Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 9 - The Battle of Fort Bull
192 Plays1 month ago
A daring, midwinter raid on an isolated outpost. Crucial decisions to make in the heat of the moment. Fallout that will affect the rest of the year's campaigns. Tune in to learn about the Battle of Fort Bull in March of 1756. You'll also hear a sad story about a tragic mishap in our podcast!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to Tales from the French and Indian War. I am your host, Jackson, and I am joined, as always, by my co-host, Matt. Hello, Matt. Hello, Jackson. How are you?
00:00:24
Speaker
I'm doing well this evening. How are you? I'm doing quite wonderful. Thank you. Excellent. And listeners, I hope you are doing well as well.
Technical Difficulties and Lost Episode
00:00:35
Speaker
I have ah a little bit of a confession to make, though, before we get into the story of today's episode, what we're talking about. And that is that last weekend...
00:00:47
Speaker
Matt was and I were actually in the same location. He and ah another one of our friends, Ben, had come down to play our favorite board game, Twilight Imperium. And since we were getting together, like physically, which only happens a few times a year, we're like, oh, we should probably record a podcast episode while we're all together, too. That would be fun.
00:01:06
Speaker
So I was thinking of some ways to to involve our other friend, Ben. i i had the subject of the episode under wraps, and then I developed this kind of quiz format as I was going to tell the story of what we're talking about today, which is the Battle of Fort Bull.
00:01:24
Speaker
And we sat down together, went through the episode. it was a lot of fun, lot of good banter back and forth. ah It was probably one of my favorite episodes.
00:01:36
Speaker
And just as we ended recording and I tried to play back the sound, it was completely silent because there was a mishap during the audio checks beforehand and the microphone was actually off.
00:01:52
Speaker
so wow So we had a really great episode, ah and that is what I had posted about in our Facebook account. We're still going to be telling the story of Fort Bull, but it'll just be a little bit less fun without the quiz element now that Matt knows all the answers and our friend Ben is no longer here.
00:02:11
Speaker
I think I will say, though, it'll be pretty fun for the listener because the Battle of Fort Bull, as you'll hear, is... um You can have a ah movie about it. ah it's ah It's pretty interesting. And, you know, this podcast is called Tales from the French and Indian War. And I would say this is probably one of the coolest tales that we talked about thus far. So um I think it's, as you said, Jackson, very much worth telling.
00:02:34
Speaker
um And I think it'll, you know, I think we'll highlight some of the the points in the story where, you know, questions popped up about what might happen next. And ah we can still pose those to the listener.
00:02:46
Speaker
And I guarantee that all of you out there will not ah get the correct answer on all of these because it's kind of a wild story. So, um yeah, I guess without further ado, Jackson, let's dive into it.
Revisiting the Battle of Fort Bull
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, well, sorry, just a little bit more ado. um i know in last episode we had said, were going to talk about the official declaration of war and the developments in Europe, but we just wanted to take a little bit more time, do a couple episodes on some smaller events in North America before we do that episode, because that'll take a a lot more research and we don't want to skip over too much.
00:03:23
Speaker
We also had a commenter specifically request. We go into the details and dive into the story of some of the ah frontier raids that we talked about generally last episode with our special guest, Brady Kreitzer. But we didn't go too much into the the weeds of specific raids. So we're probably going to do an episode looking at some of those.
00:03:45
Speaker
um And then we'll get back to what ah we had previously talked about, the events in Europe and official declaration for So thanks for hanging with us as we ah kind of meander our way through 1755, going into here with the the battle of fort bolt Alright, so for many of you listeners, you may not have heard about the Battle of Fort Bull.
Strategic Importance of Fort Bull
00:04:10
Speaker
Overall, in the grand scheme of things, it is a pretty minor engagement, but the story of it is fun kind of like, don't know, like some kind of action movie, a big budget production, like, ah as we tell the story, you you'll you'll see.
00:04:25
Speaker
But um this is taking place in upstate New York, what is modern day upstate New York, right in like that center of the upstate area. So where Fort Bull was located is pretty much where modern Rome, New York is. So that is just a little bit east of Syracuse and Oneida Lake.
00:04:47
Speaker
And the reason there were British installations here was because this is part of the supply line and the the the main route From Albany, which is kind of the British colonies fur trade hub, that's where they're penetrating into the continent from.
00:05:07
Speaker
as From Albany to the west, you go along the Mohawk River and then you get to this area known as the Oneida Cary, with a great carrying place where Fort Bull is located and also another British fort, Fort Williams, which we'll touch on.
