Madeleine de Vercheres

Statue of Madeleine de Vercheres

More from Caroline Furlong's post about books:

Another novel I recommend is Ethel C. Brill’s Madeleine Takes Command*. It tells the story of Madeleine de Vercheres, the fourteen-year-old French-Canadian girl who saved her family’s fort from being overrun by the Iroquois Nation when the latter attacked. With the help of her twelve- and ten-year-old brothers and an old manservant, Madeleine held the Iroquois off for a week. Some of the soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the fort were killed or captured along with the male habitants who farmed the land, while the rest had taken the lack of Iroquois activity to mean it was safe enough to go hunting.

Having seen her mother direct the defense of the fort in a prior raid and lost her eldest brother in battle against the Iroquois, Madeleine was not so sanguine. Along with her brothers she kept the women and children safe until relief arrived from Montreal. It is a fascinating story, and I have to say that Madeleine has been one of my personal heroines ever since I read the book. It is not a novel with which I will part willingly.

She's talking about a novel, but it seems awfully specific, so I check and there really was a Madeleine de Vercheres and she really did save the fort.