1760-62: The War Continues in Europe

By capturing Quebec, the capital city of New France, the British had reduced French territory in North America to Montreal and a few scattered forts in the Great Lakes region. As 1760 began, British leaders felt fairly confident that they would win the French and Indian War (1754-63; known in Europe as the Seven Years' War). British secretary of state William Pitt (1708-1788; see entry) gave his top North American general, Jeffery Amherst (1717-1797; see entry), a great deal of freedom to develop a plan to capture Montreal and seal the victory.

French surrender Montreal

Amherst came up with a three-part plan to complete the invasion of Canada. He decided to send three separate armies toward Montreal from different directions. Brigadier General James Murray (c. 1721-1794) would move west up the St. Lawrence River from Quebec with four thousand troops. Brigadier General William Haviland would work his way north across Lake Champlain with thirty-five hundred men. Amherst himself would lead twelve thousand men—including one thousand Iroquois warriors—east across Lake Ontario. Amherst hoped that all of these armies would gather in the city at the same time, trapping the French troops and forcing them to surrender.

Before Amherst could put his plan into action, however, the French made one last desperate move. In the early spring of 1760, François-Gaston, chevalier de Levis (1720-1787)—who had taken charge of the French forces after the former commander, Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-Véran (1712-1759; see entry), was killed—tried to recapture Quebec. Levis led more than seven thousand men, including some Canadian refugees who had left the city when the British took over. The French forces advanced on the city, where British troops under Murray had spent a long and difficult winter. About one thousand of Murray's seven thousand troops had died from cold, hunger, or disease, and two thousand more were too ill or weak to fight.

Levis decided to set up a siege of the city on the Plains of Abraham, where the British had claimed victory the previous fall. Just as Montcalm had done with his French forces, Murray brought his four thousand British troops outside of the city walls to meet the enemy on the field of battle. Since the walls were still weak from British shelling the previous year, Murray felt that he should attack the French before they had a chance to set up their siege. But Murray's strategy failed. The French caused many casualties (killed or wounded soldiers) among the British forces and chased them back into the city. Levis then set up his siege of Quebec and waited for supplies and reinforcements to arrive from France. But these supplies and forces never arrived, because the British Royal Navy had established firm control over shipping on the Atlantic. The ships that arrived at Quebec in mid-May were British warships, and Levis was forced to retreat to Montreal with his French troops.

By early September, the three British armies had arrived at Montreal according to Amherst's plan. Levis brought his troops inside the city and prepared to defend it. He tried to convince the Catholic Indians (Native Americans) of the area, who had long been allies of the French, to help him fight the British. But the Iroquois warriors on the British side held a conference with the local tribes and persuaded them to stay out of the battle. In fact, some of the Indians from around Montreal acted as guides to help the British ships negotiate the St. Lawrence River.

Unlike Quebec, which sat atop high cliffs and was surrounded by strong walls, Montreal had few natural defenses and weak fortifications. The city sat on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence and was guarded by a small stone wall and a few cannons. In addition, the British control of Atlantic shipping had prevented supplies from reaching Montreal. The soldiers and residents faced severe shortages of goods that forced many of them to leave the city. Under these conditions, Pierre François de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil (1698-1778; see box in chapter 5), the governor of New France, decided that Montreal could not be defended. He surrendered the city to Amherst on September 8, 1760. A week later, the final French fort in Detroit surrendered to Robert Rogers (1731-1795; see entry), leader of a group of American wilderness fighters called rangers. This event marked the end of the French and Indian War in North America, six years after it had begun. It also meant that the French colony of New France ceased to exist after 150 years.

Conflicts with Indians continue on the frontier

News of the British victory in Canada was celebrated throughout the American colonies. Thousands of colonists began streaming across the Allegheny Mountains to settle the new lands to the west, confident that they no longer had to worry about attacks from the French or their Indian allies. In fact, large communities of settlers formed around many of the British forts and trading posts in the Ohio Country. General Amherst encouraged these settlers. After all, British leaders were recalling many of his regular soldiers to fight in the ongoing war in Europe. He hoped that settlers could help his remaining colonial troops secure the conquered territory.

