Qualla: St. Francis Raid

St. Francis Raid: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist), Public domain. On the night of October 3, 1759, a gaunt figure in stolen Indigenous dress slipped into the Abenaki village of St. Francis and watched its inhabitants dance by firelight. Robert Rogers counted the houses, noted the exits, and crept back to his 142 exhausted men hiding along the riverbank. Their rations were gone. Their boats had been captured by the French days earlier. Behind them lay weeks of slogging through chest-deep swamps; ahead lay a dawn attack that would become one of the most infamous episodes of the French and Indian War. The village of Odanak, known to the English colonists as St. Francis, sat near the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River in New France, and for decades it had been the staging ground for raids that terrorized settlements as far south as Massachusetts. Rogers himself had been a teenager in New Hampshire when Abenaki warriors struck in 1746. Now he had come to settle the account.

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Image: Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist) | Public domain

St. Francis Raid: A Mission Born from Capture

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The raid grew out of a chain of failed diplomacy and mounting frustration. In the summer of 1759, General Jeffery Amherst was riding high on British victories at Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Niagara, while Quebec lay under siege. Needing intelligence, Amherst sent Captain Quinton Ke...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

St. Francis Raid: Through the Swamps

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist), Public domain. Rogers departed Fort Crown Point on the night of September 13 with 220 men packed into 17 whaleboats. Accidents and illness whittled the force down as they rowed north through French-patrolled waters. By September 23, Rogers had hidden his boats at Missisquoi Bay and struck out o...

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Image: Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist) | Public domain

St. Francis Raid: Five O'Clock Dawn

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist), Public domain. The village of St. Francis was not a simple native encampment. It held European-style houses arranged around a church, and its inhabitants were a diverse community: Abenakis, members of other tribes displaced from New England, and white settlers who had adopted native ways. On th...

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Image: Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist) | Public domain

St. Francis Raid: The Long Walk Home

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist), Public domain. Rogers knew French reinforcements were within a day's march. His only option was to flee south through uncharted wilderness to the settlement of Number Four, roughly 150 miles of trackless forest and mountains. His men gathered stored corn from the village and set off. Near prese...

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Image: Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist) | Public domain

St. Francis Raid: A Contested Legacy

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist), Public domain. When news of the raid reached the Thirteen Colonies, Rogers was celebrated as a hero. The New Hampshire Gazette devoted extensive coverage to its native son's exploits. General Amherst wrote to Rogers with full approval: "every step you inform me you had taken has been very well ...

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Image: Thomas Hart (publisher); Johann Martin Will (artist) | Public domain