00:05:23
Speaker
And then from there, along Lake Oneida and then the Oswego River leads to Fort Oswego, which is the most extreme British position. It's the only British fort on the Great Lakes at this time. And it's ah kind of a middle finger to the French because the Great Lakes are pretty much have ah been considered French lakes.
00:05:45
Speaker
You know, the French have the east side of the Great Lakes and pretty much are all the way on the west side of the Great Lakes. They've got Detroit, they've got Frontenac, they've got Niagara, they've got Michelin-Mackinac.
00:05:56
Speaker
you know they're all over the Great Lakes. But there's one little British post, Fort Oswego, which is actually, I think, there's like three forts kind of all gathered there at the mouth of the river going into Lake Ontario.
00:06:09
Speaker
This British fort is a threat to multiple French positions. So this supply line that I just talked about going from Albany west across this portage site where Fort Bull is located and then finally up to Fort Oswego,
00:06:23
Speaker
is a very critical one for the British. Now, this action is taking place in the winter, 1755-1756 winter, right at the tail end of it in March.
00:06:36
Speaker
However, it was a very brutal winter for all of the British positions along this route. there It was very cold. and know in Fort Oswego particularly, there were at least 200 troops who died that winter of either cold, disease, or hunger.
00:06:52
Speaker
The garrisons in Fort Bull and Fort William were on half rations. There was a ah lot of disease kind of spreading there. So it's been a, to set the stage, it's been a very miserable cold winter. And if you live in the Northern United States, especially upstate New York or like Northern Ohio or like New England, you know how cold and snowy and dark these winters can get.
00:07:19
Speaker
I know Matt and I, we grew up getting lake effect snow from Lake Erie all the time. So we know what, definitely we know how cold and bitter some of these winters can be.
00:07:30
Speaker
So the British are experiencing that. Yeah, just one thing I'll add to this was something I learned about when I was like researching the Revolutionary War a few years ago, but um in this time period, winter was seen as a non fighting season.
00:07:45
Speaker
So traditional armies, ah like the French and the British, they're talking about just their general line infantry and stuff like that would not typically fight in the winter for these reasons. i even if they had a tactical advantage. And you'll see that when like George Washington crosses the Delaware, that there is some tactical advantage in attacking during the winter because it was kind of, it was commonplace not to, not to conduct military action. So, um and the fact that this, this winter is so brutal and,
00:08:14
Speaker
taking such a toll on both Fort Williams and Fort Bull will have huge effect on on this battle. And we'll see that the fact too, that they couldn't have fresh food um in these forts. A lot of what they had were dried rations. So, um you know, things like hard tack and, and ah salt pork and those types of rations, that's typically what they would eat. They wouldn't have a lot of, um,
00:08:36
Speaker
any fruit or vegetables and stuff like that. And ah one of the diseases that you'll see in these forts is scurvy going around, which, you know, we always think a scurvy with pirates getting enough vitamin C, but it it also has an effect too on ah these soldiers that are cooped up in these forts for long winters and surviving only on grains and and whatever salted meat they could get. So um it has the same effect and it is very debilitating and really takes men out of fighting shape, which we'll see has ah has a huge effect in this in this battle.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah. Those are great comments. I think, yeah, it wasn't until the end of the 1700s, I believe, that scurvy was really understood and successfully combated against with, I think, was it citrus, I think, or certain kinds of fruit can really combat that.
00:09:25
Speaker
ah So yeah, at this time, that is still wreaking havoc indeed.
French Strategy and Winter Raid
00:09:30
Speaker
Yeah. So why is any military action taking place at this area that we have just talked about at Fort Bole?
00:09:39
Speaker
What is happening here, the French have targeted this area, the Governor General Vaudray. He has targeted this area for a surprise winter raid for a couple of reasons.
00:09:51
Speaker
First reason is to destroy some British warehouses on this carrying place. As we described, the goods are flowing and the the goods, supplies, reinforcements are flowing west from Albany to this place and then out to Fort Oswego in a pretty constant rotation.
00:10:10
Speaker
So by striking here, they can cripple Fort Oswego by interrupting that flow of much needed supplies, especially during such a terrible winter as this. But that is not only going to defend French positions like Fort Frontenac, just a little bit to the north of Fort Oswego and Fort Niagara, which if you remember,
00:10:32
Speaker
In the 1755 campaign, it was kind of a stretch goal, a little in fantasy land, but the British wanted to take Fort Niagara if everything went their way, which obviously did not with Braddock's defeat and surely not being able to get anywhere past Oswego.
