"The Battle of Fort Carillon (1758)" Topic

"By July of 1758, the French and Indian War had been raging in North America for four years. What began as skirmishes on the edges of the French and British colonial empires had escalated and expanded into a wider conflict, known as the Seven Years War, with fighting in Europe, West Africa, India, and eventually even the Philippines. But for British Prime Minister William Pitt, the focus remained on North America. Pitt was determined to strip France of her colonial empire, and that meant conquering New France, which covered Canada and the land around the Great Lakes.

Pitt envisioned a grand campaign for 1758, with three simultaneous offensives by land and sea. One army would march into the Pennsylvania frontier and capture Fort Duquesne (on the site of modern Pittsburgh), depriving the French of the base from which their Indian allies had raided the colonial frontiers. An amphibious invasion would land on Cape Breton Island and capture the Fortress of Louisbourg, the "Gibraltar of the North," to open the way for an invasion of Canada via the Saint Lawrence River. The final campaign was an offensive to open up the invasion corridor along Lake Champlain. To do this, General James Abercrombie was tasked with capturing Fort Carillon. The first two prongs of the British strategy would succeed, and set the stage for further victories in 1759. But Abercrombie would ultimately suffer defeat in the bloodiest battle of the French and Indian War…"

link

Armand