During the Revolutionary Era much of New York State was a heavily forested frontier, sparsely populated but bitterly divided.
Although the only major campaign in the Adirondacks would end at the Battle of Saratoga, factional raiding parties traversed the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks throughout the war.
Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams details many of those frontier raids in her new book The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks: Raids in the Wilderness (Arcadia Publishing, 2020).
Among the stories are those of Sir Christopher Carleton, who led groups of Loyalists, Hessians and Iroquois in attacks along Lake Champlain, capturing forts and striking fear in local villages. Mohawk leader Joseph Brant and a band of irregulars known as Brant’s Volunteers made chaotic raids against Patriot targets. Marauding brothers Edward and Ebenezer Jessup brought suffering to the very lands they had purchased years before in Kingsbury, Queensbury and Fort Edward.
Marie Danielle Annette Williams is an independent historian living in Upstate New York. She has a BA in social studies adolescent education from The College of Saint Rose, and a MA in American history from Southern New Hampshire University. She has been writing about American history since 2011 on her blog The Half-Pint Historian Blog and has contributed articles to New York Almanack.
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Marie Danielle, looking forward to getting and reading your book. I have published articles for the NY Almanack and ADK Almanack on history related to my corner of the Adirondacks, Big Moose in Brown’s Tract, Township 8. My upcoming article is about Verplack Colvin’s surveyor of the Totten & Crossfield Line, a Frank Tweedy. What I discovered was that the Jessup brothers surveyed that Purchase, at least the outer border, in 1774. From your research, did any of the war action reach up that far, through the Jessup’s or others. My focus will be on the Corner of Townships 42 and 41 on the western border of the T&C Line.
Hi Noel, to my knowledge the war didn’t quite reach up that far, although parts of what would become the town of Queensbury would be burnt down twice during the war. Prior to my book’s publication, I wrote an article about the Jessups here on the New York Almanack. You should be able to do a search for the article on here.
Marie, I am enjoying “The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks – Raids in the Wilderness,” gifted to me by my wife, Annette, for Christmas. We live on Long Ilsand but have a vacation home in the Town of Edinburg, Saratoga County which it seems is not far from where you grew up. If you send me an e-mail address I will send you some comments.
Dennis Duffy, Secretary, Moses A. Baldwin Camp #544, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War & Editor, “Moses on the Move.”
duffy99999@aol.com