00:10:48
Speaker
But ah by striking and disrupting the supplies here, the French hope to protect those ah those French installations, but also kind of prepare the ground for their own attack on Fort Oswego, which will come in a few months in 1756.
00:11:04
Speaker
So we are looking here at the end of February is when this tale will begin. The governor general is going to choose Gaspard-Joseph Chosgro de Lary,
00:11:17
Speaker
ah In the the episode that we had recorded that is no longer with us on ah this past weekend, I had Matt try to pronounce that and my our friend Ben to see who could get the best pronunciation and earn a point. But alas that is lost.
00:11:34
Speaker
I would like to say that I won that competition for the record. so You did get the point for the closest pro pronunciation, which I was very proud of because ah as the listeners have known, you've come a long way since the first couple episodes with French pronunciation.
00:11:48
Speaker
Zero French, but I mean, I've just soaked up everything that you've said over the past few months, Jackson. saw So i really i'm more of a student than a teacher myself, but yes.
00:12:00
Speaker
Excellent. Delary, we'll just call him and that kind of title or land name, noble nobility name. He was selected. He had ah a good amount of experience all throughout New France, particularly as a military engineer, improving defenses and infrastructure around a few different forts and cities.
00:12:22
Speaker
He's going to bring down from Montreal with him about 100 troupes de la Marine, our colonial Marines, and some French infantry regulars, about 160 Canadian militia, Indians.
00:12:35
Speaker
and then about ninety indians primarily of a like a separated branch of the Mohawk tribe, the Kahnawaake Mohawks. Definitely didn't pronounce that right.
00:12:48
Speaker
They're not part of the Iroquois League, but they were previously part of the Mohawk tribe and then moved north more towards Canada and were more in the French zone of influence, as well as, I believe, a few Wyandotte or Huron Indians.
00:13:02
Speaker
So about 300 or 250 to 300 troops will be coming down from Montreal. They're leaving the city on February 29th. So this is still, you know, right in the intense part of winter. Spring is not here yet.
00:13:18
Speaker
The St. Lawrence River, which they'll have to go upstream, is icy. Sometimes their boats are getting stuck in the river and they have to dislodge them and keep making their way through. Some pretty tough going.
00:13:31
Speaker
On March 6th, so about a week from Montreal, they make it to Fort La Présentation. This was a originally a mission settlement, a Roman Catholic French mission settlement, but it had been...
00:13:49
Speaker
kind of informally dubbed a fort and it did have like a palisade around it and was with of course the the mixing of politics and religion in colonial North America.
00:14:00
Speaker
It was essentially a military and religious place but there was a lot of Iroquois affiliated Indians that had settled around this area and many converted to Roman Catholicism and many converted to the cause of the French.
00:14:19
Speaker
So Delary arrives here. He spends a few days here with the Abbot Piquet, who is trying to convince some more Indians to join this expedition, expedition this raid. Eventually starts taking ah a little long, so he'll set back out, but he will have gained about 100 extra Indians from the the days deliberating and persuading at Fort La Présentation.
00:14:45
Speaker
And, ah crucially with all the Indians that he has in his, uh, his force that is going to help the French actually find the carrying place and Fort bowl because they're going into unknown territory for themselves and,
00:15:02
Speaker
ah But the Indians will be able to actually get them to the right place because it's kind of similar to when George Washington was tasked to go to the French commander in the Ohio country and tell them to leave.
Iroquois Loyalties
00:15:16
Speaker
Like if you read Dinwiddie's letter... He's telling Washington to go where the French have constructed a fort or forts because he doesn't exactly know where they are or how many they are because intel travels very slowly at this time. So same thing here with the French.
00:15:34
Speaker
They know there's British activity and some kind of installations at this carrying place, the portage area, but they don't know exactly where these forts are. and They don't know exactly how big they are or how well defended.
00:15:46
Speaker
So having this Native American support is crucial. And Jackson, i apologize if you already touched on it, but and I think obviously it's important to note that these Native Americans had joined, some of them were Iroquois and from Iroquois tribes. And we talked about this and the first time we recorded this episode about the assumption that most Iroquois tribes sided with the British, which, and you hear that a lot, and i think it's generally true, but ah the fact there's a lot of like I wouldn't say independent Iroquois tribes, but tribes within the Iroquois nation that ah quite a few sided with the French. And it was more because that these individual tribes followed and have more loyalty to their own chieftain than they did to the, like, I guess, Iroquois Confederacy as a whole and the leadership of that.
