Recent Event Highlights: British Take Quebec, British Take Fort Duquesne, British Successfully Defend Fort Ligonier, French Surrender Fort Frontenac, British Take the Fortress of Louisbourg, British Defeat at Fort Ticonderoga, and 20 more...
Created by lanced on Jul 9, 2009
Last updated: 11/13/09 at 02:58 PM
The French, British, and Spanish sign a peace treaty, the Treaty of Paris. Much of North America changes hands.
The picture shows the desk on which the Treaty of Paris was signed.
To read the full text of the Treaty of Paris, click the link below.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/paris763.asp
The British flag is raised over Detroit, effectively ending the war.
The British capture Montreal. Fighting ends between the French and the British in North America. The British and French are still fighting in other parts of the world.
The British win the decisive Battle of Quebec. Montcalm and Wolfe, the commanding generals of both armies, perish in battle.
To read a first-person account of the campaign on Quebec, click the link below.
http://www.militaryheritage.com/quebec1.htm
The British take Fort Niagara; the French abandon Crown Point. After these two victories, the British control the entire western frontier.
To learn more about Fort Niagara, click the link below.
http://oldfortniagara.org/history/
Encouraged by reports that the French garrison at Fort Duquesne is shrinking and that their allies, the Delaware Indians, are prepared to abandon the French and make peace, Brigadier General John Forbes decides to mount an early assault. As the British forces march towards Fort Duquesne, the French set fire to the fort, blow up its walls, and retreat to the Allegheny River. The British seize control of the Forks and the area is named Pittsburgh.
Representatives of the British Crown and members of the Pennsylvania convene in Easton, Pennsylvania "to arrange an extensive and durable peace with the Indians." They meet with representatives of the Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, Tuscarora, Mohican and Delaware nations. Most of these were part of the great Iroquois confederation and had tried to remain neutral in the ongoing war between the French and the English. The tribes promise not to fight for the French. In return the British promise not to settle the lands west of the Allegheny Mountains after the war.
To see photographs of the actual treaty, click the link below.
http://chewpapers.blogspot.com/2008/02/treaty-at-easton.html
With supplies and native allies dwindling, Fort Duquesne commander Francois-Marie le Marchand, Sieur de Ligneris, launches a desperate raid to destroy Fort Ligonier. In the ensuing three-hour battle, Pennsylvania Colonel James Burd loses dozens of men but successfully defends the fort.
The French surrender Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, effectively destroying their ability to communicate with their troops in the Ohio Valley.
The British seize the Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, opening the route to Canada.
On July 8, 1758 the Fort Ticonderoga in New York is successfully defended by a French army of 3500 soldiers under the command of Louis-Joseph le Marquis de Montcalm despite being severely outnumbered by an attacking British army of 16,000 troops under the command of General James Abercromby. This is France's greatest victory in the Seven Years' War.
The commander-in-chief of the French forces, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm takes Fort William Henry on Lake George in New York. However, he does not talk with his American Indian allies about the British surrender. The surrender agreement angers the American Indians and the next day they capture or kill hundreds of British. This infamous massacre is later dramatized in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.
To read the complete text of The Last of the Mohicans, click the link below.
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/CooMohi.html
A letter arrives from British Secretary of State William Pitt, changing the policies of Lord Loudoun. Now the colonies are very supportive of the war.
For more information about William Pitt, click the link below.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/british/william-pitt.htm
In Pennsylvania, Colonel John Armstrong embarks on a surprise raid against the Indians, attacking and destroying the village of Kittanning.
To read excerpts from Armstrong's journal, click the link below.
http://reenacting.net/kittanning/armstrongepi.html
The French capture the British Fort Oswego and take control of Lake Ontario.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Battle_of_Fort_Oswego
British Lord Loudoun arrives in New York. He threatens the colonies and treats them badly. They do not like his behavior and resist helping him. This hurts the British war effort.
For a biography of Lord Loudoun, click the link below.
http://vagensearch.com/AmericanRevolution/LordLoudoun.html
The British formally declare war on the French. Fighting spreads to the West Indies, India and Europe.
