Massacre at Mystic (May 26, 1637)

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The Mystic massacre took place on May 26, 1637, during the Pequot War, when English settlers under Captain John Mason, and Narragansett and Mohegan allies set fire to a fortified Pequot village near the Mystic River. They shot any people who tried to escape the wooden palisade fortress and killed the entire village, consisting mostly of women and children, in retaliation for previous Pequot attacks. The only Pequot survivors were warriors who had been with their sachem Sassacus in a raiding party outside the village.

Estimates of dead Pequot range from 400 to 700, mostly women, children and old men, as the warriors were out on a raiding party. On top of their being weakened from disease, the massacre practically broke the Pequots, who fled and were hunted down. Sassacus and many of his followers were surrounded in a swamp near a Mattabesic village called Sasqua. In the following battle, known as the "Fairfield Swamp Fight", Sassacus and about 80 others managed to escape. Nearly 180 warriors were killed, wounded, or captured. Sassacus was eventually killed by the Mohawk, who sent his scalp to the English as a symbol of friendship.