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    Ticonderoga Soldierelijah Estabrooks Journal 1758-1760: A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War
    Ticonderoga Soldierelijah Estabrooks Journal 1758-1760: A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War
    Ticonderoga Soldierelijah Estabrooks Journal 1758-1760: A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War
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    Ticonderoga Soldierelijah Estabrooks Journal 1758-1760: A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War

    By Harold A. Skaarup

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    The French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War), was fought between 1754 and 1763. One of the major battles in the North American campaign was fought at Fort Carillon, also known as Ticonderoga.

    Fort Ticonderoga had been erected by the French in New York in 1755, on a site which they believed was the key to the defense of Canada. The fort was strategically situated to provide control of both the two-mile portage and navigation northward on Lake Champlain. General Montcalm was ordered to defend it, and the British were determined to take it by force. Although the British had the superior numbers, the battle went badly for them because their commander was killed in a small skirmish with the French before the battle began. On the 8th of July 1758, the French Forces under the leadership of General Montcalm defeated a superior British force led by General Abercrombie.

    This is the story of Elijah Estabrooks, a Massachusetts provincial soldier who fought in that battle. Elijah kept a Journal throughout his military service, and the purpose of this book is to provide additional details on the people and places that he wrote about during this war.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateMar 12, 2001
    ISBN9781462047918
    Ticonderoga Soldierelijah Estabrooks Journal 1758-1760: A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War
    Author

    Harold A. Skaarup

    Major Hal Skaarup has served with the Canadian Forces for more than 40 years, starting with the 56th Field Squadron, RCE and completing his service as the G2 (Intelligence Officer) at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick in August 2011. He was a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, served three tours with the Skyhawks Parachute Demonstration Team, and worked in the Airborne Trials and Evaluation section. He served as an Intelligence Officer overseas in Germany and Colorado, and has been on operational deployments to Cyprus, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. He has been an instructor at the Tactics School at the Combat Training Centre in Gagetown and at the Intelligence Training Schools in Borden and Kingston. He earned a Master's degree in War Studies through the Royal Military College, and has authored a number of books on military history.

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      Ticonderoga Soldierelijah Estabrooks Journal 1758-1760 - Harold A. Skaarup

      MAPS OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

      Image363.JPG

      Massachusetts and the New York Theater of Operations, circa 1759. After Lester J. Cappon et al., Atlas of Early American History: The Revolutionary Era, 1760-1790 (Princeton, NJ, 1976), 2, 4. Drawn by Richard Stinely.

      Image370.JPG

      Map of Actions described in Ticonderoga Soldier. This map outlines the military activities that took place at the North end of Lake George in July 1758, indicating where Lord Howe was killed and where Montcalm laid out his defensive position before Fort Carillon—Fort Ticonderoga.

      Image378.JPG

      Map of the town and Fort of Carillon at Ticonderoga. This map shows the dispositions of the French forces under Montcalm deployed to the West of the fort, and the attacking British forces under General Abercrombie North West of the height of Carillon, as they were assembled on the 8th of July 1758. (Simplified from a contemporary map by Thomas Jeffreys).

      FORT CARILLON—TICONDEROGA

      The fight to come at Fort Ticonderoga would not be the first time a battle had taken place on the site. On the 29th of July 1609, Samuel de Champlain fought the Iroquois there. Although e would eventually seek to make himself a friend of the Iroquois, on that date he and his Indian allies encountered a band of 200 Mohawks. The two opposing forces built barricades and exchanged insults, much as present day belligerents do. The next day, Champlain and his forces advanced to contact. Champlain then fired his quadruple-shotted arquebus and killed two Mohawk chiefs, while a third was killed by another Frenchman. The Iroquois armour of wooden slats offered no protection against firearms, and in the ensuing battle some 50 Mohawks were killed. The Hurons and the Algonquins returned home exalting in their victory over their traditional enemies.5

