and there. In the King George's War of 1745, Major Joseph Hodges and Ljieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Pitts were both killed in the expedition at Cape Breton. Other Taunton companies of men made their preparations to take part in the expedition, but they were not called; and it was in 1746 that George Godfrey, later to be appointed brigadier-general, was a private soldier on the frontiers of what is now Vermont. Provincial troops were sent to the borders in 1749, these including a Taunton troop of horse, with eleven officers and thirty-three men, in command of Captain Ephraim Leonard. Captain Thomas Cobb's company of thirty-one men with nine officers formed part of an expedition in the French and Indian campaign of 1754; and then, in 1755, ensued a rush of Taunton men in various expeditions, Captain Nathaniel Gilbert and Captain Job Smith both in charge of companies. Captain Richard Godfrey, in the second expedition against Crown Point in 1755, had with him nine officers and twenty-two men, and his journal of his marches, with its minute details of events en route and in camp, is a remarkable memento of the soldiers' experiences of those times.

The record of enlistments and impressed men from Taunton during a succession of years from now on is voluminous, the report showing the results in 1756 as follows: Captain James Andrews' company, 15 men; Captain Joseph Hodges', 12; Captain Samuel Thacher's, 1; Captain Ephraim Leonard's, 1; Captain Benjamin Williams', 7; Captain Joel Bradford's, 17. In the campaign of 1757, Captain Joseph Hall's return showed 74 men; Captain W. Arbuthnott's, 27, in the capitulation of Fort Henry; Captain Ebenezer Dean's muster roll in the relief of Fort William Henry, 40 men and 10 officers; Captain Joel Bradford's, enlisting for Crown Point, 9; Captain Thomas Thacher's, 2.

In the campaign of 1758 a few of the 2500 soldiers drafted from the militia of Massachusetts were from Taunton, and Captain Richard Cobb in his company had one Taunton man who went up to Lake George. The enlistments in Captain Samuel Thacher's company were two 'Taunton men; in Captain Andros' company, three, Nathan Cobb losing his life, and Samuel and John Stacey being made prisoners.

The Taunton soldiers in the campaign of 1759 were: of Captain Philip Walker's company, 24 men; of Captain Job Winslow's company, 18 men and 2 officers; under Captain Samuel Glover, 29; and there were four men with Captain Barrachiel Bassett at Lunenburg in March, and two were impressed by a warrant of Colonel Ephraim Leonard. Colonel Leonard gave a return of fifty-nine men of the Third Regiment of the county of Bristol, and three lieutenants. The muster roll of Captain Thomas Cobb's company in the campaign of 1760 gave the names of fifteen Taunton men, with two officers; Captain Job Williams' company, 12 men, 1 officer; Captain Ebenezer Cox's, 16 men; Captain Philip King's, 4 men. In the campaign of 1761, Captain Sylvester Richmond's return showed seven Taunton men, and on the pay-roll of Captain Job Williams' company were fifteen Taunton men and four officers.

This warring and marching to and fro,'so thoroughly shared by Taunton soldiers in the long series of campaigns, preceded the still greater overthrow of the rule of the Motherland.