Book excerpt: "Many Americans probably know the French and Indian War by way of the film adaptation (1992) of Cooper's Last of the Mohicans. In it Michael Mann directs the young Daniel Day-Lewis and, in parts, succeeds in capturing the strange solitude of warring in endless forest and the sudden ferocity of battle during this first truly world war. Writing an unusual work of art and history, Len Travers here excavates the story of a colonial-American 'lost patrol' during that war, turning musty documents into a gripping tale that could reach well beyond an academic readership. Fifty provincial soldiers left the fringes of settlement in fall, 1756, aiming to safeguard the upper reaches of New York. Within days, near Lake George, native warriors, allies of the French, jumped them. Surprised and overwhelmed, the colonists suffered death or capture. The fifteen surviviors lived for years as prisoners of their native captors. Eventually a few of them managed to work their back to their villages and families, living to tell their stories. Travers's remarkable research brings human experiences alive, giving us a rare, full color view of the French and Indian War. These personal accounts throw light on the motives, means, and methods of both colonists and Natives at war in the American wilderness. They also speak to the nature of war itself"--