      136 years later during the course of the French and Indian War, a talented French-Canadian military engineer named de Lotbinière proceeded to build a star-shaped fortress of stone, earth and timber on this same site. It stands on a rocky ridge near the southern end of Lake Champlain where Lake George flows into it.6 Construction of ‘Fort Carillon’ was begun in 1755 and the basic outline of the fort was complete by the winter of 1756. Similar in construction to Fort Duquesne, there were two wooden walls around the main enclosure of Fort Carillon. The ten feet of space between the walls was filled with earth to absorb cannon shot, and they were tied to each other with cross timbers dovetailed in place. The wood for the enclosure consisted of heavy oak timbers, 14 or 15 inches square, laid horizontally one on top of the other. A major weakness of this kind of construction was the continual rotting of the timbers. This led to the decision in 1757 to revet the timber walls with a stone veneer which would make the fort much more durable.7

      Across the lake the new fortress faced a bluff, and a little to the south Lake George emptied into a channel that flowed through a gorge into Lake Champlain. As a result, whoever held the fort controlled the only passageway which led southward out of Lake Champlain. This route in turn led toward the Hudson River by way of Lake George, and on to Albany. The Frenchman had called his fort Carillon (a chime of bells) because of the loud splash of nearby rapids. For the same reason, the Indians called the spot Cheonderoga, which meant Noisy. The British called it Ticonderoga, and the Americans later called it Fort Ti.8

      For the purpose of this story, whenever the Fort is referred by the French or in the context of their defense activities within it, the site will be called Fort Carillon. Whenever the British or Americans refer to it or describe their attacks on it, the site will be called Fort Ticonderoga, or simply Ticonderoga.

      SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE BATTLE

      In June 1758 a combined force of 15,350 British and Provincial soldiers commanded by General James Abercrombie were gathered at the head of Lake George near Lake Champlain, New York, in preparation for an attack on Fort Ticonderoga.⁹ The commander of the French forces defending the Fort with one quarter of the numbers of troops facing him was Louis-Joseph Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon, Seigneur de Saint-Véran, who served under the Governor General of New France, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal.¹⁰ Following his arrival in Canada in May 1756, Montcalm had already successfully fought and destroyed the British Forts at Oswego and George in August 1757, and demolished Fort William Henry, later made famous in the James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) story (and a number of films),

      The Last of the Mohicans.¹¹ Montcalm prepared to meet the British assault force by deploying his men around the walls of the French stronghold with an army one-fourth the size of Abercrombie’s.¹²

      Essentially these activities had become necessary because of a series of related events and battles. Governor General Vaudreuil had anticipated that there would be a renewed Anglo-American assault on Lake Ontario in February 1756. He had therefore sent 360 Canadians and Indians under the command of Gaspard-Joseph Chausegros de Léry, to harass communications between Fort Oswego and Schenectady (New York). They succeeded admirably, successfully assaulting and destroying Fort Bull (on Lake Oneida, New York) along with a vast amount of supplies. No one in the garrison was spared. Other Canadian war parties harassed Oswego all spring and early summer, preventing supplies getting through and putting the fear of God into the garrison. By July, Vaudreuil believed the time had come for the destruction of the fort itself. He sent Montcalm to Fort Carillon to inspect the new fort there, and to deceive the enemy as to his intentions. Vaudreuil assembled a force of 3,000 men at Fort Frontenac.¹³

      Montcalm joined this force on the 29th of July. Before leaving Montréal he had expressed grave misgivings about the expedition, but the main problem proved to be nothing more than the building of a road to bring up the siege guns. After a short bombardment, and with the Canadians and Indians commanded by Vaudreuil’s brother, François-Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, swarming within musket range, the garrison surrendered. 1,700 prisoners were taken, several armed ships, a large number of cannon, munitions and supplies of all sorts, and a war chest containing funds to the value of 18,000 livres. Montcalm stated the cost of the expedition had been 11,862 livres. All told, a profitable enterprise, but strategically it was worth far more than that. French control of Lake Ontario was now assured, the northwestern flank of New York was open to attack, and the danger of an assault on either Fort Frontenac or Niagara (near Youngstown, New York) had been diminished.14

      Image387.JPG

      Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon, Seigneur de Saint-Véran, Candiac, Tournemire, Pestric, St. Julien, d’Arpaon, Baron de Gabriac,

      Lieutenant-Général of the Armies of the King of France, Honorary Commander of the Order of St. Louis and Commander-in-Chief of the French Army in America. Born at Candiac on the 28th of February 1712, he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Québec, and died there in Canada shortly afterwards, on the 13th of September 1759. (National Archives of Canada, C 14342).

      MILITARY TACTICS IN THE SEVEN YEARS WAR

      Image394.JPG

      The principal weapon that came to dominate the Seven Years War was the smooth-bore, flintlock, muzzle-loading musket, mounted with a bayonet, making it both a fire and a shock weapon. The weapons range and complicated fire and maneuver procedures meant that it dominated the planning for the tactical deployment of troops on the battlefield of the 18th century. As would be noted by Bernard Cornwell’s 19th century officer, Major Richard Sharpe, even well-trained soldiers could fire no more than two or three rounds a minute.¹⁵

      A very specific set of commands was developed to ensure the loading and firing of the Brown Bess was conducted in a militarily correct sequence. These orders directed the soldiers to carry out at least 12 key movements at an Officer’s command accompanied by drum-beat. At close range, under 80 paces, a musket volley could be murderous, but at that distance there was barely time to reload before the enemy’s charge, if it were not checked, reached the line.¹⁶

      As will be seen later in this story, in 1759, one double-shotted volley fired by British soldiers under General Wolfe’s command on the Plains of Abraham would be sufficient to destroy the French front line under the command of General Montcalm. The result would change the course of North American history. In the battle formations of the Seven Years War, two basic formations were employed. These were called the line and the column. The line was a military formation made up of soldiers standing in three ranks, and its effectiveness depended considerably on the coordinated fire-power given by their muskets, and the effective and highly aggressive follow up by a concerted bayonet charge against the shattered foe. An attack carried out by soldiers deployed in a column depended heavily on the shock effect of an attack against a narrow front. The object of this assault was to pierce and shatter the enemy’s line. The orderly deployment of troops in a line formation demanded that the supervising officers enforce the most rigorous discipline in order ensure that each and every man in the line stands fast. This discipline was the only way to ensure that a measured and coordinated volley of fire would be delivered on command against a charging foe. An attack in column also required considerable discipline to ensure that once the initial volley had been delivered, the men pressed on into the opposing hail of fire. The key to success in this usually murderous advance, was that the swifter the men assaulted forward to their objective, the fewer the number of enemy volleys they had to endure. The British army relied on the line; the French, however, at this time still believed in the effectiveness of the column. Their commanders believed that "the charge with the arme blanche ‘ was better suited to the capabilities and the morale of their poorly trained troops with their impetuous temperament.17

      Elijah Estabrooks as well as his fellow Massachusetts Provincial soldiers who deployed to Ticonderoga, were equipped with the Brown Bess musket.18 According to the historian C.P. Stacy, the British musket commonly called the Brown Bess underwent some modifications between its introduction in the 1720s and its official replacement in 1794. The French, for their part, placed a lot of confidence in their 1754 pattern Charleville musket. It would appear, however, that the British felt that the Brown Bess was a more effective weapon based on their experience in the Québec campaign. In a letter that Brigadier George Townshend wrote to General Amherst on the 26th of June 1775, he stated, I recollect that in our service at Québec, the superiority of our muskets over the French Arms were generally acknowledged both as to the Distance they carried and the Frequency of the Fire.19

      Image402.JPG

      ELIJAH’S MILITARY SERVICE

      Image410.JPG

      Elijah did two tours of duty with the Massachusetts Provincials, coming out of the army after his first period of service on the 7th of November 1758 and later re-enlisting on the 6th of April 1759. During his second period of service, he was sent by ship to Halifax where he remained until the 25th of November 1760. While he was on duty in Halifax, Elijah served in a Company commanded by Captain Josiah Thatcher as part of a Regiment commanded by Colonel Thomas.20 Their primary task was the boarding and seizure of French ships re-supplying the soldiers of New France. Elijah also served alongside other provincial soldiers from New England, most notably members of Roger’s Rangers. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. His family, however, remained in Boxford, Massachusetts, where he returned at the end of his second period of service.