00:16:34
Speaker
um So you have you have natives from Iroquois tribes that are supporting the French in this aspect, even though the Iroquois Confederacy as a whole would side more with the British and in the war as a whole. But um I just wanted to make that brief little note.
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah a little complicated. i From my readings, in some ways, much of like Northeastern Indian culture was both like more individualistic, but also more communal in different ways than like the European settler culture.
00:17:11
Speaker
So I think ah Brady mentioned last episode when we were talking like the fighting style of the Indians was much more individual and individualistic, for example, like each soldier or each warrior is kind of like their its own unit.
00:17:26
Speaker
I guess they make their own decisions. they ah They work as a team, but it's very much individualized. Whereas like the Europeans have a very strict hierarchy. you know, if you're a private, you obey your your captain and your captain obeys the general and all the way up the...
00:17:43
Speaker
the latter. And same thing for like going on these raids and, uh, uh, offensives. It's not just the chief or like the tribe saying, ah right, every military age warrior, go, go fight. And I'm telling you, and you have to do that.
00:18:01
Speaker
It's much more of a like ah persuasion or and and like an honor culture where each individual warrior will choose to go and to accompany this raid or not go.
00:18:12
Speaker
But of course, there is a lot of a lot of more peer pressure, a lot of honor. like You don't want to back down from being able to to gain honor on the battlefield and gain scalps, which are visible sign of honor and bravery, as well as loot.
00:18:27
Speaker
um So there's a ah very interesting mix of like individualism and communalism, like working for the good of the tribe, bringing back captives to absorb into the tribe so that the numbers will grow.
00:18:42
Speaker
um And yeah, that does play out on a larger level. Like we see here, some Indian clans or i Iroquois clans or tribes do end up kind of separating from the league and making their own way, like the Kahnawake Mohawks, who have now moved north into Canada, much more directly in the French influence. But Yes, you're right.
00:19:04
Speaker
As a simple answer, as a majority of the war looking back answer, we generally say, yeah, the Iroquois were probi pro-British, British allies. But obviously, the real historical situation is a little more complicated.
00:19:18
Speaker
And at this time, the Iroquois League as a whole... had not entered the war. They were still playing the neutral party. We did see like some individual tribes or portions of the tribes of the Iroquois League did participate. like There were a lot of Mohawks at the Battle of Lake George fighting for the British, for example. But so far, the the entire league as itself has not yet entered this growing conflict.
00:19:43
Speaker
Yes. All right. Yep. And then also, like too, I know the Iroquois nation and league and ah what becomes a confederacy dates back until like the 1100s most likely um i and i jackson i don't know if you know this but i guess was the leadership of the iroquois confederacy at this time leaning towards the british um i know you had said they they hadn't entered the war yet but i was just curious as to whether or not you know like these these few um tribes or a few warriors siding with the french would have caused like any sort of uh
00:20:20
Speaker
don't know, not uproar, but some sort of friction with the the Confederacy leadership as a whole. Yeah, that's a good question. ah From my reading, pretty much from east to west, it goes from more pro-British to more pro-French. So the Mohawks were the easternmost of the Iroquois League, and they were the most pro-British. they had They were the closest to the British. They the most contact with the British.
00:20:48
Speaker
So they were, ah it would be very surprising for them to to go pro-French. Kind of going off of that, I have to look into for another time why the Kahnauake Mohawks did end up splitting from the league and going north. I don't really know much about their backgrounds, but generally with the actual Iroquois League, that political unit of those six tribes,
00:21:14
Speaker
From the east to west, it goes from more pro-British to more pro-French. So the Seneca all the way on the west, at this time, they were starting to get kind of wishy-washy, a little bit more drawn into French zones of influence like Niagara and Detroit, because obviously those were very close to ah the Seneca on the west of upstate New York.
00:21:35
Speaker
So generally pro-British or at least more friendly with the British, they had a long period of rival. We were with the French in the 1600s, but, uh, you know, it's not just one despotic regime. Each tribe comes together and makes councils and votes on things. Uh, and they each have their different opinions, even though they are in one political unit.
00:21:58
Speaker
So, uh, Yeah, there's the differing opinions, but generally from East to West, it goes from pro-British to pro-French. Cool. okay To some degree. So back to the story.
Fort Bull's Vulnerabilities
00:22:10
Speaker
ah So Delary will leave for la présentation on March 12th. march twelfth ah Interestingly enough, at the same time, William Johnson, that superintendent of British Indian Affairs and kind of the the de facto military leader for the New York front, he is going to hear word from some of these Indians ah from around that La Présentation area that there may be an incoming attack.
