William Shirley - Seven Years War

Seven Years War

Following Braddock's death on 13 July 1755 (with whom Shirley's son William was killed) Shirley was made temporary commander-in-chief of North American forces in addition to his position as Governor of Massachusetts. During this time his troops supported Charles Lawrence in the Great Expulsion, the forcible removal of more than 12,000 Acadians from Nova Scotia. When some of the ships carrying the Acadians entered Boston Harbor in early December 1755, Shirley ordered that they not disembark. For three winter months, until March 1756, the Acadians remained on the ships, where half died from the cold weather and malnutrition.

Shirley's management of the war in 1755 and 1756 was a failure. His expedition against Fort Niagara got no further than the final staging point at Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario in 1755, and the French captured Oswego in August 1756. He was also embroiled in a power struggle with Sir William Johnson, the newly appointed crown superintendent of Indian affairs, over military administration and the management of Indian affairs. Johnson's partisans, notably including Shirley's eventual successor Thomas Pownall, were successful first in engineering his dismissal as commander-in-chief, and then in getting him recalled to England on charges that he had let critical military information get into enemy hands. On 31 March 1756, the Secretary of War replaced him as commander-in-chief and ordered him to return to England.