[1] The battle consisted of an initial ambush by the Nipmucs on Wheeler's unsuspecting party, followed by an attack on Brookfield, Massachusetts, and the consequent besieging of the remains of the colonial force.

[2] After the death of the pro-English Massasoit in 1661, his son Metacom, known to the English colonists as "King Philip" initiated contacts with sachems of various tribes of New England to unite against the interests of the Plymouth Colony.

[4] Simultaneously the colonists sent Ephraim Curtis to the west of Boston into Nipmuc territory to negotiate with the tribe and obtain assurances of loyalty from them.

Eventually, Curtis managed to find the whereabouts of the Nipmuc chief sachem, Muttawmp, and agreed to a meeting at a pre-arranged spot.

[5] However, unbeknownst to Curtis it was too late for negotiations, as the Nipmucs, under sachem Matoonas, had already attacked an English colonial settlement at Mendon and had decided to join Metacom's rebellion.

However, while Muttawmp's soldiers were rude to the English emissaries, the sachem himself considered it better to feign friendship to the colonists and so told Curtis that he would show himself in Boston within seven days.

Consequently, they learned that the Nipmucs had moved their base camp to about 10 miles (16 km) from Brookfield, and sent Curtis and the Naticks to talk to Muttawmp again.

There, the emissaries were once again treated rudely by the Nipmuc braves, while Muttawmp continued his deception and agreed to meet Hutchinson in Brookfield on the following day.

[8] The entire force would have most likely been annihilated there and then had it not been for the Natick guides, one of whom assumed command of the company in place of the wounded captains, and managed to lead the rest of the colonists out of the trap and into the hills near the swamp.

[9] Wheeler and the rest of his men, led by the Natick guides, fled to the English colonial settlement of Quabaug (which later was to become the town of West Brookfield).

On the second day of the siege, early at dawn, Muttawmp had his men fill a village wagon with combustible material and direct it at the fortified house, hoping to set it on fire and in that way force the defenders out.

During the confusion that accompanied the execution of the plan, Ephraim Curtis managed to sneak out of the house and made a successful run for the woods.

While Philip and his allies managed to regain the initiative for some time in 1675, eventually the scorched-earth tactics practiced by the colonists caused them to start running out of supplies.

[19] While the exact location still remains a mystery, the most likely site of the ambush according to modern historians lies somewhere within the present day town of New Braintree, Massachusetts.