Louis-Joseph de Montcalm - Defence of New France

Defence of New France

Montcalm was promoted to major general and sent to New France in 1756 to replace the captured Baron Dieskau as commander of French troops in North America during the French and Indian War. His early campaigns against the British were major successes. He expanded the defences at Fort Carillon on Lake Champlain. He captured and destroyed Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario in 1756. His victory at Fort William Henry in 1757 was a military and personal victory, but the conduct of his Algonquin allies, who massacred British soldiers as they marched out of the fort under negotiated terms of surrender, was a significant political blow. These actions, which were immortalized in James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans, disgusted Montcalm, who personally intervened in an attempt to halt the slaughter.