Battle of Carillon - Geography

Geography

Fort Carillon is situated on a point of land between Lake Champlain and Lake George, at a natural point of conflict between French forces moving south from Canada and the St. Lawrence River Valley across the lake toward the Hudson Valley, and British forces moving up the Hudson from Albany. The fort was sited with Lake Champlain to the east, with Mount Independence rising on the far side. Immediately to the south of the fort lay the mouth of the La Chute River, which drains Lake George. The river was largely non-navigable, and there was a portage trail from the northern end of Lake George to the location of a sawmill the French had built to assist in the fort's construction. The trail crossed the La Chute twice; once about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Lake George, and again at the sawmill, which was about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the fort.

To the north of the fort was a road going to Fort St. Frédéric. To the west was a low rise of land, beyond which lay Mount Hope, a rise that commanded part of the portage trail, but was too far from the fort to pose it any danger. The most serious geographic defect in the fort's location was Mount Defiance (known at the time of this battle as Rattlesnake Hill, and in the 1770s as Sugar Bush), which lay to the south of the fort, across the La Chute River. This 900 foot (270 m) hill, which was steep and densely forested, provided an excellent firing position for cannon aimed at the fort. Nicolas Sarrebource de Pontleroy, Montcalm's chief engineer, said of the fort's site, "Were I to be entrusted with the siege of it, I should require only six mortars and two cannon."