Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

SPRINGFIELD, 1836-1SS6. 157
with the Nipmiicks by marriage, heard of the Quabaug fight, they gave
" eleven triumphant sliouts " for the number of the English killed.
The moment the news of the attack upon Quabaug reached Spring-
field Major Pynchon sent forward Lieut. Thomas Cooper with
twenty-seven horsemen and ten Indians, reiinforced by a company
from Hartford, under Capt. Thomas Watts ; but the danger was
over before their arrival on the 7th. After scouring the surrounding
country Cooper returned to Springfield three days later. Willard
pressed on to Hadley, which had been selected as the head-quarters of
the English commander, and after a stay of a fortnight returned east.
Captains Richard Beers, of Watertown, Thomas Lathrop, of Ips-
wich, and Samuel Mosely, of Boston, as well as Major Treat, of
Milford, Conn., with some Mohegan Indians, were hurried towards the
Massachusetts towns in the Connecticut valley. Beers and Lathrop
made a stop at Brookfield, and Pynchon sent Lieut. Samuel Wright
to hold Northfield. The whole country was searched for Indians to
no purpose. The Indians, in their fort a little below Hatfield, towards
Northampton, caused great uneasiness. They were in a sullen mood.
Watts, Lathrop, and Beers had massed their men at Hatfield on the
23d, and, perceiving the temper of the Indians, had demanded a sur-
render of their arms. Night came on before anything was done beyond
hurried negotiations. Deep in the night an order was sent to North-
ampton for a force to cut off the Indians if they escaped in that di-
rection, while the Hatfield men were to watch the northern approaches
to the fort. The Indians meantime had been holding a powwow ; the
young warriors were for war ; there was no time for deliberation.
An aged sachem opposed war. He was struck dead in his tracks, and
the whole party made a dash for the forests ; the}^ hastened north
before daybreak, and the dreadful valley campaign opened. Lathrod
and Beers hotly pursued the fugitives, and on the 25th engaged them
in battle in a swamp in the town of Hadley and drove them back,
losing nine men, and killing about twenty-five.
It was six days later, according to a tradition in Governor Leverett's