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The Fort in the Parking Lot: The Forgotten Siege of Fort Massachusetts

There are a multitude of small historical events and locations that are largely forgotten. One such is Fort Massachusetts, a wooden stockade built in 1745. What’s left is a small marker on a boulder, unnoticed and bypassed by all unless they specifically look for it. The marker itself, in the back of a parking lot, conveys little except that some type of fighting took place here. Nearby some small ruins remain from a 1930s reproduction.

Fort Massachusetts today

In 1745, Fort Massachusetts served as the westernmost outpost of New England. Strategically vital, but isolated on the frontier, its small, often sick garrison could barely control the wilderness beyond its walls. In August 1746, a force of nearly 900 French and Indian allies surrounded the fort; after a brief siege that left one defender dead and the rest captive.

The siege typified the brutality of frontier warfare and the vulnerability of colonial outposts. It also showed the fragility of English control beyond a few hundred yards away from their forts. Finally, the siege produced a rare firsthand description of captivity on the frontier.

Why Fort Massachusetts

English colonists built Fort Massachusetts at the outset of King George’s War, the third in the series of small wars between England and France in the New World during the late 15^th and early to middle 16^th centuries. King George’s War (1744-1748), King William’s War (1689-1687) and Queen Anne’s War (1703-1714) were proxy wars. Neither England nor France sent regular forces to fight them.

French militia and their Indian allies fought against English colonial militia and a small grouping of their Indian allies. Not until the start of the French and Indian War in 1755 did France and Britain send regulars to fight in North America.

Building the Fort

Lt. John Catin, Jr., supervised construction of Fort Massachusetts by militiamen for the Province of Massachusetts Bay. They built it on the banks of the Hoosic River in what is now North Adams, Mass. In its time, Fort Massachusetts had strategic importance as the westernmost fort in New England.

The Hoosic River

Essentially it sat isolated, with its nearest help more than 20 miles away at Deerfield, Mass. Back then, that distance posed a big problem because of the rough roads and trails that connected them. The fort’s isolation made it an inviting target for French forces and their Indian allies who continually raided the New England frontier.

In “A Brief History of Fort Massachusetts,” compiled by the Friends of Fort Massachusetts, the fort’s important location is described as at the crossroads of the famous Indian trail of the Five Nations and the old Mohawk warpath. High, rough quartzite rocks made it hard to outflank the fort from the north. The bending river made it hard to attack from the south. Low, swampy ground stretched to the west and northwest.

Native Americans, mostly hostile to the colonists, controlled the wilderness north and west of Fort Massachusetts.

Fort Massachusetts

The fort was a log stockade 120 feet long by 80 feet wide, with 12-foot-high walls, loop-holes, corner watch boxes and a central parade ground. Designed for a garrison of 40 to 50 men, it could mount swivel guns but not cannon. It had a commanding wilderness presence, but it was no match for a formal siege with artillery.

The men at Fort Massachusetts had two main functions. First, they patrolled the wilderness to give early warning of approaching danger. Second, they protected its sole supply line back to Deerfield.

A handful of full-time militiamen made up the garrison, never more than 50 and usually less. Local farmers mostly held down the fort part time. Sometimes, the family of some of the more permanent militia lived within the fort.

Illness plagued the fort until its fall, as many in the garrison often fell too ill to pull duty. It didn’t help that the fort bordered a swamp and a river. Nor did the poor sanitary practices of the day.

Capt. Ephraim Williams commanded Fort Massachusetts. Born on March 7, 1715, he belonged to one of the major influential families in Western Massachusetts, known as the “River Gods.” He would serve as a colonel in the French and Indian War and left his estate for the school now known as Williams College. But a cloud always hung over his head for what transpired at Fort Massachusetts that summer.

Ephraim Williams’ last will and testament

Skirmishes

On May 5, 1745, Sgt. John Hawks and John Miles (also called John Mighills) rode out on patrol from the fort still under construction. One source states they rode on the same horse.

After going a short distance, two Indians ambushed them, wounding both. The attackers knocked Hawks from the horse, and apparently his companion rode away. Hawks recovered enough to defend himself. As one version states, he “so scared the savages, that one jumped down the bank, and the other got behind a tree and called for quarter.” There is probably more of a sense of the white man’s superiority in this telling than there is actual truth. But Hawks did manage to escape back to the fort.

Then on May 25, 1745, Natives attacked a work party escort, but the colonists drove off the attackers. On June 11, 1745, Indians killed Elisha Nims while part of a work party near the fort. They also captured Benjamin Taintor, but supporting fire from the fort drove them off and he escaped.

The colonists could not hope to control the wilderness. The wilderness belonged to the Indians, all of whom were hostile, either as allies of the French, or because of past wrongs committed by the colonists. The best these scouting parties could hope for was early warning of a large attack on the fort.

The Rev. John Norton, one of the defenders, wrote a narrative of the events that followed. Entitled “The Redeemed Captive,” he stuck to the facts though he wrote poorly. Few people read it, and it was almost lost. But then it appeared in an 1870 history of the French and Indian War.

The Attack Begins

Aug. 18, 1746, started out as a routine day with no foreboding. Many in the garrison had the flux (dysentery). Capt. Ephraim Williams had left the area on business, leaving Sgt. John Hawks in command.

Unbeknownst to the colonists, the fort was effectively already surrounded. Two days earlier, Dr. Thomas Williams, Capt. Ephraim Willams’ brother, had left the fort with 20 men, half of them sick. They headed for Deerfield with a letter from Hawks, asking the captain for ammunition as they were very short of it. Hawks also said they had seen signs of the enemy. The French wisely let this party pass unmolested to avoid alerting the fort to their presence.

Capt. Ephraim Williams didn’t get the letter in time.

Meanwhile, Norton noted, on the day of the attack, 22 men, three women and five children were in the fort. Eleven men had gotten sick and almost everyone had the grippe and flux.

Then on August 19, the French and Indians attacked. Norton wrote that 22 men, three women and five children were all in the fort.

Continuing the story:

There appeared an army of French and Indians, eight or nine hundred in number, command by Monsieur Rigaud de Vaudreuil, who, having surrounded the fort on every side, began with hideous acclamations to rush forward upon the fort, firing incessantly upon us on every side.

The fort did not fall immediately—miraculously, given the surprise and the overwhelming number of attackers. Ironically, the sickness that afflicted the defenders saved them since it kept them confined to the fort that morning. Had they gone out in the open, the enemy would have quickly overwhelmed them.

The Fort Massachusetts Attackers

The French force commanded by Francois-Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil consisted of several regular officers, 18 militia officers, two chaplains, a surgeon, 400 French colonists and 300 Indians from the Ottawa, Sauteurs, Hurons and Potawatomy. The besiegers also included an uncertain number of men from a force led by Lieutenant Demuy.

Pierre de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial

Vaudreuil left Montreal on Aug. 3, 1746 and took 10 days to reach the vicinity of Fort Massachusetts.

But despite their overwhelming numbers, they wouldn’t have an easy time of capturing Fort Massachusetts. The well-built fort had protection from a river on one side and a swamp on another.

In addition, the French had no cannon or engineers to tunnel under the fort. Indians, though masters of wilderness warfare, had no training in attacking fortifications. They did know a direct attack would result in too many casualties to make it worthwhile. Their only realistic option was a siege. But it couldn’t last too long because the French, several hundred miles from home, had limited resources.

Initially, the French tried to rush Fort Massachusetts and overwhelm it by numbers and surprise.

Besieged

Norton described what happened next.

Mr. Hawks, our officer, ordered that we should let them come without firing at all at them, until they should approach with a suitable distance, that we might have a good prospect of doing execution. We suffered them to come up on a body till they were within twenty rods of us, and then we fired; upon which the enemy soon betook themselves to trees, stumps and logs, where they lay and fire incessantly upon us…”

Their surprise attack thwarted, the French settled into a siege. With their overwhelming advantage they had no need to risk more casualties for a foregone conclusion.

The closest help for the defenders was at Deerfield. But with the fort surrounded and every man sick, Hawks saw little hope in getting anyone through the cordon with a message.

The siege settled into a series of sniping attacks, each side firing on targets of opportunity. The French enjoyed the advantage of plenty of ammunition. In the fort, Norton points out:

Several of our men being newly come into service, and for want of bullet moulds, had not prepared for any long engagement, and therefore the sergeant ordered some of our sick men to make bullets, and other to run some shot, having shot-moulds This put him upon particular notice of the ammunition, and he found it be very short, and therefore gave orders that we should not fire any more than we thought necessary to hold the enemy back.

