John GrantÕs eyewitness accounts of military life during the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven YearsÕ War) provide fascinating and invaluable insights into the period. We follow the young Scottish officer to the Caribbean, where he soldiered in the disease-ridden cane fields and swamps of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and later at the siege of Havana, and to North America, where he served at Staten Island, New York and on the Hudson River route to Ticonderoga and points north. He worked on building forts at Oswego and Crown Point and was part of John BradstreetÕs famous ÒBattoe ServiceÓ making the movement of armies and supplies through the wilderness possible. With General Jeffery AmherstÕs force, he survived shooting the treacherous rapids of the St. Lawrence River on the way to capturing Montreal in 1760, completing the British conquest of New France.
Not only does Grant describe the physical conditions of the fighting and the strange environments encountered, but we learn first-hand of the Highland soldierÕs emotions before and after combat, his will to fight, and, most of all, his perseverance in adversity. The Black WatchÕs exploits in the Americas during BritainÕs ÒGreat War for EmpireÓ were a critical factor in changing the image of Highlanders in British society from Jacobite rebels to Imperial heroes. Here in GrantÕs memoirs we find a veteran of BritainÕs first ÒAmerican ArmyÓ whose career straddled that remarkable transformation. Proud of his family, countrymen and regiment, John Grant pursued a shining career while on Òa dangerous serviceÓ as a young Black Watch officer that marked him for the rest of his life.
A Dangerous Service is published in collaboration with the Lake Saint Louis Historical Society and the 78th Fraser Highlanders
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