The Battle of Bloody Brook
The Battle of
Bloody Brook was a devastating engagement during King Philip's War that took
place on September 18, 1675, near Deerfield, Massachusetts. The battle began
when Captain Thomas Lothrop led approximately 70 newly recruited soldiers and
18 teamsters to retrieve a harvest of grain from abandoned fields.
Accounts of the nature of the attack vary. One version suggests that, unaware of the imminent danger, the colonial troops stopped to rest and carelessly placed their firearms in grain carts while picking wild grapes. Another suggests the troops had crossed, leaving the teamsters and their carts to cross. In any case, a force of around 700 Native American warriors, led by tribal leaders united under King Philip (Metacomet), had been shadowing the group. They launched a sudden and ferocious ambush at the brook crossing.
The attack was devastating. Nearly 90 colonial soldiers and teamsters were killed in what became known as the Bloody Brook Massacre. Most of the dead were young, unmarried men from Essex County. Captain Lothrop was among those killed early in the battle.
Henry Bodwell, a young soldier born in England in 1654, was one of the handful of survivors of this battle. During the intense fighting, Bodwell was wounded, with a musket ball breaking his left arm. Surrounded by Native American warriors, he showed remarkable courage. Seizing his gun with his right hand, he swung it around him, fighting his way through the attackers and ultimately escaping.
Bodwell was one
of only five who made it out alive, along with Robert Dutch, John Stebbins,
John Toppan, and Thomas Very. Captain Moseley and reinforcements from
Connecticut arrived after several hours of fighting, eventually driving the
Native American warriors back into the forest.
The aftermath was severe. The battle site was renamed from Muddy Brook to Bloody Brook, and the Deerfield settlement was abandoned. A mass grave was created for the fallen soldiers and teamsters, which was later marked with a memorial in 1838. The battle was a significant moment in the broader context of King Philip's War, highlighting the brutal conflict between Native American tribes and English colonists fighting over land and survival in New England.
All Bodwells in North America are for the most part descended from Henry Bodwell, born in Wales and settled in what became Lawrence Massachusetts. If Henry had been killed in the Battle of Bloody Brook, where he was one of only a handful of survivors, his line would have ended there at the waters edge.
Bloody Brook Monument - Deerfield, Mass
From the Darling Paper Collection - https://www.ipswichlibrary.org/localhistory/index.html
