Summary
In December 1756, William Pitt became the leader of the British
ministry. He adopted aggressive new policies that had a crucial effect on the
latter half of the war. One of those policies was, in October 1757, to recall
the Earl of Loundoun as commander-in-chief of British forces in North
America.
The first battle of 1758 was, nonetheless, a failure for the British. They
failed to take the Fort at Ticonderoga, despite having a force of 16,000 men
to the French's 3,500 troops. The battle was a disaster, due mostly to a lack
of British leadership. The only British allies to emerge from the battle with
any credibility at all were Robert Rogers' Rangers, who were rapidly gaining
fame and success for their skill at scouting, spying, and employing guerrilla
tactics against the French.
Pitt's new tactics soon began to take hold, however, and, after Ticonderoga,
things quickly began to change for the British. On July 26, 1758, the British
finally captured Louisbourg after many attempts. This victory opened the
route to Canada. Just a month later the British achieved another victory by
taking Fort Frontenac on the shores of Lake Ontario, and thereby cutting off the
ability of the French to communicate with their troops in the Ohio Valley. In
November, the British captured Fort Duquesne, the site of Braddock's
disaster and death. Duquesne was renamed Fort Pitt, after the new English
leader, and eventually became known as Pittsburgh, PA.
With Pitt at the helm, England finally began to take advantage of its huge
advantage in supplies and manpower, and the tide of the war quickly turned. In
May 1759, the British captured the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
Guadeloupe was a wealthy, sugar-producing island and the French would certainly
want it back in any peace negotiation—a chip the British planned to use for
their advantage. They followed this victory with the seizure of Ticonderoga in
June and Fort Niagara in July. The French abandoned their post at Crown Point
shortly after, leaving the whole of the western frontier to the British.
Unlike previous British generals and rulers, William Pitt did not
attempt to force the colonies to comply with British policy by waving the rights
of the mother country in their faces. Instead, he asked for their cooperation,
and he got it. He also made it clear in court that the way to win the war was
not merely by defending the British's existing territory, but by striking at the
heart of the French empire and attacking the possessions the French held most
dear.
Pitt's policies were aided by a change of heart among a number of the Indian
nations. Many abandoned their alliances with the French; some of them going so
far as to fight against the French. In October 1758, the British made peace with
the Shawnees, the Delaware, and the enormous Iroquois nation. Both the British
and the French had for years coveted making an alliance with these three
powerful Indian nations. Although all three refused to take an integral role in
the fighting, their favor surely boosted the profile of the English with other
Indian nations.
