St. Sacrament Lake,
A former name of
Lake George; a beautiful sheet of water lying west of the upper end of
Lake Champlain; originally named by
Father Jogues, a Jesuit missionary who visited it about the middle of the seventeenth century.
This lake was the theatre of important military events in the
French and Indian War (q. v.) and the
Revolutionary War. At the head of the lake
Gen. Sir William Johnson was encamped early in September, 1755, with a body of provincial troops and a party of Indians under the
Mohawk chief Hendrick.
There he was attacked (Sept. 8) by the
French under
Dieskau, and would have been defeated but for the energy and skill of
Gen. Phineas Lyman.
The assailants were repulsed, and their leader (
Dieskau) was badly wounded, made prisoner, sent to New York, and paroled.
He died of his wounds not long afterwards.
Johnson was knighted, and gave the name of
Lake George to the sheet of water, in honor of his sovereign, by which name it is still known.
At its
head Fort William Henry was built, and suffered siege and capture by the
French and
Indians in 1757.
The next year it was the scene of a vast armament upon its bosom going to the attack of
Ticonderoga (q. v.).