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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...

Associated Press FORT EDWARD, N.Y. — Maj. Robert Rogers, the frontiersman whose 18th century manual on guerrilla warfare has become a blueprint for Army Ranger fighting tactics, is getting what some consider a long-overdue honor: a statue in his memory. But some veterans believe unveiling the monument on Memorial Day is insensitive because Rogers was loyal to England during the Revolutionary War. "I think it's a travesty that we would think about honoring a person, especially someone who fought against us, on that day," said Bob Bearor, who served in the Army's 101st Airborne Division in the 1960s. "It's a...

This spring and summer will bring a full slate of events keyed to the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War.

Associated Press Re-enactors fire their muskets at British soldiers near Fort Ticonderoga. There are as many as 3,000 French and Indian War re-enactors in the United States and another 800 in Canada. Welcome to 2005: the Year of the French and Indian War. Actually? Make that years, plural. The celebration is continuing through 2010. It seems that New York would like to be known as the French and Indian War State, since it will serve as host of a national, and international, five-year-long commemoration of the many battles that took place within its borders. Just exactly why are we...