King William's War Page 17
With news of the fall of Fort Loyal yet to reach him, Frontenac spent a busy summer dealing with the Iroquois. With the success of Schenectady still fresh, a war party of four French and a number of mission Indians under Kryn, the Great Mohawk, was organized. The expedition left Montreal on May 18 and by the end of the month was returning from a successful attack on an English village that had netted forty-two prisoners. In early June this detachment was camped at the outlet of Lake Champlain, busy making canoes for their return voyage, when they were mistakenly attacked by an Abenaki war party from Three Rivers. By the time the error was realized Kryn and a number of his party lay dead. “This is an irreparable loss,” one French chronicler wrote, “which has drawn tears from the eyes of the entire country.”14
In late May, Frontenac formed another expedition. A force of 143 French voyageurs and six Ottawa under the command of Captain Louis de Louvigny and Nicolas Perrot were dispatched to the Ottawa post of Michilimackinac, located along the Mackinaw Straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The governor was convinced that the size of this detachment, coupled with news of the French successes against the English, would prove more than enough to bring his wavering High Country allies back to the French fold. To ensure the success of this mission Frontenac ordered Captain d’Hosta to escort the convoy with an additional thirty men as far as the Ottawa River. On June 2, a few days out of Montreal, the combined detachments discovered a pair of Iroquois canoes on a point of land about a dozen miles above the Les Chatsportage on the Ottawa River. Louvigny and d’Hosta resolved to attack and agreed upon a plan. The latter, with a detachment of thirty men, would land on the point in three canoes while the former, with another sixty men, would attack the point from the land side.
The assault was a disaster from the start. Perrot would not allow Louvigny to march for fear of leaving the supplies and canoes vulnerable, which could jeopardize the governor’s mission. D’Hosta’s men continued on with their portion of the plan but found a rude welcome when they landed. The two canoes were bait. A much larger party of Iroquois had pulled their other eleven canoes into the tree line and were lying in wait. They greeted the French with a point-blank volley that either killed or wounded almost every person in the lead canoe. At a distinct disadvantage, and seeing no signs of the landward attack, d’Hosta quickly broke off the engagement and returned to camp with his wounded in tow.
Overcoming Perrot’s objections, d’Hosta and Louvigny hastily organized a force of sixty men and advanced on the Iroquois position by land. When the party was close to its destination, Louvigny ordered a charge, the ferocity of which broke the Iroquois defenses. Soon the rout was on, and when all was said and done, only four of the original thirteen Iroquois canoes escaped the parting shots of the French; another thirty or so warriors of the longhouse lay dead or gravely wounded along the wooded point, while four were taken prisoner. D’Hosta and Louvigny parted ways shortly thereafter with Louvigny eventually reaching Michilimackinac without incident.15
The accidental death of the Great Mohawk at the hands of the Abenaki might have yielded more serious political ramifications had the Iroquois not threatened the colony once again. In June a large Iroquois war party was spotted in the St. Lawrence near Point-aux-Tembles on the Island of Montreal. At hearing the news a local officer by the name of Colembet recruited twenty-five settlers and laid an ambush for the attackers. The Iroquois uncovered the ambuscade and charged the French defenders. A sharp firefight soon devolved into a hand-to-hand struggle, and when Colembet fell, the French, already having lost half their numbers, quickly scattered. Thinking better of their attack, and worried that a stronger French force was in the area, the Iroquois abandoned their raid and returned home. More raiders appeared as well. Some sixteen settlers near Three Rivers were carried off by one Iroquois war party, while five or six children herding cattle near Sorel were carried off by another.
The governor sent out patrols along the St. Lawrence in an attempt to intercept future raids, but as was too often the case, it paid little in the way of dividends. Of more importance was intelligence reaching Frontenac that an English naval expedition had seized Port Royal and was in the process of reducing Acadia. Not long after an even more worrisome rumor reached him that preparations were underway in the English colonies for a far larger expedition. The news set the governor to work on the defenses of Quebec, and with these efforts well underway, he departed for Montreal on July 22 to oversee the fortifications being erected there.16
Although Phips had taken nine weeks to sail from Boston to Quebec, and in the process consumed much of his supplies, his timing had almost been perfect. After initial reports that an Anglo-Iroquois army was advancing down Lake Champlain toward Montreal failed to materialize, Frontenac, gauging the season too far advanced for an English attack, ordered the troops stationed there into winter quarters before setting out for Quebec in early October. The governor had traveled no farther than Sorel when an urgent dispatch reached him from the commander of Quebec, Major Francois Prevost. A letter from an Abenaki chieftain who had captured an English woman of means informed him that an English flotilla of thirty-four vessels was on its way to Quebec. Frontenac was skeptical but ordered his small boat to proceed directly for Quebec. Unfortunately, the craft developed a leak, which forced the governor to resume his journey by canoe. The next day a second letter arrived from a Canadian that seemed to confirm the earlier news. He stated that he had seen eight English ships, four being quite large, in the St. Lawrence above Tadoussac. The information was confirmed not long after by a trio of French mariners who, after escaping from Phips’s fleet, warned that the English force was near Ile-aux-Coudres about forty miles from Quebec.17
Frontenac immediately sent word to Callières to forward all the troops in Montreal, save one company, to Quebec as quickly as possible. He was also to collect all the militia he could during his march. A similar order was issued at Three Rivers, which soon spread across the countryside. Two days later on October 14, the governor and three hundred men entered the colonial capital, much to the relief of the town’s inhabitants. Prevost informed the count that scouting parties had been sent out to monitor the enemy and that the nearby settlements had been warned of the English threat.
