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Ji^.^73^>^-^»..^>^

THE WORKS

OF

FRANCIS PARKMAN.

CHAMPLAIN EDITION.
Vol. xiv.

The Champlain Edition of Francis Parkman's Works
is limited to Twelve Hundred Copies.
iso.Ml/ 

A General View of Quebec from Point Levy.

MONTCALM AND WOLFE.

FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN
NORTH AMERICA.
Pakt Seventh.

BY
FRANCIS PARKMAN.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
Vol. II.

BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND CO.
NEW YORK: J. F. TAYLOR AND CO.
1897.

Copyright, 188i,
By Francis Parkman.
Copyright, 1897,
By Little, Brown, and Company.

C.?i.l4"»

SEtttbetaitg ^wgs :
John Wilson and Son, Cameridqe, U.S.A.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.
1755, 1756.

shirley.  border war. Page
The Niagara Campaign. — Albany. — March to Oswego. — Diffi
culties. — The Expedition abandoned. — Shirley and Johnson.
— Results of the Campaign. — The Scourge of the Border. —
Trials of Washington. — Misery of the Settlers. — Horror of
their Situation. — Philadelphia and the Quakers. — Disputes
with the Penns. — Democracy and Feudalism. — Penusyl-
vanian Population. — Appeals from the Frontier. — Quarrel of
Governor and Assembly. — Help refused. — Desperation of the
Borderers. — Fire and Slaughter. — The Assembly alarmed :
they pass a Mock Militia Law ; they are forced to yield . . 3

CHAPTER XI.
1712-1756.
MONTCALM.
War declared. — State of Europe. — Pompadour and Maria
Theresa. — Infatuation of the French Court. — The European
War. — Montcalm to command in America : his Early
Life; an Intractable Pupil; his Marriage; his Family; his
Campaigns ; Preparation for America ; his Associates. —
Levis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville. — Embarkation. — The
Voyage. — Arrival. — Vaudreuil. — Forces of Canada. —
Troops of the Line, Colony Troops, Militia, Indians. — The
Military Situation. — Capture of Fort Bull. — Montcalm at
Ticonderoga  38

vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER xn.
1756.
OBWEQO. Page
The New Campaign. — Untimely Change of Commanders. —
Eclipse of Shirley. — Earl of Loudon. — Muster of Provin
cials. — New England Levies. — Winslow at Lake George. —
Johnson and the Five Nations. — Bradstreet and his Boat
men. — Fight on the Onondaga. — Pestilence at Oswego. —
Loudon and the Provincials. — New England Camps. — Army
Chaplains. — A Sudden Clow. — Montcalm attacks Oswego:
its Fall  68
CHAPTER Xin.
1756, 1757.
PARTISAN WAR.
Failure of Shirley's Plan. — Causes. — Loudon and Shirley. —
Close of the Campaign. — The Western Border. — Armstrong
destroys Kittanning. — The Scouts of Lake George. — War-
parties from Ticonderoga. — Robert Rogers. — The Rangers :
their Hardihood and Daring. — Disputes as to Quarters
of Troops. — Expedition of Rogers. — A Desperate Bush-
fight. — Enterprise of Vaudreuil. — Rigaud attacks Fort
William Henry   104
CHAPTER XIV.
1757.
MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL.
The Seat of War. — Social Life at Montreal. — Familiar Corre
spondence of Montcalm : his Employments ; his Impres
sions of Canada ; his Hospitalities. — Misunderstandings
with the Governor. — Character of Vaudreuil : his Accusations.
— Frenchmen and Canadians. — Foibles of Montcalm. 
— The Opening Campaign. — Doubts and Suspense. — Lou
don's Plan: his Character. — Fatal Delays. — Abortive At
tempt against Louisbourg. — Disaster to the British Fleac . 140

CONTENTS. Vll
CHAPTER XV.
1757.
fort william henry. Page
Another Blow. — The War-song. — The Army at Ticonderoga.
— Indian Allies. — The War-feast. — Treatment of Prisoners.
— Cannibalism. — Surprise and Slaughter. — The War Coun
cil. — March of Levis. — The Army embarks. — Fort William
Henry. — Nocturnal Scene. — Indian Funeral. — Advance
upon the Fort. — General Webb : his Difficulties ; his Weak
ness. — The Siege begun. — Conduct of the Indians. — The
Intercepted Letter. — Desperate Position of the Besieged. —
Capitulation. — Ferocity of the Indians. — Mission of Bougain
ville. — Murder of Wounded Men. — A Scene of Terror. —
The Massacre. — Efforts of Montcalm. — The Fort burned . 1 62
CHAPTER XVL
1757, 1758.
A WINTER OF DISCONTENT.
Boasts of Loudon. — A Mutinous Militia. — Panic. — Accusations
of Vaudreuil: his Weakness. — Indian Barbarities. — De
struction of German Flats. — Discontent of Montcalm. —
Festivities at Montreal. — Montcalm's Relations with the Gov
ernor. — Famine. — Riots. — Mutiny. — Winter at Ticonde
roga. — A Desperate Bush-fight. — Defeat of the Rangers. —
Adventures of Roche and Pringle  204
CHAPTER XVn.
1753-1760. BIGOT.
His Lite and Character. — Canadian Society. — Official Festi
vities. — A Party of Pleasure. — Hospitalities of Bigot. — Des
perate Gambling. — Chateau Bigot. — Canadian Ladies. —
Cadet. — La Friponne. — Official Rascality. — Methods of

viii CONTENTS. Page
Peculation. — Cruel Frauds on the Acadians. — Military Cor
ruption. — Pean. — Love and Knavery. — Varin and his Part
ners. — Vaudreuil and the Peculators: he defends Bigot;
praises Cadet and Pean. — Canadian Finances. — Peril of
Bigot. — Threats of the Minister. — Evidence of Montcalm. —
Impending Ruin of the Confederates  221
CHAPTER XVin.
, 1757, 1758.
PITT.
Frederic of Prussia. — The Coalition against him : his Desper
ate Position. — Rossbach. — Leuthen. — Reverses of England.
— Weakness of the Ministry. — A Change. — Pitt and New
castle. — Character of Pitt. — Sources of his Power : his
Aims. — Louis XV. — Pompadour: she controls the Court
and directs the War. — Gloomy Prospects of England. —
Disasters. — The New Ministry. — Inspiring Influence of Pitt.
— The Tide turns. — British Victories. — Pitt's Plans for
America. — Louisbourg, Ticonderoga, Duquesne. — New Com
manders. — Naval Battles  243

CHAPTER XLX.
1758.
louisbourg.
Condition of the Fortress. — Arrival of the English. — Gallantry
of Wolfe. — The English Camp. — The Siege begun. — Prog
ress of the Besiegers. — Sallies of the French. — Madame
Dmcour. — Courtesies of War. — French Ships destroyed. —
Conflagration. — Fury of the Bombardment. — Exploit of
English Sailors. — The End near. — The White Flag. — Sur
render. — Reception of the News in England and America. —
Wolfe not satisfied: his Letters to Amherst; he destroys
Gasp^ ; returns to England  257

CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER XX.
1758.
ticonderoga. Page
Activity of the Provinces. — Sacrifices of Massachusetts. — The
Army at Lake George. — Proposed Incursion of Levis. — Per
plexities of Montcalm: his Plan of Defence. — Camp of
Abercrombie : his Character. — Lord Howe : his Popular
ity. — Embarkation of Abercrombie. — Advance down Lake
George. — Landing. — Forest Skirmish. — Death of Howe:
its Effects. — Position of the French. — The Lines of Ticon
deroga. — Blunders of Abercrombie. — The Assault. — A
Frightful Scene. — Incidents of the Battle. — British Repulse.
— Panic. — Retreat. — Triumph of Montcalm  289
CHAPTER XXI.
1758.
FORT FRONTENAC.
The Routed Army. — Indignation at Abercrombie. — John Cleave-
land and his Brother Chaplains. — Regulars and Provincials.
— Provincial Surgeons. — French Raids. — Rogers defeats
Marin. — Adventures of Putnam. — Expedition of Bradstreet.
— Capture of Fort Frontenac  321
CHAPTER XXII.
1758.
FORT DUQUESNE.
Dinwiddle and Washington. — Brigadier Forbes : his Army.
— Conflicting Views. — Difficulties. — Illness of Forbes ; his
Sufferings ; his Fortitude ; his Difference with Washing
ton. — Sir John Sinclair. — Troublesome Allies. — Scouting
Parties. — Boasts of Vaudreuil. — Forbes and the Indians. —
Mission of Christian Frederic Post. — Council of Peace. —
Second Mission of Post. — Defeat of Grant. — Distress of
Forbes. — Dark Prospects. — Advance of the Army. — Cap
ture of the French Fort. — The Slain of Braddock's Field. —
Death of Forbes . . . . /  339

LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOLUME TWO.
A General View op Quebec prom Point Levy . Frontispiece
Prom an engraving by P. Ganot after a drawing by Richard Short.
Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville .... Page 49
From the painting in the possession of Comtesse de St. Sauveur-
BougainviUe, St. Germain-en-Laye.
Earl Loudon  •' 70
From a mezzotint engraving by J. Paber.
Pierre Francois Kigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil " 148
From the painting in the possession of the Countess of Clermont-
Tonnerre, Chateau of Brugny, Mame.
Siege op Fort William Henry, 1757  " 183
A View op Mieamichi  " 229
From an etching by Paul Sandby after a drawing by Captain Hervey
Smyth.
A View op Louisbourg in North America ... " 258
From an engraving by P. Canot after a drawing by Captain Ince.
Siege op Louisbourg, 1758  " 262
Governor Thomas Pownall  " 290
From a mezzotint engraving by R. Earlom after the painting by Cotes.
Sketch op the Country round Tyconderoga . . " 301

MONTCALM AND WOLFE.

MONTCALM AND WOLFE.

CHAPTER X.
1755, 1756.
SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR.
The Niagaba Campaign. — Albany. — March to Oswego. —
Difficulties. — The Expedition abandoned. — Shirley and
Johnson. — Results of the Campaign. — The Scoukgb of
the Bobdek. — Teials of Washington. — Misery of the
Settlers. — Hoheok of their Situation. — Philadelphia
AND the Quakers. — Disputes with the Penns. — Democ-
EACT AND Feudalism. — Pbnnsylvanian Population. — Ap
peals FROM THE FbONTIEE.  QuAEEBL OP GOVEKNOE AND
Assembly. — Help eefused. — Despeeation of the Boedee-
EES.  FiSE AND SlAUGHTBE.  ThB ASSEMBLY ALARMED:
THEY PASS A MoCK MiLITIA Law ; THEY AEB FOECBD TO
YIELD. The capture of Niagara was to finish the work of
the summer. This alone would have gained for
England the control of the valley of the Ohio, and
made Braddock's expedition superfluous. One
marvels at the short-sightedness, the dissensions, the
apathy which had left this key of the interior so long
in the hands of France without an effort to wrest it
from her. To master Niagara would be to cut the
communications of Canada with the whole system of

4 SHIRLEY. — BOEDEK WAR. [1755.
French forts and settlements in the West, and leave
them to perish like limbs of a girdled tree.
Major-General Shirley, in the flush of his new
martial honors, was to try his prentice hand at the
work. The lawyer-soldier could plan a campaign
boldly and well. It remained to see how he would
do his part towards executing it. In July he arrived
at Albany, the starting-point of his own expedition
as well as that of Johnson. This little Dutch city
was an outpost of civilization. The Hudson, descend
ing from the northern wilderness, connected it with
the lakes and streams that formed the thoroughfare
to Canada; while the Mohawk, flowing from the
west, was a liquid pathway to the forest homes of
the Five Nations. Before the war was over, a little
girl, Anne Mac Vicar, daughter of a Highland officer,
was left at Albany by her father, and spent several
years there in the house of Mrs. Schuyler, aunt of
General Schuyler of the Revolution. Long after,
married and middle-aged, she wrote down her recol
lections of the place, — the fort on the hill behind;
the great street, grassy and broad, that descended
thence to the river, with market, guard-house, town-
hall, and two churches in the middle, and rows of
quaint Dutch-built houses on both sides, each de
tached from its neighbors, each with its well, garden,
and green, and its great overshadowing tree. Before
every house was a capacious porch, with seats where
the people gathered in the summer twilight ; old men
at one door, matrons at another, young men and girls

1755.] ALBANY, 6
mingling at a third ; while the cows with their tinkling
bells came from the common at the end of the town,
each stopping to be milked at the door of its owner;
and children, porringer in hand, sat on the steps, watch
ing the process and waiting their evening meal.
Such was the quiet picture painted on the memory
of Anne Mac Vicar, and reproduced by the pen of
Mrs. Anne Grant. ^ The patriarchal, semi-rural town
had other aspects, not so pleasing. The men were
mainly engaged in the fur-trade, sometimes legally
with the Five Nations, and sometimes illegally with
the Indians of Canada, — an occupation which by no
means tends to soften the character. The Albany
Dutch traders were a rude, hard race, loving money,
and not always scrupulous as to the means of getting
it. Coming events, too, were soon to have their
effect on this secluded community. Regiments, red
and blue, trumpets, drums, banners, artillery trains,
and all the din of war transformed its peaceful
streets, and brought some attaint to domestic morals
hitherto commendable ; for during the next five years
Albany was to be the principal base of military
operations on the continent.
Shirley had left the place, and was now on his way
up the Mohawk. His force, much smaller than at
first intended, consisted of the New Jersey regiment,
which mustered five hundred men, known as the
1 Memoirs of an American Lady (Mrs. Schuyler), chap. vi. A
genuine picture of colonial life, and a charming book, though far
irom being historically trustworthy. Compare the account of
Albany in Kalm, ii. 102.

6 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
"Jersey Blues," and of the fiftieth and fifty-first regi
ments, called respectively Shirley's and Pepperrell's.
These, though paid by the King and counted as
regulars, were in fact raw provincials, just raised in
the colonies, and wearing their gay uniforms with an
awkward, unaccustomed air. How they gloried in
them may be gathered from a letter of Sergeant
James Gray, of Pepperrell's, to his brother John: "I
have two Holland shirts, found me by the King, and
two pair of shoes and two pair of worsted stockings ;
a good silver-laced hat (the lace I could sell for four
dollars); and my clothes is as fine scarlet broadcloth
as ever you did see. A sergeant here in the King's
regiment is counted as good as an ensign with you;
and one day in every week we must have our hair or
wigs powdered. " ^ Most of these gorgeous warriors
were already on their way to Oswego, their first
destination. Shirley followed, embarking at the Dutch village
of Schenectady, and ascending the Mohawk with
about two hundred of the so-called regulars in
bateaux. They passed Fort Johnson, the two vil
lages of the Mohawks, and the Palatine settlement of
German Flats ; left behind the last trace of civilized
man, rowed sixty miles through a wilderness, and
reached the Great Carrying Place, which divided the
waters that flow to the Hudson from those that flow
to Lake Ontario. Here now stands the city which
the classic zeal of its founders has adorned with the
1 James Gray to John Gray, 11 July, 1755.

1755.] ARRIVAL AT OSWEGO. 7
name of Rome. Then all was swamp and forest,
traversed by a track that led to Wood Creek, — which
is not to be confounded with the Wood Creek of
Lake Champlain. Thither the bateaux were dragged
on sledges and launched on the dark and tortuous
stream, which, fed by a decoction of forest leaves
that oozed from the marshy shores, crept in shadow
through depths of foliage, with only a belt of illu
mined sky gleaming between the jagged tree-tops.
Tall and lean with straining towards the light, their
rough, gaunt stems trickling with perpetual damps,
stood on either hand the silent hosts of the forest.
The skeletons of their dead, barkless, blanched, and
shattered, strewed the mudbanks and shallows;
others lay submerged, like bones of drowned mam
moths, thrusting lank, white limbs above the sullen
water; and great trees, entire as yet, were flung by
age or storms athwart the current, — a bristUng bar
ricade of matted boughs. There was work for the
axe as well as for the oar; till at length Lake Oneida
opened before them, and they rowed all day over its
sunny breast, reached the outlet, and drifted down
the shallow eddies of the Onondaga, between walls
of verdure, silent as death, yet haunted everywhere
with ambushed danger. It was twenty days after
leaving Schenectady when they neared the mouth of
the river; and Lake Ontario greeted them, stretched
like a sea to the pale brink of the northern sky,
while on the bare hill at their left stood the miserable
little fort of Oswego.

8 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
Shirley's whole force soon arrived; but not the
needful provisions and stores. The machinery of
transportation and the commissariat was in the be
wildered state inevitable among a peaceful people at
the beginning of a war; while the news of Braddock's
defeat produced such an effect on the boatmen and
the draymen at the carrying-places that the greater
part deserted. Along with these disheartening tid
ings, Shirley learned the death of his eldest son,
killed at the side of Braddock. He had with him a
second son, Captain John Shirley, a vivacious young
man, whom his father and his father's friends in
their familiar correspondence always called "Jack."
John Shirley's letters give a lively view of the
situation. "I have sat down to write to you," — thus he
addresses Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania, who
seems to have had a great liking for him, — " because
there is an opportunity of sending you a few lines ;
and if you will promise to excuse blots, interlinea
tions, and grease (for this is written in the open air,
upon the head of a pork-barrel, and twenty people
about me), I will begin another half -sheet. We are
not more than about fifteen hundred men fit for
duty; but that, I am pretty sure, if we can go in
time in our sloop, schooner, row-galleys, and whale-
boats, will be sufficient to take Frontenac; after
which we may venture to go upon the attack of
Niagara, but not before. I have not the least doubt
with myself of knocking down both these places yet

1755.] SHIRLEY'S LETTER TO MORRIS. 9
this fall, if we can get away in a week. If we take
or destroy their two vessels at Frontenac, and ruin
their harbor there, and destroy the two forts of that
and Niagara, I shall think we have done great things.
Nobody holds it out better than my father and
myself. We shall aU of us relish a good house over
our heads, being all encamped, except the General
and some few field-officers, who have what are called
at Oswego houses ; but they would in other countries
be called only sheds, except the fort, where my
father is. Adieu, dear sir; I hope my next will be
directed from Frontenac. Yours most affectionately,
John Shirley."!
Fort Frontenac lay to the northward, fifty miles or
more across the lake. Niagara lay to the westward,
at the distance of four or five days by boat or canoe
along the south shore. At Frontenac there was a
French force of fourteen hundred regulars and

1 The young author of this letter was, like his brother, a victim
of the war.
" Permit me, good sir, to offer you my hearty condolence upon
the death of my friend Jack, whose worth I admired, and feel for
him more than I can express. . . . Few men of his age had so many
friends." — Governor Morris to Shirley, 27 November, 1755.
" My heart bleeds for Mr. Shirley. He must be overwhelmed
with Grief when he hears of Capt. John Shirley's Death, of which
I have an Account by the last Post from New York, where he died
of a Flux and Fever that he had contracted at Oswego. The loss
of Two Sons in one Campaign scarcely admits of Consolation. I
feel the Anguish of the unhappy Father, and mix my Tears very
heartily with his. I have had au intimate Acquaintance with Both
of Them for many Years, and know well their inestimable Value."
— Morris to Dinwiddie, 29 November, 1755.

10 SHIRLEY.— BORDER WAR. [1755.
Canadians.^ They had vessels and canoes to cross
the lake and fall upon Oswego as soon as Shirley
should leave it to attack Niagara; for Braddock's
captured papers had revealed to them the English
plan. If they should take it, Shirley would be cut
off from his supplies and placed in desperate jeopardy,
with the enemy in his rear. Hence it is that John
Shirley insists on taking Frontenac before attempting
Niagara. But the task was not easy; for the French
force at the former place was about equal in effective
strength to that of the English at Oswego. At
Niagara, too, the French had, at the end of August,
nearly twelve hundred Canadians and Indians from
Fort Duquesne and the upper lakes. ^ Shirley was
but imperfectly informed by his scouts of the unex
pected strength of the opposition that awaited him ;
but he knew enough to see that his position was a
difficult one. His movement on Niagara was stopped,
first by want of provisions, and secondly because he
was checkmated by the troops at Frontenac. He did
not despair. Want of courage was not among his
failings, and he was but too ready to take risks. He
called a council of officers, told them that the total
number of men fit for duty was thirteen hundred and
seventy-six, and that as soon as provisions enough
should arrive he would embark for Niagara with six
hundred soldiers and as many Indians as possible,
' Bigot au Ministre, 27 Ao&t, 1755.
2 lUd., 5 Septembre, 1755.

1755.] DIFFICULTIES. 11
leaving the rest to defend Oswego against the
expected attack from Fort Frontenac. ^
" All I am uneasy about is our provisions, " writes
John Shirley to his friend Morris; "our men have
been upon half allowance of bread these three weeks
past, and no rum given to 'em. My father yesterday
called all the Indians together and made 'em a speech
on the subject of General Johnson's engagement,
which he calculated to inspire them with a spirit of
revenge." After the speech he gave them a bullock
for a feast, which they roasted and ate, pretending
that they were eating the governor of Canada ! Some
provisions arriving, orders were given to embark on
the next day; but the officers murmured their dis
sent. The weather was persistently bad, their vessels
would not hold half the party, and the bateaux,
made only for river navigation, would infallibly
founder on the treacherous and stormy lake. "All
the field-officers," says John Shirley, "think it too
rash an attempt; and I have heard so much of it that
I think it my duty to let my father know what I
hear. " Another council was called ; and the general,
reluctantly convinced of the danger, put the question
whether to go or not. The situation admitted but
one reply. The council was of opinion that for the
present the enterprise was impracticable ; that Oswego
should be strengthened, more vessels built, and prepa
ration made to renew the attempt as soon as spring
opened. 2 All thoughts of active operations were
1 Minutes of a Council qf War at Oswego, 18 September, 1755.
2 Ibid., 27 September, 1755.

12 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
now suspended, and during what was left of the
season the troops exchanged the musket for the
spade, saw, and axe. At the end of October, leaving
seven hundred men at Oswego, Shirley returned to
Albany, and narrowly escaped drowning on the way,
while passing a rapid in a whale-boat, to try the
fitness of that species of craft for river navigation. ^
Unfortunately for him, he had fallen out with
Johnson, whom he had made what he was, but who
now turned against him, — a seeming ingratitude not
wholly unprovoked. Shirley had diverted the New
Jersey regiment, destined originally for Crown Point,
to his own expedition against Niagara. Naturally
inclined to keep all the reins in his own hands, he
had encroached on Johnson's new office of Indian
superintendent, held conferences with the Five
Nations, and employed agents of his own to deal
with them. These agents were persons obnoxious to
Johnson, being allied with the clique of Dutch
traders at Albany, who hated him because he had
supplanted them in the direction of Indian affairs;
and in a violent letter to the Lords of Trade, he
inveighs against their "licentious and abandoned
proceedings," "viUanous conduct," "scurrilous false-
1 On the Niagara expedition, Braddock's Instructions to Major-
General Shirley. Correspondence of Shirley, n56. Conduct of Major-
General Shirley (London, 1758). Letters of John Shirley iu Penn
sylvania Archives, ii. Bradstreet to Shirley, 17 August, 1755. MSS.
in Massachusetts Archives. Review of Military Operations in North
America. Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, p. 73. London Magazine,
1759, p. 594. Trumbull, Hist. Connecticut, ii. 370.

1755.] SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON. 13
hoods," and "base and insolent behavior. "^ "I am
considerable enough, " he says, " to have enemies and
to be envied; "2 and he declares he has proof that
Shirley told the Mohawks that he, Johnson, was an
upstart of his creating, whom he had set up and
could pull down. Again, he charges Shirley's agents
with trying to "debauch the Indians from joining
him;" while Shirley, on his side, retorts the same
complaint against his accuser.^ When, by the death
of Braddock, Shirley became commander-in-chief,
Johnson grew so restive at being subject to his
instructions that he declined to hold the management
of Indian affairs unless it was made independent of
his rival. The dispute became mingled with the
teapot-tempest of New York provincial politics.
The lieutenant-governor, Delancey, a politician of
restless ambition and consummate dexterity, had
taken umbrage at Shirley, of whose rising honors,
not borne with remarkable humility, he appears to
have been jealous. Delancey had hitherto favored
the Dutch faction in the Assembly, hostile to John
son; but he now changed attitude, and joined hands
with htm against the object of their common dislike.
The one was strong in the prestige of a loudly
trumpeted victory, and the other had means of influ
ence over the ministry. Their coalition boded ill to
Shirley, and he soon felt its effects.*
1 Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 3 September, 1755.
2 Ibid., 17 January, 1756.
' John Shirley to Governor Morris, 12 August, 1755.
* On this affair, see various papers in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi., vii.

14 SHIRLEY. - BORDER WAR. [1755.
The campaign was now closed, — a sufficiently
active one, seeing that the two nations were nomi
nally at peace. A disastrous rout on the Mononga-
hela, failure at Niagara, a barren victory at Lake
George, and three forts captured in Acadia, were
the disappointing results on the part of England.
Nor had her enemies cause to boast. The Indians,
it is true, had won a battle for them : but they had
suffered mortifying defeat from a raw militia; their
general was a prisoner; and they had lost Acadia
past hope.
The campaign was over; but not its effects. It
remains to see what befell from the rout of Braddock
and the unpardonable retreat of Dunbar from the
frontier which it was his duty to defend. Dumas
had replaced Contrecceur in the command of Fort
Duquesne; and his first care was to set on the
western tribes to attack the border settlements. His
success was triumphant. The Delawares and Shawa-
noes, old friends of the English, but for years past
tending to alienation through neglect and iU-usage,
now took the lead against them. Many of the
Mingoes, or Five Nation Indians on the Ohio, also
took up the hatchet, as did various remoter tribes.
The West rose like a nest of hornets, and swarmed
in fury against the English frontier. Such was the
Smith, Hist. New York, Part II., Chaps. IV. V. Review of Military
Operations in North America. Both Smith and Livingston, the
author of the Review, were personaUy cognizant of the course of
the dispute.

1755.] DUMAS ATTACKS THE BORDERS. 15
consequence of the defeat of Braddock aided by the
skilful devices of the French commander. " It is by
means such as I have mentioned," says Dumas, " varied
in every form to suit the occasion, that I have suc
ceeded in ruining the three adjacent provinces, Penn
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, driving off the
inhabitants, and totally destroying the settlements
over a tract of country thirty leagues wide, reckoning
from the line of Fort Cumberland. M. de Contrecceur
had not been gone a week before I had six or seven
different war-parties in the field at once, always
accompanied by Frenchmen. Thus far, we have
lost only two officers and a few soldiers; but the
Indian villages are full of prisoners of every age and
sex. The enemy has lost far more since the battle
than on the day of his defeat."^
Dumas, required by the orders of his superiors to
wage a detestable warfare against helpless settlers
and their families, did what he could to temper its
horrors, and enjoined the officers who went with the
Indians to spare no effort to prevent them from tor
turing prisoners. 2 The attempt should be set down
to his honor; but it did not avail much. In the
record of cruelties committed this year on the
1 Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756.
2 M€moires de Famille de I'Abb^ Casgrain, cited in Le Foyer Can-
adien, iii. 26, where an extract is given from an order of Dumas to
Baby, a Canadian officer. Orders of Contrecceur and Ligneris to
the same effect are also given. A similar order, signed by Dumas,
was foxmd in the pocket of Douville, an oflBcer killed by the Eng
lish on the frontier. Writings of Washington, ii. 137, note.

16 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
borders, we find repeated instances of children scalped
alive. "They Mil all they meet," writes a French
priest; "and after having abused the women and
maidens, they slaughter or burn them." ^
WasMngton was now in command of the Virginia
regiment, consisting of a thousand men, raised after
wards to fifteen hundred. With these he was to pro
tect a frontier of three hundred and fifty miles
against more numerous enemies, who could choose
their time and place of attack. His headquarters
were at Winchester. His men were an ungovernable
crew, enlisted chiefly on the turbulent border, and
resenting every kind of discipline as levelling them
with negroes; while the sympathizing House of
Burgesses hesitated for months to pass any law for
enforcing obedience, lest it should trench on the
liberties of free white men. The service was to the
last degree unpopular. " If we talk of obliging men
to serve their country," wrote Landon Carter, "we
are sure to hear a fellow mumble over the words
'liberty' and 'property' a thousand times." ^ The
people, too, were in mortal fear of a slave insur
rection, and therefore dared not go far from home.^
Meanwhile a panic reigned along the border. Cap
tain Waggoner, passing a gap in the Blue Ridge,
could hardly make his way for the crowd of fugitives.
1 Rev. Claude Godefroy Cocquard, S. J., a son Frhre, Mars Vi),
1757. =" Extract in Writings of Washington, ii. 145, note.
' Letters of Dinwiddie, 1755.

1755.] MISERY OF THE FRONTIERS. 17
"Every day," writes Washington, "we have accounts
of such cruelties and barbarities as are shocking to
human nature. It is not possible to conceive the
situation and danger of this miserable country. Such
numbers of French and Indians are all around that
no road is safe."
These frontiers had always been at peace. No
forts of refuge had thus far been built, and the
scattered settlers had no choice but ffight. Their first
impulse was to put wife and children beyond reach
of the tomahawk. As autumn advanced, the invad
ing bands grew more and more audacious. Braddock
had opened a road for them by which they could
cross the mountains at their ease; and scouts from
Fort Cumberland reported that this road was beaten
by as many feet as when the English army passed
last summer. Washington was beset with difficulties.
Men and officers alike were unruly and mutinous.
He was at once blamed for their disorders and refused
the means of repressing them. Envious detractors
published slanders against him. A petty Maryland
captain, who had once had a commission from the
King, refused to obey his orders, and stirred up
factions among his officers. Dinwiddie gave him
cold support. The temper of the old Scotchman,
crabbed at the best, had been soured by disappoint
ment, vexation, weariness, and ill-health. He had,
besides, a friend and countryman, Colonel Innes,
whom, had he dared, he would gladly have put in
Washington's place. He was full of zeal in the

18 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
common cause, and wanted to direct the defence of
the borders from his house at Williamsburg, two
hundred mUes distant. Washington never hesitated
to obey; but he accompanied his obedience by a
statement of his own convictions and his reasons for
them, which, though couched in terms the most
respectful, galled his irascible chief. The governor
acknowledged his merit, but bore him no love, and
sometimes wrote to him in terms which must have
tried his high temper to the utmost. Sometimes,
though rarely, he gave words to his emotion.
"Your Honor," he wrote in April, "may see to
what unhappy straits the distressed inhabitants and
myself are reduced. I see inevitable destruction in
so clear a light that unless vigorous measures are
taken by the Assembly, and speedy assistance sent
from below, the poor inhabitants that are now in
forts must unavoidably fall, while the remainder are
flying before the barbarous foe. In ffiie, the melan
choly situation of the people; the little prospect of
assistance ; the gross and scandalous abuse cast upon
the officers in general, which is reflecting upon me in
particular for suffering misconduct of such extraor
dinary kinds; and the distant prospect, if any, of
gaining honor and reputation in the service, — cause
me to lament the hour that gave me a commission,
and would induce me at any other time than this of
imminent danger to resign, without one hesitating
moment, a command from which I never expect to
reap either honor or benefit, but, on the contrary.

1755, 1756.] WASHINGTON. 1^'
have almost an absolute certainty of incurring dis
pleasure below, while the murder of helpless families
may be laid to my account here.
" The supplicating tears of the women and moving
petitions of the men melt me into such deadly sor
row that I solemnly declare, if I know my own
njind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the
butchering enemy, provided that would contribute
to the people's ease."i
In the turmoil around him, patriotism and public
duty seemed all to be centred in the breast of one
heroic youth. He was respected and generally
beloved, but he did not Mndle enthusiasm. His
were the qualities of an unflagging courage, an aU-
enduring fortitude, and a deep trust. He showed an
astonishing maturity of character, and the kind of
mastery over others which begins with^ mastery over
self. At twenty-four he was the foremost man, and
acknowledged as such, along the whole long line of
the western border.
To feel the situation, the nature of these frontiers
must be kept in mind. Along the skirts of the
southern and middle colonies ran for six or seven
hundred miles a loose, thin, dishevelled fringe of
population, the half-barbarous pioneers of advancing
civilization. Their rude dwellings were often miles
apart. Buried in woods, the settler lived in an
appalling loneliness. A low-browed cabin of logs,
with moss stuffed in the chinks to keep out the wind,
1 Writings of Washington, ii. 143.

20 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755,1756.
roof covered with sheets of bark, chimney of sticks
and clay, and square holes closed by a shutter in place
of windows; an unkempt matron, lean with hard
work, and a brood of children with bare heads and
tattered garments eked out by deerskin, — such was
the home of the pioneer in the remoter and wilder
districts. The scene around bore witness to his
labors. It was the repulsive transition from savagery
to civilization, from the forest to the farm. The
victims of his axe lay strewn about the dismal " clear
ing " in a chaos of prostrate trunks, tangled boughs,
and withered leaves, waiting for the fire that was to
be the next agent in the process of improvement;
while around, voiceless and grim, stood the living
forest, gazing on the desolation, and biding its own
day of doom. The owner of the cabin was miles
away, hunting in the woods for the wild turkey and
venison which were the chief food of himself and his
family till the soil could be tamed into the bearing
of crops.
Towards night he returned; and as he issued from
the forest shadows he saw a column of blue smoke
rising quietly in the still evening air. He ran to the
spot; and there, among the smouldering logs of his
dwelling, lay, scalped and mangled, the dead bodies
of wife and children. A war-party had passed that
way. Breathless, palpitating, his brain on fire, he
rushed through the thickening night to carry the
alarm to his nearest neighbor, three miles distant.
Such was the character and the fate of many incipi-

1755, 1756.] SAVAGE RAIDS. 21
ent settlements of the utmost border. Farther east,
they had a different aspect. Here, small farms with
well-built log-houses, cattle, crops of wheat, and
Indian corn, were strung at intervals along some
woody valley of the lower AUeghanies : yesterday a
scene of hardy toU; to-day swept with destruction
from end to end. There was no warning; no time
for concert, perhaps none for ffight. Sudden as the
leaping panther, a pack of human wolves burst out
of the forest, did their work, and vanished.
If the country had been an open one, like the
plains beyond the Mississippi, the situation would
have been less frightful; but the forest was every
where, rolled over hill and valley in billows of in
terminable green, — a leafy maze, a mystery of shade,
a universal hiding-place, where murder might lurk
imseen at its victim's side, and Nature seemed formed
to nurse the mind with wild and dark imaginings.
The detail of blood is set down in the untutored
words of those who saw and felt it. But there was a
suffering that had no record, — the mortal fear of
women and children in the solitude of their wilder
ness homes, haunted, waking and sleeping, with
nightmares of horror that were but the forecast of an
imminent reality. The country had in past years
been so peaceful, and the Indians so friendly, that
many of the settlers, especially on the Pennsylvanian
border, had no arms, and were doubly in need of help
from the government. In Virginia they had it, such
as it was. In Pennsylvania they had for months

22 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755,1756.
none whatever; and the Assembly turned a deaf ear
to their cries.
Far to the east, sheltered from danger, lay staid
and prosperous Philadelphia, the home of order and
thrift. It took its stamp from the Quakers, its
original and dominant population, set apart from the
other colonists not only in character and creed, but
in the outward symbols of a peculiar dress and a daily
sacrifice of grammar on the altar of religion. The
even tenor of their lives counteracted the effects of
climate, and they are said to have been perceptibly
more rotund in feature and person than their neigh
bors. Yet, broad and humanizing as was their faith,
they were capable of extreme bitterness towards oppo
nents, clung tenaciously to power, and were jealous
for the ascendency of their sect, which had begun to
show signs of wavering. On other sects they looked
askance, and regarded the Presbyterians in particular
with a dislike which in moments of crisis rose to
detestation.^ They held it sin to fight, and above all
to fight against Indians.
Here was one cause of military paralysis. It was
reinforced by another. The old standing quarrel
between governor and assembly had grown more
violent than ever; and this as a direct consequence
of the public distress, which above all things de
manded harmony. The dispute turned this time on
1 See a crowd of party pamphlets, Quaker against Presbyterian,
which appeared at Philadelphia in 1764, abusively acrimonious on
both sides.

1755,1756.] PENNSYLVANIAN DISPUTES. 23
a single issue, — that of the taxation of the pro
prietary estates. The estates in question consisted
of vast tracts of wild land, yielding no income, and
at present to a great extent worthless, being overrun
by the enemy. ^ The Quaker Assembly had refused
to protect them ; and on one occasion had rejected an
offer of the proprietaries to join them in paying the '
cost of their defence.^ But though they would not
defend the land, they insisted on taxing it; and
farther insisted that the taxes upon it should be laid
by the provincial assessors. By a law of the province,
these assessors were chosen by popular vote ; and in
consenting to this law, the proprietaries had expressly
provided that their estates should be exempted from
all taxes to be laid by officials in whose appointment
they had no voice. ^ Thomas and Richard Penn, the
present proprietaries, had debarred their deputy, the
governor, both by the terms of his commission and
by special instruction, from consenting to such taxa
tion, and had laid him under heavy bonds to secure
his- obedience. Thus there was another side to the
question than that of the Assembly; though our
American writers have been slow to acknowledge it.
1 The productive estates of the proprietaries were taxed through
the tenants.
2 The proprietaries offered to contribute to the cost of building
and maintaining a fort on the spot where the French soon after
built Fort Duguesne. This plan, vigorously executed, would have
saved the province from a deluge of miseries. One of the reasons
assigned by the Assembly for rejecting it was that it would irritate
the enemy. See supra, i. 64.
3 A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for the year 1755.