‘The Worst of Noises’

As night fell, the fort’s defenders observed activity in the French camp that they interpreted as the making of ladders for an assault. They quickly discovered that the French were preparing materials to burn out the defenders. Sergeant Hawks then took measures to fill every vessel that could hold water, He also had passages cut through walls from room to room to better defend the interior.

Around 8 or 9 p.m. in the dark, the French force closed in on the fort. John Hawks wrote in his journal:

That night they surrounded the fort & kept a shout, Indians & singers & all worsts of noises, until the morning & then as soon as that daylight they renewed their attack.

The fort’s defenders suffered just one fatality. On the last morning of the siege, Thomas Knowlton was shot in the head while manning a watchtower. Apparently, he remained alive for several hours but, bizarrely, was never removed from the watchtower. The Indians would mutilate his body after the fort surrendered.

At noon on the next day, the French called for a parley. Vaudreuil promised quarter if they surrendered, otherwise he would take the fort by force. He, of course, was only stating the obvious, but whether he would carry out the threat at that time was questionable.

A French-Canadian militiaman in 1759

Sergeant Hawks asked for two hours to decide. But he knew he had little choice. Norton states they only had three or four pounds of powder left, not much shot and only eight men mostly healthy. Nor could they leave the women and children at the mercy of the enemy during an attack they could not realistically resist for long.

Surrender of Fort Massachusetts

Hawks now sought the best terms he could – surrender to the French and not the Indians. He also asked to be in French custody, for the children to remain with their parents, and that they be allowed to be exchanged. Vaudreuil agreed to the terms, also promising “Christian care and charity.” He also let them leave notes for their families to inform them of their fate.

Norton then goes on to paint the picture of the surrender:

About three of the clock we admitted the General and a number of his officers to the fort. Upon which he set up his standard. The gate was not opened to the rest…After they had plundered the fort, they set it on fire, and led us out to their camp.

In the end, the French did not honor the terms that the prisoners should remain with them. Vaudreuil tried to get Hawks to agree willingly to go with the Indians, who in their turn wanted the honor of presenting the captives to the French authorities in New France. Hawks, however, refused. But Vaudreuil had to placate the Indians, and he turned the captives over to them. Fears of mistreatment were quickly quelled. The Indians took exceptional care of the captives, including all the sick, and never in any way mistreated them.

A New Fort

In 1747, reconstruction began on a new Fort Massachusetts, again under the command of Capt. Ephraim Williams. It essentially followed the plan of the original fort but with bigger watchtowers equipped with swivel guns. It never suffered another major attack but did repel a raid in 1748.

The fort was activated under the command of Captain Williams when the French and Indian War broke out. The British used it to stage incursions into the Mohawk Valley and as a ranger base.

Illustration of British soldiers marching into the Mohawk Valley. Created by Chat GPT.

With the end of the French and Indian War, the fort no longer served a purpose and gradually fell into disuse.

Efforts to preserve the site began in 1895 by the North Adams Women’s Club. That resulted in the construction of a replica fort in 1933 using existing plans of the original.

By the mid-1940s, it was no longer financially viable. After passing briefly into private hands, it was demolished in 1960 to become part of a supermarket parking lot. Today, fragments of the 1930 fort remain, along with a lonely plaque.

In 2017 the supermarket closed and donated 0.345 acres to the city of North Adams to create a park at the site of the fort.

John Hawks is the author’s 2^nd Cousin, 9 times removed.

Images: By Marottawriter – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51667913. Hoosic River By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10717658. Ephraim Williams’ will By Devinh48 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64858968.Featured image created by ChatGPT.

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The Vice President History Forgot: Hannibal Hamlin and the Road Not Taken

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln sent a most curious message to Sen. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. It was a letter of introduction. Lincoln, the Republican nominee for president, was reaching out to his running mate! In it Lincoln wrote, “It appears to me that you and I ought to be acquainted…” Hamlin had learned of his nomination just two months earlier.

When Lincoln of Illinois won the nomination, delegates at the party convention in Chicago needed a candidate to balance the national ticket. Hannibal Hamlin, a Radical Republican from the East, fit the bill perfectly. And he hadn’t attended the convention, so he couldn’t say no.

Republican campaign banner, 1860

Who Was Hamlin?

Hannibal Hamlin was born in Paris Hill, Maine, in 1809, when the state still belonged to Massachusetts. He left school early to help with the family farm, and he later studied law. Hamlin began his political career as an anti-slavery Democrat, serving in the Maine House of Representatives and later two terms in Congress. He served as U. S. senator from 1848 until 1857, when he resigned to become Maine’s governor.

Hamlin broke from the Democratic party in 1856, troubled by its increasingly pro-slavery policies. He especially opposed the party’s support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which let the territories decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. In a speech announcing his leaving, Hamlin declared, “I love my country more than I love my party.” He returned to the Senate after a short stint as governor. This time he represented his state as a Republican, the new political party opposed to the spread of slavery.

The Wigwam in Chicago, site of the 1860 Republican National Convention

Hamlin’s act of bravery in publicly breaking with his life-long party didn’t go unnoticed to the convention delegates searching for a candidate for the number-two spot. Without his knowledge, his name was entered for the Republican vice-presidential nomination. Hamlin reluctantly accepted the nomination, loath to give up his seat in the Senate. But he felt it was his duty to do so. He would loyally serve the administration throughout Lincoln’s first term.

Telegram to Abraham Lincoln announcing Hannibal Hamlin as vice presidential nominee

Hamlin as Vice President

At this point in the nation’s history, vice presidents were not considered part of the president’s cabinet. They primarily served a legislative function as the president of the Senate. Hamlin’s initial role in the Lincoln administration, however, was more central than most previous vice presidents. Lincoln sought Hamlin’s opinion in creating his cabinet. He also played a key role in persuading William Seward to accept the post of secretary of state. But, for the most part, he had little interaction with Lincoln or the cabinet, spending much time home in Maine. He described the vice presidency as being a fifth wheel.

Vuce President Hannibal Hamlin

Throughout his term, he remained true to his Radical Republican beliefs. He urged Lincoln to arm Black soldiers, and he strongly supported the Emancipation Proclamation. And, like his fellow Radicals, he railed against appeasing the rebellious states and their leaders. In addition, Lincoln’s conciliatory approach toward Reconstruction troubled him. Despite these differences, he assumed he would be renominated as Lincoln’s running mate.

The Republican Convention of 1864

When the Republicans met in Baltimore in June 1864 to nominate a presidential ticket, the country was in a different place than it was 4 years earlier. The Civil War still raged, although signs of victory were emerging. There wasn’t much doubt that Lincoln would be renominated. Many wondered, though, given Lincoln’s moderate leanings towards Reconstruction, how the Radical Hamlin might fare. The party had renamed itself the National Union Party. It active tried to attract Democrats, both those who opposed the war (Copperheads) and those who supported it (War Democrats).

In addition to Hamlin, two others contended seriously for the vice- presidential nomination. Both were War Democrats: Daniel Dickinson of New York and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Delegates were in the dark about which one Lincoln preferred.

1860 campaign button for Hamlin

On the first ballot, two-thirds of the votes went to War Democrats. Only four states voted unanimously for Hamlin, including Maine. But he only had tepid support in the rest of New England, where he received a third of the votes cast. Connecticut went for Johnson unanimously, while Massachusetts gave strong support for Dickinson. Johnson led Hamlin after the first ballot by 50 votes. The other states, seeing the trend, fell in line and voted overwhelmingly for Johnson, giving him the nomination.

Hamlin’s place on the ticket might have been saved if Lincoln gave his vice president overt support, but he chose not to.

Citizen Soldier

Shortly after the Republican Convention, Hamlin found himself in a situation unique in U.S. history. At the beginning of the Civil War, Hamlin had enlisted as a private in the Maine militia, feeling it was his patriotic duty. In July 1864, Hamlin’s unit, Company A of the Maine State Guard, was called up for guard duty at Fort McClary in Kittery, which still stands at the mouth of the Piscataqua River.

On July 7, the 103 men of Company A, including 54-year-old Private Hannibal Hamlin, traveled by train from Bangor to Kittery to take up duty at the fort. For two months, the vice president of the United States, now a corporal, participated in drills, performed guard duty and later won promotion to company cook. He also found time to fish for cod and mackerel. As a concession, perhaps to his lofty position or advanced age, he quartered with the officers in the fort’s Block House. After he completed his service, he returned to Washington to serve out his term as vice president.

