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.
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