Old Fort Niagara hosting Battle of La belle Famille walking tour

Rob Creenan, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·2 min read

Jul. 21—One of the most decisive battles of the French and Indian War will come to life where it took place.

Old Fort Niagara, along with the Town of Porter Historical Society, will put on a walking tour describing the Battle of La belle Famille, which happened in what is now Youngstown on July 24, 1759. The tour will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. on Monday — the battle's 264th anniversary — starting at Falkner Park.

The tour is free to the public and anyone can join. An Old Fort Niagara volunteer will lead it while other staff members will be in period attire along the way. No battle reenactments will take place.

"They'll walk from where the British position was to where the battle started and back again," said Old Fort Niagara Executive Director Bob Emerson.

Prior to the battle, British troops sieged the French-controlled Fort Niagara throughout July 1759, digging trenches and using cannon bombardments. Fort commander Captain Pierre Pouchot dispatched messages for reinforcements down in Venango, in modern day Franklin, Pennsylvania.

About 1,300 French troops and their Native American allies boarded boats at modern day Erie, Pennsylvania, sailed across Lake Erie, disembarked on the Niagara River just above Niagara Falls on July 23, and marched down the Portage Road towards Fort Niagara.

The British's Native allies warned them of the attack and their commanding officer Sir William Johnson ordered troops to block the road at around where the Stone Jug is located.

With the French marching up where Route 18F is at 8 a.m. on July 24, the British had 464 soldiers in a long line. The battle lasted about 20 minutes, with the British sending volley after volley over and the French suffering hundreds of casualties.

With the French reinforcements defeated, Fort Niagara would soon fall to the British.

Now that the fort was firmly in British hands, French forces were cut off from other forts and settlements in Forts Detroit and Mackinac in Michigan and in western Pennsylvania. It was the first of three major victories in 1759 that would seal the fate of New France in North America, followed by the Fall of Fort Ticonderoga and the British capturing Quebec City.