Fort Carillon, the key French stronghold on the south end of Lake Champlain, becomes the site of a bloody British defeat.
Fort Ticonderoga
In late 1757 a new administration led by William Pitt dedicated itself to turning around Britain’s fortunes, which had been flagging after four years and a string of costly and embarrassing defeats. More British troops were committed to the war in America and the government pledged support to the colonies to raise additional American forces. The plan for 1758 consisted of three separate armies targeting strategic French positions across North America. The largest of these armies was led by the new British Commander in Chief for North America, General James Abercrombie. He commanded the largest military force North America had ever seen, nearly 16,000 British regulars and American Provincial soldiers. Their destination was the juncture of Lake George and Lake Champlain, a place they knew by its Iroquois name, Ticonderoga.
The French knew it asCarillon, and had constructed a fort and a series of defensive posts stretching from the shore of Lake Champlain to the landing at the northern end of Lake George to protect to route to Canada. The French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, arrived on June 30th where less than 4,000 French soldiers were camped along the la Chute River, west of the fort. The five days encompassing the British advance, attack, and retreat on Carillon amounted to some of the most intense military activity of the 18th century. The two armies had undertaken remarkable feats of arms and British and French officers described combat conditions unlike anything they had experienced before.
Early in the morning of July 5th, the British army heard the command to strike their tents and embark down Lake George toward French positions at Ticonderoga. Their flotilla of boats, bateaux, sloops, and canoes numbered over 1,000 vessels and clogged the lake for miles. Later that day French scouts spotted the unmistakable force and both armies prepared for the ensuing encounter.
The camp at Lake George where the British assembled an astonishing 16,000 soldiers still bore the traces of Montcalm’s siege in 1757, for which the British sought retribution. This map clearly marks the lines of the French siegeworks at the bottom right. The outline of the former Fort William Henry is dwarfed by the extended works enclosing the encampment of the British army, the largest the continent had ever seen.
(right) Map of retrenched camp at Lake George in 1758, c.1758 by Andrew Frazer. Pen, ink, watercolor on paper. Fort Ticonderoga Museum, 1999.0556
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8:00 a.m., July 6: The British Land and the French Dig In
British forces landed at the head of Lake George virtually unopposed by the French who, beyond some scouting parties, were pulling back to the heights of Carillon. As they consolidated their position, the British advance guard pushed north along the west bank of the La Chute River. It was during this maneuver that Lord Howe was killed.
Montcalm pulled his troops back from their outworks and camp along the banks of the La Chute River as the British landed at the head of Lake George on the morning of July 6th. Only then did the French begin work on the lines across the heights of Carillon where the battle was fought.
The silk suit Montcalm wears in this portrait belies his experience as a warrior. The red ribbon on his left breast is that of the Ordre de Saint Louis, awarded for military service to the King of France. Just a few years prior to sitting for this portrait, Montcalm had been seriously wounded in action in Italy at the Battle of Piacenza in 1746, and again at the Battle of Assietta in 1747. There he witnessed firsthand the destruction of a numerically superior army in the face of determined troops placed behind strong defenses.
(right) Louis-Joseph, le Marquis de Montcalm, c.1749 by Jean-Marc Nattier. Pastel on canvas. Fort Ticonderoga Museum, FT-35.76
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9 a.m., July 6: French Advance Camp Pulls Back
French troops were camped for miles around Fort Carillon and the LaChute River Valley to control the portage from Lake George to Lake Champlain. Only one regiment was actually in Fort Carillon, the rest were in tent camps. On July 6th the French abandoned their advanced camp near Lake George, burning what they could not move and fell back toward the heights of Carillon by the end of the day.
Although painted nearly a decade earlier, this 1747 scene of the Royal Roussillon regiment in the Italian Alps would have been very similar to those across the portage and around Fort Carillon in the days leading up to the battle. Although painted ten years before the Battle of Carillon the troops wear the same uniforms they did in 1758.
(right) Camp of the Royal Roussillon Regiment, c. 1748. France. Oil on canvas. Fort Ticonderoga Museum, 2015.5
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4 p.m., July 6: Lord Howe is Killed
As the British army pushed inland along the west bank of the La Chute River they stumbled into a French patrol lost on their return to Fort Carillon. George Augustus Lord Viscount Howe, the second in command of the expedition, lead the advance. A French musket ball struck Howe in the chest, penetrating his lung, passing through his heart and spine, and killing him instantly shortly after the fighting started.
