Battle on Snowshoes (1757)

First Battle on Snowshoes
	Part of the French and Indian War
	; A traditional snowshoe
Date	January 21, 1757
Location	near Fort Carillon (now Ticonderoga) 43°50′29″N73°23′15″W / 43.84139°N 73.38750°W
Result	Stalemate
Belligerents
France Colony of Canada ;	Great Britain British America ;
Commanders and leaders
Capitaine de Basserode; Charles Michel de Langlade	Robert Rogers
Strength
179 regulars, Canadiens and Indians	74
Casualties and losses
11 killed; 27 wounded	14 killed; 9 wounded; 6 missing or captured

Last updated February 07, 2024

Detail from a 1777 map by John Montresor. In 1757, the road along the left side of Lake George did not exist. Forts Edward and William Henry are near the bottom of this map. This battle took place somewhere between Ticonderoga and Crown Point. MontresorNewYorkState1777Detail.jpg — Detail from a 1777 map by John Montresor. In 1757, the road along the left side of Lake George did not exist. Forts Edward and William Henry are near the bottom of this map. This battle took place somewhere between Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

The 1757 Battle on Snowshoes (French : Bataille en raquettes) was a skirmish fought between Rogers' Rangers and Canadien and Indian troops during the French and Indian War on January 21, 1757. The battle was given this name because the British combatants wore snowshoes.

On January 21, 1757, Captain Robert Rogers and a band of his rangers were on a scouting expedition near Fort Carillon on Lake Champlain when they were ambushed by a mixed troop of French regulars, Canadien militiamen, and Indians. The fighting ended when darkness set in, with significant casualties on both sides. The French in their reports claimed the British had a distinct advantage due to their snowshoes.

Background

The French and Indian War broke out in 1754 between British and French colonists over territorial disputes along their colonial frontiers, and escalated the following year to include regular troops.^[4] By 1756, the French had enjoyed successes in most of their frontier battles against the British. Their only notable failure occurred when the British stopped their southward advance from Lake Champlain in the 1755 Battle of Lake George. From bases at Fort St. Frédéric (located at what is now Crown Point, New York) and Fort Carillon (known to the British as Fort Ticonderoga), the French and their Indian allies continued to scout and probe the British defenses on Lake George and the upper Hudson River.^[5] The British, who had fewer Indian allies, resorted to companies of rangers for their scouting and reconnaissance activities.^[6] The ranger companies were organized and directed by Robert Rogers, and eventually became known as Rogers' Rangers.^[7]

Prelude

In the winter of 1757, Rogers and several companies of his rangers were stationed at Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George and at Fort Edward on the upper Hudson. These forts were principally garrisoned by elements of the 44th and 48th Regiments, and formed the frontier between the British province of New York and the French province of Canada.^[2]

Captain Rogers led a scouting expedition from Fort Edward on January 15, stopping at Fort William Henry to acquire provisions, snowshoes, and additional soldiers.^[8] The company left Fort William Henry on January 17 with 86 men, heading down the frozen Lake George. The next day twelve men turned back because of injuries. The remaining men continued north, reaching Lake Champlain at a point between Fort Carillon and Fort St. Frédéric on January 21. They spotted a sled moving on the lake toward Fort St. Frédéric, so Rogers sent Lieutenant John Stark and some men to intercept it.^[2]^[9] However, more sleds were spotted, and Stark's men were seen before they could retreat back into the woods. The sleds turned back toward Carillon. The British gave chase, but most of the French escaped. Rogers succeeded in taking seven prisoners.^[2]

Rogers learned from questioning the prisoners that a French and Indian war party had just arrived at Carillon, and that the two forts were garrisoned by a thousand regulars.^[2] Concerned that the escaped sleds would raise the alarm, Rogers immediately ordered a return to their last camp. His council disapproved of the return by the same route (a violation of Rogers' own ranging guidelines), but he overruled them, citing the need for speed and the deep snow. By early afternoon they had returned to their camp, rested, and were on their way south.^[10]

M. de Rouilly, the leader of the supply convoy Rogers had intercepted, returned to Carillon and alerted Paul-Louis de Lusignan, the fort's commander. According to Lusignan's report, he immediately sent out a party of about 90 regulars from the Languedoc regiment under the command of Capitaine de Basserode, accompanied by about 90 Canadian militia and Indians. The Indians were primarily Ottawa under the command of Charles Michel de Langlade, one of the French-Indian leaders at Braddock's defeat in 1755.^[1]

Battle

Rogers' men then walked into an ambush, according to his estimate, by "250 French and Indians."^[11] The British were fortunate that many of the French muskets misfired due to wet gunpowder, as the surprise was nearly complete. Lieutenant Stark, who was bringing up the rear of the ranger column, established a defensive line on a rise with some of his men, from which they gave covering fire as those in the front retreated to that position. As they retreated Rogers ordered his captives slain so that his men might move more freely.^[10]

The fight lasted several hours and ended only after sunset, when neither side could see the other. Rogers was injured twice during the battle, once to the head and once to the hand.^[12] The French reported that they were at a disadvantage, since they were without snowshoes and "floundering in snow up to their knees".^[13] Once darkness set in, Rogers and his survivors retreated 6 miles (9.7 km) to Lake George, where he sent Stark with two men to Fort William Henry for assistance.^[12] On January 23, Rogers returned to Fort William Henry with 48 able-bodied and six wounded soldiers.^[14]

Aftermath

Bougainville questioned some of the men captured during the battle. He learned from them the disposition of men and materials all the way from Albany to Fort William Henry.^[15] Other captured British ended up as slaves to the Indians. Thomas Brown, who published a pamphlet that vividly described his captivity, spent almost two years in slavery, traveling as far as the Mississippi River before reaching Albany in November 1758.^[16]

A similar battle was fought the following year, in which Rogers was very nearly killed and his company was decimated.^[17]

Related Research Articles

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Events from the year 1757 in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Rogers (British Army officer)</span> 18th Century British Army Lt Colonel

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British Army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. During the French and Indian War, Rogers raised and commanded the famous Rogers' Rangers, trained for raiding and close combat behind enemy lines.

