Siege of Fort Niagara

Battle of Fort Niagara
Part of the French and Indian War
Fort Niagara
Date 6–26 July 1759 Location near present-day Youngstown, New York Coordinates: 43°15′46″N 79°03′48″W / 43.262691°N 79.063314°W / 43.262691; -79.063314 Result British-Iroquois victory
Belligerents
France Colony of Canada	Great Britain British America Iroquois
Commanders and leaders
Pierre Pouchot  (POW)	John Prideaux  † William Johnson Sayenqueraghta
Strength
1,786 (Regulars, Canadians and Indians)	2,000 regular 1,000 militia 945 Iroquois
Casualties and losses
109 killed or wounded 377 captured	239 killed or wounded

The Battle of Fort Niagara was a siege late in the French and Indian War, the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. The British siege of Fort Niagara in July 1759 was part of a campaign to remove French control of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions, making possible a western invasion of the French province of Canada in conjunction with General James Wolfe's invasion to the east.

British General Jeffrey Amherst made plans for the 1759 military campaigns of the French and Indian War that included an expedition to capture Fort Niagara, a major French military and supply point between the French province of Canada and their forts in the Ohio Valley. Amherst chose Brigadier General John Prideaux to lead the expedition, which also included Sir William Johnson, the British Indian agent who led the expedition's Iroquois forces.

Fort Niagara had been largely constructed under the direction of Captain Pierre Pouchot of the French Army. In early 1759, General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and New France's Governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, sent him with about 2,500 men to fortify Niagara beyond the 500 men that had wintered there. Pouchot, under orders from Vaudreuil, sent many of those men south to Fort Machault in mid-June as part of a plan to reinforce the French forts of the Ohio Country and attack the British at Fort Pitt. The forces left to defend Niagara consisted of about 200 men from the regiments of Royal Roussillon, Languedoc, La Sarre, and Béarn, 20 artillerymen, and about 300 provincial troops and militia.

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