ENTERTAINING HISTORY OF KING PHILIP'S WAR, Which Began in the Month of June, 1675. As Also of Expeditions More Lately Made Against the Common Enemy, And Indian Rebels, in the Eastern Part of New England: With Some Account of the Divine Providence Towards Col. Benjamin Church by [King Philip's War; Americana]; Church Thomas - 1772

Newport: Solomon Southwick, 1772. VERY RARE, the second issuance, reprinted from the unobtainable Boston edition of 1716. With an engraved portrait bust of Benjamin Church as frontispiece and a full-page engraved portrait of King Philip of Mount Hope, BOTH PORTRAITS ENGRAVED BY PAUL REVERE. 8vo, in full contemporary calf, the boards with blind-tooled borders, the spine with blind-ruled raised bands. Now housed in an attractive black morocco backed slipcase with folding chemise, gilt lettered. iv, 198, [1] pp. An authentic and especially well preserved copy of this very rare book, the text-block is solid and the contemporary binding still handsome to the eye, some rubbing or evidence of age as to be expected, the front hinge is lightly cracked and as original, while the cover is still firmly attached with strong cords, the text is toned fairly uniformly but less than one might expect, some occasion spotting can be found but in most cases its quite light. A VERY RARE BOOK, NO COPIES APPEAR TO HAVE SOLD AT AUCTION FOR OVER 33 YEARS. THIS IS THE PREFERRED SECOND EDITION WHICH INCLUDES PAUL REVERE ENGRAVED PORTRAITS. This is a book very seldom if ever encountered in commerce and the auction records record only two copies going back nearly fifty years.
The work is a near contemporary history of the war, written by the son of one of the first American military heroes. Benjamin Church was captain of the first Ranger force in America, a predecessor of the United States Army Rangers. Church was commissioned by Josiah Winslow, the Governor of the Plymouth Colony, to form the first ranger company for King Philip's War. Church designed his forces to emulate Indian practices of warfare. Toward this end, he worked to adopt Indian techniques of small, flexible forces that used the woods and ground for cover, rather than mounting frontal attacks in military formation.
During King Philip's War, Church was the principal military aide to Governor Winslow. He fought on the New England frontier against the Wampanoag, Nipmuck and Podunk tribes of Indians. Church's men were the first colonial forces to be successful in raiding the hostile Indians' camps in forests and swamps. During previous decades, colonists had only been on the defense against the native peoples who of course knew the territory intimately.