24 SHIRLEY. -BORDER WAR. [1755, 1756.
Benjamin FranHin was leader in the Assembly
and shared its views. The feudal proprietorship of
the Penn family was odious to his democratic nature.
It was, in truth, a pestilent anomaly, repugnant to
the genius of the people ; and the disposition and
character of the present proprietaries did not tend to
render it less vexatious. Yet there were considera
tions which might have tempered the impatient hatred
with which the colonists regarded it. The first
proprietary, William Penn, had used his feudal rights
in the interest of a broad liberalism; and through
them had established the popular institutions and
universal tolerance which made Pennsylvania the
most democratic province in America, and nursed the
spirit of liberty which now revolted against his heirs.
The one absorbing passion of Pennsylvania was
resistance to their deputy, the governor. The badge
of feudalism, though light, was insufferably irritat
ing; and the sons of William Penn were moreover
detested by the Quakers as renegades from the faith
of their father. Thus the immediate political con
ffict engrossed mind and heart ; and in the rancor of
their quarrel with the proprietaries, the Assembly
forgot the French and Indians.
In Philadelphia and the eastern districts the
Quakers could ply their trades, tend their shops, till
their farms, and discourse at their ease on the wicked
ness of war. The midland counties, too, were for
the most part tolerably safe. They were occupied
mainly by crude German peasants, who nearly

1755,1756.] CHARACTER OP THE POPULATION. 25
equalled in number all the rest of the population,
and who, gathered at the centre of the province,
formed a mass politically indigestible. Translated
from servitude to the most ample liberty, they hated
the thought of military service, which reminded them
of former oppression, cared little whether they lived
under France or England, and, thinMng themselves
out of danger, had no mind to be taxed for the
defence of others. But while the great body of the
Germans were sheltered from harm, those of them
who lived farther westward were not so fortunate.
Here, mixed with Scotch Irish Presbyterians and
Celtic Irish Catholics, they formed a rough border
population, the discordant elements of which could
rarely unite for common action ; yet, though confused
and disjointed, they were a living rampart to the rest
of the colony. Against them raged the furies of
Indian war; and, maddened with distress and terror,
they cried aloud for help.
Petition after petition came from the borders for
arms and ammunition, and for a militia law to enable
the people to organize and defend themselves. The
Quakers resisted. "They have taken uncommon
pains," writes Governor Morris to Shirley, "to pre
vent the people from taking up arms."^ Braddock's
defeat, they declared, was a just judgment on him
and his soldiers for molesting the French in their
settlements on the Ohio.^ A bill was passed by the
1 Morris to Shirley, 16 August, 1755.
2 Morris to Sir Thomas Robinson, 28 August, 1755.

26 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
Assembly for raising fifty thousand pounds for the
King's use by a tax which included the proprietary-
lands. The governor, constrained by his instructions
and his bonds, rejected it. "I can only say," he told
them, "that I will readily pass a bill for striking
any sum in paper money the present exigency may
require, provided funds ^are established for sinking
the same in five years." Messages long and acri
monious were exchanged between the parties. The
Assembly, had they chosen, could easily have raised
money enough by methods not involving the point in
dispute; but they thought they saw in the crisis a
means of forcing the governor to yield. The Quakers
had an alternative motive : if the governor gave way,
it was a political victory; if he stood fast, their non-
resistance principles would triumph, and in this
triumph their ascendency as a sect would be con
firmed. The debate grew every day more bitter and
unmannerly. The governor could not yield; the
Assembly would not. There was a complete dead
lock. The Assembly requested the governor " not to
make himself the hateful instrument of reducing a
free people to the abject state of vassalage. " ^ As
the raising of money and the control of its expendi
ture was in their hands ; as he could not prorogue or
dissolve them, and as they could adjourn on their
own motion to such time as pleased them; as they
paid his support, and could withhold it if he offended
them, — which they did in the present case, — it
1 Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 584.

1755.] THE PENNSYLVANIA QUARREL. 27
seemed no easy task for him to reduce them to vas
salage. " What must we do, " pursued the Assembly,
"to please this kind governor, who takes so much
pains to render us obnoxious to our sovereign and
odious to our fellow-subjects? If we only tell him
that the difficulties he meets with are not owing to
the causes he names, — which indeed have no exist
ence, — but to his own want of skill and abilities for
his station, he takes it extremely amiss, and says
' we forget all decency to those in authority. ' We
are apt to think there is likewise some decency due
to the Assembly as a part of the government ; and
though we have not, like the governor, had a courtly
education, but are plain men, and must be very-
imperfect in our politeness, yet we think we have no
chance of improving by his example." ^ Again, in
another Message, the Assembly, with a thrust at
Morris himself, tell him that colonial governors have
often been "transient persons, of broken fortunes,
greedy of money, destitute of all concern for those
they govern, often their enemies, and endeavoring
not only to oppress, but to defame them."^ In
such unseemly fashion was the battle waged. Morris,
who was himself a provincial, showed more temper
and dignity; though there was not too much on
either side. "The Assembly, " he wrote to Shirley,
" seem determined to take advantage of the country's
1 Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 29 September, 1755
(written by Franklin), in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 631, 632.
^ Writings of Franklin, iii. 447. The Assembly at first sup
pressed this paper, but afterwards printed it.

28 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
distress to get the whole power of government into
their own hands." And the Assembly proclaimed
on their part that the governor was taking advantage
of the country's distress to reduce the province to
"Egyptian bondage."
Petitions poured in from the miserable frontiers
men. "How long will those in power, by their
quarrels, suffer us to be massacred?" demanded
William Trent, the Indian trader. " Two and forty
bodies have been buried on Patterson's Creek; and
since they have killed more, and keep on killing. "^
Early in October news came that a hundred persons
had been murdered near Fort Cumberland. Repeated
tidings followed of murders on the Susquehanna;
then it was announced that the war-parties had
crossed that stream, and were at their work on the
eastern side. Letter after letter came from the
sufferers, bringing such complaints as this : " We are
in as bad circumstances as ever any poor Christians
were ever in; for the cries of widowers, widows,
fatherless and motherless childen, are enough to pierce
the most hardest of hearts. Likewise it 's a very
sorrowful spectacle to see those that escaped -with
their lives -with not a mouthful to eat, or bed to lie
on, or clothes to cover their nakedness, or keep them
warm, but aU they had consumed into ashes. These
deplorable circumstances cry aloud for your Honor's
most wise consideration ; for it is really very shock
ing for the husband to see the wife of his bosom her
1 Trent to James Burd, 4 October, 1756.

1755.]' GOVERNOR AND ASSEMBLY. 29
head cut off, and the children's blood drunk like
water, by these bloody and cruel savages. "^
Morris was greatly troubled. " The conduct of the
Assembly," he wrote to Shirley, "is to me shocking
beyond paraUel." "The inhabitants are abandoning
their plantations, and we are in a dreadful situation,"
wrote John Harris from the east bank of the Susque
hanna. On the next day he wrote again: "The
Indians are cutting us off every day, and I had a
certain account of about fifteen hundred Indians,
besides French, being on their march against us and
Virginia, and now close on our borders, their scouts
scalping our families on our frontiers daily." The
report was soon confirmed; and accounts came that
the settlements in the valley called the Great Cove
had been completely destroyed. All this was laid
before the Assembly. They declared the accounts
exaggerated, but confessed that outrages had been
committed; hinted that the fault was with the pro
prietaries; and asked the governor to explain why
the Delawares and Shawanoes had become unfriendly.
"If they have suffered wrongs," said the Quakers,
" we are resolved to do all in our power to redress
them, rather than entail upon ourselves and our
posterity the calamities of a cruel Indian war." The
Indian records were searched, and several days spent
in unsuccessful efforts to prove fraud in a late land-
purchase. Post after post still brought news of slaughter.
1 Adam Hoops to Governor Morris, 3 November, 1755.

30 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
The upper part of Cumberland County was laid
waste. Edward Biddle -wrote from Reading: "The
drum is beating and bells ringing, and all the people
under arms. This night we expect an attack. The
people exclaim against the Quakers." "We seem to
be given up into the hands of a merciless enemy,"
wrote John Elder from Paxton. And he declares
that more than forty persons have been killed in that
neighborhood, besides numbers carried off. Mean
while the governor and Assembly went on fencing
with words and exchanging legal subtleties; while,
with every cry of distress that rose from the west,
each hoped that the other would yield.
On the eighth of November the Assembly laid
before Morris for his concurrence a bill for remitting
bills of credit to the amount of sixty thousand
pounds, to be sunk in four years by a tax including
the proprietary estates.^ "I shall not," he replied,
" enter into a dispute whether the proprietaries ought
to be -taxed or not. It is sufficient for me that they
have given me no power in that case ; and I cannot
think it consistent either -with my duty or safety to
exceed the powers of my commission, much less to
do what that commission expressly prohibits. " ^ He
stretched his authority, however, so far as to propose
a sort of compromise by which the question shotdd
be referred to the King; but they refused it; and the
1 Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 682.
^ Message of the Governor to the Assembly, 8 November, 1755, in
Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 684.

1755.] GOVERNOR AND ASSEMBLY. 31
quarrel and the murders went on as before. "We
have taken, " said the Assembly, " every step in our
power, consistent with the just rights of the freemen
of Pennsylvania, for the relief of the poor distressed
inhabitants ; and we have reason to believe that they
themselves would not -wish us to go farther. Those
who would give up essential liberty to purchase a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety."^ Then the borderers deserved neither; for,
rather than be butchered, they would have let the
proprietary lands lie untaxed for another year.
" You have in all, " said the governor, " proposed to
me five money bills, three of them rejected because
contrary to royal instructions; the other two on
account of the unjust method proposed for taxing the
proprietary estate. If you are disposed to relieve
your country, you have many other ways of granting
money to which I shall have no objection. I shall
put one proof more both of your sincerity and mine
in our professions of regard for the public, by offer
ing to agree to any bill in the present exigency which
it is consistent with my duty to pass ; lest, before our
present disputes can be brought to an issue, we
should neither have a privilege to dispute about, nor
a country to dispute in."^ They stood fast; and
with an obstinacy for which the Quakers were chiefly
answerable, insisted that they would give nothing,
1 Message of the Assembly to the Governor, 11 November, 1755, in
Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 692. The words are Franklin's.
2 Message of the Governor to the Assembly, %i November, VJhh, Ibid.,
vi. 714.

32 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
except by a bill taxing real estate, and including that
of the proprietaries.
But now the Assembly began to feel the ground
shaMng under their feet. A paper, called a " Repre
sentation," signed by some of the chief citizens,
was sent to the House, calling for measures of
defence. "You will forgive us, gentlemen," such
was its language, " if we assume characters somewhat
Mgher than that of humble suitors praying for the
defence of our lives and properties as a matter of
grace or favor on your side. You will permit us to
make a positive and immediate demand of it." ^ This
drove the Quakers mad. Preachers, male and female,
harangued in the streets, denouncing the iniquity of
war. Three of the sect from England, two women
and a man, invited their brethren of the Assembly to
a private house, and fervently exhorted them to stand
firm. Some of the principal Quakers joined in an
address to the House, in which they declared that
any action on its part " inconsistent with the peace
able testimony we profess and have borne to the
world appears to us in its consequences to be destruc
tive of our religious liberties." ^ And they protested
that they would rather " suffer " than pay taxes for
such ends. Consistency, even in folly, has in it
something respectable; but the Quakers were not
consistent. A few years after, when heated -with
party passion and excited by reports of an irruption
of incensed Presbyterian borderers, some of the
1 Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 485. 2 /5j-</.^ ij. 487.

1755.] A RISING STORM. 33
pacific sectaries armed for battle ; and the streets of
Philadelphia beheld the curious conjunction of
musket and broad-brimmed hat.^
The mayor, aldermen, and common council next
addressed the Assembly, adjuring them, "in the
most solemn manner, before God and in the name of
all our fellow-citizens, " to provide for defending the
lives and property of the people.^ A deputation from
a band of Indians on the Susquehanna, still friendly
to the province, came to ask whether the English
meant to fight or not; for, said their speaker, "if
they -will not stand by us, we will join the French."
News came that the settlement of Tulpehocken, only
sixty miles distant, had been destroyed; and then
that the Mora-dan settlement of Gnadenhiitten was
burned, and nearly all its inmates massacred. Colonel
William Moore -wrote to the governor that two
thousand men were coming from Chester County
to compel him and the Assembly to defend the
province ; and Conrad Weiser wrote that more were
coming from Berks on the same errand. Old friends
of the Assembly began to cry out against them.
Even the Germans, hitherto their fast allies, were
roused from their attitude of passivity, and four hun
dred of them came in procession to demand measures
of war. A band of frontiersmen presently arrived,
bringing in a wagon the bodies of friends and relatives
lately murdered, displaying them at the doors of the
J See " Conspiracy of Pontiac," chap. xxv.
" A Remonstrance, etc., in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 734.
VOL. II. — 3

34 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
Assembly, cursing the Quakers, and threatening^
vengeance.-^ Finding some concession necessary, the House at
length passed a militia law, — probably the most
futile ever enacted. It specially exempted the
Quakers, and constrained nobody; but declared it
lawful, for such as chose, to form themselves into
companies and elect officers by ballot. The company
officers thus elected might, if they saw fit, elect, also
by ballot, colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors.
These last might then, in conjunction with the gov
ernor, frame articles of war; to which, however, no
officer or man was to be subjected unless, after three
days' consideration, he subscribed them in presence
of a justice of the peace, and declared Ms -willingness
to be bound by them. ^
This mockery could not appease the people; the
Assembly must raise money for men, arms, forts, and
all the detested appliances of war. Defeat absolute
and ignominious seemed hanging over the House,
when an incident occurred wMch gave them a decent
pretext for retreat. The governor informed them
that he had just received a letter from the proprie
taries, giving to the province five thousand pounds
sterling to aid in its defence, on condition that the
1 Mante, 47 ; Entick, i. 377.
" This remarkable bill, drawn by Franklin, was meant for
political rather than military effect. It was thought that Morris
would refuse to pass it, and could therefore be accused of prevent
ing the province from defending itself ; but he avoided the snare
by signing it.

1755.] DEFEAT OF THE ASSEMBLY. 35
money should be accepted as a free gift, and not as
their proportion of any tax that was or might be laid
by the Assembly. They had not learned the deplo
rable state of the country, and had sent the money in
-view of the defeat of Braddock and its probable
consequences. The Assembly hereupon yielded,
struck out from the bill before them the clause tax
ing the proprietary estates, and, thus amended, pre
sented it to the governor, who by his signature made
it a law.-^
The House had failed to carry its point. The
result disappointed Franklin, and doubly disappointed
the Quakers. His maxim was: Beat the governor
first, and then beat the enemy; theirs: Beat the gov
ernor, and let the enemy alone. The measures that
followed, directed in part by Franklin Mmself, held
the Indians in check, and mitigated the distress of
the western counties; yet there was no safety for
them throughout the two or three years when France
was cheering on her hell-hounds against this tor
mented frontier.
As in Pennsylvania, so in most of the other colonies
there was conflict between assemblies and governors,,
to the unspeakable detriment of the public service.
In New York, though here no obnoxious proprietary
stood between the people and the Crown, the strife
was long and severe. The point at issue was an
important one, — whether the Assembly should con
tinue their practice of granting yearly supplies to the
1 Minutes of Council, 27 November, 1755.

36 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755, 1756.
governor, or should establish a permanent fund for
the ordinary expenses of government, — thus placing
him beyond their control. The result was a victory
for the Assembly.
Month after month the great continent lay wrapped
in snow. Far along the edge of the western wUder
ness men kept watch and ward in lonely block
houses, or scoured the forest on the track of prowling
war-parties. The provincials in garrison at Forts
Edward, William Henry, and Oswego dragged out
the dreary -winter; while bands of New England
rangers, muffied against the piercing cold, caps of
fur on their heads, hatchets in their belts, and guns
in their mittened hands, glided on skates along the
gleaming ice-floor of Lake George, to spy out the
secrets of Ticonderoga, or seize some careless sentry
to tell them tidings of the foe. Thus the petty war
went on; but the big war was frozen into torpor,
ready, like a hibernating bear, to wake again -with
the birds, the bees, and the flowers.^
1 On Pennsylvanian disputes, — A Brief State of the Province of
Pennsylvania (London, 1765). A Brief View of the Conduct of Penn
sylvania (London, 1756). These are pamphlets on the governor's
side, by William Smith, D. D., Provost of the College of Pennsyl
vania. An Answer to an invidious Pamphlet, intituled a Brief State,
etc. (London, 1755). Anonymous. A True and Impartial State of
the Province of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1759). Anonymous.
The last two works attack the first two with great vehemence. The
True and Impartial State is an able presentation of the case of the
Assembly, omitting, however, essential facts. But the most elabo
rate work on the subject is the Historical Review of the Constitution
and Government of Pennsylvania, inspired and partly -written by
Franklin. It is hotly partisan, and sometimes sophistical and

1755,1756.] THE EVIDENCE. 37
unfair. Articles on the quarrel will also be found in the provincial
newspapers, especially the New York Mercury, and in the Gentle
man's Magazine for 1755 and 1756. But it is impossible to get any
clear and just view of it without wading through the interminable
documents concerning it in the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania and
the Pennsylvania Archives.

CHAPTER XI.
1712-1756.
MONTCALM.
Wak declared. — State of Europe. — Pompadoitb and Maria
Theresa. — Infatuation op the French Court. — The Euro
pean War. — Montcalm to command in America : his early
Life; an intractable Pupil; his Marriage; his Family;
his Campaigns; Preparation for America; his Associates.
— Ltvis, Bourlamaque, Bougainville. — Embarkation. —
The Voyage. — Arrival. — Vaudreuil. — Forces of Canada.
— Troops of the Line, Colony Troops, Militia, Indians. —
The Military Situation. — Capture of Fort Bull. — Mont
calm AT Ticonderoga.
On the eighteenth of May, 1756, England, after a
year of open hostility, at length declared war. She
had attacked France by land and sea, turned loose
her ships to prey on French commerce, and brought
some three hundred prizes into her ports. It was
the act of a weak government, supplying by spasms
of violence what it lacked in considerate resolution.
France, no match for her amphibious enemy in the
game of marine depredation, cried out in horror; and
to emphasize her complaints and signalize a pretended
good faith which her acts had belied, ostentatiously
released a British frigate captured by her cruisers.
She in her turn declared war on the ninth of June :

1756.] FREDERIC OF PRUSSIA. 39
and now began the most terrible conflict of the eigh
teenth century, — one that convulsed Europe and
shook America, India, the coasts of Africa, and the
islands of the sea.
In Europe the ground was trembling already -with
the coming earthquake. Such smothered discords,
such animosities, ambitions, jealousies, possessed the
rival governments; such entanglements of treaties
and alliances, offensive or defensive, open or secret,
— that a blow at one point shook the whole fabric.
Hanover, like the heel of Achilles, was the vulner
able part for wMch England was always trembling.
Therefore she made a defensive treaty with Prussia,
by which each party bound itself to aid the other,
should its territory be invaded. England thus sought
a guarantee against France, and Prussia against
Russia. She had need. Her King, Frederic the
Great, had drawn upon himself an avalanche. Three
women — two empresses and a concubine — controlled
the forces of the three great nations, Austria, Russia,
and France; and they all hated him: Elizabeth of
Russia, by reason of a distrust fomented by secret
intrigue and turned into gall by the biting tongue of
Frederic Mmself, who had gibed at her amours, com
pared her to Messalina, and called her " inf&me catin
du Nord ; " Maria Theresa of Austria, because she saw
in him a rebellious vassal of the Holy Roman Empire,
and, above all, because he had robbed her of Silesia;
Madame de Pompadour, because when she sent him
a message of compliment, he answered, "Je ne la

40 MONTCALM. [1756.
connais pas" forbade his ambassador to visit her, and
in his mocking -wit spared neither her nor her royal
lover. Feminine pique, revenge, or vamty had then
at their service the mightiest armaments of Europe.
The recovery of SHesia and the punishment of
Frederic for his audacity in seizing it, possessed the
mind of Maria Theresa with the force of a ruling
passion. To these ends she had joined herself in
secret league with Russia ; and now at the prompting
of her minister Kaumtz she courted the alliance of
France. It was a reversal of the hereditary policy of
Austria; joimng hands -with an old and deadly foe,
and spurning England, of late her most trusty ally.
But France could give powerful aid against Frederic ;
and hence Maria Theresa, virtuous as she was Mgh-
bom and proud, stooped to make advances to the all-
powerful mistress of Louis XV., -wrote her flattering
letters, and addressed her, it is said, as ^''Ma cJi^re
cousine." Pompadour was delighted, and could
hardly do enough for her imperial friend. She ruled
the Kmg, and could make and unmake ministers at
will. They hastened to do her pleasure, disguising
their subserviency by dressing it out in specious
reasons of state. A conference at her summer-house,
called Babiole, "Bawble," prepared the way for a
treaty which involved the nation in the anti-Prussian
war, and made it the instrument of Austria in the
attempt to humble Frederic, — an attempt which if
successful would give the hereditary enemy of France
a predominance over Germany. France engaged to

1756.] INFATUATION OF FRANCE. 41
aid the cause with twenty-four thousand men, but in
the zeal of her rulers began with a hundred thousand.
Thus the three great Powers stood leagued against
Prussia. Sweden and Saxony joined them ; and the
Empire itself, of which Prussia was a part, took
arms against its obnoxious member.
Never in Europe had power been more centralized,
and never in France had the reins been held by
persons so pitiful, impelled by motives so contemp
tible. The levity, vanity, and spite of a concubine
became a mighty engine to influence the destinies of
nations. Louis XV., enervated by pleasures and
devoured by ennui, still had his emotions ; he shared
Pompadour's detestation of Frederic, and he was
tormented at times by a lively fear of damnation.
But how damn a king who had entered the lists as
champion of the Church ? England was Protestant,
and so was Prussia ; Austria was supremely Catholic.
Was it not a merit in the eyes of God to join her in
holy war against the powers of heresy? The King
of the Parc-aux-Cerfs would propitiate Heaven by a
new crusade.
Henceforth France was to turn her strength against
her European foes ; and the American war, the occa
sion of the universal outbreak, was to hold in her
eyes a second place. The reasons were several : the
vanity of Pompadour, infatuated by the advances of
the Empress-Queen, and eager to secure her good
graces; the superstition of the King; the anger of
both against Frederic; the desire of D'Argenson,

42 MONTCALM. [1756.
minister of war, that the army, and not the navy,
should play the foremost part; and the passion of
courtiers and nobles, ignorant of the naval service, to
win laurels in a continental war, — all conspired to
one end. It was the interest of France to turn her
strength against her only dangerous rival; to con
tinue as she had begun, in building up a naval power
that could face England on the seas and sustain her
own rising colonies in America, India, and the West
Indies; for she too might have multiplied herself,
planted- her language and her race over all the globe,
and gro-wn with the gro-wth of her cMldren, had she
not been at the mercy of an effeminate proffigate, a
mistress turned procuress, and the favorites to whom
they delegated power.
Still, something must be done for the American
war; at least there must be a new general to replace
Dieskau. None of the court favorites wanted a com
mand in the backwoods, and the minister of war was
free to choose whom he would. His choice fell on
Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-
Vdran. Montcalm was born in the south of France, at the
ChS,teau of Candiac, near Nimes, on the twenty-
ninth of February, 1712. At the age of six he was
placed in the charge of one Dumas, a natural son of
his grandfather. This man, a conscientious pedant,
with many theories of education, ruled Ms pupil
stiffly ; and, before the age of fifteen, gave him a good
knowledge of Latin, Greek, and history. Young

1756.] HIS BOYHOOD. 43
Montcalm had a taste for books, continued Ms read
ing in such intervals of leisure as camps and garrisons
afforded, and cherished to the end of his life the
ambition of becoming a member of the Academy.
Yet, -with all Ms liking for study, he sometimes
revolted against the sway of the pedagogue who
wrote letters of complaint to Ms father protesting
against the " judgments of the vulgar, who, contrary
to the experience of ages, say that if children are
well reproved they will correct their faults."
Dumas, however, was not without sense, as is
shown by another letter to the elder Montcalm, in
which he says that the boy had better be ignorant of
Latin and Greek " than know them as he does -with
out knowing how to read, -write, and speak French
well." The main difficulty was to make him write a
good hand, — a point in wMch he signally failed to
the day of his death. So refractory was he at times
that his master despaired. "M. de Montcalm,"
Dumas informs the father, " has great need of docil
ity, industry, and willingness to take advice. What
¦will become of Mm?" The pupil, aware of these
aspersions, met them by -writing to his father his o-wn
ideas of what his aims should be. " First, to be an
honorable man, of good morals, brave, and a Chris
tian. Secondly, to read in moderation; to know as
much Greek and Latin as most men of the world;
also the four rules of arithmetic, and sometMng of
history, geography, and French and Latin lelles-
lettres, as well as to have a taste for the arts and

44 MONTCALM. [1727-1735.
sciences. Thirdly, and above all, to be obedient,
docile, and very submissive to your orders and those
of my dear mother; and also to defer to the advice
of M. Dumas. Fourthly, to fence and ride as well
as my small abilities will permit." ^
If Louis de Montcalm failed to satisfy his pre
ceptor, he had a brother who made ample amends.
Of tMs infant prodigy it is related that at six years
he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and had some
acquamtance with arithmetic, French Mstory, geog
raphy, and heraldry. He was destined for the
Church, but died at the age of seven; his precocious
brain having been urged to fatal acti-vity by the
exertions of Dumas.
Other destimes and a more wholesome growth
were the lot of young Louis. At fifteen he joined
the army as ensign in the regiment of Hainaut. Two
years after, Ms father bought Mm a captaincy, and
he was first under fire at the siege of Philipsbourg.
His father died in 1735, and left him heir to a con
siderable landed estate, much embarrassed by debt.
The Marquis de la Fare, a friend of the family, soon
after sought for him an advantageous marriage to
strengthen Ms position and increase Ms prospects of
promotion; and he accordingly espoused Mademoi
selle Ang^lique Louise Talon du Boulay, — a union
wMch brought Mm influential alliances and some
property. Madame de Montcalm bore him ten chil
dren, of whom only, two sons and four daughters
1 This passage is given by Somervogel from the original letter.

1741-1746.] HIS EARLY CAMPAIGNS. 45
were living in 1752. "May God preserve them all,"
he writes in his autobiography, "and make them
prosper for this world and the next! Perhaps it will
be thought that the number is large for so moderate
a fortune, especially as four of them are girls; but
does God ever abandon his children in their need?
" ' Aux petits des oiseaux il donne la pature,
Et sa bonte sMtend sur toute la nature.' "
He was pious in his soldierly way, and ardently loyal
to Church and King.
His family seat was Candiac ; where, m the inter
vals of campaigmng, he found repose with his wife,
Ms children, and Ms mother, who was a woman of
remarkable force of character and who held great
influence over her son. He had a strong attachment
to this home of his cMldhood; and in after years,
out of the midst of the American -wilderness, his
thoughts turned longingly towards it. " Quand
reverrai-je mon cher Candiac / "
In 1741 Montcalm took part in the Bohemian
campaign. He was made colonel of the regiment of
Auxerrois two years later, and passed unharmed
through the severe campaign of 1744. In the next
year he fought in Italy under Mar^chal de Maillebois.
In 1746, at the disastrous action under the walls of
Piacenza, where he twice rallied his regiment, he
received five sabre-cuts, — two of which were in the
head, — and was made prisoner. Returning to
France on parole, he was promoted in the year foi-

46 MONTCALM. [1755, 1756.
lo-wing to the rank of brigadier; and being soon after
exchanged, rejoined the army, and was again wounded
by a musket-shot. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
now gave Mm a period of rest.^ At length, being on
a visit to Paris late in the autumn of 1755, the
minister, D'Argenson, hinted to Mm that he might
be appointed to command the troops in America.
He heard no more of the matter till, after Ms return
home, he received from D'Argenson a letter dated at
Versailles the twenty-fifth of January, at midnight.
"Perhaps, Monsieur," it began, "you did not expect
to hear from me again on the subject of the conver
sation I had with you the day you came to bid me
farewell at Paris. Nevertheless I have not forgotten
for a moment the suggestion I then made you ; and
it is with the greatest pleasure that I announce to
you that my views have prevailed. The King has
chosen you to command his troops in North America,
and -will honor you on your departure with the rank
of major-general. "
The Chevalier de L^vis, afterwards Marshal of
France, was named as his second in command with
the rank of brigadier, and the Chevalier de Bour
lamaque as his third, -with the rank of colonel; but
1 The account of Montcalm up to this time is chiefly from his
unpublished autobiography, preserved by his descendants, and en
titled M^moires pour servir a I'Histoire de ma Vie. Somervogel,
Comme on servait autrefois; Bonnechose, Montcalm et le Canada;
Martin, Le Marquis de Montcalm ; Floge de Montcalm ; Autre Floge
de Montcalm ; Mgmoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760, and other writings
iu print and manuscript have also been consulted.

1756.] PREPARES FOR DEPARTURE. 47
what especiaUy pleased him was the appointment of
his eldest son to command a regiment in France.
He set out from Candiac for the court, and occupied
himself on the way with reading Charlevoix. "I
take great pleasure in it," he writes from Lyons to
his mother ; " he gives a pleasant account of Quebec.
But be comforted; I shall always be glad to come
home." At Paris he writes again: "Don't expect
any long letter from me before the first of March;
aU my business will be done by that time, and I
shaU begin to breathe again. I have not yet seen
the Chevalier de Montcalm [his son"]. Last night I
came from Versailles, and am going back to-morrow.
The King gives me twenty-five thousand francs a
year, as he did to M. Dieskau, besides twelve thou
sand for my equipment, which -wiU cost me above a
thousand crowns more ; but I cannot stop for that.
I embrace my dearest and all the family." A few
days later his son joined him. " He is as thin and
delicate as ever, but grows prodigiously tall."
On the second of March he informs Ms mother:
"My affairs begin to get on. A good part of the
baggage went off the day before yesterday in the
King's wagons; an assistant-cook and two livery
men yesterday. I have got a good cook. Estfeve,
my secretary, -wiU go on the eighth; Joseph and
D^jean -will follow me. To-morrow evening I go to
Versailles till Sunday, and -will write from there to
Madame de Montcalm [his wife]. I have three aides-
de-camp; one of them, BougainvUle, a man of parts.

48 MONTCALM. [1756.
pleasant company. Madame Mazade was happily
delivered on Wednesday; in extremity on Friday
with a malignant fever; Saturday and yesterday,
reports favorable. I go there twice a day, and am
just going now. She has a girl. I embrace you
aU." Again, on the fifteenth: "In a few hours I
set out for Brest. Yesterday I presented my son,
-with whom I am well pleased, to all the royal family.
I shall have a secretary at Brest, and will write more
at length." On the eighteenth he writes from
Rennes to his -wife: "I arrived, dearest, this morn
ing, and stay here all day. I shaU be at Brest on
the twenty-first. Everything -will be on board on
the twenty-sixth. My son has been here since yes
terday for me to coach Mm and get Mm a uniform
made, in which he will give thanks for his regiment
at the same time that I take leave in my embroidered
coat. Perhaps I shall leave debts behind. I wait
impatiently for the bills. You have my -will ; I wish
you would get it copied, and send it to me before I
sail." Reaching Brest, the place of embarkation, he
-writes to his mother: "I have business on hand still.
My health is good, and the passage -will be a time of
rest. I embrace you, and my dearest, and my
daughters. Love to all the family. I shall write
up to the last moment."
No translation can give an idea of the rapid, abrupt,
elliptical style of this familiar correspondence, where
the meaning is sometimes suggested by a single word,

Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville.

Copyr-iglib, iSo •? , iy Ziaie.'; S-roitrru & C? Gou^UxA CP Paris
ByperrTLis^uii' of thA' Com.iei^off' da^ S. iSaaasur £ai^ainviUA; owner of ths/ orLauva^aaintutg.

1756.] L^VIS; BOUGAINVILLE. 49
unintelligible to any but those for whom it is
written. At the end of March Montcalm, -with all his fol
io-wing, was ready to embark ; and three ships-of-the-
line, the "Leopard," the "H^ros," and the "Illustre,"
fitted oiit as transports, were ready to receive the
troops; wMle the general, with L^vis and Bourla
maque, were to take passage in the frigates "Licorne,"
" Sauvage, " and " Sir^ne. " "I like the ChevaUer de
Ldvis," says Montcalm, "and I think he likes me."
His first aide-de-camp, Bougainville, pleased him, if
possible, still more. TMs young man, son of a
notary, had begun life as an advocate in the Parlia
ment of Paris, where his abilities and learmng had
already made Mm conspicuous, when he resigned the
go-wn for the sword, and became a captain of dra
goons. He was destined in later life to win laurels "
in another career, and to become one of the most
illustrious of French navigators. Montcalm, Mmself
a scholar, prized Ms varied talents and accomplish
ments, and soon learned to feel for him a strong
personal regard.
The troops destined for Canada were only two
battalions, one belonging to the regiment of La
Sarre, and the other to that of Royal RoussiUon.
Louis XV. and Pompadour sent a hundred thousand
men to fight the battles of Austria, and could spare
but twelve hundred to reinforce New France. These
troops marched into Brest at early morning, break
fasted in the to-wn, and went at once on board the
VOL. IL  4

50 MONTCALM. [1756.
transports, "with an incredible gayety," says Bou
gainville. " What a nation is ours ! Happy he who
commands it, and commands it worthily! "^ Mont
calm and he embarked in the "Licome," and sailed
on the third of April, leaving L^vis and Bourlamaque
to follow a few days after. ^
The voyage was a rough one. " I have been fortu
nate," -writes Montcalm to his wife, "in not being ill
nor at all incommoded by the hea-vy gale we had in
Holy Week. It was not so with those who were -with
me, especially M. Est^ve, my secretary, and Joseph,
who suffered cruelly, — seventeen days without being
able to take anytMng but water. The season was
very early for such a hard voyage, and it was fortu
nate that the winter has been so mild. We had very
favorable weather tUl Monday the twelfth; but since
then till Saturday evening we had rough weather, -with
a gale that lasted ninety hours, and put us in real
danger. The forecastle was always under water, and
the waves broke t-wice over the quarter-deck. From
the twenty-seventh of April to the evening of the
fourth of May we had fogs, great cold, and an amazing
quantity of icebergs. On the thirtieth, when luckily
the fog lifted for a time, we counted sixteen of them.
The day before, one drifted under the bowsprit,
grazed it, and might have crushed us if the deck-
officer had not called out quickly, Luff. After
1 Journal de Bougainville. This is a fragment ; his Journal proper
begins a few weeks later.
2 Levis a  , 5 Avril, 1756.

1756.] THE VOYAGE. , 61
speaking of our troubles and sufferings, I must tell
you of our pleasures, which were fisMng for cod and
eating it. The taste is exquisite. The head, tongue,
and liver are morsels worthy of an epicure. Still, I
would not advise anybody to make the voyage for
their sake. My health is as good as it has been for a
long time. I found it a good plan to eat little and
take no supper ; a little tea now and then, and plenty
of lemonade. Nevertheless I have taken very little
liking for the sea, and think that when I shall be so
happy as to rejoin you I shall end my voyages there.
I don't know when this letter -will go. I shall send
it by the first ship that returns to France, and keep
on -writing tiU then. It is pleasant, I know, to hear
particulars about the people one loves, and I thought
that my mother and you, my dearest and most
beloved, would be glad to read all these dull details.
We heard mass on Easter Day. All the week before,
it was impossible, because the ship rolled so that I
could hardly keep my legs. If I had dared, I think
I should have had myself lashed fast. I shall not
soon forget that Holy Week."
This letter was written on the eleventh of May, in
the St. Lawrence, where the ship lay at anchor, ten
leagues below Quebec, stopped by ice from proceed
ing farther. Montcalm made his way to the town
by land, and soon after learned -with great satisfac
tion that the other ships were safe in the river below.
"I see," he -writes again, "that I shall have plenty of
work. Our campaign wiU soon begin. Everything

52 MONTCALM. [1756.
is in motion. Don't expect details about our opera
tions; generals never speak of movements tiU they
are over. I can only tell you that the -winter has
been quiet enough, though the savages "have made
great havoc in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and
carried off, according to their custom, men, women,
and children. I beg you -will have High Mass said
at Montpellier or Vauvert to thank God for our safe
arrival and ask for good success in future."^
Vaudreuil, the governor-general, was at Montreal,
and Montcalm sent a cornier to inform Mm of his
arrival. He soon went thither in person, and the
two men met for the first time. The new general
was not welcome to Vaudreuil, who had hoped to
command the troops himself, and had represented
to the court that it was needless and inexpedient to
send out a general officer from France. ^ The court
had not accepted Ms views ; ^ and hence it was with
more curiosity than satisfaction that he greeted the
colleague who had been assigned him. He saw
before him a man of small stature, -with a lively
countenance, a keen eye, and, in moments of amma-
tion, rapid, vehement utterance, and nervous gesticu
lation. Montcalm, we may suppose, regarded the
governor with no less attention. Pierre Frangois
Rigaud, Marqms de Vaudreuil, was son of PMlippe
de Vaudreuil, who had governed Canada early in
1 These extracts are translated from copies of the original letters,
in possession of the present Marquis de Montcalm.
^ Vaudreuil au Ministre, 30 Octobre, 1755.
' Ordres du Roy et D^peches des Ministres, F&yrier, 1756.

