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The Battle of Lake George was fought on 8 September 1755, in the north of the Province of New York. The battle was part of a campaign by the British to expel the French from North America in the French and Indian War. On one side were 1,500 French, Canadien, and Indian troops under the command of the Baron de Dieskau and on the other side 1,500 colonial troops under William Johnson and 200 Mohawks led by a noted war chief, Hendrick Theyanoguin. == Background == William Johnson, who had recently been named the British agent to the Iroquois, arrived at the southern end of ''Lac Saint Sacrement'' on 28 August 1755 and renamed it Lake George in honor of his sovereign, George II. His intention was to advance via Lakes George and Champlain to attack French-held Fort St. Frédéric at Crown Point, which was a keystone in the defense of Canada.〔Anderson, Fred, ''Crucible of War: The Seven Years War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766'', Faber and Faber Limited, London, 2000, ISBN 0-571-20565-8, p. 118〕 With a view to stopping Johnson's advance, Dieskau had already left Crown Point for an encampment situated between the two lakes (later to be built into Fort Carillon, the precursor of Fort Ticonderoga.) On 4 September Dieskau decided to launch a raid on Johnson's base, the recently constructed Fort Edward (at the time called Fort Lyman) on the Hudson River.〔Parkman, Francis, ''Montcalm and Wolfe (The French and English in North America, Part Seventh), Vol. I,'' Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1942, p. 309〕 His aim was to destroy the boats, supplies and artillery that Johnson needed for his campaign.〔Anderson, ''Crucible of War'', Page 117〕 Leaving half his force at Carillon, Dieskau led the rest on an alternate route to the Hudson by landing his men at South Bay and then marching them east of Lake George along Wood Creek.〔Bancroft, George, ''History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. IV,'' Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1856, p. 209〕 Dieskau arrived near Fort Edward on the evening of 7 September 1755 with 222 French regular grenadiers from the Régiment de la Reine and the Régiment de Languedoc, 600 Canadian militia and 700 Abenaki and Caughnawaga Mohawk allies.〔Anderson, ''Crucible of War'', p. 115〕 Johnson, camped north of Fort Edward at the southern end of Lake George, was alerted by scouts to the presence of the enemy forces to his south, and he dispatched a messenger to warn the 500-man garrison at Fort Edward. But the messenger was intercepted, and soon afterward a supply train was captured, with the result that the disposition of all of Johnson's forces became known to Dieskau. The Indians in the French party, after holding council, declined to assault Fort Edward because they expected it to be defended with cannons; so in the morning Dieskau gave the order to march north toward the lake.〔Parkman, ''Montcalm and Wolfe,'' p. 310〕 At 9 am on 8 September, Johnson sent Colonel Ephraim Williams south to reinforce Fort Edward with 200 Mohawk allies and 1,000 troops from Williams' Massachusetts Regiment and Colonel Nathan Whiting's Connecticut Regiment. Dieskau, warned by a deserter of Williams' approach, blocked the portage road with his French grenadiers and sent his Canadians and Indians to ambush the British from both sides of the road.〔Anderson, ''Crucible of War'', pp. 118–119〕 They lay in wait in a ravine three miles south of the present-day village of Lake George.〔Bancroft, ''History of the United States, Vol. IV,'' p. 210〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Lake George」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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