Oswego was a strategic point in many military campaigns because control of its river, an important military route, changed hands many times. An eighteenth-century transport route connected the Mohawk Valley to the Oswego River and allowed war material and troops to travel from the Atlantic to the western frontier through Oswego. During the struggle between the English and French, the original Fort Ontario was built and was held by each side at different times. The loss of Oswego in August 1756 was seen by the French as a triumph and by the English as a national misfortune because it was the loss of their most important frontier post. In the three-day battle that ended August 14, 1756, the Marquis de Montcalm, commander of the French forces in North America, received the surrender of the English officers who had defended Oswego. France attached such importance to the capture that Louis XV issued a special medal in 1758 naming Oswego as one of the places supporting the French monarch's claim of universal dominion.