The next day Frontenac bolstered the French scouting parties with a detachment of 150 marines under Vaudreuil, who was ordered to shadow the English fleet and, if possible, oppose any landing they might attempt. Next, the governor turned his attention to the defenses of Quebec. After a quick inspection he was impressed with the fortifications Prevost had erected during his absence. The town major had not only completed the works the governor had started in the spring but had finished several others as well.
Quebec, as it stood before the English invasion fleet, was two towns. The lower town, located along the waterfront on the east side of the peninsula, was inhabited by the poorer denizens of the capital as well as numerous storehouses, warehouses, and those structures associated with the town’s maritime activities. From the lower town the terrain quickly rose to a plateau where the upper town was located. Here were the churches, seminaries, and homes of Quebec’s well-to-do merchants as well as Fort St. Louis, the governor’s place of residence, positioned such that it overlooked the lower town and the St. Lawrence. To the western edge of the town, which faced the mouth of the St. Charles River, was the Intendant’s Palace. The stone structure was located below the ridgeline that closely traced the peninsula. From this point a wooden palisade ran along the shore from the Intendant’s Palace, around the cliffs of Sault au Matelot, to encompass the lower part of the town on the east side. To protect the land side of the city, Frontenac had started a long fortified palisade, stiffened at regular intervals by stone blockhouses, from the edge of the St. Charles shoreline at the intendant’s home, to the edge of the city’s eastern shore, where it reconnected to the eastern shoreline wall. Thus, although the works could use perfecting, Quebec was an enclosed town at the time of Phips’s arrival.
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There were six batteries of guns within the town. Two, each consisting of three eighteen-pounders, were located in the lower town, while a pair of batteries were erected in the upper town at Sault au Matelot (three guns) and a recently started position of eight heavy guns on the heights just to the south of Fort St. Louis. Another battery of three guns was positioned at Windmill Hill near one of the town’s two landward entrances, and work had started on another battery of three guns near what would be known as the Palace Gate on the St. Charles River. In terms of manpower the governor was fortunate. He had brought three hundred men into the town and expected that Callières would add at least twice that number to the garrison in a few days’ time. When combined with the existing defenders and some 1,200 militia from the nearby towns, he had approximately 2,500 men at his disposal.18
At three o’clock the next morning Vaudreuil’s detachment returned with news that the English were close behind. As dawn broke the next morning, Phips’s fleet, some thirty-four sail in all, could be seen splayed out before the southwestern point of Ile d’Orleans. In the defender’s estimation four of these vessels were the expedition’s primary warships, four others were a lesser class of gunboats, and the rest were an assortment of smaller ketches, barks, and brigantines. At 10 a.m. a launch bearing a white flag on its bow made its way from the largest English warship toward the shore. It was met halfway by four canoes carrying a similar flag. Phips’s envoy, Lt. Thomas Savage, was then blindfolded and placed in one of the French canoes. After marching the sightless herald through the streets of the town and past as many martial sounds as possible, he was eventually led to the governor’s quarters.
When the blindfold was removed Savage found himself staring at Frontenac and a room full of his military and civilian advisors. After taking a moment to adjust himself to his surroundings, Savage announced his mission to the count and presented him a letter from Phips.
To Count Frontenack or to him or them in Chief Authority at Present in Quebeck.
The War between the two Crowns of England & France doth not only Sufficiently Warrant but the Destruction made by the French and Indians under your Command and Encouragement upon the Persons and Estates of their Majesty’s Subjects of New England without provocation on their part hath put them under the Necessity of this Expedition for their owne Security and Satisfacton.
And although the Cruelties and Barbarities used ag’ them by the French and Indians might upon the present Opportunity prompt to a Severe Revenge yet being desirous to avoid all Inhumane and unchristian like Actions and to prevent Shedding of blood as much as may be I the afore sd Sir William Phips do hereby in the Name and on the behalf of their most Excellent Majesty William & Mary King & Queen of England Scotland France and Ireland Defenders of the Faith &c and by order of their said Majesties’ government of the Massachusetts Colony in New England Demand a present Surrender of your forts and Castles undemolished and the Kings and other Stores unimbezeled with a Seasonable delivery of all Captives together with a Surrender of your Persons and Estates at my dispose Upon the doing whereof you may expect mercy from me as a Christian according to what shall be found for their Majesty’s Service & the Subjects Security which if you refuse forthwith to doe I am come provided and am resolved by the help of God in whom I trust by force of Armies to revenge all wrongs & Injuries offered and bring you under Subjection to y” Crown of England And (when too late) to make you wish you had accepted of the favour tendered.
