In early September 1724, Indians captured three men near
Dunstable, Massachusetts, in the area now known as
Nashua, New Hampshire. When the men did not return from work a party of ten or more men started in pursuit. One man, Joseph Farwell, warned the leader of the possibility of running into an ambush. Despite this the posse rushed ahead with Farwell following behind. They were ambushed and eleven of the men were killed and the others, excepting Farwell who barely escaped, were captured. Because of these attacks it was thought best to carry on the war more vigorously. Bounties for scalps were again offered by the government and volunteer companies were formed. Favored by a grant from the Assembly, Lovewell, whose maternal grandparents had been killed and scalped by Indians, raised a company of 30 men and was commissioned a captain. In part because of Farwell's commonsense Lovewell selected him as his second-in-command and he was made Lieutenant. Lovewell and Farwell went on three scalp hunting expeditions from December to May.
Raid at Lake Winnipesaukee In the first expedition, Lovewell and his militia company of 40 to 50 men left Dunstable on their first expedition in December 1724, trekking to the north of
Lake Winnipesaukee into the
White Mountains of
New Hampshire. On December 10, north of Winnipesaukee, the troop came upon a
wigwam, where they killed and
scalped an Abenaki man and took an Abenaki boy captive.
Raid on Wakefield On January 29, 1725, Lovewell and 87 men made a second expedition to the White Mountains. For more than a month they marched through the winter forest, encountering neither friend nor foe. Some troops were sent back home. The remainder made a wide loop up towards the White Mountains, followed the
Bearcamp River into the
Ossipee area, then headed back in an easterly direction along the
Maine and New Hampshire border. On February 20 they came across a recently inhabited wigwam and followed tracks for some . On the banks of a pond at the head of the
Salmon Falls River in the present town of
Wakefield they came upon more wigwams with smoke rising from them. Some time after 2:00 AM Lovewell gave the order to fire. A short time later ten
Indians lay dead. The Indians were said to have had numerous extra blankets,
snowshoes,
moccasins, a few
furs and new French
muskets which would seem to indicate that they were on their way to attack frontier settlements. Preventing such an attack is probably the true success of this expedition. Early in March Lovewell's troops arrived in
Boston. They paraded their Indian scalps through the streets, Lovewell himself wearing a wig made of Indian scalps. The bounty paid was 1000 pounds (100 per scalp). == 3rd Expedition: Lovewell's fight ==