Episode 010: New British Strategy & Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga)

Last week, I discussed the Fort William Henry Massacre, which had become a rallying cry for the colonists.  Despite that, the colonies showed no interest in supporting any of Gen. Loudoun’s demands.  Loudoun and the colonies could not seem to find any way to work with each other. Meanwhile, in London, William Pitt spend most of 1757 consolidating his power and looking for a new way to prosecute a war which Britain seemed to be losing.

Loudoun Sent Home

One of Pitt’s big changes was to recall Gen. Loudoun and put a new commander in charge of North America.  In December 1757 Pitt, issued an order to recall Loudoun.  So during the winter while Loudoun was trying to compel colonial leaders to provide support for the 1758 campaign, an order recalling him was slowly making its way across the Atlantic.

After Loudoun’s patron Lord Cumberland resigned in disgrace back in September 1757, he had no political backing in London. Pitt’s order that Loudoun assault Louisbourg earlier that year had come to nothing.   Loudoun continued to blame provincial politics for his problems, but in the end he had accomplished almost nothing militarily.  Although not directly in command for the disasters at Fort Oswego and Fort William Henry, Loudoun had no real success to show for his 18 months in command.  His primary achievement seemed to be to set colonial opinion strongly against having any standing army among them.

Most importantly, William Pitt decided that a new strategy which required colonial cooperation, needed a new leader who could work with the colonies.  The bad blood between Loudoun and the colonial leaders had gotten to the point where such cooperation would be impossible.

Loudoun relinquished his command and returned to Britain as a frustrated failure.  Don’t feel too bad for him though.  He would go on to a command in Europe, and would receive several more promotions and honors.

New Military Leadership

After the Duke of Cumberland resigned in September 1757, Sir John Ligonier became commander of all British forces.  Although Ligonier was 77 years old and had been born and raised in France, he had been a capable British officer for his entire adult life.  He worked closely with Pitt to develop a new strategy for the war.

John Ligonier
(from UK National Army Museum)

Up until that time, the British had put most of their emphasis on the war in Europe.  The colonies, not only in America, but worldwide, got little attention.  Now though, Pitt and Ligonier realized that Britain’s real power was its navy. France could field large armies in Europe but Britain controlled the seas.  If Britain used its power to seize French colonies all over the world, France might be willing to sue for peace on terms favorable to the British.  To deal with British obligations on the Continent, Pitt mostly threw money at the problem. British military aid to Prussia and other allies would tie up French forces on the Continent, while the British themselves focused on France’s colonies.  One part of this strategy meant taking all of Canada from France and bringing North America under British rule.

James Abercromby
(from Wikimedia)

Pitt ordered Maj. Gen. James Abercromby (sometimes spelled Abercrombie), Loudoun’s second in command, to take charge of forces in America.  Abercromby was a career officer having purchased his first commission as an ensign at the age of 11.  As an adult, Abercromby, who came from a Scottish noble family, won a seat in Parliament.  His military career was respectable, though not particularly distinguished.  He had commanded troops as a colonel in the War of Austrian succession.  His advancement to major general seemed more the result of political and family connections and as an administrator rather than as a combat leader. Most historians dismiss him as plodding, cautious, and unimaginative.

Perhaps realizing that Abercromby could not be left to his own initiative, Pitt and Ligonier decided to appoint new field commanders themselves for the 1758 fighting season, rather than letting Abercromby make recommendations. These new field commanders were young dynamic officers, often selected over others who had more experience and seniority.  They were men that Ligonier knew personally and believed had great potential as military leaders.

Jeffrey Amherst
(from Wikimedia)

London identified three military goals for 1758.  These were the same goals that Gen. Loudoun had recommended, but new leaders would have the chance to implement them.

Abercromby himself would lead an attack on Fort Carillon at the southern tip of Lake Champlain. Fort Carillon would allow the British to begin moving forces up from the Colonies into Canada. But Abercromby was not really a field officer.  He would rely on a young acting Brigadier General, George Augustus, Viscount Howe, to lead the army.

At the same time Abercromby advanced on Fort Carillon, another army would make a renewed attempt to take Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.  Taking this fort was key to preventing French supply and reinforcement of the entire Great Lakes region.  Col. Jeffery Amherst received promotion to General and would lead the next attempt to take Louisbourg. Second in command of the expedition was an up and coming Lt. Col. named James Wolfe.

The British also still needed to take Fort Duquesne, which was the key to holding the Ohio Valley. Acting Brigadier General John Forbes would lead a renewed campaign to take Fort Duquesne and return the Ohio Valley to British control.

I’m only going to have time today to go over the attack on Fort Carillon, but it is important to remember that all of these attacks were happening simultaneously during the summer of 1758.  The goal was to overwhelm the French on multiple fronts, and take advantage of the superior numbers on the British side.

New Colonial Strategy

To make all of this work, Britain could not waste time fighting with colonial leaders over the prosecution of the war.  They needed lots of militia to fill out the armies necessary to fight these three campaigns.

James Wolfe
(from Wikipedia)

Since the War began, London and its colonies were never really on the same page.  Both wanted to push back against the French and Indians, but could not agree on how to do it.  Gen. Braddock had largely ignored the colonial protests and had gotten himself killed before much infighting could flair up.  His successor, Gen. Shirley, seemed to work well with the colonists, but as a result ended up falling into disfavor in London.  Gen. Loudoun, of course, tried to implement the policies that the Ministry wanted, but seemed to get nowhere with colonial cooperation.

More important than any change in military leadership, was Secretary Pitt’s policy changes in how Britain would run the war in America.  Clearly, ordering colonies to submit to military demands was not working.

Rather than treat the colonies as subjects to be taxed and bullied, Pitt decided to treat them as allies.  Pitt appealed to the colonists in the medium they understood best: money.  In Europe, Pitt threw money at his allies in the German States to keep France busy.  In America, Pitt would throw money at the colonies in order to convince them to go on the attack in Canada.

John Forbes
(from Wordpress)

In short, Pitt had adopted the policy Gen. Shirley had pursued before he had been recalled to London to face charges.  Shirley’s political reputation now restored, he received an appointment as Governor of the Bahamas and had the satisfaction of seeing his policies finally implemented in America.

Pitt sent notices to the colonial governors, encouraging them to raise their own military units for use in the offensive against the French in Canada.  Rather than forcing the colonies to pay for these offensives, Britain would reimburse colonial expenses for raising these armies on their own. Pitt also repealed the hated policy that gave British regular officers command authority over colonial officers of higher rank.  Going forward, the colonials would be treated as partners rather than subordinates.  Colonial militia would not be treated as simple adjuncts to the Regular Army.  They would fight essentially as allied armies alongside the Regulars.  But most importantly, Britain was going to pick up the cost of all these armies.

