Pageant Exhibition Panel 10 - The Defense of the fort

Image is the tenth photograph in the Lancaster Massachusetts 1912 Fourth of July Pageant Exhibition created by the Thayer Memorial Library.

From the archives at the Thayer Memorial Library, Lancaster, Massachusetts. http://thayermemoriallibrary.org

Ensign Divol directing the defense of the blockhouse during Episode 3, Massacre by the Indians, in the Lancaster, Massachusetts 1912 Fourth of July Pageant. The photograph shows the Settlers fanning out from the blockhouse under the direction of Ensign Divol, played by Frank A. Gould. Ensign Divol was the leader of the settlers in Lancaster during the attack by the Nashaway Indian Tribe on February 10, 1676. The attack occurred during King Phillip's War, also called Metacom's War or Metacom's Rebellion, which took place from 1675-76 between Native Americans and Colonists and their Native American Allies in Southern New England. Metacom, known as King Phillip to the English, was the grand Sachem of the Wampanoag Confederacy.The photograph is mounted on heavy cardboard and has text describing the activity and history depicted in the photograph. The text for this image has been transcribed. Pageant at Lancaster, Massachusetts, July 4, 1912. EPISODE III.MASSACRE BY THE INDIANS Here is depicted the assault by the Indians on the garrison-house of Joseph Rowlandson, the Lancaster minister, in King Philip's War. The good chief Sholan had long been dead, and in his place was the hostile Sagamore Sam, who led the attach on Lancaster. In this massacre at least twenty persons were slain, and twenty-four, among them Mrs. Rowlandson, the wife of the minister, carried away captive. The other fortified houses in Lancaster withstood the enemy, but those not garrisoned were burned; and six weeks later the settlement was abandoned. For about three years "the wolves and savages resumed their sovereignty along the Nashua.: Mrs. Rowlandson and some of the other captives were later ransomed after enduring terrible hardships.SYNOPSIS Indian spies creep in from the woods at the right of the scene, and find the stockade and block-house unprotected.From the left come two settlers, watchmen, and one of the Indians is shot by the leader, the other Indian escaping into the forest. While one of the watchmen guards the stockade, the other runs off to alarm the inhabitants of the settlement, and soon they assemble, coming from all side, -men, women, and children, - some driving their cattle and horses before them. The leader of the settlers, Ensign Divol, gives directions, and orders the women, children, and old men into the block-house for protection against the expected assault of the Indians, and the cattle also are driven into the enclosure.All the men then pass into the stockade, and as its gates are being shut, the first shots are fired and the watchmen fall dead.