Battle of Norridgewock

Battle of Norridgewock: Death of Sebastian Rale

Date	23 August 1724
Location	Norridgewock, Maine Coordinates: 44°46′01.2″N 69°52′59.9″W / 44.767000°N 69.883306°W / 44.767000; -69.883306
Result	massacre of Abenaki villagers

Belligerents

Abenaki

New England Colonies

Commanders and leaders

Chief Mog †, Chief Bomoseen †, Chief Wissememet †, Chief Job †, Chief Carabesett †

Johnson Harmon,Jeremiah Moulton, Richard Bourne

Strength

Unknown

160

Casualties and losses

approx. 80; 14 wounded

3 dead

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 (Brown) led a force of two hundred colonial New Englanders, which attacked the Abenaki village of Narantsouak, or Norridgewock, on the Kennebec River; the current town of Norridgewock, Maine developed near there. The village was led by, among others, the sachems Bomazeen and Welákwansit, known to the English as Mog. The village's Catholic mission was 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. New France defined this area 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.

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