Pownall and other colonial governors were totally on board with Pitt’s plans to pay for everything.  A few months earlier, the colonies had balked at Gen. Loudoun’s demand that they raise a combined force of less than 7000 soldiers for the coming year.  They complained that it simply was not possible.

Now that the British agreed to pay for the expenses, Massachusetts agreed to field 7000 soldiers for the coming year all by itself. Connecticut promised another 5000.  In Virginia, where Col. Washington could not even completely fill his one regiment with conscripts, the new money provided him with plenty of volunteers, and even allowed Virginia to recruit a second regiment, more than doubling its force.

Other colonies followed suit, agreeing to provide a total of more than 23,000 new men to fight the war at British expense.  When combined with the Regulars in America, British forces would field nearly 50,000 armed men in 1758, compared to less than 10,000 French soldiers.  Beyond that, Canada only had a total French population of 15,000-16,000 men of fighting age.

Fort Carillon

Abercromby began execution of the new offensive in the spring of 1758.  By June, he had established a headquarters near the ruins of Fort William Henry at the southern tip of Lake George.  Abercromby had not only the largest army in the field that year, this was the largest military force up until this time ever assembled in North America.  Eight Regiments of British Regulars totalled about 6000 officers and men, joined with about 10,000 militia, from New England, New York, and New Jersey.  This assault force would take on Gen. Montcalm’s force of roughly 3500 French soldiers and militia at Fort Carillon.

The French had built Fort Carillon about two years earlier, after the outbreak of hostilities.  Built by engineers in the French Regular Army, the five point wood and stone fort, with ample artillery, provided a good defensive position against any attack.

Gen. Montcalm had used the fort as a launching point for the raids on Fort Oswego and Fort William Henry.  Now, with such a large British force advancing on him, the French General relied on the fort’s defenses to help counter any advantage the British had in troop numbers.

Gen. George Howe

The aging and overweight Abercromby relied on acting Gen. George Howe to handle most of the field work.  George Howe came from a prominent family in British society.  His mother came from Royalty in Hanover, and had come to Britain along with King George I when he assumed the British Crown.  His father, a member of Parliament and a Viscount, received a royal appointment as Governor of Barbados in the 1730’s.  Like many British who moved to the Caribbean, known then as the West Indies, Gov. Howe got sick and died after only a couple of years.

George Howe
(from NY Public Library)

On his father’s death, George, age 10, inherited his father’s title. Despite his pedigree, Howe was not particularly wealthy, at least by aristocratic standards.  At age 20, he purchased a commission in the army.  Howe, thrived as an officer.  During the War of Austrian Succession, he served as aide de camp to the Duke of Cumberland, and by the end of the War was a Lt. Col.  At age 33 in 1758, he was now a General and essentially in command of the largest military force North America had ever seen.   Howe was also an early advocate of light infantry, soldiers who traveled light and were well adapted to fighting in the wilderness conditions of America.  In early July, he made his way to Fort Carillon to lead the assault personally.

First Fighting

In addition to the main fort, the French had outpost in the area.  The British first needed to capture or drive back the outposts before they could begin an assault on the Fort Carillon itself.  On July 6, Gen. Howe led an advance force on a French camp about four miles from Fort Carillon.

Map of Fort Carillon Battle (from Wikipedia)

The British quickly routed the French, but Howe was killed early in the action, dying in the arms of a Connecticut militia officer named Israel Putnam, a name you will want to remember when we get to the Revolution.  The loss of such a promising young officer struck many people as a tragedy. The people of Massachusetts donated a fund to pay for a memorial to Gen. Howe in Westminster Abbey.

Howe’s death had an impact on the mission, but more importantly would affect the relationship of his two younger brothers, the future Gen. William Howe and future Admiral Richard Howe.  The death of this promising officer was a tragedy, to be sure.  The loss would not only affect the course of this battle, but would have major consequences for many future events.

Howe’s second in command, Lt. Col. John Bradstreet immediately took charge and requested permission to assault the Fort.  Had Bradstreet moved quickly, he might very well have taken the Fort which still had not received reinforcements.  Abercromby, however, seemed stunned by the loss of his General and did not want to continue fighting.  He denied the request to attack and decided to regroup for a day.

That extra time allowed Montcalm to get his reinforcements from Fort Frontenac, set up better entrenchments, and improve other defensive measures.  Even with the reinforcements though, the 4000 or so French forces, seemed no match for the British force of 16,000. Montcalm had only about 15 Indians at the Fort.  Most of his Indian allies had abandoned him after the falling out over Fort William Henry,  Abercrombie’s artillery probably could have forced the capitulation of the Fort within days.  I say “probably” because Abercromby decided on a different plan of attack.

Abercromby was convinced that the Fort’s defenses did not necessitate the difficult and time consuming task of entrenching artillery.  Rather, he could simply use his infantry to storm the Fort.

The day after Howe’s death, July 7, Abercromby sent out scouts to get a better idea of the enemy defenses.  That night, he held a council of war to discuss options.  But rather than letting all officers give input, Abercromby limited debate to whether they should use three lines of attack or four.  He did not allow any consideration of mounting artillery to use against the French lines, or even as support for the infantry.  The General decided that artillery would be too much trouble and would take too much time to mount.

Final Assault

The next day, July 8, a group of skirmishers led by his new second in command, Col. Thomas Gage, who we last met in Episode 5 at the battle of the Monongahela and another name you will want to remember, took the field.  The Regulars were accompanied by Rogers Rangers and a group of Massachusetts infantry, which used skirmishing techniques to drive the French pickets back into their main lines.

Next, eight battalions of British regulars advanced on the Fort.  In truth, the British never even got near the Fort.  Gen. Montcalm deployed most of his forces on Rattlesnake Hill, which stood between the Fort and the attacking British. The French entrenched the hill and laid down branches and other impediments designed to break up the British line during the advance.

The impediments worked, as the British regulars got caught up in the debris.  As they slowly tried to advance over the impediments, the French began to mow them down.  While the regulars stood and died bravely, they nevertheless died without inflicting much of any damage on the French.

Abercromby was directing the assault from more than a mile away.  He ordered the assault to continue without seeing first hand the resulting carnage.  In the afternoon, several regiments of militia also tried to storm the French defenses and suffered massive losses as well.  Among those involved in the assault was a militia Major from Massachusetts named Artemas Ward, again, a name you may want to remember as we get into the Revolution.

