Tecumseh: The Last Warrior (1995)

October 1813, Canada. Tecumseh's band treks away from Detroit.  The situation is bleak but Tecumseh (Jesse Borego) is confident that they will defeat the Long Knives (Americans) tomorrow.  His sister, Starwatcher, is less confident.  She soon recollects what had brought them to this place.

March 1768, Ohio.  Tecumseh was born as a star streaked across the sky.  This was a great omen and his father named him for the Panther in the Sky.  All agreed he had a great future as a warrior.

October 1774, Ohio.  Tecumseh's father has gone to fight the Long Knives in Virginia.  While his father is away, Tecumseh has a nightmare/vision in which his father is killed.  He sees the face of his father's killer and it stays with him.

Some years later, Tecumseh's mother departs to the west, leaving her children.  Tecumseh will not go, as his father told him never to surrender land to the Long Knives.  In time, he is old enough to go to war with his older brother, Chiksika.  Though he fled in fear from his first battle, Tecumseh proved to be a natural warrior in his next.  As the years progress, Tecumseh becomes a respected warrior who fights beside Chiksika and Blue Jacket (Holt McCallany), a white man who didn't want to live among the whites.  They fight on the side of the British during the American Revolution

1794, The Battle of Fallen Timbers.  Before the battle, Tecumseh viewed General Wayne through a looking glass.  They would shoot this general during the battle.  However, he also saw another man who had the face of his father's killer.  The night before the battle, Chiksika declares that he will be killed and Tecumseh should carry on.  As prophesized, Chiksika died.  Worse, Blue Jacket signed the Treaty of Greenville.

Tecumseh had lived long enough to see the way of things.  Each time the Indians signed a treaty for peace, it promised only a few such years before more encroachments led to further treaties that surrendered more land.  The Long Knives played the tribes against each other.  He must unite the tribes to resist further encroachment.  It would require years.  His younger brother, Tenskwatawa, had become a prophet and drew others to him.  Here was the glue that might bind the tribes into a great confederacy.

William Henry Harrison (David Clennon) saw the threat of Tecumseh's plan.  To him, America must expand and Tecumseh was an obstacle to be overcome.  When the two met, Tecumseh saw the face of his father's killer in person.  Though the two conversed and nearly came to blows, they could resolve nothing.  A war was the only path forward.

The movie is surprisingly faithful to history.  The dates and events are generally correct.  Chiksika died two years before Fallen Timbers.  Harrison was indeed an aide to General Wayne during the Fallen Timbers campaign but was only an infant when Tecumseh's father was killed.  Clearly, this was just a vision to tie the long running conflict together at the end.  The man who claimed to have killed Tecumseh, Richard Johnson, gets a brief cameo.  The movie shows that only Tecumseh's band faced the American army at the Battle of the Thames.  In fact, 700 British troops were also present, though the red coats and the Indians formed up separate from each other.  Tecumseh's forces were stationed in marshy woods, not open fields.  As shown, dragoons and mounted riflemen would have trampled the Indians.

Too much time is covered in the film, giving only brief glimpses of his life as the years pass.  This covers a 45-year period!  How about starting with the meeting of Tecumseh and Harrison in 1810 and concluding with the Battle of Thames in 1813.  Yeah, that compresses things nicely and shows Tecumseh at his peak.

Entertaining and educational.  Recommended.

Stephen Watts Kearny

In Dream West (1986), Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny is cast as the villain.  In the first episode of the miniseries, an animus is established between Kearny and Fremont.  Fremont requested a cannon for his expedition, which Kearny reluctantly provided.  In conversation, Kearny asked what year Fremont graduated West Point.  Fremont did not attend West Point.  Kearny clearly looks down on him for this failing.  That is peculiar since Kearny was not a West Point graduate either.  In fact, though both had attended college, neither managed to complete their degrees.  In the second episode, Kearny and Fremont clash about who is in charge in California.  In the final episode, Kearny is a witness at Fremont's court martial, a court martial instigated by Kearny.  His final appearance in the series is to plead for forgiveness from Jessie Benton Fremont before he died from Yellow Fever.  Kearny deserved better.

Stephen Watts Kearny was born in 1794.  He dropped out of Columbia to join the Army when the War of 1812 began.  He was captured at the Battle of Queenstown.  His bravery at that battle earned him the rank of Captain.  After the war, Kearny stayed with the army and was posted on the frontier.

In 1819, he was part of the Yellowstone Expedition.  The expedition failed spectacularly, getting bogged down in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  The following year, he was part of another expedition, this one exploring and mapping the territory between Council Bluffs and Fort Snelling (Minneapolis, MN).

In 1825, Major Kearny was part of General Atkinson's Rocky Mountain Expedition.  Nearly 500 troops traveled from Fort Atkinson (Omaha, NE) up the Missouri River, replicating Lewis and Clark's travels.

The following year, he supervised the building of Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, where none other than William Clark lived.  Kearny courted and married William Clark's step-daughter, Mary Radford.

In 1833, Lt. Colonel Kearny was made second in command of the newly formed 1st Dragoon Regiment, based in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  In 1836, he rose to Colonel and became the commander of the 1st Dragoons.

With all this western experience, it is unsurprising that Brigadier General Kearny was made commander of the Army of the West when the Mexican-American War was declared.  His westward march was surprisingly uneventful.  He captured Santa Fe, New Mexico without firing a shot.  He then set out for California, unaware that Commodore Stockton and Lt. Col. Fremont had already captured it.  He learned of those events when he met Kit Carson on the road.  Based on Carson's reports, Kearny sent two-thirds of his men back to Santa Fe and continued to California.  By the time he arrived, the state was in rebellion.

The Battle of San Pasqual

Having learned of a band of Californios in the area, Kearny decided to attack.  However, his men were poorly mounted; they had just suffered a trek across the southwestern deserts.  The rain made the gunpowder damp and surprise had been lost.  The Dragoons charged in a ragged line.  By contrast, the Californios had excellent horses and were armed with lances.  The Dragoons were no match and only the presence of a cannon saved them.

Kearny thus arrived in San Diego with a pitiful and beaten force.  Compared to Fremont's California Battalion and Stockton's sailors and marines, Kearny was all bark and no bite.  He conceded command to Stockton and joined in the retaking of Los Angeles.  When Stockton sailed away and Commodore Shubrick took over the Pacific fleet, Kearny made his move for command.  The Mormon Battalion and New York volunteers arrived to give him the biggest army in California.  He had been sent to take California and he outranked Fremont.  Fremont continued to balk and earned himself a court martial.

Fremont's court martial lasted 3 months, concluding in February 1848.  Afterwards, Kearny was sent to Mexico as military governor of Vera Cruz and then Mexico City.  He contracted Yellow Fever and was sent home.  He died in St. Louis in October, 1848.

Fremont put Kearny in an impossible situation.  Should he have just endured insubordination?  Certainly not.  In the best of times, Kearny was known to be difficult.  He was a harsh man who made few friends.  This is not the sort of soldier to forgive and forget.  On the other hand, Fremont was a national hero.  President Polk attempted to split the difference by nixing the punishment while affirming the verdict.

Jackson: A Novel

It is 1828.  After 9-years of living in France, Harvard graduate David Chase returned to the United States upon his father's death.  He was left nothing.  Near penniless, he sought employment; he was a writer.  As luck would have it, William Short was looking for someone to write the definitive biography of Andrew Jackson.  Chase accepted the commission.

While the presidential campaign of 1828 is played like a chess game between Andrew Jackson and President John Quincy Adams, Chase interacts with a wide variety of historical figures from the era.  In the background, the biography of Andrew Jackson is told as chapters of Chase's book.  The New Orleans campaign dominates the biography and is the source of Jackson's fame.

The book uses point-of-view characters - some real, some fictional - to tell its story.

- Andrew Jackson is central character but has a limited role as a POV character.  Painted as a man of iron will, volcanic anger, bristling gray hair, and a stick thin bean pole, Jackson is not the illiterate backwoodsman that many thought.

- John Coffee has been Jackson's friend and ally for forty years.  A bear of a man who serves as Jackson's right hand, he plays a large role in protecting Jackson from scandal and managing the campaign with Alexander Hamilton's son, James.

- John Quincy Adams is a disciplined man of great intellect and talent, but a complete lack of charisma.  His son, Charles Francis Adams, serves as his secretary and his wife, Louisa, is unhappy.  Adams comes across as hapless, though entirely laudable.

Fictional POV characters:

- David Chase is a fictional character who crisscrosses the country to research his Jackson biography.  Though American by birth, he feels like an outsider thanks to his many years in France.  Washington City is a backwater compared to Paris and Nashville even more so.  Nonetheless, he finds himself admiring Jackson with each new chapter he writes.

- Mr. Hogwood, an Englishman, proved to be the first writer that William Short had employed.  Though dismissed in favor of Chase, Hogwood provided his research so far to Chase and made introductions to his contacts in Washington City.  Many of the early chapters of Jackson's life are written by Hogwood.

- Emma Colden is Hogwood's beautiful daughter and the object of Chase's desire.  An aspiring writer herself, she frequently complains that women are not allowed such freedoms.  When she is the POV, it is usually when there is an interview with noteworthy women such as Louisa Adams or Fanny Wright.

The book paints an excellent picture of America in 1828, from Boston, to Washington City, to Nashville, to New Orleans.  Historical figures such as John Randolph, Sam Houston, John Eaton, Nicholas Trist, George Ticknor, Sarah Hale, Frances Milton Trollope, and many more have something to say about the campaign, America, women's rights, slavery, Jackson, Jefferson, and other subjects.  Here is a dynamic country where technology is racing and possibilities are limitless.

Outstanding book and highly recommended.

Mohawk (2017)

It is the War of 1812 in upstate New York.  Joshua Pinsmail, a British agent, tries to enlist the Mohawk to the British cause.  Most of them refuse.  However, Calvin Two Rivers thinks they should fight the Americans.  Viewing his mission as a failure, Joshua ponders his departure; he will miss Okwaho, his Mohawk lover.  Joshua, Okwaho - nicknamed "Oak" - and Calvin travel together.  One night, Calvin left their camp and killed 20 American soldiers in their sleep!  Unsurprisingly, a band of Americans are soon on their trail for vengeance.  The Americans catch up to the trio just as the trio are conversing with other Mohawk.  The tense situation inevitably results in conflict where arrows fly and muskets bark.  The trio make good their escape, but the remaining Americans continue the pursuit.

The story transforms into a horror movie as Oak - who has had visions of a skull-faced apparition from the start - dons such a costume and hunts down the Americans.  Somehow, despite having suffered grievous wounds, she is able to outrun them, setup traps, and fight in toe-to-toe combat, and displays superhuman strength.  Has she been possessed by some Mohawk spirit of vengeance?  No.  She's just that cool.

Oak is the main character.  She wears a mini skirt and short-sleeved tunic.  She looks entirely unlike a Mohawk squaw.  Everyone else has a reasonably accurate period costume or uniform, so this proves to be a significant anachronism.  Worse, it all fits rather loosely so she isn't the gratuitously sexy Mohawk.

The Americans are led by Colonel Holt.  He has two soldiers, a tracker, and an interpreter.  Despite being deep in the woods and far from any backup, he acts as though he is leading a full regiment of men.  Whenever one of his men dies, he views it as a reason to continue rather than a warning that he is beyond his depth.  Worse, he expands his mission from simply capturing Calvin to capturing all three.  Why?  Basically, the Americans are doomed to self-destruct thanks to Holt's recklessness.

One of the Americans, Private Lachlan Allsopp, is a giant.  Played by Jon Huber, a real life wrestler, he towers over everyone at 6'5" tall.  Interestingly, Allsopp claims to be a veteran of the Battle of Tippecanoe, which took place in Indiana in 1811.  How is he still a private?

Mediocre.  Skip.

General William Jenkins Worth - The American Murat

In his PhD dissertation, Edward Seccomb Wallace researched the life of General William Jenkins Worth, hero of the Battle of Monterrey.  That battle was the high watermark of Worth's career.

The book details the Worth family and how the son of a whaler became a soldier rather than a sailor.  Joining the army during the War of 1812, Worth found himself serving with Winfield Scott.  The two would become fast friends for the next 30 years.  Worth was seriously wounded in the leg and had a limp for the remainder of his life.  He became the first Commandant of Cadets at West Point, a position he held while Robert E. Lee was a cadet.  The man who succeeded him, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, became a lifelong antagonist.  From West Point, Worth became the commanding officer of the newly formed 8th Infantry.  The 8th was posted along the Great Lakes to prevent a Canadian independence movement from using the US as a hideout and also to prevent Americans from supporting the rebels; a very peculiar situation.  He was later sent to Florida, where he became the leader who finally 'won' the Second Seminole War (1835-1842).  The annexation of Texas in 1845 saw Worth and the 8th Infantry posted in Corpus Christi and later marching to the Rio Grande.  Thinking that there would be no fighting and having been disrespected by the military (as he saw it), Worth resigned.  A month later, the war had commenced and his men had fought both Palo Alto and Resaca de La Palma without him.  Chagrined, Worth withdrew his resignation and hastened to the Rio Grande again.  Now he had to somehow restore his tarnished reputation.  He intended to achieve promotion or death.  His standout performance at Monterrey in September 1846 earned him the promotion he desired.  He served with Windfield Scott again during the march to Mexico City, but they were no longer friends.  After the war, he was posted in San Antonio, TX, where he died from cholera in 1849.

The most interesting part of the book is the political rivalry among the generals.  Though often mentioned in books on the Mexican-American War, it is generally told from Hitchcock's perspective.  As such, Worth is often seen as one part of a spiteful triumvirate of officers.  Here, that story is flipped on its head and Ethan Allen Hitchcock comes across as a devious manipulator.  Hitchcock had been Worth's subordinate at West Point.  Later, he was given the rank of major in Worth's 8th Infantry but did not report for duty.  No, he was on long term detached assignment, something fairly common at the time.  However, that left Worth without a major.  Later, when the 8th was in Florida, Hitchcock somehow wrangled repeated extended leaves from duty.  Worth developed a very low opinion of Hitchcock.  However, Hitchcock was a master of regulation and the lawyerly side of the military.  Both Worth and Hitchcock were on the Rio Grande in April 1846.  Worth, who had a brevet rank of brigadier general but a lineal rank of colonel, viewed himself as the obvious second in command to General Taylor.  However, Colonel David Twiggs had only the lineal rank of colonel but this pre-dated Worth's lineal rank.  Hitchcock argued on Twiggs side (behind the scenes, of course) despite the fact that he well knew that Worth was the far more competent commander.  Taylor dodged a decision on the matter by sending it to Washington.  Washington, lobbied by Hitchcock, favored Twiggs.  When word returned to the Rio Grande that Twiggs outranked him, an indignant Worth resigned.  A few days later, Hitchcock requested leave and also departed.  This was not the last clash between Worth and Hitchcock.  As Worth died in 1849 and Hitchcock lived until 1870, history mostly remembers Hitchcock's point of view.  Hitchcock was a prolific writer and diarist.  By contrast, there is only correspondence to tell Worth's side of things.

Unsurprisingly, my opinion of Worth was greatly improved by this book.  Though certainly possessed of an inflated ego - he wasn't called "Haughty Bill" for nothing - he was a competent and diligent leader who could be relied upon to get the job done.  Here is an outstanding biography of a now little known general.  Fort Worth, Texas was named in his honor.