This is the second of a three-part series on Norwich founder John Mason, commander for the Colonies of Connecticut during the brutal Pequot War of 1637. To view Part 1, go to theday.com and search “John Mason.”

“The least covered and least known aspect of the Pequot War is the withdrawal of the English following their dawn attack on the Pequots’ Mystic fort,” said Dr. Kevin McBride, arguably the leading expert on the crucial Colonial era involving New England natives and European settlers.

Over the past 15 years, McBride has added to his longtime studies of Indian & Colonial history. In that time, he and his dedicated archaeological team performed extensive battlefield research in numerous excavations throughout southeastern Connecticut, literally uncovering the long ago, tumultuous period of the 17th century.

“Ironically, the devastating assault on the Pequot fort in Mistick (Mystic) by Captain Mason and his combined force of English soldiers and Native allies, which led to an ensuing pursuit and retaliatory attack by about 300 Pequots from the nearby Fort Weinshauks area, also led to the tribe’s most backbreaking loss,” McBride explained.

His intensive work in the field involving the unearthing of key artifacts and ecofacts — coupled with an exhaustive study and analysis of primary documents — details the outcome of the fierce pursuit of the English by the warriors of Great Sachem Sassacus, and the resulting damage heaped upon the Pequots by disciplined musket fire.

To understand more clearly how the aftermath of Mason’s fiery destruction of then Fort Missituck ultimately broke the Pequots as a military power, it is necessary to recap some of the events preceding it and examine what happened during that fateful ambush on the sleeping fort.

What had begun as a viable working relationship between European traders and regional Native groups in the 1620s and early 1630s — the Pequots clearly the dominant tribe militarily, socially, and economically, having subjugated nearly all others — a rebellion of sorts was brewing. It was made even more imminent by the rise and influence of the Dutch and the English.

With inevitable disputes over trade, political positioning, and a mounting mistrust on all sides leading to violent conflicts — made worse by a European-borne, deadly smallpox epidemic on Natives never exposed to such disease — the time had grown ripe for an incursion set off by the neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony (September 1636).

In commissioning the belligerent Colonel John Endicott to sail to Connecticut and “remedy” the matter of hostile Indians (without consent of Connecticut Valley leaders), the flames of war had been ignited.

Endicott’s reckless rampage that destroyed a Pequot river village, intended as a punitive strike to convey “cooperation” on the part of the region’s dominant tribe, had only raised the ire of the Pequots. The ensuing violence had set the Connecticut Colonies into a panic, with the culprit Endicott sailing back to Massachusetts, harboring absolutely no regrets over the damage he had done.

“You have to go back to the resulting siege of Saybrook that lasted six months (September 1636 — March 1637) and where 30 English soldiers and settlers were killed, some of them tortured,” said McBride. “Finally, the commander of the fort there, Lt. Lion Gardiner, put out a call for help, and Massachusetts sent Captain John Underhill and a detachment of soldiers who broke up the siege.”

Dr. McBride goes on to explain how a requested parley between the Pequots and Gardiner went awry, due likely to a faulty interpretation between the two sides. It was followed by a rival river tribe, the Wangunk, coaxing the Pequots into violently attacking the nearby settlement of Wethersfield, where women and children were among the casualties, leading to the General Court of Connecticut (Hartford) finally officially declaring war on the Pequot tribe on May 1, 1637.

With the renowned Captain John Mason assigned command of the English force of 77 soldiers and 13 sailors (to man the boats for transport), the new commander then enlisted the aid of a band of Mohegans led by the feisty young sachem Uncas, along with members of the Wangunk and other local river tribes, totaling about 80 Natives in all.

Orders were issued from Hartford for a frontal assault on the formidable Fort Weinshauks, where the Pequot Great Sachem Sassacus dwelled. But with Mason’s recorded dismissal of that plan as tactical folly, they instead sailed to the Rhode Island territories of the Narragansetts, whose strength and influence nearly rivaled that of the premier Connecticut tribe, and who were just as eager to dismantle Pequot dominance over all others.

The ultimate firing and destruction of the fort, located in what is now the vicinity of Pequot Avenue, Mystic, was the onslaught that set the English and their Native allies on the path of breaking Pequot power.

The palisade on the hill in flames — several hundred warriors, women, and children brutally slain — Mason and his charges now had to effect a sound, tactical retreat to Saybrook, while a good 300 warriors from Fort Weinshauks and neighboring villages pursued them.

