The Mystery of Oswego's Three Flags.

The 1756 Siege of Fort Oswego was a French victory in the French and Indian War, as the Marquis de Montcalm captured the fort and secured French control of Lake Ontario.   After his defeat of the British, Montcalm took the flags of Shirley's 50th and Pepperell's 51st.  The two flags were then hung in Quebec's cathedral Notre-Dame-des-Victoires.  When Montreal surrendered in 1760, those flags were recovered (apparently they were moved from Quebec to Montreal).

After the death of General Montcalm, his wife and mother wrote a Memorial, to answer the reproaches of Canada's Intendant, M. Bigot.  In that, they enumerate what the late marquis left them during his service in Canada: his unpaid salary, some bills of exchange, some herds and "savage clothing", along with "un drapeau dechire qu'il arracha des mains d'un Anglois a la victoire de Choueguen."  "A flag torn and snatched from the hands of an Englishman at the victory of Choueguen," is my rough translation (with the help of translate.google.com)

The captured flag of the 51st

The captured flag of the 50th

So, there were three flags at Oswego.  But what is the "torn flag?"  Could it be a Union Jack, flying above the fort?  Or perhaps the standard of the Jersey Blues?  A mystery indeed.

Siege of Belgrade 1717

"Almost all the magazines had by now been destroyed, excepting the powder magazine, which contained an infinite number of barrels, and which the besieged had taken every imaginable precaution to protect from injury.  But it often happens that, in cases deserving such extreme care and attention, the grave fault of omission is committed, and this happened to the besieged in the removal of the powder from the magazine, which was quite bomb-proof owing to the depth of the subterranean chambers in the form of which it was constructed.

It happened one day that a leaky barrel caused the formation of a train of powder leading from the interior of the magazine to the last door outside, without its being noticed by those rolling it along, and this communicated with the powder outside as if it had been laid on purpose.  One of our shells, which then chanced to fall just outside the entrance, set light to several barrels standing there, which in their turn lighted the train, and thereby the magazine, which flew skywards with such a terrific explosion that it even created a panic in the enemy's camp outside."--pgs. 330-331, Chronicles of an Old Campaigner by M. De La Colonie.