Wheeler ' s Surprise Wheeler ' s Surprise , and the ensuing Siege of Brookfield , was a battle between Nipmuc Indians under Muttawmp , and the English of the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the command of Thomas Wheeler and Captain Edward Hutchinson , in August 1675 during King Phillip ' s War . The battle consisted of an initial ambush by the Nipmucs on Wheeler ' s unsuspecting party , followed by an attack on Brookfield , Massachusetts , and the consequent besieging of the remains of the colonial force . While the place where the siege part of the battle took place has always been known ( at Ayers ' Garrison in West Brookfield ) , the location of the initial ambush was a subject of extensive controversy among historians in the late nineteenth century . Background . After the death of the pro - English Massasoit in 1661 , his son Metacom , known to the English as " King Phillip " initiated contacts with sachems of various tribes of New England to unite against the interests of the Plymouth Colony . The actual outbreak of war occurred on June 20 , 1675 , when a band of Pokanoket ( a tribe of the Wampanoag s ) launched an attack on Swansea , Massachusetts , most likely without Metacom ' s approval , in retaliation for an earlier killing of a Pokanoket by an English farmer . In response , the colonists attacked and burned a Pokanoket village at Mount Hope . Simultaneously the colonists sent Ephraim Curtis to the west of Boston into Nipmuc territory to negotiate with the tribe and obtain assurances of loyalty to the English from them . However , Curtis ' expedition party found only empty Nipmuc villages which signified that something was already afoot . Eventually , Curtis managed to find the whereabouts of the Nipmuc chief sachem , Muttawmp , and agreed to a meeting at a pre - arranged spot . However , unbeknownst to Curtis it was too late for negotiations , as the Nipmucs , under sachem Matoonas , had already attacked an English settlement at Mendon and had decided to join Metacom ' s rebellion . Curtis was later joined by Captain Thomas Wheeler and Captain Edward Hutchinson ( son of Anne Hutchinson ) . Negotiations . Curtis and his men met with the Nipmuc sachem Muttawmp on July 14 , the same day that another party of Nipmuc warriors was attacking Mendon . Hence , at the meeting , Muttawmp already considered himself to be at war with the English . However , while Muttawmp ' s soldiers were rude to the English emissaries , the sachem himself considered it better to feign friendship to the colonists and so told Curtis that he would show himself in Boston within seven days . After Curtis returned to Boston and informed his superiors of the arrangement , a decision was made not to wait for Muttawmp ' s arrival , but instead to sent Captain Hutchinson , along with Captain Wheeler and 30 mounted soldiers , as well as some " Natick " Praying Indian guides to negotiate with the Nipmuc sachem directly . The party made their way to New Norwich where , on July 31 , they found the village empty . Consequently they learned that the Nipmucs had moved their base camp to about from Brookfield , and sent Curtis and the Naticks to talk to Muttawmp again . There , the emissaries were once again treated rudely by the Nipmuc braves , while Muttawmp continued his deception and agreed to meet Hutchinson in Brookfield on the following day . Ambush . However , when the colonists arrived in full force at the agreed spot the next day they found nothing . At that point the Natick guides tried to persuade the English to give up and return to Brookfield . Hutchinson and Wheeler , however , decided to march on to the Nipmuc camp , where they had met them the previous day . In order to reach Muttawmp ' s camp , the English had to cross a swamp , taking a narrow path in single file . Despite more protestations from the Indian guides , Hutchinson and Wheeler decided to risk it , while at the same time aware that they might be walking into a trap . In fact , after they proceeded for about , Muttawmp ' s braves emerged from among the tall swamp grass and attacked them with bows and rifles . When the English turned around and tried to flee along the narrow path , they encountered another group of Nipmucs blocking their retreat . The colonial force was so completely disorganized that initially they were not even capable of returning fire . Both Hutchinson and Wheeler were seriously wounded . Eight other men were killed in the initial attack and several others were wounded . The entire force would have most likely been annihilated there and then had it not been for the Natick guides , one of whom assumed command of the company in place of the wounded English captains , and managed to lead the rest of the English out of the trap and into the hills near the swamp . Once out of immediate danger , the group made its way to Brookfield , fully aware that Muttawmp was in pursuit . Siege of Brookfield . Wheeler and the rest of his men , led by the Natick guides , fled to the English settlement of Quabaug ( which later was to become the town of West Brookfield ) . The village was relatively isolated which meant that no help was coming soon , even if