The French and Indian War marked the beginning of a long decline for the native peoples in Canada and the United States. Their decisive role in that war has often been ignored, as shown on a fall morning in 2001 when a reporter for the Montreal Gazette described a moving ceremony. On that day the Marquis de Montcalm's "simple brown casket" was removed from its resting place in the chapel of the Ursuline convent. It was draped with the French flag under which he served and then placed on a carriage. "The Montcalm honour guard flanked the carriage on both sides. Soldiers bearing flags with the crest of each regiment Montcalm commanded followed." The cortege wound its way through the narrow streets of old Quebec as citizens and tourists stood silently watching. The procession entered the cemetery of the General Hospital and there, with proper ceremony, Montcalm was buried among his soldiers. Standing nearby, a British regiment, Fraser's Highlanders, played a musical tribute. The report did not mention any native peoples present. They were, once again, invisible.5
*English laws were not generally accepted in Quebec, especially in matters of "property and civil rights." The Quebec Act of 1774 reinstated French civil law to apply in respect to such matters.
Notes
CA Canadian Achives
DCB Dictionary of Canadian Biography
DNB Dictionary of National Biography
JR Jesuit Relations
MHS Massachusetts Historical Society
NYCD New York Colonial Documents
PCR Pennsylvania Colonial Records
Prologue
1. Carl Brasseaux, The Founding of New Acadia (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987), passim; John Bartlett Brebner, New England's Outpost: Acadia Before the Conquest of Canada (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927), pp. 166—202.
2. John C. Webster, The Career of the Abbe Le Loutre in Nova Scotia (Shediac: Privately printed, 1933), pp. 1-2; DCB, 4:455.
3. Ibid., p. 1.
4. In the early 1730s the Tuscarora migrated north and joined the Iroquois Confederation, becoming the sixth nation. Daniel K. Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), pp. 238—39.
5. Charles de Reymond to Phillippe Thomas Chabert de Joncaire, May 22, 1750, quoted in Theodore C. Pease, ed., Anglo-French Boundary Disputes in the West, 1749—1763 (Springfield: Illinois State Library, 1936), p. xv.
1. Lining Up Allies
Epigraph. Wisconsin Historical Society Collections 18 (1908): 57.
1. DCB, 3:29.
2. Ralph M. Sargent, ed., Travels into North America by Peter Kalrn (Barre: Imprint Society, 1972), pp. 361-62; DCB, 3:29; James Pritchard, Louis XVs Navy, 174, 8-176? (Kingston: Queens University Press, 1987), p. 7.
3. JR, 69:161.
4. Quoted in Norman W. Caldwell, The French in the Mississippi Valley (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1941), p. 97.
5. "Céloron's Expedition," Wisconsin Historical Society Collections 18 (1908), p. 57.
6. Galissonière s long memo maybe found in Theodore C, Pease, Anglo-French Boundary Disputes (Springfield, 111.: Illinois State Historical Library, 1936), pp. 5-22. For Shirley's views, see Shirley to Duke of Bedford April 24, 1749, Charles Henry Lincoln, ed., Correspondence of William Shirley, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1912), 1:478—80.
7. Shirley to Duke of Bedford April 24, 1749. Lincoln, Correspondence of William Shirley, 1:478.
8. François-Marie de Voltaire, Candide ou l'optimisme (Amsterdam, 1759). Reprinted in Les Oeuvres completes de Voltaire, edition critique par Rene Pomeau (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 48:223.
9. Patrice Higgonet, "The Origins of the Seven Years War," Journal of Modern History 40 (1968):
10. Shirley to Duke of Newcastle, Paris, September 1, 1750, Lincoln, Correspondence of William Shirley, 1:508—9; John A. Schutz, William Shirley, King's Governor of Massachusetts (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961), p. 166.
11. Paul Langford, The Eighteenth Century: 1688—1815 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 129—30. For an analysis of the importance of fiscal management to British power, see John Brewer, Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1988).
