The Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance is marching through its second season of operating the Park’s new Visitor Center by extending the Center’s season through the end of October. [Read more…] about Lake George Battlefield Visitor Center Season Extended, Programs Planned
Battle of Carillon
The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective
In the early 1750s, the French were establishing trading posts and building forts along western the frontiers of the British colonies. In the fall of 1753, in part to protect his own land claims, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie had sent 22-year-old George Washington (then a militia leader and surveyor) to deliver a letter to Fort Le Boeuf at what is today Waterford in northwest Pennsylvania, demanding they stop.
When Washington returned without success, Dinwiddie sent a small force to build Fort Prince George at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (today Pittsburgh). Soon a larger French force arrived, torn down the small British fort, and began and built Fort Duquesne, named for then Governor-General of New France, Marquis Duquesne. [Read more…] about The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective
Bradstreet’s Raid: A 1758 Riverine Operation
Major General John Bradstreet, born Jean-Baptiste Bradstreet (1714 – 1774), was a British Army officer during King George’s War, the French and Indian War, and Pontiac’s War.
In 1756 he led a column to supply the greatly weakened Fort Oswego and issued ignored warnings to his superiors before Oswego was captured and burned later that year. In the spring of 1757 he helped assemble supplies and transports at Boston for the abortive attack on Louisbourg.
That December he was appointed Lt. Colonel and in 1758 he participated in the attack on Fort Carillon (now Fort Ticonderoga), where he led the advance guard following the death of General George Howe. When the Battle ended in disaster, Bradstreet attempted to organize a retreat. [Read more…] about Bradstreet’s Raid: A 1758 Riverine Operation
Fort Ti Assessing Carillon Battlefield Ruins
At the heart of the Ticonderoga peninsula is the Carillon Battlefield and the French Lines, which constitute one of the most important 18th-century military sites on the continent. Here, at the confluence Lake George and Lake Champlain, a French Army commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm defeated a British Army four times its size on July 8, 1758.
The Battle of Carillon is believed to have been the bloodiest battle fought in North America until the Civil War. About 21,000 combatants were involved. Some 1,100 were killed, 2,000 wounded, and 100 whose bodies were not recovered (another 150 were captured). [Read more…] about Fort Ti Assessing Carillon Battlefield Ruins