Charles Michel de Langlade
Great Lakes fur trader and war chief who is important to the French in protecting their territory
1729 CE to 1801 CE
Charles Michel de Langlade (May 9, 1729 – after July 26, 1801) (Ottawa) is a Great Lakes fur trader and war chief who is important to the French in protecting their territory.
His mother was Ottawa and his father a French Canadian fur trader.
Fluent in Ottawa and French, Langlade later leads First Nations forces in warfare in the region, at various times allied with the French, British and later Americans.
Leading French and Indian forces, in 1752 he destroys Pickawillany, a Miami village and British trading post in present-day Ohio, where the British and French are competing for control.
During the subsequent Seven Years' War, he helps defend Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) against the British.
He is named second in command at Fort Michilimackinac and a captain in the Indian Department of French Canada.
After the defeat of the French in North America, Langlade becomes allied with the British, who take control of former French possessions and take the lead in the fur trade.
During the American Revolutionary War, Langlade leads Great Lakes Indians for the British against the rebel colonists and their Indian allies.
At the end of the war, he retires to his home in present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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Burgoyne had been joined before leaving Skenesboro by about five hundred natives (mostly Ottawas, but also Fox, Mississauga, Chippewa, and Ojibwe, as well as members of the Iroquois) from the Great Lakes region under the leadership of St. Luc de la Corne and Charles Michel de Langlade.
The advance of Burgoyne's army to Fort Edward is, as with the approach to Ticonderoga, preceded by a wave of natives, which chase away the small contingent of troops left there by Schuyler.
These allies become impatient and begin indiscriminate raids on frontier families and settlements, which have the effect of increasing rather than reducing local support to the American rebels.
In particular, the death at native hands of the attractive young Loyalist settler Jane McCrea is widely publicized and served as a catalyst for rebel support, as Burgoyne's decision to not punish the perpetrators was seen as unwillingness or inability to keep the natives under control.
Jane McCrea had been one of the younger children in the large family of Rev. James McCrea of New Jersey.
Since her mother's death and her father's remarriage, she had been living with her brother John near Saratoga, New York, where she became engaged to David Jones.
When the war began, two of her brothers had joined the American forces, while her fiancé had fled with other Loyalists to Quebec.
As Burgoyne's expedition neared the Hudson River during the summer of 1777, Colonel John McCrea had taken up his duty with a regiment of the Albany County militia.
Jones is serving as a lieutenant in one of the Loyalist militia units accompanying Burgoyne, and had been stationed at Fort Ticonderoga after its capture.
McCrea had left her brother's home and was traveling to join her fiancé at Ticonderoga.
She had reached the village by the old Fort Edward, but so had the war.
She was staying at the home of Sara McNeil, another Loyalist and an elderly cousin to the British General Simon Fraser.
On the morning of July 27, 1777, a group of natives, an advance party from Burgoyne's army led by a Wyandot known as Le Loup or Wyandot Panther, descend on the village of Fort Edward.
They massacre a settler and his family, then kill Lieutenant Tobias Van Vechten and four others when they walk into an ambush.
What happened next is a subject of some dispute; what is known is that Jane McCrea and Sara McNeil were taken by the natives and separated.
McNeil was eventually taken to the British camp, where either she or David Jones recognized McCrea's supposedly distinctive scalp being carried by a native.
The traditional version of what happened appears to be based on the account of Thomas Anburey, a British officer.
Two warriors, one of whom was Wyandot Panther, were escorting McCrea to the British camp, when they quarreled over an expected reward for bringing her in.
One of them then killed and scalped her, and Wyandot Panther ended up with the scalp.
Anburey claimed she was taken against her will, but there were also rumors that she was being escorted at her fiancé's request.
The second version of the story, apparently advanced by Wyandot Panther under questioning, was that McCrea was killed by a bullet fired by pursuing Americans.
James Phinney Baxter, in supporting this version of events in his 1887 history of Burgoyne's campaign, asserts that an exhumation of her body revealed only bullet wounds and no tomahawk wounds.
When Burgoyne hears of the killing, he goes to the native camp and orders the culprit to be delivered, threatening to have him executed.
He is told by General Fraser and Luc de la Corne, the agent leading the natives, that such an act would cause the defection of all the native and might cause them to take revenge as they went back north.
Burgoyne relents, and no action is taken against the natives.
The advance of Burgoyne's army to Fort Edward is, as with the approach to Ticonderoga, preceded by a wave of natives, which chase away the small contingent of troops left there by Schuyler.
These allies become impatient and begin indiscriminate raids on frontier families and settlements, which have the effect of increasing rather than reducing local support to the American rebels.
In particular, the death at native hands of the attractive young Loyalist settler Jane McCrea is widely publicized and served as a catalyst for rebel support, as Burgoyne's decision to not punish the perpetrators was seen as unwillingness or inability to keep the natives under control.
Jane McCrea had been one of the younger children in the large family of Rev. James McCrea of New Jersey.
Since her mother's death and her father's remarriage, she had been living with her brother John near Saratoga, New York, where she became engaged to David Jones.
When the war began, two of her brothers had joined the American forces, while her fiancé had fled with other Loyalists to Quebec.
As Burgoyne's expedition neared the Hudson River during the summer of 1777, Colonel John McCrea had taken up his duty with a regiment of the Albany County militia.
Jones is serving as a lieutenant in one of the Loyalist militia units accompanying Burgoyne, and had been stationed at Fort Ticonderoga after its capture.
