Barry St. Leger
(bap. May 1, 1733 – 1789) was a
British colonel who led an invasion force during the
American Revolutionary War.
Barry St. Leger was baptised on May 1, 1733, in
County Kildare, Ireland.
[Fredriksen, p. 483] He was the son of Sir John St. Leger and Lavina Pennefather, was educated at
Eton College, and then at
Peterhouse, Cambridge.
He joined the
British Army in April 1756, serving as an ensign in the
28th Regiment of Foot. He saw service in the
French and Indian War under the command of
Jeffrey Amherst at the 1758
siege of Louisbourg, and in 1759 under the command of
James Wolfe at the
Siege of Quebec. He was promoted to
brigade-major in July 1760 and served as a staff officer in the campaign against
Montreal under
James Murray. On September 16, 1762, St. Leger was promoted to major in the
95th Regiment of Foot.
When the
American Revolutionary War began in 1775, St. Leger was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the
34th Regiment of Foot. He saw service in the 1776 British relief of
Quebec following the
Continental Army's 1775
invasion of that province. He was then chosen to lead the western offensive that formed one leg of the 1777
Saratoga Campaign.
John Burgoyne breveted him as
Brigadier-General for this mission so that he would outrank the militia officers involved. He moved a mixed force of British regulars,
Hessians, Indians,
Canadiens, and
Loyalists up the
Saint Lawrence River to
Fort Oswego, and from there to
Fort Stanwix (the site of modern
Rome, New York). The fort was more strongly defended than he and Burgoyne had anticipated, so he
laid siege to it. When word arrived that an American relief column was approaching to break the siege, he sent a group of mostly Indians and Loyalists to oppose them. They ambushed
Nicholas Herkimer's force in the
Battle of Oriskany, but the fort's occupants
sortied and raided their camp.
[Fredriksen, p. 484] When reports of a relief force under
Benedict Arnold reached him he was abandoned by his Indian supporters, and was forced to withdraw back to Quebec. He then tried to join up with Burgoyne's army near Saratoga, but had only reached
Fort Ticonderoga by the time Burgoyne surrendered his army in October 1777.
[Fredriksen, p. 485]For the next several years, St. Leger was a leader of the British frontier war against the Americans. He was promoted to colonel in 1780, and in 1781 led an attempt to kidnap General
Philip Schuyler. He was also involved in the secret negotiations between
Frederick Haldimand, Quebec's governor, and the
Vermont Republic's leaders over the possibility of bringing Vermont into the British fold. These negotiations ended with the
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Following the war he remained in Quebec, and briefly commanded the British forces there in 1784. He resigned his commission the following year due to ill health, and died in Quebec in 1789.
See also
