Benjamin Church (ranger)
Benjamin Church | |
---|---|
Colony of Rhode Island | |
Military career | |
Allegiance | New England Colonies |
Service/ | New England Militia |
Rank | Colonel |
Battles/wars | |
Signature | |
During the French and Indian Wars, Church participated in asymmetric warfare against the French and their indigenous allies. He led troops to raid the French colony of Acadia during King William's War and Queen Anne's War. Starting his military career at the rank of captain, he was promoted to major and subsequently to the rank of colonel.
Church paid special care to outfitting, supplying and instructing his troops in ways inspired by indigenous methods of warfare and ways of living. He emphasized the adoption of indigenous techniques, which prioritized small, mobile and flexible units which used the countryside for cover, in lieu of massed frontal assaults by large formations. Church also pioneered the use of indigenous warriors as auxiliaries to bolster and educate his soldiers. In 1716, his memoirs, entitled Entertaining Passages relating to Philip's War, was published and is considered by some to constitute the first American military manual.[3][2]
Early life
Benjamin Church was born in the Plymouth Colony c. 1639, the son of Richard Church and Elizabeth Warren. The maternal grandson of Richard Warren, one of the passengers on the Mayflower, he was brought up according to colonial practices on the American frontier. Church married Alice Southworth on December 26, 1667 in Duxbury, Massachusetts. He resided for a period of time in Duxbury before moving to Bristol, Rhode Island. Church later moved to Little Compton, Rhode Island, where he and his wife were eventually buried. Her gravesite is marked by a historically significant gravestone known as a table grave.[4]
King Philip's War
During
. He is best known during this time for commanding a company of Englishmen and Native Americans independently of the governor's direction. Church's men were the first colonial force to be successful in raiding the hostile Indians' camps in forests and swamps. During previous decades, colonists had been on the defense against the Natives, who knew their territory intimately. Relations were generally peaceful until 1675, but tensions had been growing as the colonists and their views of property encroached on Indian territory and hunting grounds.Church was allowed to recruit Native Americans after he and other leaders realized that traditional European military tactics were ineffective in frontier warfare. He also persuaded many neutral or formerly hostile Indians to surrender and join his unit, where they operated skillfully as irregular troops. Some of these men had converted to Christianity in settlements before the war. They were known as Praying Indians. After being organized by Church, these troops tracked hostile Indians into the forests and swamps, and conducted effective raids and ambushes on their camps.
Great Swamp Fight
During the
After the Great Swamp Fight, Church and the colonial army were 15 miles from their base in North Kingstown and had to endure a long march encumbered by dragging their dead and wounded and severe cold.[5]
The war ended eight months later following an operation by Church's company on August 12, 1676. John Alderman, one of Church's Indian allies, killed King Philip (also known as Metacomet), leader of the Wampanoag tribe. Upon inspection of Philip's body, Church is quoted as saying "a doleful, great, naked, dirty beast." Metacomet's body, was in accordance with the standard punishment for treason, hung, drawn and quartered.[6]
King William's War
During
Church returned to Boston, leaving the small group of English settlers unprotected. (The following spring, May 1690, over 400 French and native troops under the leadership of
In Church's second expedition a year later, on September 11, 1690, he commanded 300 men at Casco Bay. His mission was to relieve the English Fort Pejpescot (present day Brunswick, Maine), which had been taken by natives.[10] He went up the Androscoggin River to Fort Pejepscot.[11] From there he traveled 40 miles up river to Livermore Falls, Maine, where he attacked an Androscoggin native village.[12] Church's men shot three or four native men as they were retreating. Church discovered five English captives in the wigwams. Church killed and butchered six or seven prisoners, and took nine prisoners.[13] A few days later, in retaliation, the Androscoggin attacked Church at Cape Elizabeth on Purpooduc Point, killing seven of his men and wounding 24 others.[14] On September 26, Church returned to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Church's third expedition during the war was in 1692, when he raided the Penobscot territory of (present-day Indian Island, Maine) with 450 men.[15] Church and his men went on to raid Taconock (superseded by Winslow, Maine).[16]
Four years later, Major Church conducted a fourth expedition. He carried out the
Queen Anne's War
During
On March 18, 1704 Church was commissioned as a colonel by Massachusetts Governor
.Church meticulously planned the expedition. He specified the design of whaleboats to be used in the raids and what kind of hatchets his soldiers were to carry.
Tactics and war doctrine
While Church left no formal writings on military doctrine, his memoirs provided considerable detail about his practices. Through the study of his military experiences, scholars have summarized his practices[citation needed] according to the following principles:
- Planning each operation in advance, not leaving anything to chance.
- Ensuring that soldiers under his command were properly trained, fed, and equipped.
- Building alliances with potential allies (i.e. Native Americans), who may have been overlooked or mistrusted by other commanders.
- Not inflicting unnecessary damage or harm.
- Using stealth and surprise to tactical advantage.
- Understanding how a tactical operation fits in with strategic objectives.
- Leading by example and from the front.
