Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre (24 October 1701-8 September 1755) was a French-Canadian explorer.
Biography[]
Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre was born in Montreal, New France in 1701, a grandson of Jean-Baptiste Legardeur de Repentigny and a great-grandson of Jean Nicolet. He learned Indian languages while living on trading posts in the Great Lakes region, and he became a French Army regular officer in 1724. He commanded Fort Beauharnois from 1734 to 1737, but he burned the fort as tribal rivalries flared up. He campaigned against the Chickasaws from 1737 to 1740, became a lieutenant at Fort Wayne in 1741, raided Saratoga during King George's War, and assumed command of French forces in the Ohio Valley in 1753. George Washington met with Saint-Pierre in a last-ditch effort to persuade the French to leave, but the French refused; when the French and Indian War broke out, Saint-Pierre participated in the attack on Fort Necessity. He was killed at the Battle of Lake George in 1755.