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 ...
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Was Washington responsible for the Peloponnesian War, too? No doubt he crossed the Delaware in triremes.
Pharmboy, I don't post much but, I do want you to know I read and appreciate each item you post.
I agree with the paragraphs posted! It was that Allengenhy skirmish that Captain Washington spent the whole of his life, stalwart and resolute, to fix. At the time Washington confessed in writing to being THE Assassin who fired the shot which killed the French nobleman and legate. Sort of like the situation of Moses, both Washington and Moses were killers as young men by Necessities' Circumstance, and yet by the dedication, resolve and humility of the remainder of their lifes each came to found a great Nation.
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On the contrary, he sired 4 children. Sadly, he and Martha outlived all of them.
The book is probably very good ,but the reviewer is full of BS, he immediately starts drawing the cloak of concealment over the American Indian,his role in the massacre, and his role as a bloodthirsty nightmare in the conflicts of the time, ands times soon to follow. No white commander whether British, French, Spanish, or American could control them even when under their command, although
Rogers Rangers did finally break the back of the powerful Iroquois.
I'm glad you posted, since my post seemed negative to wards Indians, I was afraid I would get flamed badly. I would recommend to everyone to study this era, but they better be ready for some very ugly realities to be revealed that will shatter much of what has been taught for the last 40 or so years in both schools and Hollywood.
My information is a bit different...he was a lt. colonel in the Virginia militia at the time and not a captain. Also, he never said he fired the first shot at Jumonville Glen...since he did not.
Thank you for your kind words of acknowledgement. Much appreciated.
Washington sired no children, SC was correct. He was stepfather to two of Martha's by her marriage to Daniel Parke Custis. Unfortunately, he and Martha outlived them both and mourned their loss greatly.
:') thanks Pharmboy. Plus, I was just makin' an ironic joke. ;')
Oh...I know--you're fine. It just frosts my behind when people post wrong info about The General as that other guy did.
He lives out the brief remainder of his life in the soft comforts of his wife, who has endured long years of sacrifice both by the absence of her husband and the death of all four of her children.
I misunderstood at first reading that the children referred to weren't also his. It was such a sad statement that it stuck with me. SunkenCiv's post called it back out. No offense meant... just trying to be helpful... poorly.
Thank you for correcting the record.
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