The Frontier Discovery of a land

 Documentary series. On tv. Read about it here

Hessian reenactment (250th planning)

 If you are interested in doing Hessian for the 250th Alex Burns has started a Facebook for the subject. https://www.facebook.com/groups/286816813997777/?ref=share

White Devil Stephen Brumwell

 

Just ordered this from the library. Anybody read it?

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."

Thomas Payton 1954-2023

 Sad to hear of the passing of Thomas Payton a fine artist and all round knowledgeable bloke. Here are a few of his paintings. 

46th foot 1758

A detachment of the 55th Regiment of Foot, 1758

Royal Roussilon 1756

Uncommon defense

 

"In the spring of 1832, when the Indian warrior Black Hawk and a thousand followers marched into Illinois to reoccupy lands earlier ceded to American settlers, the U.S. Army turned to rival tribes for military support. Elements of the Menominee, Dakota, Potawatomi, and Ho Chunk tribes willingly allied themselves with the United States government against their fellow Native Americans in an uncommon defense of their diverse interests. As the Black Hawk War came only two years after the passage of the Indian Removal Act and is widely viewed as a land grab by ravenous settlers, the military participation of these tribes seems bizarre. What explains this alliance?

In order to grasp Indian motives, John Hall explores their alliances in earlier wars with colonial powers as well as in intertribal antagonisms and conflicts. In the crisis of 1832, Indians acted as they had traditionally, leveraging their relationship with a powerful ally to strike tribal enemies, fulfill important male warrior expectations, and pursue political advantage and material gain. However, times had changed and, although the Indians achieved short-term objectives, they helped create conditions that permanently changed their world.

Providing a rare view of Indian attitudes and strategies in war and peace, Hall deepens our understanding of Native Americans and the complex roles they played in the nation’s history. More broadly, he demonstrates the risks and lessons of small wars that entail an “uncommon defense” by unlikely allies in pursuit of diverse, even conflicting, goals."

The Tragic Bad Axe Massacre of 1832

 In 19th-century Illinois, tensions between settlers and local Native American tribes led to a series of escalating confrontations. The violent culmination of these conflicts drove Sauk leader Black Hawk and his tribe out of the state.

Bad Axe 1832

 

Painting by Cal Peters depicting the battle of Bad Axe, also known as the Bad Axe massacre, at the Mississippi River on August 2, 1832.

The Bad Axe Massacre was a massacre of Sauk (Sac) and Fox Indians by United States Army regulars and militia that occurred on August 1–2, 1832. This final scene of the Black Hawk War took place near present-day Victory, Wisconsin, in the United States. It marked the end of the war between white settlers and militia in Illinois and Michigan Territory, and the Sauk and Fox tribes under warrior Black Hawk.