Book depicts ‘lost world’ of forest encounters
By Robert
B. Swift
John
L. Moore provides new insights and a compelling narrative of the turbulent
world of frontier America during the 18th century in “Warriors,
Wampum & Wolves,” the sixth volume in a series. Moore
brings us an engaging treatment of Gen. Edward Braddock’s ill-fated campaign in
1755 to oust the French from the Ohio Valley. His account gives us a fresh
perspective of something often lost in the histories of this march through the
wilderness – the troubles the British army experienced with logistics and their
erstwhile Native American allies.
Moore includes
a later description by Moravian missionary John Heckewelder of how horses’
hooves made “dismal music” as they walked over the unburied bones of Braddock’s
soldiers. But Moore’s book is overall about a lost world of encounters in the
forest between the colonial Americans and the Iroquois and Delaware – the tree paintings
along trails and the travails of a Seneca given the English name of Captain
Newcastle.
It’s a
world worth visiting.
Robert B. Swift is the author of “The Mid-Appalachian Frontier: A Guide to
Historic Sites of the French and Indian War.” A journalist, he is based in Central Pennsylvania.
Author offers ‘a deeper look at pioneers, Native Americans’
By Catherine Felegi
“Warriors,
Wampum & Wolves” is an in-depth look of the travels of missionaries, Native
Americans, squatters, generals and some of history’s more famed characters,
showcasing their multiple roles and responsibilities. The short book delves
into a time when travelers were required to have a variety of skill sets in
order to survive – missionaries doubling as hunters, fishermen and wood
workers, even as medicine men.
Author John L. Moore performed extensive
research on the lives of a variety of different individuals, as is evident by
the multiple sources quoted so that readers can both understand the lives of
the inhabitants past as well as immerse in the dialect and thoughts of the
various narrators.
As someone who despised history classes in
high school and practically fell asleep during college history courses, I must
admit that I immensely enjoyed this fascinating read. It was amazing to have a
deeper look at pioneers and Native Americans than just paper-thin Disney
characters and Hollywood actors.
The prose is extensive, the history is more
engaging than that found in your standard history book and the narrator has a
wit past explanation. In “Warriors, Wampum & Wolves,” Moore succeeds as a
history writer who can enrapture even the most fidgety history hater.
A freelance
writer and blogger, Catherine Felegi is the founder and author of the blog Tea
Love. She lives in Cranford, N.J.
Indians, soldiers ‘march across these pages'
By Thomas J. Brucia
The latest in John Moore’s series of books
called “The Pennsylvania Frontier Series” lives up to the high caliber of
storytelling of other works in his series!
The peoples of 18th century frontier Pennsylvania – settlers,
soldiers, and Indians alike – march across these pages in a human drama that we
can understand, but, more importantly, feel
almost 300 years later.
Moore lets the actors describe themselves in
their own words: the misunderstandings, conflicts, family tragedies, deaths,
diseases, hunger, wars, and the simply mundane business of their everyday lives. Our storyteller takes just as much care in
describing the Indians’ daily slog, quarrels, family life, customs and mores as
he does their sometimes friends – and sometimes rivals – the European settlers. Both groups formed intertwined threads in a
single frontier web.
When he describes a famous campaign in the
French and Indian War, Moore deftly uses his sources to make General Braddock’s
doomed expedition come to life. Incidents of friendly fire, frightened European
soldiers used to fighting in open spaces but never in woods, slow progress as
an army builds a road (!) into the mountains – mile by mile – are all described
as if patiently carved into oak to make woodcut prints.
One can’t go wrong with this work. It’s the kind of tale one might read aloud to
one’s children out in the woods at evenings while huddled around a campfire –
especially on cold nights when the wind is driving snowflakes into the
flames.
Thomas J. Brucia lives in
Houston, Texas. Many of his book reviews are posted on Amazon.com.
