New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Fort Carillon

Half-Way Brook & The French & Indian War

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Half-Way Brook monument at Hovey PondIn choosing as its first subject for a memorial marker “The Half-Way Brook,” the (now defunct) New York State Historical Association made a dignified and wise selection.

For it may be truly said that no stream in Northern New York is more noted in history and the annals of the border, than this, whose appellation “Half-Way” comes from the fact that it was nearly equidistant from Fort Edward on the south (on the Hudson River] and Fort William Henry on the north (on Lake George). [Read more…] about Half-Way Brook & The French & Indian War

New York’s Great Warpath & Historian Harrison Bird

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Navies in the MountainsLake George, NY resident Harrison Bird (1910-2003) belonged to a rare class of historians, those whose situate the local within the continental and, indeed, the global.

In four books published by Oxford University Press – Navies in the Mountains (1962), March to Saratoga (1963), Battle for a Continent (1965) and Attack on Quebec (1968) – Bird wrote about Lake George, Lake Champlain, Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, Quebec and the northern waterways not as isolated historic sites, but as parts of one strategic corridor: the route by which empires, armies, navies and ambitions moved between Canada and the Hudson Valley. [Read more…] about New York’s Great Warpath & Historian Harrison Bird

That ‘Other’ Massacre: Blood and Chocolate at Half-Way Brook

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Still from the 1992 movie Last of the Mohicans showing the surrender of Fort William HenryThe dramatic massacre at Fort William Henry on August 10, 1757 has been told in 18th century newspaper accounts, witness diaries, by historians, movie makers, and of course the famed novelist James Fenimore Cooper.

Another attack at Half-Way Brook a year later has been overshadowed by the carnage at Lake George. The events of July 28, 1758 were every bit as horrendous, bloody and gut-wrenching. That story has been largely overlooked. [Read more…] about That ‘Other’ Massacre: Blood and Chocolate at Half-Way Brook

Crossroads of a Continent: A New Champlain Valley History Podcast

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Crossroads of a ContinentLocal historian Tim Dusablon has a new blog and podcast covering the Lake Champlain Valley‘s social and military history called Crossroads of a Continent.  His latest work is on the Battle of Carillon, which took place at Ticonderoga in 1758.

The episode and blog post are part four in a six part series on the French and Indian War in the Champlain Valley. [Read more…] about Crossroads of a Continent: A New Champlain Valley History Podcast

Lord Howe: ‘The Soul of General Abercromby’s Army’

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Battle of Carillon's James Abercromby’s flotilla launching up Lake George from Fort William Henry diorama detail (Adirondack Experience - Lake George Battlefield Park Visitors Center)The latest episode of the Lake George Battlefield Moments podcast features the first of a two-part interview with French & Indian War historian George A. Bray III as he discusses Lord George Augustus Viscount Howe’s service in the Lake George-Lake Champlain region before his untimely death in the Battle of Carillon (1758).

Lord Howe was the eldest of the three brothers who played important leadership roles for the British during the transformative 18th Century conflicts in North America. [Read more…] about Lord Howe: ‘The Soul of General Abercromby’s Army’

The Battle on Snowshoes: History & Mythology

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Battle on Snowshoes in March 1758 during the French and Indian War (illustration commissioned by Glens Falls Insurance Co, 1910)The latest episode of the Lake George Battlefield Moments podcast features John Eric Nelson, French & Indian War historian and re-enactor, who tells the story (and myths) of the Battle on Snowshoes in March 1758. [Read more…] about The Battle on Snowshoes: History & Mythology

The Road to Ticonderoga: The Campaign of 1758 in the Champlain Valley

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Road to Ticonderoga Campaign 1758 Champlain ValleyThe British campaign to capture Fort Carillon on the Ticonderoga Peninsula in 1758 resulted in the largest battle of the French and Indian War. Crafted by Prime Minister William Pitt, the scope and scale of the British effort was staggering, calling for their northern colonies to raise 20,000 men to rendezvous with the British Regulars at Albany.

The directive would test the patience, resources, and will of the colonial governments as well as that of the newly appointed the British commander-in-chief, General James Abercrombie. [Read more…] about The Road to Ticonderoga: The Campaign of 1758 in the Champlain Valley

To Distress the French and Their Allies: Rogers’ Rangers, 1755-1763

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Rogers' Rangers, 1755-1763To Distress the French and Their Allies: Rogers’ Rangers, 1755-1763 (Black Dome Press, 2023) is the first volume in a new “Rangers of the French and Indian, Cherokee, and Pontiac’s War” series by Black Dome Press, that is expected to document for the first time the histories of all ranger units, from each of the colonies, that served in the French & Indian War and after.

Volume I begins with the most famous ranger unit of all ― Robert Rogers’ Rangers, which served in the major campaigns in New York and Canada, and then in the Caribbean, and continued to fight in the Cherokee and Pontiac’s Wars. [Read more…] about To Distress the French and Their Allies: Rogers’ Rangers, 1755-1763

The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective

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Miniature of Fort Prince George under attack by French troops (diorama in the Fort Pitt Museum, Pittsburgh)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 claims on Indigenous lands, 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. [Read more…] about The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective

Bradstreet’s Raid: A 1758 Riverine Operation

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John Bradstreet's, 1758: A Riverine Operation of the French and Indian WarMajor 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

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