WEBVTT NOTE 39. Total War 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.600 Volume 2, Chapter 39, Total War 2 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:13.000 By the end of 1755, then, the first phase of the French and Indian War had ended. British 3 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.920 and Virginian attacks on Fort Duquesne had been smashed, as indeed had all the aggressive 4 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:25.760 expeditions against the French, except the campaign against Fort Beaux-Azur in New Brunswick, 5 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:33.120 A Victory Followed by the Expulsion of the Entire Peaceful French Population of Nova Scotia 6 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:40.400 Despite determined and continued efforts by the French to preserve the peace, war between 7 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:46.800 England and France officially broke out in the spring of 1756. 8 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:49.960 A new phase of the war had begun. 9 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:56.120 Women in France were now formally embarked on the Seven Years' War waged in Europe and 10 00:00:56.120 --> 00:01:03.120 in the overseas colonies in the East and the West. In America, Governor Shirley, in command 11 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:10.120 of the English forces, concentrated on the northern frontier with New France in New York. 12 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:16.840 The two main areas of conflict were on Lake Ontario in the West and the Lake George, Lake 13 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:23.240 in the Lake Champlain area north of Albany. But Shirley had his troubles at the two English 14 00:01:23.240 --> 00:01:31.240 western forts of Oswego and Ontario, which were wrecked by disease, lack of provisions, 15 00:01:31.240 --> 00:01:38.440 lack of money for soldiers' pay, and near-mutiny and mass desertions. Under Shirley, supplies 16 00:01:38.440 --> 00:01:44.920 to the forts had bogged down, graft abounded in connection with the Army's contracts, especially 17 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:48.340 in the Circle of Shirley's Friends. 18 00:01:48.340 --> 00:01:54.560 On the other side, the best new asset was the brilliant new commander in New France, 19 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:57.020 the Marquis de Montcombe. 20 00:01:57.020 --> 00:02:03.260 In a sparkling maneuver, Montcombe captured and destroyed Fort Ontario and Fort Oswego 21 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:06.600 in mid-August 1756. 22 00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:12.400 The British had now been driven from the entire Lake Ontario region, and this success now 23 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:18.320 Now induced many Iroquois, as well as other Western Indian tribes, to join the French 24 00:02:18.320 --> 00:02:24.860 side. At about the same time, Shirley was replaced as commander of American forces by 25 00:02:24.860 --> 00:02:31.360 the Earl of Loudoun, who soon sent Shirley packing out of the country in disgrace. The 26 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:38.120 Earl, however, did little better than Shirley. During the 1757 summer campaign, while the 27 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:45.280 Earl was mobilizing a huge force of 15,000 men for an assault on Lewisburg, an assault 28 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:53.760 that he had to abandon. Montcalm swept down and captured and destroyed Fort William Henry, 29 00:02:53.760 --> 00:02:59.640 the English stronghold of the southern tip of Lake George. Loudon had his troubles on 30 00:02:59.640 --> 00:03:05.760 the American home front as well. New Yorkers, particularly in New York City and Albany, 31 00:03:05.760 --> 00:03:32.760 New Jersey was a colony with heavy Quaker influence, and it was not, and would not, be part of the theater of war. 32 00:03:32.760 --> 00:03:39.760 Thus, self-interest, pacifist philosophy, and a natural instinct for liberty, all combined 33 00:03:41.160 --> 00:03:48.160 to resist a draft. Instead, New Jersey offered a handsome bounty for voluntary enlistments. 34 00:03:48.200 --> 00:03:54.200 Quaker justices of the peace, indeed, used their position to persuade recruits not to 35 00:03:54.200 --> 00:04:01.200 join up, and even imprisoned them on fictitious charges until their military outfits had gone. 36 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:25.200 Desertions from the army were frequent and generally went unpunished. In 1756 and 1757, the French, having repulsed the attacks of the English under the great general ship of Montcalm, were able to take the initiative and to win signal victories on Lake Ontario and on the upper New York frontier. 37 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:32.560 In the meanwhile, a grave and fateful turn of affairs was underway in Britain itself. 38 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:40.720 With the war, especially in America, going badly, England again faced the choice of retreating 39 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:50.120 or redoubling its efforts. It chose Charisma and William Pitt, the half-crazed arc-warmonger 40 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:57.360 of Them All. In malevolent contrast to his confrères, Pitt was the harbinger of a modern 41 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:04.760 war leader. Other European statesmen were content to fight for limited objectives and 42 00:05:04.760 --> 00:05:10.640 to indulge in an unedifying but at least a not fatally destructive jockeying over the 43 00:05:10.640 --> 00:05:18.720 balance of power. But Pitt, in his appetite for power, plunder and imperial glory, was 44 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:25.520 was satisfied with nothing less than total victory pursued by total mobilization and 45 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:33.400 an all-out drive to crush the enemy without quarter. His particular interest for many 46 00:05:33.400 --> 00:05:40.340 years had been the eradication of New France. Backed by the London merchants and financiers 47 00:05:40.340 --> 00:05:46.320 eager for conquest and plunder, and by the English masses swayed by his imperialistic 48 00:05:46.320 --> 00:05:56.720 Demagogy, Pitt rode to power in late 1756. After some faltering in early 1757, Pitt finally agreed 49 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:03.600 to add Cumberland's desire to pursue the war in Europe to his own plans for colonial conquest. 