Raid on Haverhill (1697)

Raid on Haverhill (1697)
Part of King William's War
DateMarch 15, 1697
Location
Result French and native victory
Belligerents
Massachusetts Bay  New France
 Algonquin
Commanders and leaders
Chief Nescambious
Strength
approximately 20
Casualties and losses
27 colonists killed
13 captured
unknown

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]

  1. ^ John Fiske. Fall of New France, Section III from Essays Historical and Literary I VOL.2, p. 99 (1902) MacMilliam & Co.
  2. ^ John Grenier. The First Way of War. University of Cambridge Press. 2005. pp. 40-41