How accurate were the battle scenes in 'The last of The Mohicans'?

[IrishBlood]

Inspired by the reticently resurrected thread on 'The Patriot'

Specifically how accurate were the scenes involving the siege of the British fort by the French/Indian forces and the subsequent ambush/massacre of the British by the French Indian allies.

To my (admittedly acolyte levels of) knowledge the siege seemed resonably realistic, although the French siege artillery must have been pretty poor if its range was that small.

As for the ambush/massacre, it doesn't seem TOO far fetched. A numerically superior force, attacking with the element of surprise, primarily with melee weapons balanced out by the short distance they had to cover. Seems pretty realistic to me.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, it's the very purpose of this thread

[athanaric]

Specifically how accurate were the scenes involving the siege of the British fort by the French/Indian forces and the subsequent ambush/massacre of the British by the French Indian allies.

Do you mean accurate in terms of costumes and tactics or accurate in terms of veracity? I haven't yet watched the movie, but there was an instance in the French and Indian War where the allied troops sieged a British fort and, after convincing the British to surrender honourably, massacred them. Don't remember where exactly that was, though.

[napoleon boneaparte]

Fort William Henry.

[Roma_Victrix]

I haven't yet watched the movie

Cue the epic main title/theme/credits song for the trial and summary execution of Athanaric for heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, and thought crime:

[+Marius+]

Specifically how accurate were the scenes involving the siege of the British fort by the French/Indian forces and the subsequent ambush/massacre of the British by the French Indian allies.

The siege was done quite well, and the engagement in the extended version of the film is one of the best depictions of 18th century warfare in motion picture history;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBsq6Cd4Rf0


The ambush was completely ahistorical though, as in reality, the English were not allowed to keep their ammunition and were assaulted by the Indians immediately after leaving the Fort(there were even murders within the fort before their departure).

The real event was a completely cowardly and murderous act by the Native Americans who massacred the wounded and straggling Englishmen without much weaponry or ammo, but Hollywood could not portray it as it really happened for obvious reasons.

Now, there is the problem with identifying which tribes participated and which honored the agreement, to my knowledge, this is still unclear.


The ambush in the movie could not have happened, as any army(at the time) will have scouts 100s of meters in every direction, especially when going through a forested area.

The Indians would murder some scouts, gunfire would be heard, and the English would be prepared in the matter of seconds.

[TWWolfe]

The siege was done quite well, and the engagement in the extended version of the film is one of the best depictions of 18th century warfare in motion picture history;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBsq6Cd4Rf0


The ambush was completely ahistorical though, as in reality, the English were not allowed to keep their ammunition and were assaulted by the Indians immediately after leaving the Fort(there were even murders within the fort before their departure).

The real event was a completely cowardly and murderous act by the Native Americans who massacred the wounded and straggling Englishmen without much weaponry or ammo, but Hollywood could not portray it as it really happened for obvious reasons.

Now, there is the problem with identifying which tribes participated and which honored the agreement, to my knowledge, this is still unclear.


The ambush in the movie could not have happened, as any army(at the time) will have scouts 100s of meters in every direction, especially when going through a forested area.

The Indians would murder some scouts, gunfire would be heard, and the English would be prepared in the matter of seconds.

Not entirely true, especially in the American theater where is seems everyone loved to underestimate their enemies. Like in the battle of the Monongahela, where both Braddock and Dumas forces ran into each other with no expectation the other would be there. pretty much the saving grace for the British was that the French and their Indian allies were behind scheduled and didnt have the ambush they intended to launch prepared.

[IrishBlood]

The siege was done quite well, and the engagement in the extended version of the film is one of the best depictions of 18th century warfare in motion picture history;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBsq6Cd4Rf0


The ambush was completely ahistorical though, as in reality, the English were not allowed to keep their ammunition and were assaulted by the Indians immediately after leaving the Fort(there were even murders within the fort before their departure).

The real event was a completely cowardly and murderous act by the Native Americans who massacred the wounded and straggling Englishmen without much weaponry or ammo, but Hollywood could not portray it as it really happened for obvious reasons.

Now, there is the problem with identifying which tribes participated and which honored the agreement, to my knowledge, this is still unclear.


The ambush in the movie could not have happened, as any army(at the time) will have scouts 100s of meters in every direction, especially when going through a forested area.

The Indians would murder some scouts, gunfire would be heard, and the English would be prepared in the matter of seconds.

Well I don't think it's too unreasonable to assume that native warriors, experts in melee and guerrilla warfare, would be capable of silently taking out enough scouts to allow for the main body of their force to quickly rush into melee combat with the British column before they have a chance to form ranks.

I also think in the context of the specific ambush depicted in the film, the British were under the impression that they had free passage out of the area, so the scouts might be lax in their duties, or might not have even been deployed at all. Greater military blunders have been made after all!

[+Marius+]

Yeah, I guess you're right.

Though, those armies kinda bashed into each other while in the movie the British are just marching while the Indians are marching alongside them on both sides.

Strange how obvious the use of scouts is yet we still see armies getting ambushed throughout history.

You would think the idea would pass on as mandatory at one point.