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The Bloody Reality of Indian Summer by Mark Hatmaker

 


In such colonial warfare all were soldiers because all lived on the battlefield.”-Daniel J. Boorstin, Historian and author of the Bancroft Prize winning trilogy The Americans.

The early American mind, the rough hewn frontier rough n tumble mindset was one diametrically opposed to open field, fair play “warfare” tactics, a culture less steeped in the sportive affections of Mother England and the Continent.

The orderly rules of warfare described by men such as Grotius in his De jure belli ac pacis [On the Law of War and Peace] or even in the combat games that followed an early “sense of fair play” such as the boxing rules laid down by Broughton and later the Marquis of Queensberry, well, these did not hold in the New World.

This passion for orderliness in sport and war was practically non-existent in the new realties of the New World.

War in Early America simply did not follow the “rules.”

Combat sport in the New World was equally as “free and wild.”

Indigenous assaults and the Anglo counter assaults were marked by a viciousness long since dead across the Atlantic.

A ferocious barbarism and savagery had less returned to humanity than never ceased to exist on this continent.

The Reverend Joseph Doddridge writing in his Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania From 1763-1783 regarding the character of warfare in Western Virginia had this to say.

The Indian kills indiscriminately. His object is the total extermination of his enemies. Children are victims of his vengeance, because, if males, they may hereafter become warriors, or females, they may become mothers. Even the fetal state is criminal in his view. It is not enough that the fetus should perish with the murdered mother, it is torn from her pregnant womb, and elevated on a stick or pole as a trophy of victory and an object of horror to the survivors of the slain. If the Indian takes prisoners, mercy has but little concern in the transaction. He spares the lives of those who fall into his hands for the purpose of feasting the feelings of ferocious vengeance of himself and his comrades, by the torture of his captive.”

Lest one think the good and frank Reverend exaggerates, the historical record abounds with supporting accounts. The savagery and travesty abound on both sides of the ledger.

Here we find none of the “orderliness” of warfare as existing somewhat contemporaneously on the entire European continent.

The Americas were a different brutal breed of cat.

Every section of the seacoast colonies suffered massacres. Cotton Mather himself wrote they were “assaulted by unknown numbers of devils in flesh on every side.”

The native peoples were feared as “so many unkennell’d wolves.”

For the necessity of survival, garrisons were established in each somewhat populated area. Garrisons can be thought of as domestic “forts” for refuge. “Houses of retreat” once the “hue and cry” was issued.

Keep in mind, garrison life was spartan subsistence living. It was a life of danger and uncertainty.

Even times we now refer to poetically originally were “Seasons of Fear.”

For example, Indian Summer.

A backwoodsman seldom hears this expression [Indian Summer] without feeling a chill of horror during the long continued Indian war sustained by the first settlers of the West, they enjoyed no peace excepting in the winter season, when, owing to the severity of the weather, the Indians were unable to make their excursions into the settlements. The onset of winter was therefore held as a jubilee by the early inhabitants of the country, who, throughout the spring and the early part of the fall, had been cooped up in…uncomfortable forts, and subjected to all the distresses of the Indian war. At the approach of winter, therefore all the farmers excepting the owner of the Fort, removed to their cabins on their farms, with the joyful feelings of a tenant of a prison recovering his release from confinement. All was bustle and hilarity and preparing for winter, by gathering in the corn, digging potatoes, fattening hogs, and repairing the cabins. To our forefathers the gloomy months in the winter were more pleasant than the zephyrs of the flowers of May. It however sometimes happened, after the apparent onset of winter, the weather became warm; The smoky time commenced, and lasted for a considerable number of days. This was the Indian summer, because it afforded the Indians another opportunity of visiting the settlements with the destructive warfare. The melting of the snow saddened every countenance, and the genial warmth of the sun chilled every heart with horror. The apprehension of another visit from the Indians, and being driven back to the detested fort, was painful in the highest degree, and the distressing apprehension was frequently realized.”

War was frequent, brutal, and nothing akin to the manuals and rules of warfare across the pond.

This culture of immediacy also bred different forms of martial readiness. Here, all must be prepared, not simply career soldiers. Men, women and children Anglo and Indigenous were indoctrinated in the ways of war and survival.

Here, all was seen as preparation for survival.

Hunting, turkey shoots, tomahawk throwing, the far more vicious form of scufflin’ [boxing and wrestling] were seen as survival, pastime and readiness endeavor.

Looking to the manuals and guidebooks and histories of warfare [armed or unarmed] on the far side of the Atlantic tells us little about what actually existed by necessity on the Wild Side of the Atlantic.

Let us end today where we began, “In such colonial warfare all were soldiers because all lived on the battlefield.”-Daniel J. Boorstin, Historian and author of the Bancroft Prize winning trilogy The Americans.

[In support of this essay I highly recommend a paired reading with GARRISON FIGHTING.]

Mull these further resources, Warriors!

The Black Box Training Warehouse for All Things Rough n Tumble

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast



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