White Devil : A True Story of War, Savagery, and Vengeance in Colonial America

by Brumwell, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9780306813894
• ISBN10: 0306813890
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-15
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

In America's first war, known as the French and Indian War, France and England-both in unholy alliance with warring Native American tribes-battled each other in a series of bloody conflicts and terrifying attacks on colonial settlements. No more brutal raid was carried out than the massacre of the settlers at Fort William Henry-an atrocity memorably depicted in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.Following the raid, Major Robert Rogers and his famous band of "Rangers" marched north into French territory to exact retribution, where they ruthlessly attacked a peaceful village of the Abenaki Indians, massacring its people with a frightening vengeance. After the raid, the attackers endured a horrifying journey back, as some of the men were captured and tortured, while others resorted to cannibalism rather than starve in the wilderness. When the remnants of Rogers' raiders, including the Major himself, returned, they were hailed as heroes and the legend of the brave Robert Rogers began. But was he hero, or was he the "white devil," as the Abenaki still call him? In vivid prose, Stephen Brumwell explores the truth behind the legend of this controversial and dramatic episode from America's violent past.

Author Biography

Stephen Brumwell has scoured numerous archives to unearth eyewitness accounts that lay bare the remarkable facts behind the legend of this controversial episode from America's violent frontier past. In White Devil, he tells a powerful true story of hardship and courage, savagery and humanity, vengeance and survival.Stephen Brumwell is a well-known expert on the British army in eighteenth-century America, and the author of Redcoats. He lives in the Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Maps	8	(3)
Preface	11	(11)
One Conflict and Coexistence	22	(34)
Two Making Reputations	56	(41)
Three The Ranging Way of War	97	(35)
Four Amherst and Wolfe	132	(25)
Five Chosen Men	157	(26)
Six Search and Destroy	183	(23)
Seven Retreat and Pursuit	206	(32)
Eight Reward and Retribution	238	(25)
Nine Endings	263	(20)
Notes	283	(28)
Appendices	311	(9)
Dramatis Personae	320	(6)
Acknowledgements	326	(3)
Index	329