Léry's spectacular success set back British plans. Shirley's campaign against Niagara hinged on moving troops and supplies to Oswego as early as possible in the spring before Vaudreuil could send reinforcements up the St. Lawrence. Speed was essential. Any hope of an early campaign went up with the rising smoke at Fort Bull. It would take weeks to replace the lost provisions and munitions. As they huddled behind their walls, fearful of being ambushed by prowling French and Indians, the garrison at Oswego was fast running short on food and hope.
Seemingly ignorant of the geographic and logistical challenges facing him, Shirley proceeded with his plans for the spring. From the comfortable surroundings of Boston's Province House, he sent a torrent of dispatches dunning his own assembly and others, asking them to supply men for the upcoming campaign (3,500 Massachusetts, 2,500 Connecticut, 1,700 New York, 500 New Hampshire, 500 Rhode Island). Expense was no object. At times his pace was almost frenetic—all the while he nervously awaited word from London approving his conduct.
Unlike Shirley, Governor Vaudreuil had a good season. Aside from reverses in Nova Scotia, his forces had been triumphant. Although he had fewer soldiers than his foe (Shirley's manpower requisition from Massachusetts alone exceeded the full strength of the Troupes de la Marine), Vaudreuil's men had proven themselves estimable. Furthermore, his victories enticed the Indians into a closer relationship, bringing added manpower to the French.
In the country of la belle riviere (Ohio River), reported Vaudreuil, "the Delawares and Chouanons, Indians of the Beautiful river, some of whose chiefs have been put to a cruel death by the English, . . . are enraged to an extraordinary degree, and would not take any prisoners were it not for the continual recommendations of the [French] Commandants to commit as few murders as possible." Even the Iroquois, according to the governor, who had previously professed neutrality, had come to the side of the French. With obvious satisfaction he reported that "sixty Indians of the Iroquois Nation have committed frightful ravages." In the west the news was equally encouraging. More than one thousand "Miamis and Outaganons from Detroit and Michilimackinac" as well as Sauteur had spent the winter chanting the war song for Onontio. Vaudreuil looked forward to the spring.13
Despite his success, however, Vaudreuil's ambition to become commander of France's North American army as well as governor proved anathema to Paris. Only a senior officer of the Troupes de la Terre (regular army) could command the regiments in Canada. For months, though, none had volunteered for service. The French army was notorious for having a plethora of officers, but it was difficult to find a senior officer who was willing to forego the promise of glory in Europe for the wilderness of Canada. Finally, the king selected Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, marquis de Montcalm, a little-known Languedoc nobleman.14
Born in 1712, Montcalm was a minor noble in a nation overrun with petty nobility. He took his commission as ensign in 1721 at age nine but did not begin active duty until 1782. During the War of the Austrian Succession (1744—48) he served in Bohemia and later commanded a regiment in Italy. Always at the front, he was wounded three times during the war. After the peace of Aix la Chapelle he retired to his estates in Languedoc until summoned by the king. On March 1, 1756, the king promoted Montcalm to marechal de camp (major general) and presented him with orders to Canada. Despite Montcalm's misgivings, the king instructed the general to place himself under the authority of Governor Vaudreuil in all matters except the discipline and disposition of troops in the colony. This was a modest attempt to placate Vaudreuil and the Canadian officers, who were likely to be miffed at Montcalm's appointment.
Accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, Montcalm set out for Brest, where battalions were preparing to board transports for Quebec. Also waiting at the port were his senior staff officers: Brigadier François-Gaston, Chevalier de Lévis, the second in command; and Colonel François-Charles de Bourlamaque, the third in command. Sevenyears Montcalm's junior, Lévis "entered the army in his teens, merely another poor Gascon cadet."15 But despite his humble origins, Lévis proved himself a superb soldier. During the War of the Austrian Succession he, like Montcalm, saw considerable service in Bohemia and Italy. His orders to Canada included the proviso that should anything happen to Montcalm, he was to succeed in command. Bourlamaque was the son of an Italian officer in the service of France who was killed at the Battle of Parma in 1783.16 He entered the king's service in 1789 and fought at the Battles of Fontenoy and Rocourt. Although commissioned in the infantry, Bourlamaque often served as an engineer. Those skills were much needed in Canada, and his sudden promotion from captain to colonel may have been a sweetener to entice him across the Atlantic.
