The French and Indian War
(the Seven Years War)
Main Events
1752-53 - The French move in
1754 - Fort Duquesne and Fort Necessity
1754 - Albany Plan of Union
1755 - Braddock attacks Duquesne
1755 - Acadians deported from Nova Scotia
1756 - Fort Oswego
1757 - Fort William Henry
1758 - William Pitt takes charge
1758 - Louisbourg
1758 - The British take the Ohio Valley
1759 - Niagara
1759 - Carillon
1759 - Quebec
1763 - Treaty of Paris
North America before the War
1752 - The French Move In
French are alarmed by English settlers on their fur trading lands
Establish a three forts in the Ohio River Valley - Presqu’Ile; LeBoeuf; Venango
Local Indians change allegiance to the French.
The French move in
English traders were killed or taken prisoner
pro-English Indians were killed; one chief, nicknamed "Old Britain" was boiled and eaten by the pro-French Indians.
Indians started shopping for the best deal between English and French. Would often sell scalps to both sides.
1753 - The English respond
Ohio Company is upset they can’t sell land anymore.
VA Governor Dinwiddie (who owns stock in the company) sends a 21 year-old surveyor and adjutant to warn off the French.
The surveyor’s name was . . . ?
The English Respond
GW was guided by Christopher Gist, an experienced frontiersman.
They traveled in the dead of winter, their clothes often frozen to their bodies.
The French laughed at Dinwiddie’s letter, got drunk at dinner and boasted they would take all of Ohio.
GW saw 12 foot walls on the forts, 8 canon each, 100 men, many Indians. The French tried to bribe GW’s Indian guides with guns.
On the way back, pro-French Indians ambushed GW and Gist, shot from 15 feet away and missed. GW and Gist killed them. Another Indian fired at them a few days later, point blank, and also missed.
Gist and GW had to cross the Allegheny River on a raft, and GW fell out, barely saving himself. They were marooned on an island until the river froze enough for them to walk across.
1754 - Fort Duquesne
Ohio Company sends men to build a fort on the Ohio River.
The French run the Brits off, finish the fort themselves, and name it Fort Duquesne (after the Governor of New France).
The Jumonville Incident
Slightly miffed, the English send GW and 165 men to reinforce a militia unit building a new fort.
GW gets there and finds the militia unit has already surrendered to the French.
While withdrawing, GW surprises a small group of French and kills ten of them. One is Jumonville, a French nobleman. GW’s Indian helpers scalp the French dead.
The French claim this was a diplomatic mission and get very upset.
Fort Necessity
GW builds his own small fort. Makes a stupid choice of building it on an open plain, surrounded by woods.
A French force twice as big attacks, forces English to surrender.
GW and his men have to walk back to VA without their weapons.
1754- Albany Plan of Union
Colonies meet to discuss a common defense against the French.
Ben Franklin pushes a plan to make a Continental army.
The colonies can’t agree on anything.
The Iroquois League decides to stay neutral because the English appear weak.
1755 - Braddock attacks Duquesne
General Edward Braddock: first British "regulars" to get involved in the war.
EB had 1000 redcoats, 800 militia under GW, and 200 Indians (and their squaws, for a while).
He insisted on making a perfectly straight road all the way to the fort; took a month and a half to get there.
EB thought the colonials were backwoods idiots, only a little better than Indians.
Types of British soldiers
Provincial soldiers
Provincials and militia were local colonists who were only called into the army when needed. The rest of the time, they were farmers, merchants, etc.
The "regulars" considered provincials the bottom of the barrel.
Braddock attacks Duquesne
Marched into battle in dress uniform with music and flags.
Ambushed on a forest trail by 900 French and Indians, who hid in the hills, while EB insisted on firing in a straight line in the open.
British fled in terror; would not stop to pick up wounded EB, even when GW offered a 50 guinea reward.
Braddock’s tomb
His dying words to Washington: "We shall better know how to deal with them another time."
An Indian scout’s assessment of Braddock: "He was a bad man. He looked upon us as dogs."
1755- Acadians expelled
from
Nova Scotia
The French fort of Louisbourg guards the St. Laurent River.
To secure the rest of Nova Scotia, British expel 10,000 peaceful French-speaking colonists, the Acadians.
They move to Louisiana and become "cajuns."
1755 - Let the atrocities begin!
12 of Braddock’s captured redcoats were burned alive at the stake.
Settlers were massacred, their scalps sold for bounties.