1756.] VAUDREUIL. 63
the century; and he Mmself had been governor of
Louisiana. He had not the force of character which
Ms position demanded, lacked decision in times of
crisis ; and though tenacious of authority, was more
jealous in asserting than self-rehant in exercising it.
One of his traits was a sensitive egotism, which made
him forward to proclaim his own part in every suc
cess, and to throw on others the burden of every
failure. He was facile by nature, and capable of
being led by such as had sMU and temper for the
task. But the impetuous Montcalm was not of their
number; and the fact that he was born in France
would in itself have thrown obstacles in Ms way to
the good graces of the governor. Vaudreuil, Cana
dian by birth, loved the colony and its people, and
distrusted Old France and aU that came out of it.
He had been bred, moreover, to the naval service;
and, like other Canadian governors, his official cor
respondence was -with the minister of marine, while
that of Montcalm was with the minister of war.
Even had Nature made Mm less suspicious, Ms rela
tions with the general would have been critical.
Montcalm commanded the regulars from France,
whose very presence was in the eyes of Vaudreuil
an evil, though a necessary one. Their chief was,
it is true, subordinate to him in virtue of his office
of governor ; ^ yet it was clear that for the conduct of
1 Le Ministre a Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756. Commission du Marquis
de Montcalm. M^moire du Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Marquis de
Montcalm.

54 MONTCALM. [1756.
the war the trust of the government was mainly in
Montcalm; and the minister of war had even sug
gested that he should have the immediate command,
not only of the troops from France, but of the colony
regulars and the militia. An order of the King to
tMs effect was sent to Vaudreuil, with instructions
to communicate it to Montcalm or withhold it, as he
should tMnk best.^ He lost no time in replying that
the general " ought to concern himself with nothing
but the command of the troops from France;" and
he returned the order to the minister who sent it.^
The governor and the general represented the two
parties which were soon to divide Canada, — those of
New France and of Old.
A like antagonism was seen in the forces com
manded by the two chiefs. These were of three
kinds, — the troupes de terre, troops of the line, or
regulars from France; the troupes de la marine, or
colony regulars; and lastly the militia. The first
consisted of the four battalions that had come over
with Dieskau and the two that had come with Mont
calm, comprising in all a little less than three thou
sand men.^ Besides these, the battalions of Artois
1 Ordres du Roy et Dipeches des Ministres, 1756. Le Ministre a
Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756.
2 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Juin, 1756. " Qu'il ne se mSle que du
commandement des troupes de terre."
' Of about twelve hundred who came with Montcalm, nearly
three hundred were now in hospital. The four battalions that came
with Dieskau are reported at the end of May to have sixteen hun
dred and fifty-three effective men. jStat de la Situation actuelle des
Bataillons, appended to Montcalm's despatch of 12 June. Another

1756.] TROOPS m CANADA. 55
and Bourgogne, to the number of eleven hundred
men, were in garrison at Louisbourg. All these
troops wore a wMte uniform, faced with blue, red,
yeUow, or violet, i a black three-cornered hat, and
gaiters, generally black, from the foot to the knee.
The subaltern officers in the French ser-vdce were
very numerous, and were drawn chiefly from the class
of lesser nobles. A well-informed French -writer
caUs them "a generation of petits-maitres, dissolute,
frivolous, heedless, light- witted ; but brave always,
and ready to die -with their soldiers, though not to
suffer -with them." 2 In fact, the course of the war
was to show plainly that in Europe the regiments of
France were no longer what they had once been. It
was not so with those who fought in America.
Here, for enduring gaUantry, officers and men alike
deserve nothing but praise.
The troupes de la marine had for a long time
formed the permanent military establishment of
Canada. Though attached to the naval department,
they served on land, and were employed as a police
witMn the limits of the colony, or as garrisons of the
outlying forts, where their officers busied themselves
more with fur-trading than with their military duties.
document. Detail de ce qui s'est passg en Canada, Juin, 1755, jusqu'a
Juin, 1756, sets the united effective strength of the battalions in
Canada at twenty-six hundred and seventy-seven, which was in
creased by recruits which arrived from France about midsummer.
1 Except, perhaps, the battalion of Beam, which formerly wore,
and possibly wore still, a uniform of light blue.
^ Susane, Ancienne Infanterie Fran^aise. In the atlas of this
work are colored plates of the uniforms of all the regiments of foot.

56 MONTCALM. [1756.
Thus they had become ill-disciplined and inefficient,
till the hard hand of Duquesne restored them to
order. They originally consisted of twenty-eight
independent companies, increased in 1750 to thirty
companies, at first of fifty, and afterwards of sixty-
five men each, forming a total of nineteen hundred
and fifty rank and file. In March, 1757, ten more
companies were added. Their uniform was not
unlike that of the troops attached to the War Depart
ment, being white, with black facings. They were
enlisted for the most part in France ; but when their
term of service expired, and even before, in time of
peace, they were encouraged to become settlers in
the colony, as was also the case with their officers,
of whom a great part were of European birth. Thus
the relations of the troupes de la marine with the
colony were close; and they formed a sort of con
necting link between the troops of the line and the
native militia. ^ Besides these colony regulars, there
was a company of colonial artillery, consisting this
year of seventy men, and replaced in 1757 by two
companies of fifty men each.
All the effective male population of Canada, from
fifteen years to sixty, was enrolled in the militia,
1 On the troupes de la marine, — M^moire pour servir d'Instruction a
MM. Jonquiere et Bigot, 30 Avril, 1749. Ordres du Roy et D^peches
des Ministres, 1750. Ibid., 1755. Ibid., 1757. Instruction pour Vau
dreuil, 22 Mars, 1755. Ordonnance pour I' Augmentation de Soldats dans
les Compagnies de Canada, 14 Mars, 1755. Duquesne au Ministre, 26
Octobre, 1753. Ibid., 30 Octobre, 1753. Ibid., 29 F^vrier, 1754. Du
quesne a Marin, 27 Aoiit, 1753. Atlas de Susane.

1756.] CANADIAN MILITIA. 57
and called into service at the will of the governor.
They received arms, clothing, equipment, and rations
from the King, but no pay ; and instead of tents they
made themselves huts of bark or branches. The best
of them were drawn from the upper parts of the
colony, where habits of bush-ranging were still in full
activity. Their fighting qualities were much like
those of the Indians, whom they rivalled in endur
ance and in the arts of forest war. As bush-fighters
they had few equals ; they fought well behind earth
works, and were good at a surprise or sudden dash ;
but for regular battle on the open field they were of
smaU account, being disorderly, and apt to break and
take to cover at the moment of crisis. They had no
idea of the great operations of war. At first they
despised the regulars for their ignorance of wood
craft, and thought themselves able to defend the
colony alone; while the regulars regarded them in
turn with a contempt no less unjust. They were
excessively given to gasconade, and every true Cana
dian boasted Mmself a match for three Englishmen
at least. In 1750 the militia of all ranks counted
about thirteen thousand; and eight years later the
number had increased to about fifteen thousand.^
Until the last two years of the war, those employed
in actual warfare were but few. Even in the critical

1 Recapitulation des Milices du Gouvernement de Canada, 1750.
Denombrement des Milices, 1758, 1759. On the militia, see also Bou
gainville in Margry, Relations et M^moires inedits, 60, and N. Y. Col.
Docs., X. 680.

58 MONTCALM. [1756.
year 1758 only about eleven hundred were called to
arms, except for two or three weeks in summer ;i
though about four thousand were employed in trans
porting troops and supplies, for which service they
received pay.
To the wMte fighting force of the colony are to be
added the red men. The most trusty of them were
the Mission Indians, living within or near the settled
limits of Canada, chiefly the Hurons of Lorette, the
Abenakis of St. Francis and Batiscan, the Iroquois
of Caughnawaga, and La Presentation, and the
Iroquois and Algonquins at the Two Mountains on
the Ottawa. Besides these, all the warriors of the
West and North, from Lake Superior to the Ohio,
and from the AUeghanies to the Mississippi, were
now at the beck of France. As to the Iroquois or
Five Nations who still remained in their ancient seats
within the present limits of New York, their power
and pride had greatly fallen; and crowded as they
were between the French and the English, they were
in a state of vacUlation, some leaning to one side,
some to the other, and some to each in turn. As a
whole, the best that France could expect from them
was neutrality.
Montcalm at Montreal had more visits than he
liked from his red alUes. " They are vilains messieurs, "
he informs his mother, "even when fresh from their
toilet, at which they pass their lives. You would
not believe it, but the men always cany to war, along
1 Montcalm au Ministre, 1 Septembre, 1758.

1756.] HIS IMPRESSIONS OF CANADA. 59
with their tomahawk. and gun, a mirror to daub their
faces with various colors, and arrange feathers on
their heads and rings in their ears and noses. They
think it a great beauty to cut the rim of the ear and
stretch it till it reaches the shoulder. Often they
wear a laced coat, with no shirt at all. You would
take them for so many masqueraders or de-vils. One
needs the patience of an angel to get on with them.
Ever since I have been here, I have had nothing but
-visits, harangues, and deputations of these gentry.
The Iroquois ladies, who always take part in their
government, came also, and did me the honor to
bring me belts of wampum, which -will oblige me to
go to their -nllage and sing the war-song. They are
only a little way off. Yesterday we had eighty-three
warriors here, who have gone out to fight. They
make war with astoundmg cruelty, sparing neither
men, women, nor cMldren, and take off your scalp
very neatly, — an operation wMch generally kills
"Everything is horribly dear in this country; and
I shall find it hard to make the two ends of the year
meet, with the twenty-five thousand francs the King
gives me. The Chevalier de L^-sds did not join me
till yesterday. His health is excellent. In a few
days I shall send him to one camp, and M. de Bour
lamaque to another; for we have three of them: one
at Carillon, eighty leagues from here, towards the
place where M. de Dieskau had his affair last year;
another at Frontenac, sixty leagues; and the tMrd

60 MONTCALM. [1756.
at Niagara, a hundred and forty leagues. I don't
know when or wMther I shall go myself; that
depends on the movements of the enemy. It seems
to me that things move slowly in tMs new world;
and I shall have to moderate my acti-\dty accordingly.
Nothing but the King's service and the wish to make
a career for my son could prevent me from thinking
too much of my expatriation, my distance from you,
and the dull existence here, wMch would be duller
still if I did not manage to keep some little of my
natural gayety."
The military situation was somewhat perplexing.
Iroquois spies had brought reports of great prepara
tions on the part of the English. As neither party
dared offend these wavering tribes, their warriors
could pass -with impunity from one to the other, and
were paid by each for bringing information, not
always trustworthy. They declared that the English
were gathering in force to renew the attempt made
by Johnson the year before against Crown Point and
Ticonderoga, as well as that made by Shirley against
Forts Frontenac and Niagara. Vaudreuil had spared
no effort to meet the double danger. Lotbini^re, a
Canadian engineer, had been busied during the
winter in fortifjdng Ticonderoga, while Pouchot, a
captain in the battalion of Bdam, had rebuilt
Niagara, and two French engineers were at work in
strengthening the defences of Frontenac. The gov
ernor even hoped to take the offensive, anticipate the
movements of the English, capture Oswego, and

1756.] FORT BULL. 61
obtain the complete command of Lake Ontario.
Early in the spring a blow had been struck wMch
materially aided these schemes.
The English had built two small forts to guard
the Great Carrying Place on the route to Oswego.
One of these. Fort WilUams, was on the Mohawk;
the other, Fort Bull, a mere coUection of storehouses
surrounded by a palisade, was four miles distant, on
the bank of Wood Creek. Here a great quantity of
stores and ammunition had imprudently been col
lected against the opening campaign. In February
Vaudreuil sent L^ry, a colony officer, with three
hundred and sixty-two picked men, soldiers, Cana
dians, and Indians, to seize these two posts. Towards
the end of March, after extreme hardship, they
reached the road that connected them, and at half-
past five in the mormng captured twelve men going
with wagons to Fort Bull. Learning from them the
weakness of that place, they dashed forward to sur
prise it. The tMrty provincials of Shirley's regiment
who formed the garrison had barely time to shut the
gate, whUe the assaUants fired on them through the
loopholes, of which they got possession in the tumult.
L^ry caUed on the defenders to yield; but they
refused, and pelted the French for an hour with
bullets and hand-grenades. The gate was at last
beat down with axes, and they were summoned
again; but again refused, and fired hotly through
the opening. The French rushed in, shouting Vive
le roi, and a frightful stiuggle followed. All the

62 MONTCALM. [1756.
garrison were MUed, except two or three who hid
themselves till the slaughter was over; the fort was
set on fire and blown to atoms by the explosion of
the magazines ; and L^ry then withdrew, not ventur
ing to attack Fort Williams. Johnson, warned by
Indians of the approach of the French, had pushed
up the Mohawk with reinforcements; but came too
late.i Vaudreuil, who always exaggerates any success in
which he has had part, says that besides bombs,
bullets, cannon-balls, and other munitions, forty-five
thousand pounds of gunpowder were destroyed on
this occasion. It is certain that damage enough was
done to retard EngUsh operations in the direction of
Oswego sufficiently to give the French time for
securing all their posts on Lake Ontario. Before
the end of June this was in good measure done. The
battaUon of Bdarn lay encamped before the now
strong fort of Niagara, and the battalions of Guienne
and La Sarre, with a body of Canadians, guarded
Frontenac against attack. Those of La Reine and
Languedoc had been sent to Ticonderoga, while the
governor, with Montcalm and L^-vis, still remained
at Montreal watching the turn of events.^ Hither,
1 Bigot au Ministre, 12 Avril, 1756. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin,
1756. Ibid., 8 Juin, 1756. Journal de ce qui s'est passe en Canada
depuis le Mois d'Octobre, 1165,jusq'au Mois de Juin, 1756. Shirley to
Fox, 7 May, 1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated.
Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth (Shirley's) Regiment.
Eastburn, Faithful Narrative. Entick, i. 471. The French accounts
place the number of English at sixty or eighty.
2 Correspondance de Montcalm, Vaudreuil, et Levis.

1756.] MONTREUIL'S OPINION OF MONTCALM. 63
too, came the intendant Fraufois Bigot, the most
accomplished knave in Canada, yet indispensable for
his -vigor and executive^ skill; Bougainville, who had
disarmed the jealousy of Vaudreuil, and now stood
Mgh in his good graces; and the adjutant-general,
Montreuil, clearly a vain and pragmatic personage,
who, having come to Canada with Dieskau the year
before, thought it behooved him to give the general
the advantage of his experience. "I like M. de
Montcalm very much," he writes to the minister,
"and -wiU do the impossible to deserve his confidence.
I have spoken to him in the same terms as to M.
Dieskau; thus: ' Trust only the French regulars for
an expedition, but use the Canadians and Indians to
harass the enemy. Don't expose yourself; send me
to carry your orders to points of danger.' The
colony officers do not like those from France. The
Canadians are independent, spiteful, lying, boastful;
very good for skirmishing, very brave behind a tree,
and very timid when not under cover. I think both
sides wiU stand on the defensive. It does not seem
to me that M. de Montcalm means to attack the
enemy ; and I think he is right. In this country a
thousand men could stop three thousand. " ^
"M. de VaudreuU overwhelms me with civilities,"
Montcalm writes to the minister of war. "I tMnk
that he is pleased -with my conduct towards him, and
that it persuades Mm there are general officers in
France who can act under Ms orders without preju-
1 Montreuil au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756. The original is in cipher.

64 MONTCALM. [1756.
dice or ill-humor."^ "I am on good terms with
him," he says again; "but not in his confidence,
wMch he never gives to anybody from France. His
intentions are good, but he is slow and irresolute. " ^
Indians presently brought word that ten thousand
EngUsh were coming to attack Ticonderoga. A
reinforcement of colony regulars was at once de
spatched to join the two battalions already there ; a
tMrd battalion. Royal RoussiUon, was sent after
them. The militia were called out and ordered to
follow with aU speed, while both Montcalm and
Ldvis hastened to the supposed scene of danger. ^
They embarked in canoes on the Richelieu, coasted
the shore of Lake Champlain, passed Fort Frederic
or Crown Point, where all was acti-vity and bustle,
and reached Ticonderoga at the end of June. They
found the fort, on which Lotbiniere had been at work
aU winter, advanced towards completion. It stood
on the crown of the promontory, and was a square
with four bastions, a ditch, blown in some parts out
of the solid rock, bomb-proofs, barracks of stone, and
a system of exterior defences as yet only begun.
The rampart consisted of two parallel walls ten feet
apart, built of the trunks of trees, and held together
by transverse logs dovetailed at both ends, the space
1 Montcalm an Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756.
2 Ibid., 19 Juin, 1756. " Je suis bien avee luy, sans sa confiance,
qu'il ne donne jamais ^ personne de la France.'' Erroneously
rendered in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 421.
' Montcalm au Ministre, 26 Juin, 1756. Detail de ce qui s'est passe
Octobre, n55-Juin, 1756.

1756.] L^VIS. 65
between being filled with earth and gravel well
packed. 1 Such was the first Fort Ticonderoga, or
CariUon, — a structure quite distinct from the later
fort of which the ruins still stand on the same spot.
The forest had been hewn away for some distance
around, and the tents of the regulars and huts of the
Canadians had taken its place; innumerable bark
canoes lay along the strand ; and gangs of men toiled
at the unfinished works.
Ticonderoga was now the most advanced position
of the French, and Crown Point, wMch had before
held that perilous honor, was in the second line.
Ldvis, to whom had been assigned the permanent
command of this post of danger, set out on foot to
explore the neighboring woods and mountains, and
slept out several nights before he reappeared at the
camp. "I do not think," says Montcalm, "that
many high officers in Europe would have occasion to
take such tramps as this. I cannot speak too well
of Mm. Without being a man of brUliant parts, he
has good experience, good sense, and a quick eye;
and, though I had served with him before, I never
should have thought that he had such promptness
and efficiency. He has turned his campaigns to
good account." ^ L^vis writes of his chief with equal
warmth. " I do not know if the Marquis de Mont
calm is pleased with me, but I am sure that I am
1 Lotbiniere au Ministre, 31 Octobre, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre,
20 Juillet, 1756.
^ Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756.
VOL. II. — 5

66 MONTCALM. [1756.
very much so -with him, and shaU always be charmed
to serve under Ms orders. It is not for me, Mon-
seigneur, to speak to you of his merit and his talents.
You know him better than anybody else ; but I may
have the honor of assuring you that he has pleased
everybody in tMs colony, and manages affairs with
the Indians extremely well."^
The danger from the English proved to be stiU
remote, and there was ample leisure in the camp.
Duchat, a young captain in the battalion of Languedoc,
used it in writing to his father a long account of
what he saw about him, — the forests full of game ;
the ducks, geese, and partridges; the prodigious
flocks of wild pigeons that darkened the air; the
bears, the beavers; and above all the Indians, their
canoes, dress, baU-play, and dances. "We are
making here," says the mUitary prophet, "a place
that history will not forget. The English colonies
have ten times more people than ours; but these
-wretches have not the least knowledge of war ; and
if they go out to fight, they must abandon wives,
cMldren, and all that they possess. Not a week
passes but the French send them a band of hair
dressers, whom they would be very glad to dispense
¦with. It is incredible what a quantity of scalps they
bring us. In Virginia they have committed unheard-
of cruelties, carried off families, burned a great many
houses, and MUed an infiMty of people. These
miserable EngUsh are in the extremity of distress,
1 Levis au Ministre, 17 Juillet, 1756.

1756.] DUCHAT'S RELATION. 67
and repent too late the unjust war they began against
us. It is a pleasure to make war in Canada. One
is troubled neither -with horses nor baggage; the
King provides everything. But it must be confessed
that if it costs no money, one pays for it in another
way, by seeing nothing but pease and bacon on the
mess-table. LucMly the lakes are full of fish, and
both officers and soldiers have to turn fishermen."^
Meanwhile, at the head of Lake George, the raw
bands of ever-active New England were mustering
for the fray.
1 Relation de M. Duchat, Capitaine au Regiment de Languedoc, ecrite
au Camp de Carillon, 15 Juillet, 1756.

CHAPTER XII.
1756.
OSWEGO.
The New Campaign. — Untimely Change or Commanders. —
Eclipse of Shirley. — Earl op Loudon. — Muster op Pro
vincials. — New England Levies. — Winslow at Lake
George. — Johnson and the Five Nations. — Bradsteebt
AND HIS Boatmen. — Fight on the Onondaga. — Pestilence
AT Oswego. — Loudon and the Provincials. — New England
Camps. — Army Chaplains. — A Sudden Blow. — Montcalm
attacks Os-wego: its Fall.
When, at the end of the last year, SMrley returned
from his bootless Oswego campaign, he called a
council of war at New York and laid before it his
scheme for the next summer's operations. It was a
comprehensive one: to master Lake Ontario by an
overpowering naval force and seize the French forts
upon it, Niagara, Frontenac, and Toronto; attack
Ticonderoga and Crown Point on the one hand, and
Fort Duquesne on the other, and at the same time
perplex and divide the enemy by an inroad down the
Chaudi^re upon the settlements about Quebec.^ The
1 Minutes of Council of War held at New York, 12 and 13 December,
1755. Shirley to Robinson, 19 December, 1755. The Conduct of Major-
General Shirley briefly stated. Review of Military Operations in North
America.

1756.] THE NEW CAMPAIGN. 69
council approved the scheme; but to execute it the
provinces must raise at least sixteen thousand men.
This they refused to do. Pennsylvania and Virginia
would take no active part, and were content with
defending themselves. The attack on Fort Duquesne
was therefore abandoned, as was also the diversion
towards Quebec. The New England colonies were
discouraged by Johnson's failure to take Crown
Point, doubtful of the military abilities of Shirley,
and embarrassed by- the debts of the last campaign;
but when they learned that ParUament would grant
a sum of money in partial compensation for their
former sacrifices,^ they plunged into new debts with
out hesitation, and raised more men than the general
had asked; though, with their usual jealousy, they
provided that their soldiers should be employed for
no other purpose than the attack on Ticonderoga and
Crown Point. Shirley chose John Winslow to com
mand them, and gave him a commission to that
effect; wMle he, to cUnch his authority, asked and
obtained supplementary commissions from every gov
ernment that gave men to the expedition. ^ For the
movement against the forts of Lake Ontario, which
Shirley meant to command in person, he had the
1 Lords of Trade to Lords of the Treasury, 12 February, 1756. Fox
to American Governors, 13 March, 1756. Shirley to Phipps, 15 June,
1756. The sum was £115,000, divided in proportion to the expense
incurred by the several colonies; Massachusetts having £54,000,
Connecticut £26,000, and New York £15,000, the rest being given to
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.
2 Letter and Order Books of General Winslow, 1756.

70 OSWEGO. [1756.
remains of his o-wn and Pepperrell's regiments, the
two shattered battaUons brought over by Braddock,
the "Jersey Blues," four provincial compames from
North CaroUna, and the four King's companies of
New York. His first care was to recruit their ranks
and raise them to their full complement; which,
when effected, would bring them up to the insuffi
cient strength of about forty-four hundred men.
While he was struggling with contradictions and
cross purposes, a withering blow feU upon him; he
learned that he was superseded in the command.
The cabal formed against Mm, with Delancey at its
head, had won over Sir Charles Hardy, the new
governor of New York, and had painted Shirley's
conduct in such colors that the mimstry removed
him. It was essential for the campaign that a suc
cessor should be sent at once, to form plans on the
spot and make preparations accordingly. The min
istry were in no such haste. It was presently
announced that Colonel Darnel Webb would be sent
to America, foUowed by General James Abercrombie ;
who was to be followed in turn by the Earl of
Loudon, the destined commander-in-cMef. Shirley
was to resign his command to Webb, Webb to
Abercrombie, and Abercrombie to Loudon. ^ It
chanced that the two former arrived in June at about

1 Fox to Shirley, 13 March, 1756. Ibid., 31 March, 1756. Order to
Colonel Webb, 31 March, 1756. Order to Major-General Abercrombie,!
AprU, 1756. Halifax to Shirley, 1 Apnl, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 13
June, 1756.

Earl Loudon.

I

'yiyht.jdo'r. by LiMls^Brovon, & C:

GoupiL & CP Paris

1756.] ECLIPSE OF SHIRLEY. 71
the same time, while the earl came in July; and mean
while it devolved on Shirley to make ready for them.
Unable to di-dne what their plans would be, he pre
pared the campaign in accordance with his own.
His star, so bright a twelvemonth before, was now
miserably dimmed. In both his public and private
life he was the butt of adversity. He had lost two
promising sons ; he had made a mortifying failure as
a soldier ; and triumphant enemies were rejoicing in
his fall. It is to the credit of his firmness and his
zeal in the cause that he set himself to Ms task with
as much -\rigor as if he, and not others, were to gather
the fruits. His chief care was for his favorite enter
prise in the direction of Lake Ontario. Making
Albany his headquarters, he rebuilt the fort at the
Great Carrying Place destroyed in March by the
French, sent troops to guard the perilous route to
Oswego, and gathered pro-nsions and stores at the
posts along the way.
Meanwhile the New England men, strengthened
by the le-des of New York, were mustering at Albany
for the attack of Crown Point. At the end of May
they moved a short distance up the Hudson, and
encamped at a place called Half-Moon, where the
navigation was stopped by rapids. Here and at the
posts above were gathered something more than five
thousand men, as raw and untrained as those led by
Johnson in the summer before. ^ The four New Eng
land colonies were much alike in their way of raising
1 Letter and Order Books of Winslow, 1756.

72 OSWEGO. [1756.
and equipping men, and the example of Massachu
setts may serve for them all. The Assembly or
"General Court" voted the required number, and
chose a committee of war authorized to impress pro
visions, munitions, stores, clothing, tools, and other
necessaries, for which fair prices were to be paid
witMn six months. The governor issued a proclama
tion calling for volunteers. If the full number did
not appear -within the time named, the colonels of
militia were ordered to muster their regiments, and
immediately draft out of them men enough to meet
the need. A bounty of six dollars was offered tMs
year to stimulate enlistment, and the pay of a private
soldier was fixed at one pound six shillings a month,
Massachusetts currency. If he brought a gun, he
had an additional bounty of two dollars. A powder-
horn, bullet-pouch, blanket, knapsack, and "wooden
bottle," or canteen, were supplied by the province;
and if he brought no gun of his own, a musket was
given him, for which, as for the other articles, he
was to account at the end of the campaign. In the
next year it was announced that the soldier should
receive, besides his pay, "a coat and soldier's hat."
The coat was of coarse blue cloth, to which breeches
of red or blue were afterwards added. Along with
Ms rations, he was promised a giU of rum each day,
a pri-vilege of which he was extremely jealous, deeply
resenting every abridgment of it. He was enlisted
for the campaign, and could not be required to serve
above a year at farthest.

1756.] NEW ENGLAND LEVIES. 73
The complement of a regiment was five hundred,
divided into companies of fifty; and as the men and
officers of each were drawn from the same neighbor
hood, they generally knew each other. The officers,
though nominaUy appointed by the Assembly, were
for the most part the -virtual choice of the soldiers
themselves, from whom they were often indistinguish
able in character and social standing. Hence disci
pUne was weak. The pay — or, as it was called, the
wages — of a colonel was twelve pounds sixteen
shillings, Massachusetts currency, a month ; that of a
captain, five pounds eight shillings, — an advance on
the pay of the last year; and that of a chaplain, six
pounds eight shillings. ^ Penalties were enacted
against "irreligion, immorality, drunkenness, de
bauchery, and profaneness." The ordinary punish
ments were the wooden horse, irons, or, in bad cases,
flogging. Much difficulty arose from the different rules
adopted by the various colonies for the regulation of
their soldiers. Nor was this the only source of
trouble. Besides its war committee, the Assembly
of each of the four New England colonies chose
another committee "for clothing, arming, paying,
victualling, and transporting " its tioops. They were
to go to the scene of operations, hire wagons, oxen,
and horses, build boats and vessels, and charge them
selves with the conveyance of aU supplies belonging
to their respective governments. They were to keep
1 Vote of General Court, 26 February, 1756.

74 OSWEGO. [1756.
in correspondence with the committee of war at home,
to whom they were responsible ; and the officer com
manding the contingent of their colony was required
to furnish them with guards and escorts. Thus four
independent committees were engaged in the work of
transportation at the same time, over the same roads,
for the same object. Each colony chose to keep the
contiol of its property in its own hands. The incon
veniences were obvious. "I wish to God," wrote
Lord Loudon to Winslow, " you could persuade your
people to go all one way." The committees them
selves did not always find their task agreeable. One
of their number, John Ashley, of Massachusetts,
writes in dudgeon to Governor Phips: "Sir, I am
apt to think that things have been misrepresented to
your Honor, or else I am certain I should not suffer
in my character, and be styled a damned rascal, and
ought to be put in irons, etc., when I am certain I
have exerted myself to the utmost of my ability to
expedite the business assigned me by the General
Court." At length, late in the autumn, Loudon
persuaded the colomes to forego this troublesome sort
of independence, and turn over their stores to the
commissary-general, receipts being duly given.^
^ The above particulars are gathered from the voluminous papers
in the State House at Boston, Archives, Military, vols. Ixxv., Ixxvi.
These contain the military acts of the General Court, proclamations,
reports of committees, and other papers relating to military affairs
in 1755 and 1756. The Letter and Order Books of Winslow, in the
Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, have supplied
much concurrent matter. See also Colonial Records of R. I., v., and
Provincial Papers of N. H., vi.

1756.] INDIAN ATTACKS. 75
From Winslow's headquarters at Half-Moon a
road led along the banks of the Hudson to Stillwater,
whence there was water carriage to Saratoga. Here
stores were again placed in wagons and carried several
miles to Upper Falls ; thence by boat to Fort Edward ;
and thence, fourteen mUes across country, to Fort
WilUam Henry at Lake George, where the army was
to embark for Ticonderoga. Each of the points of
transit below Fort Edward was guarded by a stockade
and two or more companies of provincials. They
were much pestered by Indians, who now and then
scalped a straggler, and escaped with their usual
nimbleness. From time to time strong bands of
Canadians and Indians approached by way of South
Bay or Wood Creek, and threatened more serious
miscMef. It is surprising that some of the trains
were not cut off, for the escorts were often reckless
and disorderly to the last degree. Sometimes the
invaders showed great audacity. Early in June
Colonel Fitch at Albany scrawls a hasty note to
Winslow: "Friday, 11 o'clock: Sir, about half an
hour since, a party of near fifty French and Indians
had the impudence to come down to the river oppo
site to tMs city and captivate two men;" and
Winslow replies with equal quaintness : " We daily
discover the Indians about us ; but not yet have been
so happy as to obtain any of them." ^
1 Vaudreuil, in his despatch of 12 August, gives particulars of
these raids, with an account of the scalps taken on each occasion.
He thought the results disappointing.

76 OSWEGO. [1756.
Colonel Jonathan Bagley commanded at Fort
William Henry, where gangs of men were busied
under Ms eye in building three sloops and making
several hundred whaleboats to carry the army to
Ticonderoga. The season was advancing fast, and
Winslow urged him to hasten on the work ; to which
the humorous Bagley answered: "Shall leave no
stone unturned; every wheel shall go that rum and
human flesh can move."^ A fortnight after he
reports : " I must reaUy confess I have almost wore
the men out, poor dogs. Pray where are the com
mittee, or what are they about ? " He sent scouts to
watch the enemy, with results not quite satisfactory.
"There is a vast deal of news here; every party
brings abundance, but all different." Again, a little
later : " I constantly keep out small scouting parties
to the eastward and westward of the lake, and make
no discovery but the tracks of smaU parties who are
plagmng us constantly ; but what vexes me most, we
can't catch one of the sons of  . I have sent
out skulking parties some distance from the sentries
in the night, to lie still in the bushes to intercept
them; but the ffies are so plenty, our people can't
bear them."^ Colonel David Wooster, at Fort
Edward, was no more fortunate in his attempts to
take satisfaction on Ms midnight -visitors, and reports
that he has not thus far been able "to give those
-villains a dressing. "^ The English, however, were
1 Bagley to Winslow, 2 July, 1756. 2 Ibid., 15 July, 1756.
5 Wooster to Winslow, 2 June, 1756.

1756.] JOHNSON AND THE FIVE NATIONS. 77
fast learning the art of forest war, and the partisan
chief. Captain Robert Rogers, began already to be
famous. On the seventeenth of June he and his
band lay hidden in the bushes within the outposts of
Ticonderoga, and made a close survey of the fort and
surrounding camps. ^ His report was not cheering.
Winslow's so-called army had now grown to nearly
seven thousand men; and these, if was plain, were
not too many to drive the French from their
stronghold. While Winslow pursued his preparations, tried to
settle disputes of rank among the colonels of the
several colonies, and strove to bring order out of the
little chaos of his command. Sir WilUam Johnson
was engaged in a work for which he was admirably
fitted. This was the attaching of the Five Nations
to the English interest. Along with his patent of
baronetcy, wMch reached him about this time, he
received, direct from the Crown, the commission of
" Colonel, Agent, and Sole Superintendent of the Six
Nations and other Northern Tribes. "^ Henceforth
he was independent of governors and generals, and
responsible to the court alone. His task was a diffi
cult one. The Five Nations would fain have re
mained neutral, and let the European rivals fight it
out; but, on account of their local position, they
could not. The exactions and lies of the Albany
1 Report of Rogers, 19 June, 1756. Much abridged in his published
Journals. 2 Fox to Johnson, 13 March, 1756. Papers of Sir William Johnson.

78 OSWEGO. [17j56.
traders, the frauds of land-speculators, the contra
dictory action of the different provincial governments,
joined to English weakness and mismanagement in
the last war, all conspired to aUenate them and to aid
the efforts of the French agents, who cajoled and
threatened them by turns. But for Johnson these
intrigues would have prevailed. He had held a
series of councils 'with them at Fort Johnson during
the winter, and not only drew from them a promise
to stand by the English, but persuaded all the con
federated tribes, except the Cayugas, to consent that
the English should build forts near their cMef to-wns,
under the pretext of protecting them from the
French. 1
In June he went to Onondaga, weU escorted, for
the way was dangerous. TMs capital of the confed
eracy was under a cloud. It had just lost one Red
Head, its cMef sachem; and first of all it behooved
the baronet to condole their affliction. The ceremony
was long, -with compliments, lugubrious speeches,
wampum-belts, the scalp of an enemy to replace the
departed, and a final glass of rum for each of the
assembled mourners. The conferences lasted a fort
night; and when Johnson took his leave, the tribes
stood pledged to lift the hatchet for the English. ^
^ Conferences between Sir William Johnson and the Indians, Decem
ber, 1755, to February, 1756, in N. Y. Col. Docs., vii. 44-74. Account
of Conferences held and Treaties made between Sir William Johnson,
Bart., and the Indian Nations of North America (London, 1756).
2 Minutes of Councils at Onondaga, 19 June to 3 July, 1756, in N. Y.
Col. Docs., vii. 134-150.

1756.] INDIAN DEPUTIES. 79
When he returned to Fort Johnson a fever seized
Mm, and he lay helpless for a time ; then rose from
Ms sick bed to meet another congregation of Indians.
These were deputies of the Five Nations, with
Mohegans from the Hudson, and Delawares and
Shawanoes from the Susquehanna, whom he had per
suaded to visit him in hope that he might induce
them to cease from murdering the border settlers.
AU their tribesmen were in arms against the English;
but he prevailed at last, and they accepted the war-
belt at Ms hands. The Delawares complained that
their old conquerors, the Five Nations, had forced
them "to wear the petticoat; " that is, to be counted
not as warriors but as women. Johnson, m presence
of all the Assembly, now took off the figurative gar
ment, and pronounced them henceforth men. A
grand war-dance followed. A hundred and fifty
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Delawares, Shawa
noes, and Mohegans stamped, whooped, and yelled
all night. ^ In spite of Piquet, the two Joncaires,
and the rest of the French agents, Johnson had
achieved a success. But would the Indians keep
their word? It was more than doubtful. While
some of them tieated -with him on the Mohawk,
others treated with Vaudreuil at Montieal.^ A dis
play of military vigor on the English side, crowned
1 Minutes of Councils at Fort Johnson, 9 July to 12 July, in N. Y.
Col. Docs., vii. 152-160.
2 Conferences between M. de Vaudreuil and the Five Nations, 28
July to 20 August, in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 445-453.

80 OSWEGO. [1756.
by some signal victory, would alone make their
alliance sure.
It was not the French only who thwarted the
efforts of Johnson; for while he strove to make
friends of the Delawares and Shawanoes, Governor
Morris of Pennsylvania declared war against them,
and Governor Belcher of New Jersey followed his
example ; though persuaded at last to hold his hand
tUl the baronet had tried the -virtue of pacific
measures.^ What SMrley longed for was the collecting of a
body of Five Nation warriors at Oswego to aid him
in his cherished enterprise against Niagara and
Frontenac. The warriors had promised Mm to
come ; but there was smaU hope that they would do
so. Meanwhile he was at Albany pursuing Ms
preparations, posting his scanty force in the forts
newly built on the Mohawk and the Great Carrying
Place, and sending forward stores and provisions.
Having no troops to spare for escorts, he invented a
plan which, like everything he did, was bitterly
criticised. He took into pay two thousand boatmen,
gathered from all parts of the country, including
many whalemen from the eastern coasts of New Eng
land, divided them into companies of fifty, armed
each with a gun and a hatchet, and placed them
under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John
1 Johnson to Lords of Trade, 28 May, 1756. Ibid., 17 July, 1756.
Johnson to Shirley, 24 April, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., vii. 75, 88,
194.

