The Massacre at Fort Bull

Lieutenant Ghtmlard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry departed La Présentation with a French force consisting of 103 Canadian Indians, including Iroquois from Sault St. Louis and St. Regis, Abenakis, and Nepissings. These, together with 251 Canadian militia and regulars, including some men from the Queen's Regiment, Guyene, Bearn, also detached Navy men, and eight officers from the garrison at Louisbourg totaling 362 men.

On the morning of the 24^th, 1756 de Léry 's army had arrived near the Carry, where he sent out a scouting party to observe the forts. He followed with the main body of the army.

By 2 o'clock on the 25^th, the first detachment had not returned, so de Léry set out in search of them. He found them in the company of a group of Oneida Indians. They informed him the commander of Fort Williams had been warned that a French force was coming. He was also told that local Indians had slowly began disappearing from the forts, not wanting to become caught between the French and English. De Léry was also informed that Fort Bull contained the munitions, and he was given the schedules of the sledges that carried food between the forts.

By 10 o'clock, on the morning of the 26^th, the French had advanced as far was safe and set up camp. From here, they could observe the English forts. At about four thirty the following morning, under cover of a light snow, the entire detachment had taken up positions along the road between the forts.

Two English prisoners, captured outside the fort, were brought in about nine thirty. De Léry threatened to turn them over to his Indians if they failed to answer his questions. From them, he learned that Fort Bull had a quantity of munitions, food, and supplies, and that the beach was covered with stores ready to be loaded into batteaux.  He was told the fort had no cannon, but the 70 soldiers in the fort had a large supply of grenades.

Within an hour, sleds approaching on the road, were captured by the Indians. Ten more Englishmen were taken prisoner. One sled driver, an unnamed black man, escaped and ran for Fort Williams. The Indians were unable to catch him. This situation now forced de Léry 's hand. With Fort Williams being warned, he could expect a sortie from there soon, Fort Bull was less fortified. He would attack Fort Bull.

De Léry 's plan was for the troops to take the British guards by surprise, and rush into the fort. It was hoped this could be done without a shot being fired. Of course this all depended on the gate being open at the time of the attack. This would require stealth and de Léry instructed the Indians they must not give warning with their war cries.

Using the brush and growth along the road side and creek bank as cover, the French crept closer. Following along the creek, they advanced until the men loading their bateaux came into sight. As they were gathering in preparation to spring the trap, the Indians suddenly burst from cover with shrill war cries. Any chance of surprise was lost. De Léry could only shout for his men to charge. The soldiers surged forward with leveled bayonets.

It took a moment for the startled batteaux men to realize the danger of their situation. Then they dropped the supplies and ran for the gates of the fort. The guards seeing the French, waited as long as possible, but were forced to close the gates before the bateaux men could enter. The French were a few hundred feet behind them. At this point, seeing the gate closed, the bateaux men darted off for the protection of the surrounding woods.

The forts commander, Lieutenant Bull, ordered his men to defend the stockade at the gate. As there were no shooting ports cut into the walls, the defenders were forced to fire through spaces between the pickets of the gate. Those men not firing, hurled grenades over the walls, which exploded in fragments of iron over the heads of the enemy. The Indians at this time decided to take to the woods in pursuit of the escaping bateaux men.

Seeing that most of the defenders were positioned at the gates, de Léry sent two detachments to the star points on the east and west sides of the fort. Once there, the French began to open fire through the spaces between the pickets of the stockade. All the while the main body of French troops maintained a heavy fire upon the gates, a third detachment was sent out with axes to chop down the gates. The forts defenders had such a limited ability to take aim, they could put up but little defense.

The French rushed the gates with their axes, and began chopping the wooden hinges. It took only an hour for an opening large enough to allow troops to enter. Lieutenant Bull was killed, and the British soldiers were forced to fall back to the buildings for cover in a last ditch effort to survive. It took but a short time for the French to over power the defenders. The French were pouring in, with bayonets fixed. Those that were not killed in the first rush were run through and left to die. Even Lieutenant Bull's wife was murdered by a bayonet through the throat. By the time the ordeal ended, only 28 were left alive of the few who defended Fort Bull to the death against the heavy odds of De Léry 's force, that bitter day of March 27, 1756.

De Léry ordered the stores of gunpowder and cannon be dumped into the creek, but before all could be removed, sparks from a burning building threatened to ignite the powder magazine. The French ran from the fort to safety, but after the explosion, they returned long enough to loot what stores and food remained. What could not be carried off, was dumped in the mud of the creek bottom.

On departing the site of the fort, de Léry took his men off in the direction of Fort Williams, where he gathered the detachment that had been left with the prisoners. Here he found that indeed a relief party had been sent from Fort Williams to aid the garrison at Fort Bull, but it had been so small it had been easily destroyed. He then swiftly departed to return to La Présentation with his prisoners.