A Day of Fast, A Day of Attack
June 24, 1675
June 24, 1675, saw multiple events occur.
In Swansea village, Wampanoags continued their multi-day raid. Encountering those who were raiding his father’s home and shop, John Salisbury began shooting, mortally wounding one of the Wampanoag. By the end of the five day siege, multiple residents–the numbers are reported as both nine and eleven– were dead, including John Salisbury and his father, William. (1)
Within a matter of hours, the neighboring town of Rehoboth was attacked by the Wampanoag. In a poem written during the war, Philip Walker detailed the death of Rachel Mann, who would have been in her early twenties, and her child, who was described as a “sucking infant.” He describes both as having had their brains “dasht out [sic]” and left “in [their] gore” as houses were burned within the village. (2)
Forty miles northeast of Swansea in Plymouth, colonists were engaged in a Day of Fast. A precursor to Days of Thanksgiving, these events were embraced by Puritans as a response to God’s perceived anger and judgement. Days of Fasts were often held following major upsets or crises, such as poor harvests, military entanglements, illness, and bad weather, to name a few. Documented as the first Day of Fast to have occurred during the war, several more would be held throughout the fourteen months. For Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony, they occurred intermittently, whereas Connecticut Colony held fasts on a weekly basis starting on September 1, 1675. (3)
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=56215 According to the transcription of the plaque for the Myles Garrison House historical marker, eleven colonists were killed in the attack on Swansea: “Nehemiah Allin • William Hammond • William Cahoone • John Jones • Gershom Cobb • Robert Jones • John Druce • Joseph Lewis • John Fall • John Salisbury • William Salisbury.” All except William Hammond and John Druce were buried on June 24, 1675.
Richard LeBaron Bowen, Early Rehoboth: Documented Historical Studies of Families and Events in this Plymouth Colony Township. Concord, NH: Rumford Press, 1945. 47-48. There are discrepancies across multiple sources as to the gender of Mann's child.
For a listing of Days of Fast, Humiliation, and Thanksgiving, see Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity. New York: Vintage Books, 1998, 103-104.
When the Myles Garrison boulder was placed on Saturday, Sept 27, 1913, Thomas Bicknell of Providence gave the address, followed by the reading of (an equally awful poem :) by Hezekath Butterworth called "Philip's Last Hunt." Bicknell noted that the name John Fall should be John Fuller, a slight that Capt. Fuller has had to bear for 112 years. Bodge, 62, writes, “Capt. John Fuller of Dedham, a brave and active officer, was slain in the first encounter at Swanzey.”