1756.] BRADSTREET'S BOATMEN. 81
Bradstreet. ^ Thus organized, they would, he hoped,
require no escort. Bradstreet was a New England
officer who had been a captain in the last war, sorae
what dogged and seU-opinioned, but brave, energetic,
and weU fitted for this kind of service.
In May Vaudreuil sent Coulon de Villiers with
eleven hundred soldiers, Canadians, and Indians, to
harass Oswego and cut its communications with
Albany. 2 Nevertheless Bradstreet safely conducted
a convoy of provisions and military stores to the gar
rison ; and on the third of July set out on his return
-with the empty boats. The party were pushing their
way up the river in three divisions. The first of
these, consisting of a hundred boats and three hun
dred men, -with Bradstreet at their head, were about
nine miles from Oswego, when, at three in the after
noon, they received a heavy volley from the forest on
the east bank. It was fired by a part of Villiers'
command, consisting, by English accounts, of about
seven hundred men. A considerable number of the
boatmen were kiUed or disabled, and the others
made for the shelter of the western shore. Some
prisoners were taken in the confusion; and if the
French had been content to stop here, they might
fairly have claimed a kind of victory : but, eager to
push their advantage, they tried to cross under cover
of an island just above. Bradstreet saw the move-
1 Shirley to Fox, 7 May, 1756. Shirley to Abercrombie, 27 June,
1756. Loudon to Fox, 19 August, 1756.
2 Detail de ce qui s'est passe en Canada, Octobre, TJ55-Juin, 1756.
VOL. II. — 6

82 OSWEGO. [1756.
ment, and landed on the island with six or eight fol
lowers, among whom was young Captain Schuyler,
afterwards General Schuyler of the Revolution.
Their fire kept the enemy in check till others joined
them, to the number of about twenty. These a
second and a third time beat back the French, who
now gave over the attempt, and made for another
ford at some distance above. Bradstreet saw their
intention ; and collecting two hundred and fifty men,
was about to advance up the west bank to oppose
them, when Dr. Kirkland, a surgeon, came to tell
him that the second di-vision of boats had come up,
and that the men had landed. Bradstreet ordered
them to stay where they were, and defend the lower
crossing: then hastened forward; but when he
reached the upper ford, the French had passed the
river, and were ensconced in a pine swamp near the
shore. Here he attacked them; and both parties
fiuced at each other from behind trees for an hour,
with little effect. Bradstreet at length encouraged
his men to make a rush at the enemy, who were put
to flight and driven into the river, where many were
shot or drowned as they tiled to cross. Another
party of the French had meanwhile passed by a ford
still higher up to support their comrades; but the
fight was over before they reached the spot, and they
in their turn were set upon and driven back across
the stream. Half an hour after. Captain Patten
arrived from Onondaga -with the grenadiers of
Shirley's regiment; and late in the evening two

1756.] BRADSTREET'S FIGHT. 83
hundred men came from Oswego to reinforce the
-victors. In the morning Bradstieet prepared to
follow the French to their camp, twelve miles dis
tant; but was prevented by a heavy rain which lasted
all day. On the Monday following, he and his men
reached Albany, bringing two prisoners, eighty
French muskets, and many knapsacks picked up in
the woods. He had lost between sixty and seventy
MUed, wounded, and taken. ^
TMs affair was trumpeted tMough Canada as a
victory of the French. Their notices of it are dis
cordant, though very brief. One of them says that
Villiers had four hundred men. Another gives him
five hundred, and a tMrd eight hundred, against
fifteen hundred English, of whom they MUed eight
hundred, or an Englishman apiece. A fourth writer
boasts that six hundred Frenchmen MUed mne hun
dred English. A fifth contents Mmself with four
hundred; but thinks that forty more would have
been slain if the Indians had not fired too soon. He
says further that there were tMee hundred boats;
and presently forgetting himself, adds that five hun
dred were taken or destroyed. A sixth announces a
great capture of stores and provisions, though all the
1 Letter of J. Choate, Albany, 12 July, 1756, in Massachusetts
Archives, Iv. Three Letters from Albany, July, August, 1756, in Doc.
History of N. Y., i. 482. Review of Military Operations. Shirley to
Fox, 26 July, 1756. Abercrombie to Sir Charles Hardy, 11 July, 1756.
NUes, in Mass. Hist. Coll., Fourth Series, v. 417. Lossing, Life of
Schuyler, i. 131 (1860). Mante, 60. Bradstreet's conduct on this
occasion afterwards gained for him the warm praises of Wolfe.

84 OSWEGO. [1756.
boats were einpty. A seventh reports that the Cana
dians killed about three hundred, and would have
killed more but for the bad quality of their toma
hawks. An eighth, with rare modesty, puts the
English loss at fifty or sixty. That of Villiers is
given in every proportion of MUed or wounded, from
one up to ten. Thus was Canada roused to martial
ardor, and taught to look for future triumphs cheaply
bought.^ The success of Bradstreet silenced for a time the
enemies of SMrley. His cares, however, redoubled.
He was anxious for Oswego, as the two prisoners
declared that the French meant to attack it, instead
of waiting to be attacked from it. Nor was the news
from that quarter reassuring. The engineer, Mac-
kellar, wrote that the works were incapable of
defence; and Colonel Mercer, the commandant,
reported general discontent in the garrison. ^ Captain
John Vicars, an invalid officer of Shirley's regiment,
arrived at Albany -with yet more deplorable accounts.
He had passed the -winter at Oswego, where he
declared the dearth of food to have been such that
several councils of war had been held on the question
of abandoning the place from sheer starvation. More
1 Nouvelles du Camp etabli au Portage de Chouaguen, premiere
Relation. Ibid., Seconde Relation, 10 .Tuillet, 1756. Bougainville,
Journal, who gives the report as he heard it. Lettre du R. P.
Cocquard, S. J., 1756. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Ursu-
lines de Quebec, ii. 292. N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 434, 467, 477, 483. Some
prisoners taken in the first attack were brought to Montreal, where
their presence gave countenance to these fabrications.
* MackeUar to Shirley, June, 1756. Mercer to Shirley, 2 July, 1756.

1756.] STATE OF THE GARRISON. 85
than half Ms regiment died of hunger or disease;
and, in his own words, "had the poor fellows lived
they must have eaten one another." Some of the
men were lodged in barracks, though without beds,
while many lay all winter in huts on the bare ground.
Scurvy and dysentery made frightful havoc. "In
January," says Vicars, "we were informed by the
Indians that we were to be attacked. The garrison
was then so weak that the stiongest guard we pro
posed to mount was a subaltern and twenty men ; but
we were seldom able to mount more than sixteen or
eighteen, and half of those were obliged to have
sticks in their hands to support them. The men
were so weak that the sentries often fell down on
their posts, and lay there tiU the relief came and lifted
them up." His own company of fifty was reduced to
ten. The other regiment of the garrison, Pepperrell's,
or the fifty-first, was quartered at Fort Ontario, on
the other side of the river; and being better sheltered,
suffered less.
The account given by Vicars of the state of the
defences was scarcely more flattering. He reported
that the principal fort had no cannon on the side
most exposed to attack. Two pieces had been
mounted on the tiading-house in the centre; but as
the concussion shook down stones from the wall
whenever they were fired, they had since been
removed. The second work, called Fort Ontario, he
had not seen since it was finished, having been too
ill to cross the river. Of the third, called New

86 OSWEGO. [1756.
Oswego, or "Fort Rascal," he testifies thus: "It
never was finished, and there were no loop-holes in
the stockades ; so that they could not fire out of the
fort but by opemng the gate and firing out of
that."i TMough the spring and early summer Shirley
was gathering recruits, often of the meanest quality,
and sending them to Oswego to fiU out the two ema
ciated regiments. The place must be defended at
any cost. Its faU would ruin not only the enterprise
against Niagara and Frontenac, but also that against
Ticonderoga and Crown Point; since, having nothing
more to fear on Lake Ontario, the French could unite
their whole force on Lake Champlain, whether for
defence or attack.
Towards the end of June Abercrombie and Webb
arrived at Albany, bringing a reinforcement of mne
hundred regulars, consisting of Otway's regiment, or
a part of it, and a body of Highlanders. Shirley
resigned his command, and Abercrombie requested
him to go to New York, wait there till Lord Loudon
arrived, and lay before him the state of affairs.^
Shirley waited till the twenty-tMrd of July, when
the earl at length appeared. He was a rough Scotch
lord, hot and irascible; and the communications of
his predecessor, made, no doubt, in a manner some-
1 Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth {Shirley's) Regi
ment, enclosed with a despatch of Lord Loudon. Vicars was a
veteran British officer who left Oswego with Bradstreet on the third
of July. Shirley to Loudon, 5 September, 1756.
2 Shirley to Fox, 4 July, 1756.

1756.] LOUDON. 87
what pompous and self-satisfied, did not please him.
"I got from Major-General Shirley," he says, "a
few papers of very little use ; only he insinuated to
me that I would find everytMng prepared, and have
notMng to do but to pull laurels ; wMch I understand
was his constant conversation before my arrival. "^
Loudon sailed up the Hudson in no placid mood.
On reaching Albany he abandoned the attempt
against Niagara and Frontenac ; and had resolved to
turn his whole force against Ticonderoga, when he
was met by an obstacle that both perplexed and
angered Mm. By a royal order lately issued, all
general and field officers with provincial commissions
were to take rank only as eldest captains when serv
ing in conjunction with regular troops. ^ Hence the
whole pro-vmcial army, as Winslow observes, might
be put under the command of any British major.^
The announcement of this regulation naturally caused
great discontent. The New England officers held a
meeting, and voted -with one voice that in their belief
its enforcement would break up the provincial army
and prevent the raising of another. Loudon, hear
ing of tMs, desired Winslow to meet Mm at Albany
for a conference on the subject. Thither Winslow
went with some of Ms chief officers. The earl asked
them to dinner, and there was much talk, with no
satisfactory result; whereupon, somewhat chafed, he
1 Loudon (to Fox ?), 19 August, 1756.
2 Order concerning the Rank of Provincial General and Field Officers
in North America. Given at our Court at Kensington, 12 May, 1756.
8 Winslow to Shirley, 21 August, 1756.

88 OSWEGO. [1756.
required Winslow to answer in -writing, yes or no,
whether the provincial officers would obey the com
mander-in-chief and act in conjunction with the
regulars. Thus forced to choose between acquies
cence and fiat mutiny, they declared their submission
to his orders, at the same time asMng as a favor that
they might be allowed to act independently; to
which Loudon gave for the present an unwilling
assent. SMrley, who, in spite of his removal from
command, had the good of the ser-vice deeply at
heart, was much troubled at this affair, and wrote
stiong letters to Winslow in the interest of harmony. ^
Loudon next proceeded to examine the state of
the provincial forces, and sent Lieutenant-Colonel
Burton, of the regulars, to observe and report upon
it. Winslow by tMs time had made a forward move
ment, and was now at Lake George -with nearly half
Ms command, while the rest were at Fort Edward
under Lyman, or in detachments at Saratoga and the
other small posts below. Burton found Winslow's
men encamped with their right on what are now the
grounds of Fort WiUiam Henry Hotel, and their
left extending southward between the mountain in
their front and the marsh in their rear. " There are
here," he reports, "about twenty-five hundred men,
five hundred of them sick, the greatest part of them
what they call poorly; they bury from five to eight
^ Correspondence of Loudon, Abercrombie, and Shirley, July, August,
1756. Record of Meeting of Provincial Officers, July, 1756. Letter and
Order Books of Winsloiv.

1756.] PROVINCIAL CAMPS. 89
daily, and officers in proportion ; extremely indolent,
and dirty to a degree." Then, in vernacular Eng
lish, he describes the infectious condition of the fort,
which was full of the sick. "Their camp," he pro
ceeds, "is nastier than anything I could conceive;
their  , Mtchens, graves, and places for slaughter
ing cattle all mixed through their encampment; a
great waste of pro-visions, the men having just what
they please; no great command kept up. Colonel
Gridley governs the general ; not in the least alert ;
only one advanced guard of a subaltern and twenty-
four men. The cannon and stores in great confu
sion." Of the camp at Fort Edward he gives a
better account. "It is much cleaner than at Fort
WiUiam Henry, but not sufficiently so to keep the
men healthy; a much better command kept up here.
General Lyman very ready to order out to work and
to assist the engineers with any number of men they
require, and keeps a succession of scouting-parties
out towards Wood Creek and South Bay."i
The prejudice of the regular officer may have
colored the picture, but it is certain that the sanitary
condition of the provincial camps was extremely bad.
"A grievous sickness among the troops," writes a
Massachusetts surgeon at Fort Edward; "we bury
five or six a day. Not more than two-thirds of our
army fit for duty. Long encampments are the bane
of New England men." ^ Like aU raw recruits, they
1 Burton to Loudon, 27 August, 1756.
2 J)r. Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 August, 1756.

90 OSWEGO. [1756.
did not know how to take care of themselves; and
their officers had not the experience, knowledge, or
habit of command to enforce sanitary rules. The
same e-vils were found among the Canadians when
kept long in one place. Those in the camp of
Villiers are reported at this time as nearly all sick.^
Another penman, very different from the military
critic, was also on the spot, noting down every day
what he saw and felt. This was John Graham, min
ister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and now chaplain
of Lyman's regiment. His spirit, by nature far from
buoyant, was depressed by bodily ailments, and still
more by the extremely secular character of his
present surroundings. It appears by his Diary that
he left home "under great exercise of mind," and
was detained at Albany for a time, being, as he says,
taken -with an ague-fit and a quinsy; but at length
he. reached the camp at Fort Edward, where deep
despondency feU upon him. "Labor under great
discouragements," says the Diary, under date of July
twenty-eighth; "for find my business but mean in
the esteem of many, and think there 's not much for
a chaplain to do." Again, Tuesday, August seven
teenth : " Breakfasted this morning with the General.
But a graceless meal; never a blessing asked, nor
thanks given. At the evening sacrifice a more open
scene of -vnckedness. The General and head officers,
with some of the regular officers, in General Lyman's
tent, within foxir rods of the place of public prayers.
1 Bougainville, Journal.

1756.] TRIALS OF A CHAPLAIN. 91
None came to prayers ; but they fixed a table with
out the door of the tent, where a head colonel -v^as
posted to make punch in the sight of all, they within
drinking, talMng, and laughing during the whole of
the ser-vice, to the disturbance and disaffection of
most present. This was not only a bare neglect,
but an open contempt, of the worship of God by the
heads of this army. 'Twas but last Sabbath that
General Lyman spent the time of divine service in
the afternoon m Ms tent, drinMng in company with
Mr. Gordon, a regular officer. I have oft heard
cursing and swearing in his presence by some pro-vin-
cial field-officers, but never heard a reproof nor so much
as a check to them come from Ms mouth, though
he never uses such language himself. Lord, what
is man! Truly, the May-game of Fortune! Lord,
make me know my duty, and what I ought to do! "
That mght his sleep was broken and his soul
teoubled by angry voices under his window, where
one Colonel Glasier was berating, in unhallowed
language, the captain of the guard; and here the
chaplain's Journal abruptly ends.^
A brother minister, bearing no likeness to the
worthy Graham, appeared on the same spot some
time after. This was Chaplain WilUam Cra-wford,
of Worcester, who, ha-ving neglected to bring money
to the war, suffered much annoyance, aggravated by
what he thought a want of due consideration for Ms
1 I owe to my friend George S. Hale, Esq., the opportunity of
examining the autograph Journal ; it has since been printed in the
Magazine of American History for March, 1882.

92 OSWEGO. [1756.
person and office. His indignation finds vent in a
letter to his townsman, Timothy Paine, member of
the General Court: "No man can reasonably expect
that I can with any propriety discharge the duty of a
chaplain when I have nothing either to eat or drink,
nor any conveniency to write a line other than to sit
down upon a stump and put a piece of paper upon
my knee. As for Mr. Weld [another chaplain],
he is easy and silent whatever tieatment he meets
with, and I suppose they thought to find me the
same easy and ductile person; but may the wide
yawning earth devour me first! The state of the
camp is just such as one at home would guess it to
be, — nothing but a hurry and confusion of vice and
wickedness, with a stygian atmosphere to breathe
in."^ The vice and -wickedness of which he com
plains appear to have consisted in a frequent infrac
tion of the standing order against "Curseing and
Swareing," as well as of that wMch required attend
ance on daily prayers, and enjoined "the people to
appear in a decent manner, clean and shaved," at
the two Sunday sermons.^
At the beginning of August Winslow -wrote to the
^ The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archives, Ivi. no. 142.
The same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of Massa
chusetts, in which he speaks of the forlorn condition in which
Chaplain Weld reached the camp. Of Chaplain Crawford, he says
that he came decently clothed, but without bed or blanket, till he,
Frye, lent them to him, and got Captain Learned to take him into
his tent. Chaplains usually had a separate tent, or shared that of
the colonel.
2 Letter and Order Books of Winslow.

1756.] ANXIETY. 93
committees of the several pro-vinces: "It looks as if
it won't be long before we are fit for a remove," —
that is, for an advance on Ticonderoga. On the
twelfth Loudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth
regiment and some of Bradstreet's boatmen to rein
force Oswego.^ They had been ready for a month;
but confusion and misunderstanding arising from the
change of command had prevented their departure.^
Yet the utmost anxiety had prevailed for the safety
of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth
Surgeon Thomas WUUams wrote : " Whether Oswego
is yet ours is uncertain. Would hope it is, as the
reverse would be such a terrible shock as the country
never felt, and may be a sad omen of what is coming
upon poor sinful New England. Indeed, we can't
expect anytMng but to be severely chastened till we
are humbled for our pride and haughtiness."^
His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely
reached the Great Carrying Place, when tidings of
disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. The
French had descended in force upon Oswego, taken
it with all its garrison; and, as report ran, were
advancing into the province, six thousand strong.
Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great labor,
of the trees that choked it. Webb ordered others to
be felled and tMo-wn into the stream to stop the
progress of the enemy; then, with shameful precipi-
1 Loudon (to Fox?), 19 August, 1756.
2 Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Shirley to Loudon,
4 September, 1756. Shirley to Fox, 16 September, 1756.
8 Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 August, 1756.

94 OSWEGO. [1756.
tation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place,
and retieated down the Mohawk to German Flats.
Loudon ordered Winslow to think no more of Ticon
deroga, but to stay where he was and hold the French
in check. All was astonishment and dismay at the
sudden blow. " Oswego has changed masters, and I
think we may justly fear that the whole of our
country will soon follow, unless a merciful God
prevent, and awake a sinful people to repentance and
reformation." Thus -wrote Dr. Thomas Williams to his
wife from the camp at Fort Edward. " Such a shock
ing affair has never found a place in English annals,"
-wrote the surgeon's young relative. Colonel WiUiam
WilUams. "The loss is beyond account; but the dis
honor done His Majesty's arms is infinitely greater." ^
It remains to see how the catastrophe befeU.
Since Vaudreuil became chief of the colony he had
nursed the plan of seizing Oswego, yet hesitated to
attempt it. Montcalm declares that he confirmed the
governor's wavering purpose ; but Montcalm himself
had hesitated. In July, however, there came exag
gerated reports that the English were moving upon
Ticonderoga in greatly increased numbers ; and both
Vaudreuil and the general conceived that a femt
against Oswego would draw off the strength of the
assailants, and, if promptly and secretly executed,
might even be turned successfully into a real attack.
Vaudreuil thereupon recalled Montcalm from Ticon-
1 Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 30 August,
1756.

1756.] PREPARATION AGAINST IT. 95
deroga. 1 Lea-ving that post in the keeping of Ldvis
and three thousand men, he embarked on Lake
Champlain, rowed day and night, and reached Mont
real on the nineteenth. Troops were arriving from
Quebec, and Indians from the far West. A band of
Menominies from beyond Lake Michigan, naked,
painted, plumed, greased, stamping, uttering sharp
yelps, shaking feathered lances, brandishing toma
hawks, danced the war-dance before the governor, to
the thumping of the Indian drum. Bougainville
looked on astomshed, and thought of the Pyrrhic
dance of the Greeks.
Montcalm and he left Montreal on the twenty-first,
and reached Fort Frontenac in eight days. Rigaud,
brother of the governor, had gone thither some time
before, and crossed with seven hundred Canadians to
the south side of the lake, where VUliers was en
camped at Niaour^ Bay, now Sackett's Harbor, with
such of his detachment as war and disease had spared.
Rigaud relieved him, and took command of the united
bands. With their aid the engineer, Descombles,
reconnoitred the English forts, and came back with
the report that success was certain. ^ It was but a
confirmation of what had already been learned from
deserters and prisoners, who declared that the main
fort was but a loopholed wall held by six or seven
hundred men, iU-fed, discontented, and mutinous.'
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 Aoiit, 1756. Montcalm a sa Femme, 20
Juillet, 1756.
2 Ibid., 4 Aout, 1756. Vaudreuil a Bourlamaque, — Juin, 1756.
* Bougainville, Journal.

96 OSWEGO. [1756.
Others said that they had been driven to desert by
the want of good food, and that within a year twelve
hundred men had died of disease at Oswego.-^
The battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and B6arn,
with the colony regulars, a body of Canadians, and
about two hundred and fifty Indians, were destined
for the enterprise. The whole force was a Uttle
above tMee thousand, abundantly supplied -with
artillery. La Sarre and Guienne were already at
Fort Frontenac. B^arn was at Niagara, whence it
arrived in a few days, much buffeted by the storms
of Lake Ontario. On the fourth of August all was
ready. Montcalm embarked at night with the first
division, crossed in darkness to Wolf Island, lay
there hidden all day, and embarking again in the
evening, joined Rigaud at Niaour^ Bay at seven
o'clock in the morning of the sixth. The second
division followed, -vidth provisions, hospital train, and
eighty artillery boats; and on the eighth aU were
united at the bay. On the ninth Rigaud, covered
by the umversal forest, marched in advance to protect
the landing of the tioops. Montcalm followed with
the first division; and, coasting the shore in bateaux,
landed at midmght of the tenth within half a league
of the first English fort. Four cannon were planted
in battery upon the strand, and the men bivouacked
by their boats. So sMlful were the assailants and so
careless the assailed that the EngUsh knew notMng
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Resume des Nouvelles du
Canada, Septembre, 1756.

1756.] MONTCALM ATTACKS IT. 97
of their danger, till in the morning, a reconnoitring
canoe discovered the invaders. Two armed vessels
soon came to cannonade them ; but their light guns
were no match for the hea-vy artillery of the French,
and they were forced to keep the offing.
Descombles, the engineer, went before da-wn to
reconnoitie the fort, with several other officers and a
party of Indians. While he was thus employed, one
¦of these savages, hungry for scalps, took him in the
gloom for an EngUshman, and shot him dead. Cap
tain Pouchot, of the battalion of B^am, replaced
him; and the attack was pushed -vigorously. The
Canadians and Indians, swarming through the forest,
fired all day on the fort under cover of the trees.
The second division came up with twenty-two more
cannon; and at night the first parallel was marked
out at a hundred and eighty yards from the rampart.
Stumps were grubbed up, faUen trunks shoved
aside, and a trench dug, sheltered by fascines,
gabions, 'and a stiong abattis.
Fort Ontario, counted as the best of the three forts
at Oswego, stood on a high plateau at the east or
right side of the river where it entered the lake. It
was in the shape of a star, and was formed of trunks
of trees set upright in the ground, hewn flat on
two sides, and closely fitted together, — an excellent
defence against musketry or swivels, but worthless
against cannon. The garrison, tMee hundred and
seventy in all, were the remnant of Pepperrell's regi
ment, joined to raw recruits lately sent up to fill the

98 OSWEGO. [1756.
places of the sick and dead. They had eight small
• cannon and a mortar, with which on the next day,
Friday, the thirteenth, they kept up a brisk fire till
towards night; when, after growing more rapid for a
time, it ceased, and the fort showed no sign of life.
Not a cannon had yet opened on them from the
trenches; but it was certain that with the French
artillery once in action, their wooden rampart would
be shivered to splinters. Hence it was that Colonel
Mercer, commandant at Oswego, thinkmg it better
to lose the fort than to lose both fort and garrison,
signalled to them from across the river to abandon
their position and join him on the other side. Boats
were sent to bring them off ; and they passed over
unmolested, after spiMng their cannon and firing
off their ammunition or thro-wing it into the well.
The fate of Oswego was now sealed. The prin
cipal work, called Old Oswego, or Fort PepperreU,
stood at the mouth of the river on the west side,
nearly opposite Fort Ontario, and less than five hun
dred yards distant from it. The trading-house, which
formed the centre of the place, was built of rough
stone laid in clay, and the wall which enclosed it was
of the same materials; both would crumble in an
instant at the touch of a twelve-pound shot. Towards
the West and South they had been protected by an
outer line of earthworks, mounted with cannon, and
forming an intienched camp ; while the side towards
Fort Ontario was left wholly exposed, in the rash
confidence that this work, standing on the opposite

1756.] ITS CONDITION. 99
heights, would guard against attack from that quarter.
On a Mil, a fourth of a mile beyond Old Oswego,.
stood the unfinished stockade called New Oswego,,
Fort George, or, by reason of its worthlessness. Fort
Rascal. It had served as a cattle-pen before the
French appeared, but was now occupied by a hundred
and fifty Jersey provmcials. Old Oswego with its
outwork was held by Shirley's regiment, chiefly
invalids and raw recruits, to whom were now joined
the garrison of Fort Ontario and a number of sailors,
boatmen, and laborers.
Montcalm lost no time. As soon as darkness set
in he began a battery at the brink of the height on
wMch stood the captured fort. His whole force
toUed aU night, digging, setting gabions, and drag-
gmg up cannon, some of which had been taken from
Braddock. Before daybreak twenty heavy pieces
had been brought to the spot, and Mne were already
in position. The work had been so rapid that the
EngUsh imagined their enemies to number six thou
sand at least. The battery soon opened fire. Grape
and round shot swept the intienchment and crashed
through the rotten masonry. The English, says a
French officer, " were exposed to their shoe-buckles. "
Their artiUery was pointed the wrong way, in expec
tation of an attack, not from the east, but from the
west. They now made a shelter of pork-barrels,
tMee Mgh and tMee deep, planted cannon behind
them, and returned the French fire -with some effect.
Early in the mormng Montcalm had ordered Rigaud

100 OSWEGO. [1756.
to cross the river -with the Canadians and Indians.
There was a ford tMee quarters of a league above the
forts ;^ and here they passed over unopposed, the
EngUsh not having discovered the movement. ^ The
only danger was from the river. Some of the men
were forced to swim, others waded to the waist, and
others to the neck; but they all crossed safely, and
presently showed themselves at the edge of the woods,
yeUing and firing their guns, too far for much execu
tion, but not too far to discourage the garrison.
The garrison were already disheartened. Colonel
Mercer, the soul of the defence, had just been cut in
two by a cannon-shot wMle directing the gunners.
Up to this time the defenders had behaved with
spirit; but despair now seized them, increased by the
screams and entreaties of the women, of whom there
were more than a hundred in the place. There was
a council of officers, and then the wMte flag was
raised. Bougainville went to propose terms of capitu
lation. "The cries, threats, and Mdeous bowlings
of our Canadians and Indians," says Vaudreuil,
"made them quickly decide." "This," observes the
Reverend Father Claude Godefroy Cocquard, "re
minds me of the fall of Jericho before the shouts of
the Israelites." The English surrendered prisoners
of war, to the number, according to the governor, of
sixteen hundred,' wMch included the sailors, laborers,
^ Bougainville, Journal. 2 Pouchot, i. 76.
8 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 Aout, 1756. He elsewhere makes the
number somewhat greater. That the garrison, exclusive of civ-

1756.] ITS CAPTURE. 101
and women. The Canadians and Indians broke
through aU restraint, and fell to plundering. There
was an opening of rum-barrels and a scene of drunk
enness, in which some of the prisoners had their
share ; while others tried to escape in the confusion,
and were tomahawked by the excited savages. Many
more would have been butchered, but for the efforts
of Montcalm, who by unstinted promises succeeded
in appeasing Ms ferocious allies, whom he dared not
offend. " It will cost the King, " he says, " eight or
ten thousand li-vres in presents." ^
The loss on both sides is variously given. By the
most trustworthy accounts, that of the English did
not reach fifty killed, and that of the French was still
less. In the forts and vessels were found above a
hundred pieces of artiUery, most of them s-wivels and
other light guns, -with a large quantity of powder,
shot, and shell. The -victors burned the forts and
the vessels on the stocks, destroyed such provisions
and stores as they could not carry away, and made
the place a desert. The priest Piquet, who had
joined the expedition, planted amid the ruin a tall
ilians, did not exceed at the utmost fourteen hundred, is shown by
Shirley to Loudon, 5 September, 1756. Loudon had charged Shirley
with leaving Oswego weakly garrisoned ; and Shirley replies by
alleging that the troops there -vrere in number as above. It was of
course his interest to make them appear as numerous as possible.
In the printed Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated, they
are put at only ten hundred and fifty.
1 Several English writers say, however, that fifteen or twenty
young men were given up to the Indians to be adopted in place of
warriors lately killed.

102 OSWEGO. [1756.
cross, graven -with the words. In hoc signo vincunt;
and near it was set a pole bearing the arms of France,
with the inscription, Manihus date lilia plenis. Then
the army decamped, loaded with prisoners and spoil,
descended to Montreal, hung the captured flags in the
churches, and sang Te Deum in honor of their tiiumph.
It was the greatest that the French arms had yet
achieved in America. The defeat of Braddock was
an Indian victory; this last exploit was the result of
bold enterprise and skilful tactics. With its laurels
came its frmts. Hated Oswego had been laid m
ashes, and the would-be assailants forced to a vain
and hopeless defence. France had conquered the
undisputed command of Lake Ontario, and her com
munications -with the West were safe. A small gar
rison at Niagara and another at Frontenac would
now hold those posts against any effort that the Eng
Ush could make this year; and the whole French
force could concentiate at Ticonderoga, repel the
threatened attack, and perhaps retort it by seizmg
Albany. If the EngUsh, on the other side, had lost
a great material advantage, they had lost no less in
honor. The news of the surrender was received with
mdignation in England and in the colonies. Yet
the behavior of the garrison was not so discreditable
as it seemed. The position was indefensible, and
they could have held out at best but a few days more.
They yielded too soon; but unless Webb had come
to their aid, which was not to be expected, they
must have yielded at last.

1756.] RESULTS OF ITS FALL. 103
The -French had scarcely gone, when two English
scouts, Thomas Harris and James Conner, came with
a party of Indians to the scene of desolation. The
ground was stre-wn with broken casks and bread
sodden with rain. The remains of burnt bateaux
and whaleboats were scattered along the shore. The
great stone tiading-house in the old fort was a smok
ing ruin ; Fort Rascal was still burning on the neigh
boring hill; Fort Ontario was a mass of ashes and
charred logs, and by it stood two poles on which
were written words which the visitors did not under
stand. They went back to Fort Johnson with their
story ; and Oswego reverted for a time to the bears,
foxes, and wolves.^
1 On the capture of Oswego, the authorities examined have been
very numerous, and only the best need be named. Livre d' Ordres,
Campagne de 1756, contains all orders from headquarters. Memoire
pour servir d'Instruction a M. le Marquis de Montcalm, 21 Juillet, 1756,
signe Vaudreuil. Bougainville, Journal. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Juin,
1756 (designs against Oswego). Ibid., 13 Aout, 1755. Ibid., 30 Aout.
Pouchot, i. 67-81. Relation de la Prise des Forts de Chouaguen. Bigot
au Ministre, 3 Septembre, 1756. Journal du Siege de Chouaguen.
Precis des £venements, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756.
Ibid., 28 Aout, 1756. Desandrouins a  , meme date. Montcalm a sa
Femme, 30 Aout. Translations of several of the above papers, along
with others less important, will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., x.,
and Doc. Hist. N Y., i.
State of Facts relating to the Loss of Oswego, in London Magazine
for 1757, p. 14. Correspondence of Shirley. Correspondence of Loudon.
Littlehales to Loudon, 30 August, 1756. Hardy to Lords of Trade, 5
September, 1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated.
Declaration of some Soldiers of Shirley's Regiment, in N. Y. Col. Docs.,
vii. 126. Letter from an officer present, in Boston Evening Post of
16 May, 1757. The published plans and drawings of Oswego at this
time are very inexact.

CHAPTER Xin.
1756, 1757.
PARTISAN WAE.
Failure op Shirley's Plan. — Causes. — Loudon and Shirley.
— Close of the Campaign. — The Western Border. — Arm
strong destroys Kittanning. — The Scouts of Lake
George. — War-parties prom Ticonderoga. — Robert
Rogers. — The Rangers: their Hardihood and Daring. —
Disputes as to Quarters op Troops. — Expedition op
Rogers. — A Desperate Bush-fight. — Enterprise op Vau
dreuil. — Rigaud attacks Fort William Henry.
Shirley's grand scheme for cutting New France in
twain had come to -wreck. There was an element of
boyishness in him. He made bold plans -without
weighing too closely Ms means of executing them.
The year's campaign would in all likeUhood have suc
ceeded if he could have acted promptly; if he had
had ready to his hand a well-ti-ained and well-officered
force, furnished -with material of war and means of
transportation, and prepared to move as soon as the
streams and lakes of New York were open, while
those of Canada were stUl sealed with ice. But
timely action was out of his power. The army that
should have moved in April was not ready to move

1756.] CAUSES OF SHIRLEY'S FAILURE. 105
tiU August. Of the nine discordant semi-republics
whom he asked to join in the work, three or four
refused, some of the others were lukewarm, and all
were slow. Even Massachusetts, usually the fore
most, failed to get aU her men into the field tUl the
season was nearly ended. Ha-ving no military estab
lishment, the colonies were forced to improvise a
new army for every campaign. Each of them
watched its neighbors, or, jealous lest it should do
more than its just share, waited for them to begin.
Each popular assembly acted under the eye of a fru
gal constituency, who, having Uttle money, were as
chary of it as their descendants are lavish ; and most
of them were shaken by mternal conflicts, more ab
sorbing than the great question on wMch hung the
fate of the continent. Only the four New England
colonies were fuUy earnest for the war, and one, even
of these, was ready to use the crisis as a means of
extorting concessions from its governor in return
for grants of money and men. When the lagging
contingents came together at last, under a com
mander whom none of them trusted, they were met
by strategical difficulties wMch would have perplexed
older soldiers and an abler general ; for they were
forced to act on the circumference of a vast semi
circle, m a labyrinth of forests, -without roads, and
choked with every Mnd of obstruction.
Opposed to them was a tiained army, weU organ
ized and commanded, focused at Montreal, and- mov-
mg for attack or defence on two radiating lines, — •

106 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
one towards Lake Ontario, and the other towards
Lake Champlain, — supported by a martial peasan-.
try, supplied from France with money and material,
dependent on no popular vote, having no will but
that of its chief, and ready on the instant to stiike
to right or left as the need reqmred. It was a
compact miUtary absolutism confronting a hetero
geneous group of industrial democracies, where the
force of numbers was neutralized by diffusion and
incoherence. A long and dismal apprenticesMp
waited them before they could hope for success ; nor
could they ever put forth their full strength without
a radical change of political conditions and an awak
ened consciousness of common interests and a com
mon cause. It was the sense of powerlessness arising
from the want of miion that, after the fall of Oswego,
spread alarm through the northern and middle colonies,
and drew these despondmg words from William
Livingston, of New Jersey : " The colonies are nearly
exhausted, and their funds aUeady anticipated by
expensive unexecuted projects. Jealous are they of
each other; some ill-constituted, others shaken -with
intestine di-visions, and, if I may be aUowed the
expression, parsimomous even to prodigality. Our
assemblies are diffident of their governors, governors
despise their assembUes ; and both mutually misrep
resent each other to the Court of Great Britain."
Military measures, he proceeds, demand secrecy and
despatch ; but when so many divided pro-vinces must
agree to join in them, secrecy and despatch are

1756.] LOUDON AND SHIRLEY. 107
impossible. In conclusion he exclaims: "Canada
must be demolished, — Belenda est Carthago, — or we
are undone."^ But Loudon was not Scipio, and cis-
Atlantic Carthage was to stand for some time longer.
The earl, in search of a scapegoat for the loss of
Oswego, naturaUy chose Shirley, attacked Mm
savagely, told Mm that he was of no use in America,
and ordered him to go home to England -without
delay. 2 SMrley, who was then in Boston, answered
this indecency -with dignity and effect.^ The chief
fault was -with Loudon himself, whose late arrival in
America had caused a change of command and of
plans in the crisis of the campaign. SMrley well
knew the weakness of Oswego; and in early spring
had sent two engmeers to make it defensible, with
particular instiuctions to strengthen Fort Ontario.*
But they, thinking that the chief danger lay on the
west and south, turned aU their attention thither,
and neglected Ontario tiU it was too late. SMrley
was about to reinforce Oswego with a strong body of
troops when the arrival of Abercrombie took the con
tiol out of his hands and caused niinous delay. He
cannot, however, be acqmtted of mismanagement in
faiUng to supply the place -with wholesome provisions
1 Review of Military Operations, 187, 189 (Dublin, 1757).
2 Loudon to Shirley, 6 September, 1756.
* The correspondence on both sides is before me, copied from
the originals in the Public Record Office.
* " The principal thing for which I sent Mr. MackeUar to Oswego
was to strengthen Eort Ontario as much as he possibly could." —
Shirley to Loudon, 4 September, 1756.