00:22:39
Speaker
So he's going to mobilize about a thousand militia, but then he sends them home after hearing that it was a false alarm. Now, i I'm wondering if maybe if it will.
00:22:53
Speaker
So Deleri is not going to arrive and the Battle of Fort Bole isn't going to happen until March 27th. And so this was March 12th when William Johnson were around there when he heard and organized the militia after a few days, then send them home.
00:23:10
Speaker
So I'm wondering if maybe the the Indians had said that it was like about to attack. about to happen or if just like sometime in the next month or two it would happen i don't know the details of that but the story would change a lot if there were 1000 extra british on the scene when the action goes down so that's an interesting what if to to consider Yeah, for sure. And I think too, that like, you know some of these discredited militia and native reports at the time probably led to some of the lack of reinforcements that we'll see going forward. I think it it almost was a, this is kind of a what if too, but kind of ah boy, you cried wolf situation oh where, you know, you have these reports coming in and I'd read too about some other additional militia reports of potential French activity in the area that,
00:23:58
Speaker
You know, they the British waited and didn't really see much happening. And this was like in the early winter as well. So, yeah, I think that probably had a little bit of an effect on on the British war plans.
00:24:10
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Communication this age is very hard because it's just hard to know anything for certain. And if you just receive it, if you just believe anything that any random traveler or Indian or trader comes in and tells you, you could be being fed lies. But then also there are some cases where, nope, they were telling the truth. Really wish you would have acted on that.
00:24:35
Speaker
It's like going on the internet today. Same thing. Yeah. Oh my gosh. With all the AI stuff that's getting more and more convincing too. Yeah. It's like, What is real and what is not? like some Some base issues never changed throughout the years, I guess.
00:24:49
Speaker
and So, on about March 25th, Delary, after moving mostly over land, after having to leave the waterways, mostly over land, I believe it's like snowshoes, going through these snow drifts, finally make their way and they reach the vicinity of the carrying place.
00:25:10
Speaker
they They scouted out They see Fort Bull. They locate that. They locate Fort Williams. Fort Williams, it seems like there is much more of a British presence from their scouting.
00:25:22
Speaker
There's like some tents that are even outside the walls of Fort Williams, indicating that there's like kind of a surplus of soldiers or workers there.
00:25:32
Speaker
So Delery is going to decide to scrap any plans of attacking Fort Williams, which is on the east side. the east side of this portage area, and instead they're thinking about Fort Bull, which is on the west side.
00:25:48
Speaker
ah They know that Fort Bull contains a lot of supplies, and which is, you know, one of their goals is to destroy and disrupt the supply route here, and it seems much more lightly defended from what they can tell.
00:26:01
Speaker
One note, the historian Fred Anderson, I think it was probably in his book, the Crucible of War, but he writes that Fort Bull was kind of a misnomer as the fort was not so much a fort as a way station, a collection of storehouses and barracks enclosed in a single palisade.
00:26:21
Speaker
So while it's a little bit better than Fort Necessity, it is similar in similar in plan or or construction to Fort Necessity, where it's just a palisade surrounding some buildings.
00:26:37
Speaker
Obviously, it's a little bit bigger than Fort Necessity because that was pretty small. But ah it is not like a Fort Duquesne. It is not like a Louisbourg. It's not a premier military installation. It's pretty much just a fortified a warehouse area.
00:26:50
Speaker
So March 27th in the morning, this is when the action begins. There is a road connecting Fort Williams to Fort Bull and the French and Indians are approaching this road.
00:27:02
Speaker
There is a supply convoy of wagons going from Fort Williams to Fort Bull. And the Indians and his party successfully ambush and capture the wagons pretty much without without much violence. it's ah It's so sudden, so swift that there's not really that much fighting.
00:27:21
Speaker
however there is one wagon that escapes. He cuts his wagon loose and just rides back towards Fort Williams to the east. So they can't catch him.
00:27:33
Speaker
The clock is now ticking. he's Once he arrives at Fort Williams, he's going to report their presence, and who knows how many soldiers at Fort Williams might come out against them. Now this is a a good find for the French, a good win, little morning win for the French, because The grueling trip down here had burned through all of their food reserves, so they were pretty much starving as they came upon this convoy, and the convoy has food among its other supplies, so they're able to eat up, of get their get their strength back.
