Bloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War & American Revolution on New York's Frontier

It is understandable that many `serious' readers of History are put off their feed by an author's reliance, acknowledged or not, on secondary sources. Few things are more disappointing to a buff than to buy a book, look forward to cracking it, and then, upon doing so, experiencing that creeping `been here, done that' realization. The best example of this phenomenon that readily comes to this reader's mind is Winston Groom's "A Storm in Flanders" which, however well-intentioned and admittedly of value to neophytes, offers nothing new to the serious WW I reader. The flip side of this phenomenon, of course, is that such a compendium (if that's not too grudging a word) can be very worthwhile if the author is able to reassemble the threads of what has been written before and weave them into a meaningful and compelling narrative.Richard Berleth has done so brilliantly in "Bloody Mohawk." Author Berleth sets out to tell the story of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars as conducted and experienced in New York's Mohawk Valley with a singularity of purpose and geographic fidelity that I believe would be warmly applauded by the authors he unabashedly borrows from. Having been born in Schenectady, now living in Lake George, and having made it my business over the last few decades to read all the histories I could find of these wars as conducted and experienced in Central New York, I think I'm in a reasonably good position to judge his effort, and I find it first-rate.Berleth holds an English lit Ph.D., and it shows. He can spin a yarn with the best of them, but there's much more. He's manifestly a fine historian in his own right, as evidenced by the fact that I've read multiple descriptions of the people and events with which he treats and found his accounts as fresh and intellectually invigorating as of they were the first I had come upon. Particularly impressive to me was his ability to maintain his focus on the valley and not be seduced into following the exploits of a particularly fascinating character wherever they led or offering his own version of pivotal events such as the French siege of Fort William Henry in 1757 or 1777's Battle of Saratoga. Indeed, he mentions them only in passing and only in relation to the valley and its actors to the extent they were involved in them. The knowledgeable reader loses nothing by these omissions but rather gains new perspective on how these events related to the valley and its inhabitants.Finally, Author Berleth does an absolutely terrific job of summarizing the `afterward,' the ineffably sad and for a time seemingly hopeless period following the Revolution when the valley's principal actors played out their roles, none more pathetic than the fate of the once-dominant Iroquois confederation, now broken into aimless fragments by their misplaced reliance on at least some whites' integrity and their inability to take advantage of their geographic and military hegemony before they were figuratively, and then literally, buried by white settlement.So, even if you've read your Parkman, Anderson, and Flexner, don't dismiss this wonderful effort. As far as I'm concerned,"Bloody Mohawk" is proof positive that secondary sources can make for prime reading.

The Mohawk River Valley is the only significant, natural passage through the 2,000 mile long Appalachian Mountains. For over 200 years, the Iroquois League controlled this strategic thoroughfare, and thus all trade with the interior of the continent as far west as the Mississippi River. European settlement came after the close of Queen Anne's War when Britain encouraged Germans from the Palatinate to begin settling in the valley after 1713. The first English settlers came in 1738 under William Johnston, the man who would ultimately destroy the Iroquois League during the French and Indian War. It was Johnson who would contend with the Dutch inhabitants at Albany as events led up to the American Revolution.Three different wars in the course of 200 years left their mark on this critical passage. French, English, American and Native Americans would make this strategic corridor the most heavily contested real estate on the North American continent. The most savage Native American battles were fought here, with massacres making Custer's Last Stand looking like child's play. Through the Mohawk and the Lake Champlain valleys Britain would defeat France during the French and Indian War. During the American Revolution more men died in the little known Battle of Oriskany than in any other battle, including Saratoga, Yorktown and Bunker Hill. The carnage was simply appalling. In the end, thousands of Loyalists, including the remaining Iroquois, were uprooted and driven into Canada, never to return. And only 40 years later, the completion of the Erie Canal would forever change trading patterns on the North American Continent making New York City the preeminent mercantile center of our Nation and, ultimately, of the world. This is a most amazing story and Richard Berleth's Bloody Mohawk chronicles these wars and the evolution of these events.I haven't read a book this good in a long, long time. I have always had an interest in the development and settlement of early America's northeast frontier and while the author claims there is really nothing new here, I strenuously beg to differ. I found Richard Berleth's approach to the history of the Mohawk Valley and its contiguous early American thoroughfares provided a clearer and more succinct understanding of the region's early history than any previous work I have enjoyed. Bloody Mohawk is so good it makes you want to vacation here in order to better understand the terrain and then reread this book for an even better level of understanding.I found this work a remarkable achievement.

Very informative and detailed. I was very impressed on how detailed some of the battles were!

A fascinating book! The former importance of the Mohawk river is largely forgotten now but was crucial 300 years ago. Berleth also shows how vicious the war was in the New York region and how it was largely a civil war.It is largely forgotten today that a sizable number of American colonists did not support the Revolution.

This period of history is one largely ignored in Britain, apart from the capture of Quebec. This is a first rate book to fill at least part of that missing story, covering both the French and Indian Wars and the later American War of Independence in New York State. It is well written, with good maps and illustrations, but the one small drawback is that these are not in colour. There is also a good bibliography. I recommend this to anyone interested in the history of the American colonies in the period leading up to independence.

This is a gift and they will love it.

Ottimo saggio per chi ha interesse verso il periodo delle guerre coloniali che videro contrapporsi verso la fine del diciottesimo secolo nel nord America Francia ed Inghilterra.

Well done-some minor factual errors, but the big picture superb.