12. Ralph Davis, "English Foreign Trade, 1700—1774," in W. E. Minchinton, ed., The Growth of English Overseas Trade in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London: Methuen, 1969), pp. 105—6, 118; Linda Colley, Forging the Nation, 1707—1837 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 62—69.
13. Quoted in Zenab E. Rashed, The Peace of Paris (Liverpool: University Press, 1951), p. 5.
14. Corelli D. Barnett, Britain and Her Army, 1509—1970 (New York: William Morrow, 1970), pp. 179—80; Steven Ross, From Flintlock to Rifle: Infantry Tactics, 1740—1866 (London: Frank Cass, 1966), p. 35.
15. For the French army, see Lee Kennett, The French Armies in the Seven Years War (Durham: Duke University Press, 1967), particularly pp. 72—87.
16. Quoted in Herbert W Richmond, "The Influence of Seapower in the Struggle with France in North America and India," National Review 75 (1920): 400.
17. Quoted in Jeremy Black, A System of Ambition ? British Foreign Policy, 1660—1793 (London: Longmans, 1991), p. 43.
18. Langford, The Eighteenth Century, p. 129.
19. Duke of Newcastle to Horace Walpole May 14, 1754, quoted in Lawrence Henry Gipson, "A French Project for Victory Short of a Declaration of War," Canadian Historical Review 26 (1945): 362; Duke of Newcastle to Joseph Yorke, January 15, 1755, quoted in T R. Clayton, "The Earl of Halifax and the American Origins of the Seven Years War," Historical Journal 24 (1981): 527.
20. Earl of Holderness to the governors in America, Whitehall, August 28, 1753, NYCD, 6:794—95.
21. Schutz, William Shirley, pp. 174—75.
2. George Washington Helps Start a War
Epigraph. (Williamsburg, January 1754), The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, ed. W. W. Abbot (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983), 1:65.
1. DCB, 3:6n.
2. Charles Le Moyne de Longueil to M. Rouille (minister of marine), April 21, 1752, NYCD, 10:245—51. The letter also summarizes the situation in Canada.
3. "Minute of Instructions to Be Given to M. Duquesne," April 1752, NYCD, 10:243, 220—31.
4. Charles A. Hanna, The Wilderness Trail, 2 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1911), 2:289-90.
5. Duquesne to Rouille, October 25, 1753, Wisconsin Historical Society Collections 18 (1908): 128.
6. DCB, 3:431-32; Duquesne to Rouille, August 20, 1753, NYCD, 10:256.
7.DCB, 3:613-15; Donald H. Kent,The French Invasion of Western, Pennsylvania, 1753 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1954), pp. 46-50.
8. William Johnson to George Clinton, April 20, 1753, NYCD, 6:778-79; James Thomas Flexner, Lord of the Mohawks: A Biography of Sir William Johnson (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), p. 114.
9. "Minutes of Meeting Between His Excellency the Honble George Clinton and Seventeen Mohawk Indians, June 12-16, 1753," NYCD, 6:782, 788.
10. Thomas Lee to Hamilton Stratford, November 22, 1749. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania. PCR (Harrisburg: Theo Fenn, 1851), 5:423. For a sympathetic account of Dinwiddie, see Louis L. Koontz, Robert Dinwiddie (Glendale: Arthur H. Clark, 1941), pp. 157-72. John R. Alden is more critical in Robert Dinwiddie Servant of the Crown (Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg, 1973); Donald Jackson, ed., The Diaries of George Washington, 6 vols. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1976), 1:118—29.
11. Washington's commission and instructions, both dated October 30, 1753, are in W W. Abbot, ed., The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983), 1.56-62; Dinwiddie to M. St. de Pierre, October 31, 1753, NYCD, 10:258.
12. Washington's own account of his journey may be found in Jackson, Diaries, 1:118—61. Secondary accounts abound, including Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, 7 vols. (NewYork: Charles Scri
bner's Sons, 1948-57), 1:274-326.
13. Jackson, Diaries, 1:148.
14. Ibid., 1:15m.
15. Ibid., 1:160—6in.
16. Lawrence Henry Gipson,The British Empire Before the American Revolution, 15 vols. (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1958-70), 4:300; Koontz, Dinwiddie, pp. 249-52.
