In America's first war, known as the French and Indian War, France and England-both in unholy alliance with warring Native American tribes-battled each other in a series of bloody conflicts and terrifying attacks on colonial settlements. No more brutal raid was carried out than the massacre of the settlers at Fort William Henry-an atrocity memorably depicted in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.Following the raid, Major Robert Rogers and his famous band of "Rangers" marched north into French territory to exact retribution, where they ruthlessly attacked a peaceful village of the Abenaki Indians, massacring its people with a frightening vengeance. After the raid, the attackers endured a horrifying journey back, as some of the men were captured and tortured, while others resorted to cannibalism rather than starve in the wilderness. When the remnants of Rogers' raiders, including the Major himself, returned, they were hailed as heroes and the legend of the brave Robert Rogers began. But was he hero, or was he the "white devil," as the Abenaki still call him? In vivid prose, Stephen Brumwell explores the truth behind the legend of this controversial and dramatic episode from America's violent past.
