Epic Battles for Ticonderoga, 1758, The

A history of the military campaigns near Fort Ticonderoga, New York, in 1758.On July 8, 1758, British General James Abercromby ordered a controversial frontal assault of the French defenses on the Ticonderoga peninsula in upstate New York. Outnumbering the French by four to one, the capture of their fort, named Carillon, seemed all but assured. Once the fort-called the key to a continent-was in British hands the road would be open to invade Canada, capture Montreal and Quebec, and end the French and Indian War. The attack, however, would go horribly wrong and result in nearly 2,000 British casualties, the single bloodiest day of the entire war. It would be another year before the British, under a different commander, would capture the fortifications and rename them Fort Ticonderoga. The Epic Battles for Ticonderoga, 1758 examines the skirmishes and raids in the months leading up to the battle, discusses Abercromby's campaign in the larger context of British grand strategy for the year 1758, the roles of key military and political figures on both sides, and the conflict's aftermath.William R. Nester is Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at St. John's University and the author of many books, including The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607-1755 and The First Global War: Britain, France, and the Fate of North America, 1756-1775.