      After completing his military service Elijah Estabrooks eventually came to settle on the Saint John River. In 1762, the government of Massachusetts sponsored a group of men to participate in early exploration of the area around Maugerville in what is present day New Brunswick, in search of suitable settlements. Elijah was one of these early explorers. Early in 1763 he moved his family to Halifax and then on to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, and later to Maugerville Township. Maugerville was still part of Sunbury County, Nova Scotia in 1763.

      Elijah eventually settled on a farm near Conway, a small community just north of the present-day city of Saint John, in 1775. This was before the mass influx (some called it an invasion) of the Loyalists who had to withdraw from New England after the close of the American Revolutionary War of Independence. It was the Loyalists who renamed the newly created province of New Brunswick (NB) after King George III’s German State of Braunschweig. The Loyalists in some cases forced the existing English settlers off their land grants, and therefore many of them moved to sites further up the river. Elijah’s family was one of these, and thus he and his family eventually came to establish themselves on farms located near the village of Jemseg, which is not far from the present day Combat Training Centre (CTC), on Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Gagetown in Oromocto. Elijah later moved to a farm near Swan Creek, NB, where he died about the 11th of August 1796. Many of Elijah’s descendants are alive and well today, and can be found not only in New Brunswick, but also across Canada and the United States.²¹

      BACKGROUND TO THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

      The Seven Years War has been described as a worldwide series of conflicts, which were fought between 1756 and 1763. The initial object of the war was to gain control over Germany and to achieve supremacy in colonial North America and India. The war involved most of the major powers of Europe, with Prussia, Great Britain, and Hannover on one side and Austria, Saxony (Sachsen), France, Russia, Sweden, and Spain on the other. The collective series of battles fought during this war in North America became known as the French and Indian War. Essentially the French and Indian war pitted Great Britain and its American colonies against the French forces of New France and their Algonquin Indian allies.²²

      The opening shots of the war in North America were fired in 1754. A rivalry between the colonies of France and England had gradually developed over the lucrative fur-trading posts and the rich lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, as well as over valuable fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland. The French hoped to contain British settlement, particularly in the Ohio Valley, where Virginia planters had established fur-trading posts in 1749 by a strategy of encirclement. France hoped to unite itself with its Indian allies through a chain of forts, which ran as far south as New Orleans and thus prevent British expansion to the west.²³

      For the first two years of the war, French forces and their and Native Indian allies were largely victorious, winning an important and surprising victory with the defence of Fort Duquesne. In 1757, however, the British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, and a pro-Prussian, was placed in charge of Britain’s foreign policy. One of his first acts was to appoint General James Wolfe to command the British troops in the New World. The long term result of Pitt’s bold strategy was the ultimate defeat of the French forces in North America by 1760, and the ceding of all of French Canada to Britain.²⁴

      As for General James Wolfe, he has been described by Horace Walpole asa young officer who had contracted a reputation from his intelligence of discipline, and from the perfection to which he had brought his regiment. The world could not expect more from him than he thought himself capable of performing. He looked upon danger as the favorable moment that would call forth all his talents.²⁵

      The Seven Years War officially ended on the 10th of February 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, which was signed to settle differences between France, Spain, and Great Britain.²⁶ Among the terms was the acquisition of almost the entire French Empire in North America by Great Britain. The British also acquired Florida from Spain and the French retained their possessions in India only under severe military restrictions. The continent of Europe remained free from territorial changes.²⁷