“Mason’s original objective was to execute simultaneous surprise attacks on the Mystic fort and on Weinshauks, the Groton fort (now Fort Hill),” McBride explained. “But the forced marches his men had endured had affected them heavily and worn them down. Mason was deeply concerned about that, so he did not follow through on it, focusing exclusively on the closer fort in Mystic instead.”

Once Fort Missituck had been incinerated and nearly everyone inside slaughtered, a number of the Narragansetts who had accompanied Mason and his other Native allies had left, while Uncas and his Mohegans and some of the Wangunk remained with the diminished number of English still able to fight.

“The English had lost 11 men while fighting inside the fort, and 24 of the original 77 soldiers were severely wounded, some having to be carried away on stretchers,” said McBride. “They were also low on ammo now, and with no knowledge of where the boats they were expecting to board might be. So, they waited on the hill overlooking the river after having retreated roughly a quarter-mile from the fort, while also fighting off a growing number of Pequots who’d arrived from the Fort Weinshauks area.

“Given that the fort there and its surrounding villages were only about 3 miles away, and with the sounds of the battle and the rising smoke — and having heard from the few Pequots who had escaped — it riled Sassacus who mustered a retaliatory force of 300 warriors to attack and cut off the retreating English.”

The English had the advantage of firepower, but the Natives knew the land better and had their own tactics.

“In the open field the English held a definite advantage with their muskets and where they could form an effective firing line and aim from a distance,” McBride explained further. “These were trained soldiers, some of them accomplished veterans of the 30 Year War in Europe. They maintained their battle discipline and were able to determine where the pursuing Pequots were amidst the cover of the woods, and where they likely had set up ambushes. So, they aimed and opened fire into those areas.”

In retreating down Pequot Hill once the boats had been spotted in the Thames River, Mason and his soldiers and Mohegan allies fought off about a hundred Pequots for roughly a quarter-mile. Mason’s second-in-command, Captain John Underhill, brought up the rear of the retreating column and sent a detachment of their remaining Native force to contend with the pursuers. Underhill would later reflect in his memoirs how few casualties resulted from Indian warfare. That also explains the psychological impact European battle tactics, so brutal, ultimately had on these tribes.

“Given the utter devastation the Pequots from Weinshauks had discovered at the site of the Mystic fort, they became enraged and totally undisciplined in their counter-attack. They abandoned all battle composure. Mason and his men, however, maintained their military discipline and responded with trained fire from their muskets.

“The Indian brass-tipped arrows that had offered an advantage in closer quarters, where they could be aimed more effectively at weaker points in the English armor, had less impact. Still, the fighting was intense, some of it hand-to-hand, and the overall retreat to where the boats awaited them on the Pequot River (now the Thames) took a little over eight hours.”

The Pequots’ numbers decimated, their pursuit ended near what is now Poquonnock in Groton (known historically as Skull Plain). Much of the terrain covered during that furious retreat was over grounds in Mystic and Groton, including a smaller Pequot settlement of wigwams the English fell upon and burnt en route to the point of escape by their boats.

Mason helped his wounded and the bulk of his battered soldiers onto the boats with Underhill; then, with 20 of his most fit soldiers, along with Uncas and his remaining band of Mohegans and the Wangunks, marched all the way back to Fort Saybrook.

“A sense of relief awaited Mason and his men at Saybrook as he related the demise of the most dominant Native group in the region,” McBride said. “The Pequots held their Great Sachem Sassacus accountable, as the loss of over 50% of their military (nearly 500) had occurred in a single night.”

It is unfortunately not possible to cover in greater detail here the brilliant account of Dr. McBride’s complete treatise on the English withdrawal from the single most important and telling battle of the Pequot War. What took place in the dawning hours of May 26 and finished some eight hours later with the English force’s eventual arrival back in Saybrook is worthy of a public lecture (perhaps with artifacts) at an appropriate venue. His exceptional work validates that every day we walk, run, bike, or drive through a veritable treasure trove of history that spawned the world we now inhabit.

And for the sake of those who first established these memorable grounds as historic landmarks, perhaps we are obligated to learn more of it and revere it for its precious value.

Part 3 of this series on Norwich founder John Mason concludes with another interview with Dr. Kevin McBride and with the Norwich town historian Dale Plummer, on the aftermath of the Pequot War and the ultimate fate of the tribe.

New London’s Nicholas Checker is an author and playwright.