Background
John Bradstreet was born in 1711 in Nova Scotia, or immigrated at an early age.
John Bradstreet was born in 1711 in Nova Scotia, or immigrated at an early age.
Close connection with two generations of military Bradstreets influenced him to purchase an ensign's commission in Philipps's regiment of British foot in 1735. Visits to Louisburg in 1736 and 1738, and his relationship with the famous La Tour family of Nova Scotia, gave him knowledge of French methods, while garrison duty on the frontiers of a sparsely-settled province taught him the value of irregular troops, and peculiarly fitted him for his later career.
When England entered the War of the Austrian Succession, he was serving as lieutenant at Canso. Captured by Du Vivier in 1744, he was imprisoned in Louisburg, and later exchanged at Boston, where he met Governor Shirley. His arguments as to the vulnerability of Louisburg were so forcible that Pepperell described him as the "first projector of the expedition" that resulted in the capture of the stronghold in 1745. Bradstreet maintained that he would have had the chief command had he been a native New Englander, but he was commissioned only as second colonel of the first regiment of Massachusetts troops, Pepperell's "York Provincials".
He served during the siege with distinction, and was recommended by both Shirley and Pepperell for the lieutenant-colonelcy of Pepperell's regiment, raised in 1745 on the British establishment. The selection, however, was dictated in England, and Bradstreet obtained only a captain's commission, and the newly-created post of lieutenant-governor of St. John's, Newfoundland, which he held until his death.
After commanding the provincial garrison at Louisburg, not without arousing criticism, he went to St. John's, where he remained until 1754. A driving personal ambition, which was his dominating characteristic, led him in 1747 to attempt to purchase from Pepperell the colonelcy of the regiment, wholly for the sake of rank, and undoubtedly to inspire the unsuccessful petition of Lord Baltimore in 1753 for the re"stablishment of a seventeenth century proprietary claim to Newfoundland. The petition requested that "J. Bradstreet, Esq. , a gentleman of great honour and ability, " be appointed governor.
In 1755 Braddock ordered him as captain in Pepperell's newly raised regiment, the 516t, to Oswego with two companies to reinforce the weakened garrison, and to oversee the building of boats on the lake. His extraordinary abilities with that class of irregulars known as "battoe-men" were recognized when Shirley, in 1756, gave him the command of all matters relating to transportation of supplies and provisions on the New York frontier, without, however, additional pay or rank. Bradstreet performed this important work with zeal, and won contemporary renown by beating off several French attacks as he was returning, in the spring of 1756, from carrying supplies to the Oswego garrison.
Commissioned in 1757 as captain in the second battalion of the Royal Americans, he was chosen by Loudoun as one of his aides-de-camp, a post in which he performed quartermaster duties. In December 1757 he offered to bear part of the expense of an expedition against Fort Frontenac, to be reimbursed and recommended for promotion if successful.
When Loudoun accepted the offer, Bradstreet carried forward preparations with such energy that he completed nearly 1, 500 batteaux by the end of May. Wolfe, always a severe critic of Americans, marked him out at this time for especial praise. Pitt's sweeping changes of December 1757, which gave Bradstreet his coveted rank of lieutenant-colonel and made him deputy quartermaster-general in America, deferred the Frontenac plan until after Abercromby's defeat at Ticonderoga, when it was adopted at a council of war.
The Frontenac expedition was singularly adapted to Bradstreet's abilities, for it involved, not the strategy of a siege, but the swift transport of an army over a long and difficult wilderness water-way. Though Bradstreet quarrelled with his provincial leaders, his 3, 000 men, of whom but 150 were of the regular army, easily captured Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario), August 1758, destroyed the fortifications, stores, and boats, and thus broke the line of French communication between the St. Lawrence and the Ohio. For the remainder of the war Bradstreet acted as deputy quartermaster-general, and in 1762 was promoted to be colonel in America.
In the suppression of Pontiac's rebellion, in 1764, he commanded the northern of the two armies that penetrated into Indian territory. He transported his small force to Detroit, re-garrisoned posts to the westward that had been captured by Indians, but gave little evidence of understanding Indian character, and allowed himself to be duped into signing a premature peace without sufficiently drastic terms.
In 1772 the rules of seniority made him major-general; two years later he died of the dropsy "at his house in Broad Street, " and was buried in Trinity Church with full honors of war. He left two daughters, by his wife Mary.
John Bradstreet is most famous for his role in Pontiac's Rebellion. After facing numerous setbacks during 1763, the first year of the rebellion, English forces took the offensive in late 1764. While a British army under Henry Bouquet subdued American Indian populations in eastern Ohio, Bradstreet led a force from Fort Niagara to conquer those along the Great Lakes. He would succeed in ending the involvement of the Shawnee tribe, the Delaware tribe, and the Seneca tribe, thus bringing Pontiac's Rebellion to a close. Following the conflict, Bradstreet continued his military career and was promoted to be colonel in America in 1762 and by 1772 he received a rank of major-general.
Bradstreet had married to a woman named Mary, and had two children.
