A treatise on the mode and manner of Indian war

Col. James Smith’s A Treatise on the Mode and Manner of Indian War is one of the earliest and most authentic firsthand accounts of frontier warfare, survival, and Native American tactics in early North America.

Captured by a Caughnawaga war party in 1755 and adopted into the tribe, Smith lived among the Native peoples for nearly five years, learning their customs, methods of hunting, and principles of combat. Drawing from his extraordinary experience, this treatise provides a rare and unembellished insight into the guerrilla strategies, discipline, and philosophy of war practiced by Indigenous nations during the turbulent years of colonial expansion.

Part memoir, part military manual, A Treatise on the Mode and Manner of Indian War stands as both a record of cultural encounter and a reflection on the shifting balance of power on the 18th-century frontier. Written with the clarity of a soldier and the respect of one who had lived among his former captors, Smith’s work remains a vital primary source for the study of Native warfare, frontier history, and colonial America.

Complete and unabridged edition of Col. James Smith’s classic frontier narrative

Eyewitness description of Native warfare, tactics, and survival in the wilderness

A key primary source for students of military history, early American frontiers, and Indigenous studies

Essential reading for collectors of colonial chronicles, captivity narratives, and frontier memoirs