Français
Welcome Page
Regional History
Laurentian Place Names
What's It Worth
Associations
E-mail us

T

he Township of Abercrombie, comprising Prévost, Shawbridge and Fourteen Island Lake, was named for General James Abercromby. Exactly why he should have been so honoured is a bit of a mystery. It could be simply someones sense of humour, an encrypted message to the future, inviting us to look back and see that the victors in war are not always winners.

Abercromby, who spelled his name with a Y, as do some of the older maps, was one of the slew of British generals who played their parts during the Seven Years War. Running from 1756 to 1763, it is considered by some historians as the first global conflict. It started as a result of frictions between the French and the English in the Ohio Valley when a young George Washington, interloping in French territory, surprised a French party under the command of the Sieur de Jumonville. Jumonville had been sent from Fort Du Quesne to admonish Washington for violating the Peace Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen 1748). When Washingtons men saw the surprised French going for their guns, they began to fire, but Jumonville managed to make his presence felt and bring a calm over the confrontation. Through his translator, he successfully communicated that he and his party were messengers for the French authorities, and then he began to read a proclamation. As his translator repeated it in English, one of the English party, a Seneca chieftain named Half-King, shot Jumonville in the head at point-blank range. This was followed by the assassination of nine other members of the French party and the rest, except for one, were taken prisoner.

The sole escapee returned to Fort Du Quesne, and the French responded by overwhelming Washington at his hastily erected Fort Necessity and serving him with a humiliating defeat, allowing him and his men to return to British territory unarmed and on foot. The humiliation cannot be understated because the crucial allies were the Amerindian tribes in the Ohio Valley, and they, lacking any other means of evaluating these two warring Whites, tended to back the stronger side. In fact, Half-King had been wooed by the French, but had adjudged the English to be a stronger force. While he had been let into the French confidence, and knew, according to the French, that Jumonvilles was not a war party, he seems to have concluded either that the French desire for peace and discussion was a fatal flaw and a sign of weakness or that it was in the interest of his own people for the French and English to fight. As a result, he led Washington to the small French party and instigated the confrontation. His action precipitated the largest global war that the world had yet seen, but he was equally disappointed in both parties after the French overwhelmed Fort Necessity and then let their captives go.

This remote skirmish inflated into a European conflict when the British Crown decided to retaliate. Even though they had been at peace since the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, they were world trade rivals who were incapable of sharing territory. Their differences were not limited to the Ohio Valley, but France was their major rival for a worldwide commercial empire, and the ensuing war would be one of European, and thus world, hegemony, the beginning of the English world hegemony that we live under today. The first objective of the British was to eliminate French naval power. The adversaries, who rapidly lined up against each other, were the British, Prussians and Hanoverians against France, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, Russia and eventually Spain. General Abercromby, who had achieved his status through political connections and had little field experience, was dispatched to oversee the English military operations in the colonies. The French sent more troops under the command of Montcalm.

One of the first objectives of the English was to capture Fort Carillon (Fort Ticonderoga) situated at the southern end of Lake Champlain. Abercromby relied on one of his most experienced generals, George Howe, to plan and execute the attack. Montcalm, the defender, had 4000 troops; Howe had 15,000. They would have to travel up Lake George, and then along the five miles of river to Lake Champlain. Along the river they could easily root out the advance parties and capture the small settlements of the French. The first confrontation was with troops trying to return to Fort Carillon. In the ensuing skirmish, Howe was killed.

The death of this crucial leader left Abercromby at a loss for what to do. He dallied so long that his troops nicknamed him Mrs. Nambie-Crombie. By the time he finally resumed the advance, Montcalm had had ample time to receive reinforcements and surround Fort Carillon, and his much smaller force, with barriers of brush and fallen trees. Abercromby ordered the storming of these barricades, but neglected to use his superior artillery. As the battle progressed, the British troops were bogged down and slaughtered, and when the dust settled, they had lost 2000 men and were forced to retreat. The French losses were 350 killed and wounded. Abercromby, overwrought and panic-stricken, ordered a retreat and withdrew, not only all along the five miles of portages that they had captured, but to the far end of Lake George.

When word of the catastrophe got back to England, Abercromby was recalled and General Jeffrey Amherst was sent out in his place. Amherst would successfully push all the way to Montreal, taking it in 1760, the year after Wolfe had taken Quebec City.

Abercromby found himself a safe seat in Parliament from which he became a staunch supporter of the Stamp Tax and opponent of any opinion that favoured the colonists in their bid for independence. Today his name stares out at us from Laurentian maps as a goading reminder of one of Great Britains worst military blunders in the New World.

References: The Canadian Encyclopedia; New England and New France, John Fiske; Crucible of War, Fred Anderson; Nouvelle France Horizons nouveaux www.champlain2004.org; The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia; Toponymie Quebec; www.britishbattles.com; Special thanks to Sheila Eskenazi

Joseph Graham has written a book that features a select number of stories of Laurentian places and how they got their names. To learn more, click here.

Return to Laurentian Place Name Index

This material may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the author. © Joseph Graham