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Battle of Pequot Swamp Archaeological Technical Report Battle of Pequot (Munnacommock) Swamp, July 13-14, 1637 Department of the Interior National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program GA-2287-15-008 Courtesy Fairfield Museum and History Center This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior. David Naumec, Ashley Bissonnette, Noah Fellman, Kevin McBride September 13, 2017 1 | GA-2287-15-008 Technical Report Contents I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................4 Project Goals and Results ................................................................................................ 5 II. Preservation & Documentation of Pequot War Battlefield Sites ..............................6 Preservation ..................................................................................................................... 6 Documentation ................................................................................................................ 6 Defining the Battlefield Boundary and Core Areas ........................................................ 8 III. Historic Context ......................................................................................................10 Contact, Trade, and Pequot Expansion in Southern New England (1611-1636) .......... 10 English Arrival and Dutch Conflict, 1633-1636 ........................................................... 12 English Deaths: Stone (January 1634) and Oldham (July 1636) ............................... 14 The Pequot War ............................................................................................................. 15 Massachusetts Bay Expedition to Block Island & Thames River (August 1636) ..... 15 Siege of Saybrook Fort (September 1636 – March 1637) ......................................... 16 Wethersfield Raid (April 23, 1637) ........................................................................... 17 Connecticut’s Declaration of War (May 1, 1637) ..................................................... 17 Mistick Campaign (May 10-27, 1637) ...................................................................... 18 Mistick Fort Battle (5 a.m. – 9 a.m. May 26, 1637) .................................................. 21 Battle of the English Withdrawal (9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., May 26, 1637) ................ 22 Quinnipiac Campaign (July 7-14, 1637) and Fairfield Swamp Fight (July 13-14, 1637) .......................................................................................................................... 25 The Massachusetts Bay Phase of the War and The Quinnipiac Campaign ............... 27 Treaty of Hartford (September 21, 1638) .................................................................. 33 IV. Order of Battle, Weaponry, and Tactics .................................................................34 Pequot Order of Battle................................................................................................... 34 Pequot Armament & Tactics ..................................................................................... 34 English Allied Order of Battle ...................................................................................... 41 English Forces ........................................................................................................... 42 English Military Experience ...................................................................................... 42 English Armament and Tactics.................................................................................. 43 V. Methods, Site Identification & Documentation ...........................................................52 Battlefield Survey .......................................................................................................... 52 Analysis of Primary Sources ......................................................................................... 53 Field Methodology ........................................................................................................ 55 Landholder Permission .............................................................................................. 55 Visual Inspection ....................................................................................................... 56 Land Use Research .................................................................................................... 56 KOCOA Evaluation and Analysis................................................................................. 56 Terrain Analysis ........................................................................................................ 57 Viewshed Analysis .................................................................................................... 59 VI. Results and Battlefield Event Synthesis .................................................................68 Battle Narrative and Sequence ...................................................................................... 68 Timeline ........................................................................................................................ 69 VII. Conclusion ..............................................................................................................72 VIII. Works Cited ............................................................................................................74 Primary Source Materials .............................................................................................. 74 2 | GA-2287-15-008 Technical Report Secondary Source Materials .......................................................................................... 75 Appendix A. Land Use at Pequot Swamp .........................................................................78 Appendix B: Quinnipiac Campaign Primary Source Excerpts .........................................98 Figures: Figure 1. Battlefield Boundary and Core Areas. 7.5’ U.S.G.S. Topographic Map ............ 9 Figure 2. Battle of Pequot (Munnacommock) Swamp Battlefield Boundary, Swamp, and Core Area .......................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3. Battlefields of the Pequot War (1636-1637). Red dots indicate where combat action occurred during the Pequot War, and blue indicate important ancillary sites. ...... 11 Figure 4. Monolithic Axe collected in Branford, CT. ....................................................... 37 Figure 5. Conical and Flat Cuprous Points Recovered from the Mistick Fort Site. ......... 39 Figure 6. USGS Map 1893................................................................................................ 61 7. U.S. Coastal and Geodetic Chart, Southport 1880........................................................ 61 Figure 8. Viewshed from Top of Mill Hill ....................................................................... 62 Figure 9. Viewshed from Lower Elevation Southwest of Mill Hill Summit. ................... 63 Figure 10. Viewshed from Lower Elevation on Mill Hill South of Summit. ................... 64 Figure 11. Viewshed Southwest of Mill Hill Summit. ..................................................... 65 Figure 12. Viewshed from Southernmost Elevation. ........................................................ 66 Figure 13. Viewshed from Sasqua Village Location Northwest Corner of Fairfield Swamp............................................................................................................................... 67 Figure 14. Viewshed from Sasqua Village Southwest Corner of Fairfield Swamp. ........ 68 Tables: Table 1: Key Terrain Features & KOCOA Analysis ........................................................ 58 Table 2: Battlefield Event Timeline of Battle of Pequot (Munnacommock) Swamp ....... 70 3 | GA-2287-15-008 Technical Report I. Introduction This technical report summarizes the research, methods, and results of the Battle of Pequot (Munnacommock) Swamp which took place on July 13-14, 1637. A National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program (NPS ABPP) Site Identification and Documentation grant (GA-2287-15-008) was awarded in July 2015 to the Fairfield Museum and History Center (FMHC).1 This NPS ABPP grant is part of a larger effort to identify and preserve all of the battlefields associated with the Pequot War (1636-1637). The overall goal of the grant was to conduct a pre-inventory research and documentation project to identify the probable locations of the engagements and ancillary sites related to the Battle of Pequot (Munnacommock) Swamp, the last major battle of the Pequot War which took place in the present-day Southport section of Fairfield, Connecticut. The Battle of Pequot (Munnacommock) Swamp project involved historically chronicling a series of sustained actions between the Pequot and the English Allied forces on July 13-14, 1637, and identifying properties which could potentially yield evidence of the battle. The Pequot War began in late August 1636 when a force of 20 Massachusetts Bay soldiers attacked and burned a Pequot village along the Thames River and killed several Pequot in retaliation for the murders of Captain John Stone and his crew two years earlier along the Connecticut River.
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