Militia men refused to serve with the army; they stayed home to protect their families.
The Indians
1756 - Fort Oswego
French General Montcalm destroys Fort Oswego, closing the British from Lake Ontario.
The English-French fighting spreads all over the world, with European powers taking sides.
1757 - Fort William Henry
Montcalm besieges the fort; forces the Brits into surrender.
After agreeing to generous terms, the British march out.
On their way home, they are attacked and massacred by Montcalm’s Indian allies.
1757 - Fort William Henry
The Art of Scalping
"The savage seizes his knife, and makes an incision around the hair from the forehead to the back of the neck. Then he puts his foot on the shoulder of the victim, who is face down, and pulls the hair off with both hands, back to front. When he takes the scalp, he stops and scrapes the skin. He makes a hoop of green wood, stretches the skin over it like a tamborine, and puts it in the sun to dry. The skin is painted red; the hair is combed."
-- A French soldier, 1757
The Art of Scalping
You could survive scalping. Example: While Ezekiel Stevens lay in shock at the William Henry Massacre, an Indian took him for dead and scalped him. Stevens got up later and walked to some French officers, who cared for him. He wore a hat the rest of his life, but he lived to be an old man.
1757 - William Pitt takes charge
Pitt becomes Prime Minister in 1757, pours money and troops into North America.
Doubles the number of regulars in the colonies.
Uses Prussian mercenaries in Europe, freeing redcoats to serve in America.
1758 - Louisbourg
Louisbourg guarded the St. Laurent, the sea entrance into Canada.
Gen. Geoffrey Amherst surrounded the fort with the navy and forced its surrender.
This opened the way for the English fleet to sail to Quebec.
1758 - Louisbourg
1758 - The British take the Ohio
General Forbes builds a series of forts to secure an advance on Fort Duquesne.
Forbes brings three times as many men as Braddock; they are trained in Indian-style fighting.
The French burn Fort Duquesne and run, leaving scalping knives and P.O.W. bodies.
The Fort is renamed Fort Pitt, after the Prime Minister. It becomes the center of Pittsburg.
Life in a British Fort
Soldiers were as young as seventeen; drummers could be twelve.
You had to make your own meals out of 7 pounds of flour a week, peas and dried beef.
Utensils were usually dirty, and men often got sick of the "bloody flux" from germs in the food.
One third of the fort soldiers could die of small pox in any given campaign.
Breaches of discipline were punished by up to 1000 lashes with a cat-o-nine-tails. Drunkenness alone was worth 200 lashes.
If captured, the French would shoot you in the knees to keep you from escaping. If they had to retreat, they would kill you or let the Indians do it rather than drag you along.
1758 - Fort Frontenac
French retreat into Canada, burning all their forts along the way.
The British finally take Fort Frontenac, which opens the way into Canada from the Great Lakes.
New France is now surrounded.
1759 - Fort Niagara
British take the last main French fort on the Great Lakes.
British ships now control the Great Lakes area.
French fur trade down the Mississippi to New Orleans is stopped.
Indians start switching sides from French to English.
Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga)
English failed to take it in ‘58. English had 14,000 men, Montcalm only 3000, but the English lost 2000 men in a frontal assault over an open field. The rest of the force was cut to ribbons.
Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga)
In 1759, the second attack succeeds.
The French are undermanned -- flee and burn the fort.
The English rebuild and name it Ticonderoga.
Fort Ticonderoga
According to legend, a highlander foresaw his death at Ticonderoga.
He offended the ghost of a murdered clansman by harboring his killer.
The ghost said, "We shall meet again at Ticonderoga.
1759 - The Battle of Quebec
Wolfe was 31 years old, and commanded 4000 redcoats. Wolfe was very sick, and told his doctor not to bother curing him, just make him well enough for the next few days.
Quebec was considered the best fortress in North America.
Montcalm, the best French general, was in charge of Quebec’s defense, with 7000 troops.
1759 - Battle of Quebec
1759 - Battle of Quebec
1763 - The Treaty of Paris
England got Canada, all land to the Mississippi, and Florida (since Spain had helped France).
France, knowing they would lose, sold New Orleans and everything west of the Mississippi to Spain.
The Indians no longer got to shop around -- they had to deal with the English. They no longer got gifts, since the English didn’t need their help.
English settlers flooded into the Ohio Valley.
After Indian massacres, the British tried to stop further settlers going west, but it didn’t work.
1763 - Treaty of Paris