Battle of the Thousand Islands

Between August 16 and 24 in 1760, British and French forces clashed among the waterways and islets of the upper St. Lawrence River, near where the Thousand Islands straddle what is now the border between Canada and the United States. This clash formed part of the final stretch of the conflict known in Canada and Europe as the Seven Years' War and called the French and Indian War in the United States.

Fighting unfolded around Fort Lévis, situated roughly a mile downstream from where the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge stands today, as well as at Pointe au Baril, now known as Maitland, Ontario, and across the nearby islands and waters. This action occurred as part of the broader push toward Montreal. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the modest French force defending Fort Lévis held off the larger British army for more than a week, sinking two of the British warships and leaving a third badly damaged. Through this stand, the garrison succeeded in slowing the westward British march on Montreal.

Background and forces

In August 1760, French forces were raising Fort Lévis on Île Royale, a site now known as Chimney Island, New York, situated along the St. Lawrence River. Command of its defense fell to Captain Pierre Pouchot, a man who had earlier been captured following the siege of Fort Niagara before returning to duty through a prisoner exchange. Chevalier de Lévis had envisioned something formidable for this position: stone ramparts, roughly 2,500 defenders, and 200 cannon. Reality fell far short of that vision. Pouchot found himself with only a modest wooden stockade, five cannon, and a garrison of 200 men.

Beyond the fort itself, Pouchot also had two corvettes at his disposal, l'Outaouaise and l'Iroquoise, staffed together by some 200 sailors and voyageurs. Commodore René Hypolite Pépin dit La Force commanded l'Iroquoise, which mounted ten 12-pound cannon along with swivel guns. The other vessel, l'Outaouaise, answered to Captain Pierre Boucher de LaBroquerie and carried ten 12-pounders, a single 18-pound gun, and swivel guns of its own.

The fall of Quebec during the 1759 engagement at the Plains of Abraham set the stage for what followed. British commander-in-chief General Jeffery Amherst began organizing a coordinated assault on Montreal using three separate columns. One would push northeast along the St. Lawrence from Quebec, another would move south up the Richelieu River starting from Lake Champlain, and a third would approach from the west, departing Oswego on Lake Ontario. Amherst himself took charge of this western column, a force numbering close to 10,000 men and equipped with 100 siege guns.

Shortly after reaching Île Royale, Pouchot made the

Battle

Watchmen from the French side, stationed at Ile aux Chevreuils above Fort Lévis, spotted Onondaga and Mohawk on 7 August. This prompted a French retreat aboard a row galley, with the two British ships giving chase. That pursuit went badly for the British vessels, however, as they became disoriented among the many islands and spent several days searching for the main channel again.

By 16 August, Amherst and his men had reached Pointe au Baril. Worried that the surviving French warship might strike at his transport vessels, Amherst gave Colonel George Williamson orders to seize l'Outaouaise the next day. Williamson departed at first light on 17 August aboard a gig, with five row galleys in his company, one carrying a howitzer and the rest each fitted with a single 12-pounder gun. Positioning themselves fore and aft of l'Outaouaise, the galleys found cover from the ship's broadside fire. Grapeshot and round shot poured from the British galleys onto the French vessel, leaving l'Outaouaise crippled and drifting without control toward the battery the British had established at Pointe au Baril. Three hours into the engagement, l'Outaouaise had only managed roughly 72 shots in return, enough to damage a pair of British galleys. LaBroquerie, wounded during the fighting, had no choice but to yield the vessel to Williamson. Among his crew, fifteen men were counted as dead or wounded.

Once repaired, the captured ship took on the name Williamson and entered British service, with Captain Patrick Sinclair now commanding it against the very side that had once owned it. The assault on Fort Lévis began on 19 August under Amherst's direction. La Force and his men, previously stationed aboard the grounded l'Iroquoise, had by then been recalled to the fort to bolster its defenses. During the bombardment from British batteries positioned on nearby islands, Williamson absorbed 48 hits from the fort's five French guns. That evening brought the delayed arrival of Mohawk and Onondaga, leading Amherst to halt the fighting until morning. When the assault resumed at dawn on 20 August, Williamson, Mohawk, and Onondaga together unleashed fifty guns upon the fort. The French gunners eventually found their mark, sinking both Williamson and Onondaga as the battle wore on. Mohawk, meanwh ing itself grounded within range of the French cannon, took a relentless pounding until it could fight no more. Still, the island batteries kept up their fire, turning to heated "hot shot" rounds meant to ignite blazes inside the fort's walls. The siege dragged on until 24 August, when Pouchot, having exhausted his ammunition supply, sought terms of surrender.

Aftermath

In casualty terms, the British side counted 26 dead and 47 wounded, a tally that likely left militia losses out of the reckoning. The French fared far worse: of the 300 men who had originally held the position, some 275 fell killed or wounded, and Pouchot himself was among the injured. The disparity struck the British as remarkable, since they found it hard to fathom how a garrison so small had put up such a determined fight.

Amherst did not push on immediately. His army lingered near Fort Lévis for four more days before resuming its march on Montreal. That advance proved costly in its own right, claiming at least 84 additional men who drowned navigating the St. Lawrence's rapids, though Pouchot's own figures place the toll as high as 336. Amherst eventually linked up with the columns arriving from Quebec and Lake Champlain, closing off Montreal from every side. Altogether the three British forces converging on the town numbered 17,000 men, and as they advanced they burned villages in their path, a campaign that triggered widespread desertion among the Canadian militia. On September 8, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of New France, surrendered Montreal rather than allow the bloodshed to continue.

Following the victory, the British rechristened Fort Lévis as Fort William Augustus. They also salvaged the three vessels lost during the fighting, the Williamson, Onondaga, and Mohawk, returning them to duty to guard the waters running between the fort and Fort Niagara.