      LOUISBOURG AND THE SEVEN YEARS WAR

      Four periods of war had dominated life in North America during the late 17th and early part of the 18th centuries. King William’s War was fought between 1689 and 1697, and followed only five years later by Queen Anne’s War fought between 1702 and 1713. Less than a dozen years later, Governor Dummer’s War was fought between 1722 and 1725, followed by the fourth conflict, King George’s wars which took place between 1744 and 1748. By this time, the people of Massachusetts had contributed more than their share of blood and treasure in support of England’s worldwide conflict with France. The Seven Years War would see the cost rise even higher for the New England colony.²⁸

      When France lost Port Royal (in what is present day Nova Scotia) in the Treaty of Utrecht, it proceeded to spend six million in gold building the impregnable fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.²⁹

      In many ways, the great fortress of Louisbourg was a memorial to the fortress-designing genius ofVauban. This is because two of his pupils, Verville and Verrier, made extensive use ofVauban’s ideas and designs to make the fortress one of the greatest strongholds of New France. Louisbourg was built on a narrow headland, with water on three sides. The sea itself provides a moat, and on nine days out of ten the surf pounds hard on the rock-strewn Nova Scotia shore. Beyond the shore there is a string of shoals and islands that reduces the harbour entrance to a mere 400 yards, and this in turn offers the defender numerous well-sited positions for gun emplacements that would command the roadway and the only channel entrance into Louisbourg’s harbour. In its heyday, a marsh lay to the landward side of the fortress, and this would have caused any heavy artillery that the British needed to employ to bog down. Even then, there are only a few low hillocks that offer would offer a useful position to mount and site the guns that had been dragged into position. Using Vauban’s principles, the fortresses walls were ten feet thick, and faced with fitted masonry that rose thirty feet behind a steep ditch. This defence in turn was fronted by a wide glacis, with an unobstructed sloping field of fire that could rake a designated killing ground at pointblank range with cannon and musket shot. The fortress was equipped with 148 cannon, including 24 and 42 pounders, and positioned to allow all-round fire or massive concentrations at selected danger points. The defenders were also sheltered inside the fortress with covered ways, which protected them from bombardment splinters.³⁰

      Image417.JPG

      Cannon of the period, with re-enactor Susan Hoover.

      In spite of its solid design, however, on the 20th of April 1745 (during King George’s War), the English conducted a successful amphibious landing and siege of the fortress of Louisbourg. The operation was conceived by Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts and carried out by the New England militia led by William Pepperell, a merchant of Kittery, Maine, and the Royal Navy, which supported him with a blockading squadron under Admiral Sir Peter Warren. Following a six-week siege, the French commander surrendered the fortress (at a time when it was known as the Gibraltar of the New World), on the 16th of June 1745.³¹

      Sometimes an almost ridiculous element of chance had a major role to play in the successful outcome of a siege. During the first siege of Louisbourg on the 28th of May 1745, the combined forces of William Pepperell and Admiral Warren lacked the heavy cannon needed to reduce the fortifications of the Gabarus island battery blocking access to the harbour defences. During a reconnaissance by a landing party, a sharp eyed man looking down into the clear water saw what incredibly appeared to be a whole battery of guns half hidden in the sand below. This is exactly what it was, ten bronze cannon which had slid from the deck of a French Man o’ War years earlier and had been left in the water by the profligate Governor. The men swiftly raised the guns, scoured them off, hoisted them onto the headland and were soon blasting shot across the half-mile gap onto the French battery. When one shot finally hit the island’s powder magazine, the French commander d’Aillebout had to give up. With this position in hand the siege was then brought to a successful conclusion after 46 days. After Louisbourg’s surrender, Admiral Warren put the French flag back up. Thus, French ships kept sailing into Louisbourg’s harbour, including one carrying a cargo of gold and silver bars. 850 guinea’s was given to every sailor as prize money.32

      Capturing Louisbourg and holding it were

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