The Fort at Number 4 (named so because it was located in the fourth of a series of recently surveyed township land parcels),[a] was unsuccessfully besieged by a French and Native force under the command of Ensign Joseph Boucher de Niverville.

In the following years, settlers from Massachusetts, which laid claim to the territory, moved up the Connecticut River, establishing small frontier settlements.

The most northerly of these, 34 miles (55 km) north of Fort Dummer and located at the site of present-day Charlestown, New Hampshire, was called Number Four.

During the summer of 1746, Number Four was repeatedly attacked by French and Native raiding parties organized by the authorities of New France, and these militia had provided timely defense.

The Marquis de Beauharnois, New France's governor, had waged a war against the frontiers of the northern British colonies (New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia) since the fall of Louisbourg in 1745 had dried up supplies of important trade goods and provisions.

[3] Some English accounts of the action report Boucher de Niverville's claims that he had several hundred men; they also incorrectly identify the party leader as "General Debeline".

Although they remained concealed in the woods that surrounded the fort, one of Stevens' men was alerted to the enemy presence by his dogs, which refused to stop barking.

"[5] Sir Charles Knowles of the Royal Navy, who later became Rear-Admiral of Great Britain, was in Boston when news of the spirited defense of Number Four arrived.