Dollard des Ormeaux

Adam Dollard des Ormeaux
Alfred Laliberté's Adam Dollard des Ormeaux in parc Lafontaine Montréal, Quebec
Born	(1635-07-23)July 23, 1635 Ormeaux, Brie, France
Died	May 21, 1660(1660-05-21) (aged 24) Carillon, New France
Known for	Battle of Long Sault

Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, (July 23, 1635 – May 21, 1660), is an iconic figure in the history of New France. Arriving in the colony in 1658, Dollard was appointed the position of garrison commander of the fort of Ville-Marie (now Montreal), a title that he shared with Pierre Picoté de Belestre.

In the spring of 1660, Dollard led an expedition up the Ottawa River to wage war on the Iroquois. Accompanied by seventeen Frenchmen, Dollard arrived at the foot of Long Sault (near present-day Carillon, Quebec) on May 1 and settled his troops at an abandoned Algonquin fort. He was then joined by forty Huron and four Algonquin allies. Vastly outnumbered by the Iroquois, Dollard and his companions died at the Battle of Long Sault somewhere between May 9 and May 12, 1660. The exact nature or purpose of Dollard's 1660 expedition is uncertain; however, most historians agree that Dollard set out to conduct a "petite guerre" (ambush) against the Iroquois, in order to delay (or avoid altogether) their imminent attack on Ville-Marie. For these reasons, Dollard is regarded as one of the saviors of New France.

Dollard was born in Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux, France in 1635. At the age of 23, he settled in Montreal and took up a career in the military. Aside from some military experience, nothing is known of his activities prior to his arrival in Canada. In Ville-Marie, Dollard had attained a rather positive reputation. In Histoire de Montréal, François Dollier de Casson portrays Dollard as "a youth of courage and of good family" and in the Jesuit Relations, Dollard is described as a "man of accomplishment and generalship". Most importantly, Dollard had gained the trust of Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, who authorized Dollard’s expedition to Long Sault.

There is little verifiable evidence regarding Dollard's reason for being in Canada, but it is possible he was contemplating life as a settler in the colony. Tellingly, by the end of 1659, Maisonneuve gave him a piece of land comprising 30 arpents (10 hectares). Upon Dollard’s death, Pierre Picoté de Belestre inherited his land.