Prepared
by
Pennsylvania Historical Survey
(Frontier Forts and Trails Survey)
Federal Works Agency
Work Projects Administration
Edited by
Sylvester K. Stevens
and
Donald H. Kent
Second
and revised edition
for the
ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
HARRISBURG
1941
THE EXPEDITION OF BARON DE LONGUEUIL
Many expeditions, with a wide variety of purposes-- path finding, discovery, geographic mapping, or with military objectives-- were carried out in the North American continent during the eighteenth century. A number of these have deservedly attained considerable importance in the history of the period.
One military expedition which commands great interest to Pennsylvanians is the expedition of Baron de Longueuil in 1739. This is especially notable for its successful journey over sixteen hundred miles of lake, trail, and river from Montreal, Canada, to the vicinity of Memphis, Tennessee. It followed its pre-arranged route without detour, though traveling through unmapped country, to complete one of the longest military movements ever carried out in North America.
This expedition was the first large military force to use the Chautauqua-Allegheny route, and hence the first to pass through northwestern Pennsylvania. Indian traders and agents of the French had entered the region before, but this was the first large-scale expedition. The map made as a result of the expedition was the first to show the Ohio and Allegheny rivers in detail. Ten years before Celoron's expedition, and fourteen years before Marin built the first French forts in western Pennsylvania, the Baron de Longueuil used the waterways of the region for his expedition to the lower Mississippi valley.
Two hundred years have passed since the date of the expedition, and knowledge of the event has almost entirely disappeared, leaving but a few hazy and indistinct impressions among the present inhabitants of the region. It is fitting, therefore, that a resumé of the important facts about this adventurous undertaking be set down, together with a selection of the important sources relating to it.
-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-
The expedition of Baron de Longueuil was part of an extensive operation known as the Chickasaw campaign. The Chickasaw Indians in northern Mississippi had long been hostile to the French. In their section they occupied much the same position relative to the French and English as did the Iroquois Indians in New York State. English traders in the Chickasaw country did not fail to stir up these Indians against the French of Louisiana. Because of their geographic position, the hostility of the Chickasaw endangered the communication between Louisiana and Canada. Their war parties frequently attacked convoys of traders and soldiers traveling on the Mississippi, and even threatened the outlying settlements of the New Orleans colony. For a decade, attempts were made to pacify or subdue this hostile tribe, with little success. Now, in the year 1739, a detailed campaign was planned.
To crush the hostile tribe, troops brought from France were to advance northward from New Orleans, while other detachments would come from Canada by way of the Mississippi to join them. From Michilimackinac, a force of French and Indians would descend the Mississippi by way of the Chicago portage. On the way, a party from Fort Chartres in the Illinois country would meet them. From the heart of French Canada, Baron de Longueuil's force would travel by way of Lake Ste. Croix (as Governor de Beauharnois called Lake Chautauqua), to join the other expeditions at the rendezvous. This point of junction for the far-flung operations was Fort Assumption, on the Mississippi River, near the present site of Memphis.
The Marquis de Beauharnois, governor of Canada since 1726, thus arranged a concerted plan of campaign with M. de Bienville, governor of Louisiana. To show the greatest possible cooperation, no doubt, he appointed the Baron de Longueuil, a nephew of the Louisiana governor, to command the expedition from Montreal.
Charles Le Moyne, the second Baron de Longueuil, was a member of an empire-building family. His father, the first Baron, campaigned with La Barre and Denonville, and died lieutenant governor of Montreal in 1729. His father's brothers, named for other estates-- Iberville, Saint Héléne, Sérigny, Maricourt, Bienville, and Chateauguay-- were also notable in American history, none more so than Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, the great governor of Louisiana. The second Baron was born in 1687, and was, therefore, fifty-two years of age at the time of the expedition. Like his father, he became lieutenant governor of Montreal, and was for a time acting governor of Canada after the death of Governor La Jonquiere in 1752.
The expedition had a total strength of 442 men, which included French soldiers, Canadian militia, and an Indian contingent of 319 warriors. Its composition is shown in detail in the roster,
which names the officers and cadets, and lists the number of the expedition's
other members.