The blockhouse at Fort McLaren, Kittery, Maine

Aftermath

Hamlin felt ambivalent about the vice presidency. He never sought it to begin with and resented the powerlessness of the position. His heart was in the Senate, but not being retained for a second term did sting. He also had no prospect at the moment to get back into the Senate.

Hannibal Hamlin

In 1868, Hamlin’s name was floated as a possible vice-presidential candidate. In a letter to U.S. representative from Maine Sidney Perham, he wrote that he was dragged out of the Senate against his wishes, “and then unceremoniously ‘whistled down the wind.’” He added with some bitterness, “I do not want my name used to such an end again.” Hamlin’s great hope was met in 1869, when he was returned to the U.S. Senate by the Maine Legislature. He served two full terms.

Later generations are left to wonder what would have happened if Hamlin was renominated in 1864 and ascended to the presidency upon Lincoln’s assassination. Andrew Johnson was a disaster as president. Although pro-Union, he was decidedly racist and sought to undermine Reconstruction every inch of the way. He gave blanket pardons to former high ranking Confederates. He also vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the bill creating the Freedman’s Bureau. In the words of Frederick Douglass, “he certainly is no friend to our race.”

Andrew Johnson

Hamlin, as a determined Radical Republican, would have approached Reconstruction with the support of the Radicals remaining in Lincoln’s cabinet. He possibly could have prevented the re-emergence of segregationist Democrats that dominated the South for nearly 100 years after the Civil War. Perhaps the greatest “what if” in U.S. history.

End Notes

Sources: Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, H. Draper Hunt, Syracuse University Press, 1969; The Impeachers, Brenda Wineapple, Random House, 2019; “The Making of a Myth: Lincoln and the Vice-Presidential Nomination in 1864,” Don E. Fehrenbacher, Civil War History, Vol. XLI, No. 4, 199, accessed via Project Muse, Feb. 11, 2026. The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin, Charles Eugene Hamlin, Riverside Press, 1899, accessed through Internet Archive, Feb, 5, 2026.

Photo Credits: Campaign Banner, 1860, Currier & Ives Lithography Company, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, CC0; VP Hamlin, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.04944; Wigwam, author: TonyTheTiger, source: http://www.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/S/Sauganash4.html, {{PD-US}}; telegram, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Abraham Lincoln Papers, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms000001.mss30189a.0272900; Hamlin campaign button, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.31541; Block House, author: petersent, self-photograph, {{PD-US}}; Hamlin standing, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.00990; Johnson, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.00050.

James F. Lee, the author of this story, is a freelance writer and blogger whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, and AAA Tidewater Traveler Magazine. He can be reached at www.jamesflee.com.

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The Turner’s Falls Massacre: History’s Ugly Truth Emerges

For generations, the accepted history of colonial New England celebrated the Turner’s Falls Massacre as a daring military victory. But people called it the Battle of Turner’s Falls.

Today, the narrative has begun to shift, as historians and the Nipmuc people themselves work to recover the full, unvarnished truth of what happened at Peskeompskut.

But for centuries the accepted history of the Europeans who entered the New World has long been one of a brave group of explorers struggling to start a new life in a hostile wilderness. Eventually they built a new country through their toil, sweat and sacrifice. They did eventually tame a difficult and hostile wilderness. They moved into lands that seemed, to them, trackless. Everything they needed they either brought with them on their backs or created out of necessity.

This monument marks the site of the massacre. The inscription reads, “Captain William Turner with 145 men surprised and destroyed over 300 Indians encamped at this place. May 19, 1676.

Most of the wilderness hostility, however, did not come from the environment, but from their own making.

The other side of the story was totally neglected in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. A Nipmuc narrative makes that clear:

The English believed in ownership of land while Native Peoples’ belief relied on relationship and responsibility for the land. When English landed on our shores, they reveled in the thought of gaining what they couldn’t have in England–Land. It was an instant clash of cultures. The English thought that owning land was perfectly normal. The People indigenous to the land did not. Realizing this, the colonists used this misunderstanding to manipulate the Native People into giving away something that in our ancestors’ perceptions was impossible to give.

Prelude to the Turner’s Falls Massacre

In 1675, the smoldering relations between the colonists and Native Americans erupted into King Philip’s War. For a year a bitter struggle resulted in rising casualties on both sides. The colonists, though, got the worst of it. By April-May 1676, the fighting eased as both sides caught their breath. They began to test overtures for peace, particularly from Connecticut Colony.

Nipmuc warriors participated in the Siege of Brookfield during King Philip’s War.

Native Americans knew Peskeompskut (in the area of modern Gill, Mass.) as a place of refuge. They used it as an annual fishing camp for 10,000 years. The area had been cleared and included spring planting lands. It was in no way a war camp.

In May 1676, the Nipmuc and other allied Indians had gathered there. The area bordered the Connecticut River, near the Green River. It was the annual time to harvest the abundant fish to store for the coming months. The camp really consisted of two camps–one of warriors and other of dependents across the river, with other Native American camps nearby.

On May 13, 1676, a band of warriors from Peskeompskut raided farms near Hatfield, making away with 70 cattle and horses and two captives. A large feast brought both camps together on the dependent side of the river. After the feast ended, the warriors returned across the river to their camp.

Revenge

No one was killed or injured on either side In the raid near Hatfield. But, of course, the colonists suffered a substantial loss. Many of those colonists had fled Northfield and other areas impacted by Indian raids. Feelings of revenge subsequently ran high.

Two days after the cattle theft, the Natives released the two captured colonists, and they brought with them the knowledge of the location of the camps at Peskeompskut.

While the Native Americans feasted, the colonists gathered for an attack. Capt. William Turner and his second-in-command, Samuel Holyoke, led the assault. Turner led a company of 50 men and was joined by about 100 men from Hatfield, Northampton and Hadley.

However, the Connecticut War Council had specifically ordered Turner not to take any aggressive action because it wanted to negotiate at least a ceasefire. Turner simply ignored the order.

In hindsight, he made a deadly mistake.

From the Gill town line, the Connecticut River now looks like this.

The English Leaders

William Turner, born in Dartmouth, England, in 1623, emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1642. He settled in Dorchester. Later he moved to Boston, where his Baptist beliefs landed him in jail. Released after 5 years on condition he recruit men to fight the Indians, he went west. In March 1676 he beat off an attack on Northampton.

Samuel Holyoke, his second-in-command, was born on Nov. 4, 1647, in Springfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He had little experience fighting Indians.

The Turner’s Falls Massacre

With knowledge of the Indian camps’ locations and their numbers, Turner set out on horseback with his 150 men. He had a choice of which camp to attack. The warrior camp was unattractive for two reasons. First, attacking the warrior camp meant that even though they outnumbered them 2-to-1, the warriors would undoubtedly be a tough nut to crack. Second, Turner’s force, while not lacking in enthusiasm, lacked skill in woodland combat. And third, aside from the 50 men in Turner’s company, the other 100 men were little more than an armed mob.

They chose to attack the unarmed camp of women, children and old men who could be expected to put up little or no resistance.

By dawn, the colonists had crossed the Green River near the camps and were now on high ground overlooking the dependents’ encampment. They simply then walked into the sleeping camp and proceeded to kill everyone in sight. Surrounding the huts, they blocked exits and fired indiscriminately into them. Those not killed outright fled to the Connecticut River, where they were gunned down as they tried to canoe or swim away. Captain Holyoke was said to have killed four Indian children with his sword. No one was spared in what must have degraded into mob bloodlust. In the bloodbath, between 250 and 300 unarmed and helpless Indians were slaughtered. One colonist was killed by “friendly fire” when he emerged from a hut.

Once the shooting stopped, the colonists proceeded to destroy the camp, looting anything they deemed useful. At this point, any real command control had probably been lost. They also seem to have forgotten that the sound of the shooting would have reached the warrior camp. They lingered too long–a costly mistake.

Retreat

As soon as the warriors from the other camp heard the firing they began to move toward the sound of shooting. Other warriors from nearby camps joined them. What followed now for the colonists was chaos. Running back to their horses, the colonists began a headlong retreat, pursued by vengeful warriors. Any semblance of military discipline collapsed. Soon, every man fended for himself with little or no leadership.

