Rustic Warriors

"The martial tradition that developed in New England during the century after King Philip's War enabled the region's colonists to take up arms against Britain with surprising success in 1775, but no scholar before Steven Eames has subjected that tradition to the kind of searching, sustained analysis that he offers in this admirable book. Lay readers will find it readable, engaging, and full of fascinating detail. Scholars---including some who may disagree with aspects of Eames's interpretation---will have good reason to regard it as an indispensable overview of the emergence and' development of New England military practices and culture before the Seven Years' War, Rustic Warriors deserves a wide readership and a long life."---Fred Anderson author of The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War

"Steven Eames has crafted an insightful and much needed examination of colonial warfare on the northern frontier. His analysis of the effectiveness of the New England militia provides a long overdue corrective to stereotypes of their incompetence."---Emerson W. Baker author of The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England

The early French Wars (1689--1748) in North America saw provincial soldiers, or British white settlers, in Massachusetts and New Hampshire fight against New France and her Native American allies with minimal involvement from England. Taking issue with historians who have criticized provincial soldiers' battlefield style, strategy, and conduct, Steven Eames demonstrates that what developed in early New England was in fact a unique way of war that selectively blended elements of European military strategy, frontier fighting, and native American warfare. This new form of warfare responded to and influenced the particular challenges, terrain, and demography of early New England. Drawing upon a wealth of primary materials on King William's War, Queen Anne's War, Dummer's War, and King George's War, Eames offers a bottom-up view of how war was conducted and how war was experienced in this particular period and place. Throughout Rustic Warriors, he uses early New England culture as a staging ground from which to better understand the ways in which New Englanders waged war, as well as to provide a fuller picture of the differences between provincial, French, and Native American approaches to war.