Whereas Montcalm, Lévis, and Bourlamaque were all combat veterans, Bougainville had rarely strayed from his desk. A noted mathematician, he had served as secretary to the French ambassador in London. He enjoyed the distinction of being one of Europe's few eighteenth-century gentlemen elected to both the Royal Society and the Academie des Sciences.
Montcalm enjoyed this young philosophe's wit, erudition, and disdain for provincial Canadians.17 Montcalm and Bougainville arrived at Quebec on May 12, two days ahead of the main convoy. After being delayed two weeks by spring rains that had washed away the road, the general finally made his way by coach to Montreal, where Vaudreuil offered a restrained welcome. There was little reason for them to like each other, and ample evidence that they did not. Montcalm described the governor as a "good man but . . . somewhat weak." He also derided the men around Vaudreuil, complaining to Lévis that "Mercier is a weakling and an ignoramus, Saint-Luc a garrulous braggart, Montigny admirable, but a looter, Villiers and Léry good, Langy excellent, Marin brave but stupid; the rest are not worth mentioning."18
Vaudreuil sneered at Montcalm and his staff as foppish parade-ground soldiers who knew nothing about campaigning in Canada. The governor knew full well that Montcalm and his men were in the colony only because the king had commanded them. Vaudreuil was there because it was his home. Even the fact that he outranked the general gave little comfort to this proud Canadian.
Vaudreuil had not waited for the general's arrival to begin the spring campaign. He informed Montcalm that having successfully severed Oswego's supply line during the winter, he had sent six hundred men under the command of Villiers to further harass and isolate the fort in preparation for a major assault.
Vaudreuil was full of confidence. Ships were arriving daily at Quebec, landing men, munitions, and military supplies. Flotillas of canoes and bateaux were pushing off from Montreal, ferrying soldiers to reinforce the garrisons at Niagara, Frontenac, Crown Point, and Ticonderoga. Impressed by French victories, Indian allies, both the domiciled tribes and those from the west, were eager to attack the English. (To reinforce local alliances, Montcalm traveled to nearby Mohawk and Abenaki settlements, where he sat with the chiefs, smoked the pipe, and exchanged gifts and belts of wampum.)19 Although he felt slighted by his Parisian superiors, Vaudreuil had kept his post and reputation.
William Shirley would not fare so well. His incessant disputes with William Johnson and a host of other New Yorkers resulted in a flood of letters to London filled with accusations against him. Even his longtime patron, Newcastle, grew weary of the complaints, while Cumberland ranted that the governor ought to be dragged home in chains. Hopelessly muddled financial accounts, stalled expeditions, and a growing list of personal and political enemies made Shirley's recall inevitable.20 In January 1756 Newcastle and his inner cabinet decided to throw Shirley over the side.21
Consensus had it that the post would have to go to an experienced officer who had the ability to command an army and the knack for dealing with squabbling assemblies. The cabinet agreed that the commander be given "every power civil and military."22 To persuade the fractious colonial assemblies to lend support to the new chief, the cabinet agreed to reimburse the colonies £130,000 for the expenses of 1755. Despite their outward show of support for the Americans, the cabinet members, particular
ly Cumberland, had little faith in the colonists' ability to fight, and so in addition to cash and a new commander the ministers decided to send two additional regiments from England and raise a new regiment of four battalions—to be called the Royal Americans—in the colonies. Newcastle groaned at the expense.23
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, the marquis de Montcalm
Cumberland recommended John Campbell, the fourth earl of Loudoun, to command in America. A high-ranking Scottish peer, and a consistent friend to the ministry and the monarchy, Loudoun was a logical choice. He was a career soldier who had distinguished himself by raising a Highland regiment on behalf of the king to help repress the Scottish rebellion of 1745 led by Charles Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie." His loyalty carried over into politics, where as a sitting Scottish peer he was always reliably in support of the king's interests. In order to ensure an appropriate income and status, Loudoun took the titles of both governor of Virginia and commander in chief, drawing a salary for both. He was also a commissioned colonel of the Royal Americans.24 Joining him as second in command was Major General James Abercromby, and as third in the chain of command Major General Daniel Webb.25 Neither Loudoun nor his two senior staff had the campaigning or combat experience of their French counterparts. Abercromby had spent most of his service years as either a peacetime garrison commander or a quartermaster officer. Webb had seen considerable action in the War of the Austrian Succession, but his field reputation was grounded in his well-known skills as an organizer and manager of paperwork. It is likely that Cumberland hoped Webb's talents would be put to use to straighten out Shirley's muddled accounts.26
Thus far the war had begun and been carried forward without any official declarations. By spring 1756, however, as military preparations accelerated in France, England, and America, the thin veil of peace fell apart. Since Boscawen's precipitous attack off Newfoundland, the Royal Navy had been waging war on French commerce: Hundreds of French ships had been seized and nearly eight thousand seamen taken. In North America blood-English, French, and Indian—had been shed at numerous locations. Across Europe diplomats were scrambling behind doors to secure allies. The torrent finally reached a crescendo, and England formally declared war against France on May 18, 1756. France returned the favor on June 9.
