Fort Lévis - 1760

After la Présentation was vacated, Father Abbé François Picquet and the American Indians moved to Isle Picquet, where the English, believing the settlement was a French village, burned it during the siege. In August 1759, after learning of the capture of Fort Niagara, Canadian Governor de Vandreuil detached General de Lévis with 500 to 600 men to march to la Présentation and establish a position capable of covering that frontier. On arriving there, de Lévis chose instead to relocate to Isle Royale, or Chimney Island, in the middle of the St. Lawrence River just downstream from la Présentation, believing it a better place from which to stop a British force coming down the river. With Fort Lévis well under construction by September 1759, de Lévis rejoined the French army at Quebec. In August 1760, British forces under Major General Jeffery Amherst numbered 10,000 to 15,000 men as he led thousands of men and materiel up the Mohwak River and down the Oswego River to Fort Ontario, then across Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence on the way to Montreal. Amherst's forces then sailed and rowed down the St. Lawrence and laid siege to Fort Lévis, commanded by Captain Pierre Pouchot with 350 French soldiers and Canadian militia. From August 18 to August 22, 1760, the British established shore and island gun batteries around Fort Lévis, and on August 22 the formal siege began with bombardment from land and water. A British landing attempt was repelled, but on August 26, 1760, Captain Pouchot surrendered his garrison after exhausting his supply of powder and shot. The battle at Fort Lévis in 1760 was the last major battle of the war, and the French defeat signaled the end of the French and Indian War in North America. The French surrendered on September 8, 1760, and the British rebuilt Fort Lévis, renaming it Fort William Augustus. Together with the rebuilt Fort la Présentation, or Oswegatchie, it became a supply base for western British outposts.

Ogdensburg, New York · United States