The Gladwin Manuscripts by Charles Moore
Feb. 2019
Very few people can be said to have stood at the crux of history and made a difference, and Henry Gladwin is one of those few. Trying to imagine what the modern world would look like if Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763 had succeeded—which it came very near doing—is The Man in the High Castle on steroids. If Pontiac had succeeded, the American War for Independence would have been at least delayed and who knows if that perfect storm of events would ever have properly coalesced at a later time?
Major Gladwin was the commandant of Fort Detroit and therefore the man responsible for its successful defense against overwhelming odds, but remarkably little was known about him until this pamphlet by Charles Moore was published in 1897. This was Mr. Moore’s attempt to clear up the mystery of exactly who Henry Gladwin was, what he thought about as the fort was under siege, and what happened to him after he returned to England from Detroit.
Major Gladwin was the commandant of Fort Detroit and therefore the man responsible for its successful defense against overwhelming odds, but remarkably little was known about him until this pamphlet by Charles Moore was published in 1897. This was Mr. Moore’s attempt to clear up the mystery of exactly who Henry Gladwin was, what he thought about as the fort was under siege, and what happened to him after he returned to England from Detroit.