Section IL, 1914 [193] Trans.R.S.C. 



The Capture of Oswego by Montcalm in 1756; a study in Naval Power; 



with an Appendix of letters from Housman Broadley, 



Commander of the British Forces on Lake Ontario. 



By W. L. Grant, F.R.S.C. 



(Read May 27, 1914.) 



The Capture of Oswego in 1756. 



The Seven Years' War is the paradise of the historian, epic in 

 scope and romantic in detail; far enough away for the student not 

 to be engulfed in shoreless floods of paper, yet near enough 'for his 

 material to be abundant and accessible. Of unpublished manuscripts 

 the Public Record OfHce in London, the Departments of Foreign 

 Affairs and of the Marine in Paris are full. Of all of these there are 

 certified copies easily accessible in the Archives of the Canadian 

 Government at Ottawa, and of many in the Archives of the Provincial 

 Government at Quebec. Every now and then new documents are 

 found in the escritoires or lumber-rooms of private families; for 

 example, Mr. Thomas Chapais of Quebec, whose admirable "Life 

 of Montcalm" I shall have occasion to refer to later, has been privileged 

 to consult a number of memoirs and other documents drawn up by 

 M. de la Pause, adjutant (aide-major) of the Regiment of Guienne, 

 so efficient an officer that the grateful Montcalm, anticipating the 

 description given by Pitt of Clive, spoke of him as a heaven-born 

 soldier. 



The printed material is also abundant. If we take one such 

 incident of the war as the Siege of Oswego in 1756 we have the printed 

 diaries and reminiscences of such men as Pouchot, 1 Malartic, 2 and Des 

 Androuins. 3 We have the correspondence of the Board of Trade 

 with the Governors of New York in "New York Colonial documents," 

 Vol. VII, and some important French papers in Vol. X of the same 

 series. Above all we have the 11 volumes of the so-called "Levis 

 papers," edited for the Government of Quebec by the late Abbé Cas- 

 grain 4 . These include numerous letters, describing all phases of the 



bouchot. Memoir upon the late war in North America, 1755-60. Tr. and ed. 

 by F. B. Hough. (Roxbury, Mass, 1866.) 



2 Comte Maures de Malartic. Journal des Campagnes au Canada de 1755 à 

 1760. Ed. by Paul Gaffarel. (Paris, 1890.) 



3 M. L'Abbé Gabriel. Le Maréchal de Camp Desandrouins. (Verdun, 1887.) 