By the end of the day, around 2500 British soldiers, mostly regulars, lay dead or wounded, making it the bloodiest day of battle in North America until the American Civil War.

Victory of Montcalm's Troops at Carillon. by Henry Ogden
(from Wikipedia, original at Fort Ticonderoga Museum, NY)

After seeing these losses, Abercromby did not decide to change his plan of attack to use his artillery, but rather decided to retreat.  He feared a possible counter attack from a French force that was still only one-fourth the size of his. The order to retreat spread panic and confusion among the British, who fled chaotically down Lake George back to the base near the ruins of Fort William Henry.

After such an embarrassing loss, most officers and men still wanted to return and use artillery to take the Fort properly.  Another officer you may want to remember, Capt. Charles Lee of the 44th Foot wrote a letter home:

"These proceeding must undoubtedly appear most astonishingly absurd to people who were at a distance, but they were still more glaringly so to us who were upon the spot…. There was one hill in particular which seem’d to offer itself as an ally to us, it immediately Commanded the lines from hence two small pieces of cannon well planted must have drove the French in a very short time from their breast work… but notwithstanding some of our Cannon was brought up & in readiness, this was never thought of, which (one would imagine) must have occur’d to any blockhead who was not absolutely so far sunk in Idiotism as to be oblig’d to wear a bib and bells."

Abercromby, however, overruled his junior officers and decided that they had done enough fighting. He would not attempt any further offensive against Carillon.  Despite overwhelming numbers and an obvious plan of attack, Fort Carillon would remain the year’s greatest failure.  It would permanently tarnish Abercromby’s reputation and would lead to his replacement later that year.  Like most recalled but well connected British Generals, Abercromby would be promoted several more times. He would serve as a member of Parliament, but would never again command troops in the field.

Next Week: The British finally begin to turn things around with the fall of Louisbourg and Frontenac, as well as the Treaty of Easton.

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

Previous Episode 9: Fort William Henry Massacre & Rise of Pitt

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Further Reading

Websites

Battle of Fort Carillon, 1758: https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2016/07/08/the-bloodiest-day-the-battle-of-carillon-july-8-1758

The Debacle at Fort Carillon, by Richard Snow American Heritage Mag. Vol. 23, Issue 4, June 1972: http://www.americanheritage.com/content/debacle-fort-carillon

Battle For Ticonderoga, by John F. Ross, American Heritage Mag. Vol. 18, Issue 4, 2008: https://www.americanheritage.com/content/battle-ticonderoga

Gen. James Abercromby: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/abercromby_james_4E.html

Sir John Ligonier: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/ligonier-john-louis-1680-1770

Gen. Jeffery Amherst: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/amherst_jeffery_4E.html

Gen. James Wolfe: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wolfe_james_3E.html

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

Westminster Abbey Howe Memorial: http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/george-howe

Col. John Bradstreet: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bradstreet_john_4E.html

Israel Putnam: http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/israel-putnam

Artemas Ward: http://www.revolutionary-war.net/artemas-ward.html

Charles Lee: http://www.carolana.com/SC/Revolution/continental_army_charles_lee.html

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

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).

The Burial of Lord Viscount Howe, Killed in the French and Indian War, by Edward Owen (1893)

Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. 1, 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).

The Administration of the British Colonies, by Thomas Pownall (1777).

Montcalm at the battle of Carillon (Ticonderoga) (July 8th, 1758), by Maurice Sautai (1920).

A Soldier of the Wilderness: A Story of Abercrombie's Defeat and the Fall of Fort Frontenac in 1758, by Everett Titsworth Tomlinson (1905) (from Google Play - Books).

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 Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas 1755-1763, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002.

Fowler, Willam F. Jr. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763, Walker Books, 2005.

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

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Episode 009: Fort William Henry Massacre & Rise of Pitt

Last week, I talked about all the British setbacks in 1756.  Sadly, Britain was in for more setbacks and turmoil in 1757.  Much of this had to do with continued political chaos in London.  It also resulted from the lack of a properly supported military strategy for North America.

Loudoun Goes to Canada

British military commander of North America Lord Loudoun grew increasingly frustrated not only with colonial politics, with his subordinate officers badmouthing him to friends in London, but also because London wanted to second guess his strategic command decisions.  Loudoun planned to use his regulars to reinforce the frontier, from Pennsylvania to South Carolina and recapture lost territory. In early 1757, newly appointed Secretary of State William Pitt, who I am going to discuss in more detail in a few minutes, sent instructions that he should focus on Canada, taking Louisbourg and proceed up the St. Lawrence River to take Quebec.  To help him with this task, Loudoun received another 8000 regulars.  In early June 1757, Loudoun took 6000 soldiers to Halifax to besiege the French Fort at Louisbourg, along with additional support from the Royal Navy.

Map of offensives during French and Indian War
Note: Louisbourg in upper right, Loudon in 1757 followed
the same path as Amherst did in 1758 shown on map.
(source: Wikipedia)

Although Loudoun felt this plan opened up New York, and the middle colonies to French attack, he was a good enough officer to follow orders.  At this point, the frustrated Loudoun was probably happy to let the colonies suffer.  He was sick and tired of dealing with provincials and their political leaders, who seemed to want to thwart him at every turn.  In addition to the ongoing disputes over the quartering of his soldiers, the colonists continually refused to provide the necessary men and money needed to fight.  His attempts to integrate colonial troops into regular units met with great resistance.  At the beginning of summer 1757, in an attempt to prevent colonials trading with the enemy, he banned all non-military shipping.  This led to huge economic disruption as no colony could get goods to market or receive imports.  By June, colonial governors were countermanding his orders and permitting civilian trade ships to get back to their commerce.

When he left for Canada with Gen. Abercromby and 6000 regulars, Loudoun was probably happy to leave Gen. Webb, in charge of frontier defenses.  Webb, despite his own apparent cowardice, still had good friends in London and was one of the officers badmouthing Loudoun as a poor commander.  Loudoun regarded Webb as timid and incompetent with friends in high places.  Webb would be responsible for the mess and the colonials would learn that they needed to defer to a strong military commander with the necessary resources to defend them.

Map of Louisbourg Fort and Port (from Wikipedia)

Loudoun, however, also disappointed the ministry in Canada.  Pitt had wanted Loudoun to attack the French fort at Louisbourg.   Even so, the French Navy in Louisbourg Harbor was too large for the small British fleet to challenge.  With that, Loudoun gave up on Louisbourg and returned his forces to New York.  There, he returned to his original plan of taking Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga.  Even then Loudoun could not catch a break.  A hurricane destroyed much of the British fleet on the return trip from Halifax in September.