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The siege of Fort William Henry was conducted by a French and Indian force led by Louis-Joseph de Montcalm against the British-held Fort William Henry. This fort, located at the southern end of Lake George, on the frontier between the British Province of New York and the French Province of Canada, was garrisoned by a poorly supported force of British regulars and provincial militia led by Lieutenant Colonel George Monro.

The New Hampshire Provincial Regiment was a provincial military regiment made up of men from the New Hampshire Militia during the French and Indian War for service with the British Army in North America. It was first formed in 1754 with the start of hostilities with France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle on Snowshoes</span> Battle of the French and Indian War

The 1758 Battle on Snowshoes occurred on March 13, 1758, during the French and Indian War. It was fought by members of British Ranger companies led by Robert Rogers against French troops and Indians allied to France. The battle took place near Lake George, now in northern New York, but then in the frontier area between the British province of New York and the French province of Canada. The battle was given its name because the British combatants were wearing snowshoes.

The Battle of Sabbath Day Point took place on 23 July 1757 just off the shore of Sabbath Day Point, Lake George, New York and ended in a French victory. The battle, pitched approximately 450 French and allied Indian forces under the leadership of Ensign de Corbiere of the Troupes de la Marine against 350 New Jersey Blues under the command of Colonel John Parker. Ensign de Corbiere, aware of Colonel Parker's plan, ambushed and surrounded Parker's forces as they approached the shore in bateaux. In the ensuing rout Colonel Parker lost approximately 250 men with nearly 160 men killed or drowned and the rest taken prisoner. The French reported only one man slightly wounded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Francis Raid</span>

The St. Francis Raid was an attack in the French and Indian War by Robert Rogers on St. Francis, near the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River in what was then the French province of Canada, on October 4, 1759. Rogers and about 140 men entered the village, which was reportedly occupied primarily by women, children, and the elderly, early that morning, slaughtered many of the inhabitants where they lay, shot down many who attempted to flee, and then burned the village. Rogers reported killing as many as 200 people, while French reports placed the number closer to thirty, mainly women and children. One of Rogers' men was killed, and seven were wounded.

The 80th Regiment of Light-Armed Foot was the first light infantry regiment in the British Army.

The Burke's Rangers was a company of provincial volunteers organized and led by Major John Burke in Massachusetts just before the French and Indian War. Burke was widely noted for his skill and daring in Indian warfare, and frequently served in campaigns against the Indians. Burke was initially commissioned as an ensign by Governor William Shirley and subsequently commissioned a lieutenant, then a captain. Toward the close of the French and Indian war, in 1760, he was commissioned a major by Governor Thomas Pownall.

Provincial troops were military units raised by colonial governors and legislatures in British North America for extended operations during the French and Indian Wars. The provincial troops differed from the militia, in that they were a full-time military organization conducting extended operations. They differed from the regular British Army in that they were recruited only for one campaign season at the time. These forces were often recruited through a quota system applied to the militia. Officers were appointed by the provincial governments. During the eighteenth century militia service was increasingly seen as a prerogative of the social and economic well-established, while provincial troops came to be recruited from different and less deep-rooted members of the community.

The Sainte-Thérèse Raid was a military raid on the town of Sainte-Thérèse in French Canada conducted by British elite forces known as Rogers' Rangers that took place during the French and Indian War from 3 to 18 June 1760. Led by Robert Rogers the raid was a pre-emptive strike ordered by Major General Jeffery Amherst as a prelude to his three pronged attack on Montreal the following month.

References

1 2 Steele (1990), p. 74
1 2 3 4 5 Brumwell (2004), p. 83
1 2 Casualty figures are as reported by each side in Brumwell (2004), p. 85. Each side estimated the casualties on the other side to be somewhat higher.
↑ Brumwell (2004), p. 55
↑ Brumwell (2004), pp. 59–82
↑ Brumwell (2004), pp. 70–71
↑ Brumwell (2004), pp. 103–105
↑ Rogers (1883), p. 66
↑ Rogers (1883), p. 67
1 2 Brumwell (2004), p. 84
↑ Rogers (1883), p. 71
1 2 Brumwell (2004), p. 85
↑ Bougainville (1964), p. 81
↑ Rogers (1883), p. 70
↑ Bougainville (1964), p. 84
↑ Brumwell (2004), pp. 86–90
↑ Brumwell (2004), pp. 115–118

Bibliography

Bougainville, Louis Antoine de (1964). Hamilton, Edward P. (ed.). Adventures in the Wilderness. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. OCLC 506918.
Brumwell, Stephen (2004). White Devil . Cambridge, MA: Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-81389-0. OCLC 57655778.
Rogers, Robert; Hough, Franklin Benjamin (1883). Journals of Major Robert Rogers. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell's Sons. OCLC 1999679.
Steele, Ian Kenneth (1990). Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the massacre. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-505893-2. OCLC 20098712.