The colonists quickly discovered that being on horseback provided no advantage in the wilderness. Racing ahead, a group of warriors set up an ambush in a valley leading to the Green River Ford. During the retreat and ambush, the Nipmucs killed 38 colonists, including Captain Turner. They captured some and tortured them before killing them. Captain Holyoke managed to take command of at least some of the colonists. He managed a somewhat orderly retreat when the Indians broke off the pursuit. While no more men were lost, many were badly wounded, and many more would not make it to safety for days.

Several days passed before they could recover Turner’s body and those lying around the ambush site. Not until June did the survivors discover the area where the Natives tortured and killed.

Attack on Hadley

Captain Holyoke survived the retreat. But his health was broken, and he died on Oct. 31, 1676, in Springfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is likely that many of the survivors were wounded and some of them would not survive the year. Of those that did, many would be scarred physically and emotionally for life–but not, one presumes, from their participation in mass murder given the colonists utter disregard for Indian lives but from their harrowing retreat.

On May 30, 1676, 150 warriors attacked Hatfield. While they did not take the town, they killed five more colonists, burned 20 houses, took sheep and slaughtered cattle.

The affair, glorified by the colonists as a battle, was costly for both sides. To say that the colonist’s reaction to a cattle raid was out of proportion to the event, would be an understatement. It cost them dearly. The Indians lost more with whole families wiped out.

Of course, the Turner’s Falls Massacre ended any attempt at peace negotiations. Connecticut immediately sent men to reinforce Hadley. By June, 450 more men, including Mohegan and Pequot allies, were sent to the area, effectively driving the Nipmuc and other tribes away.

Lost and Found: The History of the Turner’s Falls Massacre

In the latter part of the 18^th, all of the 19^th and most of the 20^th centuries, the “Falls Fight” or “The Battle of Turner’s Falls” continued as one more glorified myth of Colonial America. The area of the massacre was named in honor of Turner–Turner’s Falls, Mass. Now it’s an unincorporated village in the town of Montague, named after a mass murderer. Ironically, even the Nipmuc, who suffered the most in the event, had lost track of their history until the 21^st century when a historical and archeological study under the National Park Service was made of the area.

Aerial view of Turner’s Falls, 1877

In 2012, the town of Montague obtained a grant from the National Park Service to study the massacre and included meeting with Nipmuc tribal leaders. Tensions at times ran high. It is often hard to acknowledge historical truths that have taken on a cloak glorious mythology. Through historical research and an extensive archaeological project that seeks to identify the areas of conflict the effort to tell the true history of events is ongoing.

But the truth, long suppressed, is that it was a brutal massacre of unarmed Nipmuc women, children and elders at a peaceful fishing camp. Colonial commanders attacked in violation of direct orders and ended up in a chaotic, bloody retreat.

The author’s 1st cousin, 8 times removed, Nathaniel Alexander, participated in the massacre and survived the retreat. His 1st cousin, 10 times removed, also participated, as did his brother, John Hawks, Jr.

Images: Attack on Brookfield By Unknown artist – The Sutro Library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=783073. Connecticut River from Gill By I, Denimadept, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2417686. Map of Turners Falls O.H. Bailey & Co, and C.H. Vogt. Turners Falls, Mass. [Milwaukee, C.H. Vogt & Co, 1877] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/74693242/.. Marker commemorating the battle By I, Denimadept, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2483583. Featured image created by ChatGPT.

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Ken Burns’ The American Revolution: Your Guide to Visiting the Historic Sites

You’ve seen the American Revolution unfold on screen in Ken Burns’s The American Revolution—through paintings, documents, narration, reenactments and footage of the landscapes where history happened. What Burns did on PBS, you can do for yourself on foot.

Across New England, the places where ordinary people and famous leaders pushed the colonies toward rebellion still stand—often right beside modern life.

Ken Burns’ The American Revolution Episode I

The series opens before war, in a world of mounting tension.

Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 “Join, or Die” cartoon foreshadowed the need for unity. Though Franklin left Boston at 17, a bust still marks his birthplace on Milk Street.

John and Abigail Adams, whose words frame Ken Burns’s narrative, lived with the fear that Revolution could unleash chaos as easily as liberty. Adams National Historical Park in Quincy preserves their story in three buildings where the Adams family lived and worked for generations.

The trouble started with the British victory in the French and Indian War, which brought crushing debt—and new taxes. Then Parliament passed the Stamp Act of 1765, which taxed printed paper. It enraged printers and readers alike because they didn’t want to be taxed without representation. On Boston’s Freedom Trail, you can now visit the Printing Office of Edes and Gill, publishers of revolutionary newspapers. You can also see their presses at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill Mass.

Peacefield, a house Abigail Adams bought while John was away in Europe. Ken Burns quotes extensively from both Adams in his documentary.

Samuel Adams, a brilliant propagandist, rallied resistance. His likeness hangs today at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Stamp Act riots followed across the colonies, including Newport, R.I., where protests at The Old Colony House forced stamp distributors to resign. The Newport Historical Society now runs the little-changed Old Colony House as a museum.

The Townshend Duties

Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but tensions escalated when it passed the Townshend Duties. In order to police unruly Boston, British troops arrived in the town in 1768, landing at Long Wharf, which still exists. Nearby stands the Gardiner Building, once John Hancock’s counting house and now the Chart House restaurant serving seafood and steak. (Hancock’s beanpot hangs from the ceiling.)

On March 5, 1770, a confrontation outside the Old State House ended with British soldiers firing into a crowd—the Boston Massacre. A pavement marker shows where it happened; the victims lie buried in the Granary Burying Ground. Paul Revere’s famous engraving ensured the event would never be forgotten. You can visit his house, in Boston’s North End, year-round.

The Old Statehouse, another spot on Boston’s Freedom Trail mentioned in Ken Burns’ documentary..

Resistance then spread outward. In New Hampshire, the Pine Tree Riot erupted in 1772; a marker in Weare commemorates it. In Rhode Island, colonists burned the grounded customs ship Gaspee, an act still celebrated each summer during Gaspee Days.

The Tea Party

The crisis peaked in Boston. At the Old South Meeting House, citizens debated what to do with taxed tea. On Dec, 16, 1773, they dumped it into the harbor. Today, you can visit Old South, Griffin’s Wharf and the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum to see where it all happened.

Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Parliament’s response—the Intolerable Acts—closed Boston’s port, revoked Massachusetts’ charter and replaced elected officials with those appointed by the Crown. Protesters forced all the King’s men to resign. Local historical societies reenact the protests that shut down local government at the original courthouses in Barnstable, Mass., and Westminster, Vt.

Sympathy poured in from other colonies; church bells rang in Lebanon, Conn., whose Green remains rich with Revolutionary history.

By 1774, armed resistance had become organized. Militia companies created special units that drilled as minutemen. When Gen. Thomas Gage sent troops to seize gunpowder in Charlestown, Mass., alarm bells rang across the countryside. The powder house still stands in the middle of a rotary in what is now Powder House Square in Somerville.

The violence escalated. A boy rammed his sled by mistake into a minor customs official, John Malcolm. George Hewes, a veteran of the Boston tea party remonstrated with Malcolm, who beat him senseless. Malcolm was tarred and feathered. Hewes’ portrait hangs in the Old Statehouse, now a museum.

George Robert Twelves Hewes

Patriots formed committees of safety and prepared for war. In 1774, 12 colonies sent delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. John Adams commented that every delegate was a “great man” who must on every question show his oratory, his criticism, and his political abilities. Gage told King George they were a motley crew. You can see John Singleton Copley’s painting of Thomas Gage at the Yale Center for British Art.

A Crackdown Backfires

Gage received orders to crack down on the colonists. John Hancock and Sam Adams left Boston for their safety, staying at a friend’s house in Lexington, on the way to Concord. The Lexington Historical Society operates the Hancock Clarke House as a museum.

Early one morning in April 1775, British troops stealthily marched out of Boston toward Concord. Patriot Joseph Warren got wind of their plan and told Paul Revere. Portraits of both Revere and Warren hang at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

Two lanterns were ordered hung from Old North to warn people the British would row across the Charles River. You can visit Old North, and you can also visit the grave of the sexton who hung the lanterns. Robert Newman, in Boston.

Paul Revere and William Dawes rode to Lexington to alert Hancock and Adams and the local militia. Markers along the route commemorate their historic rides. Dawes and Revere are both buried in Boston.

A Shot Heard ‘Round the World

Lexington’s militia assembled on the Green to face the British. A shot rang out, and the firing began, mostly by the British. Lexington has preserved its historic Green, which has monuments, markers and a visitors center. Every Patriots Day in Massachusetts, living history units reenact the battle.

