Raid on Haverhill (1697) should not be confused with Raid on Haverhill (1708).
| Conflict: | Raid on Haverhill (1697) |
| Partof: | King William's War |
| Date: | March 15, 1697 |
| Place: | Haverhill, Province of Massachusetts Bay |
| Result: | French and native victory |
| Combatant2: | |
| Combatant1: | Massachusetts Bay |
| Commander2: | Chief Nescambious |
| Strength2: | approximately 20 |
| Casualties2: | unknown |
| Casualties1: | 27 colonists killed 13 captured |
The Raid on Haverhill was a military engagement that took place on March 15, 1697 during King William's War. Ordered by Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor General of New France,[1] French, Algonquin, and Abenaki warriors descended on Haverhill, then a small frontier community in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In the surprise attack, the Abenaki killed 27 colonists and took 13 captive. The natives burned six homes. The raid became famous in the nineteenth century because of Hannah Dustin's captivity narrative as a result of the raid.[2]
The last battle of the war was on September 9, the Battle of Damariscotta, in which Captain John March killed 25 native men.[3]
Even after the war was officially ended, Abenaki raids on the English colonists continued. On March 4, 1698 Pigwacket Abenaki Chief, Escumbuit led a group of 30 Indians in a raid on Andover, Massachusetts, the last and most severe Indian raid on this town. There was also another raid by the Natives of Acadia on Hatfield, Massachusetts in 1688, where they killed two settlers.[4]