Your Answer Positive in an houre Returned by your owne Trumpet with there turne of mine, is required upon the Peril that may ensue.19
Frontenac grunted as the letter was translated into French and read aloud. His fellow officers in the room were more vocal. When the letter was finished Savage produced a watch from his pocket and handed it to Frontenac. He informed the count that it was ten o’clock and that his answer was required at eleven o’clock. Frontenac closed the watch and handed it back to Savage. He did not need an hour or even a minute to respond to the English demand. “I will not keep you waiting so long,” he informed Lt. Savage. “Tell your General, I do not recognize King William, and that the Prince of Orange is a Usurper who has violated the most sacred ties of blood in wishing to dethrone his father in law.” The governor then pointed to the stern faces of his councilors. “Does your General imagine, even if he offered me better conditions, and that I were of a temper to accept them, that so many gallant gentlemen would consent to it, and advise me to place any confidence in the word of a man who has violated the Capitulation he had made with the Governor of Port Royal?”20
There was a pause as Savage looked about the room and considered his answer. Finally he asked if the governor would commit his statements to writing. “No,” boomed Frontenac, in a display that was partly for the benefit of his officers. “The only answer I can give your General will be from the mouth of my cannon and musketry, that he may learn it is not in such a style that a person of my rank is summoned. Let him do his best as I will do mine!”21
Phips and his staff were not overly surprised by the news. Port Royal might fall with an easy threat, but it was highly unlikely that the capital of New France would not resist. The admiral called together a council of war onboard the Six Friends to discuss an attack. The plan, in its final form, called for the army to land the next morning along the northern shoreline between the St. Charles River and a tidal creek about two miles from the town. Once on shore the troops would advance as quickly as possible to the banks of the St. Charles River. At high tide, or the subsequent high tide, the small transport vessels would sail into the river and at this point ferry the troops to the other side. These ships would also carry munitions, provisions, and the field artillery. Once the army had successfully crossed the Charles River, Phips, along with the other major warships, would move forward to bombard Quebec. When the admiral saw that the English troops had ascended the heights to the west, he was to land two hundred men in the lower part of Quebec. Together these two forces would then storm the town.22
It was an optimistic proposal from the onset, and it got off to a bad start. Around 4 a.m. the next morning the New England troops took to their landing craft. The thought was to land under the cover of darkness and be at the St. Charles River in a few hours. It never progressed to the landing stage. A storm blew in that made it nearly impossible to row or make any headway toward the shore. Major General John Walley, who was in command of the army, had just called the operation off when Captain Ephraim Savage of Connecticut ran his captured French bark aground near the north shore.
The remainder of the day was consumed in rescuing Savage and his sixty-man crew. The tide soon went out, leaving the English vessel stuck fast in waist-deep water.
Savage attempted to lighten the ship but was soon interrupted by gunfire from the shore. The crew returned fire, and a smart skirmish quickly developed. Phips, seeing Savage’s plight, maneuvered the Six Friends close to shore and fired upon the French with one of his cannon. A few smaller warships followed the admiral’s lead and brought their guns to the support of the stranded vessel.
The additional firepower initially worked, and there was hope that the enemy could be held off long enough that high tide would free the ship. The French, however, soon regrouped, this time two hundred to three hundred strong. In addition they had brought one of the fort’s cannon with them to help deal with Savage’s vessel. A shift in the winds had forced several of the English warships away from the shore, and there was fear for a moment that Savage and his men would be lost, until one of Phips’s smaller warships managed to work her way against the wind and chase the French away with several broadsides. It was a tense evening, but when the tide rose toward morning, the bark was freed and rejoined the fleet.23
Frontenac watched the skirmish for the stranded English boat for some time, but more important matters soon drew him away. It seemed likely that the English would attempt a landing between the town and Beauport. An effort farther south would entail scaling the heig
hts of Cape Diamond up onto the plateau before the walls of the town or venturing far enough south that the French would have plenty of time to respond. A landing northeast of Beauport would run afoul of poor roads and a number of tidal streams that would delay any advance and offer perfect cover for the French and Indian war parties lying in ambush. Given this, it was clear where the English landing would be. This left the governor with the question of whether to leave the city and attack the English after they landed or to stay put behind his defenses.
The answer was dictated by the St. Charles River, which lay between the town and the likely English landing zone. Near the mouth of the river, the tidal nature of the waterway left the only practical way to cross at low tide, over mud flats, while at high tide small craft were required. Here Frontenac would stand, on the Quebec side of the river. If the English attempted a landing he would counterattack at high tide, leaving them with their backs against the river. If the attack were successful the governor would decimate the landing force. The English could always move farther upriver to cross, but Frontenac was free to shadow the enemy and oppose what would already be a difficult crossing. Of course, the nature of the river worked both ways. Although the count had dispatched several hundred Canadians across the St. Charles near where he suspected the English would land, he would not be in position to support them, at least not in force, for fear of being trapped on the wrong side of the waterway himself.24