In the mid-18th century, this battlefield was a focal point in the Seven Years’ War, a world war between France and Great Britain, as the two powers struggled for control of the Lake Champlain-Lake George water highway linking New York and Montreal. In July 1758, a British force commanded by General James Abercromby attacked Fort Carillon, the newest French fort in New France, with 16,000 British regulars and American provincials, the largest army yet assembled in North America. Louis-Joseph de Gozon, the Marquis de Montcalm, led the French defense, and in less than 48 hours his 3400 French regulars and a handful of Canadians built the defensive earthworks known as the French Lines across the Heights of Carillon. In a bloody day of fighting on 8 July 1758, the British lost nearly 2000 troops, while the Highland Regiment suffered nearly two-thirds casualties, the highest sustained by a unit in a single-day action in North American history; proportionally, Montcalm lost as many. Outnumbered five to one, Montcalm won the greatest French victory of the Seven Years’ War and gave thanks to God by creating a red-painted cross at the center of the Lines. For two generations and in two wars, armies returned to the same ground: in 1759 the British used the French Lines while besieging the fort, in 1776 the American army dug in here and stopped Sir Guy Carelton’s British advance up Lake Champlain, and in 1777 the old French earthworks served as American outer defenses against Burgoyne’s advance before Americans under Colonel John Brown recaptured the French Lines but lacked enough artillery to drive out the British and German troops holding the fort.