Rogers' report of the event estimated the French-Indian force at 700, with one to two hundred casualties, and his accounts of the battle were doubted by a variety of commentators, as they were inconsistent with other accounts. Reports of casualties, and of the numbers of forces involved, starkly differed in this battle. While there is no proof of this event, the rockface he supposedly went down very quickly became known as Rogers' Slide. This episode also gave rise to a local legend that Rogers escaped the battle by sliding 400 feet down the side of a hill to the frozen surface of Lake George. The report stemmed from the manner of Rogers’ escape during which he discarded some of his belongings, including his regimental coat, which contained his military commission. Rogers himself was originally reported by the French to have been killed, but had actually survived. Rogers and his decimated company returned to Fort Edward on March 15. Rogers and some of his men did get away, but one group of men surrendered, only to be killed and scalped when a scalp was discovered in a pocket of one of the men. The remnants of the British force then tried to escape the battle. They made several successful attempts to prevent themselves from being flanked, but after an hour and a half of heavy fighting, their numbers were significantly reduced. The Rangers fought bravely, considering they were outnumbered and their numbers were falling quickly. When Rogers' men arrived, the attack by Langy's force killed or wounded an estimated 50 men. Langy's men, alerted by the gunfire, set up their own ambush. Rogers and about half his men gave chase, critically forgetting to reload their muskets, while the others stopped to collect scalps. Durantaye's force broke and retreated in disarray. When Durantaye's men came within range at 14:00, the British opened fire, killing "above forty Indians", according to Rogers. Rogers’ men immediately set up an ambush. These were followed shortly after by 200 Indians under Ensign de Langy.Īlthough the two French groups joined forces, Durantaye's company was about 100 yards (91 m) ahead of Langy's when they were spotted by Rogers' men. Around noon on March 13, Durantaye led 100 men (again a mixed company of Indians and Canadians) out of the fort. The next day two Indian scouts reported that they had found tracks of an enemy party. He sent Ensign Durantaye with a company of 200 Nipissing Indians and about 20 Canadians in response to these reports, but they found nothing. On March 12, Captain Louis-Philippe Le Dossu d’Hébécourt, the French commander at Fort Carillon, heard rumors from the encamped Indians that the British were nearing. They had stopped for a three-hour break when their advance guard spotted what Rogers reported as "ninety-six, chiefly Indians". On March 13, they wore snowshoes as they marched through snow four feet deep, with a rivulet to their left and a steep mountain separating them from Lake George to their right. The expedition was composed mostly of men from Rogers' ranger companies, but it also included a few volunteer soldiers from the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment. Putnam's reconnaissance revealed that there were an estimated 600 Indians encamped near Fort Carillon. The French had captured a man from an earlier expedition by Israel Putnam's Connecticut rangers and it was suspected that he had informed his captors of the British plans. Lieutenant Colonel William Haviland, the fort's commander, had originally planned on 400 men taking part but reduced the number to 180, even though he had reason to believe the French knew of the expedition. PreludeĬaptain Rogers was sent on a reconnaissance mission from Fort Edward northwards toward Fort Carillon on March 10, 1758. The ranger companies were organized and directed by Robert Rogers, and eventually became known as Rogers' Rangers.
The British, who had fewer Indian allies, resorted to companies of rangers for their scouting and reconnaissance activities.
Frédéric (located at what is now Crown Point, New York) and Fort Carillon (known to the British as Fort Ticonderoga), the French and their Indian allies continued to scout and probe the British defenses on Lake George and the upper Hudson River. Their only notable failure occurred when the British stopped their southward advance from Lake Champlain in the 1755 Battle of Lake George. By 1756, the French had enjoyed successes in most of their frontier battles against the British. The French and Indian War broke out in 1754 between British and French colonists over territorial disputes along their colonial frontiers, and escalated the following year to include regular troops.
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