Before the arrival of Lincoln, a party of the insurgents attempted to dislodge Shepard, but were repulsed with some loss.

Not being pursued by that officer, who could not venture to weaken his post by detachments, they continued embodied, but did not venture again to undertake offensive operations.
Urging his march with the utmost celerity, Lincoln soon came up; and, pressing the insurgent army, endeavoured, by a succession of rapid movements, in which the ardour of his troops triumphed over the severity of the season, to disperse, or to bring it to action.

Their generals retreated from post to post with a rapidity which for some time eluded his designs; and, rejecting every proposition to lay down their arms, used all their address to produce a suspension of hostilities until an accommodation might be negotiated with the legislature.

"Applications were also made," says General Lincoln, "by committees and select men of the several towns in the counties of Worcester and Hampshire, praying that the effusion of blood might be avoided, while the real design of these applications was supposed to be, to stay our operations until a new court should be elected.

They had no doubt, if they could keep up their influence until another choice of the legislature and of the executive, that matters might be moulded in general court to their wishes.