Button Family in America

In 1675, experiencing increasing encroachment and pressure by the expanding colonists, the Wampanoag, Anawon, Tuspaquin, Nipmuc, and Pocumtuc indian tribes joined together under the leadership of King Phillip, chief of the Wampanoags.

In September, the towns of Deerfield and Hadley, MA were attacked forcing the colonist to abandon their homes and fort-up in Deerfield.

Facing a winter without food, 80 soldiers under Captain Thomas Lothrop, including Daniel Button, were dispatched with 18 teamsters driving oxcarts to gather the abandoned wheat crops near Hadley. All went well until the return journey, when on September 18, 1675 the expedition spotted some grapes along the trail just South of Deerfield. The men apparently took few precautions and were confident that their numbers belied attack. Many of the men laid down their rifles and began to pick the grapes.

Then the expedition was ambushed by 700 Pocumtuc indians. It has become apparent that Phillip with his Wampanoags and the Nipmuck bands under Sagamore Same, Mantaup, One-eyed John, Matoonas, Panquahow, and other minor sanchems had crossed Connecticut to lay in wait for the Hadley delivery. A virtual slaughter ensued. It is said the water of the nearby stream turned red with blood, hence, "Bloody Brook." Only seven or eight escaped. Captain Lothrop was also killed.

Another English force under Captain Mosely with 60 Mogegan warriors arrived too late and found only seven survivors. Outnumbered about ten to one, Mosely fought the "swarming legions" for some four to five hours, gaining little ground. Exhausted and encumbered by his wounded, Mosely was preparing to make his retreat when Major Treat with one hundred Connecticut men and 50 Mohicans arrived. The combat was soon ended, and the united force marched back to Pocomptuck (Deerfield) for night, carrying their wounded and leaving the dead where they lay.

The next day, Sunday, Mosely and Treat returned to the grisly scene of carnage and buried the dead "in one dreadful grave." Mather said, "In this black and fatal day ... six and twenty children made orphans, all in one little plantation."

The Battle of Bloody Brook was fought on September 18, 1675 OS (September 28, 1675 NS) between English colonial militia from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a band of Indians led by the Nipmuc sachem Muttawmp, during King Philip's War. The Indians ambushed colonists escorting a train of wagons carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley, and killed at least 40 militia men and 17 teamsters out of a company that included 79 militia.[2]

The Pocumtuc tribe, allied with the Nipmuc, were aggrieved by the Deerfield colonists encroaching on their settlements.

At the time of the battle, Deerfield was on the northwest frontier of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and had been settled only two years prior by pioneers from Dedham, Massachusetts. The majority of the colonists' party were an armed escort led by Captain Thomas Lathrop.[3]

Lathrop’s men were mostly from Essex County, the coastal county north of Boston. As the wagon train returned from Hadley, the militiamen laid their muskets aside to pick grapes by the trailside in South Deerfield. Soon after, they were ambushed by a large number of Nipmuc and Pocumtuc natives, reportedly 700 men. All but about 10 colonists were killed, including Lathrop. One of the survivors was the chaplain of Captain Lathrop's company, Rev. Hope Atherton. [4][5] The group was relieved by another militia group in Deerfield who heard the gunshots, led by Major Treat of Hadley and Captain Mosely of Deerfield.

Soon after the attack, Deerfield was attacked and burned, and the village was abandoned until it was resettled two years later. The Pocumtuc were largely destroyed in the course of the war, and the remnant of the tribe resettled in Canada.

In August, 1838 a 25 foot tall monument was erected in South Deerfield commemorated the battle with the enscription:

"On this Ground Capt. THOMAS LATHROP and eighty four men under his command, including eighteen teamsters from Deerfield, conveying stores from that town to Hadley, were ambuscaded by about 700 Indians, and the Captain and seventy six men slain, September 18th 1675. (old style)

The soldiers who fell, were described by a contemporary Historian, as a choice Company of young men, the very flower of the County of Essex none of whom were ashamed to speak with the enemy in the gate.

'And Sanguinetto tells you where the dead Made the earth wet and turned the unwilling waters red.'

"The Same of the slain is marked by a Stone slab, 21 rods southerly of this monument."[6]

The reference to Sanguinetto is from Byron's "Childe Harold" (Canto IV, LXV) that refers to Hannibal's ambush on Roman troops called the Battle of Lake Trasimene (now Italy) in 217 BC.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bloody_Brook