The Boucharde Raid – 2021
The map shows the area north of Fort Edward, which was built by the British on the banks of the Hudson River in 1755. The main feature is Lac du St Sacrament or Lake George as the English speaking world knows it and there were lot’s of actions in its environs both large and small during the late 1750’s.
This is one such action set in May 1758 when the British were trying to stop the build up of French forces prior to another thrust down the lake – a small mixed force of Rangers and Native Americans under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Snapcase attacked Boucharde a forward French supply depot, vital to the coming French offensive. Boucharde was defended by a strong force of French Regulars under the command of Captain Jean le Vagabond.
The French are pushing troops down the west side of Lake George to defend their advance base of Boucharde. Capitaine Jean le Vagabond is leading a battalion of French Regulars through the thick forests to his new home in the Spring of 58
Wearing waistcoats and what appears to be nightcaps more regular infantry march smartly down the road.
Activity on the Hudson river near Fort Edward indicates the British are putting a force together to attack the Boucharde Depot.
A mixed bag of British troops and allies start to haul bateaux from Fort Edward to the south end of Lake George. Travelling on foot through the dense forests either side of Lake George is difficult and most troops were transported by small flat bottom boats.
The bateaux finally arrive by the lake side. The raiding part embarks and quickly set’s off on their perilous journey north.
Making a swift passage up the lake, the forces disembark and deploy. They are apparently not noticed by the French defenders of Boucharde. What was Capitaine Vagabond thinking of not to have placed a guard on the obvious landing places near to his base.
Some Rogers Rangers with 2nd Lieutenant Snapcase are in the last bateaux to land. The weather is fine and sunny with good visibility, but by the time they reach Boucharde it has turned overcast.
That’s what happens to picture quality when Snapcase Hall relies on candles for its lighting and all because the current Snapcase won’t install electricity in the main house. The tools of the Devil he mutters into his long and unruly beard, not to be trusted, have you seen what happens when lightning strikes!!! and that’s just electricity without wires.
This is the small hamlet of Boucharde, recently built by the French as an advanced supply depot for the coming attack on Fort Edward in 1758.
Boucharde contains a large store of powder and supplies that are necessary for this attack and to ensure their safety Compte de Deauville has decided to garrison the place with the redoubtable Capitaine Vagabond and a strong force of French Regular troops along with some French Canadian Militia and a few Coureur des Bois.
The larger building, back and centre is the main storehouse, all the other buildings house the garrison.
Well apart from the outhouses of course.
Moving silently through the dense woodlands this group of native allies are the advance guard of the attacking force, the small band of Rogers Rangers and 2nd Lieutenant Snapcase of the Royal Artillery are just behind them.
Tasked with the job of destroying the supplies the French have painstakingly built up, the Rangers and their Allies also have to make sure the tenderfoot Snapcase returns in one piece having completed his dangerous task.
You may have come across the name Snapcase before, but only if you delve into the more esoteric areas of historical research. The family claim to originate from Devon, England but deeper study indicates this may only be part of a vast web of intrigue designed to hide their true origins.
As mentioned before the hamlets garrison is commanded by Capitaine Jean Le Vagabond a man who enjoys fine wine and good food. A wily opponent, he has set a strong night time guard around the place with four sentries patrolling the perimeter throughout the hours of dark.
This was a lucky dice roll as it could have been between 2 and 4 guards although Snapcase was unaware of this turn of events.
The sentries are relieved at regular intervals and because Capitaine Vagabond looks after their welfare he’s also provided every convenience for their comfort.
2nd Lt Snapcase is been advised by Silas Huggett of the Rangers and against his normal impetuous nature is waiting on the edge of the tree line to assess the sentry’s movements. This was a wise decision because in spite of the fact that there are plenty of sentry’s on duty, they had been given a regular anticlockwise route around the hamlet, a big mistake by Capitaine Vagabond who should have known better.
