The
French and Indian War, an extension of The
Seven Years' War, started in 1754 over territorial disputes between the
North American colonies of
France and
Great Britain in areas that are now western
Pennsylvania and northern
New York. The war was sparked when Lieutenant Colonel
George Washington and a small contingent of
Mingo allies ambushed a force of
French Canadians resulting in the capturing and massacring of said force. This conflict is known as the
Battle of Jumonville Glen and broke the struggling peace between France and Britain's colonies. The first few years of the war did not go particularly well for the British. A
major expedition by General
Edward Braddock in 1755
ended in disaster, and British military leaders were unable to mount any campaigns the following year. In a major setback, a French and Indian army, led by General
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, captured the garrison and destroyed fortifications at the
Battle of Fort Oswego in August 1756. In July 1756, the
Earl of Loudoun arrived to take command of the British forces in
North America and replaced
William Shirley, who had temporarily assumed command after Braddock's death.
British planning Loudoun's plan for the 1757 campaign was submitted to the government in
London in September 1756. It was focused on a single expedition aimed at the heart of
New France,
Quebec City. It called for a purely-defensive postures along the frontier with New France, including the contested corridor of the
Hudson River and
Lake Champlain between
Albany and
Montreal. After the
Battle of Lake George in 1755, the French had begun construction of Fort Carillon, now known as
Fort Ticonderoga, near the southern end of Lake Champlain, and the British had built
Fort William Henry, at the southern end of
Lake George, and
Fort Edward on the Hudson River, about south of Fort William Henry (all three forts are now in New York State). The purpose behind the construction of the fort was to gain control of
Lake George (
French: Lac Du Saint Sacrement). This was done in order to rival French claims to the surrounding area. This area between Forts William Henry and Carillon was a wilderness dominated by Lake George. The historian Ian Steele described it as "a military waterway that left opposing cannons only a few days apart." , portrait by
Allan Ramsay|alt=Lord Loudoun in a half-length portrait that was painted when he was about 45. He faces the painter and wears a red coat over a white vest and a white shirt with lace on the front. Since his body is turned three quarters, only his right arm is partially visible. He appears to be wearing a powdered wig. Loudoun's plan depended on the expedition's timely arrival at Quebec so that French troops would not have the opportunity to move against targets on the frontier, and would instead be needed to defend the heartland of
Canada along the
Saint Lawrence River. However, political turmoil in London over the progress of the
Seven Years' War in North America and in Europe resulted in a change of power, with
William Pitt the Elder rising to take control over military matters. Loudoun consequently did not receive any feedback from London on his proposed campaign until March 1757. When Pitt's instructions finally reached Loudoun in March 1757, they called for the expedition to target
Louisbourg on the Atlantic coast of
Île Royale, which is now known as
Cape Breton Island. Although that did not materially affect the planning of the expedition, it would have significant consequences on the frontier. The French forces on the Saint Lawrence would be too far from Louisbourg to support it and would consequently be free to act elsewhere. Loudoun assigned his best troops to the Louisbourg expedition and placed Brigadier General
Daniel Webb in command of the New York frontier. He was given about 2,000
regulars, primarily from the
35th and
60th (Royal American) Regiments. The provinces were to supply Webb with about 5,000 militia.
French planning , copy by Théophile Hamel from unknown original|alt=A half-length portrait of Montcalm, who is dressed mainly in black but also wears a metal breastplate and a powdered wig against a dark brown background. After the success of his 1756 assault on Fort Oswego, Montcalm had been seeking an opportunity to deal with the British position at Fort William Henry to provide the British with a launching point for attacks against Fort Carillon. He was initially hesitant to commit his limited resources against Fort William Henry without knowing more about the disposition of British forces. Intelligence provided by spies in London arrived in the spring and indicated that the British target was probably Louisbourg. That suggested that troop levels on the British side of the frontier might be low enough to make an attack on Fort William Henry feasible. The idea was further supported by the French questioning deserters and captives who had been taken during periodic scouting and raiding expeditions, which both sides conducted, including one resulting in the January
Battle on Snowshoes. As early as December 1756, New France's governor, the
Marquis de Vaudreuil, began the process of recruiting Indians for the following summer's campaign. Fueled by stories circulated by Indian participants in the capture of Oswego, the drive was highly successful by drawing nearly 1,000 warriors from the ''
Pays d'en Haut'', the more remote regions of New France, to Montreal by June 1757. Another 800 Indians were recruited from tribes that lived closer to the Saint Lawrence. The fort was capable of housing only four to five hundred men; additional troops were quartered in an entrenched camp southeast of the fort, near the site of the 1755
Battle of Lake George. During the winter of 1756–1757, Fort William Henry was garrisoned by several hundred men from the 44th Foot under Major Will Eyre. In March 1757, the French sent an army of 1,500 to attack the fort under the command of the governor's brother, Pierre de Rigaud. Composed primarily of colonial
troupes de la marine, militia, and Indians and without heavy weapons, they besieged the fort for four days, destroyed outbuildings and many watercraft, and retreated. Eyre and his men were replaced by Lieutenant Colonel
George Monro and the 35th Foot and the
60th (Royal American) Foot. In the spring. Monro established his headquarters in the entrenched camp to the southwest of the fort, where most of his men were located because the fort was too small to quarter this many troops. Webb, who commanded the area from his base at Fort Edward, received intelligence in April that the French were accumulating resources and troops at Carillon. News of continued French activity arrived with a captive taken in mid-July. After an attack by
Joseph Marin de la Malgue on a work crew near Fort Edward on 23 July, Webb travelled to Fort William Henry with a party of
Connecticut rangers led by Major
Israel Putnam and sent a detachment of them onto the lake for reconnaissance. They returned with word that Indians were encamped on islands in the lake about from the fort. Swearing Putnam and his rangers to secrecy, Webb returned to Fort Edward, and on 2 August, he sent Lieutenant Colonel John Young with 200 regulars and 800 Massachusetts militia to reinforce the garrison at William Henry.
French preparations The Indians that assembled at Montreal were sent south to Fort Carillon, where they joined the French regiments of Béarn and Royal Roussillon under
François-Charles de Bourlamaque and those of
La Sarre,
Guyenne,
Languedoc, and
la Reine under
François de Gaston, Chevalier de Lévis. Combined with the troupes de la marine, militia companies, and the arriving Indians, the force accumulated at Fort Carillon amounted to 8,000 men. The French forces included 3,000 regulars, 3,000 militia and nearly 2,000 Indians from various tribes. In another prelude of things to come, many prisoners were taken on 23 July in the
Battle of Sabbath Day Point, and some of whom were also ritually cannibalized before Montcalm managed to convince the Indians instead to send the captives to Montreal to be sold as slaves. ==Siege==