[1][2] A mixed force of 130 New Netherland soldiers led by Captain John Underhill launched a night attack on the village and destroyed it with fire.
Kieft's War began in 1640 as a result of escalating tensions over land use, livestock control, trade and taxation between the Dutch West India Company colony of New Netherland and neighboring native peoples.
In September 1639 Director Willem Kieft decided to levy a tax in pelts, maize or wampum on Indian peoples surrounding New Amsterdam.
In February 1643 the Wesquaesgeek were attacked by musket-wielding Mohawk[4] from the vicinity of Fort Orange and sought shelter on Manhattan and in Hackensack territory.
Tentative treaties were negotiated with the Hackensack, Wesquaesgeek and Long Island Indians, but the former Tankiteke ally Pachum brought the Wappinger Confederacy into war with the Dutch in August 1643.
The Siwanoy, who lived along the Long Island Sound between Hell Gate and Norwalk, killed 18 settlers including religious dissenter Anne Hutchinson in an attack near present-day New Rochelle.
Captain John Underhill, a renowned veteran of the Pequot War of 1637, was recruited from the New Haven Colony town of Stamford to lead this force.
On the cusp of the New Year, John Underhill was dispatched with a force of 120 men to the town of Greenwich in response to local Wappinger Confederacy attacks.
As a result, three yachts delivered 130 colonial soldiers to Greenwich under the joint command of General John Underhill and Hendrick van Dyck Ensign.
[6] The Lenape were gathered for a pow wow during a winter ceremony of celebration in their place of safety on sacred lands of their ancestors with special guests from local tribes.
The Siwanoy and Tankiteke were attempting to integrate their bands with five others of the Wappinger confederacy, including the Raritan, Wecquaesgeek, and by some accounts members of the Ramapo, with blessings on the land and people.
In a repetition of the tactics employed in the Mystic massacre, John Underhill and his co-commander ordered the village set on fire with the inhabitants inside, including mostly Women, children and tribal elders.
The Dutch account reported on this phase of the battle, according to Underhill, "What was most wonderful is, that among this vast collection of Men, Women and Children not one was heard to cry or to scream.
The enormous devastation wrought on the Indians at the Pound Ridge Massacre and at preceding battles compelled several sachems to seek peace with the colonial government.
Sachems of the Sintsink, Wecquaesgeek, Nochpeem, and Wappinger presented themselves at Fort Amsterdam in April of 1645 and asked for peace[9] but a final agreement with all of the belligerent parties was not agreed until August 31, 1645.
However, Kieft would continue at his post for two more years, drowning en route to the Netherlands in late September 1647 when recalled by the company to defend his actions as governor.