Soldiers in King Philip's war. Containing lists of the soldiers of ...

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Had Canonchet lived to carry out the plans already entered upon,
it is probable that the result of the campaign of the spring and
summer would have been far different. As it was, the great body
of Indians still for some time held together, congregated upon the
Connecticut about and above the "Falls," where Capt. Turner and
his company found them and attacked them on May 18th and 19th,
1676, as has already been related.
Of all the hostile tribes in this war, historians have assumed that
Philip was the leader ; and there is little doubt that he was the
manager as well as the instigator of the war. But there were many
powerful chiefs now engaged, and they were coming to realize that
the destruction and plundering of a few villages of the settlers, here
and there, resulted in provoking their vengeance, and in forcing the
Indians themselves to withdraw from their old homes into swamps
and mountains and remote places. There was disaffection among the
chiefs, as they found the situation of their tribes growing more and
more precarious, and felt the same pressure which had already driven
the Wampanoags, Narragansets and many of the Nipmucks from
their homes back upon the territory of the Northern tribes, where
they were now apparently preparing to settle for the present and
were already utilizing the fishing-places, hunting-grounds and cornfields.
The war party, however, was greatly in the majority, being
composed of those who were actuated by desire for revenge, having
lost all ; those young and impetuous, who believed that it was pos-
sible to destroy the English utterly in the way of gaining glory in
war according to their ambition, and those who saw no other way
left than to fight the war through for their lives. Philip was enabled
to maintain some show of control over these chiefs, as it was he who
had negotiated with each tribe and managed in securing for them
supplies of ammunition and arms ; while he was also the authority
to whom the French were promising supplies and men, for the
reduction of the plantations in the coming summer. No one of
those now left dared to lead a revolt against Philip, and his personal
adherents were in every camp and close to every chief, so that plots
against him were sure to bring immediate vengeance upon the
plotters.
The Narragansets, after the death of Canonchet, were drawn
more under the authority of Philip, as several of the most notable
warriors anion'' the Narraganset chiefs had been his adherents from
the start.
Pomham, or Pumham, whose territory lay next to Philip's domains,
was a Narraganset chief of that part of Narraganset called
Shawomet, embracing what is now Warwick. He was considered
by the English the ablest soldier of the Narragansets in his day.
Although an old man, he was active in all the operations of Philip's
war. His sons also were brave leaders. He was killed, desperately
fighting for his life, in Dedham woods July 25, 1676, by a party of