Fort William Henry Massacre

Meanwhile, during the summer of 1757, Gen. Daniel Webb led British forces in New York, attempting to make some progress there.  Fort William Henry sat at the southern tip of Lake George in New York, the northernmost fort in a string of forts.  As the Fort closest to the French lines, the British planned to use it as a launching point against French Forts Carillon and Saint Frédéric further up the lake.

Fort William Henry and surrounding area (from Thoughtco)

The French commander Montcalm thought it could be the next British domino to fall before the advance of the French and Indians.  British Major William Eyre commanded the Fort during a surprise raid by the French over the winter of 1756.  The French had not brought cannon, but had attempted to use the element of surprise to scale the walls and take the Fort.  The British had beaten off this raid, but not before the French burned all the outbuildings and gunships.

As the 1757 fighting season began that spring, the Fort remained in a precarious position.  The garrison sat in an area surrounded by hostile Indians, meaning that the British got little intelligence.  Without a ship, they could not even scout from the lake.  The commander had relied on the highly effective Capt. Robert Rogers, of Rogers Rangers, to provide intelligence.  The Rangers, however, had suffered heavy casualties during a scouting expedition and Rogers himself was convalescing in Albany. This left Eyre with little intelligence on enemy movements.  Fort Edward was a few miles away, with reinforcements that could help to lift any siege.  Otherwise though, Fort William Henry was a sitting duck.

Montcalm prepared for an all out siege on the Fort in the spring of 1757.  He had 6000 regular troops along with the necessary siege artillery.  Despite his reluctance to use Indians after the Oswego incident, more than 2000 Indians showed up in the spring to participate in fighting against the British.  Many of them had heard stories of the booty that others had collected in fighting during the year prior, as well as the ransom money Montcalm had paid to recover the prisoners taken at Fort Oswego.  They wanted in on the action.  Montcalm could not simply send them home without insulting them.  Like it or not, they would be a part of the coming campaign.

The British were preparing for the summer fighting season as well.  Lt. Col. George Monro brought five companies of regulars and about 1000 militia from New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire to Fort William Henry.  Despite the difficulty with intelligence, by June Monro was aware that the French were assembling a force to attack the Fort.  Monro sent 500 men in small boats on a raiding party up Lake George to destroy some French sawmills.  The men ran smack into the main French force who killed or captured most of them.

Area Map of Forts (Wm. Henry & Edward on right)

When word of the attack on the raiding party reached Fort William Henry, Gen. Webb, normally at nearby Fort Edward was at William Henry on an inspection tour.  Webb immediately got out of there and ran back to Fort Edward, promising to send reinforcements.  He ordered the regulars to man the Fort.  The militia would encamp on a nearby hill in order to prevent the French from mounting cannon there.

Monro only had about 1100 men fit for duty, facing the 8000 man French force bearing down on him.  After returning to Fort Edward, Webb sent another 200 regulars and 800 militia as a relief force.  He had more reinforcements to send, but did not want to make Fort Edward vulnerable.  He also decided not to lead the relief force himself, but sent Lt. Col. Joseph Frye to take charge.  Having more than 2000 defenders at the Fort created its own problems. The fort itself was designed to handle about 500 defenders. Most of the defenders had to dig entrenchments outside the Fort walls to build a larger defensive line.

By early August, Indian snipers were firing on the Fort while French began entrenching siege cannon.  Monro sent numerous letters to Webb calling for more reinforcements. Webb received these, but decided to leave Monro on his own.  He was more concerned about the French taking the Fort and then advancing on Fort Edward.  He refused to send more of his own troops until he received more reinforcements himself.  As a result, it quickly became inevitable that the Fort would fall to the French.

Monro engaged in a spirited defense for several days while the French artillery (actually English artillery the French had captured at Oswego) slowly reduced the walls of Fort William Henry along with the men inside.  On August 9, Monro asked for terms of surrender.  This time, Montcalm thought the British commander had acted nobly.  He offered honorable terms, allowing the troops to retain their arms, possessions, colors and a single cannon. They would be given safe passage back to Fort Edward, and exchanged for the French prisoners held there.

Once again though, Montcalm’s Indian allies were not on board with the plan.  They had come to fight for booty and honors of war.  Once the British had turned over the Fort, the Indians assaulted the hospital, killing and scalping the sick and wounded.  Next, they turned on the prisoners, stealing their possessions and taking many more prisoner, with the intention of returning home with them as slaves, or receiving ransom payment from Montcalm for their return.  With more Indians present than the year before at Fort Oswego, the number of atrocities against prisoners increased greatly as well.

Montcalm at Fort Henry Massacre (from Wikipedia)

Some stories at the time said that the Indians killed more than 1000 defenders.  In truth the number was probably closer to 200.  When the killing started, many prisoners simply ran into the woods, figuring they would take their chances rather than wait and be slaughtered.  The Indians chased them down and killed some. But most escaped.  Some survivors made it back to Fort Edward with shocking tales of the Massacre of Fort William Henry.

Montcalm also recaptured several hundred of the prisoners and kept his promise to get them to Fort Edward.  But the tales of the massacre served as a rallying cry for the British, one that would inevitably result in future revenge.  In later battles, losing French forces would often be denied the honors of war in retaliation for this massacre.

The situation also created a serious breach between the French and their Indian allies.  The Indians did not want to fight if they could not raid the forts and take prisoners, and the French did not want Indians who would not obey orders.  The Indians left the theater to return home, unsure if they would ever return.  Many left with prisoners in tow.  This turned out to be a terrible mistake.  Many of the prisoners turned out to be infected with smallpox.  An epidemic spread throughout many of the French allied tribes.  The number of Indians who died from smallpox as a result dwarfed the number of prisoners killed at the massacre.

Without his Indian allies, Montcalm opted not to attack Fort Edward, which he probably could have taken from the trembling Webb with little effort beyond walking up to the Fort and shouting “boo”.  Instead, he burned Fort William Henry and returned to Fort Carillon, taking complete control of Lake George for France.

Thousands of militia turned up at Fort Edward, in response to Webb’s calls for reinforcements.  They were eager to exact revenge on the French for the massacre.  But Webb had no intention of leading a counter-assault.  He sent most of the militia home.  Another year of fighting had brought no British success, as the 1757 fighting season came to an end.

Colonies Fight with Loudoun

Despite French success in New York, the colonies continued to resist Gen. Loudoun’s attempts to reorganize colonial defenses.  The arguments all remained the same.  New England colonies did not want to raise taxes to send troops to defend New York.  Colonial soldiers did not want to fight for the low pay being offered.  Colonies did not want to pay to house Regulars.  Colonial officers did not want to take orders from lower officers in the Regular Army.  Colonial militia did not want to be subject to regular army punishments and discipline.

