Empires at War

by Jr. , William M. Fowler

  3. John Shy, Towards Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), p. 64.

  4. Lords of Trade to William Johnson, September 29, 1763, NYCD, 7:567.

  5. Montreal Gazette, October 12, 2001.

  A Note on Sources

  Material for the Seven Years War is as vast as the subject itself. Online catalog searches yield a mountain of titles, which can be overwhelming. For a more manageable point of entry, see the somewhat dated but still useful bibliographic guide by James G. Lydon, Struggle for Empire: A Bibliography of the French and Indian War (New York: Garland Publishing, 1986). A bit older than Lydon, but still very useful, are the two volumes by Lawrence Henry Gipson, A Bibliographic Guide to the History of the BritishEmpire, 1748-1776 (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1969),and A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to the History ofthe British Empire (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970). These are volumes 14 and 15 of his monumental A History of the British Empire Before the American Revolution (vols. 1—3, Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1985; vols. 4-15, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989-70).

  Although frequent targets for modern critics, Francis Parkman's France and England in North America, 9 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1865-92), and The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1851), remain important sources for this period. Of particular note are the two volumes, Montcalm and Wolfe, which despite its flaws, continues to hold its place as a piece of magisterial history and an American literary classic. Parkman's work on these two figures looms so large as to apparently prevent others from engaging them. Both Montcalm and Wolfe need modern biographies. Julian S. Corbett, England in the Seven Years War: A Study in Combined Strategy, 2 vols. (London: Long­mans, Green, 1907), provides a strategic overview. England's domestic political issues are considered in Richard Middleton, The Bells of Victory: The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven YearsWar (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985). A comprehensive contemporary view of the war from the British perspective is the very useful Thomas Mante, The History of the Late War in NorthAmerica and the Islands of the West Indies (London: Printed for W. Strahan, 1772). TheGentlemen's Magazine and Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, 3 vols. (London: Henry Col-burn, 1846), as well as his Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, 4 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1845), Provide insight into the domestic reactions to news from abroad and a sampling of political gossip.

  Military information can be found in: Andrew Gallup and Donald F. Shaffer, La Marine: The FrenchColonial Soldier in Canada (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1992); Lee Kennett,The French Armies in theSeven Years War (Durham: Duke University Press, 1967); and H. C. B. Rogers, The British Army of the Eighteenth Century (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1977). For the French navy, see James Pritchard, Louis XVs Navy, 1748-1762: A Study of Organization and Administration (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1987). The standard source for the Royal Navy remains William Laird Clowes, The RoyalNavy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present, 7 vols. (London: S. Low, Marston, 1897-1903).

  The most recent analysis of the war is the fine work by Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The SevenYears War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000). On the French side, Richard Waddington,La Guerre de Sept Ans: Histoire diplomatique et militaire, 5 vols. (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1899—1914) is comprehensive but old. Guy Fregault, Canada: The War of the Conquest, translated by Margaret M. Cameron (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1969), provides the Canadian view. Beyond these standard general overviews, specific topics are covered in a dense thicket of monographic, secondary, and journal literature. One journal deserves special mention: The Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum, published since 1927, is a treasure of information both primary and secondary. The multivolume Dictionary of Canadian Biography ought also to be counted an important source of information as well as The Atlas of Canadian History, 3 vols., edited by R. Cole Harris, with maps by Geoffrey J. Matthews (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987—93).

  Manuscript sources are important as well. British North America was a literate society, and its soldiers were wont to keep journals and diaries, and to write letters home. Many major historical societies and repositories, particularly those connected to the original colonies, have relevant collections. The papers of Francis Parkman, containing thousands of pages of transcripts, at the Massachusetts Historical Society are particularly rich and should be used in connection with the society's collection of diaries and journals from the war. The papers of Lord Loudoun are at the Huntington Library, and the Canadian Archives possesses originals and copies of a great number of papers relating to the principal officers, including Jeffrey Amherst and James Wolfe. Some of these original materials have been published and appear in a variety of colonial records series. Among the most important of these, despite certain questions about translation, is Edmund B. O'Callaghan, ed., Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, 10 vols. (Albany: Weed, Parsons, 1853—58). The published colonial records of Virginia, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania are also useful, as are the variety of materials appearing in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Published manuscript sources are more limited on the Canadian side. Parkman's contemporary and correspondent H. R. Casgrain was a prodigious collector, author, and editor. He oversaw the transcription and editing of Collection des Manuscrits du Marechal de Lévis, 12 vols. (Quebec: L. J. Demers and Frere, 1889—95). Arthur G. Doughty and George W. Parmelee, eds., The Siege of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, 6 vols. (Quebec: Dussault and Proulx, 1901), is a comprehensive collection of documents. Arthur G. Doughty also edited John Knox, An Historical Account of the Campaigns in North America for the Years 1757, 1758, 1759 and 1760, 3 vols. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1914—16). Reports of the Public Archives (Ottawa: F. A. Acland, various dates), are also valuable.

