St. Francis raid 1759
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 4 October 1759 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1759 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Canada | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | French and Indian War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 46.0661, -72.8261 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The St. Francis raid was an attack in the French and Indian War by Robert Rogers on St. Francis, near the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River in what was then the French province of Canada, on October 4, 1759. Rogers and about 140 men entered the village, which was reportedly occupied primarily by women, children, and the elderly, early that morning, slaughtered many of the inhabitants where they lay, shot down many who attempted to flee, and then burned the village. Rogers reported killing as many as 200 people, while French reports placed the number closer to thirty, mainly women and children. One of Rogers' men was killed, and seven were wounded.
Rogers and his men endured significant hardships to reach the village from the British base at Fort Crown Point in present-day New York and even more hardship afterwards. Chased by the French and vengeful Indians and short on rations, Rogers and his men returned to Crown Point via the Connecticut River valley. Missteps in caching food stores for the expedition's use led to starvation, and some of Rogers' men were reportedly driven to cannibalism in order to survive. About one third of the raid's participants did not return.
Reports of the raid from the Thirteen Colonies were unapologetic, as St. Francis had long been a place from which the natives raided colonial settlements as far south as Massachusetts, and Rogers…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article St. Francis raid (revision 1370748583), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the French and Indian War
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- Siege of Louisbourg (1758) 1758
- Battle of Fort Niagara 1759
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All 14 battles of the French and Indian War →
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