Historical Background: Last of the Mohicans

As we saw in the earlier post on the Pequot War, author James Fenimore Cooper borrowed freely from history for his series of novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales.  He took the name of Uncas, a Mohegan Sachem who'd lived almost two centuries earlier, and his storyline implies that, at some point, Uncas' people had died out.  In fact, Mahican Natives are alive and well, most of them living in Wisconsin, but that doesn't mean that everything Fennimore wrote in his novels was inaccurate.  Like all good historical fiction writers, he based some of what he wrote in his novel, Last of the Mohicans, on a few grains of truth.


James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey.  He would've known men who'd fought in the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War.  When James was about a year old, his family moved to land that his father had purchased in New York.  It had recently been ceded or vacated by the Iroquois Six Nations.  James father started a town there which became Cooperstown.  James would've been exposed to people who remembered or had experience with the Indians.  Living surrounded by so much history fired James' imagination.  After being expelled from Yale for being a chronic prankster, and a short career in the Navy, James inherited a fortune from his father, married and settled down to his lifelong passions, history and writing. 

Like many Americans of the time, James believed that the Native tribes would eventually die out due to the harsh conditions they were under.  He had dabbled in writing throughout his life and his wife bet him that he could write a better novel than the one she was currently reading.  He took her up on the wager and in 1820, published his first novel a la Jane Austen.  Deciding that manners and morals wasn't his style, he delved into local history for his second effort, The Spy.  The Cooper family were friends with the aging John Jay, who had served as Washington's spymaster in New York and negotiated the Jay Treaty of 1794 (more on that later).  James picked Jay's brain for the historical events portrayed in that book.  In 1823, James switched his focus again, publishing the first of the Leatherstocking Tales.  The second in the series, Last of the Mohicans, was published in 1826.

As anyone who's watched this movie several times (I plead guilty) knows, the story takes place during the French and Indian War.  Nathaneal (Natty) Bumppo is a frontiersman who'd spent his youth as a captive/adoptee of the Delaware before returning to white society.  He's currently working for the British as a scout.  Fort William Henry is under siege by the French and its commander, Colonel George Monro, has asked that his two daughters accompany the relief column on its way from Fort Edward.  The girls are under the care of a young British officer who has designs on the older of the two, Cora, while ignoring the fact that it's the younger sister, Alice, who's sweet on him.  Monro ultimately has no choice but to surrender the Fort.  As the inhabitants are marching away under honors of war, French Native allies attack the column and Natty must save the colonel's two daughters.  Cue credits here.

In fact, there was a real Lt. Col. George Monro (1700-1757), who came from a wealthy and connected Scottish family.   In 1757, he was in command of Fort William Henry, near what is now Lake George in New York.  Though he may have had children, his daughters as portrayed in the book are fictional.  In early August, 1757, Maj. Gen. Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm and 7,000 French soldiers lay siege to Fort William Henry.  Monro's superior, General Webb vastly underestimate the threat and sent a relief column of 200 redcoats and 800 Massachusetts militia to aid Monro.  It's this relief column that contains the fictional Duncan Heyward and Cora and Alice Monro. 

Monro begged Webb for more reinforcements, but Webb declined to undermine his own defenses at Fort Edward, which would have left Albany open to attack.  He ordered Monro to make whatever terms he could with Montcalm and surrender Fort William Henry.  Monro did and Montcalm, who was known for his generosity toward both his enemies and his Native allies, offered a surrender with honor.  The garrison of Fort William Henry would be allowed to leave the Fort and go to Albany unharmed.  Some of Montcalm's Native allies were unhappy with this and attacked he British column as it left the fort.  More likely, they were attacking Iroquois scouts and allies who were with the British column.  Though several soldiers and noncombatants were killed, the British and militia managed to hold their own and the French quickly restored ordered.  The "massacre" in real life wasn't as far-reaching or gory as it was portrayed in the book or the movie.  In fact, Monro survived the massacre, got what was left of his men to Albany, and only died a few weeks later from another, undisclosed illness.  The rest is James Fenimore Cooper's vivid imagination at work, creating a classic that's still studied in schools. 

Monro and the events in which he was involved are the focus of at least one of the Assassins Creed games.  More on the tie-ins to Assassins Creed in later postings.  And. more on the real-life Natty Bumppo, Daniel Boone, later.