The History of King Philip's War, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The History of King Philip's War, Vol. 1
Th...)
Excerpt from The History of King Philip's War, Vol. 1
The need of the literal reprint of so valuable a contribution to the history of New England as Church's "Entertaining Passages relating to Philip's War," has been widely felt; and the more, because the re-issue of 1772, from which all later editions have been copied, was defective in some important particulars affecting the use of the work as an historical authority. Two instances of this may be here particularized; viz., where (page 18) the words occurring on page 10, "and of the black Rocks to the Southward of them," offering an important hint of the exact locality of the "pease-field fight," were dropped out altogether; and where (page 30) the words occurring on page 17, "in about a Months time," were reprinted "in about three months' time," thus seeming to hint an expedition into the Nipmuk country in March, 1676, referred to by no other writer.
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Benjamin Church was an American soldier. He was a military leader of the historic predecessor of the United States Army Rangers, captain of the first Ranger force in America (1676).
Background
Benjamin Church was born c. 1639 in Plymouth, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of Richard and Elizabeth (Warren) Church. He was brought up to follow his father's trade of carpentry, which, especially in his early years, carried him to many parts of the Plymouth Colony.
Career
By 1674 he had bought land and was engaged in building a house at Sogkonate (Little Compton, Rhode Island, United States), where he became well acquainted with the Indians and was soon "in great esteem among them. " The outbreak of King Philip's War, in June 1675, found Church living on the frontier, where his first act was to dissuade Awashonks, squaw-sachem of the Sogkonate Indians, from joining the Wampanoags. During the summer, commanding small detachments of Plymouth troops, Church fought numerous skirmishes of no great importance aside from their value in teaching methods of Indian warfare. He constantly urged his superior officers to pursue the enemy, instead of building forts, but his suggestions were ignored. In the "Great Swamp Fight" of December 19, 1675, near South Kingston, he played a prominent part as captain of a Plymouth company, and was twice wounded. Had his advice, that the troops be allowed to remain and recuperate in the Narragansett fort, been followed, the English losses from exposure on the return march might have been greatly diminished. During the following spring and summer the troops of the United Colonies undertook the systematic destruction of the Indians' corn, and the capture of warriors, with their women and children. By offering his captives their choice between slavery or fighting against their kinsmen, Church enlisted many Indians in his forces and, with their assistance, took additional prisoners, including a squaw and son of Philip. The sachem himself, with his remaining followers, took refuge in a swamp near Mount Hope. Betrayed by a deserter, he was ambushed by Church on August 12, 1676, and shot in attempting to escape, by Alderman, one of Church's Indians. During the following twelve years Church lived at various places within the Plymouth Colony, where he bought lands and served occasionally as magistrate or selectman. During King William's and Queen Anne's wars he served as major, and later colonel, in five expeditions against the French and Indians in Maine and Nova Scotia, in the last of which, in 1704, he plundered the French town of Les Mines and, in his blustering manner, ordered the governor of Port Royal to discontinue the raids on the English settlements. These expeditions accomplished little, since the enemy avoided decisive engagements, and Church, poorly compensated for his services, retired in disgust in 1704. He seems to have been a man "of uncommon activity" even in his later years, when he had grown so fat that the aid of a stout sergeant was needed to lift him over fallen trees. On one occasion his impetuosity caused some of his French prisoners to be "knocked on the head, " an act which he found difficult to explain on his return to Boston. He died January 17, 1718, near Little Compton from injuries sustained in a fall from his horse.
Achievements
Church developed a special full-time unit that combined European colonists, selected for their frontier skills, with friendly Indians in order to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Indians and French in difficult terrain. He used such rangers as militia where the normal practices of having troops march and attack in formation were ineffective.