Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Prerevolutionary War: Book Review
NY Times ^ | Jan. 8, 2006 | JAY WINIK

Posted on 01/07/2006 12:27:03 PM PST by Pharmboy

In 1754, a senseless massacre began innocently enough. A young George Washington, leading a force of Virginia volunteers and Indians, stumbled into an engagement with a French detachment in a remote Allegheny glen. To this day, the circumstances are cloudy as to who shot first and how the hostilities broke out. What is not in doubt is that Washington bungled badly: he lost control of his men, and before the mayhem ended, 13 Frenchmen were killed, wounded soldiers were brutally scalped and one man was even decapitated.

As is so often the case in history, this one small act, however miscalculated, had large consequences. It incited the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War). This was a confrontation no one wanted, but what started as a remote skirmish produced a chain of events that culminated in a fierce struggle among the British, the French and dozens of American Indian nations fighting for control of North America. And the conflagration eventually spread to Canada, the Caribbean, India, even the Philippines.

Yet, Fred Anderson writes, for all the conflict's scope and carnage, not to mention its implications, Americans are no more familiar with it than they are with the Peloponnesian War. This is a pity. True, Americans have long had an unquenchable appetite for the Civil War, and more recently for the founding fathers. But however obscure, the inaptly named French and Indian War is itself a drama of considerable significance, one that deserves to be rescued from the graveyard. It was Winston Churchill, after all, who once termed it the "first world war." Anderson, a history professor at the University of Colorado and the author of the splendid "Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766,"

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: americanhistory; frenchandindianwar; generalwashington; georgewashington; revolutionarywar; revwar; sevenyearswar
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last
To: Pharmboy

Just to note--I may be mistaken about the rank. Washington however did sign a letter of confession to the killing. He did, iirc, so under a mistaken impression that what he was signing was an admission of a accidental killing, for his interpreter so claimed the French word for "assassin" to mean.


21 posted on 01/08/2006 8:50:10 AM PST by bvw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: bvw
He did not admit to personally killing Jumonville (simply because he did not kill him); what he did do was mistakenly sign a paper agreeing that Jumonville was "assassinated." It is said that this occurred because the translation of the document from the French was faulty.
22 posted on 01/08/2006 6:48:06 PM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: pgyanke
This is the best one-volume bio IMO:

Washington: The Indispensable Man (Paperback)
by James Thomas Flexner
"NO AMERICAN is more completely misunderstood than George Washington..." (more)

(46 customer reviews)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List Price: $18.95
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
85 used & new available from $4.45

23 posted on 01/08/2006 7:09:30 PM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: pgyanke

No harm, no foul. I think Martha had descendants though... ah, here it is... Mary Anne Randolph Custis Lee (wife of Robert E. Lee) was the grand-daughter of Martha.

Also, years ago (like 35) I recall reading a claim by a Japanese woman that Washington was her ancestor via his affair with a Japanese woman who worked for him.

Probably happened during his attendance at a conference on the planet Mars. ;')

http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/memory/arlington.html

"George and Martha Washington had no children of their own, but the widowed Martha Dandridge Custis had brought two children to the family when the couple married in 1759.  John Parke and Martha Parke Custis had grown up under the fatherly hand of George Washington.  John named a son in his step father's honor, George Washington Parke Custis.  When John Parke was killed at Yorktown in 1781, George and Martha Washington adopted two of their grandchildren.  It was, therefore, the step-grandson of George Washington who would receive the estate of the Washington/Custis family.  Included in that estate was the 1,100 acres overlooking the Capitol."


24 posted on 01/08/2006 8:39:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv (FReep this URL -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/pledge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: pgyanke; SunkenCiv
The source of your misunderstanding is the Shaara quote. He was wrong. Here's what happened:

Martha Dandrige married Daniel Parke Custis and bore him four children, two of which did not survive early childhood (Daniel and Frances died at ages three and four, respectively). John (called "Jacky") and Martha (called "Patsy") were with Martha when she married George in 1759 and were raised by them (Daniel Parke Custis died and left Martha a widow in 1757).

Patsy had epilepsy and died in 1773 as a result of a seizure. Jacky and his wife Eleanor had four surviving children but he unfortunately died of "camp fever" (probably typhus) while an aide to his stepfather, General Washington.

Two of Jacky's children then stayed with their grandparents at Mt Vernon (George Washington Parke Custis and Nelly Custis) and both of them lived long lives.

25 posted on 01/09/2006 4:23:27 AM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Pharmboy

Very interesting post here Pharmboy. Thanks.


26 posted on 01/09/2006 6:59:24 AM PST by davetex (hippies and rinos stink, no really I'm not joking.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Pharmboy

Ah. More for my reading list!
Thanks!


27 posted on 01/09/2006 7:03:40 AM PST by confederacy of dunces (Don't forget the cheese!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

See my post 25 above. John ("Jacky") was not killed at Yorktown, however; he died of camp fever, probably typhus.


28 posted on 01/09/2006 7:13:51 AM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

.


29 posted on 01/09/2006 1:51:05 PM PST by GretchenM (God made you. He will also take you out. Better to go on His terms, that is, through Jesus.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten; 75thOVI; Adrastus; beebuster2000; Belasarius; bert; BJClinton; ...

Sorry for the late ping....I have been away from my computer for the last couple of weeks.


30 posted on 01/14/2006 7:15:48 AM PST by indcons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

"since my post seemed negative to wards Indians"

The truth is the truth, negative or otherwise.


31 posted on 01/14/2006 7:39:22 AM PST by dsc (Islamic sexual violence against women should be treated as the repressive epidemic it is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Pharmboy

I wish the reviewer(s) would at least mention that the 7-Years War was a European conflict, and that the French & Indian Wars were an outgrowth of that European war. The French & Indian Wars alone is not what is meant by the Seven Years War.


32 posted on 01/14/2006 9:03:02 AM PST by Sans-Culotte (Meadows Place, TX-"Tom DeLay Country")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-32 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson