Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University

307 Pages·2012·6.34 MB·English

Andhra Pradesh
Agricultural University
Central Library
Hyderab ad-500030.

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GUNS AT THE FORKS
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TIff, AMERICA.N FORTS SERIES
edited by Stewart H. Holbrook
Other Sub;ects in Preparation
FORTRESS LOUISBOURG
by Fairfax Downey
SUTTER'S FORT
by Oscar Lewis
"FOl\'Y LAl\AMlli
by Remi Nadeau
VINCE,\'NES
by August Derleth
FORT NIAGARA
by Robert West Howard
THE FORTS OF MACKINAC
by Walter Havighurst
Fo:f\'1'S OF THE \)PPER MISSoUfll
by Robert G. Athearn
Books by Walter O'Meara
THE TREES WENT FORTH
THE GRAND PORTAGE
TALES OF THE Two BORDERS
THE SPANISH BRIDE
MINNESOTA GOTIUC
JUST LOOKING
THE DEvn.'S CROSS
THE FmsT NORTHWEST PASSAGE
THE SAVAGE COUNTRY
THE LAST PORTAGE
~~GUNS~
lTHEFORKS
. Walter O'Meara
PRENTICE-HALL INC. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Guns at the Forks
by Walter O'Meara
© 1965 by Walter O'Mea __
All rights reserved including the right to
reproduce this book, or any portions thereof, in
any form except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in a review.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-12921
Printed in the United States of America
T 37168
PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London
PRENTICE-HALL OF AUSTRALIA, PTY., LTD., Sydney
PRENTICE-HALL OF CANADA, LTD., Toronto
PRENTICE-HALL OF INDIA (PRIVATE), LTD., New Delhi
PRENTICE-HALL OF JAPAN, INC., Tokyo
Second printing ...... April, 1965
PREFACE
This book tells the story of two frontier forts and their part
in a vast struggle between England and France for ownership
of a continent. All of the action takes place in North America,
chiefly at the Forks of the Ohio, where the city of Pittsburgh
now stands; and most of it in a short span of about ten years.
What happened in this remote wedge of wilderness between
the years 1750 and 1760 affected profoundly the course of world
events. It sparked a terrible global war. It helped to decide the
fate of empires. And because things turned out as they did,
Americans are speaking English today-instead of French.
Our story opens on a December night in 1753 at a lonely,
forest-bound outpost of the French forces on the Ohio. To under
stand the situation there, it is necessary to review, if only briefly,
events in Europe during the preceding half century.
For many years trouble between the world's two greatest
powers had proliferated from roots deep in the soil of colonial
ambition and dynastic rivalry. In 1688, Louis XIV of France,
having already fought two wars, detonated 11 third by raiding
his neighbors' lands. England, backed by Spain, Holland, the
Empire, and other states, promptly intervened; and the great War
of the League of Augsburg was on.
This war was fought mainly on the battlefields of Europe; but
in America, the colonies of England and France soon became
engaged in their own petite guerre. Canada's great governor, the
Comte de Frontenac, loosed his ferocious scalping parties on
New England. Sir William Phips captured Port Royal, then
almost took Quebec. In the closing years, the incomparable Pierre
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