Inhabited by Palatine colonists, the settlement's defenders (consisting of 75 militiamen) were defeated by the 300-strong force of attackers, and German Flatts was captured and destroyed.

New France's governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, had attempted to convince German settlers in the Mohawk River valley to support the French cause.

When the Germans failed to support the French in the assault on Fort William Henry in August, Vaudreuil decided to send a punitive expedition against them.

(This settlement is where present-day Herkimer, New York, is located, and not the modern German Flatts on the south side of the Mohawk River.)

Forty people were killed or drowned, all the buildings were destroyed, and more than 150 of the inhabitants, men, women and children, including the mayor, the surgeon, and some militia officers were captured and taken back to Montreal.