A Sketch of Fort Niagara and Environs; by the French Commander Pouchot, Showing Improvements of 1756-1758.
A Sketch of Fort Niagara and Environs; by the French Commander Pouchot, Showing Improvements of 1756-1758.
Prideaux forced the siege by digging a series of trenches toward the fort, each one in advance of the last. Finally, just before merited success was achieved, a bursting cohorn killed Prideaux and thrust the command upon that deserving but lucky son of fortune, Sir William Johnson. The siege was pressed most diligently—as though Johnson was fearful that the honour thrust upon him would escape him through the arrival of General Gage, who was on his way to assume command. The fort was completely hemmed in, and its surrender was peremptorily demanded. Johnson was more than a match for the intriguing French Indians who attempted to alienate his Iroquois. He likewise played the clever soldier in handling the relieving army that was already on its Way from the West. Three of the four messages sent by Pouchot had been intercepted by the English commander's scouts. The one that went through successfully accomplished its purpose and twelve hundred recruits were en route for the besieged fortress. The scouts told of their progress, to which captured letters from the commanding officers, D'Aubrey and De Lignery, to General Pouchot, gave added information. Descending the Niagara from its head to Navy Island, the reinforcements awaited the commands of their general. The order was to hasten on. Johnson redistributed his force to meet the crisis, at once detailing a sufficient part to cope with the relieving party and retaining a sufficient quota to prevent a sortie from the rapidly crumbling fort, which at best could not hold out longer unless succoured. At an eighth of a mile from the fort, in olden times called La Belle Famille, now within the limits of the beautiful village of Youngstown, the clash occurred that settled the fate of the brave Pouchot. With the Iroquois posted in hiding on either flank and the regulars waiting behind slight breastworks, the French force rushed headlong to the attack within the carefully laid ambuscade. After the opening fire of the Indians, the English troop made a savage charge—and the affair was over; the retreating French were followed and nearly a hundred and fifty were captured, including the officers.
Sir William Johnson used his leverage thus gained upon the commander of the doomed fortress with alacrity and success, sending with the officer who went to demand its surrender some of the prisoners captured at the scrimmage up the river, who told the story of their defeat and rout. Had they known it, they might have added that the terror-stricken fugitives from that field of strife hastened to the fleet of boats (in which they had descended the Niagara) and, steering them all into what is called even to this day Burnt Ship Bay, on the shore of Grand Island, set fire to the entire flotilla, lest the English secure an added advantage; and from this fact may we not draw the conclusion that these French hoped to hold the remainder of the great western waterway even if Fort Niagara fell? They could not use those boats very well on the lower Niagara, though with them once in hand they could easily strike at Presqu' Isle and Detroit.
Canadian Trapper, from La Potherie.
Poor Pouchot demanded the best terms that he dared; it was agreed that the garrison should retain arms and baggage and one cannon as they marched out of the battered shell of a fort they had endeavoured to hold, and, upon laying down their arms, should be transported, in vessels furnished by the English, to New York; it was also demanded that they should be protected from the insults of the redskin allies of the English. That the latter stipulation was agreed to and honestly enforced illustrates the genuine hold Johnson had upon his brown brethren of the Long House. The articles were signed on the night of July 24th and on the 25th the flag of England rose to the breeze that fanned the lake and the wide-sweeping Niagara frontier—the second flag that had dominated that strategic spot in the century. The garrison numbered over six hundred men and eleven officers; the French total loss was about two hundred including the action at Youngstown; the English loss was sixty killed and 180 wounded. Forty-three iron cannon were found within the fort, fifteen hundred round shot, forty thousand pounds of musket-balls, five hundred hand grenades, and many tools, etc. The important result, however, was the removal of French domination over the warlike Seneca nation in this region and the natural inheritance that came with Niagara, the trade of which it was the centre. Near the site of the destroyed Fort du Portage, at the upper end of the portage, Captain Schlosser erected Fort Schlosser. Fort Niagara itself was improved; the present "bakehouse" was built in 1762. The Niagara of this time has been well described by Mr. Porter:
It was the head centre of the military life of the entire region, the guardian of the great highway and portage to and from the West; and hereabouts, as the forerunners of a coming civilisation and frontier settlement, the traders were securing for themselves the greatest advantages. To the rude transient population—red hunters, trappers, Indianised bush-rangers—starting out from this centre, or returning from their journeys of perhaps hundreds of miles, trooping down the portage to the fort, bearing their loads of peltries, and assisted by Indians who here made a business of carrying packs for hire, Fort Niagara was a business headquarters. There the traders brought their guns and ammunition, their blankets, and cheap jewelry, to be traded for furs; there the Indians purchased, at fabulous prices, the white man's "fire water," and many, yes, numberless were the broils and conflicts in and around the fort, when the soldiers under orders tried to calm or eject the savage element which so predominated in the life of the Garrison.