- Maintaining communications with higher and lower echelons.
Later life
Church was elected to public office as the first representative of Bristol to the Plymouth Colony legislature, serving between 1682 and 1684.
Church died at
Legacy
Church kept notes on his tactics and operations in 1675-1676. His work was eventually published in 1716 as Entertaining Passages relating to Philip's War. Church was the great-grandfather[20] of Dr. Benjamin Church, the first "Surgeon General" (though that title came later) of the Continental Army. Dr. Church, thought to have been a staunch Whig, was later arrested by General George Washington as a suspected spy for British General Thomas Gage.
In 1992, in honor of his innovative tactical methods, Church was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.
The Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars placed a plaque near Colonel Church's grave in honor of his leadership and bravery during King Philip's War.
See also
References
- ^ Grenier (2005), The First Way of War, p. 33
- ^ a b John Grenier. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier. Cambridge University Press. 2005. p. 35
- ^ Grenier (2005), The First Way of War, pp. 33-34
- ^ Roger Guillemette, Commissioner - Newport County, Rhode Island Advisory Commission on Historic Cemeteries
- ^ a b Grenier (2005). The First Way of War, p. 32
- ^ Anthony Brandt (October 30, 2014). "Blood and Betrayal: King Philip's War". HistoryNet.com. Retrieved June 27, 2021.
- ^ Drake, The Border Wars of New England, p. 33
- ^ The History of the Great Indian War of 1675 and 1676, commonly called Philip ... By Benjamin Church, Thomas Church, Samuel Gardner Drake, pp. 175-176
- ^ Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Massachusetts Historical Society. 1890. p. 156. Retrieved November 3, 2021 – via Google Books.
- ^ Church, et al. The History of the Great Indian War, pp. 179-180
- ^ Drake, p. 66
- ^ An Androscoggin Indian stronghold (Amitgonpontook) located on Laurel Hill, Auburn, Maine near the Little Androscoggin River. Attacked by the colonial militia under Capt. Benjamin Church in September 1690.
- ^ Drake, p. 67
- ^ Drake, p. 69
- ^ Church et al., The History of the Great Indian War, p. 212
- ^ Church et al., p. 214
- ^ Church et al., The History of the Great Indian War, p. 215
- ^ The Entertaining History of King Philips War. Thomas Church. Boston. 1716. Edition of 1827, edited by Samuel G. Drake, pp. 245-248.
- ^ Scott, S. and Scott, T. "Noel Doiron and the East Hants Acadians", The Journal: The Nova Scotia Historical Society.
- ^ Wakefield, Robert S. Richard Church and His Descendants for Four Generations: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1998
- ^ "Captain Benjamin Church". U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 8, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
Primary sources
- Wakefield, Robert (2011). Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume Eighteen, Part 2, Second Edition. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants. pp. 266–267. ISBN 978-0-930270-20-9.
- Church, Benjamin, as told to Thomas Church, The History of Philip's War, Commonly Called The Great Indian War of 1675 and 1676, edited by Samuel G. Drake,(Exeter, NH: J & B Williams, 1829); Facsimile Reprint by Heritage Books, Bowie, Maryland, 1989.
- The history of King Philip's War ; also of expeditions against the French and Indians in its Eastern parts of New England, in the years 1689, 1692, i696 AND 1704. With some account of the divine providence towards Col. Benjamin Church. By Benjamin Church, Thomas Church, Samuel Gardner Drake
- Church, Thomas. The History of the Great Indian War
Secondary sources
- Beattie, Daniel J. (1986). “The Adaptation of the British Army to Wilderness Warfare, 1755-1763”, Adapting to Conditions: War and Society in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Maarten Ultee (University of Alabama Press), 56-83.
- Chet, Guy. “The Literary and Military Career of Benjamin Church: Change or Continuity in Early American Warfare,” Historical Journal of Massachusetts 35:2 (Summer 2007): 105-112
- Chet, Guy (2003). Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northeast. University of Massachusetts Press.
- Drake, Samuel. The Border Wars of New England, commonly called King William's and Queen Anne's Wars. 1910. Drake's book
- Faragher, John Mack, A Great and Noble Scheme New York; W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. ISBN 0-393-05135-8
- Philip Gould. (1996). Reinventing Benjamin Church: Virtue, Citizenship and the History of King Philip's War in Early National America. Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 645–657
- Grenier, John. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2005).
- Pargellis, Stanley McCrory. “Braddock’s Defeat”, American Historical Review 41 (1936): 253-269.
- Pargellis, Stanley McCrory (1933). Lord Loudoun in North America. Yale University Press.
- ISBN 0-670-03760-5
- Zelner, Kyle F. A Rabble in Arms: Massachusetts Towns and Militiamen during King Philip's War (New York: New York University Press, 2009) ISBN 978-0814797341
External links
- Historical Biographies, Nova Scotia
- Lepore, Jill, "Plymouth Rocked", The New Yorker, April 24, 2006 Lepore doubts the veracity of Church's memoirs.