With Veterans Day on Monday, we think of the soldiers of the United States of America. Before the Revolutionary War, however, early settlers fought in the armies of the colonies. Even before the French and Indian War, battles between the newly arrived English colonists and the Indians took many lives on both sides. A review of history from the hindsight of over three centuries leads us to sympathize for the suffering of both the natives and the immigrants. Captain Nathaniel Seeley lost his life in what has been called the bloodiest conflict in the history of America (per capita), The Great Swamp Fight. Both sides felt justified in going to war. To protect one's family and community is an easily understood motive and the settlers were convinced their lives were endangered. The Indians felt that they were protecting their hunting grounds and ability to provide for their families.
Seeley Family
The Hydes joined the Seeley family when Betsy Pennock, daughter of Margaret Seeley, married James Hyde. Margaret Seeley was the great-great granddaughter of Nathaniel Seeley who emigrated from London with his parents Robert and Mary. They sailed Monday, 29 March, 1630, to the Isle of Wight, and then on to New England as a part of the John Winthrop Fleet, on the ship Arbella/Arabella. They arrived in Salem Massachusetts, 12 Jun, 1630. Soon after their arrival, Robert accompanied a group led by Sir Richard Saltonstall going four miles up the Charles river to found a new settlement of Watertown. They moved in 1635 moved to Wethersfield, in Connecticut, and in 1638 move on to New Haven, also in Connecticut.
Nathaniel married about October 1649 to Mary Turney (indicated by her recorded statement, June 7, 1650, that she had been married eight months). Mary was also a native of England, having been born in the county of Buckingham in 1631. She came to America as a young girl with her parents, and lived first at Concord, Massachusetts, moving to Fairfield, Connecticut in 1644. Nathaniel and Mary lived for a few years in New Haven, and by 1657 had moved to Fairfield, shown by a court record of May 1657, wherein “Nath: Seely of Fairfield complains against Dan: Fynchell for ‘purloying yarn from him.’” Nine children blessed the
Seeley home, five sons and four daughters. Mary died while several of the children were still young, and Nathaniel married again in 1674, his second wife, Elizabeth, having already been twice widowed.
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| Ariel view of Fairfield, Connecticut, 2007 |
According to a biography found on the Seeley Society website, he was commissioned Lieutenant in November of 1675, and was second in command of the Army of Fairfield Co. in King Philip's War. He served as Captain in the Fairfied Company. Dragoons November 1675.
After his death, an i
Nathaniel's Service
From the history of Nathaniel Seeley, 1627 written by Myrtle Hyde we read:
Nathaniel’s father, Robert, had distinguished himself in military matters, and Nathaniel followed these footsteps. Every town in New England had its own troops, this of necessity because of Indian problems. In the Fairfield Trainband, as the troops were called, Nathaniel had reached the rank of Sergeant by May 1674. Many Indians were becoming extremely hostile to English encroachments, and, under the leadership of Pometacom or Metacomet, called King Philip, in June 1675 they started attacking villages in Massachusetts. Connecticut soldiers, including men from Fairfield, more than once went up the Connecticut River to the aid of their fellow Englishmen in Massachusetts. In October of 1675, because of his leadership qualities,
Nathaniel Seeley was made Lieutenant.
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| Massachusetts Bay Militia in Salem 1637 by Don Troiani |
sixth in command.
Every commissioned officer was granted a horse for his use, and every three soldiers the use of one horse. The soldiers who had been in Massachusetts started their return trip November 19, and upon arriving home were instructed to be forthwith prepared with accommodations of clothing, arms, and horse, and made ready to march in an hour’s warning.
Fairfield, as the military center of the county, was the scene of endless activity, and the greatest excitement prevailed. Dragoons and footmen, with their officers, from all parts of the county, daily arrived, and were quartered in the town, and exercised on the Meeting-house green. Horses, carts, and wagons were constantly arriving with provisions for the army. The women of the town were busily employed in fitting out their husbands and sons for the expedition. Nathaniel Seeley’s wife undoubtedly did her part, even though she was certainly already busy enough, with probably four of her own young children and at least five or six of Nathaniel’s still at home.
November 29 the war council ordered Major Treat to move with all possible haste, by land or by water, to rendezvous the Connecticut troops at New London, and then proceed into Rhode Island to help make an immediate attack upon the Narragansetts.
After the long eastward journey, Major Treat and his men arrived on the shores of Narragansett Bay at Pettyquamscot (now Wickford, Rhode Island) on a very cold seventeenth of December, this being the point for assembly with the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay troops. Two days later, when the combined army began the last day’s march at five o’clock in the morning, a hard snowstorm had come on and the ground was covered with between two and three feet of snow. The Narragansetts had fortified themselves in a swamp about fifteen miles away.
