Nine Men's Misery, Cumberland, Rhode Island
About it
The long cairn of fieldstones in the woods of Cumberland, with the bronze plaque the State of Rhode Island set beside it in 1928: “Nine Men’s Misery. On this spot where they were slain by the Indians were buried the nine soldiers captured in Pierce’s fight March 26, 1676” (partly read through the leaf shadows). Capt. Michael Pierce of Scituate was killed that day with most of his company of Plymouth men and Native allies, cut off near Pawtucket Falls on the Blackstone River; nine of the soldiers taken alive were killed here, and the men who found them buried them where they lay and heaped the stones over the grave. It is thought to be the oldest war memorial in the United States. Pierce’s daughter Abigail married John Holbrook of Scituate, son of Capt. John Holbrook of Weymouth, in 1671.
- Related to
- Michael Pierce, Abigail Pierce, Benjamin Nye
- Credit
- Photograph by Diogenes99, 10 Aug 2026, "Nine Men's Misery cairn and plaque 2026," via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); the 3840-pixel copy of the 4096-pixel original
- File