But the arrival of large numbers of British settlers angered the Ohio Indians. They felt that the settlers were crowding them off their land. In 1761, Amherst established a new set of policies designed to reduce the conflict between settlers and Indians and bring order to the frontier. He ended the practice of gift-giving, which had long been used by both British and French to gain the cooperation of Indians. He also placed restrictions on trade between settlers and Indians. For example, Amherst said that all trade had to take place at British forts rather than in Indian villages, which forced the Indians to travel long distances carrying heavy furs. He also prohibited British traders from selling alcohol to the Indians, and he limited the amount of gunpowder and ammunition the Indians could buy.

Amherst disliked the Indians and saw no further need for them after the British had achieved victory over France. He thought the new rules would make the Indians behave better and make the frontier less dangerous. But the Indians had come to depend on British goods for their survival. Some tribes had forgotten their old ways of hunting and needed guns and ammunition in order to feed their families. The Indians felt the trade restrictions left them defenseless against their enemies and made them more dependent on the British. Before long, a new wave of violence erupted as the Indians rebelled against Amherst's rules and struggled to maintain their rights and independence.

Some of the worst violence occurred during the Cherokee War of 1760-61. The Cherokees lived in the southeastern part of the American colonies and traded peacefully with the people of South Carolina for many years. In 1758, the Cherokee Nation even sent hundreds of warriors north to help British troops under Major General John Forbes (1710-1759; see entry) launch an attack on Fort Duquesne. But Forbes turned down their offer, to the warriors' surprise and anger. The Cherokees then headed home, only to be attacked on their way by colonial soldiers patrolling the frontier. Several warriors were killed in the ambush.

The Cherokee people felt they had a responsibility to take revenge for the death of their warriors. So Cherokee raiders attacked a frontier community and killed some white settlers. South Carolina Governor William Henry Lyttelton (c. 1720-1808) asked Cherokee leaders to meet at a fort to negotiate an end to the conflict. But then South Carolina troops took the Cherokee representatives prisoner, claiming they would release the negotiators only if the Cherokees who had murdered the white settlers came forward. The Cherokees responded by attacking the fort where hostages were held, killing the commanding officer. The remaining British troops at the fort then killed all of the hostages.

Outraged at the murder of their people, the Cherokees conducted a series of violent raids on white frontier settlements throughout 1760 and into 1761. They tried to convince other Indian nations to join them in an all-out war against the British, but no other tribes agreed. Amherst sent thirteen hundred troops under Colonel Archibald Montgomery to South Carolina. These forces destroyed several Cherokee villages, but were unable to follow the Indians when they retreated into the mountains. The Cherokees managed to capture Fort Loudoun on the South Carolina frontier and took the soldiers there captive. In the spring of 1761, the British sent an army of regulars under Lieutenant Colonel James Grant (1720-1806) to reclaim the fort and put down the rebellion. As the Cherokees ran low on ammunition, Grant's forces burned villages and killed many people. Cherokee and South Carolina leaders finally reached a peace agreement in the fall of 1761.

Seven Years' War finally ends in Europe

Although the capture of Montreal had sealed the British victory over the French in North America, war con-tinued to rage in Europe for two more years. During this time, the British government underwent an important change in leadership. King George II (1683-1760) died suddenly of a stroke in 1760, and twenty-three-year-old George III (1738- 1820; see box in William Pitt entry) took over the throne. The young king relied heavily on the advice of his former tutor and closest friend, John Stuart, third earl of Bute (1713-1792). Bute did not like William Pitt and wanted him out of the government. But Pitt enjoyed great power and popularity because of his successful expansion of the British empire during the war. As the war dragged on, however, the military operations became so expensive that it pushed Great Britain close to financial collapse. Bute and the new king were eager to end the expensive war as quickly as possible. They worried that Pitt was willing to keep fighting indefinitely if he thought that Great Britain could claim more territory.