  Papers of several of the key players in the struggle have been published. These include: Clarence Webster, ed., The Journal of Jeffrey Amherst, Recording the Military Career of General Amherst in America from 1758 to 1763 (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1981); Richard Middleton, ed., Amherst and the Conquest of Canada (London: Army Records Society, 2003); Edward P. Hamilton, ed., Adventure in the Wilderness:The American Journals of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, 1756—1760 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964); Sylvester K. Stevens, Donald H. Kent, and Emma E. Woods, eds., The Papers of Henry Bouquet, series 21631, 21632, 20 vols. (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1940-43); Stanley M. Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, 1748—1765: Selected Documents from the Cumberland Papers in Windsor Castle (New York: D. Appleton Century, 1936); David Syrett, comp., The Siege and Capture of Havana (London: Naval Records Society, 1970); James Sullivan, ed., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, 14 vols. (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1921—65); Gertrude S. Kimball, ed., The Correspondence of William Pitt, When Secretary of State, with Colonial Governors and Military and Naval Commissioners in America, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1906); Timothy J. Todish, ed., The Annotated and Illustrated Journals of Major Robert Rogers (Fleischmanns, N.Y.: Purple Mountain Press, 2002); Charles Henry Lincoln, ed., The Correspondence of William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts and Military Commander in America, 1731—1760, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1912); W. W. Abbot, ed., The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, 10 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983—1995). For documents on the diplomatic controversies in North America, see Theodore Calvin Pease, Anglo-French Boundary Disputes in the West, 1749—1763 (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1936).

  In recent years considerable attention has been directed toward examining the role of Native Americans in the struggle for North America. The task is difficult since virtually all the written materials arrive through European eyes. The various published colonial sources cited above contain reports, correspo
ndence, and minutes of various meetings, as well as the texts of numerous treaties. For French relations with the Indians, Reuben G. Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Related Documents. Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610—1791, 73 vols. (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1896—1901) is essential. A fundamental beginning point remains William G. Sturtevant, general editor, The Handbook of North American Indians, 17 vols. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978- ). Volume 15 of that work, edited by Bruce Trigger, The Northeast, is particularly important. Other scholarship includes: James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Colin G. Calloway, The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600—1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990); David H. Corkran, The Cherokee Frontier: Conflict and Survival, 1740—1762 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962); Gregory Evans Dowd, War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations and the British Empire (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002); Francis Jennings, Empire of Fortune: Colonies and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America (New York: Norton, 1988); and D. Peter MacLeod, The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Years War (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1996); James H. Merrell, Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier (New York: Norton, 1999); Daniel Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992); Richard White, The Middle Ground: Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650—1815 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

  Since many of the North American sites associated with the war evidence physical remains, archaeological studies can be useful. Two I found particularly useful are: Gerald E. Bradfield, Fort William Henry: Digging Up History (n.p.: French and Indian War Society, 2001) and David R. Starbuck, The Great Warpath: British Military Sites from Albany to Crown Point (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1999).

  Twenty-first-century scholarship requires acknowledgment of electronic sources. A "google" search under almost any term associated with the French and Indian War (people, places, events) yields a long list of "hits." Some of these sites are nothing more than advertisements for tourist attractions, but many, particularly those associated with Parks Canada, the National Park Service, libraries, and the various states and provinces, are reliable. Increasingly, library and archival sources are online as well. Both the Jesuit Relations and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, for example, are available electronically. The Canadian National Library and Archives presents a very impressive array of electronic sources, which is being added to almost daily.