Nine Men’s Misery

This place holds a special place in my heart. My father and I used to walk here when I was young.

The
oldest
of
the old
King Philip’s War was a nasty affair with atrocities and lots of horrible things occurring on both the Native American and English sides. Towns were burned and people murdered. No quarter was asked and none was given.
One particularly brutal incident was called Nine Men’s Misery. It started on March 20, 1676, when Capt Piece of the colonists let a group of troops after what was left of the Narragansett Tribe. The troops got a bit too over confident and walked right into an ambush and were slaughtered by the Narragansetts.
Virtually all of the troops were killed but nine managed to survive the battle and were captured, tortured and then killed. Not exactly unexpected considering what the English were doing to the Narragansetts. Most of their villages were burned and the women and children executed .
When other English troops found the bodies of the dead captives. they immediately buried the bodies and put up a monument site of rocks over the graves so the memory of the incident would never be forgotten.
The pile of rocks have been tended to ever since and is now considered the oldest veterans memorial in the country.
It’s not exactly an exciting or aesthetically stunning memorial but it an extremely spooky and fascinating place to hike out and actually find.
The area has lots of cool hiking trails besides the one leading to the memorial but the bugs are incredibly bad in these woods. Lovely stone walls and beautiful trees, this would probably be a great place for a winter or fall hike.
A thoughtful place to reflect and remember what it was like back then during these horrible wars. Right and wrong, good and evil are just words. Pain, death and suffering was the reality.