Montcalm

La Mémoire de Montcalm Vengée ou Le Massacre au Fort George; Documents Historiques

1864 · 7854 — Québec: J. N. Duquet & Cie Éditeurs 1864. Bibliothèque du Canadien. Hardcover. pp. 91. 12mo 10.5 x 15 cm. Publisher's original pebbled stamped cloth over boards with title in gilt to the centre; marbled endpapers new ffep. An uncommonly well-preserved copy showing trifle wear to the cloth extremities; rare sporadic foxing to some leaves chiefly to the front matter otherwise overwhelmingly without blemish. Binding firm and sound; a very good copy. A significant work of 19th-century French-Canadian historiography of considerable historical value beyond its intended purpose as a military and personal apology of the primary subject Montcalm. Ostensibly meant as a rehabilitation of the Marquis de Montcalm’s reputation following the 1757 "Massacre of Fort William Henry" Fort George at the hands of his Indigenous allies the volume’s chief importance and value lies in its preservation of a crucial eyewitness account of the massacre from the journal of Father Roubaud see bibliographical note below. A Jesuit priest spy forger and missionary to the Abenaki Abnaquis Roubaud was present during the siege surrender and subsequent violence visited upon the retreating party following the capitulation of English-led forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Monro. An insightful record of the volatile military and social alliance between the French command and the Abenaki Odawa and Potawatomi nations and an important account relating the ensuing massacre and for the study of Indigenous-colonial military relations. Historically miscatalogued in some repositories as an Ontario/Niagara item the text concerns the events at Lake George New York. Provenance: Ex-libris bookplate of the Bibliothèque Collège Bourget to the front pastedown; institutional deaccession stamp to the recto of the ffep. References: Sabin 40006; Field 906. Rare. <br/><br/>¶ Field writes: "The details of this frightful massacre by the Indians under Montcalm are given by an eye-witness and go far to prove him innocent of conniving at it. The principal portion of this defense is a journal of the events of the siege surrender and massacre written by a French missionary. It may be found in the Lettres Edifiante Vol. VI. A translation of this journal was made by Father Kip and printed in Part II of his Early Jesuit Missions in America where it is attributed to Father Roubaud Abnaquis missionary. It is an almost perfect exculpation of Montcalm from the charge of horrible cruelty of which he had been found guilty by historians without trial or examination of the evidence. The slaughter is amply proven by the evidence adduced in this little volume to have been the result of one of those sudden and overwhelming phrensies for blood to which the savages of all Nations are predisposed in battle." J. N. Duquet & Cie, Éditeurs hardcover