108 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
m the precedmg autumn, before the stieams were
stopped -with ice. Hence came the ravages of disease
and famine wMch, before spring, reduced the garri
son to a hundred and forty effective men. Yet there
can be no doubt that the change of command was a
blunder. This is the -view of Franklin, who knew
Shirley well, and thus speaks of Mm : " He would in
my opiMon, if continued in place, have made a much
better campaign than that of Loudon, which was
frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our nation
beyond conception. For though SMrley was not
bred a soldier, he was sensible and sagacious in him
self, and attentive to good advice from others, capable
of forming judicious plans, and quick and active in
carrying them mto execution."^ He sailed for
England in the autumn, disappointed and poor; the
bull-headed Duke of Cumberland had been deeply
prejudiced against Mm, and it was only after long
waiting that tMs stienuous champion of British
interests was rewarded in Ms old age with the
petty government of the Bahamas.
Loudon had now about ten thousand men at his
command, though not aU fit for duty. They were
posted from Albany to Lake George. The earl him
self was at Fort Edward, while about tMee thousand
of the pro-vincials stiU lay, under Winslow, at the
lake. Montcalm faced them at Ticonderoga, -with
five thousand three hundred regulars and Canadians,
m a position where they could defy three times their
1 Works of Franklin, i. 22a

1756.] THE WESTERN BORDERS. 109
number.! "The sons of Belial are too stiong for
me," jocosely wrote Winslow ;2 and he set Mmself to
intrencMng his camp ; then had the forest cut do-wn
for the space of a mile from the lake to the moun
tains, so that the tiees, lymg in what he calls a
"promiscuous manner," formed an almost impene-
tiable abatis. An escaped prisoner told him that the
French were coming to -visit him with fourteen thou
sand men ; ^ but Montcalm thought no more of stir
ring than Loudon himself ; and each stood watching
the other, with the lake between them, till the season
closed. Meanwhile the western borders were still ravaged
by the tomahawk. New York, New Jersey, Penn
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia all -writhed under
the infliction. Each had made a chain of block
houses and wooden forts to cover its frontier, and
manned them -with disorderly bands, lawless, and
almost beyond control.* The case was at the worst
in Pennsylvania, where the tedious quarreUing of
governor and Assembly, joined to the doggedly pacific
attitude of the Quakers, made vigorous defence
impossible. Rewards were offered for prisoners and
scalps, so bountiful that the hunting of men would
1 "Nous sommes taut h Carillon qu'aux postes avanefe 5,300
hommes." — Bougainville, Journal.
2 Winslow to Loudon, 29 September, 1756.
8 Examination of Sergeant James Archibald.
* In the Public Record Offlce, America and West Indies, Ixxxii.,
is a manuscript map showing the positions of such of these posts as
were north of -Virginia. They are thirty-five in number, from the
head of James River to a point west of Esopus, on the Hudson.

110 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
have been a profitable vocation, but for the extreme
wariness and agility of the game.^ Some of the forts
were weU-bmlt stockades ; others were almost worth
less ; but the enemy rarely molested even the feeblest
of them, preferrmg to ravage the lonely and unpro
tected farms. There were two or three exceptions.
A Virguiian fort was attacked by a war-party under
an officer named Dou-ville, who was MUed, and his
followers were put to ffight.^ The assaUants were
more fortunate at a smaU stockade caUed Fort Gran
ville, on the Juniata. A large body of French and
Indians attacked it in August while most of the gar
rison were absent protecting the farmers at their
harvest; they set it on fire, and, in spite of a most
gallant resistance by the young lieutenant left m
command, took it, and MUed all but one of the
defenders.^ What sort of resistance the Pennsylvanian borderers
would have made under political circumstances less
adverse may be inferred from an exploit of Colonel
John Armstiong, a settler of Cumberland. After
the loss of Fort Granville the governor of the province
sent Mm with three hundred men to attack the
Delaware to-wn of Kittanning, a populous nest of
savages on the Alleghany, between the two French
posts of Duquesne and Venango. Here most of the

1 Colonial Records of Pa., vii. 76.
2 Washington to Morris, — April, 1756.
2 Colonial Records qf Pa., vii. 232, 242 ; Pennsylvania Archives,
ii. 744.

1756.] ATTACK ON KITTANNING. Ill
war-parties were fitted out, and the place was full of
stores and munitions furmshed by the French. Here,
too, Uved the redoubted cMef called Captain Jacobs,
the terror of the EngUsh border. Armstrong set out
from Fort Shirley, the farthest outpost, on the last
of August, and, a week after, was within six miles
of the Indian to-wn. By rapid marching and rare
good luck, his party had escaped discovery. It was
ten o'clock at night, with a bright moon. The
guides were perplexed, and knew neither the exact
position of the place nor the paths that led to it.
The adventurers threaded the forest in single file,
over hills and through hollows, bewildered and
anxious, stopping to watch and listen. At length
they heard in the distance the beating of an Indian
drum and the whooping of warriors in the war-dance.
Guided by the sounds, they cautiously moved for
ward, tiU those in the front, scrambling down a rocky
Mil, found themselves on the banks of the Alleghany,
about a hundred rods below Kittanning. The moon
was near setting ; but they could dimly see the to-wn
beyond a great intervening field of corn. " At that
moment," says Armstrong, "an Indian whistled in a
very singular manner, about thirty perches from our
front, in the foot of the cornfield. " He thought they
were discovered; but one Baker, a soldier well versed
in Indian ways, told him that it was only some village
gallant calling to a young squaw. The party then
crouched in the bushes, and kept silent. The moon
sank behind the woods, and fires soon glimmered

112 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
through the field, kindled to drive off mosquitoes by
some of the Indians who, as the mght was warm,
had come out to sleep in the open air. The eastern
sky began to redden with the approach of day. Many
of the party, spent with a rough march of thirty
miles, had fallen asleep. They were now cautiously
roused; and Armstrong ordered nearly half of them
to make their way along the ridge of a bushy Mil that
overlooked the to-wn, till they came opposite to it, m
order to place it between two fires. Twenty minutes
were aUowed them for the movement; but they lost
their way in the dusk, and reached their station too
late. When the time had expired, Armstiong gave
the signal to those left -with him, who dashed into
the cornfield, shooting do-wn the astonished savages
or driving them into the village, where they turned
and made desperate fight.
It was a cluster of thirty log-cabins, the principal
being that of the cMef, Jacobs, wMch was loopholed
for musketry, and became the centre of resistance.
The fight was hot and stubborn. Armstrong ordered
the town to be set on fire, wMch was done, though
not -without loss ; for the Delawares at this time were
commoMy armed with rifles, and used them well.
Armstiong himself was hit in the shoulder. As the
flames rose and the smoke grew tMck, a warrior in
one of the houses sang his death-song, and a squaw
in the same house was heard to cry and scream.
Rough voices silenced her, and then the inmates
burst out, but were instantly Mlled. The fire caught

1756.] KITTANNING DESTROYED. 113
the house of Jacobs, who, trying to escape through
an opemng in the roof, was shot dead. Bands of
Indians were gathering beyond the river, firing from
the other bank, and even crossing to help their com
rades ; but the assailants held to their work till the
whole place was destroyed. " During the burning of
the houses," says Armstrong, "we were agreeably
entertained by the quick succession of charged guns,
gradually firing off as reached by the fire ; but much
more so with the vast explosion of sundry bags and
large kegs of gunpowder, wherewith almost every
house abounded; the prisoners afterwards informing
us that the Indians had frequently said they had a
sufficient stock of ammumtion for ten years' war
-vrith the EngUsh."
These prisoners were eleven men, women, and
children, captured in the border settlements, and now
delivered by their countrymen. The day was far
spent when the party withdrew, carrying their
wounded on Indian horses, and moving perforce with
extieme slowness, though expectmg an attack every
moment. None took place; and they reached the
settlements at last, having bought their success with
the loss of seventeen killed and thirteen wounded. ^
A medal was given to each officer, not by the

1 Report of Armstrong to Governor Denny, 14 September, 1756, in
Colonial Records of Pa., vii. 257, — a modest, yet very minute
account. A List of the Names of the Persons killed, wounded, and
missing in the late Expedition against the Kittanning. Hazard, Pennsyl
vania Register, i. 366.
VOL. II. — 8

114 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
Quaker-ridden Assembly, but by the city council of
Philadelphia. The report of this affair made by Dumas, com
mandant at Fort Duquesne, is worth noting. He
says that Attiqu^, the French name of Kittanmng,
was attacked by "le G^n^ral Wachinton," with three
or four hundred men on horseback ; that the Indians
gave way ; but that five or six Frenchmen who were
in the to-wn held the English in check till the fugi
tives rallied ; that Washington and his men then took
to flight, and would have been pursued but for the
loss of some barrels of gunpowder which chanced to
explode during the action. Dumas adds that several
large parties are now on the track of the enemy, and
he hopes will cut them to pieces. He then asks for
a supply of provisions and merchandise to replace
those which the Indians of Attiqu^ had lost by a
fire.! Like other officers of the day, he would admit
nothing but successes in the department under his
command. Vaudreuil -wrote singular despatches at this time
to the minister at Versailles. He takes credit to
himself for the number of war-parties that his officers
kept always at work, and fiUs page after page -with
details of the coups they had struck; how one
brought in two EngUsh scalps, another three, another
one, and another seven. He owns that they com
mitted frightful cruelties, mutilating and sometimes
1 Dumas a Vaudreuil, 9 Septembre, 1756, cited in Bigot au Ministre,
6 Octobre, 1756, and in Bougainville, Journal.

1756.] THE SCOUTS OF LAKE GEORGE. 115
burmng their prisoners; but he expresses no regret^
and probably felt none, since he declares that the-
object of this murderous warfare was to punish the^
English till they longed for peace.^
The waters and mountains of Lake George, and
not the western borders, were the chief centie of
partisan war. Ticonderoga was a hornet's nest,
pouring out swarms of savages to infest the highways
and byways of the wilderness. The EngUsh at Fort
William Henry, having few Indians, could not retort
in Mnd; but they kept their scouts and rangers in
active movement. What they most coveted was
prisoners, as sources of information. One Kennedy,
a Ueutenant of pro-vincials, -with five followers, white
and red, made a march of rare audacity, passed all
the French posts, took a scalp and two prisoners on
the Richelieu, and burned a magazine of provisions
between Montieal and St. John. The party were
near famishing on the way back; and Kennedy was
brought into Fort WiUiam Henry in a state of tem
porary msanity from starvation.^ Other pro-vincial
officers, Peabody, Hazen, Waterbury, and Miller,
won a certain distinction in tMs adventurous service,
though few were so conspicuous as the blunt and
sturdy Israel Putnam. Winslow writes in October
that he has just returned from the best " scout " yet
made, and that, being a man of strict truth, he may
1 Depeches de Vaudreuil, 1756.
2 Minute of Lieutenant Kennedy's Scout. Winslow to Loudon, 20
September, 1756.

116 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
be entirely trusted. ^ Putnam had gone with six
followers do-wn Lake George in a whaleboat to a
point on the east side, opposite the present -village of
Hague, hid the boat, crossed northeasterly to Lake
Champlain, three miles from the French fort, cUmbed
the mountain that overlooks it, and made a complete
reconnoissance ; then approached it, chased three
Frenchmen, who escaped -within the lines, climbed
the mountain again, and moving westward along the
ridge, made a minute survey of every outpost between
the fort and Lake George. ^ These adventures were
not always fortunate. On the mneteenth of Septem
ber Captain Hodges and fifty men were ambushed^a
few miles from Fort William Henry by thrice their
number of Canadians and Indians, and only six
escaped. Thus the record stands in the Letter Booh
of Winslow.^ By visiting the encampments of
Ticonderoga, one may learn how the blow was
struck. After much persuasion, much feasting, and much
consumption of tobacco and brandy, four hundred
Indians, Christians from the missions and heathen
from the far West, were persuaded to go on a grand
war-party with the Canadians. Of these last there
were a hundred, — a wild crew, bedecked and be
daubed like their Indian companions. Peri^re, an
^ Winslow to Loudon, 16 October, 1756.
'^ Report of a Scout to Ticonderoga, October, 1756, signed Israel
Putnam. ^ Compare Massachusetts Archives, Ixxvi. 81.

1756.] A WAR-PARTY. 117
officer of colony regulars, had nominal command of
the whole; and among the leaders of the Canadians
was the famous bush-fighter, Marin. BougainviUe
was also of the party. In the evening of the six
teenth they all embarked m canoes at the French
advance-post commanded by Contrecceur, near the
present steamboat-landing, passed m the gloom under
the bare steeps of Rogers Rock, paddled a few hours,
landed on the west shore, and sent scouts to recon
noitie. These came back with their reports on the
next day, and an Indian crier called the chiefs to
council. BougainviUe describes them as they stalked
gravely to the place of meeting, -wrapped in colored
blankets, -with lances in their hands. The accom
plished young aide-de-camp studied his strange
compamons -with an interest not unmixed with dis
gust. "Of all caprice," he says, "Indian caprice is
the most capricious." They were insolent to the
French, made rules for them which they did not
observe themselves, and compelled the whole party
to move when and whither they pleased. Hiding the
canoes, and lying close m the forest by day, they all
held their nocturnal course southward, by the lofty
heights of Black Mountain, and among the islets of
the Narrows, till the eighteenth. That night the
Indian scouts reported that they had seen the fires of
an encampment on the west shore; on wMch the
whole party advanced to the attack, an hour before
dawn, Sling silently under the dark arches of the
forest, the Indians nearly naked, and streaked with

118 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
their war-paint of vermilion and soot. When they
reached the spot, they found only the smouldering
fires of a deserted bivouac. Then there was a con
sultation; ending, after much dispute, with the
choice by the Indians of a hundred and ten of their
most active warriors to attempt some stroke in the
neighborhood of the EngUsh fort. Marm joined
them with tMrty Canadians, and they set out on
their errand; while the rest encamped to await the
result. At night the adventurers returned, raising
the death-cry and firing their guns; somewhat de
pressed by losses they had suffered, but boastmg that
they had surprised fifty-three EngUsh, and killed or
taken all but one. It was a modest and perhaps an
involuntary exaggeration. " The very recital of the
cruelties they committed on the battlefield is hor
rible," writes Bougain-ville. " The ferocity and inso
lence of these black-souled barbarians makes one
shudder. It is an abominable kind of war. The air
one breathes is contagious of insensibility and hard
ness."^ TMs was but one of many such parties sent
out from Ticonderoga tMs year.
Early in September a band of New England rangers
came to Winslow's camp, with three prisoners taken
within the lines of Ticonderoga. Their captam was
Robert Rogers, of New HampsMre, — a strong, well-
knit figure, in dress and appearance more woodsman
than soldier, with a clear, bold eye, and features that
would have been good but for the ungainly propor-
1 BougainviUe, Journal.

1756.] ROBERT ROGERS. 119
tions of the nose.^ He had passed his boyhood in the
rough surroundings of a frontier vUlage. Growing
to manhood, he engaged in some occupation which,
he says, led him to frequent journeyings m the wil
derness between the French and English settlements,
and gave Mm a good knowledge of both.^ It taught
him also to speak a little French. He does not dis
close the nature of this mysterious employment; but
there can be little doubt that it was a smuggling
trade -with Canada. His character leaves much to be
desired. He had been charged with forgery, or com-
pUcity in it, seems to have had no scruple in matters
of business, and after the war was accused of treason
able dealings with the French and Spaniards in the
West.^ He was ambitious and violent, yet able in
more ways than one, by no means uneducated, and
so sMlled in woodcraft, so energetic and resolute,
that Ms services were invaluable. In recounting his
o-wn adventures, Ms style is direct, simple, -without
boastmg, and to all appearance without exaggeration.
During the past summer he had raised a band of
men, chiefly New Hampshire borderers, and made a
series of daring excursions which gave him a promi
nent place in this hardy by-play of war. In the
spring of the present year he raised another company,
1 A large engraved portrait of him, nearly at full length, is
before me, printed at London' in 1776.
^ Rogers, Journals, Introduction (1765).
* Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, vi. 364. Correspondence of
Gage, 1766. N Y. Col. Docs., vii. 990. Caleb Stark, Memoir and
Correspondence of John Stark, 386.

120 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
and was commissioned as its captain, -with his brother
Richard as his first lieutenant, and the intrepid John
Stark as Ms second. In July still another company
was formed, and Richard Rogers was promoted to
command it. Before the following spring there v/ere
seven such ; and more were afterwards added, form
ing a battalion dispersed on various ser-vice, but all
under the orders of Robert Rogers, with the rank of
major. ^ These rangers wore a sort of woodland uni
form, wMch varied m the different companies, and
were armed with smooth-bore guns, loaded -with
buckshot, bullets, or sometimes both.
The best of them were commonly employed on
Lake George; and nothing can surpass the adven
turous hardihood of their lives. Summer and wmter,
day and night, were alike to them. Embarked in
whaleboats or birch canoes, they glided under the
silent moon or in the languid glare of a breathless
August day, Avhen islands floated m dreamy haze,
and the hot air was thick -with odors of the pine ; or
in the bright October, when the jay screamed from
the woods, squirrels gathered their winter hoard, and
congregated blackbirds chattered farewell to their
summer haunts; when gay mountains basked in
light, maples dropped leaves of rustUng gold, sumachs
glowed Uke rubies under the dark green of the
unchanging spruce, and mossed rocks with all their
painted plumage lay double m the watery mirror;
* Rogers, Journals. Report of the Adjutant-General of New Hamp
shire (1866), ii. 158, 159.

1756.] THE RANGERS. 121
that festal evemng of the year, when jocund Nature
disrobes herself, to wake again refreshed in the joy
of her undying spring. Or, in the tomb-like silence
of the winter forest, -with breath frozen on his beard,
the ranger stiode on snow-shoes over the spotiess
drifts; and, like Diirer's knight, a ghastly death
stalked ever at his side. There were those among
them for whom this stern life had a fascination
that made aU other existence tame.
Rogers and his men had been in active movement
since midwinter. In January they skated down
Lake George, passed Ticonderoga, hid themselves by
the forest road between that post and Crown Point,
intercepted two sledges loaded with provisions, and
carried the drivers to Fort William Henry. In
February they climbed a hill near Cro-wn Point and
made a plan of the works ; then lay in ambush by the
road from the fort to the neighboring -village, captured
a prisoner, burned houses and barns, killed fifty
cattle, and returned -without loss. At the end of the
month they went again to Crown Point, burned more
houses and barns, and reconnoitred Ticonderoga on
the way back. Such excursions were repeated
throughout the spring and summer. The reconnois
sance of Ticonderoga and the catching of prisoners
there for the sake of information were always capital
objects. The valley, four miles in extent, that lay
between the foot of Lake George and the French fort,
was at this time guarded by four distinct outposts or
fortified camps. Watched as it was at all points, and

122 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
ranged incessantly by Indians in the employ of
France, Rogers and his men knew every yard of the
ground. On a morning in May he lay in ambush
with eleven followers on a path between the fort and
the nearest camp. A large body of soldiers passed ;
the rangers counted a hundred and eighteen, and lay
close in their hiding-place. Soon after came a party
of twenty-two. They fired on them, Mlled six,
captured one, and escaped -with him to Fort William
Henry. In October Rogers was passing -with twenty
men in two whaleboats through the seeming solitude
of the Narrows when a voice called to them out of
the woods. It was that of Captain Shepherd, of the
New Hampshire regiment, who had been captured
two months before, and had lately made Ms escape.
He told them that the French had the fullest infor
mation of the numbers and movements of the Eng
Ush ; that letters often reached them from witMn the
EngUsh lines; and that Lydius, a Dutch trader at
Albany, was their principal correspondent.^ Arriv-
mg at Ticonderoga, Rogers cautiously approached
the fort, till, about noon, he saw a sentinel on the
road leading thence to the woods. Followed by five
of his men, he walked directly towards him. The
man challenged, and Rogers answered in French.
Perplexed for a moment, the soldier suffered Mm to

1 Letter and Order Books of Winslow. " One Lydiass . . . whom
we suspect for a French spy ; he lives better than anybody, -without
any visible means, and his daughters have had often presents from
Mr. Vaudreuil." — Loudon (to Fox ?), 19 August, 1756.

1756.] EXPLOITS OF ROGERS. 123
approach; till, seeing his mistake, he called out in
amazement, ^^ Qui ites vous?" "Rogers," was the
answer ; and the sentinel was seized, led in hot haste
to the boats, and carried to the English fort, where
he gave important information.
An exploit of Rogers towards midsummer greatly
perplexed the French. He embarked at the end of
June with fifty men in five whaleboats, made light
and strong, expressly for this ser-vice, rowed about
ten miles down Lake George, landed on the east side,
carried the boats six miles over a gorge of the moun
tains, launched them again in South Bay, and rowed
down the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain
under cover of darkness. At dawn they were within
six miles of Ticonderoga. They landed, hid their
boats, and lay close all day. Embarking again in
the evening, they rowed -with muffled oars under the
shadow of the eastern shore, and passed so close to
the French fort that they heard the voices of the
sentinels calling the watchword. In the morning
they had left it five miles behind. Again they hid
in the woods; and from their lurMng-place saw
bateaux passing, some northward, and some south
ward, along the narrow lake. Crown Point was ten
or twelve miles farther on. They tried to pass it
after nightfall, but the sky was too clear and the stars
too bright; and as they lay hidden the next day,
nearly a hundred boats passed before them on the
way to Ticonderoga. Some other boats which
appeared about noon landed near them, and they

124 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
watched the soldiers at dinner, witMn a musket-shot
of their lurMng-place. The next night was more
favorable. They embarked at nine in the evening,
passed Crown Point unseen, and hid themselves as
before, ten miles below. It was the seventh of July.
Thirty boats and a schooner passed them, returning
towards Canada. On the next mght they rowed
fifteen miles farther, and then sent men to recon
noitie, who reported a schooner at anchor about a
mile off. They were preparing to board her, when
two sloops appeared, coming up the lake at but a
short distance from the land. They gave them a
volley, and called on them to surrender; but the
crews put off in boats and made for the opposite
shore. They followed and seized them. Out of
twelve men their fire had killed tiiree and wounded
two, one of whom, says Rogers in his report, " could
not march, therefore we put an end to him, to pre
vent discovery."^ They sank the vessels, wMch
were laden -with wine, brandy, and flour, hid their
boats on the west shore, and returned on foot with
their prisoners.^
Some weeks after, Rogers returned to the place
where he had left the boats, embarked in them,
1 Report of Rogers to Sir William Johnson, July, 1756. This inci
dent is suppressed in the printed Journals, which merely say that
the man " soon died."
2 Rogers, Journals, 20. Shirley to Cox, 26 July, 1756. "This
afternoon Capt. Rogers came down -with 4 scalps and 8 prisoners
which he took on Lake Champlain, between 20 and 30 miles
beyond Crown Point." — Surgeon Williams to his Wife, 16 July,
1756.

1756.] PERPLEXITY OF THE FRENCH. 125
reconnoitred the lake nearly to St. John, hid them
again eight miles north of Crown Point, took three
prisoners near that post, and carried them to Fort
William Henry. In the next month the French
found several English boats in a small cove north of
Crown Point. Bougainville propounds five different
hypotheses to account for their being there; and
exploring parties were sent out in the vam attempt
to find some water passage by which they could
have reached the spot without passing under the
guns of two French forts.^
The French, on their side, still kept their war-
parties in motion, and Vaudreuil faithfully chronicled
in his despatches every English scalp they brought
m. He beUeved m Indians, and sent them to Ticon
deroga in numbers that were sometimes embarrass
ing. Even Pottawattamies from Lake Michigan were
prowUng about Winslow's camp and silently killing
his sentinels with arrows, while their "medicine
men " remained at Ticonderoga practising sorcery
and divination to aid the warriors or learn how it
fared -with them. Bougainville -writes m Ms Journal
on the fifteenth of October: "Yesterday the old
Pottawattamies who have stayed here ' made medi
cine ' to get news of their brethren. The lodge
trembled, the sorcerer sweated drops of blood, and
the de-vil came at last and told Mm that the warriors
would come back with scalps and prisoners. A
sorcerer in the medicine lodge is exactly like the
1 BougainviUe, Journal.

126 PARTISAN WAR. [1756.
Pythoness on the tripod or the witch Canidia invok
ing the shades." The diviner was not wholly at
fault. Three days after, the warriors came back
with a prisoner.^
Till November, the hostile forces continued to
watch each other from the opposite ends of Lake
George. Loudon repeated his orders to Winslow to
keep the defensive, and -wrote sarcastically to the
colonial minister : " I think I shall be able to prevent
the provincials doing anything very rash, without
their havmg it in their power to talk in the language
of this country that they could have taken all Canada
if they had not been prevented by the King's ser
vants." Winslow tiled to console Mmself for the
failure of the campaign, and wrote in his odd English
to Shirley: "Am sorry that this year's performance
has not succeeded as was intended ; have only to say
I pushed tMngs to the utmost of my power to have
been sooner in motion, which was the only thing that
should have carried us to Crown Point; and though
I am sensible that we are doing our duty in acting on
the defensive, yet it makes no eclate [sic], and answers
to little purpose in the eyes of my constituents."
On the first of the month the French began to
move off towards Canada, and before many days
Ticonderoga was left in the keeping of five or six
compames.^ Winslow's men followed their example.
1 This kind of divination was practised by Algonquin tribes
from the earliest times. See "Pioneers of France in the New
World," ii. 169.
^ Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal.

1756, 1757.] QUARTERING TROOPS. 127
Major Eyre, with four hundred regulars, took pos
session of Fort William Henry, and the provincials
marched for home, their ranks thinned by camp
diseases and small-pox.^ In Canada the regulars
were quartered on the inhabitants, who took the
infliction as a matter of course. In the English
pro-vinces the question was not so simple. Most of
the British troops were assigned to Philadelphia,
New York, and Boston; and Loudon demanded free
quarters for them, according to usage then prevailing
in England during war. Nor was the demand in
itself unreasonable, seeing that the tioops were sent
over to fight the battles of the colonies. In Phila
delphia lodgmgs were given them in the public-
houses, which, however, could not hold them all. A
long dispute followed between the governor, who
seconded Loudon's demand, and the Assembly, dur
ing which about half the soldiers lay on straw in
outhouses and sheds till near midwinter, many sick-
enmg, and some dying from exposure. Loudon
grew furious, and threatened, if shelter were not
pro-vided, to send Webb -with another regiment and
billet the whole on the inhabitants; on which the
Assembly yielded, and quarters were found. ^
In New York the privates were quartered in bar-
1 Letter and Order Books of Winslow. Winslow to Halifax, 30
December, 1756.
2 Loudon to Denny, 28 October, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., vii.
358-380. Loudon to Pitt, 10 March, 1767. Notice of Colonel Bouquet,
in Pennsylvania Magazine, iii. 124. The Conduct of a Noble Com
mander in America impartially reviewed (1758).

128 PARTISAN WAR. [1756, 1757.
racks, but the officers were left to find lodging for
themselves. Loudon demanded that provision should
be made for them also. The city council hesitated,
afraid of incensing the people if they complied.
Cruger, the mayor, came to remonstrate. " God
damn my blood!" replied the earl; "if you do not
billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I 'U
order here all the troops in North America, and
billet them myself upon this city. " Being no respecter
of persons, at least in the pro-vinces, he began with
Oliver Delancey, brother of the late acting governor,
and sent six soldiers to lodge under his I'oof.
Delancey swore at the unwelcome guests, on wMch
Loudon sent him six more. A subscription was then
raised among the citizens, and the required quarters
were provided.^ In Boston there was for the present
less trouble. The troops were lodged in the bar
racks of Castle WiUiam, and furmshed with blankets,
cooking utensUs, and other necessaries.^
Major Eyre and his soldiers, in their wilderness
exile by the borders of Lake George, whiled the winter
away with few other excitements than the evening
howl of wolves from the frozen mountains, or some
nocturnal savage shooting at a sentinel from behind
a stump on the moonlit fields of snow. A Uvelier
incident at last broke the monotony of their lives.
1 Smith, Hist, of N. Y., Part II. 242. William Carry to Johnson,
15 January, 1757, in Stone, Life of Sir William Johnson, ii. 24, note,
Loudon to Hardy, 21 November, 1756.
^ Massachusetts Archives, Ixxvi. 153.

1757.] SCOUTING PARTY. 129
In the middle of January Rogers came -with his
rangers from Fort Edward, bound on a scouting party
towards Crown Point. They spent two days at Fort
WiUiam Henry in making snow-shoes and other
preparation, and set out on the seventeenth. Cap
tain Spikeman was second in command, -with Lieu
tenants Stark and Kennedy, several other subalterns,
and two gentlemen volunteers enamoured of adven
ture. They marched down the frozen lake and
¦encamped at the Narrows. Some of them, unac
customed to snow-shoes, had become unfit for travel,
and were sent back, thus reducing the number to
seventy-four. In the morning they marched again,
by icicled rocks and icebound waterfalls, mountains
gray with naked woods and fir-tiees bowed do-wn
with snow. On the nineteenth they reached the
west shore, about four miles south of Rogers Rock,
marched west of north eight miles, and bivouacked
among the mountains. On the next morning they
changed their course, marched east of north all day,
passed Ticonderoga undiscovered, and stopped at
night some five miles beyond it. The weather was
changing, and rain was coming on. They scraped
away the snow with their snow-shoes, pUed it in a"
bank around them, made beds of spruce-boughs, built
fires, and lay down to sleep, while the sentmels kept
watch in the outer gloom. In the mornmg there was
a drizzUng ram, and the softened snow stuck to their
snow-shoes. They marched eastward three miles
through the dripping forest, till they reached the
VOL. II. — 9

130 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
banks of Lake Champlain, near what is now called
Five Mile Point, and presently saw a sledge, drawn
by horses, mo-ving on the ice from Ticonderoga
towards Crown Point. Rogers sent Stark along the
shore to the left to head it off, while he with another
party, covered by the woods, moved in the opposite
direction to stop its retieat. He soon saw eight or
ten more sledges following the first, and sent a mes
senger to prevent Stark from showing Mmself too
soon; but Stark was already on the ice. All the
sledges turned back in hot haste. The rangers ran
in pursmt and captured tMee of them, with seven
men and six horses, while the rest escaped to Ticon
deroga. The prisoners, bemg separately examined,
told an ominous tale. There were tMee hundred and
fifty regulars at Ticonderoga; two hundred Cana
dians and forty-five Indians had lately arrived there,
and more Indians were expected that evemng, — all
destmed to waylay the communications between the
English forts, and all prepared to march at a moment's
notice. The rangers were now m great peril. The
fugitives would give warning of their presence, and
the French and Indians, in overwhelming force,
would no doubt cut off their retieat.
Rogers at once ordered his men to return to their
last night's encampment, rekindle the fires, and dry
their guns, which were wet by the rain of the morning.
Then they marched southward in single file through
the snow-encumbered forest, Rogers and Kennedy in
the front, Spikeman in the centre, and Stark in the

1757.] A DESPERATE BUSH-FIGHT. 131
rear. In tMs order they moved on over broken and
difficult ground till two in the afternoon, when they
came upon a valley, or hollow, scarcely a musket-shot
-wide, which ran across their Une of march, and, like
all the rest of the country, was buried in thick
woods. The front of the line had descended the
first Mil, and was mounting that on the farther side,
when the foremost men heard a low clicking sound,
Uke the cocking of a# great number of guns ; and iu
an instant a furious volley blazed out of the bushes
on the ridge above them. Kennedy was Mlled out
right, as also was Gardner, one of the volunteers.
Rogers was grazed in the head by a bullet, and others
were disabled or hurt. The rest returned the fire,
while a swarm of French and Indians rushed upon
them from the ridge and the slopes on either hand,
MlUng several more, Spikeman among the rest, and
capturing others. The rangers fell back across the
hollow and regained the hill they had just descended.
Stark with the rear, who were at the top when the
fray began, now kept the assailants in check by a
brisk fire till their comrades joined them. Then the
whole party, spreading themselves among the trees
that covered the decli-vity, stubbornly held their
ground and beat back the French in repeated attempts
to dislodge them. As the assailants were more than
two to one, what Rogers had most to dread was a
movement to outflank him and get into his rear.
This they tried twice, and were twice repulsed by a
party held in reserve for the purpose. The fight

132 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
lasted several hours, during which there was much
talk between the combatants. The French called
out that it was a pity so many brave men should be
lost, that large reinforcements were expected every
moment, and that the rangers would then be cut to
pieces without mercy; whereas if they surrendered
at once they should be treated with the utmost Mnd-
ness. They called to Rogers by name, and expressed
great esteem for Mm. Neithes tMeats nor promises
had any effect, and the firing went on tUl darkness
stopped it. Towards evening Rogers was shot
through the wrist; and one of the men, John Shute,
used to tell in his old age how he saw another ranger
tiying to bind the captain's wound with the ribbon
of his own queue.
As Ticonderoga was but tMee miles off, it was
destruction to stay where they were; and they -with
drew under cover of mght, reduced to forty-eight
effective and six wounded men. Fourteen had been
killed, and six captured. Those that were left
reached Lake George in the mormng, and Stark,
•with two foUowers, pushed on in advance to bring a
sledge for the wounded. The rest made their way
to the Narrows, where they encamped, and presently
descried a small dark object on the ice far behind
them. It proved to be one of their own number.
Sergeant Joshua Martin, who had received a severe
wound m the fight, and was left for dead; but by
desperate efforts had followed on their tiacks, and
was now brought to camp in a state of exhaustion.

1757.] DEFEAT OF RANGERS. 133
He recovered, and lived to an advanced age. The
sledge sent by Stark came in the morning, and the
whole party soon reached the fort. Abercrombie, on
hearing of the affair, sent them a letter of thanks
for gaUant conduct.
Rogers reckons the number of his assailants at
about two hundred and fifty in aU. Vaudreuil says
that they consisted of eighty-mne regulars and
ninety Canadians and Indians. With his usual
boastful exaggeration, he declares that forty English
were left dead on the field, and that only three
reached Fort William Henry aUve. He says that
the fight was extremely hot and obstinate, and admits
that the French lost thirty-seven killed and wounded.
Rogers makes the number much greater. That it
was considerable is certain, as Lusignan, com
mandant at Ticonderoga, wrote immediately for
reinforcements. ^
1 Rogers, Journals, 38-44. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspond
ence of John Stark, 18, 412. Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing
in the Action near Ticonderoga, January, 1757 ; all the names are here
given. James Abercrombie, aide-de-camp to his uncle. General
Abercrombie, wrote to Rogers from Albany: "You cannot imagine
how all ranks of people here are pleased with your conduct and
your men's behavior."
The accounts of the French writers differ from each other, but
agree in placing the English force at from seventy to eighty, and
their own much higher. The principal report is that of Vaudreuil
au Ministre, 19 Avril, Vlbl (his second letter of this date). Bougain
ville, Montcalm, Malartic, and Montreuil all speak of the aSair,
placing the English loss much higher than is shown by the returns.
The story, repeated in most of the French narratives, that only
three of the rangers reached Eort William Henry, seems to have
arisen from the fact that Stark with two men went thither in

134 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
The effects of his wound and an attack of small
pox kept Rogers quiet for a time. MeanwMle the
winter dragged slowly away, and the ice of Lake
George, cracking with change of temperature, uttered
its strange cry of agony, heraldmg that dismal season
when -winter begins to relax its gripe, but spring stiU
holds aloof; when the sap stirs in the sugar-maples,
but the buds refuse to sweU, and even the catMns of
the willows wiU not burst their brown integuments ;
when the forest is patched with snow, though on its
sunny slopes one hears in the stillness the whisper of
trickling waters that ooze from the half-thawed soil
and saturated beds of faUen leaves ; when clouds hang
low on the darkened mountains, and cold mists
entangle themselves m the tops of the pines ; now a
duU rain, now a sharp mormng frost, and now a
storm of snow powdering the waste, and -wrapping
it again in the pall of winter.
In this cheerless season, on St. Patiick's Day, the
seventeenth of March, the Irish soldiers who formed
a part of the garrison of Fort WiUiam Henry were
paying homage to their patron samt in libations of
heretic rum, the product of New England stiUs ; and
it is said that John Stark's rangers forgot theological
differences in their zeal to share the festi-vity. The
story adds that they were restiained by their com
mander, and that their enforced sobriety proved the
sa-ving of the fort. This may be doubted ; for -with-
advance of the rest. As regards the antecedents of the combat, the
French and English accounts agree.

