Giddyup

[Paul Mackin]

On 10/5/2012 1:39 PM, Monte Davis wrote:
> I seem to recall from Philbrick that King Philip's War was the highest in
> per capita casualties on "our" side of all American (or NW European
> Immigrant) wars.

Yes, because it was total war. No distinction between combatants and 
civilians.  From the dust jacket of Lepore's book: Both sides, in fact, 
had pursued the war seemingly without restraint killing women and 
children, torturing captives, and mutilating the dead.

It outdid, Sherman's march through Georgia by a long shot.  Curtis 
LeMay's "bomb them into the stone age" and "killing a nation" comes to 
mind as a modern template.

Lepore's perspective is the reporting of the war (to which reporting 
Pynchon contributed) then and forward in time.  How public opinion was 
affected, including how justification for "Indian removal" was 
formulated in 19th Century.

Pynchon seems quite overcome, never vindictive, just horrified.  In one 
letter he demurs "I cannot write," meaning he is powerless to express it 
all.

P


>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
> Of Paul Mackin
> Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 11:18 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Giddyup
>
> On 10/4/2012 12:31 PM, Paul Mac kin wrote:
>> On 10/4/2012 12:22 PM, Paul Mackin wrote:
>>> Who knew? John Pynchon was America's first cattle baron and imported
>>> Irish cowboys.
>>>
>>> http://www.lrgaf.org/articles/irish-cowboys.htm
>> Since it says John Pynchon was a participant in King Philip's War, I
>> looked for his name in the index of Jill Lepore's The Name of of War.
>> There are six references. Guess I'll read them after lunch.
>>
>> P
>>
>>
> OK, w/r/t Jill Lenore's book on the first Indian War (King Philips War),
> John Pynchon's horseman (indentured servants,  slaves, and freemen, termed
> cowboys in the other account but not by Jill) figured mainly as messengers,
> carrying vital news from village to village, doing reconnaissance, etc.
> Pynchon himself, along with other leaders, wrote letters back home to
> England keeping them apprised of this horrendous
> eight year war in the colonies.   A Pynchon letter also describes the
> destruction of Springfield, in which his own operation was burned to the
> ground.  He was in effect ruined and thereby, says Lenore,  subject to loss
> of identity and social standing in the community. John presumably retained
> the substantial  land holdings his father William had left him.
> William, not mentioned by Lepore,  had had to flee the country after his
> pamphlet was declared heretical.  a  Lepore makes no mention of the still
> undecoded Pynchon account of the war, the one described in the online
> account.
>
> P
>
>