The Last Great French Victory in America— The Battle of Fort CarillonBy 1758 the French and In

The Last Great French Victory in America— The Battle of Fort CarillonBy 1758 the French and Indian War was turning against the French in favor of the British.  After defeat after defeat, and disastrous campaign after disastrous campaign, the new British government under William Pitt decided to dedicate the men and resources needed to win the war.  With a new commander, Gen. James Abercrombie, it seemed as though Britain and the American colonies had what they needed to achieve victory. In the early summer of 1758, Abercrombie organized a massive force of 18,000 men, comprised of British regulars, colonial militia, and Native American allies, with the intent of invading French Canada.  The plan was to travel up the Hudson River to Lake George, capture Fort Carillon, then gain control of the St. Lawrence River, thus resulting in an invasion of Quebec itself.  The army organized by Abercrombie was the largest military force ever assembled in the New World at that time, and included several large siege guns to destroy Fort Carillon, as well as hundreds of boats and barges to transport the army up river.For the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, the situation was couldn’t be worse.  When he took command of Fort Carillon he found that the outpost was manned by a garrison of only 3,500 men, a pitiful force against Abercrombie’s army.  Worse yet, the fort was in poor condition, and the men only had nine days worth of rations.  Thus Montecalm made a bold decision, rather than making a stand in the fort, he ordered that defenses be built outside leading up to the fort’s approach.  A large breastwork was constructed, trenches were dug, and a series of abatis were built.  The abatis were constructed from the limbs and brush left over from the timber used to construct the breastworks.  The limbs were sharpened, then laid out into large brush piles that covered over several hundred feet leading up to the defenses.Abercrombie and his army arrived at Fort Carillon on the evening of July 6th.  Rather than bide his time and attempt a siege of the fort, Abercrombie hastily ordered an immediate frontal assault on the French defensive positions.  In addition he chose not to bring forward his siege cannon, which would have made short work of the defenses and the fort.  On July 8th, 12:30 pm the assault commenced with men in ranks and units conducting a marching assault on the French defenses.  While the breastworks were bad enough, it was the abatis that doomed the British attack.  The large piles of brush and limbs broke up the British formations, forcing men to break ranks in order to trudge, crawl, and climb through the thick foliage.  As they did so, they made easy targets as the brush was thick enough to slow the British down, but not thick enough to provide cover.  By 2 pm, the abatis had become a killing field, and the first wave of the assault utterly failed.  Another wave was ordered, but they two were “cut down like grass” as one observer noted.  At 5 pm another wave charge, but had no more luck as they too crawled and climbed over limbs, brush, and the corpses of their comrades.  By nightfall, Abercrombie called retreat, a retreat that became a panicked and chaotic affair.  In that instant, Montcalm could have easily attacked and destroyed the British Army, however he chose to remain on the defensive. The British evacuated the area the next morning. Over 1,000 British, colonial, and Native American troops were killed with another 1,500 wounded.  The French lost only 100 men.The French victory at Fort Carillon would be the last great victory of the French and Indian War.  While Montcalm had dealt a horrifying blow to the British, at the same time other British and colonial forces captured French forts and outposts along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, the most important of which was Ft. Frontenac, which stored most of the arms and supplies used by the French Army in Canada.  The next year, Fort Carillon would be captured by the British and renamed Fort Ticonderoga.  After the debacle at Fort Carillon Gen. James Abercrombie was removed from his position and recalled back to Britain.  The Marquis de Montcalm would be killed at the Battle of Quebec in 1759.  Ultimately, the French would lose the war, surrendering by 1760. -- source link

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