The French-Indian War 1754–1760
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About this ebook
Daniel Marston
Daniel Marston is the Director of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Thinkers Program and Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, and previously held the Ike Skelton Distinguished Chair in the Art of War at the US Army Command and General Staff College. He has been a Visiting Fellow, on multiple occasions, with the Leverhulme Changing Character of War Program at the University of Oxford, and was previously Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He has been a special advisor with the US Army, USMC and British Army, and has published several books, one of which, Phoenix from the Ashes, won the Templer Medal Book Prize in 2003. He received a BA and MA from McGill University and a PhD from Oxford University, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
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The French-Indian War 1754–1760 - Daniel Marston
Background to war
Tension in the Ohio River valley
The conflict in North America had its formal beginnings in 1754. Following the end of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), French and British colonists, motivated by desire to expand their domains into the rich Ohio River valley, edged closer to armed conflict. The area along the Ohio River was considered to be uncharted, and thus formally unclaimed by either side. The British contended that the area should be open to both sides for trade, and followed this claim with the establishment of the Ohio Company. The French, however, viewed this as a British attempt to claim the entire area, and responded by sending both militia and regular troops into the region to build forts and eject any British settlers or traders found there.
Tensions had also risen in Acadian Nova Scotia, particularly along the Bay of Fundy. The French had established several new forts whose locations the British colonial governments considered to be in violation of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Both sides claimed large areas of present day New Brunswick, and considered the other the transgressor. The insult offered by these encroachments was compounded by the French government’s relations with the Acadians, a French-speaking population who, as a result of treaty agreements, had become subjects of the British Crown. The French authorities deliberately stirred the Acadians’ aspirations to independence, incensing the British governors. The establishment of Fort Beausejour in the disputed area was the last straw, as this made it apparent to the British colonists that the French had them surrounded. They were not being paranoid; the French did in fact intend to construct a series of forts from Louisbourg to New Orleans, enclosing the British colonies. The hostility between the two countries was near to breaking point.
Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia decided to make a move against the French in the Ohio River valley, while Governor William Shirley of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was to organize a move against the French in the Bay of Fundy. (This second campaign will be discussed later, as it took place in 1755.)
The British had begun to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio River in 1754. A Virginia militia officer, Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, then 23 years old, was ordered to march into the Ohio River valley with 200 men, to assist with and protect the fort’s construction. Washington and his men left on 2 April. News arrived on 20 April that the French had already moved against the British at the forks of the Ohio and forced them from the area. The French seized the fort and renamed it Fort Duquesne, after the Governor of New France, Marquis Duquesne. After a council of war at Wills Creek, Washington decided to continue to move towards the region, after establishing Fort Cumberland at Wills Creek.
Various other colonies decided to send reinforcements to the region. A Regular Independent Company from South Carolina moved into Virginia. Militia troops from North Carolina marched north to provide support, while Pennsylvania decided to grant money towards the cost of the expedition. These were helpful gestures, but the reinforcements were small and inadequate to the task that they potentially faced: undertaking the defense of the frontier. Washington continued marching towards an enemy that vastly outnumbered him, when he should have remained at Wills Creek and waited for reinforcements.
On 7 May Washington and his small force reached Little Meadows. Ten days later, on 17 May, the force reached the Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny. By 24 May, Washington reached an area named Great Meadows where, after receiving intelligence that a party of French troops was moving against him, he began to build fortifications, naming the structure Fort Necessity. On 27 May, Washington and 40 militia soldiers moved 9 km (six miles) distant to ambush the French detachment. Washington hoped to surprise the French camp, but the alarm was sounded. The battle was short but brisk. The French commander, Ensign Coulon de Jumonville, was killed, along with nine French soldiers, and 21 French soldiers were taken prisoner. One French soldier escaped and reported back to Fort Duquesne. The Virginia troops lost one killed and three wounded. This skirmish signified the opening of armed hostilities.
Washington decided to remain in the area, to build up the defenses of the fort and the road towards Fort Duquesne. On 9 June, a further reinforcement of 200 Virginia militiamen arrived, followed by reinforcements from the Independent Companies of South Carolina on 12 June. Welcome as fresh troops were, their arrival sparked an immediate tussle over the politics of command. The Independent Companies were on the British Establishment, which meant that their commander, Captain James MacKay, was senior to Washington. While MacKay did not attempt to assume command, he refused any orders from Washington for his men.
