Battle of Fort Niagara

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Fort Niagara
partof=the French and Indian War


caption=
date=July 6 – July 26, 1759
place=near Youngstown, New York
result=British-Iroquois victory
combatant1=flagicon|France|restauration [George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana, "The American Cyclopaedia", New York, 1874, p. 250, "...the standard of France was white, sprinkled with golden fleur de lis...". * [http://www.anyflag.com/history/fleur23.htm] The original Banner of France was strewn with fleurs-de-lis. * [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgdisplaylargemeta.cfm?strucID=585779&imageID=1236061&parent_id=585395&word=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&num=0&imgs=12&total=98&pos=1&snum=] :on the reverse of this plate it says: "Le pavillon royal était véritablement le drapeau national au dix-huitième siecle...Vue du chateau d'arrière d'un vaisseau de guerre de haut rang portant le pavillon royal (blanc, avec les armes de France)." [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Flag] from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: "The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour."] France
combatant2=Britain
Iroquois Confederacy
commander1=Pierre Pouchot
commander2=John Prideaux † William Johnson
Sayenqueraghta
strength1=486
strength2=2,000 regular 1,000 militia 945 Iroquois
casualties1=109 killed or wounded
377 captured
casualties2=239 killed or wounded|

The Battle of Fort Niagara was one of the final battles in the French and Indian War, the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. The British attack on Fort Niagara was part of a campaign to remove French fortifications from the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions, allowing for a western invasion of New France in conjunction with General Wolfe's invasion to the east.

In early June, Pouchot sent 2,500 of his 3,000 of his men to prepare for engagements in the Ohio valley. Having secured Fort Oswego the previous month, Brigadier General, John Prideaux arrived at Fort Niagara on July 6 with 2,500 men. The French had about one hundred Iroquois allies at the Fort who deserted when the British arrived. Captain Pouchot directed a vigorous defense that claimed Prideaux's life several days into the siege. Command of the British army fell to Sir William Johnson. The French capitulated on July 26 after a French relief force was defeated at the Battle of La Belle-Famille two miles south of the fort. After a 20-day siege, a British army under Brigadier General, John Prideaux forced the surrender of Fort Niagara from the French on July 26, 1759.

Aftermath

Following the loss of Fort Niagara, manpower shortages (General Montcalm had assembled the remnants of New France's military in Quebec City in anticipation of the decisive British blow) compelled the French to withdraw their depleted garrisons from Fort St. Frédéric and even from Fort Carillon, so famously held from the British the previous summer. Although the easy water route to Montreal and the St. Lawrence Valley via Lake Champlain now lay open, French resistance at Niagara and elsewhere had sufficiently delayed the battle to prolong the war for another year and to allow the Chevalier de Lévis to fight one last battle for the reclamation of Quebec in 1760.

References

Bibliography

*cite book|last=Dunnigan|first=Brian Leigh|title=Siege - 1759, The Campaign against Niagara|year=1996|id= ISBN 0-941967-15-8