“…they have all the essentials of discipline—they are under good command, punctual in obeying orders: (there is no such thing as corporal punishment [1]) they can act in concert by each man observing the motion or movement of his right hand companion. They can perform various necessary manoeuvres. Either slowly, or as fast as they can run: form a circle or a semi-circle; also a hollow square. When they go into battle, they are not loaded or incumbered with many clothes, they commonly fight naked, save only the breech-clout, leggings and mockasons. They are commonly well-equipped and exceedingly active and expert in the use of arms.”
-James Smith, border-soldier, Indian captive for five years
In this city, learning military discipline, and waiting for an opportunity of carrying our schemes into execution, we lay till the first of July; during all which time, great outrages and devastations were committed by the savages in the back parts of the province.
One instance of which, in particular, I shall relate, as being concerned in rewarding, according to desert, the wicked authors thereof.
Joseph Long, Esq. a gentleman of large fortune in those parts, who had in his time been a great warrior among the Indians, and frequently joined in expeditions with those in our interest, against the others.
His many exploits and great influence among several of the nations, were too well known to pass unrevenged by the savages against whom he had exerted his abilities. Accordingly, in April 1756, a body of them came down on his plantation, about 3O miles from Boston, and, sculking in the woods for some time, at last seized an opportunity to attack his house, in which, unhappily proving successful, they scalped, mangled, and cut to pieces, the unfortunate gentleman, his wife, and nine servants[2]; and then made a general conflagration of his houses, barns, cattle, and every thing he possessed, which, with the mangled bodies, were all consumed in one blaze.
But his more unfortunate son and daughter were made prisoners, and carried off by them to be reserved for greater tortures—Alarmed and terrified at this inhuman butchery, the neighbourhood, as well as the people of Boston, quickly assembled themselves to think of proper measures to be revenged on these execrable monsters. Among the first of those who offered themselves to go against the savages, was James Crawford, Esq. who was then at Boston, and heard of this tragedy; he was a young gentleman who had for some years paid his addresses to Miss Long, and was in a very little time to have been married to her. Distracted, raving, and shocked as he was, he lost no time, but instantly raised 100 resolute and bold young fellows, to go in quest of the villains. As I had been so long among them, and was pretty well acquainted with their manners and customs, and particularly their sculking places in the woods, I was recommended to him as one proper for his expedition; he immediately applied to my officers, and got liberty for [me].
Never did I go on any enterprise with half that alacrity and cheerfulness I now went with this party. My wrongs and sufferings were too recent in my memory to suffer me to hesitate a moment in taking an opportunity of being revenged to the utmost of my power.
Notes
1: A corporal, the lowest ranking infantry enlisted officer in western militaries, draws his name from his original function, which was to beat into submission the condemned men that made up early modern European armies. Indian forces, being able to act cohesively under command of war chiefs, surprised European officers, who only got obedience out of their men through fear. The great generals of the era, from Frederick the Great down to Napoleon, seemed to have despised their soldiers and cared more for the well-being of the opposing officers. In this era, a soldier was a slave—often a condemned criminal—, literally a colorfully dressed toy that was marched around and shot by order of his master.
2: Without the cooperation of Indian allies any frontier society in which free armed men are outnumbered 9 to 1 by their unarmed servants, could not possibly defend itself. In the city, where many free men worked in trades processing goods from the plantations there was plenty of man power for the common defense, marking a sharp divide in operational environment between the wilderness and near-town countryside.
Thanks for posting these. I read a similar book called Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879. With this kind of savagery the contest between Whites and Indians was always going to be to the death. One was going to exterminate the other. I noted what you said earlier that the Indians were living in an Apocalyptic world. Due to disease their population crashed in ways we can not imagine.
The same thing happened in South America. A Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana. This guy.
3.bp.blogspot.com/_STEiBZf9Ru4/TCleGGcLKaI/AAAAAAAAB4s/dLyj3z0JAXM/s1600/orellana1.jpg
Went all the way down the Amazon in 1540. He said that there were huge cities of over 100,000 people. A long time passed before anyone else went to the same territory and there was nothing but jungle and a few small tribes so they thought he lied.
In the Amazon people have been mining this super rich black soil called Terra preta for hundreds of years. Turns out the Indians made this soil from charred corn stalks and that there was huge cities there but they all died. Using satellite photos they've found vast fields where they made this soil and in some areas they made raised canals with farming on top and fish farms in the canals.