Battle of La Belle-Famille

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Battle of La Belle-Famille Part of the French and Indian War Date July 24, 1759 Location two miles (3 km) south of Fort Niagara Result British-Iroquois victory Belligerents France Britain Iroquois Confederacy Commanders François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery  † Eyre Massey Sayenqueraghta Strength 800 regular and militia 500 Indian 350 regular 100 New York militia 450 Iroquois Casualties and losses at least 334 killed at least 96 captured

v • d • e Seven Years' War in North America: The French and Indian War Jumonville Glen – Fort Necessity – Fort Beauséjour – Monongahela – Petitcodiac – Lake George – Fort Bull – Sideling Hill – Great Cacapon – Fort Oswego – Kittanning – 1st Snowshoes – Sabbath Day Point – Fort William Henry – Louisbourg (1757) – Bloody Creek – German Flatts – 2nd Snowshoes – Louisbourg (1758) – Fort Carillon – Fort Frontenac – Fort Duquesne – Fort Ligonier – La Belle-Famille – Fort Niagara – Fort Ticonderoga – Beauport – Quebec – St. Francis – Sainte-Foy – Restigouche – Thousand Islands – Signal Hill

The Battle of La Belle-Famille occurred on July 24, 1759, during the French and Indian War. near the portage of the Niagara river, when a French relief force for the French garrison at Fort Niagara (which the British had under siege) was ambushed and defeated by British and Indian forces.

The British knew of the French approach well in advance and constructed a breastwork across the road about two miles south of Fort Niagara. The French were ambushed, their force was routed, with many casualties. Captain Lignery was mortally wounded in the battle.^[1]

[edit] Background

British General Jeffrey Amherst made plans for the 1759 military campaigns of the French and Indian War that included an expedition to capture Fort Niagara, a major French military and supply point between the French province of Canada and their forts in the Ohio Country. Amherst chose Brigadier General John Prideaux to lead the expedition, which was accompanied by Sir William Johnson, the British Indian agent who led the expedition's Iroquois forces. Prideaux arrived at Fort Niagara on July 6 and immediately began siege operations. On July 20, Prideaux was killed when struck by a shell fragment thrown from one of his own guns, and Sir William took over the siege operations.

Fort Niagara had been largely constructed under the direction of Captain Pierre Pouchot of the French Army. In early 1759, General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and New France's Governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, sent him with about 2,500 men to fortify Niagara beyond to 500 men that had wintered there. Pouchot, under orders from Vaudreuil, sent many of those men south to Fort Machault in mid-June as part of a plan to reinforce the French forts of the Ohio Country and attack the British at Fort Pitt. When the British arrived on July 6, he immediately dispatched messages to the south, requesting support.

Captain François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery was organizing the French expedition against Fort Pitt from Fort Machault when Pouchot's appeal for help arrived on July 12. On that day, Lignery was trying to convince nearly 1,000 Indians to join in the planned attack against Fort Pitt. Johnson had sent messages to Fort Pitt, urging Indians there to join the British in attacking the French forts, and many Indians were unsure about which side to take. Lignery was able to rally support; when combined with forces under Charles Phillip Aubrey, a large force left Venango for Niagara. Messengers he sent to Pouchot also leaked news of their advance to the besieging British, who prepared an ambush.

[edit] Battle

Lignery and Aubrey, in spite of their knowledge of Indian ways, apparently advanced without the slightest attention to their surroundings, and marched right into Johnson's prepared trap. British forces blocking the road fired on their column as it marched along the portage road toward Fort Niagara, and the British-allied Iroquois burst out the woods on their flanks. The French began a panicked retreat, in which the British gave chase, according to one report, for as much as 5 miles (8.0 km). French casualties were significant, including Lignery, who sustained a mortal wound.

[edit] Aftermath

Pouchot surrendered Fort Niagara on July 26 after it became clear his relief had been driven off.

[edit] References

• Dunnugan, Brian Leigh, Siege - 1759, The Campaign against Niagara, 1996, ISBN 0-941967-15-8
• Frank Hayward Severance, An Old Frontier of France