"Pike use in King Philips War???" Topic

Was there an attempt to use pike in KPW?
I find it hard to believe that all the colonial militia had matchlocks and I think some would have carried the pike. Am I right or wrong in that assumption?

FM

Yes. Some had "pikes".
How useful they were is debatable.

Pikes were generally considered to be useless in North America before the start of King Philip's War.

In 1675 the Massachusetts General Court ordered all pikemen to arm themselves with "fire armes"

In Connecticut by 1649 only flint locks were allowed for public arms. It appears they kept their old supply of pikes (or half pikes), and passed some type of resolution (in 1675?) permitting the use of pikes.

Virginia stopped using pikes very early on (probably by the early 1600s).

If you feel the urge, you can throw a pike or half pike out there.

Edit to add: You are right about every colonial militia man not having matchlocks, but that is because the matchlock was obsolete by the time of KPW; flint locks were the norm. No one who was issued a firearm would be carrying a matchlock, although a private citizen could still own one. In 1676 and 1677 Connecticut and MA passed laws prohibiting matchlocks from being taken into the field as weapons.

"Pike" KINDA' ill-fitted for use in frontier fighting…

Don't currently have access to my NA early English colonial materials (such as they are) but don't remember reading about much "drill" let alone USE of pikes in either New England, Virginia or Dutch New Amsterdam colonist v "native" conflicts.

Sorry for the 1/2 @ssed answer…

Charlie

Only reference I've come across is pikes being used as signifers for officers/sergeants-at-arms.: YouTube link

Pike drill among the Trained Bands was common much earlier than Philip's War. We have a great local r-enactment group that does their research well: salemtraynedband.org

There is a scene ,if I recall correctly, in the film The Black Robe where European soldiers try to repel a native attack with forming pike with somewhat predictable results.

imdb.com/title/tt0101465

That was the New World. Black Robe had no European soldiers, just the French Canadian guy. Black Robe is a fabulous film.

"A Skulking Way of War" says the colonists were mostly armed with matchlocks while the Indians had flintlocks. One would think a law would not have to passed banning matchlocks if most people didn't have them. But that's only one source and a guess.

Or the law could have been passed to deal with the old timers who insisted on showing up with weapons not suitable for warfare in the New World. Regardless, while individuals owned matchlocks (to whatever degree), it is clear from the documents that I have read that the governing bodies did not approve of them and bought flint locks for the public stores.

old timers

You can have my arquebus when you pry it…

Only reference I've come across is pikes being used as signifers for officers/sergeants-at-arms.:

And that would be a spontoon or "half-pike" not a full length 17th century pike:

Edit-Thanks if it was The New World.

Not sure aboutnortheastern tribes but my study of the southeastern tribes contain the inferencethatthey regarded pikes and long spears as women's and old men weapons. They were used in the defense of the town wall and palisades. They would be used to stab through the firing loop holes to keep the attackers from gaining control of the wall and ports.

The Chickasaw who fought the French in the late 1600s and 1700s also used dug out firing pits to make outside firing in more difficult.they also used winter hovels outside the gate as partially dug in bunkers offering cross fire. Very eff time as the French learned in the 1730s.
Other tribes Choctaw, Muskogee used more traditional palisade walls to be defended by pikes.