Seven Years' War in North America (Military History)

Introduction

The Seven Years’ War represents the first world war in human history, but it remains the only global conflict that began in America. As the last, and greatest, of the colonial wars in North America, it stands, along with the American Revolution, as one of two key events in US history during the 18th century, and the defining event in the history of Canada. The conflict decisively shaped the societies of many Native peoples who lived on lands east of the Mississippi River, precipitating the uprising that Pontiac and his allies later launched against the triumphant British Empire. The war also famously resulted in France’s expulsion from most of North America, while Great Britain effectively doubled its national debt, setting the stage for political conflict between the world’s greatest imperial power and most of its colonies across the Atlantic. Fortunately for students of this momentous era, the existing literature on the Seven Years’ War not only offers a variety of wide-ranging approaches, it also includes a number of especially engaging works that rank among the best works in all of Native American, Canadian, and American history.

General Overviews

The Seven Years’ War, as a historical subject, appears to lend itself to epic narratives of events. Among these, Parkman 1884 deserves attention as an exemplary work of historical literature, despite its evident bias. In the mid-20th century, Gipson completed his Pulitzer prize–winning history of the “the Great War for Empire,” as he famously dubbed the conflict. Researched and composed during the era of World War II, Gipson 1958 presents a largely favorable view of the transatlantic British-American alliance that won the Seven Years’ War. More recent works such as Frégault 1969 and Jennings 1988 counter Gipson’s largely sympathetic portrayal of the British Empire. The best modern overview of the conflict remains Anderson 2000, which will serve as an excellent starting point for readers.

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766. New York: Knopf, 2000.
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An ambitious study in the tradition of epic works by Parkman and Gipson, Crucible of War presents the argument that the war was “the most important event to occur in eighteenth-century North America” (p. xv). While Anderson’s synthesis focuses on the conflict in North America, it also devotes considerable attention to developments in Asia, Europe, and Africa, enabling the reader to understand how external forces shaped events in America.
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Baugh, Daniel. The Global Seven Years War, 1754–1763: Britain and France in a Great Power Contest. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2011.
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Baugh views the Seven Years’ War as a part of a “great-power confrontation” between the two dominant imperial states of the day: France and Great Britain (p. 1). In taking a global view of the conflict, the book not only fills a critical gap in the historiography, it presents a comprehensive, absorbing, and masterful narrative that deserves a wide readership.
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Frégault, Guy. Canada: The War of the Conquest. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1969.
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In a somewhat dated, though badly needed history by a Québécois historian, Frégault wryly observes that Gipson’s view of the conflict as the “Great War for Empire” was an “admirable choice,” though only from a British perspective. The author also argues that the conflict was the “most important event in Canadian history” and adds that the Seven Years’ War marked an essential precondition of the American Revolution.
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Gipson, Lawrence Henry. The British Empire before the American Revolution. 15 vols. New York: Knopf, 1958.
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In his papers preserved at Lehigh University, Lawrence Henry Gipson once referred to the fifteen volumes in this magnum opus as “his children.” The sixth, seventh, and eighth books address the conflict directly and offer an authoritative, and well-documented, narrative of events. Modern scholars should not overlook the final volume in the collection, which presents a thorough, and often highly detailed, guide to manuscripts located around the world.
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Hinderaker, Eric. Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley, 1673–1800. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511528651Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Elusive Empires places the contest for dominance of the strategic Ohio Valley in a wider imperial perspective by showing how competing French, British, and Native interests vied for control of the region. Hinderaker also shows that the need to ensure that the benefits of control of this territory extended back to Europe both guided and constrained the policies of imperial administrators in Britain and France.
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Jennings, Francis. Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies, and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America. New York: Norton, 1988.
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A sharply critical revision of Gipson, Jennings’s work presents a harsh indictment of the British Empire.
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Parkman, Francis. Montcalm and Wolfe. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1884.
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The seventh book in his monumental multivolume epic, France and England in North America, Parkman’s study of the Seven Years’ War in America remains a literary classic. Though historians such as Francis Jennings and W. J. Eccles criticized his approach for its evident bias, Parkman produced an enduring grand narrative of the conflict despite serious health concerns that made it difficult for him to walk and virtually blinded him.
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Schumann, Matt, and Karl Schweizer. The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic History. New York: Routledge, 2008.
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The authors view the Seven Years’ War through the lens of Atlantic studies, arguing that operations in North America, as well as on the Atlantic, allowed the British and the Prussians to defeat France and its allies in Europe.
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Primary Sources

Numerous original documents concerning the Seven Years’ War appear in print, ranging from multivolume compendiums of archival materials collected by army commanders to individual accounts authored by private soldiers. Although the majority of these works contain papers produced by British officials and colonial elites, there are a number of important sources representing alternate perspectives.

Multivolume Collections

Scholars provide extensive and particularly well-edited, coverage of voluminous archival materials pertaining to the Seven Years’ War in North America. Among these, those on Washington (Abbot 1988–1990) are especially well edited. Five volumes on the Bouquet papers (Stevens, et al. 1951–1994) largely concern campaigns in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Kimball 1906 and Sullivan 1922 contain documents related to William Pitt and William Johnson, respectively.

Abbot, W. W., ed. The Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series. Vols. 1–8. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988–1990.
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The first seven volumes in the superbly edited Colonial Series include an impressive collection of documents related to the origins of the war, Virginia’s mobilization, and especially Braddock’s and Forbes’s campaigns.
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Kimball, Gertrude Selwyn, ed. Correspondence of William Pitt When Secretary of State with Colonial Governors and Military and Naval Commissioners in America. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1906.
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Kimball’s collection contains letters culled from the Colonial Office papers in the British National Archives at Kew. In addition to Pitt, correspondents include numerous colonial governors and military officers.
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Stevens, S. K., Donald H. Kent, Autumn L. Leonard, et al., eds. The Papers of Henry Bouquet. 5 vols. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1951–1994.
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A well-edited, extensive collection of original documents located in the restrictive confines of the British Library, the papers of Henry Bouquet contain an enormous trove of materials relevant to scholars studying Native Americans, the Ohio Valley, military affairs during the Seven Years’ War, and the Pontiac uprising. The second volume centers on Forbes’s campaign of 1758.
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Sullivan, James, ed. The Papers of Sir William Johnson. Vols. 1–2. Albany: The University of the State of New York, 1922.
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William Johnson’s papers not only contain a wealth of important information on Native affairs, but the first two volumes also include a number of vital documents relevant to the Seven Years’ War, especially the British campaigns in New York in 1755 and 1759.
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Single-Volume Collections

Several extremely helpful individual volumes exist that contain valuable selections of manuscript materials. The most important single-volume collections of primary documents include Grenier 1952, Pargellis 1969, and Middleton 2003. For the origins of the war in the Ohio Valley from a French perspective, see Grenier 1952. O’Callaghan 1856 provides translations of French manuscripts by important correspondents. Pargellis 1969 and Middleton 2003 represent valuable companions to successive campaigns under Braddock, Loudoun, and Amherst. Willson 1909 includes some complete letters written by Wolfe. Syrett 1970 contains a collection of Admiralty and War Office papers related to the British campaign against Havana in 1762. For British parliamentary papers during the war, see Simmons and Thomas 1982.

