📅 On This Day in Military History

February 29

1 event across history

⚔️📍 Deerfield, Massachusetts1704

Deerfield Massacre — Queen Anne's War

French soldiers and their Native American allies attacked the sleeping town of Deerfield before dawn, killing 47 settlers and taking 112 captive on a brutal winter march to Canada. The raid was part of the broader conflict known in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succession.

The Deerfield Massacre inflamed colonial hatred of French Canada and Native peoples, intensifying the imperial rivalry that would culminate in the French and Indian War half a century later.

Outcome

47 killed, 112 taken captive to Canada