Before America was an independent nation, a number of wars were fought on this continent between the European powers often called "Colonial Wars." Chances are pretty good that somewhere you're related to or descended from someone who fought in those wars on one side or the other. This is an overview of the wars with a bit of genealogy on some of the larger wars. For a complete listing of wars as well as some great resources,
click HERE. What follows are some of the more notable wars.
COLONIAL WARS
King Philips War was named after one of the native chiefs who was called "King Philip" It was very violent and the most devastating of
all wars. Nearly drove all the English out of the North American
continent. There were 90 English settlements, 52 attacked, 12
completely totally destroyed by the natives. In this war, the natives
were using fire-arrows into the log cabins and they just BURNED! As the
people fled, the natives killed them, if they didn't flee, they went in
and killed them. King Philip was defeated ultimately.
King William’s War (the first of the French and Indian Wars) began in New
England as an extension of the war between England and France, when in July 1689
the French governor of Canada incited the Indians to brutally attack Dover,
N.H., then known as Cochecho.
This time, France, England, Natives AND SPAIN on the American continent around the New York area. (Trivia: America used to be known as "Columbia" after Christopher Columbus, with the "ia" generally meaning "land of" - or land discovered by Columbus - eventually being called America in reference to the explorer Amerigo Vespucci).
Back to between England, France and the Natives but up over the Acadian Peninsula this time, the fourth of a series of wars between France and England and the natives, while it ended in 1748, it left many unresolved territorial disputes that resulted in further wars such as the...
The French and Indian War was a seven-year war between England and the
American colonies, against the French and some of the Indians in North America.
When the war ended, France was no longer in control of Canada. The Indians that
had been threatening the American colonists were defeated. This war had become a
world war. British Colonists wanted to take over French land in North America.
The British wanted to take over the fur trade in the French held territory and
colonists fully participated in this war. Both these facts were to have a
profound effect on the future of the colonies.
British soldiers fought against French soldiers and Native Americans. Native
Americans joined in the battle against the British because they were afraid the
British would take over their land.
The War officially came to an end on February 10, 1763, with the signing of the
Treaty of Paris. France officially ceded all of its holdings in North America, east of the Mississippi; while regaining the Islands of Guadeloupe and
Martinique. The most long lasting effect of the war was not negotiated between
the parties rather, it was the effect the war had on the American colonies. The
cost of the war and of controlling the newly acquired territories was high. The
British looked to the colonies to help pay those costs. That began the long
spiral of events that led to the Revolution.
However, lest the causes of the revolution be watered down to simply England expected colonists to pay taxes, and the colonists throwing a child-like temper tantrum refused, see the
Declaration of Independence for a list of grievances that sparked the American Revolution.
Was actually a civil war between English loyalists and English separatists or revolutionaries. Those loyal to the King moved across the St.
Lawrence river into Canada, some stayed permanently and others came
back after a few generations, into Michigan and other northern states.
You may find
relatives from Ohio, Illinois, etc., who look like they came from
"nowhere" - check the
New England Register and see if they were there
before the Revolution and then left for Canada.
Most
important records from this war are the pension records. Those pensions lasted a LONG time.
Often old ailing veterans would marry a 15 or 16 year old girl to care
for him and when he died, she got the pension for the rest of her life which means a fifteen year old girl could marry a man who was a boy in the Colonial Militias as a drummer or other position, he might be 70 or so in the 1850's and then she live another sixty years beyond that.
Indexes to the revolutionary war records are found in the
State Archives. You
can get name, birth, serial number and physical description of individual veterans. Physical
descriptions were used to identify corpses in the wars.
If you don't find the pension records, it
may just mean that he didn't take the pension or didn't need it and he was
healthy and went on his way.
No single archive is going to hold all the records.
Don't forget to check the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution Home Pages (On the right of this webpage).
Three kinds of pensions were given:
- Disability/invalid - suffered physical disabilities in the line of duty.
- Service pensions - stayed in for a time - like a retirement
- Widows
pension - for wives who's husbands were killed or he got it for a
certain period of time and she was entitled to it for the rest of his
life.
From 1776-1878 this law was changed on the widows 14 times. Widows were offered a pension if he was alive and in the service when married. Examples of changes in the laws:
1838 - she received a pension if married before January of 1794
1848 - pensions were given if married before 2 January of 1800
1853 - all restrictions relative to date of widows marriage were eliminated (married in time? She gets the money)
A
fire in 1800 - destroyed almost all the pension records in the war
department. Other records available however as talked about above.
New England Historical Genealogical Register: Contains all the records from the time the pilgrims landed at Plymouth until the Revolution.
General Military Terms
1. Volunteer - "Take me I want to go!"
2. Conscription - "I'm not going" "Oh yes you are!"
3. Draft - got a lot of volunteers by those who were trying to avoid certain duties imposed by the draft - i.e. if you don't want to serve in the Army in Vietnam you can volunteer for the Air National Guard Reserve as a secretary in a military library in Oklahoma, one weekend a month, two weeks a year.
For more military entries click on the tag "Military" on the right under "Tags n' Topics"
