After the death of General Braddock during the disastrous loss at the Battle of the Monongahela, the British Empire’s hope of successfully repelling the French Imperial encroachment into their colonial interest through the implementation of the Braddock Expedition took a significant blow.
A key advantage the British had over their French adversary, was the population of their colonial brethren. With over one million citizens inhabiting the British colonies compared to less than a hundred thousand for New France, the upperhand the French held by way of backcountry fortifications and militarized outposts could be upended through a war of attrition. This would only be possible if the British Colonies could hold back the advancing French long enough to raise an army large enough to defeat them.
With the Braddock Expeditions faltering, the impetus for this would be placed squarely on the shoulders of Major-General William Johnson, who headed north from Albany with a force entirely composed of provincial soldiers. They’d enlisted from throughout New York and New England, and while they appeared to be little more than a glorified militia compared to the highly trained British Regulars, their courage and their cunning would prove invaluable when under the gun of an imposing force of French Grenadiers, Canadian Provincials, and Abenaki and Nippissing Warriors.
After Johnson’s arrival at the south end of Lake George near Fort Lyman, the Major-General contemplated a northern facing assault on Crown Point and Fort Frontenac to overtake the entrenched French position and drive them out of New York and back across the Canadian border.
After a series of moves and countermoves made by Johnson and his adversarial contemporary, French Commander Baron de Dieskau, a column of more than 1,000 provincial soldiers, led by 170 Mohawk Warrior allies set out from Johnson’s Camp with the intention of reinforcing Fort Lyman after intel gleaned from a captured enemy informed them of an impending attack, the British Colonials walked into a lethal trap laid by Dieskau.
Dieskau’s Native warriors fired upon the approaching column early, and while the Mohawks and Colonials incurred heavy casualties in the onset of the exchange, the quick thinking Lt. Colonel Nathan Whiting rallied his men of the Second Connecticut and formed a fighting retreat, counter attacking the overconfident approach of the French-Canadians and delivering considerable damage to their forces as they fought and dashed their way back to Johnson’s camp. The encounter would come to be known as The Bloody Morning Scout.
As the British Colonials and Mohawks made their way back into camp, Major-General Johnson made preparations for the coming onslaught by the French. The security of the colonies hinged upon Johnson’s success, for if the French would triumph over them in battle yet again, it would open the door for New France to make an undeterred march upon Albany, and from there New York City, and the heart of the British Colonies.
This pivotal showdown of which the fate of North America hinged upon, would forever be known as the Battle of Lake George..
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