Annus Mirabilis 1759

The Year of Miracles is what 1759 was called. One victory after another followed, after years of setbacks. Victory for who? The British Empire. The biggest impact for the Winchester area and for the preservation of holding Pittsburgh was the win of Fort Niagara in July 1759. The French had to withdraw their invasion force at Fort Machault (called by the British - Venango). That force was planning to retake their old Fort Duquesne 3 Rivers area, the area now designated Pittsburgh by British forces.

August 1759 gave the mid-Atlantic area of PA, MD, VA a breather.

This allowed focus to shift on all the other problems: preventing starving of the troops, procurring needed supplies, starting the building of Fort Pitt, reaching out to Indians in the area to preserve the peace.

And that breather made plain the lie.

The building of a huge fort and town obviously shouted to all the Indians the English were staying.

And thousands more will be coming. Fort Loudoun Winchester VA was still a staging ground for holding and moving supplies to Fort Cumberland and then to Pittsburgh.

Even George Mercer, head Quarter Master (as of 19 Aug 1759) of the Maryland and Virginia w as at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA in September 1759 . The Quarter Master was the organizer, procurer and supplier to the troops.

For the French:

A Year of Disasters

Click on picture to Enlarge.

More about that satire cartoon:

Satire on the French reactions to the disasters of the year 1759 (i.e., the British annus mirabilis). Details of the composition are described in a key below in both French and English:

1. Flat-bottomed boats (intended for invasion) to be sold;

2. soldiers to let (they march away from Calais gate);

3. a minister hanging from a cross;

4. a general being broken on the wheel (two monks watching the torture say, "It is thy just reward");

5. the spirit of France rising from the earth holding "Carte Blanch for the English";

6. Joan of Arc also rising from the earth ("Thy Good fortune came by a Girl");

7. Madame de Pompadour ("thy Misfortunes comes by a Wh[or]e";

Mercury flies above announcing the taking of Quebec by the English on 18th September; a man bowing low in the foreground asks mercy for the prisoners in England and Hanover. 1759

For the British:

The Year of Miracles

15 January – the British Museum opens at Montagu House, Bloomsbury in London.[2]
8 April – Robert Clive captures Masulipatam in India from the French.[3]
1 May – Seven Years' War: British forces capture Guadeloupe from the French.[4]
4 July – the Royal Navy bombards Le Havre.[5]
23 July – Keel laying of HMS Victory at Chatham Dockyard.
25 July – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): In Canada, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
26–27 July – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): Battle of Ticonderoga – At the southern end of Lake Champlain, French forces withdraw from Fort Carillon which is taken by the British under General Amherst and renamed Fort Ticonderoga.
1 August – Seven Years' War: At the Battle of Minden, British-Hanoverian forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick defeat the French army of the Duc de Broglie,[3] but due to the disobedience of the English cavalry commander Lord George Sackville, the French are able to withdraw unmolested.
18 August – Seven Years' War: At the Battle of Lagos, the British fleet of Edward Boscawen defeats a French force under Commodore de la Clue off the Portuguese coast.
10 September – Seven Years' War: Battle of Pondicherry – An inconclusive naval battle is fought off the coast of India between the French Admiral d'Aché and the British under George Pocock. The French forces are badly damaged and return home, never returning to India.
13 September – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): Quebec is recaptured by British forces following General Wolfe's victory in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham just outside the city. Both the French Commander (the Marquis de Montcalm) and the British General Wolfe are fatally wounded.[3]
14 September – "A Journey Through Europe; or, A Play of Geography", the earliest British board game sold.[2]
16 October – Smeaton's Tower, John Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse, is first illuminated.[6]
20 November – Seven Years' War: At the Battle of Quiberon Bay, the British fleet of Sir Edward Hawke defeats a French fleet under Marshal de Conflans near the coast of Brittany.[3] This is the decisive naval engagement of the War – after this, the French are no longer able to field a significant fleet and a planned French invasion of Britain is abandoned.