Of Parties and Pencils - British Arms Ascendant

 Fun Fact:

Abercromby had his brief and ill-fated Iliad at Carillon in 1758. General Amherst was set to make another attempt at it in 1759. After beginning construction on Fort George--to replace Fort William Henry--Amherst had assembled 10,000 men to embark on Lake George in July. The clash between Amherst's 10,000 and Charles de Bourlamaque's garrison of 3,000 at Fort Carillon is difficult to describe--mostly because there was no clash. The French commander and his troops slipped away as the British approached, leaving only 400 men to decorate and plan the welcome party for Amherst. 

(Portrait of Jeffery Amherst by Joshua Reynolds)

The British occupied the trenches and hauled up six 24 pounders to RSVP for the reception. Just before midnight on July 26, the party began with a bang--an explosion even. The last of the garrison had departed via Lake Champlain, but being no slouches at party planning, they had left a fuse burning slowly to the fort's ample powder magazine. 

Amherst set to work rebuilding the damaged fort and christened it--apparently because of the prodigious supply of number 2 pencils strewn about the place--Ticonderoga. Among the many individuals with Amherst who would rise to prominence in the future were both Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. Those two would revisit the fort several years later in arms against the British.

The French continued their retreat, blowing up Fort Saint Frederic as well. Amherst advanced and began construction of Crown Point on the rise to the west of the ruins of the old fort. 

Fortune favored the British on many fronts. Brigadier General John Stanwix advanced from Fort Pitt to take Venango, Le Boeuf, and Presque Isle, and Sir William Johnson had already captured Niagara. Brigadier James Wolf had taken Louisbourg and had his sights set on the greatest prize of all: Quebec.

--I've consulted my highlights from The French and Indian Wars: Deciding the Fate of North America by Walter R. Borneman, Chapter 12 for this fun fact episode.

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Based on some communications with some of my readers, I've honed my ideas about the three elements of literary alchemy--The Trauma, The Drama, and The Dream--to an edge as keen as a nine-iron and added their thoughts to create a presentation about How to Write Unforgettable Stories. I've submitted an incomplete skeleton of the idea for consideration as a presentation at an upcoming writer's conference. I suspect I'll have more to say on that later, one way or another. Now I'm hoping the kind words from my readers were more than mere flattery. Maybe I can arrange a presentation to local writers as practice for the potentially larger show.

The image below was the best result in my attempts to get an AI image generator to create a picture of the Atu character from my Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series. I think Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson could play him in the movie.