Grenier, Fernand, ed. Papiers contrecouers et autre documents concernant le conflit Anglo-Français sur l’Ohio de 1745 à 1756. Quebec: Les Presses Universitaires Laval, 1952.
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The documents in this untranslated, yet superb, collection offer critical insights into French operations in the Ohio Valley that led to war. Although the Papiers contrecouers contain an anonymous journal of an expedition from Detroit in 1745, most of the material concerns developments in 1753, 1754, and 1755. Students of Native American history will find much on efforts to oppose European incursions into the Ohio region.
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Middleton, Richard, ed. Amherst and the Conquest of Canada: Selected Papers from the Correspondence of Major-General Jeffery Amherst While Commander-in-Chief in North America from September 1758 to December 1760. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2003.
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An outstanding collection of archival materials assembled from the extremely voluminous collections of Amherst papers in the British National Archives at Kew and at the Kent County Archives at Maidstone, most of the materials referencing the latter half of the war. As such Middleton’s volume represents an excellent companion to Pargellis’s Military Affairs in North America.
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O’Callaghan, E. B., ed. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. Vol. 10. Transcripts of Documents in the Archives of the “Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies.” Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, 1856.
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This collection consists of English translations of a number of valuable French primary documents, including correspondence from the Marquis de Montcalm.
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Pargellis, Stanley McCrory, ed. Military Affairs in North America, 1748–1765: Selected Documents from the Cumberland Papers in Windsor Castle. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1969.
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A superbly edited collection that provides documents accumulated by the commander of the British army. Most of the material that Pargellis assembled for this volume pertains to the first four years of the war.
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Simmons, R. C., and P. D. G. Thomas, eds. Proceedings and Debates of the British Parliaments Respecting North America. Vol. 1, 1754–1764. Millwood, NY: Kraus International, 1982.
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An invaluable collection of materials that includes statements from prominent British figures like by Henry Fox, as well as expense estimates for the army.
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Syrett, David. The Siege and Capture of Havana, 1762. London: Navy Records Society, 1970.
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Syrett’s volume contains a considerable collection of value materials culled from the War Office and Admiralty Papers in the British National Archives.
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Willson, Beckles. The Life and Letters of James Wolfe. London: Heinemann, 1909.
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A modern edited collection of Wolfe’s papers remains long overdue. While this regrettable situation persists, Willson’s dated work remains the best published source on the often acerbic, always opinionated, and ever quotable English commander.
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African American and Native American Accounts

Though exceedingly rare, sources such as Equiano 1995 and Seaver and Namias 1995 provide a needed corrective that enable historians to escape an overreliance on documents produced by European writers.

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Edited by Robert J. Allison. Boston: Bedford, 1995.
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Equiano served on board a British ship during the invasions of Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1759.
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Seaver, James E., and June Namias, eds. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
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In 1758, a party of French and Indians captured Mary Jemison when she was fifteen years of age. Though warriors soon executed her family, Mary survived and underwent an adoption ceremony. She later married and lived among the Senecas for the rest of her life. Although her “narrative” includes considerable ethnographic detail, she dictated her account from memory while in her eighties. Consequently, some of the chronology of events appears to be mistaken.
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French Accounts

Though far fewer in number than British sources, a number of memoirs produced by French writers rectify this shortfall. Among these, none supply more comprehensive and highly detailed accounts than Bougainville 1990 and Pouchot 1994, though Fiedmont 1936 supplements these works produced by army officers. Rigaud 2009 contains the account written by the governor of New France, while Bonin 1993 is a unique source produced by an enlisted soldier.

Bonin, Charles. Memoir of a French and Indian War Soldier. Edited by Andrew Gallup. Bowie, MD: Heritage, 1993.
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Bonin’s account offers a rare perspective from an enlisted French troupe de marine who participated in the opening campaigns of the war.
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Bougainville, Louis Antoine de. Adventure in the Wilderness: The American Journals of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, 1756–1760. Translated and edited by Edward P. Hamilton. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.
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Bougainville’s journals, along with his memoire since 15 November 1758, afford researchers with a valuable, and not uncritical, account by an aide-de-camp to Montcalm. Although Bougainville described events in 1759 and 1760, most of the material concerns the years 1756, 1757, and 1758. The first paperback edition (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990) contains a valuable foreword by Colin Calloway, who points out that this work includes a wealth of ethnographic information on a variety of Indian groups. Originally published in 1964.
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Fiedmont, Louis-Thomas Jacau de. The Siege of Beauséjour in 1755: A Journal of the Attack on Beauséjour. Translated by Alice Webster. St. John: Publications of the New Brunswick Museum, 1936.
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Fiedmont’s journal presents an engaging, highly detailed, and occasionally critical memoir of the French defense of Fort Beauséjour by a low-ranking artillery officer.
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Pouchot, Pierre. Memoirs on the Late War in North America between France & England. Edited by Brian Leigh Dunnigan. Youngstown, NY: Old Fort Niagara Association, 1994.
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Pouchot’s highly detailed account represents the only contemporaneously published French memoir of the conflict. The author arrived in Canada as a captain in the Béarn Regiment in 1755 and returned to France in 1761. During the war, Pouchot traveled widely and served in a number of important engagements, including the siege of Fort Oswego and the battle before Fort Ticonderoga. Now superbly edited, Pouchot’s work represents the best French account of the war.
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Rigaud, Pierre de. Mémoire Pour le Marquis de Vaudreuil: Ci-devant Gouverneur & Lieutenant Général de la Nouvelle-France. Toronto: Toronto Public Library, 2009.
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This memoir in French contains the Marquis de Vaudreuil’s account of his service in Canada during the war.
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British Accounts

Several noteworthy accounts exist. While Rogers 2002 remains the most famous, two lesser known, yet excellent compositions deserve particular attention. These include Knox 1914–1916, a wide-ranging account by an army officer, and Browne 2007, an extremely rare source by a woman who served with British forces. Darlington 2006 contains Christopher Gist’s papers related to his travels in the Ohio Valley, while Skaarup 2001 includes portions of a previously unknown account produced by a Massachusetts provincial soldier. Houston 2009 contains newly discovered material related to Benjamin Franklin’s efforts to secure transportation and supplies for Braddock’s army in 1755.

