War is formally declared between England and France!
Although the war did not officially begin until 1756, hostilities between the warring countries had been growing for many years. Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, Gozon de St. Véran, arrived in Quebec in May, 1756. He soon became aware that the most danger to Niagara from the British lay through Oswego. With this in mind, he set out to isolate and conquer the British post.
Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, Gozon de St. Véran, arrived in Quebec in May, 1756. He soon became aware that the most danger to Niagara from the British lay through Oswego. With this in mind, he set out to isolate and conquer the British post.
They informed him the commander of Fort Williams had been warned that a French force was coming. He was also told that local Indians had slowly began disappearing from the forts, not wanting to become caught between the French and English. De Léry was also informed that Fort Bull contained the munitions, and he was given the schedules of the sledges that carried food between the forts.
Two English prisoners, captured outside the fort, were brought in about nine thirty. De Léry threatened to turn them over to his Indians if they failed to answer his questions. From them, he learned that Fort Bull had a quantity of munitions, food, and supplies, and that the beach was covered with stores ready to be loaded into batteaux. He was told the fort had no cannon, but the 70 soldiers in the fort had a large supply of grenades.
Within an hour, sleds approaching on the road, were captured by the Indians. Ten more Englishmen were taken prisoner. One sled driver, an unnamed black man, escaped and ran for Fort Williams. The Indians were unable to catch him. This situation now forced de Léry 's hand. With Fort Williams being warned, he could expect a sortie from there soon, Fort Bull was less fortified. He would attack Fort Bull.
De Léry 's plan was for the troops to take the British guards by surprise, and rush into the fort. It was hoped this could be done without a shot being fired. Of course this all depended on the gate being open at the time of the attack. This would require stealth and de Léry instructed the Indians they must not give warning with their war cries.
Using the brush and growth along the road side and creek bank as cover, the French crept closer. Following along the creek, they advanced until the men loading their bateaux came into sight. As they were gathering in preparation to spring the trap, the Indians suddenly burst from cover with shrill war cries. Any chance of surprise was lost. De Léry could only shout for his men to charge. The soldiers surged forward with leveled bayonets.
It took a moment for the startled batteaux men to realize the danger of their situation. Then they dropped the supplies and ran for the gates of the fort. The guards seeing the French, waited as long as possible, but were forced to close the gates before the bateaux men could enter. The French were a few hundred feet behind them. At this point, seeing the gate closed, the bateaux men darted off for the protection of the surrounding woods.
The forts commander, Lieutenant Bull, ordered his men to defend the stockade at the gate. As there were no shooting ports cut into the walls, the defenders were forced to fire through spaces between the pickets of the gate. Those men not firing, hurled grenades over the walls, which exploded in fragments of iron over the heads of the enemy. The Indians at this time decided to take to the woods in pursuit of the escaping bateaux men.
Seeing that most of the defenders were positioned at the gates, de Léry sent two detachments to the star points on the east and west sides of the fort. Once there, the French began to open fire through the spaces between the pickets of the stockade. All the while the main body of French troops maintained a heavy fire upon the gates, a third detachment was sent out with axes to chop down the gates. The forts defenders had such a limited ability to take aim, they could put up but little defense.
The French rushed the gates with their axes, and began chopping the wooden hinges. It took only an hour for an opening large enough to allow troops to enter. Lieutenant Bull was killed, and the British soldiers were forced to fall back to the buildings for cover in a last ditch effort to survive. It took but a short time for the French to over power the defenders. The French were pouring in, with bayonets fixed. Those that were not killed in the first rush were run through and left to die. Even Lieutenant Bull's wife was murdered by a bayonet through the throat. By the time the ordeal ended, only 28 were left alive of the few who defended Fort Bull to the death against the heavy odds of De Léry 's force, that bitter day of March 27, 1756.
De Léry ordered the stores of gunpowder and cannon be dumped into the creek, but before all could be removed, sparks from a burning building threatened to ignite the powder magazine. The French ran from the fort to safety, but after the explosion, they returned long enough to loot what stores and food remained. What could not be carried off, was dumped in the mud of the creek bottom.
On departing the site of the fort, de Léry took his men off in the direction of Fort Williams, where he gathered the detachment that had been left with the prisoners. Here he found that indeed a relief party had been sent from Fort Williams to aid the garrison at Fort Bull, but it had been so small it had been easily destroyed. He then swiftly departed to return to La Présentation with his prisoners.
In garrison at Ft. Ontario were two new British line regiments, the 15th and 51st, recruited only the year before. James F. Mercer of the 15th, was senior in command. Supplies were low and Officers and men alike considered themselves forgotten and deserted by their generals.
Montcalm's army, well supplied with artillery, appeared on August 10th. Later the same day, French Canadians and their Indian allies began to fire on Fort Ontario with small arms, which continued until dark. That night, the French began trenches behind the high ground to the north of the fort. By daybreak on the 12th, the French had a battery established, with cannon on high ground, about 80 yards from the English fort. Montcalm's troops easily took the fort by firing on it with cannon, some of which had been Braddock's own cannon, seized after the "Battle of the Wilderness". The British Officers deciding the fort was no longer tenable, ordered an evacuation of that post. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the English fell back across the river to old Ft. Oswego. A third fort, Fort George, was unfinished and considered untenable.
The French then opened fire with every gun from across the river, and the walls of Fort Oswego began to burst apart under the cannonade. The garrison could give but little resistance. Just as the French had blown a breach in the walls, and were mounting an assault, Colonel Mercer was killed by a cannon ball. Lieutenant Colonel Littlehaleson, his successor, was forced to capitulate. After hoisting a white flag, the 700 survivors surrendered August 14th. Fort Oswego surrendered on Montcalm's promise of kind treatment. The English were massacred. No sooner were the gates opened, than some of the Indians rushed into the fort and began tomahawking the English wounded and some of the prisoners. Montcalm failed to stop the Indians killing spree for a while, then offered to pay them to stop. Reports state that from thirty to more than fifty English soldiers were killed. Bougainville and Montcalm failed to record this fact.
As shrewd in Indian relations as in warfare, Montcalm made no effort to hold Oswego. The cost of maintaining would be too high, so after destroying all structures, he simply turned it over to the Iroquois as a show of French friendship. Thus, he secured French domination of Lake Ontario.
The Marquis de Montcalm captures and destroys Fort William Henry on Lake George. William Pitt becomes Prim Minister in the summer of 1757. Pitt’s rise to power came too late to change the tide of English losses in 1757. During the winter of 1757 - 58, he pushed the preparations for the final defeat of the French in North America. Soon he his fleets and armies were striking everywhere- in Europe, India, Africa and hardest hit, the French in North America. His grand plan to defeat France included the capture of Louisbourg, and Forts Ticonderoga and Duquesne. All English forces are then to converge on the last target, Quebec.
The first week of July 1757, French troops from St. Jean departed for an assault on Fort William Henry. They were companies of La Riene, La Sarre, Languedoc, and Guyenne. In addition to the regulars, the army consisted of nearly one thousand men of La Marine, a three hundred man unit known as Villiers' Volunteers, twenty-five hundred Canadians and eighteen hundred Indians. Also there were two companies of artillery, one company of workmen, and the artillery train. The body of Indians were made up of warriors from some of the western nations of Ottawa, Menomonee, Sauk ( Winnabagos and Wichitas ), Potawatomies and Fox. The Chevalier de Lévis was sent to take command of the troops at Carillon and await the arrival of the Marquis de Montcalm.
At the same time, troops were sent to re-enforce the garrison at Fortress Louisbourg. These were the Corps Royal, consisting of six officers, four hundred recruits from France, and twenty artillerymen. Also sent were two battalions of the Berry Regiment.
Colonel Parker, of The Jersey Blues, left Fort William Henry July 23rd with a force made up of 350 men, 5 captains, 4 lieutenants, and an ensign in 22 barges, two of which were under sail. He was to meet the French front. The morning of the 24th, three of the barges were ambushed, and surrendered without a shot being fired. The next three were taken the same way. The following sixteen barges, unaware of this fact, proceeded on and the Indians on shore, opened fire on them.
At this point, the remaining barges fell back under the heavy fire, and the Indians manned their canoes, and set out in pursuit. The more maneuverable canoes soon cut them off, and managed to sink or capture all but two, which escaped. The Indians then jumped into the water, killing the men and overturning and sinking the remaining barges. This resulted in the capture of nearly two hundred prisoners, most of the other men having been drowned in the battle. The Indians soon found the supplies of rum from the barges, after which, they began their cruelties. At least three prisoners were killed and cooked and eaten. All the rest were kept as slaves, to be perhaps some day ransomed.
