Bruger:Ktp72/Gyngestativ
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| Slaget ved Fort William Henry | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Del af Franske og indianske Krig og Syvårskrigen (1756-1763) | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Parter | |||||||
| Frankrig Algonkin |
Storbritannien | ||||||
| Ledere | |||||||
| Louis-Joseph de Montcalm | Oberst-løjtnant George Monro | ||||||
| Styrke | |||||||
| 6.000 franske 1.600 algonkin |
2.500 | ||||||
| Tab | |||||||
| Ukendt | 297 døde & 2.308 tilfangetagne ved selve slaget c. 1.600 ved efterfølg. massakre |
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Slaget ved Fort William Henry i august 1757 mellem fortets britiske garnison og en franskledet angrebsstyrke var en del af den Nordamerikanske krigsskueplads i Syvårskrigen (1756-1763). Resultatet var et britisk tab af befæstningen. De franske styrker var under ledelse af Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, men en del af den hær, han havde med sig, bestod også af indfødte, fra allierede stammer. Den britiske garnison overgav sig efter flere dages belejring, og blev lovet fri afmarch af Montcalm. En britiske kolonne blev imidlertid overfaldet og dræbt af indfødte soldater; det gjorde slaget til et af de mest berygtede slag i den Franske og indianske Krig.
Indholdsfortegnelse |
[redigér] Baggrund
[redigér] Slaget
Fortets garnison var under ledelse af George Munro og den bestod af både regulære soldater og militsmænd, rekrutteret i kolonierne, de modstod i lang tid den franske belejring og tunge bombardement af fæstningsværkerne, men overgav sig efter en længere forhandling med Moncalm. Munro modsatte sig længe en overgivelse, men accepterede først, da han blev forevist et opsnappet budskab fra general James Webb, den øverstkommanderende i New York. Beskeden var at det ikke var muligt at sende forstærkninger til det belejrede fort. Da det var håbløst at fortsætte modstanden overgav Munro sig på Moncalms betingelser; briterne skulle straks forlade fortet med deres våben og uden at blive angrebet under tilbagetrækningen.
After the British withdrawal, French-aligned Native Americans attacked and killed a few hundred of the 3,000 troops and civilians in the column leaving the fort. Historians note that it is likely that Montcalm tried to prevent the attack, but probably lacked the political means to stop it by force - even though he commanded 6,000 regulars and militia compared to 1,600 natives.
General Webb did, in fact, send reinforcements to Fort William Henry, which arrived one day too late, and Webb was recalled to England for his failures. In addition, the loss of Fort William Henry was a severe blow to British war strategy and would preclude any attempt towards Montreal for the remainder of the year. Thus, by 1758, three years of bitter campaigning by the British had granted them almost no territorial gains against New France.
The events of the battle and subsequent killings were depicted in the 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper and in its various film adaptations.
[redigér] A note on the "massacre"
Montcalm attempted to negotiate an honourable surrender for the British troops. From a Native American perspective, the only way to surrender honorably was, to die quietly without a fight, or when in captivity, to sing a death song to please the barbaric capturers. In fact, the concept of surrender was pretty much out of the question to most Algonquin and Iroquoian tribes, because it nearly always elicited great pain and delusion in the form of needless torture. The Chiefs of the multiple Native tribes got a rough understanding of the very European military peace terms but did not successfully translate the terms to their more than 1000 men of multiple languages. In knowing there was anger and confusion over their peace terms, Montcalm and his men elected to quietly march the submitted British to Fort Edward, the closest British Fort early one morning. When some Natives saw the troops marching out they let out a war cry, alerting all the Natives. A few Natives ran in to the men looking for a war prize.
Many of the Natives were expected to bring home captives to work as slaves, replace dead family members, or sell to the French as servants. Scalping was also a popular way of acquiring war prize. Scalping took time and was most often done on the dead, but because of the panic for prizes during this event, some scalped men alive. Of the 2,308 soldiers, 2,000 ran, escaped or were returned. Many of them were returned through negotiations with the French. In some cases, the government in New France freed Americans and British by purchasing them from the Natives.
After the battle, native warriors disinterred, scalped, and robbed many corpses from the fort cemetery. Many of these had died of smallpox, so these natives carried the dreaded "spotted sickness" to their villages in the Great Lakes. A devastating outbreak of smallpox soon followed.
[redigér] Reconstruction of Fort William Henry
The British did not try to build over the site of Fort Willam Henry. The fort lay in ruins for many years. In the 1950s, excavation of the site eventually led to the reconstruction of Fort William Henry as a tourist destination for the Town of Lake George.
[redigér] External links
- An Account of the Two Attacks on Fort William Henry
- History of the 35th Foot in the French and Indian War
- The French Army 1600-1900
[redigér] Further reading
Steele, Ian K. (1990) Betrayals: Fort William Henry & the 'Massacre'. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505893-3
Bellico, Russel P. (1995) Chronicles of Lake George: Journeys in War and Peace. Purple Mountain Press. ISBN 0-935796-62-2

