Down the Warpath to the Cedars

At first glance, it might be assumed that this book is an extrapolation upon the author's excellent 2013 work, The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony: America's War of Liberation in Canada, 1774–1776. Indeed, the times, locale, and some of the dramatis personae are the same, but here the focus is upon the Revolution's impact on what we shall call Indians, in all their varying types and complexities, and their interaction with patriots and loyalists from both Quebec and points south. Mark R. Anderson concentrates upon events related to the May 1776 capture of Fort Cedars, located on the north bank of the St. Lawrence some distance west of Montreal. A small force of British regulars, augmented by Canadian loyalists and various groups of Indians from west of Montreal, convinced a larger American patriot force composed of recent enlistees and officers lacking both military training and knowledge of how to construct defenses, to surrender and prevent a massacre by the Indians. A patriot relief force was overwhelmed by loyalist-led Indians and also forced to surrender, fear of a massacre again playing a role in the decision. The British force, now burdened with a huge number of prisoners who had to be protected from their Indian allies, tried to advance toward patriot-held Montreal. When it was learned that substantial patriot reinforcements were approaching, the Indians melted away westward into the forests, leaving the captain of the British regulars to arrange a cartel for the exchange of prisoners and withdraw his force westward up the St. Lawrence. Anderson carefully disproves assertions of a massacre at Fort Cedars. Yes, wounded patriots were killed and scalped in the final stages of the fighting, but these were largely in retaliation for Indian losses. Some twenty-three men were taken away as Indian captives, but British leaders managed to ransom or otherwise secure the release of all but a few of them

Ancient history · Battle · Economic history · Patriot Act · Political science · Spanish Civil War · Surrender · Terrorism · Canadian Identity and History · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies