Episode 013: The Battle of Quebec (1759)

Gen. Jeffery Amherst took command of North American operations following his victory at Louisbourg, at the end of 1758.  Around the same time, William Pitt granted Col. James Wolfe, now brevetted to the rank of Major General, an independent command to capture Quebec.  Wolfe returned to Louisbourg in February 1759 to prepare for a spring attack on the last great French stronghold in Canada.

James Wolfe

Wolfe had an impressive command for someone only 32 years old.  But he was not inexperienced. The son of British General Edward Wolfe, James had joined his father’s regiment in 1740 at age 13. He had seen considerable military action in Europe during the War of Austrian Succession (known as King George’s War in America) rising to the rank of Lt. Col. When the Seven Years War began, he became a full Colonel.  His bravery and gallantry in Europe during 1757, caught William Pitt’s attention.  Pitt decided to send him to America where he served as second in command to Gen. Amherst in the Battle of Louisbourg.

James Wolfe

(from Wikipedia)

After Louisbourg fell in 1758, Wolfe returned to London on sick leave.  For years he had had “consumption” which flared up at times, and also killed his brother.  Historians speculate that he had tuberculosis.  In any event, the most recent bout did not keep him from returning to take command of the army sent against Quebec.

All three of Wolfe’s subordinates for the operation: Robert Monckton, Lord George Townshend, and James Murray were older than Wolfe and, more importantly, came from socially superior families. They all resented Wolfe’s command and did not work well with him.  Still, they were soldiers and would obey orders.  With 8500 regulars to take the city, Wolfe set out to conquer Quebec.

British Forces Arrive at Quebec

Complications departing Louisbourg led to a late start on June 4, 1759.  By June 28, the force had occupied the Île d'Orléans just across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec.

Marquis de Montcalm-Gozen

(from Upper Canada History)

The French Commander, Gen. Montcalm himself, had organized Quebec’s defenses.  His well designed defenses frustrated Wolf at every turn, preventing him from getting across the river where he could begin a siege.  Over the course of the summer Wolfe tried to find a way to break the defense. The British began shelling the city from a distance on July 12.  While it did cause some harm, it presented no chance of forcing a surrender.  The French well knew that this would be their last stand in Canada.  If they did not win here, the game was over.  Montcalm, his soldiers, and the civilians in general, were determined to block the British at all costs.

Frustrated with the slow pace of things, Wolfe tried a bold frontal assault, landing his infantry six miles down river and marching on the city.  This proved impossible, as entrenched French and Canadian forces killed or wounded nearly 500 soldiers while talking very little damage themselves.

Wolfe turned to a scorched earth policy.  He burned and destroyed all the farms and outbuildings for miles around Quebec, allowing his men to rape and kill civilians at will.  He hoped to anger the French to the point where they would leave their protective walls and come out for an open fight. Montcalm, however, refused to take the bait.  His men were well supplied, behind seemingly impregnable defenses.

Montcalm had concentrated virtually all of Canada’s remaining military forces in Quebec, meaning his Regulars and militia totaled nearly 15,000.  This however, included many questionable militia as Montcalm was scraping the bottom of the barrel for men.  Montcalm did, have a few regiments of top notch French regulars and some experienced militia, against the smaller 8500 British attacking force. Even so, Wolfe believed his well trained regulars could prevail in a traditional face to face land battle if he could provoke one:

"My antagonist has wisely shut himself up, in inaccessible entrenchments, so that I can't get at him, without spilling a torrent of blood, and that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcalm is at the head of a great number of bad soldiers & I am at the head of a small number of good ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fight him – but the wary old fellow avoids an action; doubtful of the behavior of his army."

Siege of Quebec (from: Wikipedia)

To make matters worse, Wolfe’s troops began to drop from disease after spending several hot summer months on a swampy island.  More than one-third of them had become incapacitated by sickness. Wolfe himself became so sick that he was bedridden for several days in August.  His greatest fear seemed to be that he would die ignominiously from disease before he had a chance to fight a major battle as a commander.

In desperation, Wolfe convened a council of war with his three generals to get their views on another all out infantry assault on the French lines.  Wolfe remained on bad terms with his commanders, who mostly seemed to be waiting for him to fail or die.  He did not really want their opinion, but the military etiquette required such councils prior to any major operation, particularly one that might go terribly wrong and for which the commander did not want to be singled out for blame.  His three Generals unanimously rejected his plan.  He could have overruled them, but was so sick that he felt doing so might be seen as acting out of delirium.

Wolfe knew that if he did not do anything by the end of September, he would have to retreat in failure.  The naval fleet would have to leave before the winter ice locked their ships.  The army could not remain without naval support.  By all appearances, Wolfe saw his two likely outcomes as dying from disease or overseeing a retreat back to Louisbourg, having accomplished nothing.  Either way, he knew his subordinates would blame him for the failure.  One of them, Townshend, was also a member of Parliament and a friend of William Pitt.  Wolfe’s reputation as a capable officer would be ruined.  Just as all seemed lost, Wolfe received some helpful advice.

Secret Passage

Capt. Robert Stobo is an unsung hero of this adventure so far.  Stobo had served with Col. Washington way back at the battle of Fort Necessity in 1754, or as I like to call it, Episode 5.  He was one of the hostages that the French took in order to guarantee the return of French prisoners per Washington’s agreement.  While held at Fort Duquesne, Stobo had drawn a sketch of the fort’s defenses that he gave to a friendly Indian to aid a British attack.  This was the sketch that the tribal chief provided to Gen. Braddock as he began his ill-fated attempted assault on Fort Duquesne in 1755.  When the French captured Braddock’s baggage after his death in battle, they found Stobo’s sketches.  They tried and convicted Stobo as a spy. He only lived because the order to cut off his head and stick it on a pike outside the city had to go back to France for ratification.  Officials back in France never gave approval.  Stobo, who had been moved back to Quebec already, figured his best bet was to attempt an escape.  On his third attempt in May 1759, Stobo finally escaped the French and promptly offered his services to Gen. Wolfe.

Stobo told Wolfe about a relatively unguarded footpath that led from the river up to the Plains of Abraham, just a few miles west of Quebec. If Wolfe could get sufficient men and cannon onto the Plains, he would either force Montcalm into the infantry battle he wanted, or could bring up siege cannon to take out the city walls.  Wolfe told no one about this secret path, not even his top generals.  He even sent Stobo away, asking him to carry some important documents to Gen. Amherst.

The Plains of Abraham by Hervey Smyth (1797)
(from Wikimedia Commons)

On Sept. 5, Wolfe commanded his troops to move up river.  His officers assumed he had taken their advice to look for an entry point many miles upriver to cut off the enemy supplies.  His force of 3600 moved past Quebec to the point his subordinates had recommended.  A few days later, he sent another 1000 men, leaving his base with mostly the sick, who were not combat ready.  Wolfe continued to keep all his officers in the dark and without further orders until 8:30pm on Sept. 12.  At that time he ordered his army were to board ships at 9:00 PM and sail back down river about two miles to the secret footpath that Stobo had identified.

By all appearances, Wolfe did not seem terribly optimistic that his plan was going to work.  He handed over his will and instructions for dissemination of his papers and other personal effects in the event of his death.  He planned to go ashore in one of the first landing craft, and to be at the head of the invasion force.  Still terribly sick, it looked like he simply wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.

The boats ferried the first troops downriver around 2:00 AM.  French sentries heard the boats.  French speaking British officers called out that they were bringing supplies down to the city and they were permitted to pass without further challenge.  Wolfe climbed the footpath with the advance force and reached the plains of Abraham without incident.  With him was the highly capable Lt. Col. William Howe, youngest brother of Col. George Howe who was killed at the first raid near Fort Carillon in 1758, if you don’t remember, see Episode 10.  The advance force took out a small French sentry camp, but not before they sent a runner to warn Montcalm of the attack.

By 4:00 AM, only Wolfe and the 200 man advance force were on the Plains of Abraham.  The first full wave was still disembarking at the river.  French artillery fired on the second wave as it moved downstream.

Gen. Robert Monkton
(from Wikimedia)

Wolfe probably expected to face a more effective French defense. If he were killed with the advance guard, his second in command, Gen. Monckton would likely call off the attack and pull back.  Monckton had already expressed disapproval of the plan.  At least Wolfe would die nobly trying to engage the enemy, rather than suffer a death from disease without glory.  But the failure of the French to mount much of any defense left Wolfe surprisingly alive.  Not sure what to do next, he ordered his commanders, still disembarking below, to halt the landing. Fortunately, they ignored his order and the main force continued to make its way to the Plains.

By dawn seven battalions stood on the Plains of Abraham in line of battle.  Five more battalions were still making their way up the footpath from the river.  So far, they had only met with a few French skirmishers, presumably sent out to see what was going on.  They even managed to bring up two 6 pound brass cannon (the “6 pounds” refers to the weight of the cannonballs they threw, not the weight of the much heavier cannons themselves).

The Plains of Abraham

I always thought “the Plains of Abraham” was some lofty name with a Biblical reference.  It turns out, the name comes from a guy named Abraham Martin who had settled in the area in the 1630’s and had begun farming there.  It was a wide flat plain covering several hundred acres, perfect for a traditional line battle favored by professional European officers like Wolfe and Montcalm.

French Gen. Montcalm had spent all night setting up defenses northwest of the city at Beauport. British sailors had put out markers in the river near Beauport, presumably as guides for landing craft to avoid hidden sand bars.  It was a ruse to distract Montcalm.  It worked.  Montcalm assumed the British transports traveling upriver were a ruse to distract him from a landing at Beauport, not the other way around.  Instead, the British army stood several thousand strong on the Plains of Abraham facing the southeastern walls of the city, one of its weakest points.

By 7:00 AM, Montcalm came back to the Plains of Abraham, apparently stunned by the British infantry lines facing him.  He saw the cannons and saw the British beginning their entrenchments for a siege.  He sent for reinforcements, but knew they would take hours to arrive.  At present, he could only field about 4500 soldiers to face the similarly sized British force.

In fact, though, the British were not entrenching.  They did not have any more than the two small cannons they already had on the field.  Wolfe expected to be dead by now and to have his Generals retreating.  He had not planned properly for a full scale siege.  His army’s entrenching tools were stilling sitting in the ships at the river below.  His men were only lying down on the field to make themselves smaller targets to the snipers and cannon firing at them.  If French reinforcements did arrive, the British would be surrounded on three sides, with the only avenue of retreat being the small footpath that had taken all night to climb.  Despite their incredible luck so far, they were still facing the very real possibility of a slaughter.

Montcalm, however did not wait.  He did not know that more British were not coming nor that they could not mount a proper siege.  Montcalm therefore sent his infantry forward to meet the British on the field of battle.  When the French lines advanced to within about 150 yards, they fired.  This was still too far to hit much of anyone.  A few British fell, but the lines of professionals quickly closed the gaps.  One of those hit was Wolfe himself.  He received a shot through his wrist, but casually wrapped it in a handkerchief and continued with his duties.

The Death of Gen. Wolfe by Benjamin West (1770)
(from National Gallery of Canada)

As the French reloaded, the British line stood impassively, still not firing back.  There were too many militia in the French lines.  As the regulars reloaded, the militia began to take cover or fall to the ground to avoid fire.  As a result, the French line began to fall apart.  Individual units advanced, but did not maintain a solid line of battle. When the French got within 60 yards of the British line, the British regulars fired a destructive volley followed by a bayonet charge into the enemy.  The already broken French line now fled back to the city walls.  The only return fire came from the fields off to the side where enemy snipers could pick off only a few of the advancing British.  One of the few hit was once again Gen. Wolfe.  This time, he sustained two fatal shots to his torso.  His second in command, Monckton also sustained a serious wound around the same time.  Gen. Murray had led his men on a wild charge that had taken him away from the main force.  Wolfe’s aid Isaac Barré, a name you might want to remember, also took a shot to his face.  He would live, but was out of commission for now.

George Townshend
(from Wikimedia)

Finally, Gen. Townshend came forward to take command.  He quickly reestablished the British lines and returned order.  By noon, both sides had suffered around 700 casualties each.  Less than 10% of those were deaths, but given the medical care of the day, many of the wounded would not survive long.  On the French side, Montcalm was among the wounded, out of commission, and would die the following morning.  The next two highest ranking French officers had also been killed.  Eventually the civilian Governor of Canada Vaudreuil conferred with the highest ranking officers available and decided to evacuate the city.  The main army would leave and try to link up with relief forces for a counter attack.  Meanwhile 2200 local militia were left in charge of defending Quebec against the British Army.  No one had much hope in them, as they left them with papers on how to ask for surrender terms.  As the French regulars departed the City, they left behind these militia, along with large amounts of supplies and ammunition.

Siege of Quebec

The cautious Townshend still did not dare send his infantry against the walls of the city, where artillery could cut them down.  Rather, he waited for British artillery to arrive so that he could begin a proper siege. The British siege began the next day, as British cannon finally arrived for use.  The British did not even bother to fire their artillery as their entrenchment lines moved closer to the city over several days.  The cannon only had to sit in the entrenchments to deter a French charge as the British dug ever closer entrenchments.  Defensive fire from the French was largely ineffective.  By September 17, the British were in position to open fire point blank on the walls of the City.  As they prepared to open fire, the commander of Quebec’s remaining forces offered terms of surrender.

James Murray
(from National Galleries Scotland)

Townsend surprised the defenders by agreeing to all of their terms.  Defenders were granted the honors of war.  The British would protect the civilians and their property.  They were free to continue to practice their Roman Catholic religion.  French militiamen were free to remain in the city as long as they gave up their arms and swore an oath of loyalty to King George.  Any possible French attempt to string out the negotiations until a relief force could arrive had failed because the British simply agreed to everything.

There was good reason for this.  Townshend’s position was tenuous.  If a relief column did arrive, his forces would be in a dangerous position.  Further, his small force required the cooperation of the civilians. He simply did not have enough soldiers to fight off a relief force and control a hostile population.

In fact, a relief force was only about one day away when the British occupied Quebec.  When the French arrived, they did not have the equipment to lay siege now that the British were behind the walls of Quebec.  The French constructed a fort nearby and waited for an opportunity to retake Quebec.

British Occupation

By mid-October, the British fleet needed to leave.  No one really wanted to stay in Quebec for the winter, but all able bodied soldiers were needed for its defense.  Mockton still recovering from wounds, opted to leave for New York.  Townshend decided to return to London.  The most junior General Murray remained in command.  His men would have to endure a difficult winter on short rations.  However, Quebec had fallen and the British stood victorious.

Next Week: Canada becomes British, and Britain gets a new King.

Next Episode 14: Canada Becomes British & Britain Gets King George III

Previous Episode 12: Forts Duquesne, Niagara, and Carillon Fall

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Further Reading

Websites

Battle of Quebec: http://www.britishbattles.com/battle-of-quebec.htm

Gen. James Wolfe: http://www.militaryheritage.com/wolfe.htm

Robert Stobo Biography: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/stobo_robert_3E.html

The Fantastic Adventures Of Captain Stobo, by Robert Alberts American Heritage Vol. 14, Iss. 5, Aug. 1963: https://www.americanheritage.com/content/fantastic-adventures-captain-stobo

Isaac Barré: Advocate for the Americans in the House of Commons, by Bob Ruppert, Journal of Am. Rev., Aug. 11, 2015: https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/08/isaac-barre-advocate-for-americans-in-the-house-of-commons

The Battle That Won An Empire, Sir Basil Hart, American Heritage Vol. 11, Iss. 1, Dec. 1959: https://www.americanheritage.com/content/battle-won-empire

Free eBooks:
(links to archive.org unless otherwise noted)

Montreal, 1535-1914, Vol. 1, by William H. Atherton (1914).

The Siege of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Vol. 1, by Arthur Doughty & George Parmelee - also, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, & Vol. 6 (1901).

The Battle of the Plains, by J.M. Harper (1909).

The Fall of New France, 1755-1760, by Gerald E. Hart, (1888).

The History of Canada, Vol. 4,  by William Kingsford (1889).

The battle of Quebec from Captain John Knox's "Historical journal of the campaigns in North America for the years 1757, 1758, 1759 and 1760" by John Knox (1896) (a short contemporary account by a British Captain who participated in the Battle).

An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America for the Years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760, Vol 1, Vol. 2, & Vol. 3, by John Knox (1914).

Journal of the siege of Quebec, 1760, by James Murray (1871) (a short contemporary account by one of Wolfe’s field generals).

Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. 3, by Francis Parkman (1885).

Memoir Upon the Late War in North America, Between the French and English, 1755-60, Vol. 1, & Vol. 2, by Pierre Pouchot (1866).

Memoirs of Major Robert Stobo of the Virginia Regiment, by Robert Stobo (1854).

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Anderson, Fred Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

Brumwell, Stephen Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007.

Jennings, Francis Empire Of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies & Tribes in the Seven Years War in America, W.W. Norton & Co. 1988.

MacLeod, D. Peter The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Years' War, Dundurn Press, 2012.

Manning, Stephen Quebec: The Story of Three Sieges, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009.

Stacey, C.P. Quebec, 1759: The Siege and the Battle, Robin Brass Studio, 2014 (original 1959).

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Episode 012: Forts Duquesne, Niagara, and Carillon Fall

For the last two weeks, we've been covering the events of the summer of 1758.  Last week, we saw the British finally beginning to turn things around with a victory at Louisbourg and Frontenac.  More importantly, the British finally convinced most the Indians either to side with Britain, or at least quit fighting for the French.  At the same time all that was happening, Gen. Forbes was slowly making his way toward Fort Duquesne.

Gen. John Forbes

Gen. John Forbes
(from wordpress)

John Forbes was born in Scotland in 1707.  His father, also an officer in the British Army, died before he was born.  Forbes started began his career in medicine, but decided life as a doctor was not for him.

At the relatively late age of 28, he purchased a commission as a Cornet in the British Army.  Forbes saw combat in several wars, including crushing his fellow Scots at the Battle of Culloden.  In the War of Austrian Succession, he served as aide-de-camp to Sir John Ligonier.  Later he served as Quartermaster General for the Duke of Cumberland’s army.  It was almost certainly his relationship with Ligonier, now Commander of all British armed forces that accounted for his promotion to General and his independent command to take Fort Duquesne in 1758.



The Slow Advance to Fort Duquesne

Col. Washington and others tried to encourage Forbes to consider a faster route from Virginia, along the Monongahela River as Gen. Braddock had taken three years earlier.  This route would save time as it would not require building a whole new road through forests and over mountains in territory teeming with hostile Indians.

Gen. Forbes' Road to Fort Duquesne
(from Wikipedia)

Forbes dismissed this advice as provincialism.  He thought Virginia’s concerns about his course were that his road would tie the Ohio Valley to Pennsylvania and threaten Virginia’s claims to the land.  He was not wrong on this point.  The road he eventually cut helped secure Pennsylvania’s claims to the land as far west as Pittsburgh.  His road, later called Forbes Road, became the main route west to the Ohio Valley.  It followed roughly what eventually became part of the Lincoln Highway in the early 20th Century.

Forbes did not want to make the same mistakes as Gen. Braddock, whose forces could not easily retreat with heavy equipment after the loss at the Battle of the Monongahela.  Forbes’ road allowed the British to maintain their supply lines back east to Philadelphia.  If a retreat was necessary, they would not need to abandon their equipment.  It was slower but safer decision.

The Virginians were right, however, that actually building the road would take the rest of the year.  After Forbes hit the mountains of Western Pennsylvania, forward movement slowed to a crawl.  It probably did not help that Forbes was suffering from a terrible debilitating disease that was making his work all the more miserable.  To further secure the supply lines to his base in Carlisle, Forbes constructed a chain of forts along his new road: Littletown, Bedford, and Ligonier roughly 40 miles apart.  Forbes established his final Fort, Ligonier, in August 1758, about 50 miles from Fort Duquesne. Indian raids on the British line of forts, and any supply trains travelling between them, forced the offensive to go on the defensive and hunker down.

In September, Forbes deployed 800 men under the command of Major James Grant toward Fort Duquesne.  Grant hoped to conducting a surprise raid, or at least gain more intelligence on the site.  Instead, the French and their Indian allies received word of the advance and ambushed the British.  The killed wounded or captured nearly half of the British force, including Maj. Grant who was taken prisoner.  The remainder fled back to Fort Ligonier with horrifying stories of the ambush.

Back at Fort Ligonier, Forbes had about 6000 men, including 2000 regulars, to assault Fort Duquesne.  After Grant’s failed raid though, he was reluctant to try anything further.  With so many hostile Indians, Forbes quite rightly feared that his forces would suffer fatal ambushes before they could even reach the Fort.  Summer turned into fall without any further advancement as Gen. Forbes spent his time trying to make use of Indian allies to improve his chances of a successful assault.

While Tribes in the Ohio Valley and Pennsylvania were still siding with the French,  Forbes attempted to bring on allies from the Cherokee further south.  More than 1000 Cherokee warriors joined Forbes in preparation for a final assault on Fort Duquesne.  Forbes, however, tried to treat the Cherokee as subordinates rather than allies.  The Cherokee were not going to submit to military regulations or even take orders from the Regulars.  The Indians fought as allied auxiliaries, or not at all.

Forbes thought he could get the Cherokee to do otherwise.  Instead, almost all the Indians ended up leaving Forbes, taking with them the guns and ammunition he had provided to them.  As the armed Cherokee returned south, they ended up having more problems with colonists that led to even more fighting.  We will take a look at that in an upcoming episode.

Fort Duquesne Falls

It looked as if Forbes’ advance had come to a complete halt and that his campaign for the year would be a failure.  Then, by late October, word of the Treaty at Easton that I discussed last week, reached Western Pennsylvania.

As word of the Easton agreements spread to the western Indians, the local tribes accepted the change overnight.  By early November, all local Indian raids had stopped.  More distant tribes had already gone home for the end of the summer season.  Ironically, the September attack on Maj. Grant had provided most of the warriors with the booty and honors they sought, so they packed up and went home. That was exactly what frustrated European officers most about dealing with Indian allies.

The French commander at Duquesne now had his supplies cut off from the Great Lakes. Most of his Indian allies had abandoned him.  He had only a token force at the Fort which could put up no serious defense.  He convinced several loyal Indians to conduct one final raid on the British to take their cattle. Forbes sent out the 1st Virginia Regiment under Col. Washington and the 2nd Virginia under Lt. Col. George Mercer.  Washington caught a few of the raiders, but then ran into Mercer at dusk.  Each regiment mistook the other for the enemy and opened fire, killing or wounding two officers and 38 men.  Despite this accident, the prisoners captured prior to the firefight provided valuable intelligence about the desperate circumstances at Fort Duquesne.

Evacuation and Destruction of Fort Duquesne
(from uppercanadahistory.ca)

With that information, Forbes began his final advance on the Fort.  They were about 12 miles from the Fort when the heard the explosion on November 23.  The French commander had removed all men and supplies from the fort. He then used his gunpowder to blow up the walls in order to render it useless to the enemy.  The few hundred remaining French troops traveled upriver to Fort Machault to wait out the winter.

Forbes now took control of the smoldering ruins.  With the militia’s enlistments scheduled to end in less than a week. Forbes worked to throw up a new Fort for a winter occupation.  He named the new Fort after William PItt, the man in London who was in charge of the war.  And so, Fort Pitt, soon to be called Pittsburgh, was born.

Aftermath

Sadly, Forbes’ continuing medical problems only got worse.  His second in command Col. Henry Bouquet had to manage a Dec. 4 assembly with local Chiefs that assured them that their lands would be protected by the Treaty of Easton.  Forbes headed back to Philadelphia for medical care.  He died a few weeks after arriving in Philadelphia, receiving a hero’s funeral.  His enduring legacy would be Forbes Road, which his men had cut through Pennsylvania.  It opened up the west for trade and settlement.

Despite the victories of 1758 at Fort Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac and Fort Duquesne, Britain recalled Gen. Abercromby that winter.  His failure at Fort Carillon had led to too much criticism.  Despite his recall, he would receive promotion to Lt. General in 1759 and eventually rise to the rank of full General.  He also became a Member of Parliament and would be a strong supporter of coercive measures against the colonies.

Gen. Amherst, the hero of Louisbourg, would take command of British forces in North America.  He would implement London’s strategy for the 1759 fighting season.

Washington with his new family (from mountvernon.org)

Also at the end of the 1758 fighting season, Col. Washington headed home, having finally completed his objective of establishing British control of the Ohio Valley, after nearly five years.  On January 6, 1759 at age 27, Washington married 27 ½ year old widow Martha Custis, a young widow who was beautiful, rich and had huge...tracts of land, making him instantly one of the largest and wealthiest landowners in Virginia.

In the summer of 1759, he entered elected politics as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Washington would remain a militia officer, but he was putting his active military years of service behind him.  His new focus would be as a plantation owner and politician, as well as father to his two new step children.

British Take Fort Niagara

The military and diplomatic reverses of 1758 now put momentum in Britain’s favor.  The Iroquois left behind any pretense of neutrality.  The fear that the Delaware and Shawnee might unite in an independent confederacy against the Iroquois prompted them to get fully on board with the British. Through the summer of 1759, the British were building a large fort and trading post at Fort Pitt, along with a settlement called Pittsburgh.  More trade began arriving from Pennsylvania.  The local Indians appreciated the supplies and ability to trade, but were also concerned.  If you English are really going to leave this area as promised, why are you building this giant fort and this big English settlement right next to it?

The Iroquois told the English there was a danger of the local tribes in the Ohio valley moving back to the French, which would harm both Iroquois and British interests.  Therefore, the Iroquois wanted to assist with the final push to get the French off the continent.  The French still occupied Fort Carillon, where Gen. Montcalm had defeated Gen. Abercromby the year before, The French also held Fort Niagara.  The commanding Gen. Amherst focused on these two targets as the keys to a winning season in 1759. The French still held Fort Machault just north of Fort Pitt and south of Lake Erie, threatening the Ohio Valley.  But Amherst knew that taking Carillon and Niagara would cripple those smaller front line Forts without hope of supplies or reinforcements.  There was also the fortress city of Quebec to contend with, but that was Gen. Wolfe’s problem, one I’ll discuss next week.

As Amherst prepared his forces for the summer 1759 fighting season from Albany.  He received more than 20,000 militia from various colonies, still paid for with British gold from London.  These complemented the more than 8000 regulars at his disposal.  Gen. Johnson, also came forward with around 1000 Iroquois warriors from all six nations.

Map of Attack on Fort Niagara (from clements.umich.edu)

Amherst deployed Gen. John Prideaux with about 3000 regulars and 2000 militia, along with Johnson and his 1000 Iroquois to take Fort Niagara.  This was no easy task.  The Fort was one of the best built forts on the continent, with a highly capable military engineer, Captain Pierre Pouchot commanding the defenses with about 3000 French regulars and militia.  Pouchot also had a strong relationship with the local Seneca who served as lookouts for any attack and allies to assist with the fort’s defense.

Pouchot, however, made two fatal mistakes.  First, by mid-summer he figured the threat to any attack had passed.  He reasoned, correctly, that the best time for an attack was in the spring, before the smaller winter garrison was reinforced. The attack did not come until July, after Pouchot has dispatched 2500 of his 3000 defenders to Fort Machault to take part in a French offensive to retake the Ohio Valley.

Second, he assumed his Seneca allies would give him plenty of advance notice of any attack.  his Seneca allies were also members of the Iroquois Confederacy, which he did not learn had decided to side with the British that year.  Pouchot had a good working relationship with the local Seneca, despite whatever strains existed between Gen. Montcalm and the other tribes. It was true that the local Seneca remained loyal to him.  The rest of the Iroquois, though, were now backing the British and did not pass along any warnings to them that an attack was coming.

Therefore, Pouchot was shocked when he learned about the British landing a few miles from his Fort on July 6, 1759.  He knew he had to play for time as the British began to set up artillery entrenchments for a traditional siege.  He sent the local Seneca Chief out under a flag of truce to try to get the 1000 Iroquois marching with the British to leave the fight.  But the Iroquois under Johnson were adamant that this had to be done.  To sweeten the deal, Johnson promised his warriors the opportunity to plunder the Fort once it was taken.  Ultimately, after eight days of negotiation, the Seneca Chief decided to remove warriors from the French lines and head north.  While Pouchot regretted losing them, he also did not want warriors on his lines of defense who might have issues with killing their Iroquois brothers on the other side.

Sir William Johnson

During the eight day truce, the British were not just standing around.  They had continued to entrench artillery now just 250 yards from the Fort’s walls.  Pouchot’s only hope was that the defenders he had sent to Machault received his message to return and would arrive in time.  On July 23, a relief force came within sight of the Fort.  The British, though,  were ready for them.  The leaders of the Iroquois fighting with the British met with the 1000 indians in the French relief force and convinced them that the battle would just get them killed.  Those forces wisely broke off and went home.

That left just the French regulars and militia to try to break the British lines and enter the Fort. Some sources say this was about 600 soldiers.  Others say it was about 1100.  In any event, the relief forced faced somewhere between 2200 and 2900 British soldiers and militia, along with the 1000 or so Iroquois auxiliaries fighting with them.  The British and Iroquois cut down the French relief force, killing or capturing most, with the remainder fleeing into the woods.