While Loudoun remained in London attending to final details, his generals left for America. Webb arrived at New York on June 7. Abercromby joined him nine days later. Together they traveled to Albany, where Shirley anxiously awaited them. For at least two months Shirley had known that bad news was coming. On the twenty-fifth Abercromby presented his orders to Shirley commanding him to step aside. Five days later Shirley left Albany for New York City, where he tarried waiting for Loudoun. Shirley and Loudoun met on July 2$. It was a cold encounter. Loudoun peppered Shirley with questions about the French, his accounts, Indian affairs, and the status of relations with the various colonies and their militias. In a letter to London dripping with sarcasm, Loudoun described the meeting. He reported that Shirley gave him some papers "of very little use" and then delivered a lecture about strategy in the coming campaign. His career in ruins, the governor returned to Boston. Out of power and out of favor, Shirley sailed for London in early October to spend the next several years defending his actions in the House of Commons, in the press, and against flocks of political harpies tearing at his reputation.27
Shirley's unhappy departure did nothing to improve the precarious situation for the English in North America. In the Carolina borderlands the French continued to intrigue with the Choctaw, Cherokee, and Creek. Across the piedmont regions of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and down through the Shenandoah Valley, French and Indian raiders wrecked havoc, burning and pillaging scattered colonial farms and settlements. Vaudreuil estimated that his Indian allies had "disposed of more than 700 people in the Provinces of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Carolinas."28 The frontier paths and roads leading from the west were crowded with carts, wagons, and packhorses driven and led by frightened families fleeing their homes to escape fire and tomahawks.
Loudoun paid little heed to pleas for help from the ravaged frontier. He had more serious problems at hand. To his north the French were massing for an invasion. Most of the Lake George—Lake Champlain corridor remained under French control. Like poised daggers, those bodies of water pointed straight at the heart of New York. Having reinforced Crown Point, Vaudreuil sent Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, the son-in-law of his chief engineer, farther south and ordered him to erect a fort near the mouth of La Chute River at the portage between Lake George and Lake Champlain. Named Carillon after the tinkling sound of the nearby rapids, but better known as Ticonderoga, the fort commanded a strategic location. By June 1756, Lotbinière's stone walls were looming over Lake Champlain.29
While the walls of Ticonderoga were being built, Loudoun waded through paperwork in Albany. Chosen in part because of his affability, a trait potentially useful in dealing with the less affable provincial assemblies, Loudoun spent his days trying to sort out Shirley's botched accounts and cajoling colonial authorities to send men and supplies, to counter the French buildup to the north. More plodding than aggressive, he was a devil for detail. He drafted every letter personally. John Appy, his hard-pressed secretary, complained bitterly about putting in fifteen-hour days. Loudoun dismissed him as a whiner and suggested that he ought to spend less time partying and more time sleeping. In the meantime the commander was the first man up every morning.30 Loudoun's passion for organization and paperwork was admirable in a logistician, but it was a handicap for a field commander. He seemed more interested in closing in on a report than engaging the enemy. One American noted that the general "was like St. George upon the signposts, always on horseback but never advancing."31
John Campbell, the earl of Loudoun
As Loudoun struggled to bring order to his command, affairs were dismal at Oswego. Following the March "massacre" at Fort Bull, French and Indian war parties had remained near Wood Creek, making communication and re-supply problematic. Determined to hold Oswego, Shirley had ordered his old friend Colonel John Bradstreet to reopen and secure the line to Oswego. Bradstreet cleared a path to Oswego and managed to push a few bateaux through,32 but security was tenuous. Villiers's men pricked constantly at the line and launched a major ambush on July 3 in which both sides took heavy casualties. The supply stream turned to a trickle. The Oswego garrison, harassed, isolated, and down to half rations, was in a deplorable state. By midsummer Oswego was poised to fall to the French.