The morning of August 4th, the French forces began to surround Fort William Henry. While the French troops set camps in the woods round the fort, the Indians began shooting from cover of tree stumps in the open areas on all sides of the fort.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Montcalm informed the English commander Colonel Monro, that it would be best to surrender before the French Cannon were brought to bear on the fort. After the siege began there might not be time, nor would it be possible to restrain the cruelties of "mobs of Indians of so many different nations. The answer came back to him that "the English troops were determined to defend themselves to the last extremity".
The main thrust of the siege was directed on the north side of the fort, with two artillery batteries, one to work directly against the north bastion the other to cross it’s fire onto the same front, both at the same time, in order to deliver ricochet fire on the defenses.
The English worked on building a second defense inside the first, and getting water in and removing the shingle roofs from their barracks and storehouses. At the same time, the Indians kept up a constant musket fire on the fort. The English also were throwing these combustible items into the lake. Seeing this, the Indians, thinking them things of value, ran to Montcalm requesting troops to make them stop!
He carried a letter from Montcalm, and an intercepted message from General Webb. This message informed Monro that there would be no help from Webb, and stated he should attempt to gain the best surrender terms available.
By the morning of August, 9th, the French trenchworks had progressed to such a point as to make defense of William Henry no longer viable. At 7 am., the garrison raised a white flag and asked to capitulate. At the time of the capitulation, four hundred and fifty-nine English occupied the fort, while seventeen hundred and fifty were posted in a fortified camp standing on an eminence to the east. Colonel Young was sent to propose surrender terms to Montcalm. The terms of capitulation stated that the troops should depart the fort with the honors of war with the baggage of the officers and of the soldiers, that they should be conducted to Fort Lydius escorted by a detachment of French troops and by the principal officers and interpreters attached to the Indians, that an officer be held until the detachment returned, and the troops not serve against the French for 18 months. Also, that within 3 months, all French, Canadian and Indian captives taken in America since the commencement of the war, be returned to French forts. All artillery, vessels, munitions and provisions would now belong o France. This to exclude one 6 pounder cannon, would be granted to colonel Monro and his garrison, in esteem for the fine defense they made.
During the night of August 9th, the Indians butchered the sick and wounded in the hospital tents. By morning, the English being fearful lest they be massacred, were in a rush to leave, even before the French escort was readied. The troops marched out of the works on the morning of the 10th, and were attacked by a large party of Indians attached to the French army. Men, women and children were murdered in cold blood, and in the most barbarous manner. The French officers endeavored in vain to arrest the terrible onslaught. Montcalm soon arrived, and bearing his chest, cried "Kill me, but spare the English who are under my protection". The appeal was in vain, Montcalm managed to regain about 400 of the English. The massacre continued until the English had proceeded half way to Fort Edward, and the scattered and terrified troops were met by an escort of 500 men, sent out for their protection.
During the night of August 9th, the Indians butchered the sick and wounded in the hospital tents. By morning, the English being fearful lest they be massacred, were in a rush to leave, even before the French escort was readied. The troops marched out of the works on the morning of the 10th, and were attacked by a large party of Indians attached to the French army. Men, women and children were murdered in cold blood, and in the most barbarous manner. The French officers endeavored in vain to arrest the terrible onslaught. Montcalm soon arrived, and bearing his chest, cried "Kill me, but spare the English who are under my protection". The appeal was in vain, Montcalm managed to regain about 400 of the English. The massacre continued until the English had proceeded half way to Fort Edward, and the scattered and terrified troops were met by an escort of 500 men, sent out for their protection.
Later that day, the French began the destruction of Fort William Henry, which because of being solidly built, lasted until the 13th. On the 14th, Montcalm sent an escort with messages for General Webb and General Loudoun to Fort Edward, advising of what had accrued, and that he would gather all English he could, and send them half way on the road to Fort Lydius (Fort Edward), requesting Webb to send men to meet them. The following day, Montcalm sent off the escort with the 400 British ransomed from the Indians. Half way to Fort Edward they met the English detachment, and the survivors were turned over to them. The defeated English garrison had with them the cannon accorded Colonel Monro under the terms of capitulation.
The cannon and stores from William Henry were removed to Carillon and the boats and vessels were taken to the lower end of the lake. During the siege some of the Indians contracted smallpox and brought this back to their villages that winter. The resulting epidemic during the winter of 1757-58 took most of the Great Lakes tribes out of the war.