1757.] VAUDREUIL'S WAR-PARTY. 135
out counting the English soldiers of the garrison who
had no special call to be drunk that day, the fort was
m no danger till twenty-four hours after, when the
reveUers had had time to raUy from their pious
carouse. Whether rangers or British soldiers, it is
certain that watchmen were on the alert during the
night between the eighteenth and nineteenth, and
that towards one in the morning they heard a sound
of axes far do-wn the lake, followed by the faint glow
of a distant fire. The inference was plain, that an
enemy was there, and that the necessity of warming
himself had overcome Ms caution. Then all was still
for some two hours, when, listening in the pitchy
darkness, the watchers heard the footsteps of a great
body of men approachmg on the ice, which at the
time was bare of snow. The garrison were at their
posts, and all the cannon on the side towards the lake
vomited grape and round-shot in the direction of the
sound, wMch thereafter was heard no more.
Those who made it were a detachment, called by
Vaudreuil an army, sent by him to seize the English
fort. Shirley had planned a similar stroke against
Ticonderoga a year before ; but the pro-vincial levies
had come in so slowly, and the ice had broken up so
soon, that the scheme was abandoned. Vaudreuil
was more fortunate. The whole force, regulars,
Canadians, and Indians, was ready to his hand. No
pains were spared in eqmpping them. Overcoats,
blankets, bearskins to sleep on, tarpaulins to sleep
under, spare moccasons, spare mittens, kettles, axes,

136 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
needles, awls, ffint and steel, and many miscellaneous
articles were pro-vided, to be dragged by the men on
light Indian sledges, along with provisions for twelve
days. The cost of the expedition is set at a million
francs, answering to more than as many dollars of the
present time. To the disgust of the officers from
France, the governor named his brother Rigaud for
the cMef command ; and before the end of February
the whole party was on its march along the ice of
Lake Champlain. They rested nearly a week at
Ticonderoga, where no less than three hundred short
scaling-ladders, so constructed that two or more could
be joined in one, had been made for them ; and here,
too, they received a reinforcement, which raised their
number to sixteen hundred. Then, marching three
days along Lake George, they neared the fort on the
evening of the eighteenth, and prepared for a general
assault before daybreak.
The garrison, including rangers, consisted of three
hundred and forty-six effective men.^ The fort was
not strong, and a resolute assault by numbers so
superior must, it seems, have overpowered the
defenders ; but the Canadians and Indians who com
posed most of the attacMng force were not suited for
such work; and, disappointed in his hope of a sur
prise, Rigaud -withdrew them at daybreak, after try-

^ Strength of the Garrison of Fort William Henry when the Enemy
came before it, enclosed in the letter of Major Eyre to Loudon, 26
March, 1757. There were also one hundred and twenty-eight
invalids.

1757.] RIGAUD'S ENTERPRISE. 137
ing in vain to bum the buildmgs outside. A few
hours after, the whole body reappeared, filing off to
surround the fort, on wMch they kept up a brisk but
harmless fire of musketry. In the mght they were
heard again on the ice, approaching as if for an
assault; and the cannon, firing towards the sound,
again drove them back. There was silence for a
while, till tongues of fiame Ughted up the gloom, and
two sloops, ice-bound in the lake, and a large number
of bateaux on the shore were seen to be on fire. A
party salUed to save them ; but it was too late. In
the mormng they were all consumed, and the enemy
had vanished.
It was Sunday, the twentieth. Everything was
quiet tUl noon, when the French filed out of the
woods and marched across the ice in procession,
ostentatiously carrying their scaling-ladders, and
showmg themselves to the best effect. They stopped
at a safe distance, fronting towards the fort, and
several of them advanced, wa-ving a red flag. An
officer -with a few men went to meet them, and
returned bringing Le Mercier, chief of the Canadian
artillery, who, being led blindfold into the fort,
announced Mmself as bearer of a message from
Rigaud. He was conducted to the room of Major
Eyre, where all the British officers were assembled;
and, after mutual compliments, he invited them to
give up the place peaceably, promising the most
favorable terms, and threatening a general assault and
massacre in case of refusal. Eyre said that he should

138 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
defend himself to the last; and the envoy, again
blindfolded, was led back to whence he came.
The whole French force now advanced as if to
storm the works, and the garrison prepared to receive
them. Nothing came of it but a fusillade, to wMch
the British made no reply. At night the French
were heard advancing again, and each man nerved
himself for the crisis. The real attack, however,
was not agamst the fort, but against the buildings
outside, wMch consisted of several storehouses, a
hospital, a saw-mill, and the huts of the rangers,
besides a sloop on the stocks and piles of planks and
cord-wood. Covered by the night, the assailants
crept up -with fagots of resinous sticks, placed them
against the farther side of the buildings, Mndled
them, and escaped before the flame rose; wMle the
garrison, stiainmg their ears in the tMck darkness,
fired wherever they heard a sound. Before morning
all around them was in a blaze, and they had much
ado to save the fort barracks from the shower of
burning cinders. At ten o'clock the fires had sub
sided, and a thick fall of snow began, filling the air
-with a restless chaos of large moist flakes. TMs
lasted all day and all the next night, till the ground
and the ice were covered to a depth of three feet and
more. The French lay close in their camps till a
little before dawn on Tuesday morning, when twenty
volunteers from the regulars made a bold attempt to
burn the sloop on the stocks, with several storehouses
and other structures, and several hundred scows and

1757.] RIGAUD'S RETREAT. 139
whaleboats wMch had thus far escaped. They were
only in part successful ; but they fired the sloop and
some buildings near it, and stood far out on the ice
watcMng the flammg vessel, a superb bonfire amid
the wUderness of snow. The spectacle cost the
volunteers a fourth of their number killed and
wounded. On Wednesday morning the sun rose bright on a
scene of wintry splendor, and the frozen lake was
dotted with Rigaud's retreating followers toiling
towards Canada on snow-shoes. Before they reached
it many of them were blinded for a while by the
msufferable glare, and their comrades led them home
wards by the hand.^
1 Eyre to Loudon, 24 March, 1757. Ibid., 25 March, enclosed in
Loudon's despatch of 25 April, 1757. Message of Rigaud to Major
Eyre, 20 March, 1757. Letter from Fort William Henry, 26 March,
1757, iu Boston Gazette, No. 106, and Boston Evening Post, No. 1,128.
Abstract of Letters from Albany, in Boston News Letter, No. 2,860.
Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspondence of John Stark, 22, a curious
mixture of truth and error. Relation de la Campagne sur le Lac St.
Sacrement pendant I'Hiver, 1757. BougainvUle, Journal. Malartic,
Journal. Montcalm au Ministre, 24 Avril, 1757. Montreuil au Ministre,
28 Avril, 1757. Montcalm a sa Mere, 1 Avril, 1757. Memoires sur le
Canada, 1749-1760.
The French loss ia killed and woimded is set by Montcalm at
eleven. That of the English was seven, slightly wounded, chiefly
in sorties. They took three prisoners. Stark was touched by a
bullet, for the only time in his adventurous life.

CHAPTER XIV.
1757.
MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL.
The Seat or War. — Social Life at Montreal. — Familiar
Correspondence of Montcalm : his Employments ; his Im
pressions OF Canada; his Hospitalities. — Misunderstand
ings with the Governor. — Character of Vaudreuil: his
Accusations. — Frenchmen and Canadians. — Foibles of
Montcalm. — The Opening Campaign. — Doubts and Sus
pense. — Loudon's Plan: his Character. — Fatal Delays.
— Abortive Attempt against Louisbourg. — Disaster to
the British Fleet.
Spring came at last, and the Dutch burghers of
Albany heard, faint from the far height, the clamor
of the wild fowl, stieaming in long files northward to
their summer home. As the aerial tiavellers winged
their way, the seat of war lay spread beneath them
like a map. First the blue Hudson, slumbering
among its forests, with the forts along its banks,
Half-Moon, Stillwater, Saratoga, and the geometric
lines and earthen mounds of Fort Edward. Then a
broad belt of dingy evergreen; and beyond, released
from -wintry fetters, the gUstening breast of Lake
George, with Fort William Henry at its side, amid
charred ruins and a desolation of prostrate forests.

1756, 1757.] MONTREAL. 141
Hence the lake stretched northward, like some broad
river, trenched between mountain ranges still leafless
and gray. Then they looked down on Ticonderoga,
with the flag of the Bourbons, like a flickering white
speck, wa-ving on its ramparts; and next on Crown
Point with its tower of stone. Lake Champlain now
spread before them, widening as they flew: on the
left, the mountam wilderness of the Adirondacks,
like a stormy sea congealed; on the right, the long
procession of the Green Mountains ; and, far beyond,
on the dim verge of the eastern sky, the White
Mountains throned in savage solitude. They passed
over the bastioned square of Fort St. John, Fort
Chambly guarding the rapids of the Richelieu, and
the broad belt of the St. Lawrence, with Montreal
seated on its bank. Here we leave them, to build
their nests and hatch their brood among the fens
of the lonely North.
Montieal, the military heart of Canada, was in the
past winter its social centre also, where were gathered
conspicuous representatives both of Old France and
of New; not men only, but women. It was a spark
ling fragment of the reign of Louis XV. dropped
into the American -wUderness. Montcalm was here
-with his staff and his chief officers, now pondering
schemes of war, and now turmng in thought to his
beloved ChS,teau of Candiac, his mother, children,
and wife, to whom he sent letters with every oppor-
tumty. To his -wife he writes : " Think ef me affec
tionately ; give love to my girls. I hope next year I

142 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757.
may be with you aU. I love you tenderly, dearest."
He says that he has sent her a packet of marten-
sMns for a muff, " and another time I shall send some
to our daughter; but I should like better to bring
them myself." Of this eldest daughter he -writes in
reply to a letter of domestic news from Madame de
Montcalm: "The new gown -with blonde ti'immings
must be becoming, for she is pretty." Again,
"There is not an hour in the day when I do not
think of you, my mother, and my cMldren. " He had
the tastes of a country gentleman, and was eager to
know all that was passing on Ms estate. Before
leaving home he had set up a mUl to grind olives for
oil, and was well pleased to hear of its prosperity.
" It seems to be a good tMng, which pleases me very
much. Bougainville and I talk a great deal about
the oil-mill." Some time after, when the King sent
him the coveted decoration of the cordon rouge, he
informed Madame de Montcalm of the honor done
him, and added, "But I think I am better pleased
-with what you tell me of the success of my oil-mUl."
To his mother he writes of his absorbing occupa
tions, and says, "You can tell my dearest that I
have no time to occupy myself -with the ladies, even
if I -wished to." Nevertheless he now and then found
leisure for some Uttle solace in his bamshment; for
he writes to Bourlamaque, whom he had left at
Quebec, after a visit which he had himself made
there early m the winter: "I am glad you sometimes
speak of me to the tMee ladies in the Rue du Parloir;

1756, 1757.] FESTIVITIES. 143
and I am flattered by their remembrance, especially
by that of one of them, in whom I find at certain
moments too much wit and too many charms for my
tranquillity." These ladies of the Rue du Parloir
are several times mentioned in his familiar corre
spondence with Bourlamaque.
His station obliged him to maintain a high standard
of U-ving, to his great financial detriment, for Cana
dian prices were inordinate. " I must Uve creditably,
and so I do; sixteen persons at table every day.
Once a fortmght I dme -with the governor-general
and -with the ChevaUer de L^-vis, who lives well too.
He has given three grand balls. As for me, up to
Lent I gave, besides dinners, great suppers, -with
ladies, tMee times a week. They lasted till two in
the morning; and then there was dancing, to which
company came unm-vited, but sure of a welcome from
those who had been at supper. It is very expensive,
not very amusing, and often tedious. At Quebec,
where we spent a month, I gave receptions or parties,
often at the Intendant's house. I like my gallant
Chevalier de L^-vis very much. Bourlamaque was a
good choice ; he is steady and cool, with good parts.
Bougainville has talent, a warm head, and warm
heart; he wiU ripen in time. Write to Madame
Cornier that I like her husband; he is perfectly well,
and as impatient for peace as I am. Love to my
daughters, and all affection and respect to my
mother. I Uve only in the hope of joining you all
again. Nevertheless, Montieal is as good a place as

144 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757.
Alais even in time of peace, and better now, because
the Government is here ; for the Marquis de VaudreuU,
like me, spent only a month at Quebec. As for
Quebec, it is as good as the best cities of France,
except ten or so. Clear sky, bright sun; neither
spring nor autumn, only summer and -winter. July,
August, and September, hot as in Languedoc : winter
insupportable ; one must keep always indoors. The
ladies spirituelles, galantes, devotes. Gambling at
Quebec, dancing and conversation at Montreal. My
friends the Indians, who are often unbearable, and
whom I treat with perfect tranquillity and patience,
are fond of me. If I were not a sort of general,
though very subordinate to the governor, I could
gossip about the plans of the campaign, which it is
Ukely will begin on the tenth or fifteenth of May. I
worked at the plan of the last affair [Bigaud's
expedition to Fort WiUiam Henry\, which might have
turned out better, though good as it was. I wanted
only eight hundred men. If I had had my way.
Monsieur de L6vis or Monsieur de Bougain-ville
would have had charge of it. However, the tMng
was aU right, and in good hands. The Governor,
who is extremely civil to me, gave it to his brother;
he thought him more used to winter marches.
Adieu, my heart; I adore and love you!"
To meet his manifold social needs, he sends to his
¦wife orders for prunes, olives, anchovies, muscat
wine, capers, sausages, confectionery, cloth for
liveries, and many other such items ; also for scent-

1756, 1757.] FESTIVITEES. 145
bags of two kinds, and perfumed pomatum for
presents; closing in postscript -with an injunction
not to forget a dozen pint-bottles of English lavender.
Some months after, he writes to Madame de Saint-
V&an: "I have got everything that was sent me
from MontpelUer except the sausages. I have lost a
third of what was sent from Bordeaux. The English
captured it on board the sMp called ' La Superbe ; '
and I have reason to fear that everytMng sent from
Paris is lost on board ' La Liberty. ' I am running
into debt here. Pshaw! I must live. I do not
worry myself. Best love to you, my mother."
When Rigaud was about to march with his detach
ment against Fort William Henry, Montcalm went
over to La Prairie to see them. "I reviewed them,"
he -writes to Bourlamaque, "and gave the officers a
dinner, which, if anybody else had given it, I should
have said was a grand affair. There were two tables,
for tMrty-six persons in aU. On Wednesday there
was an Assembly at Madame Varin's ; on Friday the
ChevaUer de L^-vis gave a ball. He invited sixty-
five ladies, and got only thirty, -with a great crowd
of men. Rooms well lighted, excellent order, excel- ,
lent service, plenty of refreshments of every sort all
through the night; and the company stayed tiU seven
in the morning. As for me, I went to bed early. I
had had that day eight ladies at a supper given to
Madame Varin. To-morrow I shall have half-a-
dozen at another supper, given to I don't know
whom, but incline to thmk it -will be La Roche
VOL. II. — 10

146 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756,1757.
Beaucour. The gallant Chevalier is to give us stiU
another baU."
Lent put a check on these festi-vities. "To
morrow," he tells Bourlamaque, "I shall tMow
myself into devotion with might and main (a corps
perdu). It will be easier for me to detach myself
from the world and turn heavenward here at Mont
real than it would be at Quebec." And, some time
after, "Bougainville spent Monday delightfully at
Isle Ste. H^ldne, and Tuesday devoutly -with the
Sulpitian Fathers 'at the Mountain. I was there
myself at four o'clock, and did them the civility to
sup in their refectory at a quarter before six."
In May there was a complete revival of social
pleasures, and Montcalm wrote to Bourlamaque:
"Madame de Beaubassin's supper was very gay.
There were toasts to the Rue du Parloir and to the
General. To-day I must give a dinner to Madame
de Saint-Ours, which will be a little more serious.
P^an is gone to establish himself at La CMne, and
will come back -with La Barolon, who goes tMther
with a husband of hers, bound to the Ohio -with
Villejoin and Louvigny. The ChevaUer de L^vis
amuses himself very much here. He and his friends
spend all their time -with Madame de Lemsse."
Under these gayeties and gaUantries there were
bitter heart-burnings. Montcalm Mnts at some of
them in a letter to Bourlamaque, -written at the time
of the expedition to Fort WiUiam Henry, which, in
the words of Montcalm, who would have preferred

1756, 1757.] A BREACH REPAIRED. 147
another commander, the governor had ordered to
march "under the banners of brother Rigaud.'^
"After he got my letter on Sunday evening," says.
the disappointed general, "Monsieur de Vaudreuil
sent me his secretary -with the instructions he had
given his brother," which he had hitherto withheld.
" TMs gave rise after dmner to a long conversation
-with him ; and I hope for the good of the service that
his future conduct will prove the truth of Ms words.
I spoke to him with frankness and firmness of the
necessity I was under of communicating to him my
reflections ; but I did not name any of the persons
who, to gain his good graces, busy themselves with
destioying his confidence in me. I told him that he
would always find me disposed to aid m measures
tending to our success, even should his views, which
always ought to prevail, be different from mine ; but
that I dared flatter myself that he would hencefor
ward commimicate his plans to me sooner; for, though
Ms knowledge of the country gave greater weight to
his opimons, he might rest satisfied that I should
second him in methods and details. This explanation
passed off becomingly enough, and ended with a
proposal to dme on a moose's nose [an estimed morsel']
the day after to-morrow. I burn your letters, Mon
sieur, and I beg you to do the same -with mme, after
making a note of anything you may want to keep."
But Bourlamaque kept all the letters, and bound
them in a volume, wMch still exists.^
1 The preceding extracts are from Lettres de Montcalm a Madame
de Saint-Veran, sa Mere, et a Madame de Montcalm, sa Femme, 1756,

148 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756, 1757.
Montcalm was not at this time fully aware of the
feeling of Vaudreuil towards Mm. The touchy
egotism of the governor and his jealous attachment
to the colony led Mm to claim for himself and the
Canadians the merit of every achievement and to
deny it to the French troops and their general.
Before the capture of Oswego was kno-wn, he wrote
to the naval minister that Montcalm would never
have dared attack that place if he had not encouraged
him and answered his timid objections.^ "I am con
fident that I shaU reduce it," he adds; "my expedi
tion is sure to succeed if Monsieur de Montcalm
follows the directions I have given him." When
the good news came he immediately -wrote agam,
declaring that the victory was due to his brother
Rigaud and the Canadians, who, he says, had been
ill-used by the general, and not allowed either to
enter the fort or share the plunder, any more than the
Indians, who were so angry at the treatment they
had met that he had great difficulty in appeasmg
them. He hints that the success was generally
ascribed to him. " There has been a great deal of
talk here; but I wiU not do myself the honor of
repeating it to you, especially as it relates to myself.
I know how to do violence to my self-love. The
measures I took assured our -victory, in spite of oppo
sition. If I had been less vigilant and firm, Oswego
1757 (Papiers de Famille) ; and Lettres de Montcalm a Bourlamaque,
1757. See Appendix E.
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 13 Aoiit, 1756.

Pierre Francois Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil.

Copyn^ht.jS^y. by IiuU,£rotnn.,S: C

1756, 1757.] EGOTISM OF VAUDREUIL. 149
would still be in the hands of the English. I cannot
sufficiently congratulate myself on the zeal wMch my
brother and the Canadians and Indians showed on
this occasion; for -vrithout them my orders would
have been given in vain. The hopes of His Britannic
Majesty have vanished, and -wiU hardly revive agam ;
for I shaU take care to crush them in the bud. " ^
The pronouns " I " and " my " recur with monot
onous frequency in Ms correspondence. "I have
laid waste aU the British provinces." "By promptly
muting my forces at Carillon, I have kept General
Loudon in check, though he had at his disposal an
army of about twenty thousand men ; " ^ and so with
out end, in aU varieties of repetition. It is no less
characteristic that he here assigns to his enemies
double their actual force.
He has the faintest of praise for the troops from
France. "They are generally good, but thus far
they have not absolutely distinguished themselves.
I do justice to the firmness they showed at Oswego;
but it was only the colony tioops, Canadians, and
Indians who attacked the forts. Our artiUery was
directed by the ChevaUer Le Mercier and M. Frdmont
[colony officers], and was served by our colony tioops
and our militia. The officers from France are more
inclined to defence than attack. Far from spending
the least thing here, they lay by their pay. They
saved the money allowed them for refreshments, and
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 1 Septembre, 1756.
" Ibid., 6 Novembre, 1756.

150 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756,1757.
had it in pocket at the end of the campaign. They
get a profit, too, out of their provisions, by having
certificates made under borrowed names, so that they
can draw cash for them on their return. It is the
same -with the soldiers, who also sell their provisions
to the King and get paid for them. In conjunction
with M. Bigot, I labor to remedy all these abuses;
and the rules we have established have saved the
King a considerable expense. M. de Montcalm has
complained very much of these rules." The intend
ant Bigot, who here appears as a reformer, was the
centre of a monstrous system of pubUc fraud and
robbery; while the charges against the French officers
are unsupported. Vaudreuil, who never loses an
opportunity of disparaging them, proceeds thus : —
"The tioops from France are not on very good
terms -with our Canadians. What can the soldiers
think of them when they see their officers tMeaten
them with sticks or swords? The Canadians are
obliged to carry these gentry on' their shoulders,
tMough the cold water, over rocks that cut their
feet ; and if they make a false step they are abused.
Can anytMng be harder? Finally, Monsieur de
Montcalm is so quick-tempered that he goes to the
length of strikmg the Canadians. How can he
restrain his officers when he cannot restrain himself ?
Could any example be more contagious? This is
the way our Canadians are tieated. They deserve
something better. " He then enlarges on their zeal,
hardihood, and bravery, and adds that nothing but

1756, 1757.] THEIR RIVALRY. 161
their bUnd submission to his commands prevents
many of them from showing resentment at the usage
they had to endure. The Indians, he goes on to say,
are not so gentle and yielding; and but for his
brother Rigaud and himself, might have gone off in
a rage. "After the campaign of Oswego they did
not hesitate to tell me that they would go wherever
I sent them, provided I did not put them under the
orders of M. de Montcalm. They told me positively
that they could not bear his quick temper. I shall
always mamtain the most perfect union and under
standing -with M. le Marquis de Montcalm, but I
shall be forced to take measures which will assure to
our Canadians and Indians tieatment such as their
zeal and services merit." ^
To the subject of his complaints Vaudreuil used a
different language; for Montcalm says, after men-
tiomng that he had had occasion to punish some of
the Canadians at Oswego: "I must do Monsieur de
VaudreuU the justice to say that he approved my
proceedings." He treated the general with the
blandest politeness. "He is a good-natured man,"
continues Montcalm, " mild, with no character of his
own, surrounded by people who try to destroy all his
confidence in the general of the tioops from France.
I am praised excessively, in order to make him
jealous, excite his Canadian prejudices, and prevent
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre dela Marine, 23 Octobre, 1756. The above
extracts are somewhat condensed in the translation. See the letter
in Dussieux, 279.

152 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756,1757.
him from dealing with me frankly, or adopting my
views when he can help it."^ He elsewhere com
plains that Vaudreuil gave to both him and Ldvis
orders couched in such equivocal terms that he could
throw the blame on them in case of reverse.^ Mont
calm liked the militia no better than the governor
liked the regulars. " I have used them with good
effect, though not in places exposed to the enemy's
fire. They know neither discipline nor subordina
tion, and think themselves in all respects the first
nation on earth." He is sure, however, that they
Uke him: "I have gained the utmost confidence of
the Canadians and Indians; and in the eyes of the
former, when I travel or visit their camps, I have
the air of a tiibune of the people."^ "The affection
of the Indians for me is so strong that there are
moments when it astonishes the Governor."* "The
Indians are delighted with me," he says in another
letter; "the Canadians are pleased -with me; their
officers esteem and fear me, and would be glad if the
French troops and their general could be dispensed
with; and so should I."^ And he writes to Ms
mother : " The part I have to play is umque : I am a
general-in-chief subordinated ; sometimes with every
thing to do, and sometimes nothing ; I am esteemed,
respected, beloved, envied, hated ; I pass for proud,
1 Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Juillet, 1757.
* Ibid., 1 Novembre, 1756.
8 Ibid., 18 Septembre, 1757.
* Ibid., 4 Novembre, 1757.
6 Ibid., 28 Aout, 1756.

1756, 1757.] VIEWS OF BOUGAINVILLE. 153
supple, stiff, yielding, polite, devout, gallant, etc. ;
and I long for peace." ^
The letters of the governor and those of the general,
it wUl be seen, contradict each other flatly at several
points. Montcalm is sustained by his friend Bougain
ville, who says that the Indians had a great liking
for him, and that he " knew how to manage them as
well as if he had been born in their wigwams. "^
And wMle Vaudreuil complains that the Canadians
are iU-used by Montcalm, Bougainville declares that
the regulars are iU-used by Vaudreuil. " One must
be bUnd not to see that we are treated as the Spartans
tieated the Helots." Then he comments on the
jealous reticence of the governor. " The Marquis de
Montcalm has not the honor of being consulted ; and
it is generaUy through public rumor that he first
hears of Monsieur de Vaudreuil's miUtary plans."
He calls the governor " a timid man, who can neither
make a resolution nor keep one ; " and he gives another
tiait of Mm, Ulustrating it, after his usual way, by
a parallel from the classics : " When V. produces an
idea he falls in love with it, as Pygmalion did with
Ms statue. I can forgive Pygmalion, for what he
produced was a masterpiece.""^
The exceeding touchiness of the governor was
sorely tried by certam indiscretions on the part of the
general, who in his rapid and vehement utterances
1 Montcalm a Madame de Saint-Veran, 23 Septembre, 1757.
^ Bougainville a Saint-Laurens, 19 Aout, 1757.
* Bougainville, Journal.

154 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
sometimes forgot the rules of prudence. His anger,
though not deep, was extiemely impetuous; and it
is said that Ms irritation against VaudreuU some
times found escape in the presence of servants and
soldiers.^ There was no lack of reporters, and the
governor was told everything. The breach widened
apace, and Canada divided itself into two camps:
that of Vaudreuil with the colony officers, civil and
military, and that of Montcalm with the officers
from France. The principal exception was the
ChevaUer de L^vis. This brave and able com
mander had an easy and adaptable nature, wMch
made him a sort of connecting link between the two
parties. " One should be on good terms with every
body," was a maxim wMch he sometimes expressed,
and on which he shaped Ms conduct -with notable
success. The intendant Bigot also, an adroit and
accomplished person, had the skiU to avoid breakmg
with either side.
But now the season of action was near, and
domestic strife must give place to efforts against the
common foe. "God or de-vil!" Montcalm wrote to
Bourlamaque, "we must do something and risk a
fight. If we succeed, we can, all three of us {you,
Levis, and I], ask for promotion. Burn this letter."
The prospects, on the whole, were hopeful. The
-victory at Oswego had -wrought marvels among the
Indians, inspired the faitMul, confirmed the waver-
mg, and daunted the ill-disposed. The whole West
^ ^venements de la Guerre en Canada, 1759, 1760.

1757.] IROQUOIS DEPUTIES. 155
was astir, ready to pour itself again in blood and
fire against the English border; and even the
Cherokees and Choctaws, old friends of the British
colomes, seemed on the point of turning against
them.i The Five Nations were half won for France.
In November a large deputation of them came to
renew the chain of friendship at Montreal. " I have
laid Oswego in ashes," said Vaudreuil; "the English
quail before me. Why do you nourish serpents in
your bosom? They mean only to enslave you." The
deputies trampled under foot the medals the English
had given them, and promised the "Devourer of
ViUages," for so they styled the governor, that they
would never more Uft the hatchet against his children.
The cMef difficulty was to get rid of them; for,
being clothed and fed at the expense of the King,
they were in no haste to take leave; and learning
that New Year's Day was a time of visits, gifts, and
health-drinking, they declared that they would stay
to share its pleasures ; which they did, to their own
satisfaction and the annoyance of those who were
forced to entertain them and their squaws.^ An
active siding with France was to be expected only
from the western bands of the Confederacy. Neu-
tiaUty alone could be hoped for from the otheis, who
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 19 Avril, 1757.
2 Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, 24 Avril, 1757 ; Relation de
I'Ambassade des Cinq Nations a Montreal, jointe a la lettre precedente.
Proces-verbal de diffirentes Entrevues entre M. de Vaudreuil et les
Deputes des Nations sauvages du 13 au 30 Decembre, 1756. Malartic,
Journal. Montcalm a Madame de Saint-Veran, 1 Avril, 1757.

156 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
were too near the English safely to declare against
them; wMle from one of the tribes, the Mohawks,
even neutrality was doubtful.
Vaudreuil, while dislikmg the French regulars,
felt that he could not dispense with them, and had
asked for a reinforcement. His request was granted;
and the colonial mmister informed Mm that twenty-
four hundred men had been ordered to Canada to
strengthen the colony regulars and the battaUons of
Montcalm. 1 TMs, according to the estimate of the
minister, would raise the regular force in Canada to
sixty-six hundred rank and file.^ The announcement
was followed by another, less agreeable. It was to
the effect that a formidable squadron was fitting out
in British ports. Was Quebec to be attacked, or
Louisbourg? Louisbourg was beyond reach of suc
cor from Canada ; it must rely on its own strength
and on help from France. But so long as Quebec
was threatened, all the troops in the colony must be
held ready to defend it, and the hope of attacking
England in her own domains must be abandoned.
Till these doubts were solved, nothing could be
done ; and hence great activity in catching prisoners
for the sake of news. A few were brought in, but
they knew no more of the matter than the French
themselves ; and Vaudreml and Montcalm rested for
a while in suspense.
^ Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, Mars, 1757.
2 Ministerial Minute on the Military Force in Canada, 1757, in N. Y.,
Col. Docs., X. 523.

1757.] ENGLISH DELAYS. 157
The truth, had they known it, would have glad
dened their hearts. The English preparations were
aimed at Louisbourg. In the autumn before, Loudon,
prejudiced against all plans of his predecessor,
Shirley, proposed to the ministry a scheme of Ms
o-wn, invol-ving a possible attack on Quebec, but with
the reduction of Louisbourg as its immediate object,
— an important object, no doubt, but one that had
no direct bearing on the main question of controlUng
the interior of the contment. Pitt, then for a brief
space at the head of the government, accepted the
suggestion, and set himself to executing it; but he
was hampered by opposition, and early m April was
forced to resign. Then followed a contest of rival
claimants to office; and the war against France was
made subordmate to disputes of personal politics.
Meanwhile one Florence Hensey, a spy at London,
had informed the French court that a great armament
was fitting out for America, though he could not tell
its precise destination. Without loss of time three
French squadrons were sent across the Atlantic, with
orders to rendezvous at Louisbourg, the conjectured
point of attack.
The English were as tardy as their enemies were
prompt. EverytMng depended on speed; yet their
fleet, under Admiral Holboume, consisting of fifteen
sMps-of-the-Une and three frigates, with about five
thousand tioops on board, did not get to sea till the
fifth of May, when it made sail for HaUfax, where
Loudon was to meet it -with additional forces.

158 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
Loudon had dra-wn off the best part of the troops
from the northern frontier, and they were now at
New York waiting for embarkation. That the design
might be kept secret, he laid an embargo on colonial
sMpping, — a measure which exasperated the colonists
without answering its purpose. Now ensued a long
delay, during which the troops, the provincial levies,
the tiansports destined to carry them, and the sMps
of war which were to serve as escort, all lay idle. In
the interval Loudon showed great activity in -writing
despatches and other avocations more or less proper
to a commander, bemg always busy, without, accord
ing to Franklin, accomplishmg anytMng. One
Innis, who had come with a message from the gov
ernor of Pennsylvania, and had waited above a fort
night for the general's reply, remarked of Mm that
he was Uke St. George on a tavern sign, always on
horseback, and never riding on.^ Yet nobody longed
more than he to reach the rendezvous at Halifax.
He was waitmg for news of Holbourne, and he waited
m vain. He knew only that a French fleet had been
seen off the coast strong enough to overpower his
escort and sink all his transports.^ But the season
was gro-wing late ; he must act quicMy if he was to
act at all. He and Sir Charles Hardy agreed between
1 Works of Franklin, i. 219. Franklin intimates that while Lou-j,>
don was constantly writing, he rarely sent off despatches. This is
a mistake ; there is abundance of them, often tediously long, in the
Public Record Office.
2 Loudon to Pitt, 30 May, 1757. He had not learned Pitt's
resignation.

1757.] FAILURE OF LOUDON. 159
them that the risk must be run ; and on the twentieth
of June the whole force put to sea. They met no
enemy, and entered Halifax harbor on the tMrtieth.
Holbourne and his fleet had not yet appeared; but
Ms sMps soon came straggUng in, and before the
tenth of July all were at anchor before the town.
Then there was more delay. The troops, nearly
twelve thousand in all, were landed, and weeks were
spent in drilling them and planting vegetables for
their refreshment. Sir Charles Hay was put under
arrest for saying that the nation's money was spent
in sham battles and raising cabbages. Some attempts
were made to learn the state of Louisbourg; and
Captain Gorham, of the rangers, who reconnoitied it
from a fisMng vessel, brought back an imperfect
report, upon which, after some hesitation, it was
resolved to proceed to the attack. The troops were
embarked again, and all was ready, when, on the
fourth of August, a sloop came from Newfoundland,
bringing letters found on board a French vessel lately
captured. From these it appeared that all three of
the French squadrons were united in the harbor of
Louisbourg, to the number of twenty-two ships-of-
the-line, besides several frigates, and that the gar
rison had been increased to a total force of seven
thousand men, ensconced in the strongest fortress of
the continent. So far as concerned the naval force,
the account was true. La Motte, the French admiral,
had -with him a fleet carrying an aggregate of thir
teen hundred and sixty cannon, anchored in a shel-

160 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
tered harbor under the guns of the town. Success
was now hopeless, and the costly enterprise was at
once abandoned. Loudon -with his troops sailed back
for New York, and Admiral Holboume, who had
been joined by four additional ships, steered for
Louisbourg, in hopes that the French fleet would
come out and fight him. He cruised off the port;
but La Motte did not accept the challenge.
The elements declared for France. A September
gale, of fury rare even on that tempestuous coast,
burst upon the British fieet. "It blew a perfect
hurricane," says the unfortunate admiral, "and drove
us right on shore." One ship was dashed on the
rocks, two leagues from Louisbourg. A shifting of
the wind in the nick of time saved the rest from total
wreck. Nine were dismasted; others threw their
cannon into the sea. Not one was left fit for imme
diate action ; and had La Motte sailed out of Louis
bourg, he would have had them all at his mercy.
Delay, the source of most of the disasters that
befell England and her colonies at this dismal epoch,
was the ruin of the Louisbourg expedition. The
greater part of La Motte's fleet reached its desti
nation a full month before that of Holboume. Had
the reverse taken place, the fortress must have
faUen. As it was, the ill-starred attempt, drawing
off the British forces from the frontier, where they
were needed most, did for France more than she
could have done for herself, and gave Montcalm and

1757.] FORCE OF THE FRENCH. 161
Vaudreuil the opportumty to execute a scheme wMch
they had nursed smce the fall of Oswego. ^
1 Despatches of Loudon, February to August, 1757. Knox, Cam
paigns in North America, i. 6-28. Knox was in the expedition.
Review of Mr. Pitt's Administration (London, 1763). The Conduct of
a Noble Commander in America impartially reviewed (London, 1758).
Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs, ii. 49-59. Answer to the Letter
to two Great Men (London, 1760). Entick, ii. 168, 169. Holbourne to
Loudon, 4 August, 1757. Holboume to Pitt, 29 September, 1757. Ibid.,
30 September, 1757. Holbourne to Pownall, 2 November, 1757. Mante,
86, 97. Relation du Desastre arrive a la Flotte Anglaise commandee par
I'Amiral Holboume. Chevalier Johnstone, Campaign of Louisbourg.
London Magazine, 1757, 514. Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, 463, 476.
Ibid., 1758, 168-173.
It has been said that Loudon was scared from his task by false
reports of the strength of the French at Louisbourg. This was not
the case. The Gazette de France, 621, says that La Motte had
twenty-four ships of war. Bougainville says that as early as the
ninth of June there were twenty-one ships of war, including five
frigates, at Louisbourg. To this the list given by Knox closely
answers.

¦II

CHAPTER XV.
1757.
FORT -WILLIAM HENRY.
Another Blow. — The War-song. — The Ahmt at Ticon
deroga. — Indian Allies. — The War-feast. — Treatment
of Prisoners. — Cannibalism. — Surprise and Slaughter. —
The War Council. — March op Levis. — The Aemt em
barks. — Fort William Henrt. — Nocturnal Scene. —
Indian Funeral. — Advance upon the Fort. — General.
Webb : his Difficulties ; his Weakness. — The Siege
BEGUN. — Conduct of the Indians. — The Intercepted
Letter. — Desperate Position .of the Besieged. — Capitu
lation. — Ferocity of the Indians. — Mission op Bougain
ville. — Murder of Wounded Men. — A Scene of Terror.
— The Massacre. — Efforts of Montcalm. — The Fort-
burned." I AM going on the ninth to sing the war-song at
the Lake of Two Mountains, and on the next day at
Saut St. LoMs, — a long, tiresome ceremony. On
the twelfth I am off ; and I count on having news to
tell you by the end of this month or the beginnmg of
next." Thus Montcalm wrote to his wife from
Montreal early in July. All doubts had been solved.
Prisoners taken on the Hudson and despatches from
Versailles had made it certain that Loudon was
bound to Lomsbourg, carrying with him the best of
the tioops that had guarded the New York frontier.

1757.] INDIAN COMPLIMENT. 163
The time was come, not only to strike the English
on Lake George, but perhaps to seize Fort Edward
and carry terror to Albany itself. Only one diffi
culty remained, the want of provisions. Agents were
sent to collect corn and bacon among the inhabitants ;
the curds and militia captains were ordered to aid m
the work; and enough was presently found to feed
twelve thousand men for a month. ^
The emissaries of the governor had been busy all
-wmter among the tribes of the West and North ; and
more than a thousand savages, lured by the prospect
of gifts, scalps, and plunder, were now encamped at
Montieal. Many of them had never visited a French
settlement before. All were eager to see Montcalm,
whose exploit in taMng Oswego had inflamed their
imagination; and one day, on a -visit of ceremony, an
orator from MicMUmacMnac addressed the general
thus: "We wanted to see this famous man who
tiamples the English under his feet. We thought
we should find Mm so tall that his head would be
lost in the clouds. But you are a Uttle man, my
Father. It is when we look into your eyes that we
see the greatness of the pine-tiee and the fire of the
eagle." 2
It remained to muster the Mission Indians settled
in or near the limits of the colony ; and it was to this
end that Montcalm went to smg the war-song -with
1 Vaudreuil, Lettres circulaires aux Cures et aux Capitaines de
Milice des Paroisses du Gouvernement de Montreal, 16 Juin, 1757.
2 Bougainville, Journal.