Browne, Charlotte. “Diary.” In Colonial Captivities, Marches and Journeys. Edited by Isabel M. Calder, 169–198. Cranbury, NJ: Scholar’s Bookshelf, 2007.
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An invaluable female perspective of the war, Browne’s diary offers a highly detailed, and occasionally witty, account of Braddock’s campaign of 1755. Browne served as matron of the army, a post that coordinated the efforts of nurses assigned to British army units. Originally published in 1935.
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Darlington, William M. Christopher Gist’s Journals, with Historical, Geographical, and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of His Contemporaries. Reprint ed. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2006.
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A valuable source for understanding British intentions in the Ohio Valley on the eve of war, Gist’s journals also include a fascinating account of the epic winter mission that he undertook with Washington to deliver a message to the French in northeastern Pennsylvania. While on an earlier journey, Gist noted that “it was dangerous to let a Compass be seen among these Indians” (p. 34). Originally published in 1991.
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Houston, Alan. “Benjamin Franklin and the ‘Wagon Affair’ of 1755.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 66 (2009): 235–286.
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Houston’s article describes a large cache of unpublished manuscripts that he discovered in the British Library. These documents, which concern Benjamin Franklin’s efforts to provide logistical support to Braddock’s army during its abortive effort to seize Fort Duquesne in 1755, offer important new insights into interactions between imperial officials and Pennsylvania’s assembly during an early campaign of the war.
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Knox, John. An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America for the Years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760. 3 vols. Edited by Arthur G. Doughty. Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1914–1916.
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An essential primary source, Knox’s account offers a superb narrative that incorporates vivid details of travel, military society, and combat from a lower-ranking officer in the regular army.
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Rogers, Robert. The Annotated and Illustrated Journals of Major Robert Rogers. Edited by Timothy J. Todish. Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain, 2002.
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A modern reprinting of Rogers’ journals, this work includes annotations by Todish, which provide helpful context to the writings of one of the most famous participants in the war.
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Skaarup, Harold A. Ticonderoga Soldier: Elijah Estabrooks’ Journal, 1758–1760: A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War. San Jose, CA: Writers Club, 2001.
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A narrative based on a journal kept by a Massachusetts enlisted soldier from 1758 through 1760, Skaarup’s book contains extensive excerpts from Estabrooks’s original account, though it apparently does not include the full document.
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Biographies

A number of outstanding studies exist on individuals who lived during the Seven Years’ War, including biographies of British officials, French administrators, and other noteworthy figures. Among these works, Brands 2000, a study of Franklin, and Hinderaker 2010, an account of Hendrick (both cited under Other Noteworthy Biographies), merit special consideration as some of the most penetrating biographies of this era.

British Officials

Thompson 2011 provides an excellent new biography of George II, while Whitworth 1992 concerns the Duke of Cumberland. For the Duke of Newcastle, Browning 1975 holds more value than Kelch 1974. Whitworth 1958 remains the standard work on Lord Ligonier, while McCardell 1986 and Brumwell 2006 concern Generals Edward Braddock and James Wolfe.

Browning, Reed. The Duke of Newcastle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975.
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This work is the authoritative biography of Thomas Pelham-Holles, which relies extensively on his voluminous papers in the British Library. Browning argues that Pelham-Holles was not a true “prime minister.”
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Brumwell, Stephen. Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006.
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A carefully measured, and much needed, corrective to the historiography of a polarizing historical figure, Brumwell’s biography of Wolfe presents him as a middling battlefield commander who was, nonetheless, still a “great soldier.”
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Kelch, Ray A. Newcastle: A Duke without Money: Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1693–1768. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
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Less helpful than Browning’s study of Newcastle, Kelch’s work focuses largely on the fragile state of the duke’s personal finances rather than matters of state.
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McCardell, Lee. Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986.
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McCardell’s balanced biography devotes considerable attention to Braddock’s military career, especially his unsuccessful campaign to seize Fort Duquesne in 1755. Originally published in 1958.
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Thompson, Andrew. George II: King and Elector. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.
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Using a rich variety of overlooked sources in Britain and Germany, Thompson provides a long overdue reappraisal of George II as a dynamic, politically engaged monarch, who disliked William Pitt and once complained to Robert D’Arcy, the Earl of Holdernesse, of “that D____d House of Commons” (p. 239).
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Whitworth, Rex. Field Marshal Lord Ligonier: A Story of the British Army, 1702–1770. Oxford: Clarendon, 1958.
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Though somewhat dated, Whitworth’s biography of Ligonier provides valuable information on an important, and often underappreciated, British policymaker.
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Whitworth, Rex. William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland: A Life. London: Leo Cooper, 1992.
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A largely sympathetic biography of the head of the British army during the opening years of the war, Whitworth’s study presents the duke as a moderate reformer whom contemporary critics unfairly pilloried as “the butcher.”
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French Officials

There are three biographies of note, including Frégault 1948 on François Bigot, Bernier 1984 on Louis XV, and Lever 2003 on Madame de Pompadour. A modern study of the life of the Marquis de Montcalm remains long overdue.

Bernier, Oliver. Louis the Beloved: The Life of Louis XV. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984.
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Bernier presents a largely sympathetic view of Louis as a politically astute, yet secretive, monarch who initially attempted to avert war with Britain in 1755.
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Frégault, Guy. François Bigot: Administrateur Français. Montreal: L’Institut d’Histoire, 1948.
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Frégault provides a valuable biography in French of the important and enigmatic attendant who was neither “un héros ni un monstre.”
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Lever, Evelyne. Madame de Pompadour: A Life. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2003.
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Lever’s biography of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour, uncovers the political machinations of an important member of Louis XV’s court.
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Other Noteworthy Biographies

Superb biographies of George Washington appear in Freeman 1948 and Chernow 2010, while Brands 2000 and Wood 2004 furnish insightful studies of Benjamin Franklin. For the Mohawk man known as Hendrick, see Hinderaker 2010. O’Toole 2005 represents the best recent work on William Johnson, though Flexner 1959 also retains value. Godfrey 1982 concerns John Bradstreet.

Brands, H. W. The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
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A finalist for the Pulitzer prize, Brands’s superb narrative presents Benjamin Franklin during the Seven Years’ War as an avowed imperialist who energetically coordinated the defense of Pennsylvania before leaving for London in 1757, where he acted as his colony’s agent to the crown.
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Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. New York: Penguin, 2010.
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Presenting a popular but highly detailed portrait of Washington during the Seven Years’ War, Chernow’s sympathetic study represents the best recent work on a key provincial officer.
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Flexner, James. Mohawk Baronet: A Biography of Sir William Johnson. Syracuse, NY: Harper, 1959.
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In a now dated biography largely written for a popular audience, Flexner presents a lively narrative framed around Johnson’s life.
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Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. Vol. 1, Young Washington. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1948.
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Still one of the best biographies of Washington, Freeman’s narrative offers rich detail and context for his career during the Seven Years’ War.
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Godfrey, William G. Pursuit of Profit and Preferment in Colonial North America: John Bradstreet’s Quest. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1982.
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An engaging study of an intriguing historical figure, Godfrey portrays Bradstreet as an enterprising and opportunistic soldier who emerged as a major general in the British army and lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. Much of the book concerns his career during the Seven Years’ War.
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Hinderaker, Eric. The Two Hendricks: Unraveling a Mohawk Mystery. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
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Hinderaker views Theyanoguin, the Mohawk man also known as Hendrick, as a figure trapped between two worlds. While one Hendrick was a staunchly loyal Protestant who appeared ambivalent about his position as a cultural intermediary between English, Native, and Dutch societies, the other was an assertive and dynamic Mohawk leader who sought to mediate the competing needs of his traditional community with those of the British Empire.
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O’Toole, Fintan. White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
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A thorough and sensitive portrayal of William Johnson, O’Toole’s ambitious biography also attempts to trace the Irish origins of American identity.
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Wood, Gordon S. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Penguin, 2004.
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Wood makes a number of intriguing assertions in this biography, arguing that Franklin emerged from the Seven Years’ War as a faithful royalist and staunchly loyal British patriot.
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Battles and Campaigns

