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

by StephenBrumwell (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2006

  $19.26

  In North America's first major conflict, known today as the French and Indian War, France and England-both in alliance with Native American tribes-fought each other in a series of bloody battles and terrifying raids. No confrontation was more brutal and notorious than the massacre of the British garrison of Fort William Henry--an incident memorably depicted in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. That atrocity stoked calls for revenge, and the tough young Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers were ordered north into enemy territory to take it. On the morning of October 4, 1759, they surprised the Abenaki Indian village of St. Francis, slaughtering its sleeping inhabitants without mercy. When the raiders returned to safety, they were hailed as heroes by the colonists, and their leader was immortalized as the brave Major Rogers. But the Abenakis remembered Rogers differently: To them he was Wobomagonda-- White Devil.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.40

  During the 1750s, rival European colonists sought allies amongst Native American tribes. Abenaki warriors allied with France terrorised English settlements. In 1759 Major Robert Rogers and his 'rangers' were ordered to exact retribution by destroying the Abenaki village of St Francis, which they did with ruthless efficiency. But the raiders endured a nightmare journey as they struggled home. Several were caught by vengeful pursuers and tortured to death; others resorted to cannibalism rather than starve in the wilderness. Rogers' raid was celebrated by Anglo-American colonists, and its leader is credited with founding the 'special forces' tradition in the US army. Others view the St Francis raid as an 18th century My Lai massacre, in which helpless men and women were butchered. Eschewing prejudices, Stephen Brumwell deploys vivid prose and meticulous research to reconstruct this controversial and dramatic episode from America's violent frontier past.