Siege of Fort at Number 4

Siege of Fort at Number Four
Part of King George's War
Date 7–9 April 1747 Location present-day Charlestown, New Hampshire Result British victory
Belligerents
France	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Boucher de Niverville	Phineas Stevens
Strength
10 French troops, 60 Abenaki warriors	32 provincial militia

The Siege of Fort at Number Four (7–9 April 1747) was a frontier action at present-day Charlestown, New Hampshire during King George's War. The Fort at Number 4 (named so because it was located in the fourth of a series of recently surveyed township land parcels), was unsuccessfully besieged by a French and Indian force under the command of Ensign Joseph Boucher de Niverville. The British defenders were alerted to the presence of the besiegers by their dogs, and were well-prepared to defend the fort. They successfully fought off attempts to burn the fort down, and turned down demands that they surrender. Some of Niverville's Indians, short on provisions, attempted to bargain with the fort's defenders for supplies, but were rejected.

In the 1720s, during Dummer's War, the Province of Massachusetts Bay had constructed Fort Dummer at present-day Brattleboro, Vermont. In the following years, settlers from Massachusetts, which laid claim to the territory, moved up the Connecticut River, establishing small frontier settlements. The most northerly of these, 34 miles (55 km) north of Fort Dummer and located at the site of present-day Charlestown, New Hampshire, was called Number Four. In 1741, King George II declared that the territory belonged to the Province of New Hampshire. Massachusetts withdrew its protection from both Fort Dummer and Number Four, and New Hampshire, none of whose existing settlements was near these places, also refused to provide protection. In 1743 the settlers at Number Four constructed a wooden stockade fort to provide for their own protection.

Massachusetts reluctantly agreed to provide some militia forces to the area when King George's War broke out. During the summer of 1746 Number Four was repeatedly attacked by French and Indian raiding parties organized by the authorities of New France, and these militia had provided timely defense. The severity of the attacks, however, prompted the settlers to abandon Number Four, which remained unoccupied during the winter of 1746–47. The fort was then occupied by Captain Phineas Stevens and 30 provincial militia in the spring of 1747. Stevens brought with him several dogs, which provided early warning of the arrival of strangers.

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