Church, Benjamin
Church, Benjamin (1639–1718), colonial soldier.A farmer in Plymouth‐Colony, Benjamin Church soldiered in three wars. The son of a veteran of the Pequot War, he served as a provincial captain during King Philip's War. In December 1675, Church was a member of a New England army which struck a fortified Narragansett settlement in the Great Swamp in Rhode Island. The surprise attack succeeded, killing more than 600 Indians and destroying the village. Church was wounded in the engagement. The following summer, he led a force into the Mount Hope swamp in Rhode Island, where the Wampanoag chieftain, Metacom, dwelled. The raid caught Metacom by surprise, and he was killed in the brief battle. Church emerged as a New England hero for having destroyed the settlers' adversary. He additionally achieved a reputation as a skilled Indian fighter, a soldier who learned from the tactics of his foe and who refused to be bound by European‐style warfare. In King William's War in the 1690s, Church led expeditions against the Abenaki in Maine and the French in Acadia. In 1704, during Queen Anne's War, he commanded a Massachusetts invasion of Acadia, which failed in absence of naval assistance.
[See also Philip.]
[See also Philip.]
Bibliography
Thomas Church , Entertaining Passages Relating to King Philip's War, 1716.
H. M. Dexter, ed., The History of the Eastern Expeditions of 1689, 1692, 1696, and 1704, 1867.
John Ferling
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