Historian Stan Svec described the 1675 Battle at Bloody Brook in Deerfield, MA to Sowams Heritage Area Project Historian Dave Weed on his visit there on August 9, 2025. Svec, who lives nearby in West Springfield and maintains an active YouTube channel about local history, explained what took place on September 28, 1675 when Pocumtuc warriors and other local indigenous people from the central Connecticut River valley attacked the English colonial militia of the New England Confederation and their Mohegan allies during King Philip’s War. Click here for a 23-minute video of Svec’s description. Click here for Svec’s short description of Wheeler’s Surprise. Click here for a short video description of the Brookfield massacre site. Click here for a short video of the Beer’s Ambush site in Northfield, MA.

Svec relates how a group of English militia, led by Captain Thomas Lathrop, and teamsters were escorting wagons filled with wheat from Deerfield to Hadley. When they reached the area known as Muddy Brook (pictured above) they were ambushed by several hundred warriors from the Pocumtuc and Nipmuc tribes, led by the Nipmuc sachem Muttawmp.

Svec points to a 25-foot tall obelisk, erected on the site in 1838, stands as a memorial to the fallen soldiers and teamsters. It serves as a reminder of the violent and transformative events of King Philip’s War, a crucial period in the history of English colonization and Native American resistance in New England.

A large stone slab, with the inscription “Grave of Capt. Lathrop and Men Slain by the Indians,1675”, marks a mass grave where the bodies of the slain were interred, It has been moved multiple times and is currently located near the monument, in the front yard of 100 North Main Street. The Town of Deerfield is located along the Connecticut River that can be see from the top of Mount Sugarloaf. Click here for an American History summary of the Battle of Bloody Brook.