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Summary: Unsung Hero of the American Revolution
Review: Marinus Willett never attained more than the rank of lieutenant colonel during the Revolutionary War, although many (myself included) would argue that he accomplished far more with far less than any of his contemporaries on the American side. For that he deserved the honor of rank commensurate with his abilities and accomplishments. But Willett was not a complainer; he was the quintessential doer. He was the model citizen-soldier. It was the supreme compliment to him to be referred to as "the Devil" to the British and their Iriquois allies, not because of any atrocities attributed to him but because of his bravery, tenacity, resourcefulness, and tactical skill. The drubbings he was able to inflict on them gave him somewhat of a supernatural aura in the eyes of his enemies. Contrasting the British/Indian opinion of him, the largely German Americans who inhabited the Mohawk Valley referred to him as the "Saviour of the Mohawk Valley" for his accomplishments on behalf of the American side there. Willett was a master of small unit tactics, able to rapidly assemble, deploy, and engage his tiny forces against numerically superior forces...and soundly thrash them! His ability to convert from a defensive stance to a stubbornly aggressive offense was a key element to his success in keeping his enemies off balance and systematically defeat them. Without him, the American presence on the New York frontier would have surely collapsed, opening the way for the British to take Albany and Massachusetts, thus perhaps altering the course of the war. Mr. Lowenthal's engaging book brings to life one of the most unrecogized heroes of America's most important (but also most unrecognized) military conflicts.
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