00:28:08
Speaker
Deleri is going to ask the Iroquois to guard the prisoners and keep an eye on this road, as it's the only... way to get from Fort Williams to Fort Bull. He's trying to persuade the other Indians if they'll go with him to attack Fort Bull.
00:28:23
Speaker
As we've said before, generally Indians do not like attacking fortified positions and they don't like attacking places with cannon. I don't believe there are any cannon at Fort Bull, but Delary had his work cut out for him, trying to persuade Indians to accompany his militia and soldiers to Fort Bole. I think he gets about 30 to go along with him.
00:28:44
Speaker
So since time is of the essence, Delary is going to attack Fort Bole that same day, just after this morning convoy ambush. And he starts heading with his troops westward, silently through the woods towards Fort Bole.
00:28:59
Speaker
Now, Fort Boal has about, I've seen some varying accounts of how many soldiers and ah
The French Attack and Aftermath
00:29:06
Speaker
civilians were there. I think generally accepted is there was about 25 soldiers led by William Boal, who gave the fort its name, and then about 30 civilian workers inside the fort as well.
00:29:18
Speaker
So at about 11 a.m., Delary, they're using those captured wagons as cover. And his goal is basically we're going to just ride right into the fort.
00:29:30
Speaker
And before they realize that we are not British colonials, we'll be inside, we'll jump out, we'll attack, we'll take the place by storm. That was a question that Jackson had posed to Ben and I that both of us got wrong about how he was going to attack this fort and what Jackson said that it was going to be by ah by the sneaking his way into the fort under covered wagon. We both did not go for that answer because yeah on the other two answers were lure out the garrison and defeat them and then I think
00:30:02
Speaker
ah just surround the fort and fire at it throughout the day. Kind of similar to Fort Necessity. so yeah lot more reasonable for this time period rather than actually doing some a little bit of spy work and trying to pull a Trojan horse on the fort.
00:30:17
Speaker
but Yeah, so you can see this is this is quite a bold plan he has. um Now he's like seizing the opportunity because he knows Fort Bull is expecting these wagons ah like any moment, so...
00:30:30
Speaker
Are they going to look that closely or are they just going to have the gates wide open and, you know, kind of watch them in and then only start to get a little suspicious once they get up real, real close. So it's a bold plan.
00:30:41
Speaker
And it does not, just barely not work. And one of the reasons for that is that as some of the Iroquois and other troops are moving through the woods, kind of like along with the the wagons that are approaching the fort and getting very close, the some of the Iroquois let off their war cries as is customary in Indian warfare.
00:31:05
Speaker
And they're still at a ah distance distance. So this tips off the garrison. They close the doors just before the French wagons or French commandeered wagons can get inside. And so now it looks a little bit tougher for Delary.
00:31:21
Speaker
However, since they did get so close to the fort and they are still, you know, the garrison is not expecting an attack, although they have a ah few seconds notice from all the war cries at the tree line.
00:31:33
Speaker
The French do manage to get up right against the walls and there are these like firing loops, you know, like little holes in the wall, um which is a customary defensive feature for like a thousand, probably more than a thousand years at this point, you know, like castles had would have holes for archers to shoot out arrows and stuff like that.
00:31:51
Speaker
Shoot out arrows. That's a key word. Yes, shoot as arrow for shooting out From inside the fort to outside the fort. However, since the French are right up against this palisade, they basically commandeer these firing holes and use them to start firing into the fort at the defenders as they are still gathering and kind of grabbing their weapons and trying to take their positions.
00:32:14
Speaker
Okay. And now, listener, I would like to pause and ask what all of you think would happen next when or I guess the the good question would be, how do you think the the French would go about trying to break down so the walls or the door of this fort? Because i I guarantee you what they do is not what you were expecting.
00:32:35
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Let me see if I can find the original question with the different answers I have. Oh yeah. So like, how would you proceed from this point as you know, you've tried to sneak in with, uh, with the wagons, the gates have been closed and now you're up against the fort.
00:32:53
Speaker
So I had three options here. So the first one is, do you batter down the gates with whatever you can find? Do you two call off the attack or do you three try to starve out the defenders? Um,
00:33:07
Speaker
and The answer is batter down the gates with whatever you can find. So it is this is a risky moment because his his surprise attack has been foiled.
00:33:19
Speaker
At some point, reinforcements will come surely, but he's got so much manpower here. Fort Bull isn't a super strong installation, so they take axes to the door and then they get a a tree, like a fallen tree trunk.
00:33:33
Speaker
turn it into a battering ram and then smack it against the gates. Eventually they burst through flood into the fort. There's a brief, but intense fight where most of the defenders are killed.
