The North American counterpart of the Seven Years War was the French and Indian War. It began in 1755 when General Edward Braddock was named Commander of the British Army in America and sent to the colonies to capture the French possessions in North America.
The British plan was to stop French advances into the Ohio Valley by capturing Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh) while simultaneously attacking the fortresses at Crown Point and Niagra. From these positions Canada itself would then be invaded. The colonies were expected to provide most of the manpower for these military operations, but Braddock was given two regiments of British regulars, the 44th and 48th, to stiffen the provincial line.
When France learned of Braddock's expedition, 3,000 men of the regiments La Reine, Bourgogne, Languedoc, Guienne, Artois, and Bearn were loaded into eighteen warships under the command of Admiral Dubois la Motte and sent to Canada. The British sent two squadrons to intercept the French, Admiral Boscawen with eleven ships of the line and a frigate, and Admiral Holbourne with seven ships of the line.
For anyone playing the French and Indian War as a campaign game, or interested in a naval action, this is a good place to begin. For details on how to set up a Seven Years War naval battle see Byron Angel's article in I-3 of THE COURIER. In the event, Boscawen spotted the French fleet in a fog off Newfoundland and managed to capture two ships of 64 guns, the ALCIDE and the LIS, along with eight companies of French regulars.
Forces Assemble
General Braddock undertook the responsibility of capturing Fort Duquesne. He assembled his forces at Fort Cumberland, 2,200 men of the 44th, 48th, and Virginia regiments, a siege train, and a cumbersome supply train. His army began its march on June 10th. By IUIY 9th the advance guard, 1,400 picked men under Braddock's command, was within six miles of Duquesne.
The commander of Duquesne, Contrecoeur, gathered every able bodied man available to him, placed them under the command of one Captain Beajeu, and sent them to attack the British as they advanced through the woods. This French force numbered some 72 regulars, 146 Canadians, and 640 Indians.
The French met the British near the Monogahela River and defeated them in a three hour battle. The British lost 900 men, including Braddock. Dunbar, the new British commander, ordered the army's heavy equipment destroyed and retreated to Philadelphia leaving only a skeleton force to guard the frontier.
THE WARGAME
When our wargame group recreated Braddock's battle we used Ken Bunger's TRICORNE rules modified by doubling all fire casualties. The players were Ken Bunger (etc. Washington), Howard Wigger (General Braddock), Mitch Allen (Captain Dumas), and myself (Captain Beajeu). The objectives were simple: the British had to fight through and exit the table at point B, and the French had to stop them.
The French entered the table at point A. Beajeu's plan was to advance in three columns with the regulars and Canadians in the center and catch the head of the British formation in the U-shaped cross fire. To keep the British off balance small groups of Indians were to be split off to attack the supply train. Unfortunately for the French, Beajeu was a little vague in the instructions he gave to the Indian commander and Dumas went away with the impression his primary objective was the destruction of the British supply train.
The Indians took off at a smart trot and before Beajeu
realized it they were out of sight. He sent a couple of
couriers after them in an attempt to regain control of his
attacking force but the couriers were unfamiliar with the
terrain and within a couple of moves were hopelessly lost. [1]
Although Beajeu did not know it then, this event doomed
the French effort.
The British started as shown on the map and spent
the first part of the game trying to cross a treacherous
ravine. Braddock and an advance guard had managed to
cross when Beajeu appeared with his regulars and
Canadians. Braddock immediately sent out his advance
force, a grenadier company, to slow the French down while
he brought up the light artillery and the 48th; Washington
was sent back to close up the column and organize a
defense of the supply train.
On the Beside of the ravine Beajeu skirmished with
the British until a group of sweating artillerymen hauled a
couple of 3-pounders up out of the ravine and into
pointblank range of the Canadians and let loose a hail of
cannister. One Canadian was killed and the rest decided
they would be better off back at Duquesne and left the
table. [2] This left Beajeu with 70 French regulars facing a
company of grenadiers, a regiment of line, and a couple of
sections of artillery and a feeling that the end was near.
Suddenly, Beajeu noticed that the 48th, trying to advance in line through the tangled woods, had been thrown into disorder. [3] Seizing a desperate chance to wrest victory from defeat he led the regulars forward in a charge against the British line. The 48th, disordered or
not, were not impressed by the ragged French. They leveled their firelocks and dropped half the French, including Beajeu. [4] The survivors fled into the underbrush.
On the other side of the ravine Dumas was becoming
discouraged. When the Indians had first come up to the
supply train there seemed to be a good chance of
overrunning it. Their first attack destroyed a company of
Virginians and the rest had wavered briefly. But
Washington managed to rally them and reinforce them
with a company of the 44th. After the initial repulse Dumas
was unable to pursuade his Indians to close with the
Virginians and they began to drift away under increasingly
heavy musket fire. [5]
Then a scout returned with the news that Beajeu had
been defeated. Dumas decided to cut his losses and
withdraw. It was an unqualified victory for Braddock. Round
one of the French and Indian War to the British. [6]
[1] Depending upon a die roll, couriers may exceed their normal rate, be delayed or become either "waylayed" or captured. Modifications are
made on athe die roll if the courier's route is along roads, through unfamiliar terrain or through a village.
RULE NOTES
[2] Morale must be checked when under short range canister fire even if actual losses are light.
[3] There is a percentage chance of a unit becoming disordered while moving over non-clear terrain. The percentage varies with the formations and terrain types.
[4] This results from the "risk to the brass rule" which provides for percentage chance of an important officer becoming a casualty while accompanying a unit. The percentage increases as the rate of casualties upon the unit increases.
[5] Troops (or Indians) must roll a certain morale result in order to charge into melee. The indians were continually unsuccessful and remained amongst the trees sniping at the British.
[6] The entire table was wooded. The French,
Indians, Virginians and British grenadiers could operate unformed without penalty. The British line, however, was subject to probable disorder each time they moved.
Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. 2 #6
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1981 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com