The main action at La Belle Famille had been decided in less than half an hour. The disparity of casualties between the opponents symbolized the enormity of the French defeat. The British tallied only 12 killed and 40 wounded. The grenadiers of the 46th had suffered the most, and Captain Marsh, Lieutenant Colonel Massey and Lieutenant William Philpot of the
46th were numbered among the injured. Accounts of French casualties vary wildly, and the true number will probably never be known. Many of the killed were scattered the length of the six or seven mile pursuit, and many captives were carried off to Iroquois villages. The best French account lists 344 men "taken or killed", and the British recorded the capture of 17 officers and 120 to 160 enlisted men. Thus it seems that the French dead numbered between 167 and 207. Less conservative British reports suggest that their enemy lost as many as 500 men.
As the shattered detritus of the Army of the Ohio fled toward Lake Erie, the British turned their full attention to Fort Niagara. Pouchot was informed of the disaster, but from the fort the brief action had appeared as no more than a skirmish. One of the garrison officers was led blindfolded to the British camp and there shown the forlorn prisoners. Pouchot was convinced. After some negotiation, he yielded Fort Niagara on the morningof July 25,1759. It had taken nineteen days for the besieging army to subdue the fortress.
Although the British campaign of 1759 proved successful, it fell short of its goal of ending the war in America. Stanwix was never able to advance from Pittsburgh. Wolfe's troops captured Quebec, while Amherst's took Ticonderoga and Crown Point, but Montreal was preserved for another year. Most of the Niagara army returned to Oswego and moved no more during 1759. Brigadier Thomas Gage, successor to Johnson, was unable or unwilling to take post on the St. Lawrence and threaten Montreal. Fort Niagara's garrison had done more than expected by the French command, and Pouchot's stout defense perhaps kept the British from moving against the St. Lawrence. The attempt to relieve the siege had, however, destroyed the Army of the Ohio. Substantial French resistance in the West was no longer possible. The British would simply march in to collect the western posts following the capitulation of Montreal in September, 1760.
The outcome of the action at La Belle Famille was the deciding factor in the siege of Fort Niagara. Pouchot and his men might have resisted for another week, but the total defeat of theironly possible relief would have made this a futile gesture. A numerically inferior British force had carried the day by good positioning, steady leadership and discipline.
The Iroquois, although perhaps notof much assistance in the action itself, provided the British with both an important moral advantage and tangible assistance by diplomaticallyeliminating most of the French Indians on the very eve of battle. It was still the regulars' show, however, and they handily defeated a French force that suffered too much from overconfidence. The action was not an ambush. Although the French probably underestimated the number of their opponents, they knew they would be opposed at La Belle Famille. They pressed on and, unable to force the enemy position with theircolumn or deploy effectively into line, were defeated.
SOURCES
The most readily available secondary sources relating to the Battle of La Belle Famille are: Dunnigan, Brian Leigh. Siege - 1759: The Campaign Against Niagara. Youngstown, NY: Old Fort Niagara Association, 1986. Severance, Frank H. An Old Frontier of France. 2 vols; New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1917.
The account above is based on a wide variety of source material, all of which is cited in Siege - 1759. The most reliable and illuminating descriptions of the battle are those listed below: Capt. James De Lanceyto Lt. Gov. James De Lancey, Niagara, July 25, 1759, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, VII, 402-03. Sir William Johnson to Maj. Gen. Jeffery Amherst, Niagara, July 25, 1759, Papers of Sir William Johnson, III, 108-10. Letter from an Officer, Niagara, July 25, 1759, New York Mercury, Aug. 6,1759. Lt. Col. William Farqhuar to Amherst, Niagara, July 29, 1759, Amherst Papers, Public Record Office, W.O. 34, VoL21. Lt. Col. Lyre Massey to Maj. Gen. Jeffery Amherst, Oswego, July 30, 1759, Amherst Papers, Vol. 53. Lt. Col. Eyre Massey to Prime Minister William Pitt, Oswego, July 30, 1759, Chatham Papers, Public Record Office, Bundle XLIX. Capt. Charles Lee to Sir William Bunbury, Niagara, Aug. 9, 1759, Collections of the New York Historical Society, 1871, 20-22. Surgeon Richard Huck to Lord Loudon, Crown Point, Aug. 4, 1759, Loudon Papers, Huntington Library, LO 6134. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Amherst to Gen. James Wolfe, Crown Point, Aug. 7, 1759, Amherst Papers, vol. 46B. Commandant Macarty to Gov. Kederec, Illinois, Aug. 30, 1759, Archives des Colonies, C13A, vol. 41, folio 103. Return of Killed and Wounded, Boston Gazette, Sept.10,1759. Lt. Col. Eyre Massey to Prime Minister William Pitt, Ft. Stanwix, July 11,1760, Chatham Papers. Capt. Pierre Pouchot, Memoir Upon the Late War in North America, edited by Franklin B. Hough, 1, p. 192.
Brian Leigh Dunnigan is Executive Director of Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York and author of several historical works about Fort Niagara, including SIEGE - 1759 THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST NIAGARA. From 1966 to 1974 he served as a seasonal staff member with the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, later becoming Managing Director of Historic Fort Wayne in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1974 and afterwards moving on to the position of Executive Director at Fort Niagara in 1979. He has a B.A. and an M.A. in History from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in History Museum Training from the Cooperstown Graduate Programs. He is a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians and Honorary Member of the Seven Years' War Association. Theme Editor: Bill Protz.
Action at La Belle Famille
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