The sound of the shot echoed all along the river, prematurely signaling the start of the attack. The parties close to the falls were in position, but those whose targets were further down river had yet to reach them. This provided an opportunity for some settlers to escape or prepare for defense. The units not yet in position hastened toward their targets, pitching into whatever they came across. The carefully constructed plan quickly degenerated into wholesale slaughter.
The attack on the south bank of the Oyster River was pressed with brutal ferocity. The family of Stephen and Ann Jenkins tried to escape the carnage by fleeing into their cornfield. In a June 1695 deposition, Mrs. Jenkins described what happened: "in the morning about the dawning of the day my husband being up went out of the dore, and presently returning cried to me and our children to run for our lives, for the Indians had beset the town: whereupon my husband and myself fled with our children into our cornfield, & at our entrance into the field, Bomazeen, whome I have seen since . . . , came towards us and about ten Indians more: & the sd Bomazeen then shot at my husband and shote him down, ran to him & struck him three blows on the head with a hatchet, scalped him & run him three times with a bayonet. I also saw the said Bomazeen knock one of my children on the head & tooke of [f]her scalp & then put the child into her father's armes; and then stabbed the breast. And Bomazeen also then killed my husband's grandmother and scalped her." [119]Bomazeen took Ann and her remaining children captive. Binding them securely, he moved on to the next home.
The Drew garrison was the next to be struck. Francis Drew, the patriarch, made a dash for the Adams garrison to seek help, but was easily captured. He was bound and dragged back to within sight of his home, which he then surrendered on the promise of quarter. The promise of quarter was not upheld. Francis Drew was summarily tomahawked as his family was taken captive. Francis' wife was eventually abandoned by her captors and left to die in the woods. Nine year old Benjamin Drew was forced to run a gauntlet of Indians as a moving target for their tomahawks. Struck repeatedly, he could run no more. [120]Thomas Drew and his wife, Tamsen, were also taken prisoner. In 1698, Tamsen testified to her experience: "they heard a great Tumult and Noise of firing of Guns which awakened her out of her sleep, and she understanding that the Indians were in arms & had encompassed the House, willing to make her escape, she endeavored & att last got out the window and fled, but the Indians firing fast after her she returned to the House and her father-in-law [Francis Drew]took [her]by the hand and haled her into the House again, where upon she endeavored to get out at another window, but the Indians had besett that, so she returned to the other room where her friends were, and the window of that Room being open an Indian named Bombazine [Bomazeen]caught hold of her Arm and pulled her out att the Window & threw her violently upon the ground, she being then with child." [121]Tamsen's captors killed the child a short time after birth. However, after some four years of captivity, Tamsen was reunited with her husband.
Beyond the Drew garrison, near the mouth of the river, stood the garrison of Charles Adams. A party of warriors had just finished moving into position when they heard the shot that killed John Dean. They gained entry to the house undetected. In an instant, the warriors set upon the sleeping family. Within minutes, Charles Adams and fourteen members of his household had been tomahawked in their beds. The only survivor was a daughter named Mercy. Her captors carried her to Canada, where she remained for the rest of her life.