When we first saw the news article about the KY man being injured by a cannon fired from Ft. Wm. Henry in New York State, I said to Mike, "Say Mike, look at this thread by sseib which details a rare cannon firing anomaly which occurred at Fort William Henry on Lake George.
Didn't we see that gun fired on the trip to Maine?" "Yea, I think we did", says he. "Wonder if we have a photo of that gun being fired with the loading implements nearby?", says he. "Certainly you jest", says I, "Have we ever been on a trip and seen a cannon of which I failed to take a photo?" "No", says he. Finding that pic was not too much trouble. It was under Lake George Regional photos, Research trip No. 4, Erie, PA to Northfield, Vt., Photo Research Trips, Contemporary Photos, SAC Photos. BINGO! There they were and a few more too, showing the fort from a 1757 French Artillery position and the woods beyond the earth and log bastions of the fort.
This is one of the very few archaelogical projects and fort reconstructions done with private money. I remember visiting the site in the early sixties when it was nothing more than one partial bastion and a few notable artifacts. Several of these artifacts were cannon, of course, pitched into nearby Lake George by the french when they raised, then abandoned this fortified site which played an important role in the French and Indian War, (Seven Years War), 1755 to 1763.
More than the very corroded cannon laid out in a row on rough timbers, I remember a very small display detailing a portion of the fort's hospital where they found a British soldier's skeleton with a horrific leg wound and a musket ball firmly clenched between it's teeth. You might wonder why it was found there. Why wasn't he released, if he was "walking wounded" or buried in the nearby post cemetery?
There was a catastrophic reason why they found him there, still in the hospital. A large French Mortar shell had crashed through the wrecked bastion above and had crushed his skull flat on the earthen floor. A large portion of the bastion had then caved in, entombing his body. The victorious French never rebuilt the fort to any large degree and most likely just 'built over' the wrecked and buried hospital room.
About the photos below, we have no idea if the cannon shown firing was the same one that propelled a rammer, or two halves of a rammer sideways all the way out to 100 yards to wound the gentleman from Kentucky. The embrasure used in our pics is in the south-east bastion and opened on ground to the south and a little west of the fort. Other embrasures in this same bastion opened on ground much closer to the lake's edge, where the victims had their lunch.
A short history section follows the pics; enjoy!
Mike and Tracy
A map of that era showing Lake George and the fort. French artillery batteries were directly to the left of the fort and all the way 'round the south-west corner of Lake George and along the western shore's heights, northward, half way to a place called "Artillery Bay".
A view of Fort William Henry from the northern-most French battery.
An British Indian ally applies a linstock and fires the 2.25" replica, British field gun from the South-East Bastion. The artilleryman to the right has the "rammer" in his left hand, so you can see the size and thickness of it. My recollection places it at 1" in dia. and no more than 40" long. note also that this embrasure allows this diminutive gun to be rolled into battery with the wheels inside the opening so that the gun's muzzle is most definitely beyond the point at which a larger rammer could have possibly "fallen over", and for a moment been in front of the cannon's maw. Also we noticed that the crew serving this piece had an unusual way of serving it. After simulating a shot, they rolled the piece out of battery, back about three feet. The vent was thumbed as the worm and then the sponge was employed. Then the man thumbing the vent released it and moved to the side. Then a man delivered an aluminum foil cartridge to the muzzle and the artilleryman with the rammer, in a covered leather pouch. It was rammed home with three light blows without the benefit of vent closure. The "Indian" pricked the cartridge and then trickled powder into the vent from a small priming horn. Upon the command, 'FIRE', he applied the hot slow-match end in the linstock to the raw powder, firing the piece.
The cannon in the "loading Position" back from the embrasure. Look at the "rammer" in the right hand of the man on the right. Do you see the tube has been depressed noticeably? This is to make sure that the water from the "wet sponging", the "very wet sponging", flows out of the muzzle and back into the water bucket.
Why the French did not unload their heavily ladened bateaux of the cargo of artillery and troops at the lake's edge near the fort, but rather up on the western shore at Artillery Bay.
I'm standing next to one of the 18 Pdr. British seige guns pulled from Lake George in the sixties. The reproduction carriage was probably made by Champlain Cannon Works, a Glens Falls company who did lots of restoration work for the Bicentennial Commission in the early 70s.
A small repro field piece of a type that may have accompanied British troops at the fort.
The maker's plate.
A repro British Coehorn mortar located on the parade not far from the original siege gun.
While Tracy sticks to business and documents everything he observes about the fort, you can see what Mike turns into on these cross-country adventures. When you finally get him out of the machine shop and on-the-road, he turns into a big kid!! He beat me too, getting a bullseye where I got skunked three for three!
Now a little history.
The Battle
of
Fort William Henry
Lake George, New York
August 1757
by James P. Millard
NOTE: This material is provided as a public service.
“In the novel "Last of the Mohicans" and in the motion pictures based on the book by James Fenimore Cooper, a dramatic battle is waged at Fort William Henry between the French under the Marquis de Montcalm and the English in the fortress under the command of Lt. Colonel George Monro. The battle did indeed take place and it was quite dramatic. Rather than a battle it would perhaps be more accurate to describe this contest as a siege, for the attack on Fort William Henry went on for days. In late July, 1757 the French under the Marquis de Montcalm assembled a force of 3,081 regular troops, 2,946 Canadian militia, 188 artillery men and 1,806 Indians for an attack on Fort William Henry.
This massive force entrenched itself on the heights to the Northwest of the fortress and began digging steadily South, moving their batteries with them. While the heavy guns to the northwest pounded the log and earthen walls of the fort, another French force under the command of Brigadier Levis took up positions to the south and southwest of the main body of British, who contrary to popular belief, were encamped outside the walls of the fort.
Steadily each day, the French guns came closer to the fort. Each day the damage was greater. Over 800 troops worked day and night on the trenches- by daybreak on August 7, the French were close enough to bring their powerful mortars to bear- lobbing explosive rounds directly into the fort. Montcalm sent his emissary Bougainville under a flag of truce with seemingly generous terms of surrender... the rest is history.”
Seacoast Note: “The Rest” is fairly nasty and is a whole other story of how Montcalm’s Indian allies got completely out of control after the surrender of the British and how they butchered 250 unarmed, defenseless men women and children before they were run off by Moncalm’s soldiers.
