Fort William Henry, built in the fall …
Years: 1757 - 1757
March
Fort William Henry, built in the fall of 1755, is a roughly square fortification with bastions on the corners, in a design that is intended to repel native attacks but is not necessarily sufficient to withstand attack from an enemy that has artillery.
Its walls are thirty feet (nine point one meters) thick, with log facings surrounding an earthen filling.
Inside the fort are wooden barracks two stories high, built around the parade ground.
Its magazine is in the northeast bastion, and its hospital is located in the southeast bastion.
The fort is surrounded on three sides by a dry moat, with the fourth side sloping down to the lake.
The only access to the fort is by a bridge across the moat.
The fort is capable of housing only four to five hundred men; additional troops are quartered in an entrenched camp seven hundred and fifty yards (six hundred and ninety meters) southeast of the fort, near the site of the 1755 Battle of Lake George.
Fort William Henry had been garrisoned during the winter of 1756–57 by several hundred men from the 44th Foot under Major Will Eyre.
In March 1757 the French send an army of fifteen hundred to attack the fort under the command of the governor's brother, François-Pierre de Rigaud.
Composed primarily of colonial troupes de la marine, militia, and natives, and without heavy weapons, they besiege the fort for four days.
Lacking sufficient logistical and artillery support, and hampered further by a blinding snowstorm on 21 March, French forces are unable to take the fort and the siege is called off.
Although the French fail to take the fort itself, their forces do destroy three hundred bateaux and several lightly armed vessels beached on the shore, a saw-mill and numerous outbuildings before retreating.
Its walls are thirty feet (nine point one meters) thick, with log facings surrounding an earthen filling.
Inside the fort are wooden barracks two stories high, built around the parade ground.
Its magazine is in the northeast bastion, and its hospital is located in the southeast bastion.
The fort is surrounded on three sides by a dry moat, with the fourth side sloping down to the lake.
The only access to the fort is by a bridge across the moat.
The fort is capable of housing only four to five hundred men; additional troops are quartered in an entrenched camp seven hundred and fifty yards (six hundred and ninety meters) southeast of the fort, near the site of the 1755 Battle of Lake George.
Fort William Henry had been garrisoned during the winter of 1756–57 by several hundred men from the 44th Foot under Major Will Eyre.
In March 1757 the French send an army of fifteen hundred to attack the fort under the command of the governor's brother, François-Pierre de Rigaud.
Composed primarily of colonial troupes de la marine, militia, and natives, and without heavy weapons, they besiege the fort for four days.
Lacking sufficient logistical and artillery support, and hampered further by a blinding snowstorm on 21 March, French forces are unable to take the fort and the siege is called off.
Although the French fail to take the fort itself, their forces do destroy three hundred bateaux and several lightly armed vessels beached on the shore, a saw-mill and numerous outbuildings before retreating.
Locations
People
- Daniel Webb
- François-Gaston de Lévis
- George Monro
- Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst
- John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun
- Louis-Antoine de Bougainville
- Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
- William Johnson, 1st Baronet
- William Pitt
Groups
- Iroquois (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power, Five Nations, or Six Nations)
- Abenaki people (Amerind tribe)
- Wyandot, or Wendat, or Huron people (Amerind tribe)
- Mohawk people (Amerind tribe)
- Lenape or Lenni-Lenape (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans)
- New France (French Colony)
- Shawnees, or Shawanos (Amerind tribe)
- France, (Bourbon) Kingdom of
- Ohio Country
- New York, Province of (English Colony)
- Massachusetts, Province of (English Crown Colony)
- Britain, Kingdom of Great
Topics
- Colonization of the Americas, French
- Colonization of the Americas, British
- French and Indian War
- Fort William Henry, Masscre at