The difference in philosophy between Bute and Pitt became clear in 1761, when Spain agreed to form an alliance with France. The agreement between the two powers said that if the war had not ended by the beginning of 1762, then Spain would join the fight against Great Britain. Bute viewed the Spanish-French alliance as a political scheme designed to push the British to negotiate peace with France. He was willing to talk about a settlement rather than face the possibility of expanding the war. Pitt, on the other hand, thought that the Spanish alliance meant that Spain definitely intended to enter the war. He favored declaring war against Spain immediately and launching attacks on vulnerable Spanish colonies around the world. When the king sided with Bute in this difference of opinion, Pitt resigned from the government in October 1761. But peace talks faltered, and Spain still joined the war on the side of France in 1762.

The British continued their military successes during this time by conquering French and Spanish colonies around the world. They captured French trading posts in India, seized French Senegal in West Africa, and took control of the French sugar-producing island of Martinique in the Caribbean. The British also launched successful attacks on Spanish possessions in Cuba and the Philippines.

At the same time, however, the war in Europe reached a stalemate. King Frederick II (1712-1786), leader of the British ally Prussia (a country that included modern-day Germany and parts of Poland and Russia), found his army surrounded and badly outnumbered by Russian and Austrian forces at the beginning of 1762. Then Tsarina Elizabeth (1709-1762), the Russian ruler who hated King Frederick, died and was succeeded by Tsar Peter III (1728-1762). Peter felt great loyalty towards Prussia and immediately made peace with King Frederick. With Russia's help, Prussia was able to defeat Austria by the end of the year. This remarkable turnaround enabled British leaders to withdraw support from their ally and use those resources in the fight against Spain.

Shortly after declaring war against Great Britain, Spain invaded its neighbor Portugal, which was a British ally. But the transfer of large numbers of British troops from Prussia and North America soon forced the Spanish to withdraw. The last major military operation of the Seven Years' War took place in September 1762, when British forces captured Newfoundland (located on the Atlantic coast of Canada) from France. The two sides resumed peace talks and settled on the terms of a treaty by the end of the year.

Trader George Croghan Predicts Indian Wars

For many years before the French and Indian War, Indians had enjoyed fair trading arrangements with the French that helped both sides become more prosperous. Over time, the Indians came to depend on certain goods they acquired from the French. For example, many tribes used guns and ammunition—rather than bows and arrows—for hunting and for defending themselves against their enemies.

When British armies needed to gain the support of the Indians in their struggle with the French for control of North America, they continued many of the French trading practices. But after the war ended in North America, British General Jeffery Amherst placed restrictions on the trade between Indian nations and British settlers. Amherst prohibited the sale of alcohol to Indians and the giving of gifts to encourage Indian cooperation, and he strictly limited the number of guns and amount of ammunition Indians could receive.

Amherst thought these policies would help make the frontier less dangerous for British settlers, but in fact they had the opposite effect. Many tribes fought against the new rules by conducting violent raids on British settlements.

George Croghan, an Irish immigrant who had settled in Pennsylvania, was one of the first British traders to do business in the Ohio Country. He opened a trading post on the site of present-day Cleveland in 1747, several years before the war began. Based on his long experience trading among the Indians of the Ohio Country, Croghan warned British leaders that Amherst's policies would create problems:

[The Indians] had great expectations of being very generally supplied by us, and from their poverty and mercenary disposition [tendency to fight] they can't bear such a disappointment. Undoubtedly the general has his own reason for not allowing any present or ammunition given them, and I wish [this policy] may have its desired effect. But I take this opportunity to acquaint you that I dread the event as I know the Indians can't long persevere [continue on their present course].… Their success at the beginning of this war on our frontiers is too recent in their memory for them to consider their present inability to make war with us. And if the Senecas, Delawares, and Shawnees should break with us, it will end in a general war with all western nations.

Source: Nash, Gary B. Red, White and Black: The Peoples of Early America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982.