General Jeffery Amherst
Jeffery Amherst (1717-1797) began his military career at the age of 14 when he entered the British 1st Foot Guards as ensign in 1731. In 1735 he moved to Major-General Ligonier’s Regiment of Horse as a cornet. Amherst served under Lord Ligonier as an aide-de-camp during the War of the Austrian Succession. He fought in the battles of Dettingen in 1743 and Fontenoy in 1745. In 1745 he was commissioned lieutenant colonel in the army. In 1747 he served in the battle of Laffeldt.
In 1758 Jeffery Amherst was given the rank of Major General in America and ordered to lead the expedition to capture Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia which he succeeded in doing on July 27 just over two weeks after General Abercromby’s failed attack on Ticonderoga. When General Abercromby was recalled to England, General Amherst was appointed Commander in Chief.
The following spring, General Amherst assembled an army for a second attempt at capturing Fort Ticonderoga. On July 21 his army of 11,000 British and American provincial troops sailed down Lake George landing at Ticonderoga on the 22nd. Quickly his army forced the French to retreat to the Fort and he advanced to the French Lines where he set his army to work digging siege trenches and building artillery batteries. On the night of July 26th, the French evacuated the Fort blowing up the powder magazine and setting fire to its barracks buildings. Less than two weeks later Amherst’s army advance to Crown Point and prepared for an invasion into Canada.
In 1760 British forces under his command captured Montréal bringing to a close the major military actions of the French & Indian War. Later in life he held many military titles, declining overall command of the British force in North American at the outbreak of the American Revolution.
