Nine Men's Misery

By the early spring of 1676, King Philip's war had been raging for nearly a year and Native Americans recently had attacked Warwick and Providence as well as villages close to Boston. The colonial authorities dispatched troops to find and destroy the these raiders. Under the command of Captain Michael Pierce, a group composed of approximately 63 English troops and 20 friendly Wampanoags from Cape Cod (said to be Christians) set out from Rehoboth Village (now Rumford) to destroy a raiding party reported to have been active near Attleboro. On Sunday morning, March 23rd, Pierce's force encountered a small group of Indians at a point on the Blackstone River near the present site of Central Falls. The plan of Canonchet, the Narragansett's chief sachem, was to draw the colonials into the ravine, attack them from the hills, then cut off their retreat by quickly moving a strong force to their rear. As a decoy, a few Indians showed themselves rambling in the woods as if wounded. Pierce ordered his men to pursue them, but upon reaching the middle of the fording place above the falls he found that he had been baited into an ambush. Greatly outnumbered, Pierce ordered his small company into a ring and prepared to make a stand. He also dispatched a messenger to Rehoboth Village requesting help. The colonials stood their ground, with ever-thinning ranks, for about two hours when, with perhaps twenty colonials still standing, it became clear that further resistance was futile. They broke ranks and ran, every man for himself. Three or four Englishmen managed to escape, but nine were taken captive and led to the spot in Cumberland now called "Nine Men's Misery." There, according to tradition, "the captives were seated upon a rock, a fire lighted, and the war dance preparatory to the torture was begun. The chronicles say that, differing among themselves as to the mode of torture, the Indians dispatched their prisoners with the tomahawk. But, of what happened at Nine Men's Misery there is no real evidence." Arriving too late, a relief force found and buried the bodies of the nine. A few days later, Canonchet was captured and executed.

Text © Dr. Michael Bell