164 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
the converts of the Two Mountains. Rigaud, Bou
gainviUe, young LongueuU, and others were of the
party; and when they landed, the Indians came
down to the shore, their priests at their head, and
greeted the general -with a voUey of musketry; then
received him after dark m their grand council-lodge,
where the circle of wild and savage visages, half seen
in the dim light of a few candles, suggested to
Bougainville a midnight conclave of wizards. He
acted -vicariously the chief part in the ceremony. " I
sang the war-song m the name of M. de Montcalm,
and was much applauded. It was nothing but these
words, ' Let us tiample the English under our feet, '
chanted over and over again, m cadence with the
movements of the savages." Then came the war-
feast, against which occasion Montcalm had caused
three oxen to be roasted.^ On the next day the
party went to Caughnawaga, or Saut St. Louis,
where the ceremony was repeated; and Bougainville,
who again sang the war-song in the name of Ms com
mander, was requited by adoption into the clan of
the Turtle. TMee more oxen were solemnly de
voured, and with one voice the warriors took up the
hatchet. MeanwMle tioops, Canadians and Indians, were
1 BougainviUe describes a ceremony in the Mission Church of
the Two Mountains in which warriors and squaws sang in the choir.
Ninety-nine years after, in 1856, I was present at a similar cere
mony on the same spot, and heard the descendants of the same
warriors and squaws sing like their ancestors. Great changes have
since taken place at this old mission.

1757.] CAMPS AT TICONDEROGA. 165
mo-ving by detachments up Lake Champlain. Fleets
of bateaux and canoes foUowed each other day by
day along the capricious lake, in calm or storm, sun
shine or rain, tUl, towards the end of July, the whole
force was gathered at Ticonderoga, the base of the
intended movement. Bourlamaque had been there
smce May with the battaUons of Bdarn and Royal
RoussiUon, finishing the fort, sending out war-
parties, and trying to discover the force and designs
of the EngUsh at Fort WilUam Henry.
Ticonderoga is a high rocky promontory between
Lake Champlam on the north and the mouth of the
outlet of Lake George on the south. Near its
extiemity and close to the fort were still encamped
the two battalions under Bourlamaque, wMle bateaux
and canoes were passing incessantly up the river of
the outlet. There were scarcely two miles of na-vi-
gable water, at the end of which the stream fell
foaming over a Mgh ledge of rock that barred the
way. Here the French were building a saw-mill;
and a wide space had been cleared to form an encamp
ment defended on aU sides by an abattis, -witMn
wMch stood the tents of the battaUons of La Reine,
La Sarre, Languedoc, and Guienne, all commanded
by Ldvis. Above the cascade the stieam circled
tMough the forest in a series of beautiful rapids, and
from the camp of L^vis a road a mile and a half long
had been cut to the navigable water above. At the
end of this road there was another fortified camp,
formed of colony regulars, Canadians, and Indians,

166 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
under Rigaud. It was scarcely a mile farther to
Lake George, where on the western side there was
an outpost, chiefly of Canadians and Indians ; wMle
advanced parties were stationed at Bald Mountain,
now called Rogers Rock, and elsewhere on the lake,
to watch the movements of the English. The
various encampments just mentioned were ranged
along a valley extending foul- mUes from Lake
Champlain to Lake George, and bordered by moun-
tams wooded to the top.
Here was gathered a martial population of eight
thousand men, includmg the brightest civilization
and the darkest barbarism: from the scholar-soldier
Montcalm and his no less accomplished aide-de-camp ;
from L^-vis, conspicuous for graces of person; from
a tMong of courtly young officers, who would have
seemed out of place in that wilderness had they not
done their work so well in it; from these to the
foulest man-eating savage of the uttermost northwest.
Of Indian allies there were nearly two thousand.
One of their tribes, the lowas, spoke a language
which no interpreter understood; and they all biv
ouacked where they saw fit: for no man could control
them. "I see no difference," says Bougain-ville, "in
the dress, ornaments, dances, and songs of the
various western nations. They go naked, excepting
a strip of cloth passed through a belt, and paint
themselves black, red, blue, and other colors. Their
heads are shaved and adorned with bunches of
feathers, and they wear rings of brass -vrire in their

1757.] TROUBLESOME ALLIES. 167
«ars. They wear beaver-skin blankets, and carry
lances, bows and arrows, and qmvers made of the
sMns of beasts. For the rest they are straight, well
made, and generaUy very tall. Their religion is
brute pagamsm. I will say it once for aU, one must
be the slave of these savages, listen to them day and
night, in councU and in private, whenever the fancy
takes them, or whenever a dream, a fit of the vapors,
or their perpetual cra-vmg for brandy, gets possession
of them; besides which they are always wanting
sometMng for their equipment, arms, or toUet, and
the general of the army must give written orders
for the smallest trifle, — an eternal, wearisome detail,
of wMch one has no idea in Europe."
It was not easy to keep them fed. Rations would
be served to them for a week ; they would consume
them in three days, and come for more. On one
occasion they took the matter into their own hands,
and butchered and devoured eighteen head of cattle
mtended for the tioops; nor did any officer dare
oppose tMs "St. Bartholomew of the oxen," as
Bougainville caUs it. "Their paradise is to be
drunk, " says the young officer. Their paradise was
rather a heU ; for sometimes, when mad -with brandy,
they grappled and tore each other with their teeth
Uke wolves. They were continually " maMng medi-
cme," that is, consulting the Manitou, to whom they
hung up offermgs, sometimes a dead dog, and some
times the belt-cloth which formed their only garment.
The Mission Indians were better aUies than these

168 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
heathen of the West; and their priests, who followed
them to the war, had great influence over them.
They were armed with guns, which they weU knew
how to use. Their dress, though savage, was gen
erally decent, and they were not cannibals ; though
in other respects they retained all their traditional
ferocity and most of their traditional habits. They
held frequent war-feasts, one of which is described
by Roubaud, Jesuit missionary of the AbenaMs of
St. Francis, whose flock formed a part of the com
pany present.
"Imagine," says the father, "a great assembly of
savages adorned with every ornament most smted to
disfigure them in European eyes, pamted -with ver
milion, wMte, green, yellow, and black made of soot
and the scrapings of pots. A single savage face
combines all these different colors, methodically laid
on with the help of a little tallow, which serves for
pomatum. The head is shaved except at the top,,
where there is a small tuft, to wMch are fastened
feathers, a few beads of wampum, or some such
trinket. Every part of the head has its ornament.
Pendants hang from the nose and also from the
ears, wMch are spUt in mfancy and drawn down by
weights tUl they flap at last against the shoulders.
The rest of the equipment answers to this fantastic
decoration: a shirt bedaubed with vermilion, wam
pum collars, silver bracelets, a large knife hanging
on the breast, moose-sMn moccasons, and a belt of
various colors always absurdly combined. The

1757.] WAR-FEAST. 169
sachems and war-chiefs are distinguished from the
rest: the latter by a gorget, and the former by a
medal, with the King's portrait'on one side, and on
the others Mars and Bellona joining hands, -with the
device. Virtus et Honor."
Thus attired, the company sat in two Unes facing
each other, -with kettles in the middle filled with
meat chopped for distiibution. To a dignified silence
succeeded songs, sung by several cMefs in succession,
and compared by the narrator to the howling of
wolves. Then foUowed a speech from the cMef
orator, highly commended by Roubaud, who could
not help admiring this effort of savage eloquence.^
" After the harangue, " he continues, " they proceeded
to nominate the chiefs who were to take command.
Ao soon as one was named he rose and took the head
of some animal that had been butchered for the feast.
He raised it aloft so that aU the company could see
it, and cried, ' Behold the head of the enemy ! '
Applause and cries of joy rose from all parts of the
assembly. The chief, with the head in his hand,
passed do-wn between the Unes, singing his war-song,
braggmg of his exploits, taunting and defying the
enemy, and glorifying Mmself beyond all measure.
To hear his self -laudation in these moments of martial
tiansport one would tMnk Mm a conquering hero
ready to sweep everythmg before him. As he passed
in front of the other savages, they would respond by
dull broken cries jerked up from the depths of their
stomachs, and accompanied by movements of their

170 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
bodies so odd that one must be well used to them to
keep countenance. In the course of his song the
chief would utter from time to time some grotesque
witticism; then he would stop, as if pleased -with
Mmself, or rather to listen, to the thousand confused
cries of applause that greeted his ears. He kept up
Ms martial promenade as long as he liked the sport;
and when he had had enough, ended by flinging
do-wn the head of the animal -with an air of contempt,
to show that Ms warUke appetite craved meat of
another sort." ^ Others followed with similar songs
and pantomime, and the festival was closed at last
by ladling out the meat from the kettles, and devour
ing it.
Roubaud was one day near the fort, when he saw
the shore lined with a thousand Indians, watching
four or five English prisoners, who, -with the war-
party that had captured them, were approaching in
a boat from the farther side of the water. Suddenly
the whole savage crew broke away together and ran
into the neighboring woods, whence they soon
emerged, yelling diabolically, each armed with a
club. The wretched prisoners were to be forced to
"run the gantlet," which would probably have
Mlled them. They were saved by the cMef who
commanded the war-party, and who, on the persua
sion of a French officer, claimed them as his own
and forbade the game; upon which, accordmg to
^ Lettres du Pere . . . (Tlovibnud), Missionnairechez les Abenakis, 21
Octobre, 1757, in Lettres Mdifiantes et Curieuses, vi. 189 (1810).

1757.] CANNIBALISM. 171
rule in such cases, the rest abandoned it. On this
same day the missionary met troops of Indians con
ducting several bands of English prisoners along the
road that led through the forest from the camp of
Ldvis. Each of the captives was held by a cord made
fast about the neck; and the sweat was starting from
their brows in the extremity of their horror and dis
tress. Roubaud's tent was at this time in the camp
of the Ottawas. He presently saw a large number
of them squatted about a fire, before wMch meat was
roastmg on sticks stuck in the ground ; and, approach
ing, he saw that it was the flesh of an Englishman,
other parts of wMch were boiling in a kettle, while
near by sat eight or ten of the prisoners, forced to
see their comrade devoured. The horror-stiicken
priest began to remonstiate ; on which a young savage
fiercely replied in broken French: "You have French
taste; Ihave Indian. TMs is good meat forme;"
and the f easters pressed him to share it.
Bougain-ville says that this abomination could not
be prevented; wMch oMy means that if force had
been used to stop it, the Ottawas would have gone
home in a rage. They were therefore left to finish
their meal undisturbed. Ha-ving eaten one of their
prisoners, they began to treat the rest -with the
utmost Mndness, bringing them wMte bread, and
attending to all their wants, — a seeming change of
heart due to the fact that they were a valuable com
modity, for wMch the owners hoped to get a good
price at Montreal. Montcalm -wished to send them

172 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
tMther at once, to which after long debate the
Indians consented, demanding, however, a receipt in
full, and bargaimng that the captives should be sup
plied with shoes and blankets.^
These unfortunates belonged to a detachment of
tMee hundred provincials, chiefly New Jersey men,
sent from Fort WiUiam Henry under command of
Colonel Parker to reconnoitre the French outposts.
Montcalm's scouts discovered them ; on which a band
of Indians, considerably more numerous, went to
meet them under a French partisan named Corbi^re,
and ambushed themselves not far from Sabbath Day
Point. Parker had rashly divided his force ; and at
daybreak of the twenty-sixth of July three of his
boats fell into the snare, and were captured -without
a shot. Three others followed, in ignorance of what
had happened, and shared the fate of the first.
When the rest drew near, they were greeted by a
deadly volley from the thickets, and a swarm of
canoes darted out upon them. The men were seized
¦vrith such a panic that some of them jumped into the
water to escape, while the Indians leaped after them
and speared them -with their lances Uke fish. " Terri
fied," says BougamvUle, "by the sight of these
monsters, their agiUty, their firing, and their yells,
they surrendered almost -without resistance. " About
a hundred, however, made their escape. The rest
1 Journal de I'Expedition centre le Fort George [William Henry]
du 12 Juilkt au 16 Aout, 1757. Bougainville, Journal. Lettre du P.
Roubaud.

1757.] GRAND COUNCIL. 173
were Mlled or captured, and tMee of the bodies were
eaten on the spot. The journalist adds that the
¦victory so elated the Indians that they became insup
portable ; " but here in the forests of America we can
no more do without them than without cavalry on
the plain. "1
Another success at about the same time did not
tend to improve their manners. A hundred and fifty
of them, along -with a few Canadians under Marin,
made a dash at Fort Edward, Mlled or drove in the
pickets, and returned -with tMrty-two scalps and a
prisoner. It was found, however, that the scalps
were far from representing an equal number of heads,
the Indians having learned the art of making two or
three out of one by judicious division. ^
Preparations were urged on with the utmost energy.
Provisions, camp equipage, ammunition, cannon, and
bateaux were dragged by gangs of men up the road
from the camp of L^vis to the head of the rapids.
The work went on through heat and ram, by day
and night, till, at the end of July, all was done.
Now, on the eve of departure, Montcalm, anxious for
1 Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Journal. Montcalm a Vau
dreuil, 27 Juillet, 1757. Webb to Loudon, 1 August, 1757. Webb to
Delancey, 30 July, 1757. Journal de I'Expedition contre le Fort George.
London Magazine, 1757, 457. NUes, French and Indian Wars.
Boston Gazette, 15 August, Ylbl.
2 This affair was much exaggerated at the time. I follow Bou
gainville, who had the facts from Marin. According to him, the
thirty-two scalps represent eleven killed ; which exactly answers to
the English loss as stated by Colonel Frye in a letter from Fort
Edward.

174 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
harmony among Ms red allies, called them to a grand
council near the camp of Rigaud. Forty-one tiibes
and sub-tribes, Christian and heathen, from the East
and from the West, were represented in it. Here
were the mission savages, — Iroquois of Caughnawaga,
Two Mountains, and La Presentation; Hurons of
Lorette and Detroit; Nipissings of Lake Nipissing;
Abenakis of St. Francis, Becancour, Missisqui, and
the Penobscot ; Algonquins of Three Rivers and Two
Mountains; Micmacs and Malicites from Acadia: in
all, eight hundred chiefs and warriors. With these
came the heathen of the West, — Ottawas of seven
distinct bands; Ojibwas from Lake Superior, and
Mississagas from the region of Lakes Erie and
Huron; Pottawattamies and Menominies from Lake
Michigan; Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes from
Wisconsin; Miamis from the prairies of IlUnois, and
lowas from the banks of the Des Moines : nine hun
dred and seventy-nine chiefs and warriors, men of
the forests and men of the plains, hunters of the
moose and hunters of the buffalo, bearers of steel
hatchets and stone war-clubs, of French guns and of
flint-headed arrows. All sat in silence, decked with
ceremonial^ paint, scalp-locks, eagle plumes, or horns
of buffalo; and the dark and wild assemblage was
edged with wMte uniforms of officers from France,
who came in numbers to the spectacle. Other
officers were also here, all belonging to the colony.
They had been appointed to the command of the
Indian alUes, over whom, however, they had little or

1757.] INDIAN ORATORY. 175
no real authority. First among them was the bold
and hardy Saint-Luc de la Come, who was caUed
general of the Indians ; and under him were others,
each assigned to some tribe or group of tribes, — the
intrepid Marin ; Charles Langlade, who had left Ms
squaw -wife at Michilimackinac to join the war;
NiverviUe, Langis, La Plante, Hertel, Longueml,
Herbin, Lorimier, Sabrevois, and Fleurimont; men
famiUar from childhood -with forests and savages.
Each tribe had its interpreter, often as lawless as
those -with whom he had spent his life ; and for the
converted tribes there were three missionaries, —
Piquet for the Iroquois, Mathevet for the Nipissings,
who were half heathen, and Roubaud for the
AbenaMs.^ There was some complaint among the Indians be
cause they were crowded upon by the officers who
came as spectators. This difficulty being removed,
the councU opened, Montcalm having already ex
plained Ms plans to the chiefs and told them the part
he expected them to play.
Pennahouel, chief of the Ottawas, and senior of all
the Assembly, rose and said: "My father, I, who
have counted more moons than any here, thank you
for the good words you have spoken. I approve
1 The above is chiefly from Tableau des Sauvages qui se trouvent a
I'Armee du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, Vlbl. Forty-one tribes
and sub-tribes are here named, some, however, represented by only
three or four warriors. Besides those set down under the head of
Christians, it is stated that a few of the Ottawas of Detroit and
Michilimackinac stUl retained the faith.

176 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
them. Nobody ever spoke better. It is the Manitou
of War who inspires you."
Kikensick, chief of the Nipissings, rose in behalf
of the CMistian Indians, and addressed the heathen
of the west. "Brothers, we thank you for coming
to help us defend our lands against the English.
Our cause is good. The Master of Life is on our
side. Can you doubt it, brothers, after the great blow
you have just struck? It covers you with glory.
The lake, red with the blood of Corlaer [the English],
bears witness forever to your achievement. We too
share your glory, and are proud of what you have
done." Then, turning to Montcalm: "We are even
more glad than you, my father, who have crossed
the great water, not for your own sake, but to obey
the great King and defend his cMldren. He has
bound us all together by the most solemn of ties.
Let us take care that nothing shall separate us."
The various interpreters, each in turn, having
explained this speech to the Assembly, it was received
-with ejaculations of applause; and when they had
ceased, Montcalm spoke as foUows : " Children, I am
delighted to see you all joined in this good work.
So long as you remain one, the English cannot resist
you. The great King has sent me to protect and
defend you; but above all he has charged me to
make you happy and unconquerable, by estabUshing
among you the union wMch ought to prevail among
brothers, children of one father, the great Onontio. "
Then he held out a prodigious wampum belt of six

1757.] HARMONY IN CAMP. 177
thousand beads: "Take this sacred pledge of his
word. The union of the beads of which it is made is
the sign of your united strength. By it I bind you
all together, so that none of you can separate from
the rest tiU the English are defeated and their fort
destroyed." Pennahouel took up the belt and said: "Behold,
brothers, a circle drawn around us by the great
Onontio. Let none of us go out from it ; for so long
.as we keep in it, the Master of Life will help all our
undertakings." Other chiefs spoke to the same
effect, and the council closed in perfect harmony.^
Its various members bivouacked together at the camp
by the lake, and by their carelessness soon set it on
fire ; whence the place became known as the Burned
Oamp. Those from the missions confessed their sins
all day; while their heathen brothers hung an old
coat and a pair of leggings on a pole as tiibute to the
Manitou. This greatly embarrassed the three priests,
who were about to say mass, but doubted whether
they ought to say it in presence of a sacrifice to the
devil. Hereupon they took counsel of Montcalm.
" Better say it so than not at all, " replied the mili
tary casmst. Brandy being prudently denied them,
the allies grew restless ; and the greater part paddled
up the lake to a spot near the place where Parker
had been defeated. Here they encamped to wait the
.arrival of the army, and amused themselves mean
time with MUing rattlesnakes, there being a populous
1 Bougainville, Journal.
VOL. II. — 12

178 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
" den " of those reptiles among the neighboring
rocks. Montcalm sent a circular letter to the regular
officers, urging them to dispense for a while with
luxuries, and even comforts. "We have but few
bateaux, and these are so fiUed with stores that a
large division of the army must go by land; " and he
directed that everything not absolutely necessary
should be left behind, and that a canvas shelter to
every two officers should serve them for a tent, and
a bearskin for a bed. " Yet I do not forbid a mat-
tiess, " he adds. "Age and infirmities may make it
necessary to some ; but I shall not have one myself,
and make no doubt that aU who can, will wUUngly
imitate me." ^
The bateaux lay ready by the shore, but could not
carry the whole force ; and L^vis received orders to
march by the side of the lake -with twenty-five hun
dred men, Canadians, regulars, and Iroquois. He
set out at daybreak of the thirtieth of July, his men
carrying nothing but their knapsacks, blankets, and
weapons. Guided by the unerring Indians, they
climbed the steep gorge at the side of Rogers Rock,
gained the valley beyond, and marched southward
along a Mohawk trail wMch threaded the forest in a
course parallel to the lake. The way was of the
roughest; many straggled from the line, and two
officers completely broke down. The first destina
tion of the party was the mouth of Ganouskie Bay,
1 Circulaire du Marquis de Montcalm, 25 Juillet, 1757.

1757.] ADVANCE OF MONTCALM. 17?
now caUed Northwest Bay, where they were to wait
for Montcalm, and Mndle three fires as a signal that
they had reached the rendezvous.^
Montcalm left a detachment to hold Ticonderoga ;
and then, on the first of August, at two in the after
noon, he embarked at the Burned Camp with all his
remainmg force. Including those with Levis, the
expedition counted about seven thousand six hun
dred men, of whom more than sixteen hundred were
Indians.^ At five in the afternoon they reached the
place where the Indians, having finished their rattle
snake hunt, were smoking their pipes and waiting for
the army. The red warriors embarked, and joined
the French flotiUa; and now, as evemng drew near,
was seen one of those wild pageantries of war which
Lake George has often -witnessed. A restless multi
tude of birch canoes, fiUed -with pamted savages,
glided by shores and islands, Uke troops of swimming
water-fowl. Two hundred and fifty bateaux came
next, moved by sail and oar, some bearing the Cana
dian miUtia, and some the battaUons of Old France
in tiim and gay attire : first. La Reine and Languedoc ;
1 Guerre du Canada, par le Chevalier de Levis. This manuscript
of L^vis is largely in the nature of a journal.
2 £tat de I'Armee Fran^aise devant le Fort George, autrement
Guillaume-Henri, le 3 Aout, 1757. Tableau des Sauvages qui se
trouvent a I'Armee du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. This
gives a total of 1,799 Indians, of whom some afterwards left the
army. £tat de I'Armee du Roi en Canada, sur le Lac St. Sacrement et
dans les Camps de Carillon, le 29 Juillet, 1757. This gives a total of
8,019 men, of whom about four hundred were left in garrison at
Ticonderoga.

180 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
then the colony regulars; then La Sarre and Guienne;
then the Canadian brigade of Courtemanche; then
the cannon and mortars, each on a platform sustained
by two bateaux lashed side by side, and rowed by
the militia of Saint-Ours; then the battalions of
Bdarn and Royal RoussiUon; then the Canadians of
Gaspd, with the provision-bateaux and the field-
hospital; and, lastly, a rear-guard of regulars closed
the Une. So, under the flush of sunset, they held
their course along the romantic lake, to play their
part in the historic drama that lends a stern enchant
ment to its fascinating scenery. They passed the
Narrows in mist and darkness; and when, a Uttle
before dawn, they rounded the high promontory of
Tongue Mountain, they saw, far on the right, three
fiery sparks sMning through the gloom. These were
the signal-fires of Levis, to teU them that he had
reached the appointed spot.^
L4vis had arrived the evening before, after his
hard march through the sultry midsummer forest.
His men had now rested for a night, and at ten in
the morning he marched again. Montcalm followed
at noon, and coasted the western shore, till, towards
evenmg, he found L^vis waiting for him by the
margin of a smaU bay not far from the English
fort, though hidden from it by a projecting point
of land. Canoes and bateaux were drawn up on
the beach, and the imited forces made their bivouac
together. 1 The site of the present village of Bolton.

1757.] A NIGHT ALARM. 181
The earthen moimds of Fort WiUiam Henry stiU
stand by the brink of Lake George; and seated at
the sunset of an August day under the pines that
cover them, one gazes on a scene of soft and soothmg
beauty, where dreamy waters reflect the glories of
the mountains and the sky. As it is to-day, so it
was then; all breathed repose and peace. The
splash of some leaping trout, or the dipping wing of
a passmg swaUow, alone disturbed the summer calm
of that unruffled mirror.
About ten o'clock at night two boats set out from
the fort to reconnoitre. They were passing a point
of land on their left, two miles or more down the
lake, when the men on board descried tMough the
gloom a stiange object against the bank; and they
rowed towards it to learn what it might be. It was
an awnmg over the bateaux that carried Roubaud
and Ms brother missionaries. As the rash oarsmen
drew near, the bleating of a sheep in one of the
French provision-boats warned them of danger; and
tummg, they pulled for their lives towards the eastern
shore. Instantly more than a thousand Indians threw
themselves into their canoes and dashed in hot pur
suit, making the lake and the mountains ring -with
the din of their war-whoops. The fugitives had
nearly reached land when their pursuers opened fire.
They repUed; shot one Indian dead, and wounded
another ; then snatched their oars again, and gained
the beach. But the whole savage crew was upon
them. Several were Mlled, tMee were taken, and

182 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
the rest escaped in the dark woods.^ The prisoners
were brought before Montcalm, and gave him valu
able information of the strength and position of the
English.2 The Indian who was Mlled was a noted chief of
the Nipissings ; and his tribesmen howled in grief for
their bereavement. They painted his face with ver-
miUon, tied feathers in Ms hair, hung pendants in
his ears and nose, clad him in a resplendent war
dress, put sUver bracelets on his arms, hung a gorget
on his breast with a flame-colored ribbon, and seated
Mm in state on the top of a hillock, with his lance
in his hand, his gun in the hoUow of his arm, his
tomahawk in his belt, and Ms kettle by his side.
Then they all crouched about Mm in lugubrious
silence. A funeral harangue followed; and next a
song and solemn dance to the booming of the Indian
drum. In the gray of the morning they buried him
as he sat, and placed food in the grave for his journey
to the land of souls. ^
As the sun rose above the eastern mountains the
French camp was all astir. The column of L^-vis,
with Indians to lead the way, moved through the
1 Lettre du Pere Roubaud, 21 Octobre, 1757. Roubaud, who saw
the whole, says that twelve hundred Indians joined the chase, and
that their yells were terrific.
2 The remains of Fort William Henry are now — 1882 — crowded
between a hotel and the wharf and station of a railway. While I
¦write, a scheme is on foot to level the whole for other railway struc
tures. -When I first knew the place, the ground was in much the
same state as in the time of 'Montcalm.
' Lettre du Pere Roubaud.

-A SccUe- to th^ProJU^

1757.] ADVANCE UPON THE FORT. 183
forest towards the fort, and Montcalm foUowed with
the main body ; then the artiUery boats rounded the
point that had hid them from the sight of the Eng
Ush, saluting them as they did so with musketry and
cannon; whUe a host of savages put out upon the
lake, ranged their canoes abreast in a line from shore
to shore, and advanced slowly, with measured paddle-
stiokes and yells of defiance.
The position of the enemy was full in sight before
them. At the head of the lake, towards the right,
stood the fort, close to the edge of the water. On
its left was a marsh; then the rough piece of ground
where Johnson had encamped two years before ; then
a low, flat, rocky hill, crowned with an mtrenched
camp; and, lastly, on the extreme left, another
marsh. Far around the fort and up the slopes of the
western mountain the forest had been cut down and
burned, and the ground was cumbered with black
ened stumps and charred carcasses and Umbs of f aUen
trees, strewn m savage disorder one upon another.^
This was the work of Winslow in the autumn before.
Distant shouts and war-cries, the clatter of musketry,
wMte puffs of smoke in the dismal clearing and along
the scorched edge of the bordering forest, told that
Levis' Indians were sMrmisMng -with parties of the
English, who had gone out to save the cattle roam
ing in the neighborhood, and burn some out-buildings
that would have favored the besiegers. Others were
1 Precis des £venements de la Campagne de 1757 en la Nouvelle
France.

184 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
taMng do-wn the tents that stood on a plateau near
the foot of the mountain on the right, and movmg
them to the intrenchment on the hill. The garrison
sallied from the fort to support their comrades, and
for a time the firing was hot.
Fort WiUiam Henry was an irregular bastioned
square, formed by embankments of gravel sur
mounted by a rampart of heavy logs, laid in tiers
crossed one upon another, the interstices filled witK
earth. The lake protected it on the north, the
marsh on the east, and ditches -with chevaux-de-frise
on the south and west. Seventeen cannon, great
and small, besides several mortars and swivels, were
mounted upon it; ^ and a brave Scotch veteran,
Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, of the thirty-fifth regi
ment, was in command.
General Webb lay fourteen miles distant at Fort
Edward, with twenty-six hundred men, cMefly
provincials. On the twenty-fifth of July he had
made a visit to Fort William Henry, examined the
place, given some orders, and returned on the twenty-
mnth. He then -wrote to the governor of New ^ork,
telling him that the French were certainly coming,
begging him to send up the militia, and saying: "I
am determined to march to Fort William Henry
with the whole army under my command as soon as I
shall hear of the farther approach of the enemy."
1 iFtat des Effets et Munitions de Guerre qui se sont trouves au Fort
Guillaume-Henri There were six more guns in the intrenched
camp.

1757.] INDECISION OF WEBB. 185
Instead of doing so he waited three days, and then
sent up a detachment of two hundred regulars under
Lieutenant-Colonel Young, and eight hundred Massa
chusetts men under Colonel Frye. This raised the
force at the lake to two thousand and two hundred,
mcluding sailors and mechamcs, and reduced that of
Webb to sixteen hundred, besides half as many more
distiibuted at Albany and the intervening forts.^ If,
according to his spirited intention, he should go to
the rescue of Monro, he must leave some of his
troops behind Mm to protect the lower posts from a
possible French mroad by way of South Bay. Thus
his power of aiding Monro was slight, so rashly had
Loudon, intent on Louisbourg, left this frontier open
to attack. The defect, however, was as much in
Webb himself as in his resources. His conduct in
the past year had raised doubts of his personal
courage; and this was the moment for answering
them. Great as was the disparity of numbers, the
emergency would have justified an attempt to save
Monro at any risk. That officer sent him a hasty
note, written at mne o'clock on the morning of the
third, telUng him that the French were in sight on
the lake ; and, in the next mght, three rangers came
to Fort Edward, bringing another short note, dated
at six in the evening, announcing that the firing had
begun, and closing with the words : " I believe you
will think it proper to send a reinforcement as soon
1 Frye, Journal of the Attack of Fort William Henry. Webb to
Loudon, 1 August, 1757. Ibid., 5 August, 1757.

186 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
as possible." Now, if ever, was the time to move,
before the fort was invested and access cut off. But
Webb lay quiet, sending expresses to New England
for help which could not possibly arrive in time.
On the next night, another note came from Monro
to say that the French were upon him in great num
bers, well supplied with artilleiy, but that the gar
rison were all m good spirits. " I make no doubt, "
•wrote the hard-pressed officer, "that you wiU soon
send us a reinforcement; " and again on the same
day: "We are very certain that a part of the enemy
have got between you and us upon the Mgh road,
and would therefore be glad (if it meets -with your
approbation) the whole army was marched." ^ But
Webb gave no sign.^
When the skirmishing around the fort was over.
La Come, with a body of Indians, occupied the road
that led to Fort Edward, and L^vis encamped hard
by to support Mm, while Montcalm proceeded to
examine the ground and settle his plan of attack.
He made his way to the rear of the intrenched camp
and reconnoitred it, hoping to carry it by assault;
but it had a breastwork of stones and logs, and he
1 Copy of four Letters from Lieutenant-Colonel Monro to Major-
General Webb, enclosed in the General's Letter of the fifth of August to
the Earl of Loudon.
'^ " The number of troops remaining under my Command at this
place [Fort Edward}, excluding the Posts on Hudson's River,
amounts to but sixteen hundred men fit for duty, with which Army,
so much inferior to that of the enemy, I did not think it prudent to
pursue my first intentions of Marching to their Assistance." —
Webb to Loudon, 5 August, 1757.

1757.] MONTCALM'S PREPARATIONS. 187
thought the attempt too hazardous. The ground
where he stood was that where Dieskau had been
defeated; and as the fate of his predecessor was not
of flattering augury, he resolved to besiege the fort
in form.
He chose for the site of Ms operations the ground
now covered by the village of Caldwell. A little to
the north of it was a ravine, beyond which he formed
his main camp, whUe L^vis occupied a tract of dry
ground beside the marsh, whence he could easily
move to intercept succors from Fort Edward on the
one hand, or repel a sortie from Fort WiUiam Henry
on the other. A brook ran down the ravine and
entered the lake at a small cove protected from the
fire of the fort by a point of land ; and at this place,
still caUed ArtiUery Cove, Montcalm prepared to
•debark his cannon and mortars.
Ha-ving made his preparations, he sent Fontbrune,
one of his aides-de-camp, with a letter to Monro.
"I owe it to humanity," he wrote, "to summon you
to surrender. At present I can restiain the savages,
and make them observe the terms of a capitulation,
as I might not have power to do under other circum
stances ; and an obstmate defence on your part could
only retard the capture of the place a few days, and
endanger an unfortunate garrison wMch cannot be
relieved, in consequence of the dispositions I have
made. I demand a decisive answer within an hour."
Monro repUed that he and his soldiers would defend
themselves to the last. While the flags of tiuce

188 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
were flymg, the Indians swarmed over the fields before
the fort; and when they learned the result, an
Abenaki chief shouted in broken French: "You
won't surrender, eh ! Fire away then, and fight your
best; for if I catch you, you shaU get no quarter."
Monro emphasized Ms refusal by a general discharge
of Ms cannon.
The trenches were opened on the night of the
fourth, — a task of extreme difficulty, as the ground
was covered by a profusion of half-burned stumps,
roots, branches, and faUen trunks. Eight hundred
men toiled till daylight with pick, spade, and axe,
while the cannon from the fort flashed through the
darkness, and grape and round-shot whistled and
screamed over their heads. Some of the English
balls reached the camp beyond the ravine, and dis
turbed the slumbers of the officers off duty, as they
lay wrapped in their blankets and bear-sMns. Before
daybreak the first parallel was made ; a battery was
nearly finished on the left, and another was begun on
the right. The men now worked under cover, safe
in their burrows ; one gang relieved another, and the
work went on aU day.
The Indians were far from doing what was expected
of them. Instead of scouting in the direction of Fort
Edward to learn the movements of the enemy and
prevent surprise, they loitered about the camp and in
the trenches, or amused themselves by firing at the
fort from behind stumps and logs. Some, in imitation
of the French, dug little tienches for themselves, in

1757.] COMPLAINT OF THE INDIANS. 189
which they wormed their way towards the rampart,
and now and then picked off an artillery -man, not
without loss on their own side. On the afternoon of
the fifth, Montcalm invited them to a council, gave
them belts of wampum, and mildly remonstrated with
them. "Why expose yourselves without necessity?
I grieve bitterly over the losses that you have met,
for the least among you is precious to me. No doubt
it is a good thing to annoy the English; but that is
not the main point. You ought to inform me of
everything the enemy is doing, and always keep
parties on the road between the two forts." And he
gently hinted that their place was not in his camp,
but in that of L^vis, where missionaries were provided
for such of them as were Christians, and food and
ammumtion for them all. They promised, -with
excellent docility, to do everything he wished, but
added that there was something on their hearts.
Bemg encouraged to reUeve themselves of the burden,
they complained that they had not been consulted as
to the management of the siege, but were expected to
obey orders like slaves. "We know more about
fighting in the woods than you," said their orator;
" ask our advice, and you will be the better for it." ^
Montcalm assured them that if they had been
neglected, it was onlj* tMough the hurry and confu
sion of the time ; expressed high appreciation of their
talents for bush-fighting, promised them ample satis
faction, and ended by teUing them that m the morn-
1 BougainviUe, Journal.

190 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
ing they should hear the big guns. This greatly
pleased them, for they were extremely impatient for
the artillery to begin. About sunrise the battery of
the left opened with eight hea-vy cannon and a mortar,
joined, on the next mornmg, by the battery of the
right, -with eleven pieces more. The fort replied
with spirit. The cannon thundered all day, and
from a hundred peaks and crags the astonished wil
derness roared back the sound. The Indians were
delighted. They wanted to point the guns ; and to
humor them, they were now and then allowed to do
so. Others lay behmd logs and fallen trees, and
yelled their satisfaction when they saw the splinters
fly from the wooden rampart.
Day after day the weary roar of the distant can
nonade fell on the ears of Webb in Ms camp at Fort
Edward. "I have not yet received the least rein
forcement," he writes to Loudon; "this is the disa
greeable situation we are at present in. The fort, by
the heavy firing we hear from the lake, is still in our
possession ; but I fear it cannot long hold out against
so warm a cannonading if I am not reinforced by a
sufficient number of militia to march to their relief."
The miUtia were coming; but it was impossible that
many could reach him in less than a week. Those
from New York alone were -within call, and two
thousand of them arrived soon after he sent Loudon
the above letter. Then, by stripping all the forts
below, he coMd bring together forty-five hundred
men ; while several French deserters assured him that

1757.] INTERCEPTED LETTER. 191
Montcalm had nearly twelve thousand. To advance
to the relief of Monro with a force so inferior, through
a defile of rocks, forests, and mountains, made by
nature for ambuscades, — and this too with troops
who had neither the steadiness of regulars nor the
bush-fighting sMll of Indians, — was an enterprise for
firmer nerve than his.
He had already warned Monro to expect no help
from him. At midnight of the fourth. Captain
Bartman, his aide-de-camp, wrote: "The General
has ordered me to acquamt you he does not think it
prudent to attempt a junction or to assist you tiU
reinforced by the militia of the colomes, for the
immediate march of which repeated expresses have
been sent." The letter then declared that the French
were in complete possession of the road between the
two forts, that a prisoner just brought in reported
their force m men and cannon to be very great, and
that, unless the militia came soon, Monro had better
make what terms he could with the enemy. ^
The chance was smaU that tMs letter would reach
its destmation; and m fact the bearer was Mlled by
La Corne's Indians, who, in stripping the body, found
the hidden paper, and carried it to the general.
Montcalm kept it several days, tiU the English ram
part was half battered down; and then, after salut
ing his enemy with a voUey from all his cannon, he
1 Frye, in his Journal, gives the letter in full. A spurious trans
lation of it is appended to a piece called Jugement impartial sur les
Operations militaires en Canada.