00:33:47
Speaker
ah And then some, ah some of the rest of the defenders hole up in one of the the buildings during the fight, during the fighting, a fire breaks out and the French see that it looks like it might lead towards that.
00:34:01
Speaker
The powder storage area, the gunpowder storage room. And so they're like, oh, that's going to be a big explosion. They start to leave the fort as fast as they can.
00:34:13
Speaker
And sure enough, after a couple minutes, the powder lights. There's a massive explosion that pushes the French who are now outside the fort down to the ground from the shockwave. And that is going to kill the all or most of the rest of the British defenders inside who had fought very valiantly with their small numbers.
00:34:33
Speaker
They did refuse a couple offers of surrender before the gates were broken down. But so they, they fought right to the end. There's only going to be five British survivors from the attack on the fort itself ah from the about 50 or 60 or so who ah were in the fort as the attack began.
00:34:52
Speaker
I'm saying this would be a fantastic Quentin Tarantino movie. here Just big explosions, dramatic, you know trying to sneak into a fort under a covered wagon.
00:35:03
Speaker
Then you fail, but then you you beat down the door with a fallen tree. And then you know you blow up the fort by lighting the powder room. ah It would be a masterpiece.
00:35:15
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know i don't know if there's any like movie or anything that really ah covers this battle but yeah i mean I could imagine my head right now some gifted director and some good actors and some period appropriate attire and this could be quite a thrilling movie scene for sure if there If this does become a movie, Jackson, I want some sort of royalty for it. so I don't think we can get royalties for a historical event. ah That's fair. Not sure how that works.
00:35:49
Speaker
but um Yeah, so that is going to be the end of the most of the action. As the French are withdrawing from the fort, so they'll eventually come back after the explosions and like anything that survived, and like any goods or materials, they're going to dump into the nearby creek.
00:36:06
Speaker
And then they're going to start to leave. Now, meanwhile, a patrol does come from Fort Williams towards Fort Bull to investigate and assist the defenders. However, it is going to be ambushed by some of the Indians that were remaining in the area.
00:36:21
Speaker
Half of the patrol is going to be killed. um But it it was a pretty small... patrol. was only about 20 people from what I could tell. So ah Matt and I were discussing why that might have been that Fort Williams had only sent 20 soldiers to aid in this attack.
00:36:39
Speaker
ah We were thinking it, well, one of the things, like we said at the top of the episode, it was this was such a brutal brutal winter for the British people. You know, like so much of the garrison at Fort Williams would have been suffering from diseases and hunger. They're on half rations. So even though it seemed like there was a stronger British presence there, in reality, a good chunk of the fighting force would be out of commission.
00:37:06
Speaker
And there also could just be that this attack happened so fast that there wasn't time essentially to gather everyone or even to know what was happening. Like they would have known from the wagoner who escaped that,
00:37:21
Speaker
the convoy was ambushed, but they didn't, they might not have necessarily known that like Fort bull was being attacked that, uh, and the attack happened so quickly, even if they were coming at full speed, they still might not have arrived there before, uh, the French broke through the gates. So that seems to be, uh, some possible reasons why only a pretty small force was sent out of Fort Williams to, to follow and pursue the French.
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah. And then another reason too, that we can briefly touched on was there was a lot of, uh, uh, False or misleading claims of French activity in the area. So when the team sort arrived back at Fort Bull and had told them the size of the French forest, it might have been underestimated or discounted.
00:38:02
Speaker
So, or yeah, arrived at Fort Williams, I should say. Yeah. When he arrived at Fort Williams, it was probably discounted a bit. So, you know, the British might have said like, oh, hey, you know, we'll we'll send out a small force, but we're not going to overextend. And then as Jackson touched on to Fort Williams was a much more defensible position.
00:38:19
Speaker
And the British knew that Fort Williams had cannon, whereas Fort Bull did not. And they actually had strong palisades and strong walls that could be defended against a larger force. So I think it might have also been a strategic decision by the British commander Mercer at Fort Williams to not send out any more men, ah just a case the scout was right. And there was a large French force in the area, not saying, not starting to start conspiracy theory that the British intentionally sacrificed Fort Bull, but it also, you know, there's a strategy that goes into that decision as to which, which site do you think is more defensible?
00:38:55
Speaker
um And from what, Jackson, I guess what from what we've talked about, sounds like there was only really one route going between Fort Bull and Fort Williams. From what I'm aware, yeah.
