In July 1757, as the French and Indian War turned against the British, French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm assembled a force of nearly 7,600 men—including more than 1,600 Indian allies—to launch a campaign against Fort William Henry, at the southern edge of Lake George, directly north of Albany. Montcalm had captured Fort Oswego the previous year and now saw an opportunity to strike deeper into British territory. Prisoners taken on the Hudson and dispatches from Versailles confirmed that British General Lord Loudoun had moved the best troops guarding the New York frontier toward Louisbourg, leaving the region vulnerable. To gather allies, Montcalm traveled to mission villages, where ceremonies included war songs and feasts.
One observer, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, described singing the war song on Montcalm’s behalf, chanting words that called for trampling the English underfoot. At one village, Bougainville was adopted into the clan of the turtle. More than a thousand Indians from western and northern tribes had camped at Montreal, drawn by promises of gifts, scalps, and plunder. Many had never seen a French settlement before.
At a ceremonial visit, an orator from the Mikolam Machin tribe told Montcalm that his people had expected to find a man so tall his head would be lost in the clouds, but that they saw his greatness when they looked into his eyes. The force moved toward Ticonderoga, then advanced overland toward Lake George. Nearly 2,000 Indians accompanied the expedition, and controlling them proved difficult. They consumed rations meant to last a week in three days, and on one occasion butchered and devoured 18 head of cattle intended for the troops.
Bougainville wrote that one had to be a slave to the Indians, listening to them day and night in council. Some tribes practiced cannibalism. A Jesuit missionary named Roubaud described finding Ottawas roasting flesh over a fire and learned it was the body of an Englishman. When he objected, a young Indian replied in broken French that the Englishman was good meat, and the feasters pressed him to join them.
On July 26, a British detachment of about 300 provincials under Colonel Parker was ambushed near Sabbath Day Point. Indians killed or captured most of the men, and three bodies were eaten on the spot. The victory inflated the Indians’ confidence, making them increasingly difficult for the French officers to manage. Before the main advance, Montcalm called a grand council of forty-one tribes, both Christian and heathen, to bind them together.
Chiefs spoke of unity and the Master of Life. Montcalm presented a wampum belt of 6,000 beads as a pledge of union. The council closed in harmony, but the atmosphere remained uneasy. On the night of August 1, two boats from Fort William Henry went out to reconnoiter and nearly collided with a French provision boat carrying Roubaud.
More than a thousand Indians gave chase, killing several men and capturing three prisoners. The captives provided Montcalm with valuable information about the fort’s strength. Fort William Henry was an irregular bastion square made of gravel embankments topped with logs, protected by the lake on one side and marsh on another. Seventeen cannon were mounted on it.
Lieutenant Colonel George Monro of the 35th Regiment commanded the garrison. General Webb lay fourteen miles away at Fort Edward with about 2,600 men. Webb had visited Fort William Henry on July 25, given orders, and returned. Despite writing that he was determined to march to the fort’s relief, he instead waited three days and sent only a detachment of 200 regulars and 800 Massachusetts men.
Monro sent repeated notes asking for reinforcements, but Webb did not move. On August 3, Montcalm’s forces appeared in sight of the fort. He sent an aide with a letter to Monro, warning that he could restrain the savages only during a capitulation and that an obstinate defense would only delay the capture while endangering the garrison. Monro replied that he and his soldiers would defend themselves to the last.
The trenches were opened on the night of August 4, with 800 men working through darkness while cannons flashed overhead. The first parallel was completed before daybreak. Both sides exchanged fire, and the Indians, rather than scouting toward Fort Edward, loitered in camp or fired at the fort from cover. Montcalm opened a battery of eight heavy cannon and a mortar, then added eleven more pieces.
The fort replied, and the roar echoed through the mountains. Day after day, the sound of the cannonade reached Webb’s camp at Fort Edward, where he wrote that he feared the fort could not hold out unless he was reinforced. At midnight on August 4, Webb sent a message warning Monro that he did not think it prudent to attempt a junction until reinforced by colonial militia. He suggested Monro make what terms he could with the enemy.
The messenger was killed by Indians, and the letter was found and taken to Montcalm, who kept it for several days before sending it to Monro with a compliment. By August 7, the French had dug within 250 yards of the fort. More than 300 of the garrison had been killed or wounded, smallpox raged inside the fort, and most of the large cannon had been disabled. On the morning of August 9, the officers held a council and agreed to surrender if honorable terms could be had.
Under the capitulation, the English troops would march out with honors of war, be escorted to Fort Edward by French troops, and not serve for eighteen months. All French prisoners captured in America would be returned within three months. Montcalm called the Indian chiefs to council and asked them to approve the conditions, promising to restrain his young warriors. They approved everything.
No sooner had the garrison left the fort than Indians climbed through the embrasures in search of plunder. Sick men unable to leave their beds were butchered. Roubaud witnessed an Indian coming out of the casemates carrying a human head with blood running from it. The Indians then turned to the entrenched camp where the English had gathered.
They roamed among the tents, intrusive and threatening, while women and children cowered in fear. French officers worked through the afternoon to restore order. Bougainville wrote that the marquis spared no effort to prevent the rapacity of the Indians from resulting in something worse than plunder. At nine in the evening, order appeared restored.
Montcalm arranged for two chiefs from each tribe to accompany the English on their march and ordered Canadian officers to see that no violence occurred. Bougainville then departed for Montreal as a messenger, unaware of what was about to happen. Early the next morning, before the full escort had arrived, Indians entered the huts where seventeen wounded men lay and tomahawked and scalped them all, in front of witnesses including Canadian officers and a French guard stationed within forty feet. Plundering began, and the English agreed to give up their baggage to appease the Indians.
The Indians then demanded rum, and frightened soldiers gave it to them. As the column moved along the road, Indians crowded upon them, snatched caps, coats, and weapons, tomahawked those who resisted, and seized shrieking women and children. The war whoop was sounded by Abnaki Christian Indians from the mission of Penobscot. A mob rushed upon the New Hampshire men at the rear, killing or dragging away eighty of them.
Montcalm and other French officers threw themselves among the Indians, trying to stop the frenzy. Montcalm reportedly exclaimed, “Kill me, but spare the English who are under my protection. ”
Men were stripped of their clothing, and many escaped into the woods. Jonathan Carver, a provincial volunteer, described being seized by Indians who brandished tomahawks over his head while a French sentinel called him an English dog.
After three days of wandering without food, Carver reached Fort Edward. The exact number of English killed is uncertain. Roubaud said he saw forty or fifty corpses. Levis put the number at fifty, not including those murdered earlier in the camp and fort.
Several hundred people were carried off, stripped, or otherwise maltreated. Montcalm recovered more than 400 of them during the day, and many French officers bought back clothing that had been torn from the captives. Refugees were conducted to the entrenched camp, where food and shelter were provided, and on August 15 they were sent under escort to Fort Edward. The Indians decamped for Montreal, carrying plunder and some 200 prisoners who could not be recovered.
French soldiers demolished the fort. The bodies that filled the casemates were added to the heap of logs, and fire was set to it. The funeral pyre burned all night.
On August 16, the army re-embarked, and nothing remained but wolves gathering from the mountains to feast on the dead.