17. DCB, 4:616—18; J. C. B., an anonymous officer of la Marine, kept a journal of the expedition. Sylvester K. Stevens, Donald H. Kent, and Emma E. Woods, eds., Travels in New France by J. C. B. (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1941), pp. 5—64.
18. Stevens, et al., Travels in New France by J. C. B., p. 56; Koontz, Dinwiddie, pp. 307—9.
19. "Instructions to be Observ'd by Major Geo. Washington on the Expeditn to the Ohio," Abbot, Papers of George Washington, 1:65. Washington kept a journal on this mission. The original was taken by the French when Washington surrendered at Fort Necessity and has since disappeared. A translated version (apparently from the original) was published in Paris in 1756. An English version appeared in New York the following year.
20. Washington to Dinwiddie, March 9, 1754, Abbot, Papers of George Washington, 1:73-74.
21. Stobo had a remarkable career in the war. Robert C. Alberts, The Most Extraordinary Adventures of Major Robert Stobo (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965).
22. Jackson, Diaries, 1:177.
23. Ibid., 1:180; Washington to James Hamilton, April 24, 1754, Abbot, Papers of George Washington, 1:83-84.
24. Jackson, Diaries, 1:180.
25. While a prisoner of the French at Duquesne, Robert Stobo drew a plan of the fort. Robert Stobo, Memoirs of Robert Stobo (Pittsburgh: J. S. Davidson, 1854); Freeman, Washington, i: unnumbered pages between pp. 437-38.
26. Washington's account is in both Jackson, Diaries, 1:191—99 and Abbot, Papers of George Washington, 1:104—19.
27. Jackson, Diaries, 1:195—97, n. 59. Robert C. Alberts, ACharming Field for an Encounter. (Washington: National Park Service, 1975), p. 62; Fred Anderson, Crucible of War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), pp. 50-59.
28. Washington to John Augustine Washington, May 31, 1754, Abbot, Papers of George Washington 1:118.
29. Washington to Dinwiddie, May 29, 1754, ibid., 1 :111.
30. Quoted in Alberts, A Charming Field, p. 20.
31. Washington to Dinwiddie, Great Meadows, May 27, 1754, Abbot, Papers of George Washington, 1:105.
32. Washington to Dinwiddie, Great Meadows, June 3, 1754, ibid., 1:124. Sometime before June 25 Washington named the place Fort Necessity.
33. Stevens, et al., Travels in New France by J. C. B., pp. 59-60; DCB, 3:148-49; M. Varinto M. Bigot, July 24, 1754, NYCD, 10:260-61; extract from M. de Villiers journal, NYCD, 10:261-62.
34. For an account of the surrender of the fort and the Articles of Capitulation, see Abbot, Papers of George Washington, 1:157-73.
35. Quoted in Alberts, ACharming Field, p. 35.
36. PCR, 6:156.
3. Braddock's March
Epigraph. Stanley M. Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, 1748-1765 (New York: D. Appleton Century, 1936), p. 85.
1. After a war ending in 1713, the Tuscarora, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe, were displaced from their homelands in the Carolinas. Remnants of the tribe migrated north and joined their Iroquois cousins to become the sixth nation.
2. Lords of Trade to the governors in America, September 18, 1753, NYCD, 6:802; Timothy Shannon, Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), passim.
3. James Delancey to Lords of Trade, October 15, 1753, NYCD, 6:803-4.
4. Roger R. Trask, "Pennsylvania and the Albany Congress, 1754," Pennsylvania History 27 (1966): 273-75.
5. Hendrick's speech is recorded in the minutes of the meeting. NYCD, 6:870; James H. Merrill, Into the American Woods (NewYork: Norton, 1999), p. 300.
6. The historiography concerning the Albany Congress is considerable. See Verner W Crane and Lawrence Henry Gipson, "On the Drafting of the Albany Plan of Union," Pennsylvania History 27 (i960): 126—36; John A. Schutz, William Shirley, King's Governor of Massachusetts (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961), p. 184; John R. Alden, "The Albany Congress and the Creation of the Indian Superintendencies," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 27 (1940): 193—210; Francis Jennings, Empire of Fortune (New York: Norton, 1988), pp. 72-108. The Plan of Union maybe found in NYCD, 6:903-6.