French General Montcalm (mon-kahlm) arrives in Quebec. He does not like depending on American Indian allies and over time he changes the way the French fight the war.
To learn more about Montcalm, click the link below.
http://www.militaryheritage.com/montcalm.htm
Following Washington's surrender at Fort Necessity, the British government sends Major General Edward Braddock and a force of 1300 British regular and colonial militia to Fort Duquesne. On July 9, 1755, after a double fording of the Monongahela River to the site of present-day Braddock (near Pittsburgh), they encounter about 900 French and Indian troops. In the ensuing three-hour firefight, Braddock's command suffers more than 1000 casualties before the surviving British flee.
For more information about Edward Braddock, click the link below.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=46&nm=Edward-Braddock
Rogers' Rangers were a colonial militia that fought for the Kingdom of Great Britain during the French and Indian War. Commanded by Major Robert Rogers they operated primarily in the Lake George and Lake Champlain regions of New York. The unit was formed during the severe winter of 1755 by provincial forces entrenched at Fort William Henry. The Rangers frequently undertook winter raids against French towns and military emplacements, travelling on crude snowshoes and across frozen rivers. Never fully respected by the British regulars, Rogers' Rangers were one of the few non-Indian forces able to operate in the inhospitable region due to the harsh winter conditions and mountainous terrain.
To learn more about Rogers' Rangers, click the lonk below.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/rogers/index.html
The British seize Acadia (Nova Scotia).
Blamed for the defeat at Fort Necessity, Washington resigns. He will later return as a volunteer under British authority.
The French, with American Indian support, attack Washington's troops at Fort Necessity, killing or wounding one-third of Washington's men after a day of constant firing in heavy rain. Washington surrenders, and on July 4 is allowed to retreat.
British officials believe that a North American war with France is imminent and urge colonial leaders to prepare for the common defense. A meeting is held in Albany in the spring of 1754 and is attended by native leaders, colonial officials, and representatives from seven of the British colonies.
For details, click the link below.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h789.html
George Washington leads 40 men from an encampment in Great Meadows, southeast of Fort Duquesne, to an Indian camp where 10 or 11 warriors join them. They set off to investigate reports of a French camp a few miles away. Not long after dawn, the two forces exchange fire, leaving four Virginians and fourteen Frenchmen dead or wounded. The French commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville, is killed. Washington's troops retreat to Great Meadows and and begin construction of Fort Necessity.
• British start to build Fort Prince George at the junction of the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers, but French troops drive them out. • The French immediately begin the construction of Fort Duquesne.
• George Washington carries Virginia's ultimatum over French encroachment to Captain Legardeur de Saint-Pierre at Riviere aux Boeufs. The demand is rejected. • George Washington returns to Virginia and delivers the French commandant's reply to Governor Dinwiddie, thus setting the stage for the French and Indian War.
George Washington, after standing at the point where the Ohio River begins in Pittsburgh, writes in his journal: "As I got down before the Canoe, I spent some Time in viewing the Rivers, & the Land in the Fork, which I think extreamly well situated for a Fort; as it has the absolute Command of both Rivers."
The 21-year-old George Washington enters the picture. Washington leaves Williamsburg, Virginia, carrying a letter from Gov. Dinwiddie to the French, ordering them to vacate the British territory.
• French troops enter western Pennsylvania where they build forts at Presque Island (Erie) and on the Rivière aux Boeufs (Waterford). • Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, makes land grants in the Ohio Valley to citizens of his colony
British and French representatives meet in Paris to try to solve their territorial disputes but fail.
• As the British colonies become more populated and prosperous, their citizens begin to look towards the rich lands across the Appalachian Mountains as providing new opportunities for settlement and economic growth. • The French build forts on Lake Champlain and on the Wabash, Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. • The British, meanwhile, build their own forts at Oswego and Halifax, and the government grants lands in the Ohio Valley to the Ohio Company.
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