The first in the series Tales of the Rangers recounts a savage firefight between a party of New England rangers led by Captain John Lovewell, and Abenaki warriors led by their renowned war captain, Paugus, in the Maine woods on May 8 or May 9, 1725. 

Sources:

Lovewell’s Fight: War, Death and Memory in Borderland New England — Robert E. Cray

The Maine Story: Lovewell’s Fight by Pat Higgins

The White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery, And Vengeance in Colonial America by Stephen Brumwell

Behind my office chair at The Nugget is a large poster portrait of Emiliano Zapata. The Mexican Revolutionary’s hard eyes gaze out over the snowdrift of papers on my desk, his magnificent mustache bristling, haloed by his massive sombrero, a bandolier of cartridges across his chest. Most folks who come into my office don’t pay much attention to him; those who do often mistake him for Pancho Villa. Occasionally someone asks who he was and why he’s there. He’s there because I admire him.

This episode is an introduction to the bold, tragic, and inspiring story of the truest of the Mexican Revolutionaries.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

In 1920, after a decade of revolutionary struggle, Pancho Villa surrendered. He retired to the hacienda of Canutillo in Durango, Mexico, with a bodyguard of his faithful Dorados. For three years, he lived a peaceful life. That life came to an end on July 20, 1923, when a hit squad shot up his 1919 Dodge Roadster as he drove through the city of Parral.

Head Games by Craig McDonald — mentioned in this episode — is a fantastic pulp caper novel based on the 100-percent true fact that somebody broke into Pancho Villa’s tomb in 1926 and stole his head. Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, the ghosts of the Mexican Revolution… What’s not to love?

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

In December 1914, Pancho Villa and his Division del Norte were the mightiest force in Mexico. By the summer of 1915, the Division del Norte had been smashed and Villa was reduced to guerrilla warfare against his hated rival Venustiano Carranza — and against the United States.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

When Victoriano Huerta staged a coup and murdered President Francisco Madero in February 1913, Pancho Villa crossed the border with eight men, bent on revenge. Within weeks, he had built a powerful army that would storm down the rail lines and sweep Huerta from power.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

Pascual Orozco led Francisco Madero’s forces in the decisive 1911 victory at the Battle of Ciudad Juarez — a battle the vacillating Madero didn’t want to fight. The victory ensured the fall of the regime of Porfirio Diaz and the ascendency of Madero to the presidency of Mexico.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

In 1910, Porfirio Diaz turned 80 years old. He had ruled Mexico for three decades, and had modernized his country and centralized political power. But “progress” had come ate the expense of massive social discontent — and a storm was brewing that would sweep the Porfiriato away.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

Wrapping up the Frontier Partisans Podcast Series on King Philip’s War, it is apparent that the war was a catastrophe for Puritan New England — and an apocalypse for the native peoples of southern New England.

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War is highly readable and worthy. Flintlock & Tomahawk by Douglas Leach remains a key history.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

In the summer of 1676, Metacomet fled south from central Massachusetts, back to his homeland in Rhode Island’s Mount Hope Peninsula. Captain Benjamin Church, sidelined by wounds, got back into the fight, leading a contingent of native warriors and English soldiers in a strategic manhunt that would end King Philip’s War.

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War is highly readable and worthy, and Osprey’s King Philip’s War, 1675-76: America’s Deadliest Colonial Conflict is useful. Flintlock & Tomahawk by Douglas Leach remains a key history.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

As the spring 1676 campaign season gets underway, the Puritan settlements of New England are reeling — but the fundamental weaknesses of the native insurgency are starting to show.

Source material: Flintlock & Tomahawk: New England in King Philip’s War, by Douglas Edward Leach. Despite a clear bias toward the Puritan settlers’ POV, and the use of archaic and pejorative language that jars modern sensibilities, Leach’s work remains a foundational narrative history of the war.

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War is highly readable and worthy, and Osprey’s King Philip’s War, 1675-76: America’s Deadliest Colonial Conflict is useful. The Red King’s Rebellion: Racial Politics in New England, 1675-78 by Russell Bourne offers worthwhile interpretations of events. James D. Drake’s King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England 1675-1676 offers a strong and nuanced counterpoint to Leach’s view that the war was an inevitable clash of cultures.

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative