The opening years of the French and Indian War were disastrous for the British. Fort William Henry on the southern shore of New York's Lake George was a key fortification supporting British interests along the frontier with French America.

An illustrated history of the French siege of Fort William Henry in 1757 and the most infamous incident of the French-Indian War: the massacre that inspired the book The Last of the Mohicans. After the British garrison of Fort William Henry in the colony of New York surrendered to the besieging army of the French commander Marquis de Montcalm in August 1757, it appeared that this particular episode of the French and Indian War was over. What happened next became the most infamous incident of the war: the 'massacre' of Fort William Henry. As the garrison prepared to march for Fort Edward a flood of enraged Native Americans swept over the column, unleashing an unstoppable tide of slaughter. James Fenimore Cooper's version has coloured our view of the incident, so what really happened? Ian Castle details updated research on the campaign, including some fascinating archaeological work that took place over the last 20 years, updating the view put forward by The Last of the Mohicans.

Featuring information from a previously unpublished journal, an illustrated account of this strategically important battle in Canada. Louisbourg represented a major threat to Anglo-American plans to invade Canada. Bypassing it would leave an immensely powerful enemy base astride the Anglo-American lines of communication – Louisbourg had to be taken. Faced with strong beach defences and rough weather, it took six days to land the troops, and it was only due to a stroke of daring on the part of a young brigadier named James Wolfe, who managed to turn the French beach position, that this was achieved. The story is largely based on firsthand accounts from the journals of several participants, including French Governor Drucour's, whose excellent account has never been published.

Steele makes the case that the massacre at Fort William Henry was not a result of "homicidal" rage, as fictionalized in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, but rather a forseeable collision of attitudes about prisoners of war.

Fort Laurens was erected on the banks of the Tuscarawas River in Ohio in the fall of 1778 as the planned first step to secure the Western Frontier in the Revolutionary War. This book is the first complete account of the fort's history, drawing on all the documentary evidence available and placing it in the context of the larger struggle for independence.