Lachine Massacre - French Inaction in The Aftermath

French Inaction in The Aftermath

Word of the attack spread when one of the Lachine survivors reached a local garrison, three miles (4.8 km) away, and notified the soldiers of the events that had transpired. In response to the attack, two hundred soldiers, under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, along with 100 armed civilians and some soldiers from nearby Forts Rémy, Rolland and La Présentation, marched against the Iroquois. They were able to defend some of the fleeing colonists from their Mohawk pursuers, but just prior to reaching Lachine they were apprehensively recalled back within the walls of Fort Rolland by order of Governor Denonville, who was attempting to pacify the local Iroquois inhabitants. Governor Denonville had 700 soldiers at his disposal within the Montreal barracks, and could have easily overrun the Iroquois forces, but diplomacy was his decided course of action and he did not utilize his troops to repel the Iroquois attackers.

In the days following the attack, a small group of soldiers left Fort Rémy to reach Fort Rolland, but they were intercepted by the Iroquois and the entire dispatch was killed. The Iroquois roamed Montreal Island, without European intervention, for three days before boating back up the Saint Lawrence River. French inaction cost other Montreal settlements dearly as well. One month following the raid at Lachine, the Iroquois also attacked the village of La Chesnaye, killing 42 more colonists.