the colonists in other New England towns got word of the attack . At Brookfield , the soldiers gathered at the house of Sgt . John Ayers ( who had been killed in the ambush ) and there they were joined by about 70 villagers who had learned of the coming Nipmuc attack . Ayers ' garrison was the largest building in the settlement . Once inside the house , Wheeler recovered from shock and took charge of his men again , and ordered them to fortify the defenses . He tried to sent two soldiers to get help , but they did not leave before the arrival of Muttawmp and his warriors . In all about 80 persons had gathered inside the Ayers house . When they arrived at the scene , some of the Nipmucs kept the garrisoned house under constant fire , while others drove off the livestock , looted other houses in the settlement , and then set them on fire . Once Muttawmp had gathered all his men and completely surrounded the house he launched three attacks on the Ayers house . All three were unsuccessful and the only English casualties that occurred on the first day were two colonists who made the mistake of stepping outside and who were quickly killed . As a result Muttawmp realized that he needed a different approach . On the second day of the siege , early at dawn , Muttawmp had his men fill a village wagon with combustible material and direct it at the fortified house , hoping to set it on fire and in that way force the defenders out . However , the plan did not work because of heavy rains which began to pour while the wagon was in preparation . During the confusion that accompanied the execution of the plan , Ephraim Curtis managed to sneak out of the house and made a successful run for the woods . He eventually made it to Marlborough although by that time colonial soldiers had already been alerted by some travelers who had heard gunfire near Brookfield . As a result , a group of men under Major Simon Willard were already on their way to relieve the besieged . Relief . Simon Willard , who was the chief military officer of Middlesex County , Massachusetts , with 48 troops had been stationed at Lancaster . After being informed of the siege he hurried to Brookfield , arriving on the night of the 3rd . This forced the Indians to break off the siege . Further reinforcements continued to arrive , and Willard eventually commanded 350 English soldiers and an unknown number of Mohegan Indian allies . The battle between the two sides continued until the middle of the night of the 4th but neither side could dislodge the other . At that point , Muttawmp , who felt he had already achieved most of what he wanted ( including obtaining crucial supplies from the looting of Brookfield ) , decided that he did not want to risk the death of any more of his warriors and withdrew from the battlefield . Aftermath . After withdrawing from Brookfield , Muttawmp led his men to a fort at Hatfield . Metacom himself , with 40 Wampanoag warriors , arrived there a short while later . King Philip , hearing of the attack , rewarded the Nipmuc sachems with unstrung wampum . The next attack on the English colonists took place at South Deerfield , in August of the same year . Throughout the rest of the 1675 , the Native American forces had a string of victories , thanks in large part to skillful leadership of sachems like Metacomet , Muttawmp and Matoonas , who exploited their knowledge of local terrain to achieve surprise and often successfully ambushed colonial forces sent to track them down , much in the same way as happened in Wheeler ' s Surprise . However , 1675 ended with a significant defeat for the Native Americans , with the defeat of the Narragansetts in the Great Swamp Fight . While Philip and his allies managed to regain the initiative for some time in 1675 , eventually the scorched earth tactics practiced by the English caused them to start running out of supplies . The supply shortage , coupled with a partial amnesty , prompted an increasing number of chiefs to leave Philip ' s alliance . Others , like Narragansett chief Canonchet , were killed . In the spring of 1676 the tide turned in favor of the English . Muttawmp , the victor of Brookfield , tried to make peace with the English . Promises of safety were broken however , and he was executed in September 1676 . The leader of the uprising , Metacomet , had already been isolated , surrounded in the Assowamset Swamp and killed by a Praying Indian on August 12 of the same year . Legacy . A marker on Massachusetts Route 9 on the boundary of Brookfield commemorates the event : The eponym ous Thomas Wheeler of " Wheeler ' s Surprise " survived the battle and shortly afterwards wrote an account of it , which was first published in 1676 . The episode is also notable for the fact that it was a subject of academic controversy among 19th - century historians . The main topic of contention was the precise location of where the ambush - the Wheeler ' s Surprise - took place , and the exact path of Wheeler and Hutchinson ' s march . While the exact location still remains a mystery , the most likely site of the ambush according to modern historians lies somewhere within the present day town of New Braintree , Massachusetts .