Carleton's raid

The secret orders read: "Destroy all the supplies, provisions, and animals which the rebels may have assembled on the shores of Lake Champlain ... destroy all the boats ... as well as all the sawmills and gristmills which could have been built in the area." The threat of an American invasion of Canada triggered a major attack in 1778, which violated the trust the American colonists had placed in the British and resulted in widespread and cruel hardship for the men, women, and children who lived in the Champlain Valley. In the vast panorama of the historical landscape, persons and events of great importance to one era sometimes escape notice of later generations. So it has been with Carleton's Raid. Although a major invasion involving hundreds of Canadian troops, it was overshadowed by contemporary and subsequent happenings. It records have remained practically untouched in Canadian and Vermont archives. This book brings together the separate and sometimes conflicting accounts of Carleton's Raid so that the reader sees the invasion from the very different ,perspectives of attacker and attacked., On the Canadian side, discussions and decisions are followed in official correspondence, while Carleton's own journal gives details of the action and records a rapport and cooperation with the company Indians very rare in British annals. From the Vermont side, letters and stories vividly paint the sufferings of the settlers and tell dramatic tales of imprisonment and escape. Carleton's Raid is not only of scholarly importance because it is the first thorough study of the invasion of November 1178, but it is also of scholarly importance because it is the first thorough study of the invasion, but it is also exciting reading for anyone interested in American history. Available from Cherry Tree Books - $14.95 plus shipping.Washington, Ida H. is the author of 'Carleton's raid' with ISBN 9780966683202 and ISBN 096668320X.