Old North Bridge

The British marched on to Concord and began ransacking the town. The American militia skirmished with them at the Old North Bridge. A replica of the Old North Bridge is part of the 1,038-acre Minute Man National Historic Park.

The British then retreated along the Battle Road as colonial militiamen fired at them from behind trees and fences. The British suffered heavy casualties as they marched through Menotomy (now Arlington). Now on Patriots Day, reenactors perform tactical demonstrations of the shooting, accompanied with lectures, workshops and living history events.

The Battle Road looks much as it did in 1775.

Part II of the Ken Burns Documentary Series

After Lexington and Concord, New England became the war’s engine.

By nightfall on April 19, 1775,, thousands of militiamen had surrounded Boston, beginning the Siege of Boston.

Over the next 11 months, British troops trashed the town, turning Faneuil Hall into a theater and Old South into a riding ring.

A month after Lexington and Concord, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga. A few days later, Seth Warner subsequently took Fort Crown Point, also in northern New York. By seizing the lightly defended forst, they secured the artillery that Henry Knox would later haul to Boston. The Knox Cannon Trail marks his legendary winter journey, and Fort Ticonderoga, now a museum, offers a robust program of living history events.

Fort Ticonderoga today.

On June 17, 1775, the bloody fight at Bunker Hill proved the colonists could stand against British regulars. A 221-foot-tall granite monument and a museum commemorate the battle on Breeds Hill, where the fight took place.

As the Siege of Boston dragged on, George Washington arrived in Cambridge in July 1775 to take command of the Continental Army. His headquarters, later home to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is now a National Park Service site.

Washington’s Headquarters during the Siege of Boston

The war widened quickly. Benedict Arnold led a brutal expedition through Maine toward Quebec, hoping to capture the British fortress there. You can retrace his route today by driving along the Arnold Expedition Route. (Look for markers.)

Meanwhile the British vowed to lay waste to the ports that provided safe harbor for American privateers wreaking havoc on British shipping. Lt. Henry Mowatt began by bombarding Falmouth (now Portland) in Maine. He burned the entire town in October. A plaque marks Fort Allen, earthworks at the time of British bombardment of Falmouth.

1776

On New Year’s Day, 1776, George Washington ordered a new “Continental Union” flag raised atop Prospect Hill overlooking Boston. A tower marks the spot today in what is now Somerville, Mass. Every New Year’s Day, the City of Somerville reenacts the raising of the first flag of the United States.

The first American flag flying over Prospect Hill in Somerville, Mass.

On March 17, 1776, British commander William Howe evacuated Boston for Halifax, taking 10,000 soldiers and more than 1,100 Loyalist civilians. Washington had driven them out by mounting the artillery from Ticonderoga on Dorchester Heights. Dorchester Heights is now a National Historic Site and public park.

Expecting the British to strike New York next, Washington moved his army south.

Far to the north, Benedict Arnold’s assault on Quebec collapsed as smallpox ravaged his troops, forcing a retreat to Crown Point. Britain escalated by hiring thousands of German mercenaries. New Hampshire delegate Josiah Bartlett, commemorated on the Kingston town green, warned the war would grow harder.

To secure French aid, the colonies declared independence. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration; Rhode Island’s Stephen Hopkins, signing despite palsy, declared, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not.” You can visit Stephen Hopkins’ home in Providence, R.I., now a historic house museum.

In Boston, the Declaration was read aloud and the king’s arms torn down at the Old State House. It’s now a museum on the Freedom Trail.

Episode III of Ken Burns’ The American Revolution

By June 29, 1776, the British landed 10,000 troops in New York. The war had become both a fight for independence and a civil war. Patriots imprisoned Loyalists in places like Newgate Prison in Simsbury, Conn. You can visit the prison, an old copper mine, now run by the State of Connecticut as an archaeological preserve.

Washington spread his forces thin; Nathanael Greene fortified Brooklyn but fell ill. Israel Putnam, a brave but not very bright general, replaced him and left a key road unguarded. Connecticut Landmarks owns and operates the Putnam Farm in Brooklyn, Conn.

The British routed the Americans at the Battle of Long Island, capturing Gen. John Sullivan. A plaque and memorial in Sullivan’s hometown of Durham, N.H., honor his service.

Fort Sewall today

Trapped on Brooklyn Heights, Washington narrowly saved his army when John Glover’s Marblehead mariners miraculously ferried 9,000 men across the East River under cover of darkness. Glover’s Regiment still exists as a living history unit. Every Fourth of July, they fire off cannon at Fort Sewall, where they garrisoned for a time, in Marblehead, Mass.

Manhattan soon fell, Loyalists flooded the city, and on Sept. 21, 1776, New York burned. The British hanged captured spy Nathan Hale. Hale’s homestead, now a house museum. stands in Coventry, Conn.

The Northern Theater

Meanwhile, the Americans feared a British invasion from Canada, while disease weakened their forces at Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

You can visit the site of Fort Crown Point, which features the ruins of the stone barracks and stunning views of Lake Champlain.

The soldiers from different colonies fought among themselves, so the New Englanders were sent to the opposite shore to build Mount Independence. Mount Independence State Historic Site, opposite Ticonderoga, stands as one of America’s largest and most preserved Revolutionary sites. A museum showcases exhibits and artifacts.

On Lake Champlain, Arnold hastily built a small fleet and fought the British at Valcour Island in October 1776. Though defeated, the battle convinced the British it would be harder to capture Fort Ticonderoga than they had thought, and it started to snow. They decided to invade in the spring.

The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vt., has artifacts and a replica gunboat from the Battle of Valcour Island.

Episode IV of The American Revolution

The fourth episode begins with a quote from Mercy Otis Warren: “No suffering which Britain can inflict will reduce America to submission.”

Mercy Otis Warren lived in Barnstable, Mass., on Cape Cod. Drive by the Barnstable County Courthouse and you’ll see a bronze statue of her.

The Continental Army abandoned Manhattan. As Washington retreated across New Jersey, British and Hessian troops occupied Newport, R.I. You can visit several sites in Newport to learn about the British occupation of the town.

Mercy Otis Warren is quoted often in Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution. A bronze statue of her stands in front of Barnstable County Courthouse.

Washington struck back at Trenton on Christmas night, crossing the Delaware with Glover’s regiment and artillery under Henry Knox. The Hessians surrendered, reviving American morale.

Learn more about Henry Knox at Montpelier, a museum/replica of his home in Thomaston, Maine, and John Glover at his house in Marblehead, now a museum that offers guided tours.

Cornwallis chased Washington across New Jersey, only to lose the Battle of Princeton on Jan. 3, 1777.

John Trumbull, an aide-de-camp to Washington, later painted a scene from the Battle of Princeton. You can see it at the Yale University Art Gallery.

The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton

The Turning Point: Saratoga

In 1777, Gen. John Burgoyne invaded from Canada, forcing the Continentals to abandon Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Burgoyne then beat the retreating Americans at the Battle of Hubbardton. But then he lost 15 percent of his army at the Battle of Bennington because John Stark defeated and captured hundreds of Hessians on a foraging expedition.

Vermont celebrates Bennington Battle Day as a state holiday, and the Battle of Bennington Monument commemorates the victory. Owned by Vermont since 1937, Hubbardton Battlefield hosts annual Revolutionary War reenactments and features a visitor center with a permanent exhibit on the battle. John Stark, New Hampshire’s great hero, returned to his farm in Derryfield, N.H. (now Manchester). It’s now on the National Register of Historic Places. You can also see his words on New Hampshire license plates: Live Free or Die.

Burgoyne pushed on but was stopped at Saratoga, where fierce fighting at Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights ended in surrender. The victory would bring France openly into the war.

Take a driving tour of the battlefield at Saratoga National Historic Park, which includes the Surrender Field in Schuylerville. The visitor center in Stillwater explains the whole battle.

Episode V

In the Mid-Atlantic, the British captured Philadelphia. Washington camped nearby in the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, while Benjamin Franklin secured French alliance in Paris. Pvt. Joseph Plumb Martin described the suffering at Valley Force in his memoirs, from which Ken Burns quotes liberally. You can buy a copy of Martin’s memoirs on Amazon and visit his grave in stockton Springs, Maine..

