At Deerfield, the Canadians and their allies took about 110 prisoners including women and children and carried them off in the direction of Canada. Pastor Williams described the arduous journey:
... about sun an hour high, we saw ourselves carried away... to go into a strange land, exposed to so many trials; the journey being at least three hundred miles; the snow up to the knees, and we never inured to such hardships and fatigues....
Williams' greatest burden was the brutal murder of his wife when her strength failed and she fell from exhaustion:
Passing through the Connecticut River, she fell down, and was plunged over head and ears in the water; after which she travelled not far, for at the foot of the mountain, the cruel and bloodthirsty savage who took her slew her with his hatchet at one stroke, the tidings of which were very awful.
Courtesy: Edward E. Ayer Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago
