[FN] London Quarterly Review, No. cxvi.—Art. on Upcott's Collection of Original
Letters, Manuscripts, and State Papers.
The plan of the work, especially of the first and larger portion of it,
may perhaps in some respects disappoint the reader, though, it is hoped, not
unfavourably. It has been the object of the author to render it not only a
local, but, to a certain extent, a brief general history of the War of the
Revolution. Thus, while it is a particular history, ample in its details, of the
belligerent events occurring at the west of Albany, the author has from time
to time introduced brief sketches of contemporaneous events occurring in
other parts of the country. By this means, bird's-eye glimpses have been
presented, for the most part in the proper order of time, of all the principal
military operations of the whole contest. In order, moreover, to the better
understanding of the incipient revolutionary movements in the Mohawk
country, (then Tryon County,) a rapid view is given of the same description
of movements elsewhere. The proceedings of that county were, of course,
connected with, and dependent upon, those of New England, especially of
Boston—the head, and heart, and soul of the rebellion, in its origin and its
earlier stages. Hence a summary review of the measures directly, though by
degrees, leading to the revolt of the Colonies, has not been deemed out of
place, in its proper chronological position. And as all the Indian history of
the Revolutionary war at the north, the west, and the south, has been written
out in full, by the incidental sketches of other events and campaigns
marking the contest, the work may be considered in the three-fold view of
local, general, and biographical; the whole somewhat relieved, from time to
time, if not enlivened, by individual narratives—tales of captivity and
suffering—of daring adventures and bold exploits.
Several weeks after the preceding pages had been stereotyped, but
before any considerable progress had been made in printing the body of the
work, the author was so fortunate as to obtain a large accession of valuable
materials from General Peter Gansevoort, of Albany, embracing the
extensive correspondence of his father, the late General Gansevoort, better
known in history as "the hero of Fort Stanwix." These papers, embracing
those captured by him from the British General St. Leger, have been found
of great importance in the progress of the work, and will add materially to
its completeness and its value.