Breaking the Backcountry: Seven Years War in Virginia and Pennsylvania 1754-1765

Matthew Ward pulls together a wide variety of contemporary and scholarly sources to examine a mostly ignored and largely misunderstood episode of American history: the French and Indian War. Meticulously footnoted, Ward examines the social, economic, political, and military dimensions of that war and leads you with the inescapable conclusion that catastrophic defeat was only narrowly averted. His examination of the immense military and political problems surrounding the formation of the First Virginia Regiment under Colonel George Washington indicate that the patience and fortitude shown by him during the defeats of 1776, the winter of 76-77, and later at Valley Forge were skills he mastered at Winchester and later in Western Pennsylvania. Politically the book carries a strong whiff of critical theory throughout and the author repeatedly searches to find class conflict though, to his credit he ultimately lets the facts rather than dialectic lead him. It was also vaguely disturbing to find Michael Bellsisles' fraudulent Arming America not only in the bibliography but referenced in footnotes. Overall an excellent book. If you want to understand this formative event in Colonial America and our first president's life this book is a must-read.

The author gives a good insight as to why the backcountry of both Pennslyvania and Virginia were inept in trying to quell the Indian raids of the period during the French and Indian war. I had read a lot of books on this era, but this is the first to tackle the reasons why.

Matthew Ward has written an excellent account of the Seven Years' War as it played out along the frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia. He begins with a chapter on the development of the backcountry (roughly the area west of the Susquehanna River in PA and the Upper Shenandoah Valley region of VA) and how events there became a struggle of occupation between the French and English, especially as they played out through the trade relations both countries developed with the Indians. Population soared in this area during the 1700s, and settlers' visions went beyond the Appalachians to the Ohio Valley. Ward discusses the effects of the fur trade, the frontier attitudes and how they differed from those of urban dwellers, and the question of who would control the Ohio Valley as important concerns in setting the stage for conflict. Of course, he tells of Braddock's expedition and defeat and how that unleashed a great number of raids and depredations against the settlers in the Cumberland and Shenandoah Valleys. The western settlers in PA had much difficulty getting the Quaker rulers in Philadelphia to appreciate the tremendous bellicosity that existed between them and the Indians (under French control), and their need for supplies, weapons, even soldiers to prevent all of central PA from being totally evacuated. Hundred of people were being killed and much property destroyed. Sometimes settler groups took matters into their own hands to defend themselves or protest against what they considered an uncaring government (the Paxton Boys). Ward covers all of this carefully and insightfully. The Forbes expedition to recapture Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) is dealt with, especially the controversy over which route to take, the old Braddock Road up from Cumberland, MD, or a new road through central PA (the latter was chosen, over the protests of Virginian George Washington, because it was shorter and forded fewer streams). After the British took firm control of the Forks of the Ohio, Indian relations broke down, fueled by the French. This led to Pontiac's rebellion, a last-ditch effort by the Indians to expel the English; one by one the British forts began to fall until only three remained standing (Niagara, Detroit, and Ft. Pitt). The backcountry was in flames once again. Col. Henry Bouquet led a force across Forbes's old road to Ft. Pitt, and a few miles short of it fought a battle at Bushy Run with a large contingency of Indians; Bouquet's victory stabilized events until a larger force could be raised and sent into the Ohio Valley the next year (1764) to put the conflict to rest once and for all. The book is scholarly and academic, but it's not dry. I found his focus on Virginia and especially Pennsylvania to be informative and fascinating. The war as it played out in PA is of particular interest to me, so I found Ward's book most welcome and enlightening. There aren't too many surprises in his account, no grand revisionist theories, just straightforward hi

Historians of the Seven Years War have often neglected to give much attention to the waging of that war in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and Virginia, preferring instead to concentrate on the conquest of Canada. Most of the set-piece, European style battles of that war happened in Canada or New York, and the conquest of Canada is generally viewed as the most important accomplishment of that war in North America. Yet it was in the backcountry of Pennsylvania where this first truly global war started, and its causes lay in the dispute between the English settlers of Virginia and Pennsylvania with the French over control of the rich country of the Ohio River Valley. And no area of North America suffered more from that war than did the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Matthew Ward has taken on this oft neglected subject, and has given us an excellent book detailing the war as it was fought in the backcountry. Ward opens by detailing the disputes between the Pennsylvanian and Virginian colonist with the French power in Canada over who had rightful claim to the Ohio country. He touches on the winter journey of young George Washington on his unsuccessful diplomatic mission to the French at Fort LeBoeuf, and his even more disastrous military expedition and defeat at the Great Meadows the following year. (Washington's ill-fated expedition is often cited as the unofficial beginning of the Seven Years War.) He then moves on to the disaster of Braddock's expedition and massacre, which marked both the official beginning of the war, and the beginnings of several years of savage, bloody raids on the backcountry, raids that nearly depopulated the entire frontier. The war in the backcountry was not a war of set-piece battles, but one of small, guerilla style raids by bands of Indians, sometimes accompanied by French soldiers. They were repeatedly able to strike settlements quickly, wreck maximum damage, and retire before any resistance could be organized. In some instances, they engaged in psychological warfare, by purposely leaving mutilated bodies of women and children to horrify and terrorize the colonist. (This was a novel development, deviating from traditional Indian warfare, where women and children were valued as captives and generally not killed.) In this manner, the French and Indians, though numerically inferior to the English colonists, were able to devastate the Pennsylvanian and Virginian frontiers. Ward goes into great detail over the problems these two colonies had in forming any kind of effective military resistance to these raids on the backcountry. Neither colony had any previous military tradition, as both had enjoyed long periods of peaceful relations with their native neighbors. In addition, the population of the frontier was fragmented over issues of race and religion, had developed few community binding institutions, and had no clear elites who could naturally step into roles of military leadership. In Pennsylvania, th

Matthew Ward's interesting and informative book is a meticulously researched social and military history of the Seven Years' War. It will be of special interest to those who live in those parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia that in the mid-18th century were part of the "backcountry" where most of the fierce fighting took place. Social, economic, and religious divisions among the inhabitants of the backcountry play a prominent role in this story as does the diplomacy between various Indian tribes and the British and the French. British military ineptness along with the scandalous treatment of the Indians by greedy colonial landowners and unscrupulous British agents are central themes of the book. As students of American history know, this fascinating conflict between the British and French (and their native American allies) generated issues that led directly to the American revolution of 1776. If you want to read one book on the Seven Years' War, this is a good place to start.