A number of appealing works exist that focus on military engagements during the war, including operations in lower Canada, the American interior, and the West Indies. Campaigns in Canada include the struggle for Louisbourg in 1758 and Wolfe’s expedition of 1759. Material related to affairs in the American interior pertain to Braddock’s expedition of 1755, Forbes’s operations in 1758, as well as various campaigns conducted against the Cherokees. Works on the West Indies address British efforts to seize Martinique in 1759 and Havana in 1762. Among all of these, Steele 1990, Liston and Baker 1996, Kent 1991, Ward 2003 (all cited under Operations in the American Interior); Brumwell 2004, Johnston 2007 (both cited under Operations in Lower Canada); and McNeill 2010 (cited under Operations in the West Indies) merit particular praise as innovative and illuminating studies. Kopperman 2003, an analysis of Braddock’s defeat (cited under Operations in the American Interior), supplies an especially noteworthy corrective to often repeated error that French and Native forces ambushed the British army near the Monongahela River in 1755.

Operations in Lower Canada

Stacey 1959 and Ward 2005 furnish overviews of the battle for Quebec in 1759. Johnston 2007 examines the campaigns against Louisbourg, while Dunnigan 1960 concerns Fort Niagara. Recent studies Plank 2001 and Grenier 2008 investigate the campaigns in Nova Scotia. For Rogers’s raid on St. Francis, see Brumwell 2004.

Brumwell, Stephen. White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery, and Vengeance in Colonial America. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2004.
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In a penetrating revisionist study of the raid that Robert Rogers led against the Abenaki town of St. Francis, Brumwell offers an unflinching portrayal of unlimited warfare on the frontiers.
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Dunnigan, Brian Leigh. Siege—1759: The Campaign against Niagara. Youngstown, NY: Old Fort Niagara Association, 1960.
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Siege—1759 provides an expert analysis of the battle at La Belle-Famille, as well as the siege of Fort Niagara. Dunnigan mustered an impressive array of scholarship in support of his account, including manuscript sources found in the Archives Nationale du Canada, the British Library, and the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.
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Grenier, John. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710–1760. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
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Grenier devotes two chapters to the effects of the Seven Years’ War on local peoples in Acadia. Existing patterns of accommodation essentially broke down due to military incursions by British forces in 1755, which initiated far-reaching political, social, and cultural changes in the region.
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Johnston, A. J. B. Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisbourg’s Last Decade. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
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In an extensive history of Louisbourg from 1713 through 1758, Johnston makes considerable use of French and British sources to offer a balanced study of a battle he views as a crucial turning point in the war. His book also contains an excellent bibliography.
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Plank, Geoffrey. An Unsettled Conquest: The British Campaign against the Peoples of Acadia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
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A comprehensive treatment of the British effort to evict the Mi’kmaq and Acadians from Nova Scotia, Plank’s book offers a penetrating, yet balanced, view of how an imperial power subordinated two indigenous, yet fiercely independent, peoples.
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Stacey, C. P. Quebec, 1759: The Siege and the Battle. Toronto: Macmillan, 1959.
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Stacey’s book offers a balanced narrative account of the Quebec campaign, written for a popular audience on the bicentennial of the battle.
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Ward, Matthew. The Battle for Quebec, 1759: Britain’s Conquest of Canada. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2005.
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Ward makes effective use of recent work by new military historians on the composition and structure of armies to produce the best modern account of this famous battle.
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Operations in the American Interior

Several helpful studies exist. Calmes 1976 offers an analysis of the initial British campaign against the Cherokee. Two excellent, though very different, approaches to the siege of Fort William Henry in 1757 exist, including Liston and Baker 1996, as well as Steele 1990. For successive campaigns in Pennsylvania, see Kent 1991, Kopperman 2003, and Ward 2003. Cubbison 2010, a popular account, holds less value for scholars.

Calmes, Alan. “The Lyttelton Expedition of 1759: Military Failures and Financial Successes.” South Carolina Historical Magazine 77 (1976): 10–33.
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Calmes examines the financial impact of the Lyttelton’s campaign against the Cherokees in 1759, showing that despite its considerable costs, as well as the limited military results achieved by the expedition, South Carolina officials accurately managed economic aspects of this campaign.
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Cubbison, Douglas R. The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign against Fort Duquesne. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010.
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Though largely written for a popular audience, Cubbison’s account of Forbes’s campaign against Fort Duquesne offers a considered analysis of the British military effort from the perspective of a former officer in the US army.
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Kent, Donald H. The French Invasion of Western Pennsylvania, 1753. 3d ed. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1991.
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Kent’s small volume affords an indispensable analysis of the French military advance into the Ohio Valley in 1753 and 1754.
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Kopperman, Paul E. Braddock at the Monongahela. 2d ed. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.
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Kopperman’s study of Braddock’s campaign demonstrates conclusively that the engagement did not begin with an ambush of advancing British troops by French and Indian forces. The author absolves Braddock and other officers of most of the blame for the defeat, and instead places much of the onus on soldiers from the 44th and 48th Regiments of Foot. The volume also includes valuable appendices containing insightful criticisms of important accounts of the battle.
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Liston, Maria, and Brenda J. Baker. “Reconstructing the Massacre at Fort William Henry, New York.” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 6 (1996): 28–41.
DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1212(199601)6:1%3C28::AID-OA242%3E3.0.CO;2-WSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In 1995, Liston and Baker excavated a mass grave located within the confines of Fort William Henry that contained the skeletal remains of five troops from the garrison. Their forensic analysis supports accounts of the surrender, revealing in grisly detail the final moments in the lives of these unfortunate soldiers.
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Steele, Ian K. Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the “Massacre.” New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
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In contrast to earlier accounts of the siege and the massacre that followed, Steele finds “betrayals” on all sides, showing that the effective “collusion” that occurred between the opposing commanders over the terms of surrender effectively denied the French-allied Native warriors their spoils of victory—scalps, captured goods, and prisoners.
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Ward, Matthew. Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years’ War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754–1765. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.
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Ward shows that the Seven Years’ War represented a “turning point” in the history of the western frontier regions of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In both colonies, provincial governments assumed increasingly active roles in backcountry areas, which not only convinced them of the limitations of British power, but it also encouraged them to reevaluate their relationships with those Indian groups who inhabited the Ohio Valley.
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Operations in the West Indies

Fewer works exist on campaigns in the Caribbean. Among these, Pares 1936 and Smelser 1955 remain valuable, if somewhat dated, approaches. A far more recent work, McNeill 2010 takes an environmental approach to warfare in the West Indies.

