The Role of Fort Chambly in the Development of New France, 1665-1760

James Pritchard is a history professor at Queen’s University and
author of Louis XV’s Navy, 1748-1762: A Study of Organization and
Administration.

This brief account attempts to explain “the reasons for the tenacious presence of the French military in the Richelieu.” One of five forts built during the mid-1660s by the Carignan Regiment, Fort Chambly was perhaps as important as any of them. Following an introduction, the author traces the fort’s history in five brief chapters chronicling activities from the Carignan Regiment’s offensive against the Mohawks to its capture by the English nearly 95 years later. The rather rambling narrative, heavily reliant upon scissors and paste, contributes nothing new to the military history of New France, but a final chapter on the daily life of the garrison announces a future study on the military presence in the Richelieu Valley.

Built originally to support the French assault in 1666, Fort Chambly was of little use during the remainder of the seventeenth century. The garrison was too small to control the countryside, and Indian war parties passed easily beyond gunshot from the fort. Like other wooden stockades, the fort had to be rebuilt every twenty years or so, and it soon became militarily useless. The increasing English threat early in the eighteenth century led colonial authorities to rebuild Chambly in stone in 1711. The new structure, designed to hold 500 men and a year’s supply of provisions and munitions — 1,000 men in an emergency — served ineffectively as an anti-smuggling barrier for the next twenty years. Thereafter, Chambly’s importance declined, replaced by forts located farther south On Lake Champlain. By 1742 the garrison had been pared to one officer, an NCO, and six men, and its guns had been removed. During the Seven Years’ War, Fort Chambly became a bivouac and depot for troops and supplies en route to the Lake Champlain front.

The study is competent, well documented, and enhanced by generous employment of 14 maps and plans. It is also accompanied by a useful bibliography, but there is no index. The book’s modest price makes it perfect for the history buff touring the present historic site who seeks something more substantial than the usual blurb that is often the only literature available.