The roster names many individuals who later played important roles in the striking events of the region's later history. Legardeur de St. Pierre, the famous explorer of the Far West, commanded at Fort Le Boeuf in 1753, when Washington brought a summons from Virginia's governor. Three other commanders of the later forts are here: Portneuf, Benoist, Ligneris. Sieur de Ligneris was the commander who abandoned Fort Duquesne in 1758, and who tried fruitlessly to relieve the beleaguered Fort Niagara in 1759. Sieur de Villiers forced Washington to surrender Fort Necessity in 1754. Two of the Joncaires appear on the roster, and one of them accompanied Celoron's expedition ten years later. Legardeur de Repentigny was one of the officers with Marin in 1753. The roster is, in a sense, a dramatis personae for the events of the two decades to follow.
Of all the names on the roster, the name of an eighteen-year-old boy is especially worthy of notice. Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Lery, son of the chief engineer of New France, made the survey and reckonings for the map which was the most important outcome of the expedition. He was commissioned assistant engineer in Canada, on January 1, 1739. His father's letter to the minister gives an interesting account of the way he got permission to join the expedition.
The force was gathered and equipped at Montreal in the last week of May and the first two weeks of June, 1739. Father Lauson, head of the Jesuit missions in Canada, helped effectively by persuading the Sault St. Louis Indians to join the expedition. Most reluctant were the forty-five habitants, Canadian provincials, for "it was necessary to use authority to make them march." The expedition set off up the St. Lawrence River between the 16th and 30th of June. The indefiniteness of the date probably means that the departure was by detachments, which united on the way.
In bateaux and canoes, they followed the south shore of Lake Ontario as the shortest route, which brought them so near to Fort Oswego that they lost some of their Indian allies to the lure of English whiskey. Making the portage at Niagara, they reached Lake Erie by August 4, and proceeded by water to the mouth of Chautauqua Creek, below present-day Westfield, New York.
Here they made the portage to Lake Chautauqua. It seems that two routes or trails may have been used, for two portage trails are shown on the 1740 map, one slightly to the east of the one used by the French at a later time. In 1754, Chaussegros de Lery came again to Lake Chautauqua, and showed, on a sketch in his journal,
the spot where the 1739 expedition had camped at the head of the lake. This is
shown on Map I.
Another portage probably had to be made at the shallows of the Chautauqua outlet, before they reached Conewango Creek. At the present site of Warren, they entered the Allegheny, which to them was the Ohio or Beautiful River. Probably a halt was made at Paille Coupée or Brokenstraw, the Indian village on the site of Irvine; this offered a convenient spot for a council with the Indians to enlist for their support. It would certainly not have been difficult for the French to get Iroquois help, for the Chickasaw Indians had long been at war with the Six Nations. From Celoron's journal of 1749, it is known that they halted at Chiningué or Logstown, and again at the Scioto, where the Shawnee Indians gave them a friendly reception and furnished reinforcements. Ten years later, Celoron found reason to reproach them for less friendly conduct toward his party.
Big Bone Lick on the south bank of the Ohio, in the present state of Kentucky, was the next point visited. The 1740 map of De Lery and Mandeville bears the following note at this place:
Endroit où yl a Etté trouvé Les Eaux [Os] de plusieurs Elephans pard L armée de Cannada Commandé pard Mr. Le Baron de Longuille et où il a fait mettre Les Armes du Roy en 1739. (Place where the bones of many elephants were found by the army from Canada commanded by the Baron de Longuille, and where he had the Arms of the King set up in 1739.)
This is the first surviving record of an official taking possession of the Ohio River, in the form made familiar by Celoron in 1749. It is possible that La Salle may have laid similar claim in 1669, if the story of his descent of the Ohio is true; or that French traders or Indian agents may have done so. However, no definite record of an earlier claim has survived. It may also be the first mention of the valuable relics of prehistoric times to be found at this spot.
The expedition reached Fort Assumption successfully, but its military results are of no great consequence, and may be dismissed in a few words. The French had no striking successes. The Indians were overawed by the presence of the large forces just as long as they were in the region, and no longer. The outstanding achievement of the campaign was in the field of geography. It produced the first reasonably accurate map of the Ohio River.
Note: (For a copy of Map II, please see page 5 of the original exhibit.)
The title of the 1740 map (Map II) may be freely translated as follows:
Detailed Map of a part of the Beautiful River and of the Route taken by the Canadian Detachment from Niagara Falls to the River St. Louis (the Mississippi), in order to go to Fort Assumption. Surveyed by compass and dead reckoning by Sieur de Lery, the younger; and drawn by Sieur de Mandeville in 1740.
