The 1757 Siege of Fort William Henry & James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans tells a gripping tale of the bloody conflicts that roiled the Lake George region in the middle of the 18th century. In particular, the novel gives a stirring, if inaccurate, description of the Siege of Fort William Henry (August 3-9, 1757) during the French and Indian War and its immediate aftermath.

The Siege was conducted by a French and Indigenous force led by Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm against the British-held Fort William Henry at the south end of Lake George in what is now Warren County, NY. The fort 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.

After several days of bombardment and increasing casualties on the British side, Monro surrendered to Montcalm, whose force included nearly 2,000 Indigenous warriors from various Native American tribes. The terms of surrender allowed the withdrawal to Fort Edward and specified that the French military protect the British as they withdrew.

In one of the most notorious incidents of the war, Montcalm’s Indigenous allies violated the terms of surrender and attacked the departing unarmed British column as it left the fort. They killed and scalped numerous soldiers and civilians, women, children, servants, and slaves captive, and killed sick and wounded prisoners.

Early accounts of the events called it a massacre and implied that as many as 1,500 people were killed, although it is unlikely more than 200 people (less than 10% of the British fighting strength) were actually killed.

Fort William Henry was never rebuilt and lay in ruins for about 200 years until the 1950s when excavations at the site led to its reconstruction as a tourist destination.

Illustrations, from above: A map from the time of the Siege of Fort William Henry in 1757; and a hand-drawn map depicting the area of the Siege of Fort William Henry in 1757 by James Gabriel Montresor (Library of Congress).