Which officer led the French attack on Fort Bull in 1756?

The officer who led the French attack on Fort Bull in 1756 was Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry.

The attack took place on March 27, 1756, during the French and Indian War. Fort Bull guarded part of the important route linking Albany with the Lake Ontario region through the Mohawk River corridor. Its destruction threatened British communications and supplies in the interior of New York.

Lieutenant Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry commanded a mixed force of French marines, Canadian militia, and Indigenous allies. The attackers approached through the woods and struck the small British garrison under William Bull. Once inside, they destroyed the fort and set it on fire before withdrawing when a British relief force approached.

Fort Bull was not a conventional stand-up battle between two large armies. It was a rapid frontier assault aimed at a vulnerable outpost and its stores. The action is sometimes confused with later fighting around Fort William Henry, Fort Oswego, or Fort Ticonderoga, but Chaussegros de Léry’s name is specifically associated with the 1756 Fort Bull attack.