Battle of Pequawket The Battle of Pequawket ( also known as Lovewell ' s Fight ) occurred on May 9 , 1725 ( O . S . ) , during Father Rale ' s War in northern New England . Captain John Lovewell led a privately organized company of scalp hunters , organized into a makeshift ranger company , and Chief Paugus led the Abenaki at Pequawket , the site of present - day Fryeburg , Maine . The battle was related to the expansion of New England settlements along the Kennebec River ( in present - day Maine ) . The battle was the last major engagement between the English and the Wabanaki Confederacy in Governor Dummer ' s War . The Fight was celebrated in song and story for at least several generations and became an important part of regional lore — even influencing the stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne in the early 19th century as well as other writers . It ' s importance is often exaggerated in local histories , as arguably the August 1724 English raid on Norridgewock was probably more significant for the direction of the conflict and in bringing the Abenaki to the treaty table . But the Norridgewock raid , also celebrated in song and poetry , has been less well remembered , probably because it was essentially a massacre of Indian civilians by New England forces . Historical context of Dummer ' s War . The Treaty of Utrecht ( 1713 ) , which ended Queen Anne ' s War , had facilitated the expansion of New England settlement . The treaty , however , had been signed in Europe and had not involved any tribes of the native ' s Wabanaki Confederacy . Since they had not been consulted , they protested this incursion into their lands by conducting raids on British fishermen and settlements . For the first and only time , Wabanaki would fight New Englanders and the British on their own terms and for their own reasons and not principally to defend French imperial interests . In response to Wabanaki hostilities toward the expansion , the Governor of Nova Scotia , Richard Phillips , built a fort in traditional Mi ' kmaq territory at Canso , Nova Scotia in 1720 , and Massachusetts Governor Samuel Shute built forts on traditional Abenaki territory at the mouth of the Kennebec River . The French claimed the same territory on the Kennebec River by building churches in the Abenaki villages of Norridgewock and Medoctec further upriver . These fortifications escalated the conflict . Lovewell ' s expeditions . In early September 1724 some Indians came to Dunstable and captured two men . When they did not return from work a party of ten or more men started in pursuit . One man , Josiah Farwell , warned the leader of the possibility of running into an ambush . Despite this the posse rushed ahead with Farwell following behind . They were ambushed and eight of the men were killed and the others , excepting Farwell who barely escaped , were captured . Because of these attacks it was thought best to carry on the war more vigorously . Bounties for scalps were once again offered by the provincial government in order to encourage volunteer companies to form ( and save the colony the time and expense of raising troops ) . John Lovewell quickly organized a company of amateur scalp - hunters from the Dunstable area . While they were favored by a grant from the provincial assembly , these troops were not part of the Massachusetts military establishment — but rather a privately organized group of raiders . Lovewell was not a commissioned officer in the provincial forces . Lovewell , whose maternal grandparents had been killed and scalped by Indians , raised the company of thirty men and was appointed by them as captain . In part because of Farwell ' s commonsense Lovewell selected him as his second - in - command and he was made Lieutenant . Lovewell and Farwell went on three scalp hunting expeditions from December to May . The battle . Lovewell ' s third expedition consisted of only 47 men , many of whom were unfamiliar with ranging . With men who were more inexperienced and far fewer in number than in the earlier expeditions , they left from Dunstable ( present day Nashua , New Hampshire ) on April 16 , 1725 . The Indian guide and another were unable to continue and returned to Dunstable along with a relative of the injured colonial . When another fell ill they built a fort at Ossipee and left 10 men , including the ill man , the doctor and John Goffe , to garrison the fort while the rest left to raid the Abenaki village of Pequawket , located near the Saco River . On May 9 , as the 34 militiamen were being led in morning prayer by chaplain Jonathan Frye , a lone Abenaki warrior was spotted hunting at the lakeshore . Suspecting that that this man was a decoy and that there was an Indian force in front of them , nonetheless the rangers decided to hide their packs and proceed cautiously . Lovewell ' s men waited until the warrior was close and , although accounts differ in who fired first , the Abenaki did have a chance to fire his fowling piece loaded with beavershot at close range , wounding Lovewell and another . Further fire from the rangers killed the Indian . Chaplain Frye is reported to have scalped the dead Indian . Meanwhile , the rangers ' packs had been discovered by an Abenaki war party ( some accounts say two ) who , seeing that they out - numbered the rangers , hid in ambush . When the rangers returned to their packs ( in single file ) the Abenakis fired at the front and rear and charged . Lovewell was killed in the first volley along with eight others . Lovewell ' s lieutenants , Josiah Farwell and Jonathan Robbins , were among the wounded at this point ( they critically ) . Ensign Seth Wyman organized the defence and was in command of the rangers during the rest of the fight . After the initial volleys the battle turned into a firefight with individuals on both sides hiding behind trees in the pine plain . Being outnumbered the rangers had to take care not to be surrounded . Since a tree did not provide any cover from the sides and rear the colonials slowly pulled back to the lake to protect their rear . They then withdrew eastward to a location passed twice earlier that day where , in addition to the lake protecting them from the south , they had a swollen stream on the east ( now named Fight Brook , ) flooded land to the north and fallen trees to the west . Although surrounded they were able to keep the more numerous enemy further away from accurate fire . During the battle the Indian war chief Paugus was shot dead . There is debate over who shot him . Some posit that he was shot by John Chamberlaine ( see " John Chamberlain , the Indian fighter at Pigwacket " ) , while others report that it was Ensign Seth Wyman , who killed the warrior with the next shot . With the death of Paugus the rest of the Indians soon vanished into the forest . An Abenaki account of the battle . The story of the Battle of Pequawket recounted below was originally told by a daughter of Powack , a chief of the Penobscots , another Indian nation allied with the Abenaki in the Wabanaki Confederacy . It was retold though generations until written down . It appears , as written , in Kayworth and Potvin ( pp . 157 – 58 . ) Powack wanted peace with the English . He called a council which then sent him as an envoy to the Pequawkets . Powack took his daughter and Little Elk , her betrothed . While they are staying with the Pigwacketts , Paugus , a non - Pequawket , comes to the village to recruit for a raiding party against the English . He leads all the warriors down the Saco River to English settlements in Maine . The remaining villagers fish at the south end of Saco ( Lovewell ) Pond until the raiding party finally returns to be the vangard back to the village . On the way back to the village the Penobscots hear gunfire from the battle . Powack and Little Elk remain at the battle while all the non - combatant Abenaki skirt the battle to return to the village . The remaining Pequawkets move to Canada and Powack ' s daughter goes with them until she finds someone to take her back home . Aftermath . Only 20 of the militiamen survived the battle ; three died on the retreat home . The Abenaki losses except for Paugus are unknown . The Abenaki deserted the town of Pequawket after the battle and fled to Canada .