There are many more details and names than can be shown on the small reproduction. The original map was in one piece, while the reproduction is divided into an eastern and western half. The title was on a scroll in the upper part of the map.
The map was based on a compass survey. Directions were determined by the compass, but distances were estimated by the time required to journey from one point to another. Some information was doubtless obtained from the Indians and from the French traders and Indian agents who had been in the Allegheny valley as early as 1724. From these De Lery may have learned details about the upper courses of streams and about other natural features, which the expedition did not visit.
Lake Le Boeuf, Le Boeuf Creek, French Creek, and the junction of French Creek with Le Boeuf Creek, are shown unmistakably on this map for the first time. This portion of the map is so definite that De Lery either must have explored the region, or had very precise descriptions from others. It is an odd fact that the first natural features of Erie County to appear on maps were the interior waterways, and not the bay and peninsula of Presque Isle. The 1740 map shows Lake Chautauqua (Hiatackoun), the Chautauqua portages, Conewango Creek (Kanavangon), the village at Brokenstraw (Gachinantiagon), and two villages on French Creek. Its notice of Big Bone Lick has been mentioned. Most important of all, it was the first map to give a reasonably adequate representation of the course of the Ohio. It shows the bends of the river, thus improving on earlier maps which show it as a straight line.
Later cartographers were debtors to De Lery for information about the Ohio valley. The great French mapmaker, Jacques Nicolas Bellin, wrote in regard to his "Carte de l'Amérique Septentrionale, Comprise entre le 28e et le 72e degré de Latitude," Paris, 1755; "I owe the topographical detail of the course of that River to M. de Léry, Engineer, who surveyed it with the compass when he descended it with a detachment of French troops in 1729" (sic!). Bellin's map of 1744 made note of the "Place where elephant bones were found in 1729."
These citations, with similar notes on other maps of the period, have led some to draw the conclusion that there was another
expedition in 1729. They suppose that the elder De Lery, chief engineer of
Canada, led an expedition down the Ohio in 1729. He had mapped the Great Lakes
in 1725, and had designed and built Fort Niagara in 1726, both of which
undertakings brought him near the Ohio region. However, the Governor's letters
to the Minister of the Marine in Paris made no mention of the 1729 expedition,
nor did De Lery's letters of that year allude to it, though he reported in
detail about the management and production of a slate quarry, and about the
fortifications of Quebec. His and the Governor's earlier letters gave minute
details about the building of Fort Niagara, and the letters about the 1739
expedition should certainly have had a 1729 counterpart if the expedition had
actually taken place. A major official of Canada would not go off on an
expedition into the wilderness without informing his superiors both before the
event and after it. He would have to justify the expenditure of money and time,
would have to assure the Minister that the move would not stir up the Iroquois,
and, moreover, would wish to gain credit and recognition for the
accomplishment.
The most likely hypothesis, however, is that the De Lery-Mandeville map of 1740 was actually the source for Bellin's notes on his maps of 1744 and 1755, and for similar references on other maps of the period, and that Bellin made a mistake or-- what amounts to the same thing-- had an incorrect copy of the 1740 map. Looking at that map as it exists today, it is not difficult to see how a mistake could occur. In the notice of Big Bone Lick, quoted on a previous page, the figure "3" in "1739" is very much blurred, and could easily be mistaken for a "2" without close examination.* If this hypothesis is true, a typographical error has created an expedition. On that small point would hang the truth or falsity of De Lery's expedition of 1729, which has no other definite evidence to support it. What a lesson for draftsmen and copyists on the need for absolute accuracy and legibility!
It is not far-fetched to assume that Bellin used data from the 1740 map for his maps of 1744, 1745, and 1755, as did other cartographers of the time, either directly or copying from Bellin. Father Bonnecamps, the geographer of Celoron's expedition, made little if any improvement over the De Lery-Mandeville map, even though Bonnecamps made observations of latitude.
The expedition of 1739 thus belongs more to the young engineer Chaussegros de Lery than to the soldier Baron de Longueuil, for De Lery made it memorable. The geographic information which he obtained provided the foundation for the later complete cartographic knowledge of the Ohio valley.
_________
* The Survey's draftsman in redrawing the map made this very mistake, thus providing experimental evidence of this hypothesis.
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Dft. Ex. 157.
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