McCrea had left her brother's home and was traveling to join her fiancé at Ticonderoga.
She had reached the village by the old Fort Edward, but so had the war.
She was staying at the home of Sara McNeil, another Loyalist and an elderly cousin to the British General Simon Fraser.
On the morning of July 27, 1777, a group of natives, an advance party from Burgoyne's army led by a Wyandot known as Le Loup or Wyandot Panther, descend on the village of Fort Edward.
They massacre a settler and his family, then kill Lieutenant Tobias Van Vechten and four others when they walk into an ambush.
What happened next is a subject of some dispute; what is known is that Jane McCrea and Sara McNeil were taken by the natives and separated.
McNeil was eventually taken to the British camp, where either she or David Jones recognized McCrea's supposedly distinctive scalp being carried by a native.
The traditional version of what happened appears to be based on the account of Thomas Anburey, a British officer.
Two warriors, one of whom was Wyandot Panther, were escorting McCrea to the British camp, when they quarreled over an expected reward for bringing her in.
One of them then killed and scalped her, and Wyandot Panther ended up with the scalp.
Anburey claimed she was taken against her will, but there were also rumors that she was being escorted at her fiancé's request.
The second version of the story, apparently advanced by Wyandot Panther under questioning, was that McCrea was killed by a bullet fired by pursuing Americans.
James Phinney Baxter, in supporting this version of events in his 1887 history of Burgoyne's campaign, asserts that an exhumation of her body revealed only bullet wounds and no tomahawk wounds.
When Burgoyne hears of the killing, he goes to the native camp and orders the culprit to be delivered, threatening to have him executed.
He is told by General Fraser and Luc de la Corne, the agent leading the natives, that such an act would cause the defection of all the native and might cause them to take revenge as they went back north.
Burgoyne relents, and no action is taken against the natives.
Most of Baum's detachment never returns from the August 16 Battle of Bennington, and the reinforcements he had sent after them come back after they are ravaged in the same battle, which deprives Burgoyne of nearly one thousand men and the much-needed supplies.
What Burgoyne had been unaware of is that St. Clair's calls for militia support following the withdrawal from Ticonderoga had been answered, and General John Stark had placed two thousand men at Bennington.
Stark's force had enveloped Baum's at Bennington, killing him and capturing much of his detachment.
The death of Jane McCrea and the Battle of Bennington, besides acting as rallying cries for the Americans, have another important effect.
Burgoyne blames his native and Canadian allies for McCrea's death, and, even after the natives had lost eighty of their number at Bennington, Burgoyne shows them no gratitude.
As a result, Langlade, La Corne, and most of the natives leave the British camp, leaving Burgoyne with fewer than one hundred native scouts.
Burgoyne is left with no protection in the woods against the American rangers.
Burgoyne will later blame La Corne for deserting him, while La Corne will counter that Burgoyne never respected the natives.
In the British Parliament, Lord Germain will side with La Corne.
What Burgoyne had been unaware of is that St. Clair's calls for militia support following the withdrawal from Ticonderoga had been answered, and General John Stark had placed two thousand men at Bennington.
Stark's force had enveloped Baum's at Bennington, killing him and capturing much of his detachment.
The death of Jane McCrea and the Battle of Bennington, besides acting as rallying cries for the Americans, have another important effect.
Burgoyne blames his native and Canadian allies for McCrea's death, and, even after the natives had lost eighty of their number at Bennington, Burgoyne shows them no gratitude.
As a result, Langlade, La Corne, and most of the natives leave the British camp, leaving Burgoyne with fewer than one hundred native scouts.
Burgoyne is left with no protection in the woods against the American rangers.
Burgoyne will later blame La Corne for deserting him, while La Corne will counter that Burgoyne never respected the natives.
In the British Parliament, Lord Germain will side with La Corne.
The tactic of delay has worked well in the field, but the result in the Continental Congress is a different matter.
General Horatio Gates had been in Philadelphia when Congress discussed its shock at the fall of Ticonderoga, and Gates had been more than willing to help assign the blame to reluctant generals.
Some in the Congress had already been impatient with General George Washington, wanting a large, direct confrontation that might eliminate occupation forces but which Washington feared would probably lose the war
John Adams, the head of the War Committee, had praised Gates and remarked that "we shall never hold a post until we shoot a general."
Over the objections of the New York delegation, Congress had sent Gates to take command of the Northern Department on August 10.
It had also ordered states from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts to call out their militias.
On August 19, Gates arrives at Albany to take charge.
He is cold and arrogant in manner, and pointedly excludes Schuyler from his first war council.
Schuyler leaves for Philadelphia shortly after, depriving Gates of his intimate knowledge of the area.
General Horatio Gates had been in Philadelphia when Congress discussed its shock at the fall of Ticonderoga, and Gates had been more than willing to help assign the blame to reluctant generals.
Some in the Congress had already been impatient with General George Washington, wanting a large, direct confrontation that might eliminate occupation forces but which Washington feared would probably lose the war
John Adams, the head of the War Committee, had praised Gates and remarked that "we shall never hold a post until we shoot a general."
Over the objections of the New York delegation, Congress had sent Gates to take command of the Northern Department on August 10.
It had also ordered states from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts to call out their militias.
On August 19, Gates arrives at Albany to take charge.
He is cold and arrogant in manner, and pointedly excludes Schuyler from his first war council.
Schuyler leaves for Philadelphia shortly after, depriving Gates of his intimate knowledge of the area.