50 00:06:04.640 --> 00:06:15.520 Pitt was then firmly ensconced as virtually absolute war dictator by July 1757, a chastened 51 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:22.040 Newcastle, stayed to lend his important support as Prime Minister. From the time that Pitt 52 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:31.040 and his unlimited war took hold, the doom of New France was strategically inevitable. 53 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:36.240 Already critically short of provisions, the French in America were soon faced with an 54 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:45.600 Overwhelming and ever-increasing disadvantage in men and resources. All Montcalm could do, 55 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:51.800 which he did superbly, was to hold on as long as he could and hope for peace to be made 56 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:59.160 in Europe. At the end of 1757, Loudon was succeeded as commander-in-chief by General 57 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:04.360 James Abercrombie And Pitt proceeded to mobilize overwhelming 58 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:11.240 numbers against the French. The British were to pay for arms and ammunition, and partially 59 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:18.600 pay the expenses of the colonial troops. Even so, during the summer campaign of 1758, the 60 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:27.320 French won their last great victory. Led by Abercrombie, a huge force of over 6,000 regulars 61 00:07:27.320 --> 00:07:34.760 and 9,000 American troops marched on Fort Carillon, Ticonderoga. 62 00:07:34.760 --> 00:07:39.380 The French passed in at the southern tip of Lake Champlain. 63 00:07:39.380 --> 00:07:46.820 On July 8, the French met this giant force with only slightly more than 3,000 men, but 64 00:07:46.820 --> 00:07:50.780 again caught the English force to ribbons. 65 00:07:50.780 --> 00:07:56.220 The event was greatly aided by the stupid general ship of Abercrombie, who repeatedly 66 00:07:56.220 --> 00:08:02.560 Herald his unfortunate troops into volleys of frontal fire. 67 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:08.100 So large was the British force, however, that this proved but a temporary setback to their 68 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:15.420 plans. In complete command of the sea, a British fleet of forty ships carrying a land force 69 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:21.900 of over ten thousand men, the vast bulk of them British regulars, and a sea force of 70 00:08:21.900 --> 00:08:51.900 The French defenders, scarcely 6,000 strong, were soon forced to capitulate. The British celebrated their victory by expelling the entire French population from Cape Breton Island. Shortly afterward, at the end of August, Colonel John Bradstreet, commanding a force of over 3,000, found little trouble in swamping a fort in front of him. 71 00:08:51.900 --> 00:08:58.500 Frontenac, guarded by a hundred men. The loss of this key French fort on the northern side 72 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:06.980 of Lake Ontario cut communications between Canada and the Ohio Valley. General Abercrombie 73 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:12.420 was promptly removed from overall command and succeeded by General Jeffrey Amherst, 74 00:09:12.420 --> 00:09:18.180 the victor at Lewisburg. The obvious next step was the recapture of Fort Duquesne and 75 00:09:18.180 --> 00:09:23.380 and thus of the Ohio Valley. Paving the way for this was an agreement with the Delaware 76 00:09:23.380 --> 00:09:30.300 and Shawnee Indians, who had been conducting raids on the Pennsylvania frontier. Cheated 77 00:09:30.300 --> 00:09:36.360 of their lands by the walking purchase, these Indians had been further scandalized by the 78 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:44.400 Albany Convention Treaty of 1754. In this treaty, the Iroquois, vaguely and tenuously 79 00:09:44.400 --> 00:09:50.360 Overlords of the Ohio Valley Tribes were easily persuaded to sign away to the British 80 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:57.360 all the Ohio Valley lands, which were utterly remote from their control or genuine concern. 81 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:03.340 Finally, under the influence of Israel Pemberton and the Quakers, Pennsylvania concluded a 82 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:10.340 peace agreement with the Indians in October 1758, relinquishing Pennsylvania's entire 83 00:10:10.340 --> 00:10:15.620 Entire Claim to the Ohio Lands West of the Alleghenies 84 00:10:15.620 --> 00:10:22.620 The road was now paved for General John Forbes' expedition against Fort Duquesne with a force 85 00:10:22.660 --> 00:10:29.660 of about 6,000 men, the majority colonial militia. Again, the French defenders were 86 00:10:30.420 --> 00:10:36.860 hopelessly outnumbered, having no more than 1,000 men. Even though the Virginia route 87 00:10:36.860 --> 00:10:43.860 The route to Duquesne had already been built by Braddock. Forbes decided to hue a new road from Pennsylvania. 88 00:10:43.860 --> 00:10:51.860 The issue could not be endowed, however, and at the end of November the retreating French destroyed Fort Duquesne. 