Wheeler's Surprise

Wheeler's Surprise and Siege of Brookfield
Part of King Philip's War
Date August 2–4, 1675 Location Brookfield, Massachusetts (present-day West Brookfield and probably New Braintree) Result Successful ambush by the Nipmuc. Siege unsuccessful. Follow up battle fought to a draw.
Belligerents
Nipmuc	Massachusetts Bay Colony Praying Indians Mohegan
Commanders and leaders
Muttawmp Matoonas	Cpt. Thomas Wheeler Cpt. Edward Hutchinson Maj. Simon Willard
Strength
Unknown, but at least a hundred	Originally 35-40 men were ambushed, remains plus about 70 civilian colonists were besieged. Relief force numbered 350 English soldiers plus an unknown number of Mohegan Indians.

Wheeler's Surprise, and the ensuing Siege of Brookfield, was a battle between Nipmuc Indians under Muttawmp, and the English of the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the command of Thomas Wheeler and Captain Edward Hutchinson, in August 1675 during King Philip's War. The battle consisted of an initial ambush by the Nipmucs on Wheeler's unsuspecting party, followed by an attack on Brookfield, Massachusetts, and the consequent besieging of the remains of the colonial force. While the place where the siege part of the battle took place has always been known (at Ayers' Garrison in West Brookfield), the location of the initial ambush was a subject of extensive controversy among historians in the late nineteenth century.

After the death of the pro-English Massasoit in 1661, his son Metacom, known to the English as "King Philip" initiated contacts with sachems of various tribes of New England to unite against the interests of the Plymouth Colony. The actual outbreak of war occurred on June 20, 1675, when a band of Pokanoket (a tribe of the Wampanoags) launched an attack on Swansea, Massachusetts, most likely without Metacom's approval, in retaliation for an earlier killing of a Pokanoket by an English farmer. In response, the colonists attacked and burned a Pokanoket village at Mount Hope.

Simultaneously the colonists sent Ephraim Curtis to the west of Boston into Nipmuc territory to negotiate with the tribe and obtain assurances of loyalty to the English from them. However, Curtis' expedition party found only empty Nipmuc villages which signified that something was already afoot. Eventually, Curtis managed to find the whereabouts of the Nipmuc chief sachem, Muttawmp, and agreed to a meeting at a pre-arranged spot. However, unbeknownst to Curtis it was too late for negotiations, as the Nipmucs, under sachem Matoonas, had already attacked an English settlement at Mendon and had decided to join Metacom's rebellion. Curtis was later joined by Captain Thomas Wheeler and Captain Edward Hutchinson (son of Anne Hutchinson).

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