Montresor, James Gabriel

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Montresor, James Gabriel

MONTRESOR, JAMES GABRIEL. (1702–1776). Military engineer in the colonial wars. Son of a naturalized Huguenot immigrant, Montresor entered the Royal Artillery in 1724 and over the next thirty years served as a surveyor and military engineer at Minorca and Gibraltar, where he became chief engineer in 1746. In 1754 he was appointed Braddock's chief engineer, but because of ill health did not arrive in Virginia until after the debacle at the Monongahela. Thereafter, he supervised the construction or repair of most of the forts on the New York frontier as director of engineers and lieutenant colonel after 4 January 1758 and served under Amherst in the 1759 campaign. Plagued by ill health, he was allowed to return on leave to England in the spring of 1760. John Montresor was a son of his first marriage.

SEE ALSO Montresor, John.

                              revised by Harold E. Selesky

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