Battle of Fort William Henry

After the Battle of Lake George in 1756, both the French and British gathered their strength and conducted small raids on each other in the Lake Champlain region. The French commander at Fort Carillon, Marquis de Montcalm, gathered around 7,000 French regulars, Canadian milita, and Indians to move against Fort William Henry. Lieutenant Colonel George Munro was in charge of the fort with only 2,200 soldiers at his command. In the August of 1757 Montclam began a protracted artillery attack on the fort. The days passed by and Montcalm's soon to be victory was threatened by a shortage of ammunition. However the French intercepted a message expressing the British's inability to bring reinforcements, urging Munro to surrender. The note was passed into the fort and the British surrendered to the French. On August 9th the French allowed their foes to leave with their side arms and a token cannon. This friendly cooperation between the French and the British was destroyed by the Indians. They were unhappy due to not receiving the spoils Montcalm had promised and savagely attacked the British soldiers and civilians. It is debated that anywhere between 200 to 1,500 Britains were killed in the conflict, and noted that Montcalm attempted to help the British against the Indians. After the "massacre" was quelled, the British survivors traveled to Fort Edward and the French burned William Fort Henry.

#Event