McNeill, J. R. Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620–1914. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511811623Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In a fascinating environmental study, McNeill uncovers the critical impact of the mosquito-borne virus yellow fever, which devastated the besieging British force as well as the garrison. For a more concise view of this argument, see his chapter in Adapting to Conditions.
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Pares, Richard. War and Trade in the West Indies, 1739–1763. London: Cass, 1936.
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An aging, yet still indispensable, study of the West Indies during two wars, Pares’s work affords greater attention to blockading and defense of trade than it provides to military campaigns on the islands.
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Smelser, Marshall. The Campaign for the Sugar Islands, 1759: A Study of Amphibious Warfare. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955.
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Still the best study of a poorly understood campaign, Smelser’s analysis of British amphibious operations in the Caribbean shows that the unsuccessful effort to seize Martinique owed as much to poor intelligence, and a stubborn defense of the island, as it did to deaths from disease. Ultimately, the seizure of Guadeloupe served as a sufficient consolation prize for the British, who later returned to Martinique in 1762 with far greater numbers.
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Native Americans

The Seven Years’ War represented a pivotal event in the history of Native peoples in North America. Several superb overviews focus on Indians in a number of regions, including the Great Lakes (White 1991), the Ohio Valley (McConnell 1992), and the middle colonies (Silver 2008). There are also separate studies of the Iroquois (Richter and Merrell 1987), Indians in Pennsylvania (Merritt 2003), Native methods of warfare (Starkey 1998), and Pontiac’s Uprising (Dowd 2002). White 1991, McConnell 1992, Merritt 2003, and especially Silver 2008 demonstrate that European powers directly challenged Indian communities for access to resources and control over lands during the conflict. A number of even more focused studies also exist, including Barr 2007, Boulware 2007, and Kelton 2012 (all cited under Focused Studies).

Dowd, Gregory Evans. War under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations, and the British Empire. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
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In War under Heaven, Dowd extends the argument developed in A Spirited Resistance to show that provocative British policies following the end of the Seven Years’ War prompted the outbreak of a brutal conflict that temporarily halted westward immigration.
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McConnell, Michael N. A Country between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724–1774. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
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McConnell’s book examines the struggle for control of the Ohio Valley from the perspectives of the diverse Native peoples who lived there. The Shawnee, Mingo, Lenni Lenape, and other groups successfully defended their hold on the region through a variety of stratagems. McConnell also demonstrates that the peoples inhabiting the Ohio country remained independent of the Iroquois Confederacy, since the Six Nations—unlike British and French imperialists—remained largely concerned with their own local interests.
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Merritt, Jane T. At the Crossroads: Indians and Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700–1763. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
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According to Merritt, the Seven Years’ War marked a critical era for Christian Indians in Pennsylvania. The outbreak of warfare on the colony’s frontier fractured carefully cultivated associations among neighboring peoples, and effectively compelled Native converts who lived among Whites to reassess their relationships with Great Britain.
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Richter, Daniel K., and James H. Merrell, eds. Beyond the Covenant Chain: The Iroquois and Their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600–1800. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1987.
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Beyond the Covenant Chain contains a valuable and illuminating collection of essays concerning the Iroquois, including works by Mary Druke Becker, Richard Haan, Michael N. McConnell, James Merrell, and Daniel Richter.
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Silver, Peter. Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America. New York: Norton, 2008.
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Winner of the Bancroft prize, Silver argues that conflict with Native groups transformed the diverse enclaves of immigrants who settled in western portions of the middle colonies from fractious neighbors vying for land and power into a cohesive set of cobelligerents. Leaders who opposed war against Indians incurred the wrath of backcountry settlers, a phenomenon that contributed to the removal of Quaker leaders in Pennsylvania and threatened imperial rule by the 1770s.
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Starkey, Armstrong. European and Native American Warfare, 1675–1815. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
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Starkey argues that the early years of the war followed an American model, which initially benefited the French and their Indian allies, but the British eventually succeeded in “Europeanizing” the conflict in the latter campaigns. Most interestingly, the author also maintains that a “culture clash” occurred between Native and European concepts of war, leading to ill feeling between putative allies and profound animosity among protagonists.
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White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511584671Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A now classic study representing “the new Indian history,” White revises traditional studies, which emphasized conflict and inevitable conquest, by arguing that a search for mutual understanding and accommodation primarily governed relations between Native peoples and colonists in the pays d’en haut (upper country), which comprised the lands surrounding the Great Lakes as well as the Ohio Valley. The Middle Ground includes a separate chapter on the Seven Years’ War.
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Focused Studies

Barr 2007 revises existing accounts of the war in the Pennsylvania backcountry, while Boulware 2007 shows how the war decisively altered the societies and cultures of the Cherokees. An innovative article, Kelton 2012, demonstrates that the Cherokees and Indian peoples in the Ohio Valley also initiated events that profoundly influenced the subsequent course of the war.

Barr, Daniel P. “Victory at Kittanning? Reevaluating the Impact of Armstrong’s Raid on the Seven Years’ War in Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 131 (2007): 5–32.
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In an account of a controversial episode during the Seven Years’ War, Barr shows that although contemporary observers in Pennsylvania heralded Armstrong’s raid on the Lenni Lenape communities near Kittanning as a great success, attacks on the colonial frontier actually increased following the raid, which failed to produce a decisive result.
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Boulware, Tyler. “The Effect of the Seven Years’ War on the Cherokee Nation.” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 5 (2007): 395–426.
DOI: 10.1353/eam.2007.0009Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Boulware argues that the Seven Years’ War represented a turning point for the Cherokees, because while most people identified with their own local communities before the conflict, the military incursions of home territories by invading forces generated a “stronger ethnic consciousness” that gradually fostered the growth of a pan-Cherokee identity (p. 395).
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Kelton, Paul. “The British and Indian War: Cherokee Power and the Fate of Empire in North America.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 69 (2012): 763–792.
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Kelton argues that raids launched against Indians in the Ohio by British-allied Cherokee during 1757 and 1758 decisively shaped the course of the war by convincing these peoples to abandon their alliances with the French.
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African Americans

A regrettably neglected area in the historiography of the Seven Years’ War, thousands of free and enslaved Blacks served widely in a variety of roles on the American mainland as well as in the Caribbean. One hopes that this longstanding deficiency will eventually be addressed. In the meantime, Voelz 1993 includes some introductory remarks about the use of slaves in support of British operations in the West Indies, while Padeni 1999 examines the multiplicity of roles assumed by African Americans in the colony of New York.

Padeni, Scott A. “The Role of Blacks in New York’s Northern Campaigns of the Seven Years’ War.” Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum 16 (1999): 153–169.
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Padeni shows that African Americans performed a variety of essential roles within the army during the war. While some Blacks undoubtedly served as porters, musicians, cooks, and laborers, others worked as sailors, soldiers in provincial or ranger units, and even as company clerks.
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Voelz, Peter M. Slave and Soldier: The Military Impact of Blacks in the Colonial Americas. New York: Garland, 1993.
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Wide ranging as the title suggests, Voelz accords only a few pages to the Seven Years’ War. Nevertheless, this study provides background data for future research into a vital, yet badly neglected, area in the historiography of the conflict.
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Women

In response to the growth of women’s history, several studies, including Hacker 1981, began to appear in the 1980s that engaged another largely overlooked area in the existing literature on the Seven Years’ War. A number of these works, including Kopperman 1982, Mayer 1996, and Hennis 2000, sought to redress the hackneyed view that many of the women who followed the army functioned as prostitutes, and that their frequent presence in military encampments was largely incidental to the army. Studies like Deakin 1984 and Mayer 2006 focus on individual campaigns, while Way 2004 examines the ambivalent views that British commanders held toward female labor.