In 1778, John Paul Jones raided Britain’s coast from the ship Ranger, built in Portsmouth, N.H. You can visit the John Paul Jones House in Portsmouth, N.H., where Jones lived while the local shipyard built and outfitted Ranger in 1777 and built and outfit another vessel, America, from 1781-82.

John Paul Jones House in Portsmouth, N.H.

The French Arrive

Finally, the French fleet under Admiral d’Estaing arrived to help dislodge the British from Newport, R.I. The plan called for a joint assault—French by sea, Americans under Gen. John Sullivan by land. But Sullivan advanced early, and then a storm drove the French fleet to Boston for repairs. Left alone, the Americans were then attacked; the battle was inconclusive, and the British retained Newport.

Today the Battle of Rhode Island Association is restoring the fort on the battlefield, which has been partially preserved. The battlefield also includes memorials, including to the 1^st Rhode Island Regiment, a Black regiment that fought gallantly.

The British landed near here in New Haven.

Then in July, British commander Gen. Henry Clinton ordered an expedition in order to destroy Connecticut port towns that harbored privateers: Norwalk, Fairfield and New Haven.

Several sites commemorate the militia men who fought the raiding British: In Norwalk, Mill Hill Historic Park; in Fairfield, the Fairfield Museum and History Center and Experience Fairfield; and in New Haven, Black Rock Park.

The war then shifted south. British forces captured Savannah and Charleston, defeating Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. Lincoln was born in Hingham, Mass., and his grave can be found in the Old Ship Churchyard in Hingham.

The Final Episode of Ken Burns’ The American Revolution

Nathanael Greene then took command of the southern army, wearing down Cornwallis. He usually lost; however, his forces remained intact and he inflicted costly losses on the British, including Guilford Courthouse. Today, the General Nathanael Greene Homestead Association now operates Greene’s home in Coventry, R.I., as a house museum.

The home of Nathanael Greene, called the most underrated revoltuionary general in the Ken Burns’ documentary.

The tide finally turned when French troops landed in Newport in 1780 under le comte de Rochambeau. King Park, the site where the French landed, has a monument honoring Rochambeau and the French.

Rochambeau and Washington then met to discuss strategy in Hartford. In May 1781, Washington and Rochambeau subsequently met again in Wethersfield, Conn., and agreed to join forces north of New York City. They spent several days at what is now the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum.

Rochambeau monument in King Park, Newport

They then marched south along what is now the Washington–Rochambeau National Historic Route. Washington from New York and Rochambeau from Newport. Once they met up, they agreed to head south to Yorktown, where d’Estaing and his fleet were also headed. The Washington Rochambeau National Historic Route commemorates the 680-mile march to Yorktown. The spectacular French march through Connecticut has many markers along the way.

Cornwallis had made a mistake by choosing Yorktown to entrench his forces because it was a strategically vulnerably position. French ships then sealed the Chesapeake, and American and French artillery closed in. Then, after a three-week siege, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781. For all practical purposes, the war had ended.

End Notes

Images: Nathanael Greene Homestead By Camanda at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18112163. Longfellow Washington House By Daderot at en.wikipedia – Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here. Original uploader was Daderot at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2929917. Peacefield By Daderot, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3162095. Battle Road By NewtonCourt – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106953815. Boston Tea Party Ship By Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada – Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum, Boston (493624), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46943593. Fort Ticonderoga By Mwanner – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6967864. Mercy Otis Warren by By Kenneth C. Zirkel – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32733257. First American flag By Mmangan333 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132392902. Fort Sewall By Fletcher6 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10266490. Rochambeau Monument By Kenneth C. Zirkel – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58488582.

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The Many Lives of Edward Augustus Brackett: Artist, Abolitionist, and Visionary

The story of Edward Augustus Brackett is also the story of the remarkable diversity of the 19^th century. In a long life that spanned nine decades, this Boston based polymath was a well-regarded artist, a dedicated abolitionist, a fervent spiritualist, a poet, a horticulturalist, an amateur architect, an animal breeder and a conservationist. He left his mark on all these fields and helped point toward many of the concerns of our own times.

Edward Augustus Brackett

Brackett was born in 1818 in Vassalboro, Maine. His father, an itinerant farmer and watchmaker, led the family on a peripatetic journey throughout the Northeast. Finally, they settled in Cincinnati in 1835. Edward Brackett, by then 17, had spent his adolescence trying to reconcile his desire to be an artist with his father’s demands that he settle on a practical trade. In Cincinnati he discovered sculpture. Brackett developed his skill as a tombstone carver, then the purview of artists who, like him, came from humble backgrounds.

An undated photograph of Edward Augustus Brackett

Brackett achieved modest success as an artist in Cincinnati, although sadly, none of his works from this period survive. But recognition stirred his ambition. While many of his fellow sculptors set off for Italy, Brackett lacked the money and patronage to make the trip. Instead, he made his way back East. He settled first in New York, where he began to make inroads by sculpting portrait busts of the cultural and political elite. His subjects included such luminaries as poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet and editor William Cullen Bryant and the very short-lived U.S. president, William Henry Harrison.

But not content to be a mere bust carver, Brackett also created a sculpture titled The Binding of Satan, a two figure work based on a passage from the Book of Revelation. He failed to sell this now lost work. But its positive reception gave him the confidence in 1841 to move to the more culturally sophisticated Boston.

Move to Boston

Boston proved a happy choice, and he would remain in the area for the rest of his life. Brackett married his Cincinnati sweetheart, Amanda, and set up a studio in Boston. He made his living and supported a growing family (eventually he would have five children) through a variety of enterprises. He carved portrait busts of prominent citizens, gave art lessons and embarked on various side ventures in the fields of horticulture and animal husbandry. But Brackett still had grand ambitions as an artist. In 1848 he created his most monumental work. Shipwrecked Mother and Child was inspired by reports of a tragic shipwreck in 1841. It depicts the naked corpses of a mother and child flung up on the shore.

Shipwrecked Mother and Child by Edward Augustus Brackett, 1850, marble, Worcester Art Museum.

While a few critics objected to the sculpture’s realism, it caused a sensation when exhibited at the Wadsworth Atheneum. Audiences reportedly wept and trembled at its representation of the terrors of untamed nature and violent death. Brackett had high hopes of selling the work to a major institution, but he never pulled that off. Then, as tastes changed, it disappeared from public view. His masterpiece languished, yellowed and chipped, for many years in the basement of the Worcester Art Museum. However, the wheel has turned. Thanks to a major grant from the Luce Foundation, Shipwrecked Mother and Child has been restored and returned to its former glory. It now occupies pride of place in the museum’s 19^th century gallery.

The Crow’s Nest

Despite his failure to sell this work, Brackett felt sufficiently comfortable by 1850 to set about building a house for his family. He chose four acres of undeveloped land in what would become Winchester, Mass. This project was inspired by Orson Fowler’s book A Home for All, which detailed plans for an octagon shaped house. Thanks to Fowler, a thousand such sparely ornamented, relatively inexpensive homes were built across the country in the 1850s. However, Brackett’s version was extremely original. Instead of a single large octagonal shaped exterior, he joined together five room-sized octagons, each of a different height. Sitting high on a hill, this design suggests a castle whose central two-story octagon rises like a battlement over the stepped components below. Thanks to its lofty position, the house was dubbed The Crow’s Nest. Attesting to its uniqueness, the National Register of Historic Places now lists Brackett’s octagon house.

The Edward A. Brackett House

The passions that would culminate in the Civil War tore Boston apart. Brackett’s choices of portrait subjects make his political sympathies clear. He created busts of most of Boston’s most prominent abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner and Wendell Phillips. These associations led to his most famous work, a bust of the notorious rabble-rouser John Brown.

Edward Augustus Brackett and John Brown

The story of his creation of this work almost seems made for cinema. Inspired by a chance sighting of Brown on the streets of Boston, Brackett determined to create the bust following Brown’s ill fated raid on the armory at Harper’s Ferry. With the help of Charles Stearns, a member of the “Secret Six” who had funded Brown’s raid, he traveled to Charles Town, Va., where Brown awaited execution in prison.

In Charles Town, Brackett battled resistance from public officials who had been warned that he was “an Abolitionist and a spy.” Finally, with the assistance of a sympathetic assistant jailer, Brackett was secreted into the cell. There he met Brown and made the sketches necessary for his project. Before returning to Boston Brackett accepted a set of dispatches written by a pro-abolitionist reporter posing as a writer for a pro-slavery publication. Literally going undercover, Brackett wound the sheets of paper around his body beneath his clothes. Thus, he managed to bring this firsthand account of Brown’s trial to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune.

