In 1816, following the end of the War of 1812, Brigadier General John Parker Boyd, privately published a pamphlet protesting his failure to be retained on the U.S. Army’s roll of General Officers.

In the pamphlet he claimed to have spent his life “.. in the hazards of war”.

From a letter Boyd wrote to General Henry Knox in Boston in 1799, we know, that except for a brief period during Shays’ Rebellion all of Boyd’s prior military experience was gained as a mercenary officer serving independent rulers in India during the last decade of the 18th century.

This is the story of how a son of Newburyport, Massachusetts became for a time the Yankee Mogul.