Now for Some History: 1755

Note that the events described below happened on July 26, 1755, making this week the 257th anniversary of the events described.

The account that follows may be in reference to the battle of the Harbor Islands (now owned by the Paulist fathers) or it may refer to a massacre at Sabbath Day Point.

All day and all night of the 25th of July (1755) Lieutenant Corbierie, with fifty Canadians and three hundred Ottawas, lay in ambush among the islands of Lake George, above what is now called Sabbath-Day point. On the morning of the 26th there came gliding down the lake in twenty-two barges a New Jersey regiment of three hundred soldiers, under the command of Colonel John Parker.

After the first volley, the French and Indians at once urged their bark canoes towards the barges of the Jerseymen, as if to board them, but the latter took fright on the approach of those hideous warriors; many of them dropped their arms, and all sought safety in flight. But the arrow like canoes quickly overtook the barges, and a fearful massacre ensued. Those even who sought the western shore were soon run down by the light-footed savages. After a hundred and thirty-one were killed, the Indians became satiated with blood, and began taking prisoners. Of these they captured a hundred and fifty-seven. Only twelve of the whole three hundred escaped death or captivity. On the other hand only one Indian was wounded, – the strongest possible evidence of the panic of their opponents.

A French writer (Roubard) states, of his own knowledge, that one of the slain provincials was actually boiled and eaten by the ferocious Ottawas!

Taken from: The History of Washington County New York, 1737-1878 published in 1878.