Colonial resistance though, moved beyond grumbling.  After the immediate fear of the Fort William Henry massacre faded, colonists went back to resisting just about everything Loudoun wanted them to do.  Anti-recruitment riots broke out in several colonies during the fall and early winter of 1757.

Gen. Loudoun may have thought he caught a break when his former aide, Thomas Pownall became Royal Governor of Massachusetts.  You may recall that Pownall had been instrumental in lobbying London to replace Gen. Shirley as Commander of North American Forces.  Pownall then returned to America by Loudoun’s side in the summer of 1756.

Thomas Pownall (from Wikipedia)

By early 1757 though, Pownall was back in London now badmouthing Gen. Loudoun and angling for a new job.  In August, he became Governor of Massachusetts and returned to America.  As an astute politician, Pownall quickly realized the Massachusetts legislature was not going to comply with Loudoun’s edicts.  Seeing how the political winds were blowing, Pownall decided to back the Massachusetts legislature and oppose Loudoun.

Loudoun had hoped to wage a winter campaign against Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga.  But with local recruitment failing, he could not get the troops he needed. That, combined with an unusually snowy winter led to an end to the campaign before it started.

Loudoun also had to keep some militia beyond the terms of their enlistments.  For Loudoun, this was a military necessity, to keep the forts along the New York Frontier properly manned.  For the militia, who had volunteered for only a few months after the Fort William Henry Massacre, extending the enlistments for the rest of the winter, especially with no battle apparent on the horizon, seemed like a violation of their rights.  Eventually, several of the regiments simply marched home in violation of orders.  Technically, Loudoun could have shot them as deserters, but given that the population supported their decision to leave, it would have been politically impossible.  One of those deserters was a 19 year old private named Rufus Putnam, a name that will become much more important during the Revolution.

In February 1758, Gov. Pownall hosted a conference of New England Governors in Boston, without Loudoun, to discuss how the colonies would respond to the French threat.  Outraged that this conference happened without his approval, Loudoun summoned colonial representatives to Hartford to lay down the law and inform them of what he expected of them for the 1758 fighting season.  He gave each colony enlistment quotas for militia, though the colonies made clear they might not meet them.  Tension between Loudoun and colonial leaders was reaching a breaking point.

The British Regroup, Again

The political chaos in America was matched by political chaos in Britain.  Back in London, the Ministry grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of success in America.  Prime Minister Newcastle and Secretary of War Fox had their hands full with an all-out war in Europe.  France was threatening German States, including the King’s Hanover.  French forces were even building up along the coast, threatening a possible cross-channel invasion of England.  The French destroyed a large British fleet in the Mediterranean trying to relieve the British post at Minorca (which also fell).  With nothing to show for their efforts, both Fox and Newcastle had resigned from government in late 1756.

Enter William Pitt

Despite the failures of Fox and Newcastle, there was no obvious alternative to their leadership. William Pitt, a fellow Whig, had been the main voice of opposition.  The King still did not like Pitt much.  Pitt’s close relationship with the Prince of Wales remained a sticking point. More than that, Pitt had continually attacked government policies, regularly savaging Newcastle in the House of Commons.  Despite all this, the King decided to give Pitt a chance.  By putting Pitt in charge of the war effort, I think the King thought either he will do well and Britain will benefit, or he will fail and we can be rid of this pain in the neck.

William Pitt
By Richard Brompton
(from Wikipedia)

The King decided to put Pitt in charge of the war, but did not want to make him Prime Minister.  That position went to William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire.  Don’t worry, you won’t have to remember that name.  Although Devonshire served as Prime Minister for about a year, he was pretty much a nonentity.  Pitt became the real power in his position as Secretary of State for the Southern Department, which covered matters in the American colonies.

Not one for modesty, Pitt commented "My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no one else can."  Pitt proposed a massive build up of both the army and navy, enough to protect Hanover for the King, increase the forces in America, and develop a home army to protect against a potential British invasion.

Despite his efforts, Pitt never really found favor with the King.  After a few months, in April 1757, the King dismissed Pitt, without even finding a replacement.  After flailing around for several months of inaction, Pitt and Newcastle were able to make nice with one another.  The King appointed Newcastle as Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister again.  Pitt returned to Secretary of the Southern Department again in June.  Essentially, Newcastle would control the money and Pitt would control war strategy.

Fox ended up getting stuck in a job as paymaster general, with little power but which greatly enriched him personally.  He seemed happy with that.  Fox’s patron, The Duke of Cumberland, who remember is also the King’s son, headed to Germany to lead an army, planning to come back with greater glory and a restoration of his men to real power.

Battle of Hastenbeck, scene of the Duke of Cumberland's loss
(Source Wikipedia)

The fortunes of war, however, can be fickle.  Facing a superior French force, Cumberland did poorly in Germany.  Tasked with defending Hanover for the King, Cumberland was forced to negotiate a surrender that led to his army being disbanded and the surrender of much of Hanover to the French.  Upon his return to England, the King remarked:  "Here is my son who has ruined me and disgraced himself."  Cumberland resigned all of his military and public offices and retired from public life in September 1757.  This completely changed the political dynamic in England, giving Pitt much more political capital to fight the war as he saw fit.  So, although he had been in the ministry for more than a year, it was not until the fall of 1757 that Pitt really had most of the political impediments out of his way to prosecute the war as he wanted.

So most of 1757 was political chaos in London with no unified strategy to fight the war either in America or Europe.  By the end of the year though, Pitt had the necessary political support to make real strategic changes that would turn around England’s fortunes of war.  A big part of his plan was a renewed emphasis on North America.

Next week: William Pitt implements a new plan to win the war, and finds a way to work with the colonies.

Next Episode 10: New British Strategy & Fort Carillon

Previous Episode 8: Surrender of Fort Oswego

Visit the American Revolution Podcast (https://amrev.podbean.com).

Click here to donate

American Revolution Podcast is distributed 100% free of charge. If you can chip in to help defray my costs, I'd appreciate whatever you can give.  Make a one time donation through my PayPal account.

You may also donate via Venmo, Zelle, or popmoney (send to mtroy1@yahoo.com)

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Further Reading

Websites

Massacre of Misunderstanding: Fort William Henry, 1757: htttp://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/ military-history/massacre-of-misunderstanding-fort-william-henry-1757

The “Massacre” at Fort William Henry, by David Starbuck: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-massacre-at-fort-william-henry

Robert Rogers: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Rogers

Lt. Col. George Monro: http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08007.html

William Pitt, the Elder http://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Pitt-the-Elder

William Cavendish 4th Duke of Devonshire: http://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Cavendish-4th-Duke-of-Devonshire

Free eBooks:
(from archive.org unless noted)

Documents relative to the colonial history of the state of New York, Vol. 10 by John Brodhead (1853).