Deakin, Carol C. “Support Personnel: Women with General Braddock’s Forces.” In Proceedings of Northern Virginia Studies Conference, 1983. Edited by James Braden, 85–94. Alexandria: Northern Virginia Community College, 1984.
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Deakin notes that Braddock’s army made extensive use of female laborers, who herded livestock, washed and repaired clothes, prepared food, and served as nurses. Interestingly, Deakin eschews the use of the term camp followers, as this expression was unknown in the 18th century.
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Hacker, Barton. “Women and Military Institutions in Early Modern Europe: A Reconnaissance.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 6 (1981): 643–671.
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Providing helpful context for the experiences of women in the Seven Years’ War, Hacker shows that while armies of the era increasingly established control over supporting personnel, camp followers gradually gained greater acceptance, as evidenced by the willingness of commanders to offer them rations and wages during campaigns.
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Hennis, Scott A. “In the Army: Women, Camp Followers, and Gender Roles in the British Army in the French and Indian Wars.” In A Soldier and a Woman: Sexual Integration in the Military. Edited by Gerard Degroot and Corinna Peniston-Bird, 33–48. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2000.
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Hennis argues that camp followers not only fulfilled vital military roles as cooks, laundresses, and nurses, but they also effectively improved the morale of the troops by ensuring that the army life remained a largely communal experience.
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Kopperman, Paul. “The British High Command and Soldiers’ Wives in America, 1755–1783.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 60 (1982): 14–34.
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Though most British commanders actively sought to dissuade women from following the army, many soldiers’ wives nevertheless performed a number of vital, yet frequently unappreciated, tasks for the troops. Despite such worthy contributions, regular officers largely discounted this service and viewed the presence of women with apparent “resignation.”
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Mayer, Holly. Belonging to the Army: Camp Follower and Community during the American Revolution. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.
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In a groundbreaking study of the army as a “community,” Mayer finally uncovers the key military roles that women performed in this era, though most of her analysis focuses on the American Revolution. As Mayer wryly notes: “Soldiers alone do not make an army.”
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Mayer, Holly. “From Forts to Families: Following the Army into Western Pennsylvania, 1758–1766.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 130 (2006): 5–43.
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Mayer shows that military women formed an important, and permanent, component of the communities that spread westward following the successful British campaigns of the Seven Years’ War.
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Way, Peter. “Venus and Mars: Women and the British-American Army in the Seven Years’ War.” In Britain and America Go to War: The Impact of War and Warfare in Anglo-America, 1754–1815. Edited by Julie Flavell and Stephen Conway, 41–68. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004.
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In a perceptive chapter, Way argues that women (and often children) represented a “central” element in armies of this era. Though some officers feared their influence on troops and occasionally sought to expel them from the ranks, women constituted a nearly ubiquitous presence within military encampments.
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French Army and Naval Forces

An unfortunate dearth of work on French military and naval forces currently exists, though several studies partially offset this deficiency. Among these, Eccles 1974 provides an excellent overview, while also promoting the idea that France largely neglected the defense of its colony in Canada. Dull 2005, a work on the French navy, addresses a critical gap in the historical literature, and argues that government officials in Paris did all they could to defend New France. Kennett 1967 describes the French army while Gallup and Shaffer’s work (Gallup and Shaffer 1992) concerns the professional troops that the Ministry of the Marine deployed in defense of French colonies in America. A superb article, Nicolai 1989, traces the interactions between the army units deployed to Canada during the war and the militia and marine forces stationed there on a permanent basis.

Dull, Jonathan. The French Navy in the Seven Years’ War. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
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A long overdue addition to the historiography, Dull’s authoritative history argues though the French navy failed to win victory, it still performed reasonably well during the Seven Years’ War. As the conflict ended, Louis XV managed to preserve the fleet for future conflicts during treaty negotiations by insisting that France should retain access to the Newfoundland fishery, which proved essential for training a new generation of French sailors.
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Eccles, W. J. “The French Forces in North America during the Seven Years’ War.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 3. Edited by George W. Brown, David M. Hayne, and Francess G. Halpenny, xv–xxiii. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974.
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A valuable starting point for studying the French military effort in North America, Eccles argues that the French navy surpassed the army during the war. In Canada, friction developed between freshly arrived army units and local troupes de la marine and militia. Eccles places much of the blame for the defeat on the French army units—troupes de terre—rather than Canadian troops, who frequently possessed better officers and more experienced soldiers. Originally published in 1966.
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Gallup, Andrew, and Donald F. Shaffer. La Marine: The French Colonial Soldier in Canada, 1745–1761. Bowie, MD: Heritage, 1992.
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Produced for reenactment groups, this work contains much data on the material culture of troupes de la marine, but it also provides valuable contextual information on soldiers that the French Ministry of the Marine deployed to defend colonies from Louisiana to Quebec.
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Kennett, Lee. The French Armies in the Seven Years’ War: A Study in Military Organization and Administration. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967.
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Kennett’s important study sheds considerable light on the structure and organization of the French army in Europe, including key areas like recruiting, the officer corps, desertion, and the Ministry of War. Unfortunately, the author chose to overlook the troops dispatched to North America, as most of the army deployed to Germany, where they fought to offset reversals sustained in the colonies.
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Nicolai, Martin L. “A Different Kind of Courage: The French Military and the Canadian Irregular Soldier during the Seven Years’ War.” Canadian Historical Review 70 (1989): 53–75.
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Although Montcalm and a number of other French army officers remained largely dismissive of the capabilities of Canadian militia forces during the early years of the war, they gradually came to appreciate the fighting abilities of these troops by employing them as light infantry forces along a European model during the final campaigns.
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British Army, Naval, and Provincial Forces

Considerably more work exists on the British regular army than on other forces, which served widely. Justification for this abundance derives in part from the far greater numbers fielded by British and American provincial units, the direct participation of the royal navy in a number of operations, as well as the comparatively greater numbers of records generated by all of these personnel. The growth of the new military history, influenced by Shy 1963 and Anderson 1984, also promoted a number of important subsequent works on colonial troops, including Selesky 1990 and Titus 1991 (all cited under American Provincial Forces). Brumwell 2002, an important revisionist work (cited under British Army), extends most of the credit for the British military victory to the regular army rather than provincial troops, since the redcoats performed a disproportionate share of the fighting. More recent research on naval affairs in Rodger 1986, Gwyn 2003, and Syrett 2008 (all cited under British Navy) adds much our understanding of the important influence of sea power on the outcome of the war.

