Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the Massacre

by Ian K. Steele

On the morning of August 9, 1757, British and colonial officers defending the besieged Fort William Henry surrendered to French forces, accepting the generous "parole of honor" offered by General Montcalm. As the column of British and colonials marched with their families and servants to Fort Edward some miles south, they were set upon by the Indian allies of the French. The resulting "massacre," thought to be one of the bloodiest days of the French and Indian War, became forever ingrained in American myth by James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel The Last of the Mohicans.

In Betrayals, historian Ian K. Steele gives us the true story behind Cooper's famous book, bringing to life men such as British commander of Fort William Henry George Monro, English General Webb, his French counterpart Montcalm, and the wild frontier world of Natty Bumppo. The Battle of Lake George and the building of the fort marked the return of European military involvement in intercolonial wars, producing an explosive mixture of the contending martial values of Indians, colonials, and European regulars. The Americans and British who were attacked after surrendering, as well as French officers and their Indian allies (the latter enraged by the small amount of English booty allowed them by the French), all felt deeply betrayed. Contemporary accounts of the victims - whose identities Steele has carefully reconstructed from newly discovered sources - helped to create a powerful, racist American folk memory that still resonates today. Survivors included men and women who were adopted into Indian tribes, sold to Canadians in a well-established white servant trade, or jailed in Canada or France as prisoners of war.

Explaining the motives for the most notorious massacre of the colonial period, Steele offers a gripping tale of a fledgling America, one which places the tragic events of the Seven Years' War in a fresh historical context. Anyone interested in the fact behind the fiction will find it fascinating reading.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Ian K. Steele is professor emeritus and adjunct research professor of history at Western University.

Reviews

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his preface to Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the “Massacre,” Ian K. Steele states, “The twentieth century has, perhaps with humane intention, tended to forget Fort William Henry, or leave it to the ‘literature’ of James Fenimore Cooper, Francis Parkman, or H.-R. Casgrain.” With respect to this consignment of the events at Fort William Henry to the cobwebbed back shelves of historical memory, or to the narratives characteristic of Parkman, author of Montcalm and Wolfe, and others of his persuasion, Steele suggests a closer examination of the so-called massacre is warranted, and that “readers will agree that understanding is preferable to forgetting.” Harvard University’s Eric Hinderaker characterized Steele’s effort in Betrayals as “a careful, full-length study of a military engagement from a multicultural perspective ... [which] attempts to clarify the circumstances that made alliances between Indians and Europeans fragile and unpredictable.” Whether Steele fully succeeds in his endeavor to present a fuller, more nuanced “retelling” of the events at Fort William Henry is subject to some debate.

The structure of Betrayals is roughly divided in to several parts of unequal length. The first two chapters, just over fifty pages, provide context and general historical background of the region surrounding Fort William Henry and the inhabitants of same. The third chapter encompasses a twenty-page description of the fort itself. The next seventy pages comprise Steele’s assessment of the siege, alleged “massacre,” and resultant aftermath of the events at the fort. Finally, Steele devotes nearly forty pages to explication of the popular myth of the “massacre,” with attention paid to the utility of the story of the fort for seizure of Indian land. To supplement his text, Steele provides an appendix of muster rosters, annotated with the fates of the missing troops paroled from the Massachusetts and New Hampshire units.

Colin Calloway, writing in the journal Ethnohistory, suggested that Steele creates too significant of a distinction “between European military codes and Indian-style guerrilla warfare,” particularly as this distinction does not account for descriptions to the contrary offered by Francis Jennings, or by Christopher Duffy in The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, or records of military engagements in Europe (Calloway cites the Battle of Culloden, which ended the Jacobite Uprising in Scotland in 1745). In Calloway’s analysis, Betrayals represents “the last word on the subject,” but only “until an ethnohistorian attempts the kind of close analysis Steele has done, but with a particular emphasis on the Indian participants.” Harvard’s Eric Hinderaker likewise took issue with gaps in Steele’s treatment of native groups, noting that intertribal rivalries are not considered in Steele’s analysis of the campaign against the fort, and that the Christianized Abenaki affiliated with Père Roubaud are viewed exclusively through a Western lens, abrogating their own agency and initiatives. Paradoxically, Steele levels this same critique in his review of Michael Mann’s film adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans, noting “the well-documented tensions between rival tribes, between Christian and non-Christian Indians, and between the French and their Indian allies ... are intriguing aspects of Indian involvement that are overlooked in this action film.” Fred Anderson was, in his review, more laudatory, characterizing Steele as “practicing military history as a variety of cultural anthropology” in Betrayals, owing to Steele’s interpretation of the pressures which were exerted on the alliance between the French and the various Indian groups which participated in the actions against the fort, as well as the attendant consequences. In this regard, Anderson is perhaps the most accurate. Steele’s work in Betrayals represents a significant contribution to the military history portion of the French and Indian War’s historiography, but one which leaves open the possibility for further engagement of the subject by ethnohistorians or military historians inclined toward ethnohistory.

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great look at the creation, battle, "massacre" and historiography of the Battle of Ft. William Henry. The book uses lots of primary sources to draw conclusions about the motivations of the various people involved, both French and British. It also draws on as much correspondence as possible to look for the motivations of the Native peoples as well. A great read if this specific battle/period interests you.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for honors thesis

[Cy]

Reading this for my class on the American Revolution. I'm only a few chapters in and seems like most other history books: dry but potentially interesting if you're into it.

The version I'm reading is actually the version from Google Books. Frustratingly, all the maps, graphs, and tables and such from the original have been removed from this edition and replaced with "Copyrighted image has been removed by the Publisher."

Nothing like buying a 14$ book to find out parts of it are missing.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

(literally who cares)