Deerfield Town

Deerfield Town

Ai the long train Of age« glide away, the sons of men, The youth in life'* green spring, and he who goes In the full strength of years, matron, and maid, The bowed with age, the infant in the smiles And beauty of its innocent age cut off, - Shall, one by one, be gathered to thy side, By those, who in their turn shall follow them." - Brtant.

Novem

To each unthinking being, heaven, a friend, Gives not the useless knowledge of its end, To man imparts it, but with such a view. As while he dreads it makes him hope it too.

Battle Monument At Bloody Brook

Erected August, 183L On this ground Captain Thomas Lathrop, and Eighty- Four Men under his command, including Eighteen teamsters from Deerfield, Conveying Stores from that town to HadJey, were ambuscaded by about 700 Indians, and the Captain and Seventy-six Men Slain, September 18th 1765, (old Style). The Soldiers who fell, were described by a Cotemporary Historian as a Choice Company of Young Men, the very flower of the County of Essex. None of wliom were ashamed to Speak with the enemy in the gate. - "And SANGUINETTO teUs you" where the dead "Made the earth wet and turned" the unwilling Waters Ked. - The grave of the Slain is Marked by a Stone Slab 21 Rods Southerly of this Monument.

This monument stands 30 or 40 rods southerly from the Congretional church. South-easterly from the moniiment is seen Sugarloaf Mountain, a conical peak of red sand stone, about 650 feet in height. In 1835, the 160th anniversary of the destruction of Capt. Lathrop and his men was commemorated in this place. The Hon. Edward Everett, governor of Massachvtsetts, was appointed orator for the occasion, and General Epaphras Hoyt, of Deerfield, was appointed to make the address at the laying of the corner stone for the monument. About six thousand persons were present on this occasion. Governor Everett delivered his address under a walnut tree. About forty years after Capt. Lathrop and his men were killed, a rude monument was erected to their memory, but the different occupants of the soil removed it so many times, that it was a matter of uncertainty where he or his men were buried. In 1835, the committee of investigation, guided by the tradition of some aged people, found the spot where he and about thirty of his men w^ ere interred ; the grave was just in front of the dooryard of Stephen Whitney, Esq., and about twenty feet northwest of his front door. Their bones were in a state of tolerable preservation, but fell to pieces on exposure to the air. " A grave probably containing the bones of the ninety-six Indians who were slain on that day, was likewise found by accident about the same time, nearly one hundred rods west of the road leading from Bloody Brook to Conway , by Mr. Artemas Williams, and a little more than half a mile south-west of the grave of Lathrop."

The monument is six feet square and about twenty feet in height ; it is constructed of marble, by Mr. Woods of Sunderland. On its completion an address was delivered at its foot by Mr. Luther B. Lincoln, of JJeerlield.

*' For the distance of about three miles, after leaving Deerfield meadow, Lathrop' s march lay through a very level country, closely wooded, where he was every moment exposed to an attack on either flank ; at the termination of this distance, near the south point of Hwjar -loaf Rill, the road approximated Connecticut river, and the left was in some measure protected. At the village now called Muddy Brook, in the southerly part of Deerfield, the road crossed a small stream, bordered by a narrow morass, from which the village has its name ; though more appropriately it should be denominated Bloody Brook, by which it was sometimes known. Before arriving at the point of intersection Avith the brook, the road for a])Out half a mile ran parallel with the morass, then, crossing, it continued directly to the south point of Sugar-loaf Hill, traversing what is now the home lots, on the east side of the village. As the morass was thickly covered with brush, the place of crossing afforded a favorable point of surprise. On discovering Lathrop' s march, a body of upwards of seven hundred Indians planted tliemselves in ambuscade at this point, and lay eagerlywaiting to pounce upon Mm while passing the morass. Without scouring the woods in his front and flanks, or suspecting the snare laid for him, Lathrop arrived at the fatal spot ; crossed the morass with the principal part of his force, and probably halted, to allow ' time for his teams to drag through their loads. The critical mo- 1 ment had arrived - the Indians instantly poured a heavy and desj tructive fire upon the column, and rushed furiously to close attack. j Confusion and dismay succeeded. The troops broke and scattered, j fiercely pursued by the Indians, whose great superiority enabled 1 them to attack at all points. Hopeless was the situation of the I scattered troops, and they resolved to sell theu' lives in a vigorous 1 struggle. Covering themselves with trees, the bloody conflict now I became a severe trial of skill in sharp shooting, in which life was the stake. Difficult would it be to describe the havoc, barbarity, and misery that ensued ; ' fury raged, and shuddering pity quit the sanguine field,' while desperation stood pitted, at 'fearful odds,' to unrelenting ferocity. The dead, the dying, the wounded, strewed the ground in all directions ; and Lathrop' s devoted force was soon reduced to a small number, and resistance became faint. At length the unequal struggle terminated in the annihilation of nearly the whole of the English ; only seven or eight escaped from the bloody scene, to relate the dismal tale ; and the wounded were indiscriminately butchered. Capt. Lathrop fell in the early part i of the action. The whole loss, including teamsters, lamounted to ninety.

Capt. Mosely, who was at Deerfield with his company, between four and five miles distance, hearing the musketry, hurried on to the relief of Lathrop, but it was too late ; he found the Indians hai done their bloody work, and were stirpping the dead. Rushing on in close order, he broke through the enemy, and, charging back and forth, cu.t down all within the range of his shot. After several hours of gallant fighting, the savages were compelled to seek for safety in the surrounding swamps and forests. Lieutenants Savage and Pickering greatly distinguished themselves by their skill and bravery. Just at the close of the action. Major Treat, of Connecticut, who on the morning of this day had marched towards Northfield, arrived on the ground with one hundred men, consisting of English, Pequot and Mohegan Indians, and shared in the final pursuit of the enemy. Capt. Mosely lost but two men in the various attacks, and seven or eight only were wounded. The loss of the Indians in the various attacks of the day was estimated at ninety-six, the greatest proportion of which fell in the engagement with Mosely. On the approach of night, Treat and Mosely proceeded to Deerfield, where they encamped for the night, and the next morning returned to the field of slaughter to bury the dead. The day after this disaster, the Indians ap- peared at Deerfield, on tlie west side of the river in that town, and, displaying the garments they had stripped from Lathrop's slain, made demonstrations of an attack on the fortified house, which then contained a garrison of only twenty-seven men. The commander held out delusive appearances of a strong force, - caused his trumpet signals to be given, as if to call in additional troops, which so intimidated the Indians that they withdrew without making an attack. Tliis post, however, was afterwards abandoned by the garrison, and the place was soon after destroyed by the enemy.