Howe was just 33 years old, and his loss was a blow to the morale of the whole army. His body was shipped south and eventually buried in Albany. He proved unusually popular with the Americans he commanded, who usually chafed at the rigidity and discipline imposed by British officers. The colony of Massachusetts even commissioned a memorial for him in Westminster Abbey. A gold pendant in Fort Ticonderoga's collections contains a lock of Howe's hair, and was made for the Chaplin of Howe’s regiment, the 55th Regiment of Foot. The pendant bears the poignant verse from Horace's Odes:
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,” or “it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
(right) Pendant of Lord Howe's Hair, 1758. Gold, enamel, hair, and glass. Fort Ticonderoga Museum, MC-037
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Noon, July 7: The British Make Camp
By noon on July 7th, a section of the British army, including the 44th Regiment of Foot and six companies of the 1st Battalion of the 60th Regiment of Foot advanced two miles further north of Lake George to take position near the sawmill on the La Chute River, where French troops had camped the day before. By 3 p.m. the rest of the army was moved in place. Here they waited to continue their attack the next morning, building a new bridge across the La Chute to replace the one destroyed by the retreating French.
(right) A Map from the Landing Place to Ticonderoga, c.1758 by Andrew Frazer. Pen, ink, watercolor on paper. Fort Ticonderoga Museum Collection, 2018.6.46
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3 p.m., July 7: The Lines of Carillon Take Shape
By 3 p.m. the French had completed a log and earth breastwork across the Heights of Carillon and would continue work fortifying their position well into the night. Much of the breastwork was composed of a double row of squared off trees held together by dovetailed joints. The height of the lines varied between 5 and 10 feet and were around 6 feet thick. Accounts of the structure describe a double row of loop-holes and the top part of the work covered in bags of earth. In front of the breastworks, the French had laid a wide line of pointed tree tops known as an abatis.
JULY 8, 1758 -- The Battle of Carillon
"8th Saturday we went against the fort and was defeated" Ensign Thomas Alexander, Captain Salah Barnard's Company in Colonel William Williams' Massachusetts Regiment
7 a.m. - British and Provincial Troops March
Starting early in the morning around 7 a.m. the leading elements of the British army began to move towards the heights of Carillon, with others following through at least 11 a.m. The advance towards the French lines was led by Robert Rogers and his Rangers who came into contact with an advance guard of French soldiers in the woods before the works. With support by Colonel Thomas Gage's 80th Light Armed Foot and Lieutenant Colonel John Bradstreet's bateaumen, a screen was established to cover the incoming British army.
10 a.m - Sir William Johnson and Native Allies
With the main bulk of the British army moving into position, Sir William Johnson and his Native force of 300 to 400 men made their way to the slopes of Mount Defiance, directly across the span of Lake Champlain where the La Chute River flows out. Despite their attempts to harass the French positions, Johnson and his allies did little in the end to disrupt the French as they continued to fortify their position.
The British Army approaches the Carillon Battlefield around 10:30 a.m. on July 8th, 1758. The French army sets up a breastwork along the heights.
10:30 a.m., Rangers, Provincials, and Regulars
Following General Abercrombie's battleplan, a line of Provincial troops established a line 350 to 400 yards from the French through which British regulars passed. Each regiment was to be moved forward by a captain and 50 men chosen from the regiment, pickets, and supported by the regiment's grenadier company. The rest of the battalions would follow. Behind this main bulk of soldiers was the rearguard. Somehow the New York provincials advanced ahead of the line of skirmishers, drawing fire from the French defenders. The New Yorkers precipitated a general action as the still unformed regulars prepared to advance directly against the French lines.
The British Army begins their attack on the French position at 12:30 p.m.
12:30 p.m., Fire Fight Begins
Screened by swarms of light troops the British began their assault shortly after midday. Throughout the afternoon waves of British and American troops charged toward the French lines, slowed and broken up by the abatis, they became targets for vicious French musketry and were thrown back at each attempt.
The British Army continues their attack between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. The French hold their position on the heights of Carillon.
1:00 p.m., The Center of the French Line
The Royal Roussillon Regiment was near the center of the French positions along the heights of Carillon and drove off repeated British attacks beginning around 1:00 p.m. and continuing until nearly 6:00 p.m. The fusilier companies of the French regiments crowded the French works while their elite grenadier companies and piquet companies were stationed behind to plug gaps and reinforce sections of the line. Captaine François-Médard Poulharies of the Royal Roussillon Regiment’s grenadier company took a conspicuous part in the action by throwing his grenadiers and piquet men against the British attempt to flank the French lines with cannon on the La Chute River.
1 p.m., British Artillery Sinks
While heavy fighting was underway on the heights of Carillon, two British water crafts loaded with two 6-pounder cannons and a royal howitzer had come out from the La Chute River tasked with landing and taking the enemies lines from the left. The flotilla was quickly spotted by the French who turned first musket power and then cannon onto the vessels. Two of the craft were sunk and the British made a quick retreat, failing to enfilade the French positions.
The British Army continues their assault on the French Lines with a last attempt to take the position starting after 4 p.m.
2 p.m., The Highlanders Valiant Fight
By the afternoon, the 42nd (Highland) Regiment made a spirited assault toward the French right, coming under fire from the Canadians and then the La Reine as they moved along the slope of the heights. The Highlanders hacked their way through the abatis, a few making their way directly in the French breastworks before being cut down and being forced to withdraw. The regiment would see almost half of their soldiers killed or wounded.
4 p.m., French Victory At Hand
Wave after wave of British soldiers came up against the abatis with no avail. By 4 p.m. the British Regulars retreated and reformed, causing a brief lull in the battle before one last final attempt. Focus of the attack went to the salient angle of the breatwork manned by the Guyenne regiment before shifting to the Royal Roussillon and Berry, both in the center of the works.
"And in the evening after the battle here there lay men, some dead, some wounded that could not go. The roads was so full that a man could hardly walk without treading on them.", Abel Spicer, John Stanton's Company of Colonel Nathan Whiting's Connecticut Regiment
7 p.m., A Defeated Britain Stumbles South
By 7 p.m. the British began their final retreat from the Carillon battlefield. Fire from the British continued to slacken, finally ending around sunset. The withdrawl of British troops was disorientated and unorganized with soldiers later noting they had received no order from officers, many of them shot down during the battle. General Abercrombie’s shaken army returned to their camp at Lake George around sundown on the evening of July 9th, pushing off south back down the lake. The French spent the next few weeks re-fortifying and expanding their lines, sure that the British would launch another attack that season, but it would take another year for Carillon to fall to the British.
"...abandoning wounded, provisions, ammunition, implements. &etc. A detachment which went out on the 10th, has discovered all these on the road and nearly 500 dead bodies junked on one side and another." M. Doreil to M. de Moras, Quebec 28th July 1758
Image is of a painting in a gold frame. The painting depicts a man a red uniform with gold lace and epaulet. The man has a white curled wig and is looking at the viewer.
General James Abercromby, c. 1760
Allan Ramsay
Great Britain
oil on canvas
Fort Ticonderoga Museum, 2004.0043
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. J. Robert Maguire
General James Abercrombie faced the task of accounting for the catastrophic loss his army suffered at Ticonderoga. Abercrombie had over four decades of military service, including firsthand experience in America since 1756. Over the previous six months, General Abercrombie had supervised the assembly of a massive and diverse army consisting of British regulars, colonial provincials, and Native American warriors. The loss of his field commander Lord Howe, varied intelligence on the French positions, the decision to drive home an attack rather than wait for artillery to be brought up, and the sheer determination of the defenders, doomed the campaign. Abercrombie was recalled as Commander in Chief in September. Abercrombie remained in the army as a general officer and held the rank of Colonel of the 44th Regiment of Foot when that regiment returned to North America during the American Revolution.
Painting depicting a camp along a body of water. Rows of white tents are painted in the middleground with a lake and mountains on either side. Large conifer trees stand throughout the landscape. In the foreground, a soldier in a green uniform stands next to a sitting Native American man.
11 p.m., With a bang, Fort Carillon Becomes Fort Ticonderoga
On July 23rd 1759, just over a year after their disastrous defeat, another British Army under the command of General Jeffery Amherst arrived at the north end of Lake George. The army quickly captured Montcalm's lines from the previous year and prepared for a siege against the undermanned French fort. For their part, the French unleashed heavy fire from two mortars, with one explosive shell every minute raining down on the British positions. At 11 pm. on July 26th the southeastern corner of Fort Carillon exploded from a fuse lit by the French, setting fire to the fortifications. The dangers from the fire kept the British from immediately entering the fort, but with camp kettles full of water and many hands, the British finally counted victory at Carillon, now named Fort Ticonderoga.
