The Riflemen of the Ohio: A Story of the Early Days Along "The Beautiful River
The Riflemen of the Ohio: A Story of the Early Days Along "The Beautiful River
The Ohio River, 1790s. A fleet of flatboats carries everything the settlement at Pittsburgh needs to survive: gunpowder, tools, hope. At seventeen, Henry Ware is too young to be a soldier but old enough to hold a rifle and watch the tree line for the flash of a war bonnet. The Shawnees and Wyandots have every reason to hate the encroaching settlers, and the forest along the Beautiful River keeps its own counsel. When Henry is captured during a hunting expedition, he must draw on every ounce of wit and courage to survive. Altsheler was a master of historical adventure, and this novel delivers the genre at its finest: taut, fast-moving, and crackling with the constant threat of violence. The wilderness here is not scenery but a living presence, vast and indifferent, capable of murder or mercy. The story endures because it captures something true about the frontier: ordinary people facing extraordinary danger with steady nerves and stubborn purpose. For readers who loved Last of the Mohicans and similar tales of early America.
