Historical Facts in James Coopers Novel The Last of the Mohicans

Actual names of forts and towns are introduced by Cooper where the novel begins with as the little girls of Lieutenant Colonel Munro are making a trip from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry (Cooper 1). These two forts are actual places that are in existence to date where conflicts took place between the French and the Native Americans on one side against the British. Cooper gives a detailed account of actual battles, attacks, and skirmishes between the Native Americans and their English colonizers. This conflict was real in what is referred to as the Massacre of William Henry. Cooper (187) asserts that "more than two thousand savages rose up out of the woods following the flag, and tossed themselves over the lethal plain.