Battle of Norridgewock The Norridgewock Raid occurred in contested lands being fought over by England , France and the Wabanaki Confederacy , during the colonial frontier conflict referred to as Governor Dummer ' s War . Despite being called a ' battle ' by some , the raid was essentially a massacre of Indians by colonial British troops . Captains Johnson Harmon , Jeremiah Moulton , and Richard Bourne led a force of two hundred colonial New Englanders , which attacked the Abenaki village of Narantsouak , or Norridgewock , on the Kennebec River , near the current town of Norridgewock , Maine . The village was led by , among others , the sachems Bomazeen and Welákwansit , known to the English as Mog . There was also a Catholic mission located there , run by a French Jesuit priest , Father Sébastien Râle . The raid was undertaken to check Abenaki power in the region , limit Catholic proselytizing among the Abenaki ( and thereby perceived French influence ) , and to allow the expansion of New England settlements into Abenaki territory and Acadia , which New France defined as starting at the Kennebec River in southern Maine . Other motivations for the raid included the special ₤100 scalp bounty placed on Râle ' s head by the Massachusetts provincial assembly and the bounty on Abenaki scalps offered by the colony during the conflict . Casualties , depending on the sources consulted , vary , but most accounts record about eighty Abenaki being killed . But both English and French accounts agree that the raid was a surprise nighttime attack on a civilian target , and they both also report that many of the dead were unarmed when they were killed , and those massacred included many women and children . As a result of the raid , New Englanders flooded into the lower Kennebec region , establishing settlements there in the wake of the war . Historical context . 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 member of the Wabanaki natives . 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 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 a church in the Abenaki villages of Norridgewock on the Kennebec River and a church in the Maliseet village of Medoctec on the Saint John River . These fortifications and missions escalated the conflict . By 1720 , Massachusetts had placed a bounty on Rale . In the winter of 1722 , New England rangers raided Norridgewock , trying to capture Rale . While he escaped , the rangers destroyed the church and mission house . As revenge for the first raid on Norridgewock , the Mi ' kmaq laid siege to the Lt . Governor of Nova Scotia John Doucett in May 1722 at Annapolis Royal . On June 13 , 1722 , in present - day Maine , the tribe and allied groups burned Brunswick at the mouth of the Kennebec , taking hostages to exchange for those held in Boston . Consequently , on July 25 Shute declared war on the eastern Indians . But on January 1 , 1723 , Shute abruptly departed for London . He had grown disgusted with the intransigent Assembly ( which controlled funding ) as it squabbled with the Governor ' s Council over which body should conduct the war . Lieutenant - governor William Dummer assumed management of the government . Further Abenaki incursions persuaded the Assembly to act in what would be called Father Rale ' s War . The Raid . In August 1724 , a force of 208 soldiers ( which would split into 2 units under the commands of captains Johnson Harmon and Jeremiah Moulton left Fort Richmond ( now Richmond ) in 17 whaleboats up the Kennebec . At Taconic Falls ( now Winslow ) , 40 men were left to guard the boats as the troops continued on foot . On the 21st the Rangers killed Chief Bomoseen , fatally wounded his daughter and took his wife captive . On August 22 , 1724 , Captains Jeremiah Moulton and Johnson Harmon led 200 rangers to the main Abenaki village on the Kennebec River , Norridgewock , Maine , to kill Father Sébastien Râle and destroy the settlement . On the 23rd , there were 160 Abenaki , many who were killed as they tried to escape . The Rangers fired about canoes filled with families . Harmon noted that at least 50 bodies went down stream before the rangers could retrieve them for their scalps . At least 31 chose to fight , which allowed the others to escape . Most of the defenders were killed . Lieut . Richard Jaques killed Rale in the opening moments of the battle , Chief Mog was killed , and the rangers massacred nearly two dozen women and children . The English had casualties of two militiamen and one Nauset . Harmon destroyed the Abenaki farms , and those who had escaped were forced to abandon their village and moved northward to the Abenaki village of St Francois ( Odanak , Quebec ) . Many of the Indians were routed , leaving 26 warriors dead and 14 wounded . Harmon ' s son - in - law , Lieutenant Richard Jaques , scalped Fr . Rale . Chief Wissememet was also killed . Rale ' s body was mutilated , and his scalp redeemed in Boston with those of the other dead . The Boston authorities gave a reward for the scalps , and Harmon was promoted . Thereafter , the French and Indians claimed that the missionary died " a martyr " at the foot of a large cross set in the central square , drawing the soldiers ' attention to himself to save his parishioners . The English militia claimed that he was " a bloody incendiary " shot in a cabin while reloading his flintlock . A Mohawk named Christian , who accompanied the troops , slipped back after they had departed and set the village and church ablaze . Aftermath . The 150 Abenaki survivors returned to bury the fallen before abandoning Norridgewock for St . Francis and Becancour , Quebec . Although some later returned to the area . Rale was interred beneath the altar at which he had ministered his converts . In 1833 , Bishop Fenwick dedicated an 11 foot tall obelisk monument , erected by subscription , over his grave at what is today St . Sebastian ' s Cemetery at Old Point in Madison . References . Endnotes