In August 2019, Fort Ticonderoga was awarded an American Battlefield Protection Program Planning Grant to create a Preservation and Planning Assessment of the Carillon Battlefield. The primary objectives of this project was to complete a comprehensive historical analysis of the Carillon Battlefield and to create a condition and management assessment for long-term preservation and future archaeological and stewardship initiatives. Fort Ticonderoga contracted with the University of Vermont's Consulting Archaeology Program on this momentous project, which included gathering robust assemblage of first-hand accounts of the battle, digitization of period maps into a Geographic Information System (GIS) webmap, and a vegetation management plan. Additionally, the University of Vermont's Spatial Analysis Lab conducted a flyover of the Carillon Battlefield to gather terrestrial elevation data that will be used to explore current landscape features with features on historic maps. Use the sliding bar below to compare the current earthworks of the French Lines with their rendering on the 1759 map "A SURVEY of the FORT at TIENDEROGA and its Environs, with the FRENCH LINES and part of LAKE CHAMPLAIN" by Lieutenant Dietrich Brehm and William Brasier.
On the left, "A SURVEY of the FORT at TIENDEROGA..." from the British Library Collection, digitized by the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library. On the right, an elevation model of the Ticonderoga battlefield produced by the University of Vermont's Spatial Analysis Lab.
The Battle of Carillon seared Ticonderoga into the consciousness of a generation and secured its place in the history of North America for centuries to come. Hundreds of soldiers, two future British commanders in chief for North America, a future governor of Canada, and nearly a dozen future generals of the Continental Army, carried the experiences of 1758 with them for the rest of their lives. Ticonderoga had earned a nearly mythical reputation that gave its location increased significance during the American Revolution as soldiers refortified and reshaped the old French Lines, giving their own name to the hallowed ground, "Liberty Hill".
The Carillon Battlefield stands today as a testament of French ingenuity, British dedication and loss, and American independence. Fort Ticonderoga's mission to "preserve, educate and provoke active discussion about the past and its importance to present and future generations" and "foster an on-going dialogue surrounding citizens, soldiers, and nations through America’s military heritage" resonates through all facets of the institution. From commemorating the triumph and tragedy of July 8th, 1758 with living history programming to virtual educational offerings through Fort Ticonderoga's Center for Digital History, the legacies of those who walked Ticonderoga's grounds will live on into the future.
Learn more about the history of the Carillon Battlefield with Fort Ticonderoga Curator Dr. Matthew Keagle
Modern photograph showing a reenactment of the Battle of Carillon. A group of men portraying French soldiers stand with muskets behind a wall of stacked logs. Photo: Gabe Dickens
Modern photograph showing a reenactment of the Battle of Carillon. A man portraying a French soldier in a white and red uniform stands ready to fire a musket over a log wall. Other men in uniforms stand behind him. Photo: Gabe Dickens
Modern photograph showing a reenactment of the Battle of Carillon. A group of men portraying soldiers in red and blue uniforms kneel in a line with their muskets. One man prepares to fire. Photo: Gabe Dickens
Modern photograph showing a reenactment of the Battle of Carillon. A group of men in red and blue uniforms lay facedown on the ground. One man on the ground is raised up on his elbow holding a sword in his hand. Photo: Gabe Dickens
Fort Ticonderoga staff and volunteers publicly re-enact The Battle of Carillon biannually in July to ensure the history of this important battle is shared with generations to come.
Fort Ticonderoga is a non-profit museum and cultural destination located in Ticonderoga, New York in the Champlain Valley. To learn more about Fort Ticonderoga and our many programs, visit our website. To keep up to date with the exciting projects the Ticonderoga team is working on, check out Fort Ticonderoga's Facebook Page. A sincere thank you to John Crock, Kathleen Kenny, and the staff of the University of Vermont's Consulting Archaeology Program and Spatial Analysis Lab.
General James Abercromby, c. 1760
Allan Ramsay
Great Britain
oil on canvas
Fort Ticonderoga Museum, 2004.0043
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. J. Robert Maguire
On the left, "A SURVEY of the FORT at TIENDEROGA..." from the British Library Collection, digitized by the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library. On the right, an elevation model of the Ticonderoga battlefield produced by the University of Vermont's Spatial Analysis Lab.
