Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
French & Indian War
By artfully illustrating the boundaries of colonial powers, mapmakers in the 1700s helped define what our New World would become.
Ambitious, temperamental, and passionate, George Washington learned the skills in the French & Indian War that laid the groundwork for the great leader that he would one day become.
Excerpted from the George Washington Book Prize finalist Young Washington: H Read more >>
Members of the Maryland Forces guard memories of a dramatic history at Fort Frederick, the best preserved fort from the former English colonies in America.
As I drove through the Maryland woods to old Fort Freder Read more >>
Two hundred and fifty years ago, Major Robert Rogers and his rangers launched a daring wilderness raid against an enemy village, but paid a steep price
A dozen miles north of the British fort of Crown Point on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, amid the buttonbush, bulrush, and cattail wetlands that crowded Otter Creek’s delta, Maj. Robert Rogers glassed down the lake for the lateen sails of a patrolling enemy French sloop or schooner. Pulled into hiding within the marsh lay 17 whaleboats, each bearing eight oars and provisions for a month. It was Saturday, September 15, 1759, in the midst of the French and Indian War, the titanic struggle between the French and British empires for dominion over North America.
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By a brilliant maneuver young James Wolfe conquered “impregnable” Quebec—and secured North America for the English-speaking peoples