John Brown by Edward Augustus Brackett, 1860, marble, Tufts University permanent collection

The subsequent bust gives Brown the aspect of an Old Testament prophet. It was unveiled to great acclaim in a ceremony attended by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Julia Ward Howe, Bronson Alcott and other abolitionist luminaries. After the war, the bust disappeared from view. It was only rediscovered in 2015 when Laura McDonald, registrar for the Tufts University Art Galleries, stumbled across it, nose broken and swathed in plastic, in the galleries’ storeroom. Like Shipwrecked Mother it has been rescued, restored and is regularly displayed.

Edmonia Lewis

Brackett’s abolitionist sympathies also explained his association with Edmonia Lewis, the first female artist of color to achieve international recognition. An artist of mixed Black and Indigenous descent, William Lloyd Garrison introduced her to Brackett after several other prominent Boston sculptors had refused to work with her. Brackett mentored her, taught her how to model figures in clay and permitted her to create a medallion of John Brown based on his bust. She then sold the medallion at anti-slavery meetings.

Edmonia Lewis

Brackett didn’t mentor Lewis for long. They fell out for reasons that are not clear. Lewis went on to spend most of her career in Rome while being championed back home for works that touch on issues like abolition, slavery, Native American identity and mythology. She is currently the subject of a traveling exhibition organized by the Peabody Essex Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art. The exhibition includes Brackett’s bust of John Brown.

The 1870s

The 1870s were a time of great change for Brackett. In 1871 his wife, Amanda, died. The following year he remarried. His new wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Amanda’s sister. He began to wind down his art career, closing his Boston studio in 1873. Meanwhile, his avocation as an animal breeder landed him a position with the newly formed Massachusetts Commission on Inland Fisheries. As commissioner and then chairman, he had responsibility for stocking streams and ponds with game fish. Those duties later expanded to include preservation of wild game and protection of endangered birds.

Edward Augustus Brackett and his animal pens, undated photograph.

He would hold this position for the next three decades. During that time his accomplishments included the patenting of a “fish ladder” designed to help migrating fish swim upstream across dams and culverts to reach their spawning grounds. He also joined the campaign against the use of bird feathers in fashionable women’s hats. And he championed the public’s rights to the nation’s waterways.

Edward Augustus Brackett, Spiritualist

But if Brackett had one foot in the camp of conservation and science, he planted his other foot in the world of spiritualism. He shared that interest with his second wife, Elizabeth. Judging from poems he wrote in her honor; it was one way of dealing with the death of his first wife Amanda. Spiritualism confirmed Brackett’s essentially positive vision of reality. For Spiritualists, death was not the end, but rather another stop on the path to human perfectibility. Because Spiritualism was associated with freedom from organized religion, patriarchal and racial hierarchies and class-based divisions, it found adherents among abolitionists, feminists, labor organizers and other social reformers.

Brackett wrote extensively about Spiritualism and his conversion from doubter to believer. He attended hundreds of seances. Many observers reported their amusement as he paraded around seance rooms on the arm of a “materialized apparition” of his dead niece Bertha. Brackett also participated in efforts to provide a scientific basis for Spiritualism. This caused him to lock horns with William James, the more skeptical founder of the American Society for Psychical Research. But Brackett made common cause with Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution. Wallace’s disappearance from history is often linked to his embrace of Spiritualism.

Legacy

Brackett died in 1908, just six months short of his 90^th birthday. Obituaries cited his many achievements, his art career, his abolitionist activities, his poetry and other writings and his work with the Fish and Game Commission. Today, when experts zealously guard the borders of their disciplines, it is refreshing to see how Brackett, an autodidact from a humble background, could move so fluidly between different branches of knowledge. His life and work reconnect us to a time of hope, belief in progress and a much-needed striving for connection.

Eleanor Heartney is contributing writer to Art in America, Artnet, Artpress and the Brooklyn Rail and author of many books and essays on art. Her most recent book is Edward Augustus Brackett: the Life, Art and Tumultuous Times of an American Original.

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Click here to order your copy today.

Images. Brackett house by By User:Magicpiano – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11661817. Featured image created by ChatGPT.

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The Phelps Sacrifice: A Family’s Civil War

The Phelps Sacrifice is the second part of a two-part series about one family’s tragic experience of the Civil War. Read Part I here.

Having already lost their father to the ravages of the Civil War, Leroy and Levant Phelps enlisted in the Union Army on Dec. 9, 1863, for three years. The Phelps sacrifice was far from over.

Garrison Duty in Washington

The Phelps brothers were assigned to the 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Heavy Artillery Regiment. This unit had a complex history. Originally organized on July 5, 1861, as the 14th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, it was reconstituted as an artillery regiment on Jan. 1, 1862. The regiment was sent to Washington, D.C., to help man the forts protecting the capital through 1862 and the first half of 1863. In June 1863, Company I was sent to the Shenandoah Valley and participated in the Second Battle of Winchester and the retreat to Harper’s Ferry. with Companie B, C, H, and I assigned for the rest of the year to the Department of West Virginia. The bulk of the regiment was assigned to the Department of West Virginia.

Defense of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War

By December, most of the regiment was back manning the forts around Washington, D.C., Here Leroy and Levant Phelps would have joined as replacements. With the one exception of Company I, the regiment had seen no major action, nor had it sustained any significant losses beyond illness and injury. At least their mother could take some solace in the fact that Leroy and Levant would not be directly involved in combat, the threat of Confederate forces attacking Washington being greatly diminished. Alas, it was a false hope.

Conversion to Infantry

By 1864, the need to keep large artillery regiments around Washington had diminished. But at the same time, the need for additional infantry had risen significantly. The army now began to look at the manpower of the heavy artillery units that had not been depleted by combat. And thus, on May 15, 1864, the regiment, while maintaining its artillery designation, was converted to infantry. It then joined the Army of the Potomac at Belle Plain, Va. Privates Leroy and Levant Phelps were now infantryman. While they may have been reluctant to tell their mother, they were probably initially glad to leave the dull, uneventful daily grind of manning the Washington fortifications. As the Regimental history noted:

At last, after long months of garrison duty, days of waiting and impatience to the majority who wanted action, a share in the fighting and glory of achievement; of disappointment to those who wanted to be in the field with other regiments that had won the laurels of war; of all who wanted to hasten the day of victory, and of peace that was consummately desired; at last came the orders which brought the regiment into the midst of the bloodiest conflicts of the war.

Baptism of Fire at Spotsylvania

In 1864, monumental battles took place in Virginia. Leroy and Levant would see their first real combat at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 19-21, 1864, just three days after the regiment’s conversion to infantry. It would have been a rude awakening for the regiment since they had only rudimentary training in ground combat. On the first day of the battle, at Harris Farm/Fredericksburg Road, the regiment found itself in the thick of the fighting.

Privates Leroy and Levant Phelps were in Company D. The regimental history has an entry written by a member of the company.

The right company, F, and our company, D, were detached as skirmishers and filed to the right of the line. The regiment passed on and the two companies under Maj. Holt started off to the right. Co. F left us to relieve the picket of the 4th N. Y. in our front, while our company marched on to the right. Here we halted near the picket reserve of the 4th N. Y. and waited for orders.

Soon after we halted, the pickets commenced exchanging shots and soon the firing became quite hot, but the reserve of the 4th N. Y. picket was ordered in to support this line.

The firing began to increase in intensity; the bullets hummed over our heads and we began to think there was a skirmish in earnest. Just then the first battalion under Rolfe came up in double quick, formed in line of battle to the right of us.

‘Fix bayonets, forward’

Maj. Rolfe said to his command: “Men, we want to see if there are Rebels in those woods; if there are we must drive them out. Battalion, fix bayonets, forward, guide centre, march.” And down they went. They reached the woods, joining the 4th N. Y. The fight began soon.

Co. D was ordered to the right or near the centre, where we could see the whole fight. Maj. Rolfe was riding up and down his line urging his men on. I thought he was rash, for he was in uniform and a conspicuous target. Our company was sent to cover behind a house close by. Some of our men were wounded, but our ambulance corps was not on hand. DeMeritt of our company, severely wounded in both legs, I placed in a 2d N. Y. ambulance. After a time the Rebels were too strong and our company had to fall back.

Our second battalion came up and we rallied in the woods and drove the Rebels from the house we had just left, but they came back and again we reformed in the woods. Here the battery on the hill in our rear opened on the Rebs and two of their shots struck among our men, killing one of Co. G and taking a leg off one in D. The 2d N. Y. came up and fired a volley into us instead of the enemy.