Oswego's commander, Colonel John Mercer, pleaded to Albany for help. By this time Shirley was gone and Loudoun had not yet arrived. Abercromby, "a very good second man," refused to make any decision on his own.33 Instead of acting to relieve the fort, the general remained at Albany, where he pondered, procrastinated, and waited for his superior to arrive.
While Abercromby fretted, Montcalm took bold action. Villiers's harassments against Oswego were only a preliminary to a major attack. To confuse the British about his true intentions, the marquis moved his headquarters to Ticonderoga, suggesting a French move on Lake George. Montcalm's plan was to draw the enemy north while he slipped away and hit them in the west. He made a great show of his arrival at Ticonderoga, and the English took the bait. Indian and ranger reports confirmed that Montcalm was at the fort with a sizable force preparing to lunge toward Lake George. With that information the British commanders had no choice but to concentrate their forces near Albany. Reinforcements could not be spared for Oswego.
As Abercromby dallied in camp awaiting the arrival of his new chief, the French tightened the noose on Oswego. Leaving Lévis in command, Montcalm slipped away from Ticonderoga and was back in Montreal by July 19. Troops and supplies were already on their way up the St. Lawrence. He immediately dispatched Vaudreuil's brother, François-Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, with a large advance party to reinforce Villiers. Two days later he and Bougainville were on their way to Fort Frontenac. Four days into the journey they paused a
t La Presentation to meet "forty ambassadors of the Oneidas and Onandagas." An evening of smoking, eating, and inflated rhetoric left the French and Indians in an amiable mood. When the French left in the morning, their Iroquois hosts "sang the war song" and "lined up under arms in the French manner." Two days later they arrived at Frontenac. In the middle of a wilderness the French had assembled an army of twelve hundred regulars, eighteen hundred men of la Marine, and a host of Indians. Hundreds of bateaux and canoes were drawn up on the shore.34
Between the edge of the lake and the limestone walls of the fort neat rows of white tents billowed in the breeze. Stacks of muskets dotted the spaces surrounding the tents. Hundreds of soldiers were busily cleaning arms and organizing supplies. Cannon and powder were carefully placed at some distance from the main camp. Around the edges of the bustling camp and at headquarters, smartly uniformed sentries stood guard. Beyond the French encampment warriors from the domiciled settlements and their Iroquois cousins, as well as men from the west, including Nippissing and Menominee, made their camp. The casual arrangement of the Indian camp contrasted sharply with the geometric orderliness of the Europeans.
Thirty miles to the east at the Bay of Niaoure (Sackett's Harbor), Rigaud waited. Combined, the forces of Montcalm, Rigaud, and Villiers represented the largest European army ever to venture into the North American wilderness. On August 4 Montcalm left Frontenac with half his force, including the regiments of La Sarre and Guyenne trailing four pieces of artillery. Two days later he met Rigaud at the bay, where he waited for the remainder of the force, including additional cannon, to join him. There he met with a delegation of domiciled Indians. Their leader told the marquis that they would not fight in the European style. "[Their] custom was never to fight against entrenchments or stockades, but in the forest where they understood war, and where they could find trees for cover." Montcalm listened carefully and then promised that he would "never expose [them] to the fire of artillry and musketry from the forts." He would, he assured them, only call upon them "to watch for reinforcements that might come to the enemy, and to keep a good lookout, while the French fought against the forts."35
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