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

The History of Canada, Vol. 3, by William Kingsford (1887).

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).

General orders of 1757, by Phineas Lyman (1899).

England In The Age Of The American Revolution, by J.B. Namier (1930).

Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. 1, by Francis Parkman (1885).

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

The Administration of the British Colonies, by Thomas Pownall (1777)

The Life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Vol 1, by Basil Williams, (1915).

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 Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas 1755-1763, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002.

Castle, Ian Fort William Henry 1755–57: A battle, two sieges and bloody massacre, Osprey Publishing, 2013.

Fowler, Willam F. Jr. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763, Walker Books, 2005.

Hughes, Ben The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier, Westholme Publishing, 2011.

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

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Episode 008: The Surrender of Fort Oswego

When we left off last week, London sent Gen. Loudoun in the summer of 1756 to take command of the North American operation, recalling Gen. Shirley back to Britain to face criminal charges.  Due to the strategic mess that everyone had blamed on Shirley, not much of anything got done militarily for the rest of the year.  Meanwhile, France had finally declared war on Britain in the spring of 1756 after Britain had been attacking French forts in America for most of 1755.  The French had sent Gen. Montcalm to command French forces in North America and coordinate the French military response.

British Plan of Attack Delayed

Prior to the war, the British had built a line of forts from Albany to Lake Ontario.  Fort Oswego was the final fort in that chain, sitting on the eastern bank of Lake Ontario, where the Oswego River connects to the Lake.

French and British Forts from the Region (from Wikimedia)

In the last episode, I mentioned the fact that Fort Oswego was not really in much condition to be defensible in 1755.  Originally built as a trading post, it just wasn’t designed to support a large force of soldiers.  The British would need to make changes if they wanted to use it as a launching point against the French at Fort Niagara.

One of the big problems with the fort was that it sat within range of several hills.  An enemy needed only to carry a few cannons to the top of any one of these hills and start lobbing cannonballs into the fort.  Given the limitations of 18th Century cannons, holding the high ground in a battle often met that you could hit the enemy but the enemy could not hit you.  Therefore exposed hills near any fort always created a danger of the enemy taking the high ground and putting the fort at risk.  We saw an example of this back in Episode 5 when the French simply used muskets on hills surrounding Fort Necessity to force Washington’s surrender.

To counter this threat at Fort Oswego, the former Commander, Gen. Shirley had delayed any assault on Niagara in 1755 and instead focused on building a second fort on the hill next to Oswego, called Fort Ontario.  At the same time, Shirley attempted to put together a force of 16,000 militia, raised across various colonies for the attack on Niagara.  As usual though, the colonies balked at spending money or sending men outside their own colonies.  Even so, Shirley worked through the local politics and built up support for the 1756 fighting season.  He also planned to use the Regulars who had fled from the Braddock Campaign in 1755 and had been lounging around Philadelphia for a year.

As Shirley planned his campaign during the winter and early spring, he received word that London was replacing him.  As I discussed last week, Shirley had lots of enemies on both sides of the Atlantic.  His lackluster performance during 1755, convinced officials in London that they should send replacement leaders.  London selected Gen. James Abercromby and Gen. Daniel Webb to head up the New York Campaign.  They also decided on Gen. Loudoun as the new commander of North American military operations.

A view of Fort Owego from 1727 (from owswego-history.com)

Although Shirley received word of the leadership changes in March, Gen. Loudoun did not arrive in Virginia until July.  Even then, he would need more time before he would be ready to mount any sort of offensive.  So for most of the spring and summer of 1756, new commanders attempted to plan new strategies or adapt old ones, familiarize themselves with the geography and military resources, and learn how to work with the local colonial political powers to get the support they needed.

Loudoun wanted to focus on taking Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga.  In August, he commanded Webb to take several regiments of regulars to Fort Oswego.  The regiments had been prepared to move out for over a month, but confusion and delays resulting from the change in leadership delayed their orders.  Before the Regulars could reach the Fort, it would be too late.

French Advance

While the British were taking their time getting their act together, the French decided to strike first. Gen. Montcalm had arrived in Canada in May 1756.  He was itching to get to work and almost immediately began preparing an expedition against Fort Oswego.

Like his British counterparts, Montcalm was a regular officer who disliked using militia or Indians in battle.  Indians tended to be unreliable and were almost useless in the highly disciplined maneuvers needed to besiege a fort.  Canadian Gov. Vaudreuil disagreed with Montcalm and strongly encouraged the use of Indian raids to strike fear into the British settlers.

Montcalm had only limited numbers of regulars at his disposal and agreed to use some militia and Indians in his offensive.  He set off in late July, 1756 with about 1300 regulars, 1500 militia, and about 250 Indians from various allied tribes.  Montcalm planned to use the Indians as guides and to scare the enemy out of the woods and back into the fort, but would use his French regulars for the actual siege.

Abandoning Fort Ontario

The British had little warning of all this.  They were on poor terms with the local Oneida tribe, who failed to provide any warning of the French advance.  The British also did not seem to do much any scouting of their own any distance from the Fort.  As a result, their first notice that their might be a problem was when soldiers at Fort Ontario saw one of their comrades lying nearby, dead and scalped on August 10.

Since Gen. Webb had not yet arrived at Oswego, British Lt. Col. James Mercer remained in command.  Mercer sent out a ship to scout along the coast the next day, August 11.  The scouts sighted Montcalm’s 3000 troops encamped only about a mile and a half from the fort.  Within hours, Indian snipers were firing into Fort Ontario from nearby trees.

A year earlier, Gen. Shirley had agreed with his military experts that Fort Oswego was virtually indefensible.  If the enemy placed cannon on either of two hills overlooking the Fort, they could fire directly into the fort.  The longer term plan seemed to be to build a new Fort Oswego on one of the hills, but for now that work was incomplete.  Gen. Shirley had simply built small outpost fort on top of the other hill in order to prevent the enemy from occupying the high ground.  That outpost was Fort Ontario, which was now under attack.  Ontario had only a few cannons and a force of about 370 militia, mostly raw recruits with little military experience.  The main body of soldiers at Fort Oswego could not come to the defense of Fort Ontario without leaving their own walls and confronting the attackers in the forest.