Having spent some time ascertaining the routine Snapcase issued his orders. Once a sentry had moved past them, Snapcase and a couple of Rangers crossed the stream making it to the cover provided by the Powder Store. Having tried the door handle, it turned smoothly and they were inside the building having made no noise, a bad start for the French, but a good one for the British.
Ensign D’Emfort would normally have been on duty and was responsible for checking the external doors of the store were locked but he was absent with a note from his mother and this important task was overlooked.
More of the intruders crossed the stream and took up strong supporting positions either side of the store, but the patrolling sentries continued to patrol and eventually with a lucky dice roll he saw the Natives by the building.
Unfortunately he was as slow as Molasses in wintertime, and as this was winter time, he was very slow.
However eventually he decided to fire on the intruders before ducking back behind the far end of the store.
He had tried to shout a warning call but with a dry throat it came out as more of a croak and was probably mistaken for a froggy noise and ignored by any of the garrison who were awake.
Even though the French had left the outer door unlocked the first internal door wasn’t and so Huggett had to break it open with his hatchet, this door led into the central powder room and the British breathed a sigh of relief having found their target.
The other internal door into the powder room was unlocked and Hugget is now in the left hand room guarding the second ground floor outer door. Snapcase is in the central Room and is setting the fuse to blow the powder. The dice indicates how long it’s going to take to set the fuse and it commenced with 4 turns to go, he’s as slow as the sentry was.
One of the Rangers has ascended the stairs and opened the door to the walkway to see if there’s any movement from the garrison.
The noise from the musket shot should have aroused someone but it seems pretty quiet.
Eventually troops start to emerge from a couple of buildings but so far relatively few of them.
More rangers move upstairs and they can hear muffled movement behind the various doors facing the corridor on that floor.
They decide not to enter the rooms but wait for the occupants to emerge before shooting them, a rather cowardly and unsporting action but altogether a rather effective solution thought 2nd Lt Snapcase. We don’t know what Capitaine Vagabond thought about this tactic but maybe not so much.
More French troops were coming to investigate the musket shot. In the background on the walkway to the powder store are a few trappers, they had been sleeping in the tower room to the left. In the foreground and moving parallel to them were some chaps who had taken a long time to dress, probably because they were wearing huge grey overcoats.
Well it’s winter in Canada and you need to wrap up warm before venturing outside on a cold winters morning in the dark, especially if there’s someone out there intending to shoot you.
By now time was passing and more and more French troops were amassing. The chaps in grey are trying to break down the door but having little success. Silas Huggett has his shoulder to the other side of the door to prevent them breaking in before Snapcase is ready to light the fuse.
The other chaps in blue are still wearing their night caps but looking for a fight, they just can’t find anyone to fight.
This is them from a different angle and there’s some more chaps with red woolly hats rushing over to support them.
The chaps in the grey greatcoats had gone round the side of the Powder Store and met up with the Indian’s, they’d come off second best and retired back out of the way. The Trappers had not been able to break down the external door and were kicking and hitting it with musket butts but to little effect.
Internally on the top floor of the Powder Store, doors had opened and French troops had emerged only to be callously shot by the British troops waiting for them. Snapcase smiled an evil smile realizing his cowardly plan had worked to perfection.
All the while the Rangers had been busy in the powder store setting the fuse and then Snapcase shouted “everyone out, get back, I’m going to light the fuse.” And then he did.
Talk about fast - the British and their allies were gone in a flash, with Snapcase not far behind.
The surviving French troops on the top floor of the powder store now raced along the corridor, desperate to get down to the Powder Room, they had a premonition that the building might blow up with them inside it.
The Trappers had no such premonition and were still on the walkway, beating on the door trying to get into the building.
As the Frenchmen in the corridor passed the door to the walkway outside, that cunning fellow Snapcase casually remarked, “those chaps outside are trying to break the door down, wouldn’t these chaps open the door and let them in”.
There were only 2 turns before the powder would blow.
“NO” was the terse reply from Capitaine Vagabond who didn’t like the way things were going, but of course, honey tongued Snapcase had a point and so Captaine Vagabond’s men wasted a whole move opening the door to let the Trappers into the building before they rushed down stairs to the powder store.