The British Army

Studies of regular forces include a number of diverse approaches. Stacey 1966 offers a concise, yet valuable overview of the British troops that deployed to America. Beattie 1986 debates the adaptation of the army to conditions in America. Pargellis 1933, Houlding 1981, and Guy 1985 analyze the structure and administration of British forces. Way 2000 and Agostini 2007 examine problems encountered by regular troops during and after the war. Campbell 2010 and Cormack 2011 look at individual units.

Agostini, Thomas. “‘Deserted His Majesty’s Service’: Military Runaways, the British-American Press, and the Problem of Desertion during the Seven Years’ War.” Journal of Social History 40 (2007): 957–985.
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Advertisements in American newspapers reveal that significant numbers of regulars, as well as provincials, fled the army. These documents not only provide detailed descriptions of individual soldiers, they also suggest that while officers enlisted the colonial press in efforts to stem desertion, most fugitives evaded pursuit. Ironically, desertion actually curbed the more serious threat of mutiny by continually removing the most disaffected soldiers from their units.
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Beattie, Daniel J. “The Adaptation of the British Army to Wilderness Warfare, 1755–1763.” In Adapting to Conditions: War and Society in the Eighteenth Century. Edited by Maarten Ultee, 56–83. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1986.
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Beattie argues that the British army effectively transformed itself from an army designed for European campaigns into a military force capable of campaigning deep into the North American interior.
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Brumwell, Stephen. Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas, 1755–1763. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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The definitive history of the British army in America during the Seven Years’ War, Brumwell’s important book counters the view of regular soldiers as loutish and irreverent pawns of professional generals and imperial administrators. Instead, Brumwell assigns most of the credit for Great Britain’s battlefield victories to the redcoats, whom commanders assigned to perform disproportionate shares of combat duty.
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Campbell, Alexander V. The Royal American Regiment: An Atlantic Microcosm, 1755–1772. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010.
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In a highly detailed study of an important regiment in the British army, Campbell argues that the four battalions comprising the Royal Americans represented a broad “microcosm” of the transatlantic world that produced it.
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Cormack, Andrew. “The History of the Royal Welch Volunteers, or 94th Regiment of Foot, 1760–1763.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 89 (2011): 199–215.
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While much work exists on Highland units in the British army, Cormack presents an important account of a predominantly Welsh regiment, which served in operations ranging from Pennsylvania and South Carolina to St. Domingue and Martinique from 1760 through 1762.
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Guy, Alan J. Oeconomy and Discipline: Officership and Administration in the British Army, 1714–63. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1985.
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An invaluable study of the British regimental structure that existed under the first two Hanoverian kings, Guy’s Oeconomy and Discipline probes the decline of the proprietary command system that privileged field officers.
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Houlding, J. A. Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715–1795. Oxford: Clarendon, 1981.
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Though Houlding’s analysis largely focuses on the structure, organization, and training of the British army, his careful analysis provides invaluable detail on regular officers, enlisted troops, and their respective capabilities.
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Pargellis, Stanley. Lord Loudoun in North America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1933.
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An essential study for any student of British regular and provincial forces during the opening campaigns of the Seven Years’ War, Pargellis’s work offers penetrating insights on pay, colonial troops, supply, recruiting, as well as relations between British commanders and colonial assemblies.
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Stacey, C. P. “The British Forces in North America during the Seven Years’ War.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 3. Edited by George W. Brown, David M. Hayne, and Francess G. Halpenny, xxiv–xxx. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966.
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Stacey notes that the British held complete naval dominance for most of the war, but victory on land took longer, though this success owed far more to the regular troops than provincial units raised by the American colonies.
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Way, Peter. “Rebellion of the Regulars: Working Soldiers and the Mutiny of 1763–1764.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 57.4 (2000): 761–792.
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In addition to concerns over stoppages to wages, Way argues that the mutiny occurred due structural changes to regiments, the abolition of pay for “extraordinary labor,” the drafting of regulars into other units, the ending of compensation offered to soldiers’ wives, and a desire to defer the costs of uniforms. These developments, combined with the predisposition of some to revolt, and the laboring backgrounds of troops, sparked a “rebellion” over imposed changes to working conditions.
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The British Navy

Despite the emphasis on ground forces that exists in the historiography, a number of fine works examine the British naval affairs during the conflict. Corbett 1907 represents a traditional narrative overview of the navy, while Rodger 1986 offers an in-depth “anatomy” of the fleet. Gwyn 2003 focuses on naval operations in Canadian waters, while Syrett 2008 provides valuable detail on British merchant shipping.

Corbett, Julian S. The Seven Years’ War: A Study in British Combined Strategy. London: Longmans, 1907.
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Corbett’s classic account provides an overview of naval operations and British strategy during the conflict.
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Gwyn, Julian. Frigates and Foremasts: The North American Squadron in Nova Scotia Waters, 1745–1815. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003.
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Gwyn’s valuable work devotes two chapters to the era of the Seven Years’ War, showing that naval affairs represented a vital, and often critical, component of the campaigns mounted against Louisbourg in 1757 and 1758, and Quebec in 1759 and 1760.
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Rodger, N. A. M. The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1986.
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Though not a conventional social history, Rodger’s study of the navy argues that life seldom resembled a “floating concentration camp” dominated by class interests. Instead, patronage and “common understanding” effectively moderated social differences among officers and sailors, enabling the British fleet to operate efficiently and effectively during the Seven Years’ War. The book also includes a helpful, and occasionally humorous, annotated bibliography.
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Syrett, David. Shipping and Military Power in the Seven Years’ War: The Sails of Victory. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 2008.
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Syrett’s work offers important revelations concerning vital, yet often underappreciated, contributions that shipping provided in support of British ground operations in North America during the Seven Years’ War.
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American Provincial Forces

Important studies exist on forces from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Historians differ on whether these troops broadly mirrored colonial society (Ferling 1986), or whether they came predominantly from humble origins (Shy 1963, Titus 1991, Stephenson 1995, Ward 1995). Anderson 1981, Selesky 1990, and Titus 1991 offer overviews of the various measures that individual colonies pursued during the war.