On 16 June, Washington moved out towards Fort Duquesne with his Virginia troops, while the Independent Companies remained at Fort Necessity. Reports from scouts claimed that the French garrison was reinforced by more than a thousand men, and that the Shawnee and Delaware Indians had sided with the French. Less than 32 km (20 miles) from Fort Duquesne, Washington stopped to hold a war council with the Delawares and Shawnees, hoping to convince them to switch their allegiance. On 28 June reports arrived that the French, with their Indian allies, were moving towards him.
The Independent Companies caught up with Washington on 29 June, and MacKay and Washington agreed to withdraw towards Wills Creek and then on to Fort Necessity. The withdrawal to Fort Necessity was hard going, due to the number of horses and wagons that had to be left behind. The exhausted troops arrived at Fort Necessity on 1 July and began to prepare the area for battle.
A French detachment of 500 soldiers and allied Indian warriors, led by Captain Coulon de Villiers, brother of Jumonville, marched on the heels of Washington’s force. The French came upon the Great Meadows area on the morning of 3 July. Villiers decided to fan out his troops to draw fire and locate the enemy forces. The French and Indian forces immediately drew heavy fire, so Villiers kept the majority of his men in the forests to the west and south of the British positions. Villiers advanced cautiously as the British troops withdrew into the entrenchment surrounding the fort. The French and Indian troops fired into the British positions from the edge of the woods. The fighting lasted for nine hours, and the British suffered not only losses under fire but also from a considerable number of desertions. The rainy weather also played a significant role in the outcome of the battle. The British trenches became waterlogged and, as one British observer noted: ‘by the continued Rains and Water in the trenches, the most of our Arms were out of order’ (Gipson, VI, p. 39). At around 8.00 pm on 3 July, Villiers called for a possible negotiated settlement. Villiers emphasized that he had carried out his attack not because a state of war existed, but to avenge the death of his brother. He also promised that he would allow the British troops to march back to Virginia without harassment from the Indians. Two British officers, Captains Van Braam and Stobo, were to serve as hostages in return for the French prisoners taken on 27 May.
The terms were agreed and on the morning of 4 July, the French marched in to take possession of Fort Necessity. During this transition, the Indians decided to attack the British troops, scalping and killing several men. The French officers and men did little to stop them. While this incident was minor compared to the outrages that were to follow at Fort William Henry in 1757, it clearly demonstrated the problems inherent in promising protection from the Indians following surrender.
The British force marched slowly but in good order towards Wills Creek. The French had effectively forced them out of the Ohio River valley, and Villiers finished the job by destroying Fort Necessity and withdrawing to Fort Duquesne. This defeat galvanized the British government, prompting the decision to deploy British Regular regiments to the Ohio River area. Regular regiments were already stationed in Nova Scotia, and the Fort Duquesne incident convinced British leaders that their presence was required elsewhere. As a result, this engagement was one of the last waged against the French without a sizable British Regular Army presence.
Warring sides
The French and British armies in North America
Warfare in the mid- to late-18th century was characterized by two dissimilar fighting styles, commonly known as linear warfare and irregular or frontier-style warfare. The first was the traditional style in which battles were fought in Europe, whilst the second arose in response to the particular demands of fighting on the North American frontier.
Soldiers of all armies were armed with the flintlock musket, but how they were used differed depending on the style of warfare employed. In any situation, the weapon’s range was only 200–300 paces, so no style was developed that was based on the need for accurate fire. Extending the usefulness of the musket during this period was the development of the socket bayonet, which permitted firing with the bayonet already fixed on the musket barrel. The socket bayonet could be attached before troops went into battle, permitting troops to go directly from short-range firing to hand-to-hand combat.
Linear warfare
Given the relative inaccuracy of the flintlock musket, the linear or continental style was designed to maximize its effectiveness. Troops were intended to deploy in a line and deliver a synchronized volley of fire against the opposing line of enemy troops. By training soldiers to fire simultaneously, leaders hoped to offset the musket’s inaccuracy with sheer volume of coordinated fire. To accomplish this quickly and effectively required intensive training, not only in firing techniques, but also to enable troops to march overland in column formation, and then rapidly deploy into lines using a series of complicated maneuvers.
The deployment of the front line of troops, or frontage, was determined by the terrain of the battlefield and the position of the enemy. As armies came within