89 00:10:51.860 --> 00:10:58.860 The fort was soon rebuilt by the British and fittingly renamed Fort Pitt, 90 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:05.860 with all the main French positions west and east captured except for Fort Niagara, 91 00:11:05.860 --> 00:11:13.180 and enjoying absolute command of the sea, the British at the start of 1759 were in a firm 92 00:11:13.180 --> 00:11:17.620 position to strike into the Canadian heartland. 93 00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:24.180 Montcalm, commanding about 10,000 men and low on provisions, confronted the prospect 94 00:11:24.180 --> 00:11:31.300 of opposing five times that number and knew that he could only concentrate his forces 95 00:11:31.300 --> 00:11:35.620 in the heartland and hope for a general peace. 96 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:42.340 He was, however, beset by troubles, both from a governor who had no conception of the danger 97 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:50.020 and dreamed absurdly of retaking Lake Ontario and even Fort Pitt, and from a corrupt and 98 00:11:50.020 --> 00:11:54.380 venal status bureaucracy in Canada. 99 00:11:54.380 --> 00:12:01.620 The first tasks of the British in 1759 were to capture Fort Niagara and the Lake Champlain 100 00:12:01.620 --> 00:12:18.060 General John Pridot, with several thousand men, laid siege to less than 500 at Fort Niagara. 101 00:12:18.060 --> 00:12:22.820 Despite a series of blunders that included the accidental killing of Pridot by British 102 00:12:22.820 --> 00:12:29.900 shells, sheer British numbers overwhelmed the fort at the end of July. Furthermore, a poorly 103 00:12:29.900 --> 00:12:37.120 The organized French Relief Party of nearly 1500 was captured and destroyed, though West 104 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:40.560 was firmly in British hands. 105 00:12:40.560 --> 00:12:46.060 In the meanwhile, Amherst advanced with about 12,000 men, approximately half British and 106 00:12:46.060 --> 00:12:52.200 half provincials, against only 2,500 French at Fort Carillon. 107 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:58.240 The French could only blow up Fort Carillon and then Fort St. Frederick and retreat northward. 108 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:04.440 By the end of July, the British had thus cleared all the outposts south of Canada and were 109 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:07.560 ready for the climactic blow. 110 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:14.080 In fact, the British probably could have finished the war swiftly if Hamhurst had had the tenacity 111 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:19.120 to march north from Lake Champlain and capture Montreal. 112 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:26.280 Instead, Hamhurst wasted a great deal of precious time building elaborate forts at Crown Point 113 00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:33.280 and Ticonderoga, which were irrelevant both to the current war and to the future frontier. 114 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:41.360 After this, Amherst dwindled until the onset of winter suspended operations. While Montreal 115 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:46.760 was to remain as the major British effort of the following year, the climatic battle 116 00:13:46.760 --> 00:13:53.760 of the war was achieved in the capture of Quebec, the goal of so many British expeditions 117 00:13:53.760 --> 00:14:07.760 In June 1759, a force of about 9,000 under young General James Wolfe launched an amphibious campaign up the St. Lawrence. 118 00:14:07.760 --> 00:14:18.760 The huge fleet under Vice Admiral Charles Saunders included 170 ships carrying some 18,000 seamen. 119 00:14:18.760 --> 00:14:28.760 A hard-line militarist and imperialist, Wolf had nothing but the utmost contempt for Americans, 120 00:14:28.760 --> 00:14:35.480 French or Indians, and he wantonly destroyed and devastated the French settlements as he 121 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:42.480 went. After three months of aimless and futile siege, Wolf finally ascended to the plan of 122 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:49.800 of His Brigadiers. With a force of 3,500 men, he executed a surprise maneuver to ascend 123 00:14:49.800 --> 00:14:56.040 to the plains of Abraham, near Quebec, where he routed the slightly smaller force of Mont 124 00:14:56.040 --> 00:15:02.720 Calme's. Quebec's surrender was a matter of a few days. By the middle of September, 125 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:09.000 the seat of French power in the New World had fallen. Despite the loss of Quebec and 126 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:14.840 And of the great Montcalm, who had also fallen at the plains of Abraham, the amazing French 127 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:22.120 fought on. The new French commander, the Chevalier de la Ville-Lorraine, even administered a 128 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:28.600 drubbing to the British forces the following spring. The British, too, had a new commander, 129 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:35.040 General James Murray, for Wolf had also been killed at the plains of Abraham. The French 130 00:15:35.040 --> 00:15:42.440 Indeed might well have recaptured Quebec, but once again numbers prevailed, and a British 131 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:49.620 relief party turned to the tide. Finally, three forces converged on Montreal. Murray 132 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:56.280 from Quebec, Amherst up the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario, and Colonel William Haviland 133 00:15:56.280 --> 00:16:04.720 up the Richelieu River from Lake Champlain. Montreal finally fell on September 8, 1760. 134 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:11.440 The British had succeeded in conquering all of Canada. The war with the French, so far 135 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.080 as America was concerned, was over.