Anderson, Fred. “Why Did Colonial New Englanders Make Bad Soldiers? Contractual Principles and Military Conduct during the Seven Years’ War.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 38 (1981): 395–417.
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Anderson made use of a number of accounts by low-level provincial officers and troops to show that New Englanders were “bad soldiers in a special way”; they justified mutiny and desertion in response to alleged contractual breaches of their enlistment terms by British commanders.
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Anderson, Fred. A People’s Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years’ War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
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In a brilliant seminal study that demonstrated how the methodologies espoused by proponents of the new military history might illuminate the historiography of early American conflicts, Anderson provides an in-depth social, political, and military history of Massachusetts in the Seven Years’ War.
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Ferling, John. “Soldiers for Virginia: Who Served in the French and Indian War?” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 94.3 (1986): 307–328.
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Following the approach established by Anderson, Ferling argues Virginia provincial troops represented a broad cross section of that colony’s society.
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Knoblauch, Edward H. “Mobilizing Provincials for War: The Social Composition of New York Forces in 1760.” New York History 78.2 (1997): 147–172.
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In an interesting study, Knoblauch examines New York’s “Army Act” of 1760, which authorized militia officers to select recruits for the provincial forces directly from their units, and found that most soldiers who entered the army in this year were immigrants to the colony who came from humble circumstances.
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Selesky, Harold. War and Society in Colonial Connecticut. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
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In a comprehensive analysis that reveals the evolving character of Connecticut’s military from the beginnings of colonization up through the Revolution, Selesky devotes considerable attention to the Seven Years’ War, which he views as “the crowning achievement” of its defense establishment, when provincial officials shifted away from their traditional reliance on militia and instead deployed paid volunteer forces.
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Shy, John. “A New Look at Colonial Militia.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 20 (1963): 175–185.
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A critical study that laid the foundation for much subsequent work on American provincial troops, Shy argues that the ranks of colonial units largely contained soldiers from marginal backgrounds, while more prosperous members of society often avoided service.
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Stephenson, Scott. “Pennsylvania Provincial Soldiers in the Seven Years’ War.” Pennsylvania History 62.2 (1995): 196–212.
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In an important study, Stephenson argues that Pennsylvania troops, unlike those provincial forces raised in New England, found much in common with regular soldiers. Reflecting the cultural diversity of the society that produced them, Pennsylvanian units not only contained large numbers of immigrants from relatively humble social backgrounds, they also increasingly included substantial numbers of veteran soldiers as well as inexperienced recruits.
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Titus, James. The Old Dominion at War: Society, Politics, and Warfare in Late Colonial Virginia. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.
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Titus devotes considerable attention to the provincial forces raised by the colony, showing that the quality of the troops steadily improved as they gained experience. He also demonstrates that the war marked an unprecedented challenge to Virginians at home. Though mobilization drew disproportionate numbers of the lower sort into the military, the House of Burgesses approved a series of unprecedented taxes that impacted all members of society, including elites, throughout the conflict.
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Ward, Matthew. “An Army of Servants: The Pennsylvania Regiment during the Seven Years’ War.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 119 (1995): 75–93.
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Ward emphasizes that Pennsylvania increasingly relied on indentured servants and former servants to fill the ranks of its provincial forces. Though most of these contracted laborers volunteered for military service, their recruitment entailed considerable opposition from “masters,” who resented the practice of enlisting these workers. Ward also provides helpful tables that compare the ages, occupations, and nativities of soldiers from Massachusetts and Virginia with troops from Pennsylvania.
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The American Revolution

Much of the debate on the relationship between the two dominant political events of the 18th century centers on the extent to which the Seven Years’ War precipitated the American Revolution. In general, historians who focus primarily on the imperial conflict between France and Great Britain commonly locate the origins of movement toward American independence in the war that they study. Such a view not only validates the works of these scholars, including Anderson 2000 and Frégault 1969 (both cited under General Overviews), it also challenges Shy 1965, Murrin 1973, and Christie 1966, which place greater emphasis on events following the Seven Years’ War. Jack Greene’s works (Greene 1973, Greene 1980) represent a departure from both views by arguing that several longstanding social, cultural, economic, and political factors, including the colonial wars, ultimately led to the Revolution. Conway 2006 also describes a number of lingering factors that sparked the rebellion against British rule, though the author suggests that the Seven Years’ War was “perhaps the vital prerequisite” (p. 252).

Bullion, John L. “‘The Ten Thousand in America’: More Light on the Decision on the American Army, 1762–1763.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 43 (1986): 646–657.
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Bullion locates previously unused documents to show that George III developed a plan to station large numbers of redcoats in the colonies before the end of 1762. The king’s decision to deploy these troops in America, and then induce the colonies to defer the expenses associated with them, stemmed from fears of a renewed conflict with France rather than from any desire to quell local opposition to British rule.
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Christie, Ian R. Crisis of Empire: Great Britain and the American Colonies, 1754–1783. New York: Norton, 1966.
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Though he emphasizes the role of the Townshend administration in precipitating conflict between Britain and the colonies in this slim volume, Christie still asserts that the Seven Years’ War in America witnessed a “crystallization of tensions” within the empire, which eventually paved the way for greater strife (p. 23).
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Conway, Stephen. War, State, and Society in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253753.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Conway’s book offers a thematic study of the impact of warfare on the British Empire. Thoroughly researched, this work focuses on the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War and presents a challenging revisionist argument that imperial officials actively sought out and maintained key strategic “partnerships,” both in Europe as well as North America, which enabled Great Britain to gain ascendency during this period.
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Greene, Jack. “An Uneasy Connection: An Analysis of the Preconditions of the American Revolution.” Paper presented at a symposium on the American Revolution held at the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, 8–12 March 1971. In Essays on the American Revolution. Edited by Stephen Kurtz and James Hutson, 32–80. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1973.
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Taking a more extended view than most, Greene argues that signs of a disruption in the imperial relationship first appeared in the 1740s, owing to British anxieties over their inability to control their rapidly expanding, and increasingly vital, trade with America. With the reduced threats of French and Spanish military incursions following the Seven Years’ War, officials finally decided to proceed with long-deferred plans to reassert their authority within the empire.
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Greene, Jack. “The Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution: The Causal Relationship Reconsidered.” In The British Atlantic Empire before the American Revolution. Edited by Peter Marshall and Glyn Williams, 85–105. London: Cass, 1980.
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Greene maintains that the Seven Years’ War generated strikingly discordant views of the state of the empire—both in Britain and in the colonies. Although many in America presumed that they held coequal status within the empire, while overlooking evidence of imperial intentions to subordinate their interests, officials in London mistakenly surmised that they needed to tighten control over colonial affairs due to the autonomy, obduracy, and self-interested postures that local assemblies adopted for much of the war.
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Gwyn, Julian. “British Government Spending and the North American Colonies, 1740–1775.” In The British Atlantic Empire before the American Revolution. Edited by Peter Marshall and Glyn Williams, 74–84. London: Cass, 1980.
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In an extremely valuable economic study, Gwyn demonstrates that the Seven Years’ War necessitated a dramatic, and entirely unprecedented, expansion of British military spending. Beginning in 1764, however, imperial officials suspended parliamentary reimbursements offered to the colonies to defer their wartime debts and embarked on an effort to raise revenue from the colonies in order to support the large army deployed to America cities.
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Murrin, John M. “The French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the Counterfactual Hypothesis: Reflections on Lawrence Henry Gipson and John Shy.” Reviews in American History 1 (1973): 307–318.
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In an important study, Murrin applies counterfactual analysis to suggest that the successful conclusion of the Seven Years’ War hardly represented the pretext for revolution that Gipson described. Rather, the provocative policies pursued by imperial officials eventually propelled the colonies into a series of confrontations with the Crown that culminated in the movement for independence.
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Shy, John. Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
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A monumental work on the impact of the British army in the colonies prior to the Revolution, Shy’s Toward Lexington argues that stationing regular forces permanently in America after the war occurred almost by default. Although imperial officials worried sincerely about external threats to the colonies, the presence of these troops eventually heightened fears that the real reason for their presence was to repress internal dissent within America.