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September 1759 – January 1760 - Untying the knot



1. Breaking the Siege of Oswego

As you may remember, the garrison of the very strategic fort of Oswego was under siege, but most of the sieging force had to evacuate, so the English saw an opportunity to break free.

But this was not to happen. Month after month, the French resisted the sorties :





This means the garrison had to hold the month of September and October under siege. The port was bringing some supplies, but hundreds of men perished, and the survivors were not at their best either.

Happily enough, observation of the French force showed that they were not much better supply – they were sieging in the middle of Winder now, so another sortie was attempted in October

The now-exhausted English tried to break the line one last time, but the almost similarly hungry French pushed them back to their wooden wall once again



This was the last attempt the garrison would or could try. But meanwhile, reinforcement from Albany where on the way – they had no officer, but they were fresh and would most probably succeed nonetheless :



But when they arrived, the Fleur-de-Lys flag floated above Fort Oswego



… and then ; it was the British turn to siege Fort Oswego !




2. Battles for Fort Duquesne

On September 1759, Fort Duquesne was still under siege by the very specialized English army ; while reinforcements were on the way.




Suddently, in October, a French army of Indians and Coureurs stroke from Kitaning in the North. The battle was extremely confused, but the outnumbered English held strong under the pressure and the siege was held, while the franco-indians went to lick their wound.





[“English Defeat”, but I kept my position and caused more damage].

The English knew the French would come back. And come back they did, on month later, in an epic battle that would last today.





5 500 French and Indians attacked 2 700 English. By the end of the battle, 1 800 men of each side laid dead. Among them was Sir William Johnson one of the most competent Englishmen and one of the two officers who could have leaded the expedition out.

But as the battle ended, English reinforcements had arrived – the English went back to 3 000 or so men, and they knew the French & Indians were down to a comparable number. Moreover, the garrison of Fort Duquesne, which had tried to sortie, was now skeletal. With no way out, no supplies to come back, there was only one solution : assault and hold the fort.



At first it worked ; it was a glorious assault, in the winter of December – and the garrison was crushed



But less than a week later, it was the French turn to attack Fort Duquesne. A small but elite force routed the British in a battle that lasted 2 days :





Robert Rogers - the best British officers or them all - laid dead, as did more than 2 000 of the British. The rare survivors, under the command of Sir William Howe had been chased West. In the middle of Winter with no food, the survivors were bound to surrender, or starve to death as well !




3. The Champlain Lake is British

Finally, on the Champlain front, the badly battered and now under commanded Champlain’s army pressed on, as Fort Frederic was sieged, then assaulted !



Fort Frederic surrendered quickly, and the British army could finally join Montreal through the land route – just as the naval route through Fort Oswego had been cut.



The secondary fronts had been terrible for the English, but the road to Quebec was, it seemed, finally opened !
 
Well, at this point I lost almost all my mobile troops, so any further expedition for Duquesne is out of scope... My only aim is to crush Quebec with regulars...
 
Reading this AAR makes me nostalgic for some of my board games. Even though it's 50 years ahead of this, Mr. Madison's War keeps popping up and demands that I finally play it again for the first time since I purchasing it.

Plus, the MP element you two have going on makes me a bit jealous... :p
 
We are slow but still alive!