Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-24
A WINTER OF GLOOM

and rum were seized and sequestered
 for the army, wherever such stores ] could be found in quantities beyond the necessary demands of their own I CTS. Wheat to the amount Of three hundred bushels was hastily baked 1 into biscuits. Ten men from every l county were furnished with hatchets, | instead of swords mad guns, to clear I the way through the forests and | thickets.
 l Major Treat went forward with the ] army. Norwich was on the frontier and at the mercy of hostile Indians, who might suddenly cross the Quine- baug, and make dashing raid upon | the settlement, with every prospect of l success, while so many of her best men were in the field. In great alarm, she applied to the council of war for a guard, and 26 men were accordingly l detailed ito lye in garrison at Nor | wich.''
 | And now the colonies resounded with l the deep echoes of the Narra gansett
 fort fight. which, Miss Caulkins ob- ety to Dec. 18th" Eighty out of Ma 1 jor Treats little army were slain or 1 fatally wounded, 13S more disabled from duty. so he hastened back to New London with his battered forces The gallant Capt. John Mason, fear- l fully wounded but not despairing of l recovery, was brought by the aid of l his Indian warriors with great care to | his own home. Nine of his little com pany were killed or badly wounded; one of the killed was Thomas Howard, | usually classed among the first band | of Norwich proprietors. He was left dead upon the field of battle. Captain Mason ultimately died of his wounds, Sept. 18th, 1876. Captain Gallup of Groton, who commanded l the Mohegans and Pequots, was slain 1 in the battle.
 This was, the historian tells us, "enn- phaticaiiy winter of gloom" Nor wich was garrisoned town: 20 or 90 soldiers were quartered upon the in- habitants; a blockhouse was bufft; private houses were fortified. It was a general order throughout the colony that the inhabitants carry arms and ammunition with them to every public meeting; but at this time upon the frontier it was necessary to
 keep a loaded musket continually at hand, to be well armed in passing from house to house, kand especially in driv- ing cattle or tending sheep. The woods were supposed to be haunted with prowlng enemies. The Indians of Uncas, quick, fearful and
 imaginative as children, with their rumors and fancies increased the gen. eral alarm.
 On the 18th of January, 1878, Major Treat left New London on second expedition into the wilderness, with a force Of about 300 men. Rev. Mr. Fitch accompanied him as chaplain Uncas and his warriors as scouts. They were absent 12 days and killed and captured About 70.
 During this interval Norwich ex- perienced more than mere rumor and panic The tornahawk swept along her eastern border, leaving slaughter in it's track. A band of Indians, sup posed to be Narragansetts, proving along the east side of the Shetucket killed two men and carried off a young lad as prisoner.
 The only contemporary account of thIs affair is contained in letter from Major Palmer of New London to the council of war, under date of Jam 18th, with the news:
 This morning early came post from Norwich with the sad intelligence of two men and a boy being taken and killed, who went over Shewtucket river to spread flax. viz: Jos. Rockwell and his boy of Is or Is years ould, and John Renolls, Jun., of Norwich. The said Rockwell and RenaI1s were found dead and thrown downe ye river banke theire scalps cutt off: the boy is not yet found, supposed to be carved away alive.
 
 Major Treats expedition at the time of this outrage, otherwise there might have been a more detailed account of 1t. On the records of the town the deaths of the two men are registered without any comment upon their tragic end.
 The captive boy, Josiah Rockwell. Jr., was soon afterwards recovered by the aid of a friendly Indian. The first account gave an error in his age; his birth is registered as in June 1882 which would make him but 14 when captured. The inventory of Josiah Rockwell, his father, was exhibited in the County Court in Sept. 1876. A wife and six children are mentioned the oldest this Josiah, the youngest not born until after the fathers de- cease.
 Early in February, an expedition of sixty eighty impressed men from the four towns of this county. under Capt. Denison and Lieut.. Miner, with Mohegan and Pequot fankers, assem- Wabequasset. to disperse the lurking foe in that quarter.
 After this, the noise of c1ashing arms and tramping hosts passed around to the North, the seat of war being transferred to thee neighborhood of Connecticut River. Edward Culver and his Indian scouts trailed off in that period of security intervened.
 The towns were nevertheless kept lively by frequent raids made by vol unteer parties into Narragansett and the Nipmuck country, to hunt out the A c4!LDREN's 5c AI