So instead of serving as protection to Fort Oswego, Fort Ontario had simply become an indefensible smaller outpost that the French would have to capture before beginning their assault on Fort Oswego. The French were able to bring up their artillery to an entrenchment where they could fire point blank into Fort Ontario.  Since the assault would simply result in the deaths of everyone in the Fort, with no chance to fight back, Mercer decided to abandon Fort Ontario on Aug. 13, bringing those troops into Fort Oswego.

That, of course, meant that the French now occupied Fort Ontario and the heights around it.  All the work building Fort Ontario now meant that it gave the French better walls from which to launch their artillery barrage against Fort Oswego.

Surrender of Fort Oswego

Montcalm had his soldiers move their cannon into Fort Ontario and began firing into Fort Oswego. Oswego’s cannon were all on the wrong side of the fort, since they had planned on using Fort Ontario to protect that side.  Now, they had to fire from the far side of Fort Oswego against their own former defenses, without any protective cover for themselves.  The 1700 men in Fort Oswego were facing almost certain slaughter from the 3000 man attacking force that was bombarding them.

Surrender of Fort Oswego (from minerdescent.com)

Nevertheless, Mercer was not going to surrender the Fort that easily. An artillery duel continued for several hours until a cannon ball completely beheaded Mercer.  At that point the second in command, Lt. Col. John Littlehales decided to ask for terms of surrender.

In 1756, there were no real “rules of war” regarding surrender and prisoners.  The first Geneva Convention regarding the protection of prisoners of war would not exist for more than a century.  That said, European officers were not savages.  They knew that terms given to a surrendering army would affect future decisions to surrender, and would also impact how they would be treated if they were someday found on the losing side of a battle.

If the defenders of a fort had fought a gallant defense, the winner would often accord them the honors of battle.  The losing army would be permitted to depart with their arms and supplies, their colors and a single honorary artillery piece.  In this case, however, Montcalm decided that the defense was not sufficiently gallant.  The fort’s defenses were pathetic and the defense of the main fort really only lasted a few hours. In fact, if the fort had been able to hold out for a few weeks, they might have been relieved by Gen. Webb’s reinforcements.

Montcalm demanded that the garrison of about 1700 surrender as prisoners.  He only promised that they would not be killed and would be conducted safely back to Montreal where they could later be exchanged for French prisoners.  Seeing the fight as hopeless, Littlehales agreed and surrendered.

Apparently though, the promise of safe conduct as prisoners was even more than Montcalm could deliver. Indians did not fight for the French for pay.  Instead, they went to war for the purpose of proving their bravery by taking enemy scalps, and for profit by looting the property of the enemy.  Fort Oswego was a trading post and supply depot for the British Army.  In addition to cannons and small arms, it had a large supply of food, military supplies and other items of value.

After the surrender, the Indian allies of the French immediately entered the Fort, looted anything of value, and got drunk on the Fort’s supply of rum.  They also killed and scalped all of the wounded in the Fort’s hospital.  Next, the Indians turned to the disarmed prisoners.  They killed several dozen prisoners, which included many civilians, and took many more prisoner, with the intention of taking them home as slaves.

Montcalm was mortified by the actions of his allies.  He had given his word of honor to provide safe conduct and could not do so.  He eventually put a stop to the slaughter, and agreed to pay a ransom to the Indians to return their prisoners.  As a result, his victory ended up costing the French a lot more money than they had planned, and only encouraged Indians to kidnap more prisoners in the future. The incident also reaffirmed Montcalm’s view that Indian allies could often be worse than useless. What incentive did any British force have to surrender if they knew doing so would likely lead to slaughter or slavery?

More Retreat

Upon hearing of the fall of Fort Oswego, Gen. Webb, who had been on his way to relieve the Fort, immediately went on the defensive.  He ordered the next fort in line, Fort Bull, to be burned to the ground in order to deny it to the enemy.  He then took the time to fell trees on the road as his forces retreated, making the roads impassible to a feared advance of Montcalm.  Loudoun later criticized his subordinate for not even trying to determine if the enemy was advancing (they were not) before destroying a fort and running away.  That said, the damage was done.  British forces were now far removed from Lake Ontario as the fighting season of 1756 neared its end.

So the results for 1756 were even worse than the year before.  Not only had the British not gained any ground through offensives, they had lost ground in New York through the loss of several forts. Further, many Iroquois allies and local tribes began to support the French, seeing them as the more effective regional power.

Maryland and Virginia Retreat

With the French now on the offensive, Indian allies of the French continued their raids well into Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, pushing back the borders of British influence..

Maryland refused to deploy any soldiers to the west.  It retreated back to Fort Frederick and refused to participate in any military actions beyond that point.

A Maryland Newspaper call to arms in 1756
(from vasitytutors.com)

Virginia, still holding onto dreams of settling the Ohio Valley, made more of an effort.  The House of Burgesses appropriated £55,000 and called on Col. Washington to raise a Regiment of 1500 men.  Still refusing to pay soldiers a decent wage, the colony had to institute a draft. Conscripts, of course, were not terribly motivated and frequently deserted if given the chance.  To make matters worse, the majority of the funds appropriated went to militia in the eastern part of the Colony.  Leaders were more concerned about a potential slave uprising affecting their plantations, than about Indian raids affecting the poor settlers to the west.  Washington’s western regiment, therefore, never received adequate food, clothing, or arms.  Washington’s regiment did engage the Indian raids when possible.  But the area was too large to defend effectively.  Most Virginians living in the area who could, moved out and headed back east.

In 1757, Washington tried to convince Loudoun to convert his regiment into regulars and give him a commission in the British Army.  Had he done so, it might have changed the course of world events. But Loudoun did not have enough confidence in the Virginia militia leader.  Instead, he gave Col. John Stanwix, stationed in Pennsylvania, authority over Washington.  Stanwix immediately demanded that Washington turn over much of his powder and ammunition for use in Pennsylvania. Between that and his own quartermaster’s embezzlement and the continuing desertions, Washington only faced frustration with the British refusal to reengage in the Ohio Valley.  His disappointment at not being permitted to become a British regular would also sit as a deep wound that festered for many years.

Fighting in Pennsylvania

Like its southern neighbors, Pennsylvania was reluctant to spend much of anything on military defense even as the events of 1756 increased their exposure to attack. The Quaker government represented pacifists who held strong religious objections to war.  Most of the colony’s money and power was in and around Philadelphia, which did not seem immediately endangered by the attacks. An ongoing fight between the Penn family (the Proprietors of the Colony) and the legislature (run mostly by Quaker leaders and Benjamin Franklin) kept everything in gridlock.  The legislature did not want to levy property taxes unless they could also tax the lands controlled by the proprietors.  The proprietors held the view that they were the owners of the colony and could not be taxed by those they had allowed to live there.  The political wrangling thus led to inaction.

