The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley
1905
The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley
1905
It's 1778 in Cherry Valley, and the war has come to the doors of children who still remember playing in the meadows. When Noel Campbell and his friends watch the Minute Men march off to Lexington, they decide their own village needs defending. With wooden guns and fierce determination, they drill beneath the guidance of old Sergeant Corney, a veteran who sees in their earnest efforts something more valuable than mere boyhood games. What begins as imagined adventure takes a darker turn when Loyalists and Mohawk warriors under the sachem Thayendanega threaten the valley, and suddenly these boys must prove that courage has no age limit. James Otis wrote this tale in 1905 with a muscular simplicity that contemporary readers may find either charmingly dated or refreshingly direct: there are good guys and bad guys, loyalty is paramount, and the horrors of frontier war are filtered through the lens of youthful heroism. The result is a time capsule of Edwardian juvenile fiction, but also a genuine adventure story about what happens when children decide to stop pretending and start fighting.