The fuse was burning low and because of that clever diversion, only one man arrived in time. With one move before the fuse ignited the powder he had a 1 in 6 chance of peeing on the fuse and putting it out.
These old uniforms have lots of buttons on their flies and he tried gallantly to undo them speedily.
This is not my hands shaking but the whole table shook.
As the Powder Room exploded and blew the roof off the building. What the poor soldier thought, the one who was trying to stop this happening we can only conjecture.
I doubt it was a good thought!
But mercifully brief.
French troops died in their droves.
And the Rangers and their Allies withdrew into the dark forests carrying away most of their wounded. There they would try and make their way back to the bateaux and home. Note the cock crowing on the dung heap!
Maybe the French would recover swiftly and mount a pursuit, or maybe not.
There’s a strange aftermath to this tale. Rumour has it that as 2nd Lt Snapcase was making his escape he was shot down and killed, however after reviewing the evidence there is nothing to substantiate this claim. He’s not with the party making their way into the woods, nor is he shown lying on the ground between the store and the forest; it’s all a bit of a mystery.
It might be resolved and then again it might not.
Well my apologies for the poor photographs, I blame either the tallow candles at Snapcase Hall or the copious amounts of alcohol the Mad Lord was doling out in a very unsporting attempt to befuddle the wits of Capitaine Vagabond, usually a small sherry will do the job adequately.
This was a game we had intended to play in 2018 but time and tiredness took its toll then and we only got part way through. Some games need to be resolved, although I thought it needed to be resolved as a French victory, the Mad Lord didn’t agree.
Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely plagiarism on my part. Should you be either desperately bored or can’t sleep, then the back story is on my blog here.
https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-boucharde-raid-10th-of-may-1758.htmlIn good light and with a steady hand this is what my run through game looked like in 2018.
https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-boucharde-raid-1750s-french-indian.html
Up North, where I live, we have electricity and can provide decent lighting to take photographs, unfortunately in mid Devon they are still using candles and I blame that for the poor quality of my photographs for this AAR. The Mad Lord might have another explanation; however the copious use of candles meant the Hall was warmer than on previous occasions so not all bad.
One final point that I made on my Blog, the scenario was printed in one of the wargame magazines a zillion years ago and was written by Steve Hesselwood. I’ve played it a number of times and it’s always led to a tense game, usually the powder store is blown but some times the British don’t make it out alive, some small consolation for the French.
As the French outnumber the British 4 or 5 to 1, once up and dressed they bring overwhelming force to bear but usually just too late.
My congratulations to the Mad Lord Snapcase for his brilliant win and for an enjoyable and amicable game, I still think 1 in 6 was a bit harsh for putting out the fuse, but I think that was my ruling rather than his.
The context for the Boucharde Raid shows where it fits into the Campaigns around Lake George.
1st Jan 1757 First Battle on Snowshoes north end of Lake George – Rogers and his Rangers were ambushed and defeated.
Mar 1757 Fort William Henry attacked, south end of Lake George, - the French burned 350 bateaux outside the fort and then retreated.
23rd July 1757 Battle of Sabbath Day Point, North end of Lake George – the British were ambushed and defeated.
Early August 1757 Fort William Henry attacked and destroyed by the French. (Last of the Mohicans)
10th March 1758 2nd Battle on Snowshoes, north end of Lake George – Rogers and his Rangers were again ambushed and defeated.
May 1758 The Boucharde Raid – A redoubtable British victory when troops led by 2nd Lieutenant Snapcase attacked Boucharde destroyed the French advanced Suppy Depot.
8th July 1758 Battle of Fort Carillion (Ticonderoga) North end of Lake George. Due to Snapcase’s success at Boucharde, the British were able to advance up Lake George and a vastly superior British force attacked the French under Montcalm but were defeated.
The Boucharde Raid is a little known action but vital in the context of the campaign’s in this area and although its historical veracity might be questionable it was a lone British success for quite a while.
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