00:39:06
Speaker
So, I mean, yeah, if you're sending reinforcements to Fort Bull um and your your last or least one ah supply party was ambushed on that route, I think as a commander, I would be wary of sending more men out into that road that...
00:39:22
Speaker
you know that's fair so it's just yeah a lot a lot of things probably went into it we'll never know because um there wasn't a lot of great uh records kept at least from the commander of Fort Williams this why those decisions were made but um yeah it's a really really interesting story and um you know i think there's probably a ah thousand more of these stories that we could probably dive into around this time and like the intermission of the fighting during during the winter of uh 1756 so Yeah, that is one thing we wanted to do with this podcast is allow ourselves the opportunity to dive into some of the more minor aspects of the war, not just only do like the two or three big battles that would happen each year. You know, really have fun, dive into the period, slowly become experts in it and, you know, make a whole episode about this on a large scale. I guess it would be considered a skirmish probably or a raid,
00:40:17
Speaker
And sometimes it's called a battle, but I mean, really, it's still overall pretty small scale for some of the things that we have seen already and that we will see in the coming years. But I don't know, stories like this, so fascinating.
00:40:30
Speaker
I love learning about new personalities in the war and new military tactics. um And as ah as we close, it'll be good to talk about some of the effects of this raid as well.
00:40:44
Speaker
So a quick note about casualties. Obviously, as we've talked about before, casualty figures can vary depending on source and depending on a ah number ah of factors, who's reporting it, which side are they overestimating, are they underestimating, et cetera.
00:41:00
Speaker
Generally, from what I saw on the French and Indian side, there was about one to three dead and two to six wounded. um That was another question i had asked Matt and Ben on the last episode was ah whoever would get the closest casualty guess count. And they all guessed like 40 or 50 or 60 dead or wounded for the French. So this was a very one-sided battle because the British, between the different ah encounters throughout the day, lost 51 to 76 dead
00:41:31
Speaker
and thirty five taken prisoner So very one-sided victory for the French, and this will end up further isolating Fort Oswego. There's going to be a lot more hesitation sending goods across this portage trail.
00:41:46
Speaker
ah Eventually, the ah flow of goods will be restarted, but Oswego is more isolated than ever, and the ground is prepared for a French attack on that installation and so later in 1756, which we, of course, will cover within a few episodes.
00:42:05
Speaker
all right yeah so yeah that's battle for bull yeah no that was that was a lot of fun diving into um even for the second time it was ah a it was a lot of fun and um i hope our listeners enjoyed it jackson and i will try to do some more sidetrack episodes like this although we are almost at 45 minutes now so maybe not so much of a sidetrack episode but i think these are a lot of fun to do and they you know I think the key battles and the big battles, you know, obviously we're going to cover, but these little skirmishes
Reflections and Audience Engagement
00:42:38
Speaker
are cool. And not only because, you know, as Jackson said, they show you the personalities and maybe some players in the war that had a big moment. It just wasn't at the largest stage. I think it's also cool because a lot of our listeners, is least at least from what we see on our analytics are based in the U S. So I'm sure that if you live close to, you know, the site of where Fort bull was, this is probably a really,
00:43:00
Speaker
fun story to listen to or if you just live anywhere in upstate New York I think it's cool because that happened right your backyard um so I think we'll try to pull more stories like this as we go along just the lesser known stuff and you we might not get everything right but in the basis of it is just giving you guys something interesting to listen to and a better way to connect to the history that's right around you. So, um, I'm glad we did this and Jackson, I i appreciate the time you put into research in this battle, uh, for us and even educating Ben and I on it. It was a lot of fun.
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah. And it was my pleasure. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in. We will catch you soon, hopefully within two or three weeks as is normal.
00:43:48
Speaker
um We'll be doing an episode, I'm hoping, on couple of ah this the same kind of story format of a small scale action with some of the Indian raids in eastern Pennsylvania for our one listener who commented. That's the the benefit of being a small podcast. We're very impressionable with what our users want. So, you know, comment on Spotify or Facebook page or whatever commenting Apple podcast allows um ah very well may ah sway our decision making and you might get an episode on the topic you're requesting.
00:44:24
Speaker
So literally do whatever you can. I'm kidding. Yeah. If you want to sponsor us, you know, give us money to keep doing this. Now now for our first ad break.
00:44:34
Speaker
Yes. But no, thank you all tuning in. Hope you have a great rest of your evening or day or morning, whatever, whatever time of day you might be listening to this and we will catch you soon. Yep. See you guys.