After the British garrison of Fort William Henry in the colony of New York surrendered to the besieging army of the French commander Marquis de Montcalm in August 1757, it appeared that this particular episode of the French and Indian War was over. What happened next became the most infamous incident of the war - the 'massacre' of Fort William Henry. As the garrison prepared to march for Fort Edward a flood of enraged Native Americans swept over the column, unleashing an unstoppable tide of slaughter. The incident forms an integral part of James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel The Last of the Mohicans. It is this version, later dramatically reconstructed in the film versions of the story, that has coloured our view of the incident to this day. But what really happened? American history: c 1500 to c 1800. Warfare & Defence.