Two days later, on July 25, Captain Pouchot surrendered the Fort to Col. Johnson.  The British commanding General Prideaux had unfortunately stepped in front of a mortar during the siege and lost his head, leaving Col. Johnson in charge.  The British took the French garrison prisoner and shipped them back to Albany.  The Iroquois restrained themselves from any massacre and contented themselves with looting the Fort itself.

Johnson headed back to Fort Oswego, leaving a detachment to garrison Fort Niagara.  Amherst would soon send Gen. Thomas Gage there to oversee control of the whole western Great Lakes region.  As Amherst predicted, the French had to abandon their three remaining Forts below Lake Erie as they could no longer be supplied or reinforced.  So French forces who had retreated from Fort Duquesne, kept on retreating all the way back to Canada.

Fort Carillon becomes Ticonderoga

As Prideaux and Johnson were capturing Fort Niagara, Amherst simultaneously led the attack against Fort Carillon. Amherst led over 11,000 regulars and militia slowly and methodically, building up the defenses at Fort Edward, rebuilding a new Fort George near the site of Fort William Henry at the southern tip of Lake George.

On July 22, Amherst arrived at Fort Carillon and began entrenching his siege cannon.  The French commander with his 400 man garrison, seeing that the British force of 11,000 was conducting a proper siege this time rather than a foolhardy frontal assault, blew up the Fort and retreated up to Fort Saint-Frédéric.  When Amherst advanced on Saint-Frédéric a few days later, the French once again blew up the fort and retreated.  Amherst was reluctant to chase the French up to Montreal.  Without knowing what Wolfe was doing in Quebec, he feared he could easily stumble across a French relief force.  Therefore, he focused his attention on rebuilding two new forts.  The Fort Ticonderoga replaced Fort Carillon.  Fort Crown Point replaced Fort Saint-Frédéric.

By August, Amherst had already achieved his objectives for the year and saw no reason to endanger his gains through continued offensives without good intelligence.  Better to end the year on several big wins for the British.  At that point, he settled into winter quarters early and reported the year’s victories back to London.

Next week: Gen. Wolfe takes Quebec.

Next Episode 13: The Battle of Quebec (1759)

Previous Episode 11: Louisbourg, Frontenac, and Treaty of Easton

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Further Reading

Websites

Gen. John Forbes: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/forbes_john_1707_1759_3E.html

Fort Ligonier: http://fortligonier.org/history/fort-ligonier

The Forbes Expedition: http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/forbes-expedition

George and Martha’s Courtship: http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/martha-washington/george-marthas-courtship

Battle of Fort Niagara: https://www.thoughtco.com/french-indian-war-battle-fort-niagara-2360967

Old Fort Niagara: https://www.oldfortniagara.org/history

1759 British Expedition against Fort Carillon: http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=1759_-_British_expedition_against_Carillon

1759, the Fall of Canada: http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/energy-government-and- defense-magazines/1759-fall-canada

Free eBooks:
(links to archive.org unless otherwise noted)

Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt, by DAR, Pittsburgh Chapter (1899).

The Fall of New France, 1755-1760, by Gerald E. Hart, (1888).

The History of Canada, Vol. 4, by William Kingsford (1889),

An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America for the Years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760, Vol 1, Vol. 2, & Vol. 3, by John Knox (1914).

Oration Delivered at the Centennial Celebration of the Evacuation of Fort Duquesne, by Andrew Loomis (1859).

The Papers of Sir William Johnson, Vol. 10, by Hamilton Milton (Ed.) (1951).

Memoir Upon the Late War in North America, Between the French and English, 1755-60, Vol. 1, & Vol. 2, by Pierre Pouchot (1866).

A Brief History of Old Fort Niagara, by Peter Porter (1896).

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Anderson, Fred Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

Cubbison, Douglas R. The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne, McFarland & Co. 2010

Hawke, David The Colonial Experience, Prentice Hall, 1966.

Jennings, Francis Empire Of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies & Tribes in the Seven Years War in America, W.W. Norton & Co. 1988.

MacLeod, D. Peter The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Years' War, Dundurn Press, 2012.

McLynn, Frank 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005.

Letters of General John Forbes relating to the Expedition Against Fort Duquesne, by Gen John Forbes (Author), Irene Stewart (Compiler) (2016).

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.