Attack on German Flatts (1757)

Attack on German Flatts
Part of the French and Indian War
Date November 12, 1757 Location present-day Herkimer, New York Coordinates: 43°1′34″N 74°59′25″W / 43.02611°N 74.99028°W / 43.02611; -74.99028 Result French and Indian victory
Belligerents
France Colony of Canada	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
François-Marie Picoté de Belestre	Johan Jost Petrie
Strength
300 troupes de la Marine, Canadien militia, and Indians	75 militiamen, 300 civilian men, women, and children
Casualties and losses
5 wounded	40-50 killed 150 captured

On November 12, 1757 during the French and Indian War, a company of French and Indian warriors staged an attack on German Flatts, on the north side of the Mohawk River in the British Province of New York. The settlement of Palatine German refugees and their families was destroyed, and many of the men, women and children were taken prisoner. (Since 1788 the village has been called Herkimer, New York and not German Flatts.)

The campaign season for 1757 had been a successful one for authorities in New France. The British had failed in an expedition against Louisbourg, and defeated at Fort William Henry by the French and their Indian allies. New France's governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, had attempted to convince German settlers in the Mohawk River valley to support the French cause. When the Germans failed to support the French in the assault on Fort William Henry in August, Vaudreuil decided to send a punitive expedition against them. He attacked the settlement called German Flatts, on the north side of the Mohawk River west of Little Falls. (This settlement is where present-day Herkimer, New York is located, and not the modern German Flatts on the south side of the Mohawk River.)

Vaudreuil assembled a force of about 300 at Lachine under the command of François-Marie Picoté de Belestre, an experienced commander in the troupes de la marine. On October 20, this company left Lachine and traveled up the Saint Lawrence River and along the shore of Lake Ontario to the mouth of the Oswego River, site of another French victory in 1756. From there they traveled up the river, crossed the Oneida Carry to the Mohawk River, and descended to German Flatts. They arrived near the settlement on November 11.

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