In western Pennsylvania, Indians took advantage of this.  Many of the raids were smaller ones against relatively defenseless frontier settlements.  In July 1756, the Delaware attacked and destroyed Fort Granville, forcing all colonial forces to retreat back to Carlisle, near modern day Harrisburg.  Indian raids continued to probe eastward, with some raids reaching within 70 miles of Philadelphia. The leader of the raid that destroyed Fort Granville was a Delaware Chief named “Captain Jacobs” who had only a few months earlier come to Philadelphia to plead for aid against the French.  Receiving none, Jacobs allied himself with the French and became one of the fiercest raiders in Pennsylvania.

If the attacks of the Western Delaware were not bad enough, the Eastern Delaware Indians, who lived just north of Philadelphia, were considering joining their western brothers.  The Delaware were still upset about the land grab of the Walking Purchase and other encroachments.  With the British on the defensive, the moment seemed opportune to recover much of their lost territory.  Western settlers began literally carrying the dead bodies of friends and family killed in Indian raids through the streets of Philadelphia, demanding action.

With the situation becoming desperate, the Pennsylvania legislature finally acted.  Benjamin Franklin worked out a compromise to fund a military campaign.  The proprietors would make a “donation” of £5000 in lieu of taxes.  The legislature would pony up another £55,000 “for the King’s use” to avoid taking responsibility for spending on military.  The money was available to the King who would presumably use it to defend the colony militarily, but that was the King, not the Quakers, spending on the military.  The Quaker community generally found this distinction morally unacceptable.  They excommunicated several members who had supported the compromise plan.  In the end, most Quakers generally dropped out of politics altogether.  They did not want to participate in the decision to go to war, but also did not seem to want to bear the consequences of refusing to pay for the war either.

The result was men like Franklin and his non-Quaker friends taking control of the legislature and coordinating a military response to the continuing raids.  A Pennsylvania raid to avenge Fort Granville attacked a small village called Kittaning where Captain Jacobs and his fellow warriors, along with their wives and children, were all killed.  The massacre worsened things by motivating more Delaware to go to war against Pennsylvania, fueled by an increase of arms and ammunition from the capture of Fort Oswego.  This only increased the Indian attacks in Pennsylvania throughout the fall of 1756.

Chief Teedyuscung (from wikipedia)

To prevent the Indian violence from spreading even further, Pennsylvania leaders tried to open a diplomatic dialogue with the eastern Delaware.  Chief Teedyuscung was motivated to reach an agreement.  The continued violence had purged the entire region of Indian traders, on whom the Delaware had become dependent. But for any agreement, Teedyuscung demanded that the parties revisit the Walking Purchase and guarantee a reserve of 2.5 million acres of land for his tribe in the Wyoming Valley, a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania around modern day Scranton. While the negotiations dragged on for months, the initial gifts and progress toward a solution kept most eastern Delaware away from active support of attacks.

In December 1756, Loudoun sent British regulars to Philadelphia to help coordinate military defenses there.  Even though the legislature was now on board for defensive action, it refused to provide housing for the soldiers.  Loudoun was once again outraged at the treatment the provincials were giving his liberators.  The locals, however, not only had more abstract Constitutional concerns, but the very real concern that a smallpox epidemic was spreading through the city.  This was not a time to let strangers into your home.  Loudoun had to threaten to take homes by force before the Assembly decided to convert a newly built hospital into temporary barracks for the soldiers.

Thus, 1756 came to a close with the British still only seeing continued losses.  Neither Parliament nor the colonial assemblies were willing to put up the serious levels of soldiers and money to fight the war properly.  The North American Commander, Lord Loudoun grew continually frustrated at the colonies’ refusal  to accede to his military demands.

Next week: British setbacks continue with the Fort William Henry Massacre, and Britain decides to make leadership changes once again.

Next Episode 9: Fort William Henry Massacre & Rise of Pitt

Previous Episode 7: Acadia, Lake George, & Loudon's Arrival

Click here to donate

American Revolution Podcast is distributed 100% free of charge. If you can chip in to help defray my costs, I'd appreciate whatever you can give.  Make a one time donation through my PayPal account.

You may also donate via Venmo, Zelle, or popmoney (send to mtroy1@yahoo.com)

Click here to see my Patreon Page

You can support the American Revolution Podcast as a Patreon subscriber.  This is an option for people who want to make monthly pledges.  Patreon support will give you access to Podcast extras and help make the podcast a sustainable project.

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Click here to go to my SubscribeStar Page



Visit the American Revolution Podcast (https://amrev.podbean.com).

Further Reading

Websites

Battle of Fort Oswego: http://www.oswego-history.com/battle-of-fort-oswego-1756-2

Fort Oswego: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1190.html

Fort Oswego Marker: https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=75356

James Abercromby: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/abercromby_james_4E.html

Daniel Webb: A General Webb of Deceit?: http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08008.html

Gen. Daniel Webb: https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Daniel%20Webb%20(British%20Army%20officer)&item_type=topic

Lt. Col. James Mercer: http://www.mercermillions.info/mercers-of-perth/generation-12/12-james-francis-mercer

Gen. John Stanwix, MP: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/stanwix-john-1693-1766

Fort Granville: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/pa-forts3.html

Captain Jacobs: http://www.histbuffer.com/2016/01/captain-jacobs-part-one.html

Kittaning: http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-220

Chief Teedyuscung: http://explorepahistory.com/story.php?storyId=1-9-14

Free eBooks:
(from archive.org unless noted)

Documents relative to the colonial history of the state of New York, Vol. 10 by John Brodhead (1853).

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

The History of Canada, Vol. 3 by William Kingsford (1887).

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).

The fall of Oswego (14th August, 1756): a chapter in British history, by W.T. Mercer (1873).

England In The Age Of The American Revolution, by J.B. Namier (1930).

Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. 1, by Francis Parkman (1885).

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

The Administration of the British Colonies, by Thomas Pownall (1777) (another contemporary account of events).

A review of the military operations in North America : from the commencement of the French hostilities on the frontiers of Virginia in 1753, to the surrender of Oswego, on the 14th of August, 1756, by William  Livingston, William Smith, and William Alexander, called Lord Stirling (1757) (This was written by contemporaries living in the colonies as the events transpired).

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 Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas 1755-1763, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002.

Chartrand, René Montcalm’s Crushing Blow: French and Indian Raids along New York’s Oswego River 1756, Osprey Publishing, 2014.

Fowler, Willam F. Jr. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763, Walker Books, 2005.

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

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