7. Quoted in Elizabeth Malcolm-Smith, British Diplomacy in the Eighteenth Century, 1700—1789 (London: Williams and Norgate, 1987), p. 133.
8. Harvey E. Fisk, English Public Finance from the Revolution of 1688. (New York: Bankers Trust, 1920), p. 122.
9. Newcastle to Walpole, May 14, 1754, quoted in Lawrence Henry Gipson, "A French Project for Victory Short of a Declaration of War, 1755," Canadian Historical Review 26 (1945): 362. Paul Langford suggests that the death of Henry Pelham began an era of instability that was not to end until the establishment of the administration of Lord North in the early 1770s; see Langford, The Eighteenth Century (London: Aand C Black, 1976), p. 185. Patrice Louis-Rene Higgonnet, "The Origins of the Seven Years War," Journal of Modem History 40 (1968): 69.
10. Sketch of regulations and orders, November 16, 1754, Pargellis, Military Affairs, pp. 34—36.
11. Lee McCardell, Ill-Starred General Braddock of the Coldstream Guards (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958), pp. 3-134.
12. Higgonnet, "Origins," pp. 79-81; Machault to Duquesne, October 6, 1754, NYCD, 10:270; Ian Steele, Guerrillas and Grenadiers (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969), p. 57; Max Savelle, The Diplomatic History of the Canadian Boundary, 1749—1763 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), pp. 58-60.
13. Sketch for the operations in North America, November 16, 1754, Pargellis, Military Affairs, pp. 45-48.
14. For the role of the commander in chief, see Clarence E. Carter, "The Office of the Commander in Chief a Phase of Imperial Unity on the Eve of the American Revolution," in Richard B. Morris, ed., Studies Inscribed to Evarts B. Greene (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), pp. 170—218; Henry P. Beers, "The Papers of the British Commanders in Chief in North America, 1754-1788," Military Affairs 13 (1949): 79—81; Alan Rogers, Empire and Liberty: American Resistance to British Authority, 1755—1763 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), pp. 52—53, 76, 90—91. Braddock's Instructions are in Winthrop Sargent, ed., The History of an Expedition Against Fort Duquesne in 1755 (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Granbo, 1855), pp. 393-400.
15. Captain Orme's journal, in Sargent, History of an Expedition Against Fort Duquesne, pp. 281-357. Winthrop's History contains much more than Orme's journal, and it is the single most useful collection of sources on Braddock's march.
16. For a description of the regiments posted to North America, see Charles H. Stewart, comp., The Service of British Regiments in Canada and North America (Ottawa: Department of National Defense Library, 1962).
17. John St. Clair to Braddock, n.d., Pargellis, Military Affairs, p. 64.
18. Orme's journal, pp. 290—91; McCardell, Ill-Starred General, p. 166.
19. Different routes in North America, Pargellis, Military Affairs, pp. 31—33; Colonel Henry Bouquet to General John Stanwix, April 26, 1760, "The Aspinwall Papers," Collections of the MHS, 4th series, 9:243-45.
20. Orme's journal, pp. 296-97. Across level country the army marched at a rate of slightly less than two miles per hour. Ten miles was a good march for a single day. H. C. B. Rogers, The British Army of the Eighteenth Century (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1977), p. 77.
21. "A Proportion of Brass Ordnance, Howitzers and Stores . . . ," Pargellis, Military Affairs, pp. 479-87; Harold L. Peterson, Round Shot and Rammers (South Bend: South Bend Replicas, 1969), pp. 38-48; Rogers, British Army, pp. 80-81. Braddock estimated that in total he needed, 2,500 horses. Braddock to Napier, June 8, 1755, Pargellis, Military Affairs, p. 85.
22. Robert Orme to Washington, Williamsburg, March 2, 1755,
Abbot, Papers of George Washington, 1:241.
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