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Frigid Fury: ![]() NOTE: The photographs accompanying this article are from a recreation by the Company of Military Historians During the colonial period, New York was the scene of many hard fought engagements. None, however, was more bitterly contested than the action fought in the frozen woods west of Lake George some 239 years ago in March 1758 when a long range patrol of Captain Robert Rogers' Rangers got into deep trouble a long way from home. Preliminaries The cancellation of Lord Loudoun's planned mid-winter strike at the French forts at Carillon [Ticonderoga] and Saint Frederick [Crown Point], was announced at Fort Edward on 27 February 1758. The Commander-in-Chief's decision was made public by Lieutenant Colonel William Haviland, 27th Regt. of Foot, the post commander. The following day, Haviland ordered, instead, a sequence of reconnaissance patrols to be conducted north to the vicinity of Fort Carillon and Crown Point on Lake Champlain.Captain Robert Rogers, commanding His Majesty's Independent Companies of Rangers, based on "Rogers' Island" adjacent to Fort Edward, noted in his journal: "This gentleman, about the 28th of February ordered out a scout under the direction of one Putnum captain of a company of one of the Connecticut provincial regiments. . . giving out publical at the same time, that, upon Putnam's return, I should be sent to the French forts with a strong party of 400 Rangers. This was known not only to all the officers, but soldiers also, at Fort Edward before Putnam's departure." Rogers was furious at this breach of operational security. He had good reason, for Captain Israel Putnam's patrol, drawn from the ranging company of the Connecticut Provincial Regiment, returned to Fort Edward on 6 March 1758 with one man, John Robens, missing in action, captured or deserted, and able to reveal Haviland's intentions to the French. Worse, that same day a convoy of sleighs bound from Fort Edward to Albany on the frozen Hudson river, was ambushed by a party of French and Indians north of old Saratoga and a servant of Edward Best, one of the rangers' sutlers, was carried into captivity. He too would have heard the talk of British intentions and be able to repeat them. Rogers became convinced that his mission was compromised before it had begun. Although Rogers had good reason to think so, an examination of French sources suggests that they did not have advance warning of his coming. Rogers is first mentioned in French documents on 13 March 1758, the day of the battle. Burt Loescher, the historian of the rangers, is persuaded that, despite Rogers conviction, his patrol had not been betrayed. [See Loescher, Rogers Rangers, Vol. I, p. 237-238]
I acknowledged I entered upon this service, and viewed this small detachment of brave men march out, with no little concern and uneasiness of mind; for as there was the greatest reason to suspect, that the French were, by the prisoner and deserter, fully informed of the design of sending me out upon Putnam's return; what could I think, to see my party, instead of being strengthened and augmented, reduced to less than one-half of the number first proposed. I must confess it appeared to me (ignorant and unskilled as I then was in the politics and arts of war) incomprehensible; but my commander doubtless had his reasons, and is able to vindicate his own conduct. The Patrol Rogers and his rangers, 184 men in all, departed from their camp on the island at Fort Edward at about mid-afternoon on 10 March 1758 and, Rogers recorded, "marched to the half-way brook, in the road leading to Lake George and there encamped the first night." On the second day of the patrol, the rangers marched to Lake George, passing the burned out ruins of Fort William Henry, then, proceeding onto the frozen surface of the lake, the column advanced as far as the Narrows and camped that night on the east side of the lake. Rogers, as might be expected, was acutely conscious of security. After dark he sent a small patrol three miles north to observe the lake, and placed listening posts and sentries around his camp. On the third day of the patrol, 12 March 1758, the listening posts were brought in and the march resumed at sunrise, the rangers moving in extended order up the lake, using ice creepers on their feet, snowshoes stowed on their packs. Rogers kept the men close to the east bank so as to minimize observation on the lake.
With darkness, the rangers continued their march north on the lake, scouts on ice skates moved out to the front. The legendary Lieutenant "Bill" Phillips took the point, and Ensign Andrew Ross, a Scottish volunteer from the Royal Highland Regiment, the "Black Watch," led a flank guard that marched along the west shore of the lake covering the main party against surprise from that quarter. Rogers himself kept the main body closed up to prevent separation in the darkness.
The Day of the Battle The fourth day of the patrol, ill-fortuned 13 March 1758, opened with an "O group" or officers meeting. The council of war unanimously concurred with Rogers that the patrol should don snowshoes and push inland to the west circling behind Bald Mountain, keeping out of sight of the French advanced post there. The rangers moved out at seven a.m. and marched on snowshoes until eleven a.m. when they halted and ate a cold meal on the back of a ridge opposite the French outpost. There the rangers waited for the daily French relief and resupply party to return. By three p.m., Rogers judged that the daily French patrol must have passed and his men had regained their strength after the four hour morning snowshoe march. Rogers ordered the rangers to continue the march down the valley of Trout Brook "thinking to lay an Ambush on Some of their roads in ye Night, & meet with them in the morning without being discovered."The rangers marched in three divisions, Captain Charles Bulkeley commanded the point, Rogers himself the main body and Ensigns James White and Joseph Waite brought up the rear guard, with the frozen Trout Brook close on the left and Bald Mountain and the French outpost off to the right.
So it was that La Durantaye, with ninety-five men, mostly Indians, set out along Trout Brook approximately fifteen minutes before Sieur De Langy, the famous partisan fighter, mustered a 200 man plus reaction force of French marines, Canadian militia and Indians and set out hot on Sieur La Durantaye's trail. As these three parties moved toward contact the events are set in motion that would result in the Battle on Snowshoes. The Battle on Snowshoes: Phase One
Thus ended phase one of the battle, a classic hasty ambuscade delivered with devastating surprise. But now, because of the accidental fact that the French and Indians started in two parties fifteen minutes apart, the ambushers were, in turn, about to be ambushed with equally devastating effect. Continued on Page 2 of Frigid Fury: The Battle on Snowshoes, March 1758
New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs: Military History
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