On this date 266-years ago, the infamous Massacre at Fort William Henry took place along the southern shore of Lake George, New York. After a week-long siege by the Marquis de Montcalm’s army of French Regulars, Canadians, and Native Allies, the British and Provincial garrison inside and outside the walls of Fort William Henry capitulated. The terms of surrender that followed were more than honorable. British, Colonial Provincials (from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York) and their camp followers would be allowed to withdraw, under French escort, to Fort Edward with full honors of war and were allowed to keep their muskets and a lone symbolic cannon. These men were not allowed to serve again for 18 months, and French prisoners were ordered to be turned over within the next three months.

On August 10, the column left the entrenched camp outside the fort (within modern-day Lake George Battlefield State Park) and entered the military road that would take them south to Fort Edward over a dozen miles away. What transpired next has been made famous by the novel and movie adaptations of James Fenimore Coopers The Last of the Mohicans. The French-allied Native Americans fell upon the column and the “Massacre” ensued. By the end of it, an estimated 185 men, women, and children had been killed, with countless others drug off in captivity.

The British colonies were outraged. Those viciously attacked at the rear of the column were colonial provincials. The event became a rallying cry. What follows is a contemporary reaction from New York written in the wake of the Siege of Fort William Henry and reprinted in the Maryland Gazette on September 1, 1757. Its contents are extremely graphic in nature:

New-York, August 22

FORT WILLIAM HENRY, being on the third Instant besieged by a great Army of the French, was on the 9^th Instant, after a vigorous Resistance, obliged to yield to the superior Force of the Enemy. Thus far is certain; but as to some Circumstances attending what follows, we wait for Confirmation. What at present is generally received among us, as Truth is, That the Enemy consisted of at least Eight Thousand Men; some make the Number much great, and carry it even to Fourteen or Fifteen Thousand: That the greatest Part were REGULAR TROOPS, to these were added about a Thousand FRENCH INDIANS, and that the Rest of their Army were CANADIANS. That our Garrison consisted of between two and three Thousand: That they sustained the Siege till they could hold no longer, and had burst the greatest Part of their Cannon, and spent almost all their Ammunition. How many of the Garrison were lost in the Siege, is not yet known (some say about One Hundred) nor the Number of the Enemy that were slain (but it is said about fourteen or fifteen Hundred:) That the Fort submitted upon a Capitulation, with Leave to march out with their Arms and Baggage, some Ammunition, one Piece of Cannon, and all the Honours of War. That the French IMMEDIATELY after the Capitulation, MOST PERSIDIOUSLY, let their INDIAN BLOOD-HOUNDS loose upon our People; whereupon a few ran off with their Arms, and light Cloathing that they had upon their Backs during the Siege, and were pursued by the Indians six or seven Miles on their Way to Fort-Edward; all the rest were despoiled of their Arms;—The most were stripped stark-naked; many were killed and scalped, Officers not excepted. All the English Indians and Negroes in the Garrison were seized, and either captivated or slain. The Throats of most, if not all the Women, were cut, their Bellies ripped open, their Bowels torn out, and thrown upon the Faces of their DEAD or DYING Bodies; and ‘tis said, that all the Women are murdered one Way or other: That the Children were taken by the Heels, and their Brains beat out against the Trees or Stones, and not one of them saved. Some of the Fugitives that reached New-York on this Day, affirm this, as what they saw, in the whole, or in great Part, executed before they escaped: The Report of such Cruelty and barbarity could hardly be believed, were we not assured of the terrible Massacre of several Hundreds of General BRADDOCK’s wounded men; of whom we hear not of one that survived the Carnage; were we not ALSO assured of the Murder of all the Sick and Wounded of the Garrison at Oswego, not withstanding the previous Capitulation.

‘Tis certain that the Growth of the British Colonies has long been the grand Object of FRENCH ENVY; and ‘tis said that their Officers have Orders from their Superiors, to check it at all Events, and to that End, to make the present War as bloody and destructive as possible! ‘Tis evident, that all their Measures tend the Way. Who can tell, that One of the Two Hundred that fell into their Hands in the last Month near Ticonderoga, has been spared? And is not every News-Paper still stained with the innocent Blood of Women and Children, and of unarmed Sufferers, who were plowing their Land, or gathering their Harvest, on our Frontiers?

To what a Pitch of Perfidy and Cruelty is that French Nation arrived! Would not an ancient Heathen shudder with Horror, on hearing so hideous a Tale! Is it the MOST CHRISTIAN KING that could give such Orders? Or could the most savage Nations ever exceed such French Barbarities! Besides this, was it ever known in the Pagan World, That Terms of Capitulation were not held inviolably sacred!

Surely, if any Nation under the Heavens was ever provoked to the most rigid Severities in the Conduct of a War, it is ours!—It is hard for an Englishman to kill his Enemy that lies at his Feet begging his Life: But will it not be STRICTLY JUST, and ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, from henceforward, that we (for our own Security and Self-preservation, and to prevent the further shedding on innocent Blood) make some severe Examples of our inhuman Enemies when they fall into our Hands? Will not our armed Men be obliged for the future to reject all Terms of Capitulation, and not to as Quarter; but on the contrary, to fell their Lives as dear as they can! CONSIDER OF IT, my Countrymen, TAKE ADVICE, AND SPEACK YOUR MINDS….