Defending Fort Stanwix
by William L. Kidder

What was the biggest challenge you faced telling the story of Fort Stanwix through the eyes of the people who were there?

As with most stories in history, the surviving records that focus on individuals are scarce. The records that do survive are generally official orders, letters, diaries, or memoirs of the higher-ranking leaders. Accounts by common soldiers are really few and far between. Although my ancestor did not apply for a pension, many former soldiers did and in their applications often told stories of experiences. When I first started researching, access to the pension records kept at the National Archives were not readily accessible. When they became available on microfilm at places like the David Library of the American Revolution which was about twenty minutes from my home they were greatly more accessible. Then, when the films were digitized and made available online where they became searchable, the stories began to fly and multiply. As happy as I was to be finding so many accounts, as with anything that involves human interaction, interpretation, memory, and point of view, any source, even primary, must be treated with varying degrees of skepticism. Individual memories of incidents must be seen as personal and not necessarily universal. No account by one person, whether contemporaneous or delayed, can be interpreted as the whole story or what every other participant would have reported.

One of the things I most enjoyed about your book were all of the individual stories. It really made it easier to visualize what living at the fort, and defending it, looked like. It was in the details, from the many requests for basic supplies needed by the people at the fort to the exhausting work and repairs needed, that really painted a picture of how difficult life was at Fort Stanwix. Were you surprised by anything that you uncovered in the stories and accounts?

Probably the difficulties both before and after the siege surprised me a bit. Just how much they were isolated on the frontier was a bit surprising. Especially the daily concern for personal safety, even in close proximity to the fort, I found greater than expected. Despite the many desertions, I was somewhat surprised that it wasn’t even worse. I think it would be accurate to say that I was surprised by the depth and longevity of the problems they dealt with rather than the types of issues.

What was your greatest reward?

That would be that with the help of various people and archival sources I was able to locate many personal accounts of experience. In my writing of history, I always seek to include the human element and not just talk about anonymous groups of people such as regiments of soldiers. Regiments are made up of individuals who each have a story. Whatever regiments do in history it is individuals who are doing something together and not a faceless organization. While personal accounts will be few in number, even one will add a personal, human touch to the story of events.

As I was writing the book and working with Cornell University Press and other historians, I was terrified that local Mohawk Valley readers would find things, and perhaps the whole thing, to be faulty in relation to their understanding of the event and the Revolution in their region. In my writings about New Jersey, I was in constant contact with others who had done some similar research, and I had constantly been challenging myself to keep thinking and rethinking. I must admit that I have often criticized books on history because I have felt the author may have known the details of the story being told but their interpretations of some elements were not based on a thorough understanding of the context of the events described. I have always challenged myself to learn as much about the background of the people, places, etc. of the story I am telling. At this point, I have to say that my greatest reward in doing this book was not that I was able to develop a good understanding of what my ancestor experienced, although that was really good, but that when early released copies were given by the publisher to several local people in the Mohawk Valley area and I was invited to speak about the book for several podcasts and speaking engagements, I had people from the audience come up and thank me for writing the book. They felt it had helped them better understand the history of their region in an enjoyable way. It may turn out that someone will read the book and think I got something wrong or should have phrased something differently, but that is OK because I know I am not perfect. Their criticisms will help me keep learning. I do not claim that any book I write is the definitive source. No book on history will ever be the definitive source on a topic – there will always be more to learn or interpret differently.

Having grown up in the Mohawk Valley, I felt that your book really offers a deeper understanding of the difficulties people faced. Telling the stories of those present at the time, in their voice whenever possible, made this book an extremely enjoyable read.