Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook178 pages1 hour
Montcalm's Crushing Blow - French and Indian Raids along New York's Oswego River 1756
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
With expert analysis and lively narrative, this engaging study of the Oswego raid casts light on a daring feat of arms at the height of the French and Indian War.
The year 1755 saw the rivalry between Britain and France in North America escalate along the Great Lakes into open warfare as both sides sought to overcome the other's forts and trading posts. Lord Loudoun and the Marquis de Montcalm were sent from the mother countries to take charge, but the French lost no time in seizing the initiative, adopting Canadian-style "wilderness" tactics and planning a series of raids to keep the enemy on their toes.
Amid the snows of March 1756, a 360-man French, Canadian, and Indian force stormed an Anglo-American outpost named Fort Bull in a surprise attack that left few survivors and the fort reduced to charred remains. Fort Bull's fall meant that the Mohawk River, the communication route between British-held Albany and the large and important Anglo-American post at Oswego, could now be cut off. Oswego, on the shore of Lake Ontario, had a formidable garrison based in three forts, named Pepperrell, George, and Ontario. The newly arrived Montcalm was tasked with the job of taking Oswego from the Anglo-Americans.
In July and August 1756, Montcalm's 3,000-strong force - including a full train of artillery, 80 pieces strong - was transported in hundreds of sailing ships and craft. The Anglo-Americans failed to spot the approaching French forces until they had landed and secured their positions. Having surrounded and invested the forts, the French soon knocked out of action a number of British guns. The British evacuated Fort Ontario and then, at 9am on August 14th, a French cannonball killed the British commander, Colonel James Mercer. His successor, Colonel John Littlehales, did not have the stuff of a hero; an hour later, the white flag went up and Oswego surrendered just in time to avert a major onslaught.
The Oswego raid was an outstanding French success; it denied the British a presence on Lake Ontario for the next two years, and relieved British pressure on Fort Frontenac. It demonstrated that the use of traditional European siege tactics in an American setting could reap great rewards, and had a great influence on the French's Indian allies too.
The year 1755 saw the rivalry between Britain and France in North America escalate along the Great Lakes into open warfare as both sides sought to overcome the other's forts and trading posts. Lord Loudoun and the Marquis de Montcalm were sent from the mother countries to take charge, but the French lost no time in seizing the initiative, adopting Canadian-style "wilderness" tactics and planning a series of raids to keep the enemy on their toes.
Amid the snows of March 1756, a 360-man French, Canadian, and Indian force stormed an Anglo-American outpost named Fort Bull in a surprise attack that left few survivors and the fort reduced to charred remains. Fort Bull's fall meant that the Mohawk River, the communication route between British-held Albany and the large and important Anglo-American post at Oswego, could now be cut off. Oswego, on the shore of Lake Ontario, had a formidable garrison based in three forts, named Pepperrell, George, and Ontario. The newly arrived Montcalm was tasked with the job of taking Oswego from the Anglo-Americans.
In July and August 1756, Montcalm's 3,000-strong force - including a full train of artillery, 80 pieces strong - was transported in hundreds of sailing ships and craft. The Anglo-Americans failed to spot the approaching French forces until they had landed and secured their positions. Having surrounded and invested the forts, the French soon knocked out of action a number of British guns. The British evacuated Fort Ontario and then, at 9am on August 14th, a French cannonball killed the British commander, Colonel James Mercer. His successor, Colonel John Littlehales, did not have the stuff of a hero; an hour later, the white flag went up and Oswego surrendered just in time to avert a major onslaught.
The Oswego raid was an outstanding French success; it denied the British a presence on Lake Ontario for the next two years, and relieved British pressure on Fort Frontenac. It demonstrated that the use of traditional European siege tactics in an American setting could reap great rewards, and had a great influence on the French's Indian allies too.
Unavailable
Author
René Chartrand
RENÉ CHARTRAND was born in Montreal and educated in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Canada's National Historic Sites for nearly three decades, he is now a freelance writer and historical consultant. He has written numerous articles and books including over 50 Osprey titles. He lives in Quebec, with his wife and two sons.
Read more from René Chartrand
The Vikings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Montcalm's Crushing Blow - French and Indian Raids along New York's Oswego River 1756
Related ebooks
Rousseau: The Last Days of Spanish New Orleans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Old Northwest: A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPortsmouth Harbor's Military and Naval Heritage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Brunswick and the Navy: Four Hundred Years Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint John Fortifications, 1630-1956 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Arkansas Post of Louisiana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775: With Numerous Illustrative Notes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBraddock's Road Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Cruising Voyage Around the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFort Duquesne and Fort Pitt; Early Names of Pittsburgh Streets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQUEBEC, Birthplace of New France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braddock's Road and Three Relative Papers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYorktown: Climax of the Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of Old Winchelsea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock Island Arsenal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnslaught of Spears: The Danish Conquest of England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Walter R. Borneman's The French and Indian War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seven Years' War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Great Fortress : A chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5American Merchant Ships and Sailors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFifty-two Stories of the British Navy, from Damme to Trafalgar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBattle of Fort George A paper read on March 14th, 1896 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBattle for Manhattan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of the Nineteenth Army Corps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe French-Indian War 1754–1760 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of Pittsburgh 1758-1908 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSailing Ships of New England 1606-1907 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of Titans: Founding Fathers, Women Warriors & WWII, Vol. III Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Fort Loudoun Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExplosion in Halifax Harbour, 1917 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Wars & Military For You
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Montcalm's Crushing Blow - French and Indian Raids along New York's Oswego River 1756
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews