From the time frame it sounds like this occurred around the time of the French and Indian War, when the French had put a bounty on English scalps. So they were likely acting as agents for French Catholics.
My last name descendents from a Huguenot settler in the New World. On St. Bartholomew’s Day in 1572, the French Catholics massacred almost 200,000 Huguenots, leading to diaspora of France’s most useful citizens.
Death in the streets caused by religious ‘rightness ‘ has been going on since time immemorial.
The the religion of communism (along with Islam) is now going after Christians and Jews.
Be ever vigilant.