Near the center of the swamp was an elevated space of about three or four acres where the Indians had erected their fort, the exterior walls being palisades. The interior was lined, or banked, with a clay wall, with the exception of a small space in the rear, which they had not quite completed when the English army came upon them. Around the fort trees had been felled so that there was a tangle of limbs and intertwining branches very difficult to surmount. The entrance to the fort was impeded by a large log or tree five or six feet in height. In front of this were fortifications called flankers. This stockaded stronghold was occupied by about 3,500 Indians, including women and children.
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| Engraving depicting the attack on Metacomet's fort in King Philip's War. |
During their march the cold was so intense that some of the English had their hands and feet frozen, disabling them for service, and they had to be left behind. The Indian fort at last came into view, and immediately upon entering the swamp the English were attacked by a body of Indians, who quickly retired to the fort as they were fired upon. The two forward companies were the first to mount the log before the entrance of the fort, one of their Captains falling mortally wounded by three bullet shots. He committed his men to the charge of another and expired on the spot. The other Captain of the two was shot at by many Indians, but was miraculously saved. Such was the well-directed fire of the Indians that many brave men lost their lives trying
to get into the fort.
His Death
The obstructions of the swamp and the snow were serious barriers in drawing the army up for action; but the men pressed forward as rapidly as possible to the encounter. The Connecticut troops, who formed the rear of the army upon coming up, were led by the spirited Captains Seeley and Gallop who animated their troops to dash over the felled trees at the entrance. The fire of the Indians was terrible, and both Seeley and Gallop fell mortally wounded. Many of their men were also slain and wounded. The shot that hit Captain Nathaniel Seeley was fired by a renegade Englishman named Tift. Tift had been justly punished for some crime, had deserted the colonial army, and fled to the enemy, by whom he was well received, leading some of the
forces in the swamp fight.
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| Site of the Great Swamp Fight of 1675 between the English Colonists of Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Plymouth against the Narragansett Tribe. Locted in the Great Swamp State Management Area, South Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA |
Five hundred wigwams were set afire, being the cause of death of many Indians, this against the advice of one of the more experienced officers. The destruction of those shelters forced the victors to make a return march to their own camp the same night, carrying the dead and wounded with them through the still raging winter storm. All told, more than one thousand Indians died, and of the colonists more than two hundred were killed and wounded, including a large proportion of officers. Thus ended the Great Swamp Fight, as this battle is known in New England annals, from the fact that the fort, near Kingston, Rhode Island, was in the Great Swamp.
Nathaniel Seeley gave his life for liberty; of his company twenty had been killed and wounded. Tift, the man who shot Captain Seeley, was soon taken prisoner. His gun was found to be loaded with slugstones. He was tried before a council of war, and condemned to be hanged and quartered, which execution was immediately carried out.
The Reverend Thomas Ruggles left a manuscript bearing the following eulogy: “In the signal service, the fort fight in Narragansett . . . three noble soldiers, Seely, courageous Marshall & bold Gallup died in the bed of honor, & valiant Mason, a fourth captain, had his death wound. There died many brave officers, & sentinels, whose memory is blessed, & whose death redeems their lives. The bitter cold, the tarled swamp, the tedious march, the strong fort, the numerous & stubborn enemy they contended with, for their God, king & country, be their trophies over death. . . .”
It was a weary army that made the long trek back to Fairfield, leaving some of their wounded to be cared for by the hospitable Rhode Island colonists. There was sorrow at the thoughts of having to bring sad tidings to widows and familes, but gladness that the victory had been theirs.
Nathaniel left no will, but the probate records contain an inventory of his estate. This document reveals that his widow [Nathaniel's first wife and our ancestor died earlier] was to receive everything she brought to the marriage from her former husband’s estate. Among the many items in the inventory, which includes both Nathaniel’s and his wife’s belongings, were: clothing; various types of cloth, including unspun flax and wool; 2 swords; 4 guns and ammunition and bandeliers; “barrels of porke, beefe & fat in Seller”; various tools; 5 oxen, 5 cows, 38 sheep, 15 swine, 5 horses & colts; wheat, hay, peas, barley, oats, Indian corn & flax; furniture; farming equipment; “housing & lands;” “4 cowes, 4 Steers, 2 horses.”
Source Notes:
Nathaniel Seeley Family Group Sheet
Robert Seeley Family Group Sheet
The Great Swamp Fight - 332 Years Ago Today posted by David Churbuck. Read the article and
comments for a full perspective of opinions.
Nathaniel Seeley, 1627 written by Myrtle Hyde, reprinted here with permission. Her sources include:
E. H. Schenck, History of Fairfield, 1889,1:405-6, 181-7.
Encyclopedia Americana, under Colonial Wars in North America, New England.
L. W. Wilson, History of Fairfield County, 1:85-88.
S. Judd, History of Hadley, Massachusetts, 1905, pp. 146-149.
Engraving depicting the colonial assault on the Narragansetts' fort in the Great Swamp Fight in December
1675Harper's Magazine, vol. 15, found in Google Books
Photo of The Great Swamp Fight monument taken by Innapoy
