Wheeler's Surprise, and the ensuing Siege of Brookfield, was a battle between Nipmuc Indians under Muttawmp, and the English colonists 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, the location of the initial ambush was a subject of extensive controversy among historians in the late nineteenth century.
Wheeler's Surprise
An engraving of an Indian attack in New England. At Brookfield, Muttawmp attempted to use a wagon filled with combustibles to set the besieged house on fire.
Edward Hutchinson (captain)
Edward Hutchinson (1613–1675) was the oldest child of Massachusetts and Rhode Island magistrate William Hutchinson and his wife, the dissident minister Anne Hutchinson. He is noted for making peace with the authorities following his mother's banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Antinomian Controversy, returning to Boston, and ultimately dying in the service of the colony that had treated his family so harshly.
Portsmouth Compact where Hutchinson's name appears ninth on the list
The Nipmucs attacked the fortified house in Brookfield for several days, until Hutchinson's party escaped to Marlborough.
Grave marker for Captain Edward Hutchinson, Springhill Cemetery, Marlborough, Massachusetts
The loyalist Massachusetts governor, Thomas Hutchinson was Edward's great grandson.