We gained the house again and, protected by that and a rail fence, held the position until reinforcements came, when we helped drive the Rebels down the hill.

The 2d N. Y. were entirely disorganized. They had the line in advance of ours in the evening and, while our troops were putting in their volleys the 2d N. Y. broke and fell back on us.

The 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment bury dead Confederates at the Alsop Farm May 19, 1864.

The Cost of Harris Farm

Company D lost four killed and 18 wounded.

As the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery monument at the Harris Farm states:

In commemoration of the deeds of the First Regiment Heavy Artillery Massachusetts Volunteers (Armed as Infantry) three hundred and ninety eight of whose members fell within an hour around this spot during an action fought May 19 1864 between a division of the Union Army commanded by General Tyler and a corps of the Confederate forces under General Ewell.

Considering their lack of training as infantry and that they were seriously outnumbered, the regiment and the Phelps brothers acquitted themselves well. They were lucky to survive unscathed. The remaining men had to learn their trade on the fly since, only two days later on May 23rd, they were involved in the fighting at the North Anna River and at Totopotomoy. In both instances, they did not engage heavily with the enemy.

A Respite During the Battle of Cold Harbor

The regiment was then involved in the Battle of Cold Harbor (June 1-12, 1864). Though a bloodbath for the Union Army, fortunately for the regiment it did not suffer as heavily as others. The regimental history has an interesting entry regarding a quiet phase of the battle when even the Confederates appear exhausted.

June 7, Cutler writes: This is the first day for some time that we have not been under fire. We have had some good resting spells lately and feel greatly refreshed after the hard service we saw after starting from the forts.

The Rebel pickets opposite our lines are quite sociable and quiet; not a shot has been fired by either side. The firing last night was on the right of us. They are North Carolina troops. Our pickets trade coffee and sugar with them for tobacco. They have no coffee or sugar, but plenty of other food. One man gave himself over to our forces. He says he has plenty to eat, but his family is suffering. They all think the war will not last much longer, but say that Grant will have a hard time taking Richmond…

A Truce, and the Siege of Petersburg

On the seventh a truce was arranged from 6 to 8 p.m., to get off the wounded and bury the dead. Some of the wounded had lain exposed to sun and rain on the battle fields since the third, and their sufferings were terrible. The stench from dead bodies was unbearable. The terrible scene seemed to have an effect on both armies and, though the firing of musketry was heard later, many a shot went high in the air. Cutler says he did not hear a picket shot on the eighth. In the afternoon he enjoyed corn bread secured from the Rebs and he wanted more of it. In the evening the batteries exchanged shots…

Unburied dead on the battlefield

Only four days after Cold Harbor, on June 16, 1864, the regiment joined the Siege of Petersburg. They would fight in the siege lines and in the various battles in the area until Petersburg fell on April 2, 1865. For the remainder of 1864, Pvts. Leroy and Levant Phelps participated in the First Assault on Petersburg. Then they fought on the Jerusalem Plank Road, Deep Bottom, Strawberry Plains, Peeble’s Farm, Boydton Plank Road/Hatcher’s Run and the Expedition to Weldon Railroad.

Hatcher’s Run

The Final Campaign

Through early March 1865, the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery was involved in only one significant action at Dabney’s Mills/Hatcher’s Run (Feb. 3-7, 1865) other than service in the siege lines. Then on March 29, 1865, Grant and the Army of the Potomac began their final campaign, the Appomattox Campaign.

On March 31, 1865, the regiment and the Phelps brothers found themselves in a familiar area near Boydton Plank Road. It was a minor affair given their previous combat, but it would be a lasting memory for the Phelps’ family. The regimental history describes the action:

March 31, 1865. After being moved to the left in the morning, our brigade and the 5th Mich, were sent forward at 11 a. m. and three hours later advanced upon a Rebel fort under a terrible fire, that somehow proved very ineffective. We came to an impassable morass just in front of the fort and lay down there, maintaining a heavy fire, and exposed not only to the fire from the enemy’s infantry in the works but to canister from their battery. Staff officers in the rear of our lines sat on their horses, coolly surveying the enemy’s works through field glasses, under fire. After half an hour, retreat was sounded and we retired in good order. The regiment lost one man, Peleg Swift, Co. A, aged 45, the oldest man in the regiment killed, and had ten wounded. The left of the brigade rested on the Boydton Plank Road and the battle was not far from that other engagement of Oct. 27, 1864.

Slashing and Retreating

Among Gardner’s papers were found abstracts from the diary of Sergeant Bradley, not printed in the memorial book. He fails to mention that Captain Littlefield complimented him on the field for rallying men during the charge of March 31. But his story is perhaps the best of those preserved:

March 31, 1865. The sun came out about ten; it was most welcome. At eleven orders received to be ready to move in light marching order. The 1st Mass. and 5th Mich, passed over the work through the slashing into the heavy timber, past the picket lines. In about half an hour we were flanked on both sides, moved to the right a short distance, went forward to some slashing, ordered to retreat to the works, which we did; one killed and two wounded.

Another Phelps Sacrifice

All in all, the fighting on March 31, 1865, was a minor affair, except that one of those wounded that day was Pvt. Leroy Phelps. He must have suffered a serious wound. While it is not recorded, his brother Levant would have been nearby when Leroy was wounded since they were in the same company. Certainly, if he had not witnessed the actual event, he would have spent time with his brother before he was sent for further medical care.

The war did not stop for the regiment or Pvt. Levant Phelps. Both went on to fight in the final battles in Virginia. Petersburg fell on April 2, 1865. Then the final major battle with Lee’s army took place at Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. There was one more small affair at High Bridge/Farmville on April 7, 1865. Then Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Pvt. Levant Phelps and the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery attended the event. It was not the end of the war, but it was the end of fighting in Virginia.

Pvt. Leroy Phelps was quickly evacuated to the Union’s Satterlee Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa., where he died on April 11, 1865, two days after Lee’s surrender. Whether he knew of Lee’s surrender is unknown, but the news would have reached all of the North at the time. His mother’s undoubted joy at the end of the fighting in Virginia would soon be dashed when word reached her of her son’s death. His brother Levant may not have heard of the death for quite some time. Pvt. Leroy Phelps was interned in the military plot at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Homecoming and a Second Phelps Sacrifice

After Lee’s surrender, the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery stayed in Virginia before marching to Washington, D.C. While there it manned several fortifications. It took part in the Grand Review on June 15, 1865. Eventually, the regiment mustered out in Washington on Aug. 16, 1865. Sent north to Boston, the regiment and Pvt. Levant Phelps were discharged at Gallop’s Island, Boston Harbor, on Aug. 25, 1865.

Levant Phelps attended the Grand Review of the Union Army. He may or may not have known of the latest Phelps sacrifice.

Levant Phelps’ homecoming must have been bittersweet. His widowed mother would still have been mourning his brother Leroy. But at the same time, Levant’s return must have overjoyed her. At least now she had a semblance of normal family life with her two surviving sons and daughter.

On June 3, 1867, Levant Phelps married Ella Lovinia Prince in Goshen, Mass. Finally, an event happened to bring some joy to the Phelps’ household. and his mother could now perhaps look forward to a grandchild.

But tragedy would once again strike the family. On 28 Nov 1869, Levant Phelps died of heart disease. He was only 25 years old. There is nothing to indicate a congenital condition, and it is entirely possible that the condition came about because of his hard war service. In any event, there were no children from the marriage. His mother Erryphila must have been a strong woman to survive – within 8 years she had lost a husband and two sons.

A Mother’s Enduring Scars

Erryphila Wheeler Phelps never remarried. She died on April 18, 1899, at Williamsburg, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. She apparently lived at the time with her daughter and her family. Her son Laselle and her daughter Ella Jane survived her. Both had children. Unfortunately, she had to survive one more tragedy when Laselle’s infant son died in 1896.

In one way or another, every family in the United States was left with the scars of war. The Phelps family was an ordinary family living, and dying, in extraordinary times. As such, they differed little from many of the families on both sides at the time.

Read more about the Phelps sacrifice here.

Abner Phelps was the author’s 2nd Cousin, 4 times removed, and his sons Leroy and Levant Phelps were his 3rd Cousins, 3 times removed.

***

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Slashing and Retreating

Another Phelps Sacrifice

Homecoming and a Second Phelps Sacrifice

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