192 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
sent it with a graceful compUment to Monro. It
was BougainviUe who carried it, preceded by a
drummer and a flag. He was met at the foot of the
glacis, blindfolded, and led through the fort and
along the edge of the lake to the intrenched camp,
where Monro was at the time. " He returned many
thanks," writes the emissary in his Diary, "for the
courtesy of our nation, and protested his joy at hav
ing to do with so generous an enemy. This was his
answer to the Marquis de Montcalm. Then they led
me back, always with eyes blinded ; and our batteries
began to fire again as soon as we thought that the
English grenadiers who escorted me had had time to
re-enter the fort. I hope General Webb's letter may
induce the English to surrender the sooner." ^
By this time the sappers had worked their way to
the angle of the lake, where they were stopped by a
marshy hollow, beyond which was a tract of high
ground, reaching to the fort and serving as the
garden of the garrison. ^ Logs and fascines in large
quantities were tMown into the hollow, and hurdles
were laid over them to form a causeway for the
cannon. Then the sap was continued up the accliv
ity beyond, a trench was opened in the garden, and a
battery begun, not two hundred and fifty yards from
the fort. The Indians, in great number, crawled
forward among the beans, maize, and cabbages, and
1 BougainviUe, Journal. Bougainville au Ministre, 19 Aout, 1757.
2 Now (1882) the site of Fort WiUiam Henry Hotel, with its
grounds. The hollow is partly filled by the main road of CaldwelL

1757.] A DESPERATE SITUATION. 193
lay there ensconced. On the mght of the seventh,
two men came out of the fort, apparently to recon
noitre, with a view to a sortie, when they were
greeted by a general volley and a burst of yells which
echoed among the mountains ; foUowed by responsive
whoops pealing through the darkness from the various
camps and lurMng-places of the savage warriors far
and near.
The position of the besieged was now deplorable.
More than tMee hundred of them had been killed
and wounded; small-pox was raging in the fort; the
place was a focus of infection, and the casemates
were crowded with the sick. A sortie from the
mtrenched camp and another from the fort had been
repulsed with loss. All their large cannon and
mortars had been burst, or disabled by shot; only
seven smaU pieces were left fit for service ; ^ and the
whole of Montcalm's thirty-one cannon and fifteen
mortars and ho-witzers would soon open fire, while
the walls were already breached, and an assault was
imminent. TMough the night of the eighth they
fired briskly from all their remaining pieces. In the
morning the officers held a council, and all agreed to
surrender if honorable terms could be had. A white
flag was raised, a drum was beat, and Lieutenant-
Colonel Young, mounted on horseback, for a shot in
the foot had disabled Mm from walking, went, fol
lowed by a few soldiers, to the tent of Montcalm.
It was agreed that the English troops should march
1 Frye, Journal.
VOL. II. — 13

194 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
out -with the honors of war, and be escorted to Fort
Edward by a detachment of French troops; that
they should not serve for eighteen months ; and that
aU French prisoners captured in America since the
war began should be given up within three months.
The stores, munitions, and artillery were to be the
prize of the victors, except one field-piece, which
the garrison were to retain in recognition of their
brave defence.
Before signing the capitulation Montcalm caUed
the Indian cMefs to council, and asked them to con
sent to the conditions, and promise to restrain their
young warriors from any disorder. They approved
everything and promised everytMng. The garrison
then evacuated the fort, and marched to jom their
comrades in the intrenched camp, which was included
in the surrender. No sooner were they gone than a
crowd of Indians clambered through the embrasures
in search of rum and plunder. AU the sick men
unable to leave their beds were instantly butchered.^
"I was witness of this spectacle," says the missionary
Roubaud ; " I saw one of these barbarians come out
of the casemates with a human head in his hand,
from which the blood ran in stieams, and which he
paraded as if he had got the finest prize in the world."
There was Uttle left to plunder; and the Indians,
joined by the more lawless of the Canadians, turned
their attention to the intrenched camp, where all the
EngUsh were now collected.
1 Attestation of William Arbuthnot, Captain in Frye's Regiment.

1757.] CONFUSION IN CAMP. 195
The French guard stationed there could not or
would not keep out the rabble. By the advice of
Montcalm the EngUsh stove their rum-barrels; but
the Indians were drunk already with homicidal rage,
and the glitter of their -vicious eyes told of the devil
-witMn. They roamed among the tents, intiusive,
insolent, their visages besmirched with war-paint;
grinning Uke fiends as they handled, in anticipation
of the knife, the long hair of cowering women, of
whom, as well as of children, there were many in the
camp, aU crazed with fright. Since the last war the
New England border population had regarded Indians
with a mixture of detestation and horror. Their
mysterious warfare of ambush and surprise, their
midmght onslaughts, their butcheries, their burnings,
and aU their nameless atrocities, had been for years
the ..theme of fireside story; and the dread they
excited was deepened by the distiust and dejection
of the time. The confusion in the camp lasted
tMough the afternoon. " The Indians, " says Bougain-
-viUe, "wanted to plunder the chests of the EngUsh;
the latter resisted; and there was fear that serious
disorder would ensue. The Marquis de Montcalm
ran thither immediately, and used every means to
restore tianquillity: prayers, threats, caresses, inter
position of the officers and mterpreters who have
some influence over these savages."^ "We shaU be
but too happy if we can prevent a massacre. Detest
able position ! of which nobody who has not been in
1 Bougainville au Ministre, 19 AoUt, 1757.

196 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
it can have any idea, and which makes -victory itself
a sorrow to the -victors. The Marquis spared no
efforts to prevent the rapacity of the savages and, I
must say it, of certain persons associated with them,
from resulting in something worse than plunder. At
last, at nine o'clock in the evening, order seemed
restored. The Marqms even induced the Indians to
promise that, besides the escort agreed upon in the
capitulation, two cMefs for each tribe should accom
pany the English on their way to Fort Edward." ^
He also ordered La Corne and the other Canadian
officers attached to the Indians to see that no violence
took place. He might weU have done more. In
view of the disorders of the afternoon, it would not
have been too much if he had ordered the whole body
of regular tioops, whom alone he could tiust for the
purpose, to hold themselves ready to move to the
spot m case of outbreak, and shelter their defeated
foes beMnd a hedge of bayonets.
Bougainville was not to see what ensued; for
Montcalm now sent Mm to Montreal, as a special
messenger to carry news of the victory. He em
barked at ten o'clock. Returning daylight found
Mm far do-wn the lake ; and as he looked on its still
bosom flecked with mists, and its quiet mountains
sleeping under the flush of dawn, there was nothing
in the wild tranquillity of the scene to suggest the
tiagedy which even then was beginning on the shore
he had left behind. 1 BougainviUe, JbitrnoZ.

1757.] INDIAN OUTRAGES. 197
The EngUsh in their camp had passed a tioubled
night, agitated by strange rumors. In the morning
sometMng like a pamc seized them; for they dis
trusted not the Indians only, but the Canadians. In
their haste to be gone they got together at daybreak,
before the escort of three hundred regulars had
arrived. They had their muskets, but no ammum
tion; and few or none of the pro-vincials had bayo
nets. Early as it was, the Indians were on the alert;
and, indeed, since midnight great numbers of them
had been prowUng about the sMrts of the camp,
sho-wing, says Colonel Frye, " more than usual malice
in their looks." Seventeen wounded men of his
regiment lay m huts, unable to join the march. In
the precedmg afternoon MUes Whitworth, the regi
mental surgeon, had passed them over to the care of
a French surgeon, according to an agreement made
at the time of the surrender; but, the Frenchman
being absent, the other remained with them attending
to their wants. The French surgeon had caused
special sentinels to be posted for their protection.
These were now removed, at the moment when they
were needed most; upon which, about five o'clock in
the moming, the Indians entered the huts, dragged
out the inmates, and tomahawked and scalped them
aU, before the eyes of Whitworth, and in presence of
La Corne and other Canadian officers, as well as of
a French guard stationed within forty feet of the
spot; and, declares the surgeon under oath, "none,
either officer or soldier, protected the said wounded

198 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
men. " ^ The opportune butchery reUeved them of a
troublesome burden.
A scene of plundering now began. The escort had
by this time arrived, and Monro complained to the
officers that the capitulation was broken ; but got no
other answer than advice to give up the baggage to
the Indians in order to appease them. To this the
EngUsh at length agreed; but it only increased the
excitement of the mob. They demanded rum; and
some of the soldiers, afraid to refuse, gave it to them
from their canteens, thus adding fuel to the flame.
When, after much difficulty, the column at last got
out of the camp and began to move along the road
that crossed the rough plain between the intiench
ment and the forest, the Indians crowded upon them,
impeded their march, snatched caps, coats, and
weapons from men and officers, tomahawked those
that resisted, and, seizmg upon sMieking women and
chUdren, dragged them off or murdered them on the
spot. It is said that some of the mterpreters secretly
fomented the disorder.^ Suddenly there rose the
screech of the war-whoop. At this signal of butch
ery, which was given by AbenaM CMistians from
the mission of the Penobscot, ^ a mob of savages
rushed upon the New Hampshire men at the rear of
the column, and Mlled or dragged away eighty of
1 Affidavit of Miles Whitworth. See Appendix F.
2 This is stated by Pouchot and Bougainville; the latter of
whom confirms the testimony of the English witnesses, that
Canadian officers present did nothing to checji the Indians.
' See note, end of chapter.

1757.] THE MASSACRE. 199
them.^ A frightiul tumult ensued, when Montcalm,
L^vis, Bourlamaque, and many other French officers,
who had hastened from their camp on the first news
of disturbance, threw themselves among the Indians,
and by promises and tMeats tried to allay their
frenzy. "Kill me, but spare the EngUsh who are
under my protection," exclaimed Montcalm. He
took from one of them a young officer whom the
savage had seized ; upon which several other Indians
immediately tomahawked their prisoners, lest they
too should be taken from them. One writer says
that a French grenadier was killed and two wounded
in attempting to restore order; but the statement is
doubtful. The English seemed paralyzed, and for
tunately did not attempt a resistance,, which, without
ammunition as they were, would have ended in a
general massacre. Their broken column straggled
forward iii -wild disorder, amid the din of whoops and
sMieks, till they reached the French advance-guard,
wMch consisted of Canadians; and here they de
manded protection from the officers, who refused to
give it, tellmg them that they must take to the
woods and shift for themselves. Frye was seized by
a number of Indians, who, brandisMng spears and
tomahawks, threatened him with death and tore off
his clothing, leaving notMng but breeches, shoes,
and sMrt. Repelled by the officers of the guard, he
1 Belknap, History of New Hampshire, says that eighty were
kiUed. Governor Wentworth, -writing immediately after the event,
says " killed or captivated."

200 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
made for the woods. A Connecticut soldier who
was present says of him that he leaped upon an
Indian who stood in Ms way, disarmed and killed
him, and then escaped; but Frye himself does not
mention the incident. Captain Burke, also of the
Massachusetts regiment, was stripped, after a -violent
struggle, of all his clothes; then broke loose, gained
the woods, spent the mght sMvering in the tMck
grass of a marsh, and on the next day reached Fort
Edward. Jonathan Carver, a provincial volunteer,
declares that, when the tumult was at its height, he
saw officers of the French army walking about at a
Uttle distance and talMng with seemmg unconcern.
Three or four Indians seized him, brandished their
tomahawks over Ms head, and tore off most of Ms
clothes, while he vainly claimed protection from a
sentinel, who called Mm an English dog, and violently
pushed him back among his tormentors. Two of
them were dragging him towards the neighboring
swamp, when an EngUsh officer, stripped of every
thing but Ms scarlet breeches, ran by. One of
Carver's captors sprang upon Mm, but was thrown
to the ground; whereupon the other went to the aid
of his comrade and drove his tomahawk into the back
of the EngUshman. As Carver turned to run, an
English boy, about twelve years old, clung to him
and begged for help. They ran on together for a
moment, when the boy was seized, dragged from his
protector, and, as Carver judged by Ms sMieks,
was murdered. He himself escaped to the forest,

1757.] EFFORTS OF MONTCALM. 201
and after tMee days of famine reached Fort
Edward. The bonds of discipline seem for the time to have
been completely broken; for while Montcalm and his
chief officers used every effort to restore order, even
at the risk of their lives, many other officers, chiefly
of the militia, failed atrociously to do their duty.
How many English were killed it is impossible to
teU -with exactness. Roubaud says that he saw forty
or fifty corpses scattered about the field. L^vis says
fifty ; which does not include the sick and wounded
before murdered in the camp and fort. It is certain
that six or seven hundred persons were carried off,
stripped, and otherwise maltreated. Montcalm suc
ceeded in recovering more than four hundred of them
m the course of the day; and many of the French
officers did what they could to reUeve their wants
by buymg back from their captors the clothing that
had been torn from them. Many of the fugitives had
taken refuge in the fort, whither Monro himself had
gone to demand protection for Ms foUowers; and
here Roubaud presently found a crowd of half -frenzied
women, crying in anguish for husbands and children.
All the refugees and redeemed prisoners were after
wards conducted to the intienched camp, where food
and shelter were provided for them and a strong
guard set for their protection until the fifteenth,
when they were sent under an escort to Fort Edward.
Here cannon had been fired at intervals to gmde
those who had fled to the woods, whence they came

202 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
dropping in from day to day, half dead with
famine. On the mornmg after the massacre the Indians
decamped in a body and set out for Montreal, carry
ing with them their plunder and some two hundred
prisoners, who, it is said, could not be got out of
their hands. The soldiers were set to the work of
demolishing the EngUsh fort; and the task occupied
several days. The barracks were torn do-wn, and the
huge pine-logs of the rampart thrown into a heap.
The dead bodies that filled the casemates were added
to the mass, and fiire was set to the whole. The
mighty funeral pyre blazed all night. Then, on the
sixteenth, the army re-embai-ked. The dm of ten
thousand combatants, the rage, the terror, the agony,
were gone; and no li-ving thing was left but the
wolves that gathered from the mountains to feast
upon the dead.^
1 The foregoing chapter rests largely on evidence never before
brought to light, including the minute Journal of BougainviUe, — a
document which can hardly be commended too much, — the corre
spondence of Webb, a letter of Colonel Frye, written just after the
massacre, and a journal of the siege, sent by him to Governor Pow
nall as his official report. Extracts from these, as well as from the
affidavit of Dr. Whitworth, which is also new evidence, are given in
Appendix F.
The Diary of Malartic and the correspondence of Montcalm,
Lfevis, Vaudreuil, and Bigot, also throw light on the campaign, as
well as numerous reports of the siege, official and semi-official.
The long letter of the Jesuit Roubaud, printed anonymously in the
Lettres Fdifiantes et Curieuses, gives a remarkably vivid account of
what he saw. He was an intelligent person, who may be trusted
where he has no motive for lying. Curious particulars about him
will be found in a paper called. The deplorable Case of Mr. Roubaud,

1757.] SOURCES OF NARRATIVE. 203
printed in the Historical Magazine, Second Series, viii. 282. Com
pare Verreau, Report on Canadian Archives, 1874.
Impressions of the massacre at Fort WilUam Henry have
hitherto been derived cliiefly from the narrative of Captain Jona
than Carver, in his Travels. He has discredited himself by his
exaggeration of the number Mlled; but his account of what he
himself saw, talUes with that of the other witnesses. He is outdone
in exaggeration by an anonymous French writer of the time, who
seems rather pleased at the occurrence, and affirms that all the
English were killed except seven hundred, these last being cap
tured, so that none escaped (Nouvelles du Canada envoyees de Mont
real, Aout, 1757). Carver puts killed and captured together at
fifteen hundred. Vaudreuil, who always makes light of Indian
barbarities, goes to the other extreme, and avers that no more than
five or six were killed. L^vis and Roubaud, who saw everything,
and were certain not to exaggerate the number, give the most trust
worthy evidence on this point. The capitulation, having been
broken by the allies of France, was declared void by the British
Government. The Signal of Butchery. Montcalm, Bougainville, and several
others say that the massacre was begun by the Abenakis of Pana-
ouski. Father Martin, in quoting the letter in which Montcalm
makes this statement, inserts the word idolatres, which is not in the
original. Dussieux and O'Callaghan give the passage correctly.
This Abenaki band, ancestors of the present Peuobscots, were no
idolaters, but had been converted more than half a century. In the
official list of the Indian allies, they are set down among the Chris
tians. Roubaud, who had charge of them during the expedition,
speaks of these and other converts with singular candor : " Vous
avez dd vous apercevoir . . . que nos sauvages, pour §tre Chretiens,
n'en sont pas plus irreprehensibles dans leur conduite."

CHAPTER XVI.
1767, 1758.
A WINTER OF DISCONTENT.
Boasts or Loudon. — A Mutinous Militia. — Panic. — Accusa
tions OF Vaddkeuil: his Weakness. — Indian Baebarities.
— Destruction op German Flats. — Discontent op Mont
calm. — Festivities at Montreal. — Montcalm's Relations
WITH THE Governor. — Famine. — Riots. — Mutiny. — Win
ter AT Ticonderoga. — A Desperate Bush-pight. — Defeat
OP THE Rangers. — Adventures of Roche and Pringle.
Loudon, on his way back from Halifax, was at sea
off the coast of Nova Scotia when a despatch-boat
from Governor Po-wnaU of Massachusetts startled
him vrith news that Fort William Henry was attacked ;
and a few days after he learned by another boat that
the fort was taken and the capitulation " inhumanly
and -villanously broken." On this he sent Webb
orders to hold the enemy in check -without risking a
battle till he should Mmself arrive. "I am on the
way," these were his words, "with a force sufficient
to turn the scale, -with God's assistance ; and then I
hope we shall teach the French to comply with the
laws of nature and humamty. For although I abhor
barbarity, the knowledge I have of Mr. VaudreuU's
beha-vior when in Louisiana, from Ms o-wn letters in
my possession, and the murders committed at Oswego

1757.] A MUTINOUS MILITIA. 205
and now at Fort William Henry, wiU oblige me to
make those gentlemen sick of such inhuman -villany
whenever it is in my power." He reached New
York on the last day of August, and heard that the
French had -withdra-wn. He nevertheless sent his
troops up the Hudson, thinMng, he says, that he
might stUl attack Ticonderoga; a wild scheme,
wMch he soon abandoned, if he ever seriously
entertained it.^
Webb had remained at Fort Edward in mortal
dread of attack. Johnson had joined Mm -with a
band of Mohawks; and on the day when Fort
William Henry surrendered there had been some
talk of attempting to throw succors into it by mght.
Then came the news of its capture ; and now, when
it was too late, tumultuous mobs of miUtia came
pouring in from the neighboring provinces. In a few
days thousands of them were bivouacked on the fields
about Fort Edward, doing nothing, disgusted and
mutinous, declaring that they were ready to fight,
but not to lie stiU without tents, blankets, or kettles.
Webb writes on the fourteenth that most of those
from New York had deserted, tMeatemng to kill
their officers if they tried to stop them. Delancey
1 Loudon to Webb, 20 August, 1757. Loudon to Holdernesse, October,
1757. Loudon to Pownall, 16 [18 ?] August, 1757. A passage in this
last letter, in which Loudon says that he shall, if prevented by
head-winds from getting into New York, disembark the troops on
Long Island, is perverted by that ardent partisan, William Smith,
the historian of New York, into the absurd declaration " that he
should encamp on Long Island for the defence of the continent."

206 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT. [1757.
ordered them to be fired upon. A sergeant was shot,
others were put in arrest, and all was disorder till
the seventeenth; when Webb, learning that the
French were gone, sent them back to their homes. ^
Close on the faU of Fort WUUam Henry came
crazy rumors of disaster, running Uke wildfire
through the colonies. The number and ferocity of
the enemy were grossly exaggerated ; there was a cry
that they would seize Albany and New York itself ; ^
wMle it was reported that Webb, as much frightened
as the rest, was for retreatmg to the Highlands of
the Hudson. 3 TMs was the day after the capitula
tion, when a part only of the militia had yet appeared.
If Montcalm had seized the moment, and marched
that afternoon to Fort Edward, it is not impossible
that in the confusion he might have carried it by a
coup de main.
Here was an opportunity for Vaudreml, and he
did not fail to use it. Jealous of his rival's exploit,
he spared no pains to tarnish it; complaining that
Montcalm had stopped halfway on the road to suc
cess, and, instead of following his instructions, had
contented himself -vrith one victory when he should
have gamed two. But the governor had enjomed
upon him as a matter of the last necessity that the
Canadians should be at their homes before September

1 Delancey to [Holdernesse ?], 24 August, 1757.
2 Captain Christie to Governor Wentworth, 11 August, 1757. Ibid.,
to Governor Pownall, same date.
3 Smith, Hist. N. Y, Part H. 254.

1757.] INDIAN BARBARITIES. 207
to gather the crops, and he would have been the first
to complain had the injunction been disregarded.
To besiege Fort Edward was impossible, as Mont
calm had no means of tiansporting cannon thither;
and to attack Webb -without them was a risk wMch
he had not the rashness to incur.
It was Bougainville who first brought Vaudreuil
the news of the success on Lake George. A day or
two after his arrival, the Indians, who had left the
army after the massacre, appeared at Montreal, bring-
mg about two hundred English prisoners. The
governor rebuked them for breaking the capitulation,
on wMch the heathen savages of the West declared
that it was not their fault, but that of the converted
Indians, who, in fact, had first raised the war-whoop.
Some of the prisoners were presently bought from
them at the price of two kegs of brandy each; and
the inevitable consequences followed.
"I thought," writes Bougainville, "that the Gov
ernor would have told them they should have neither
pro-visions nor presents tUl all the English were
given up ; that he Mmself would have gone to their
huts and taken the prisoners from them; and that
the inhabitants would be forbidden, under the severest
penalties, from selling or giving them brandy. I saw
the contiary; and my soul shuddered at the sights
my eyes beheld. On the fifteenth, at two o'clock, in
the presence of the whole town, they Mlled one of
the prisoners, put him into the kettle, and forced Ms
-wretched countrymen to eat of him." The intendant

208 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT. [1757.
Bigot, the friend of the governor, confirms tMs story;
and another French writer says that they " compelled
mothers to eat the flesh of their cMldren."^ Bigot
declares that guns, canoes, and other presents were
given to the western tribes before they left Montreal ;
and he adds, "they must be sent home satisfied at
any cost." Such were the pains taken to preserve
aUies who were useful chiefly through the terror
inspired by their diabolical cruelties. This time
their ferocity cost them dear. They had dug up and
scalped the corpses in the graveyard of Fort WilUam
Henry, many of which were remams of victims of
the small-pox; and the savages caught the disease,
wMch is said to have made great havoc among them.^
Vaudreml, in reportmg what he caUs " my capture
of Fort William Henry," takes great credit to him
self for his "generous procedures" towards the
English prisoners; alluding, it seems, to his havmg
bought some of them from the Indians -vrith the
brandy which was sure to cause the murder of
others.^ His obsequiousness to his red allies did
1 " En chemin f aisant et m6me en entrant h Montreal ils les ont
manges et fait manger aux autres prisonniers.'' Bigot au Ministre,
24 Aoat, 1757.
" Des sauvages ont fait manger aux mferes la chair de leurs
enfants.'' Jugement impartial sur les Operations militaires en Canada.
A French diary kept in Canada at this time, and captured at sea,
is cited by Hutchinson as containing similar statements.
2 One of these corpses was that of Richard Rogers, brother of
the noted partisan Robert Rogers. He had died of small-pox some
time before. Rogers, Journals, 55, note.
' Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Septembre, 1757.

1757.] GERMAN FLATS. 209
not cease with permitting them to Mil and devour
before his eyes those whom he was bound in honor
and duty to protect. "He let them do what they
pleased," says a French contemporary; "they were
seen roammg about Montreal, knife in hand, threat-
enmg everybody, and often insulting those they met.
When complamt was made, he said nothmg. Far
from it; instead of reproachmg them, he loaded
them with gifts, in the beUef that their cruelty would
then relent."^
Nevertheless, in about a fortnight all, or nearly
aU, the sur-riving prisoners were bought out of their
clutches; and then, after a final distiibution of
presents and a grand debauch at La Chine, the
whole savage rout paddled for their villages.
The campaign closed in November with a partisan
exploit on the Mohawk. Here, at a place called
German Flats, on the farthest frontier, there was a
thri-ring settlement of German peasants from the
Palatinate, who were so ill disposed towards the
English that VaudreuU had had good hope of stirring
them to revolt, whUe at the same time persuading
their neighbors, the Oneida Indians, to take part
-vrith France. 2 As his measures to tMs end failed,
he resolved to attack them. Therefore, at three
o'clock in the moming of the twelfth of Novqniber,
tMee hundred colony troops, Canadians and Indians,
under an officer named BelStie, wakened the unhappy
1 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
^ Depiches de Vaudreuil, 1767.
VOL. II. — 14

210 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT. [1757.
peasants by a burst of yeUs, and attacked the small
picket forts which they had bmlt as places of refuge.
These were taken one by one and set on fire. The
sixty dwellings of the settlement, with their barns
and outhouses, were all burned, forty or fifty of the
inhabitants were Mlled, and about three times that
number, cMefly women and children, were made
prisoners, including Johan Jost Petiie, the magistiate
of the place. Fort Herkimer was not far off, -with a
garrison of two hundred men under Captain Towns-
hend, who at the first alarm sent out a detachment
too weak to arrest the havoc ; while BelStre, unable
to carry off his booty, set on Ms foUowers to the
work of destruction, Mlled a great number of hogs,
sheep, cattle, and horses, and then made a hasty
retreat. Lord Howe, pushing up the river from
Schenectady with troops and militia, found nothing
but an abandoned slaughter-field. Vaudreuil reported
the affair to the court, and summed up the results
-with pompous egotism : " I have ruined the plans of
the English; I have disposed the Five Nations to
attack them ; I have carried consternation and terror
into all those parts." ^
1 Loudon to Pitt, 14 February, 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12
Fevrier, 1750. Ibid., 28 Novembre, 1758. BougainviUe, Journal.
Summary of M. de Beletre's Campaign, in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 672.
Extravagant reports of the havoc made were sent to France. It
was pretended that three thousand cattle, three thousand sheep
(Vaudreuil says four thousand), and from five hundred to fifteen
hundred horses were destroyed, with other personal property to the
amount of 1,500,000 Uvres. These official falsehoods are contra-

1757, 1758.] DISGUST OF MONTCALM. 211
Montcalm, his summer work over, went to Mont
real; and thence in September to Quebec, a place
more to his liking. "Come as soon as you can," he
wrote to Bourlamaque, "and I -will tell a certain fair
lady how eager you are." Even Quebec was no
paradise for Mm; and he writes again to the same
friend: "My heart and my stomach are both iU at
ease, the latter being the worse." To his wife he
says : " The price of everything is rising. I am ruin
ing myself; I owe the treasurer twelve thousand
francs. I long for peace and for you. In spite of
the public distress, we have balls and furious gam
bling." In February he returned to Montreal in a
sleigh on the ice of the St. Lawrence, — a mode of
tiavelling which he describes as cold but delicious.
Montieal pleased him less than ever, especiaUy as
he was not in favor at what he calls the court, mean-
mg the circle of the governor-general. " I find tMs
place so amusing," he writes iromcally to Bourla
maque, " that I wish Holy Week could be lengthened,
to give me a pretext for neither maMng nor receiv
ing visits, staying at home, and dimng there almost
alone. Burn aU my letters, as I do yours." And in
the next week : " Lent and devotion have upset my
stomach and given me a cold; which does not pre
vent me from ha-vmg the Governor-General at dinner
, to-day to end Ms lenten fast, according to custom
dieted in a letter from Quebec, Daine au Marechal de Belleisle, 19
Mai, 1758. L^vis says that the whole population of the settlement,
men, women, and children, was not above three hundred.

212 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT. [1757, 1758.
here." Two days after he announces: "To-day a
grand dinner at Martel's; twenty-three persons, aU
big-wigs (les grosses perruques) ; no ladies. We still
have got to undergo those of P^an, Deschambault,
and the ChevaUer de L^vis. I spend almost every
evening in my chamber, the place I Uke best, and
where I am least bored."
With the opening spring there were changes in
the modes of amusement. Picnics began, Vaudreml
and his wife being often of the party, as too was
Ldvis. The governor also made visits of compUment
at the houses of the seigniorial proprietors along the
river; " very much, " says Montcalm, as "Henri IV.
did to the bourgeois notables of Paris. I Uve as
usual, fencing in the morning, dimng, and passmg
the evening at home or at the Governor's. P^an
has gone up to La CMne to spend six days with
the reigning sultana [PSan's wife, mistress of Bigot].
As for me, my ennui increases. I don't know
what to do, or say, or read, or where to go; and I
tMnk that at the end of the next campaign I shaU
ask bluntly, bUndly, for my recall, only because I am
bored."! His relations with Vaudreml were a constant
annoyance to Mm, notwithstanding the mask of
mutual ci-riUty. "I never," he tells his mother,
"ask for a place in the colony troops for anybody.
You need not be an CEdipus to guess this riddle.
Here are four lines from Corneille : —
1 Montcalm a Bourlamaque, 22 Mai, 1758.

1757, 1758.] FAMINE. 213
" 'Mon crime veritable est d'avoir aujourd'hui
Plus de nom que . . . [Vaudreuil], plus de vertus que lui,
Et c'est de IS. que part cette secrfete haine
Que le temps ne rendra que plus forte et plus pleine.'
Nevertheless I live here on good teims -with every
body, and do my best to serve the King. If they
could but do without me ; if they could but spring
some trap on me, or if I should happen to meet
¦with some check ! "
VaudreuU meanwMle had written to the court in
high praise of L^vis, hinting that he, and not
Montcalm, ought to have the cMef command.^
Under the hollow gayeties of the ruling class lay a
great public distress, which broke at last into riot.
Towards midwinter no flour was to be had in Mont
real; and both soldiers and people were required to
accept a reduced ration, partly of horse-flesh. A
mob gathered before the governor's house, and a
deputation of women beset him, crying out that the
horse was the friend of man, and that reUgion for
bade him to be eaten. In reply he threatened them
with imprisonment and hanging; but -with Uttle
effect, and the crowd dispersed, only to stir up the
soldiers quartered in the houses of the to-wn. The
colony regulars, iU-discipUned at the best, broke
into mutiny, and excited the battalion of B^am to
join them. VaudreuU was helpless ; Montcalm was
in Quebec; and the task of dealmg -with the muti-
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 16 Septembre, 1757. Ibid., au
Ministre de la Guerre, meme date.

214 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT. [1758.
neers feU upon L^vis, who proved equal to the crisis,
took a high tone, tMeatened death to the first soldier
who should refuse horse-flesh, assured them at the
same time that he ate it every day himself, and by a
characteristic mmgUng of authority and tact, quelled
the storm. ^
The prospects of the next campaign began to open.
Captain Pouchot had written from Niagara that
three thousand savages were waiting to be let loose
against the English borders. " What a scourge ! "
exclaims Bougainville. " Humanity groans at being
forced to use such monsters. What can be done
agamst an invisible enemy, who stiikes and vanishes,
s-wift as the lightmng? It is the destroying angel."
Captain Hebecourt kept watch and ward at Ticon
deroga, begirt with snow and ice, and much plagued
by English rangers, who sometimes got into the ditch
itself. 2 This was to reconnoitie the place in prepara
tion for a -winter attack which Loudon had planned,
but which, Uke the rest of Ms schemes, feU to the
ground.^ Towards midwinter a band of these m-
tiuders captured two soldiers and butchered some
fifteen cattle close to the fort, leaving tied to the
horns of one of them a note addressed to the com
mandant in these terms : " I am obliged to you, sir,
for the rest you have aUowed me to take and the
1 BougainviUe, Journal. Montcalm h Mirepoix, 20 Avril, 1758.
L^vis, Journal de la Guerre du Canada.
2 Montcalm a Bourlamaque, 28 Mars, 1758.
' Loudon to Pitt, 14 February, 1758.

1758.] DEFEAT OF ROGERS. 216
fresh meat you have sent me. I shall take good care
of my prisoners. My compliments to the Marquis
of Montcalm." Signed, Rogers.^
A few weeks later Hebecourt had Ms revenge.
About the middle of March a report came to Mont
real that a large party of rangers had been cut to
pieces a few miles from Ticonderoga, and that Rogers
himself was among the slam. This last announce
ment proved false; but the rangers had suffered a
crusMng defeat. Colonel Haviland, commanding at
Fort Edward, sent a hundred and eighty of them,
men and officers, on a scouting party towards Ticon
deroga; and Captain Pringle and Lieutenant Roche,
of the twenty-seventh regiment, joined them as
volunteers, no doubt through a love of hardy adven
ture, wMch was destined to be fully satisfied. Rogers
commanded the whole. They passed down Lake
George on the ice under cover of night, and then, as
they neared the French outposts, pursued their way
by land beMnd Rogers Rock and the other mountains
of the western shore. On the preceding day, the
twelfth of March, Hebecourt had received a rein
forcement of two hundred Mission Indians and a
body of Canadians. The Indians had no sooner
arrived than, though nommally CMistians, they
consulted the spirits, by whom they were told that
the English were coming. On this they sent out
scouts, who came back breathless, declaring that
1 Journal de ce qui ^est passe en Canada, 1757, 1758. Compare
Rogers, Journals, 72-75.

216 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT.' [1758.
they had found a great number of snow-shoe tracks.
The superhuman warning being thus confirmed, the
whole body of Indians, joined by a band of Cana
dians and a number of volunteers from the regulars,
set out to meet the approacMng enemy, and took
their way up the valley of Trout Brook, a mountain
gorge that opens from the west upon the valley of
Ticonderoga. Towards tMee o'clock on the afternoon of that day
Rogers had reached a pomt nearly west of the moun
tam that bears Ms name. The rough and rocky
ground was buried four feet in snow, and all around
stood the gray trunks of the forest, bearing aloft
their skeleton arms and tangled intricacy of leafless
twigs. Close on the right was a steep hill, and at a
Uttle distance on the left was the brook, lost under
ice and snow. A scout from the front told Rogers
that a party of Indians was approaching along the
bed of the frozen stream, on which he ordered his
men to halt, face to that side, and advance cau
tiously. The Indians soon appeared, and received a
fire that killed some of them and drove back the rest
in confusion.
Not suspecting that they were but an advance-
guard, about half the rangers dashed m pursuit, and
were soon met by the whole body of the enemy. The
woods rang with yeUs and musketry. In a few
minutes some fifty of the pursuers were shot do-wn,
and the rest driven back in disorder upon their
comrades. Rogers formed them all on the slope of

1758.] DEFEAT OF ROGERS. 217
the hill ; and here they fought till sunset with stub-
bom desperation, twice repulsing the overwhelming
numbers of the assailants, and thwartmg all their
efforts to gain the heights in the rear. The combat
ants were often not twenty yards apart, and some
times they were mixed together. At length a large
body of Indians succeeded in turning the right flank
of the rangers. Lieutenant PMUips and a few men
were sent by Rogers to oppose the movement; but
they qmcMy found themselves surrounded, and after
a brave defence surrendered on a pledge of good
treatment. Rogers now advised the volunteers,
Pringle and Roche, to escape while there was time,
and offered them a sergeant as guide ; but they gal
lantly resolved to stand by him. Eight officers and
more than a hundred rangers lay dead and wounded
in the snow. Evening was near and the forest was
darkening fast, when the few survivors broke and
fled. Rogers with about twenty foUowers escaped
up the mountam; and gathering others about him,
made a running fight against the Indian pursuers,
reached Lake George, not without fresh losses, and
after two days of misery regained Fort Edward with
the remnant of his band. The enemy on their part
suffered heavily, the chief loss f aUing on the Indians ;
who, to revenge themselves, murdered all the
wounded and nearly aU the prisoners, and tying
Lieutenant PhilUps and Ms men to trees, hacked
them to pieces.
Captain Pringle and Lieutenant Roche had become

218 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT. [1758.
separated from the other fugitives ; and, ignorant of
woodcraft, they wandered by moonlight amid the
desolation of rocks and snow, till early in the night
they met a man whom they knew as a servant of
Rogers, and who ^aid that he could guide them to
Fort Edward. One of them had lost his snow-shoes
in the fight; and, crouching over a miserable fire of
broken sticks, they worked till morning to make a
Mnd of substitute with forked branches, twigs, and a
few leather strmgs. They had no hatchet to cut
firewood, no blankets, no overcoats, and no food
except part of a Bologna sausage and a little ginger
which Pringle had brought with him. There was no
game; not even a sqmrrel was astir; and their chief
sustenance was juniper-berries and the inner bark of
trees. But their worst calamity was the helplessness
of their guide. His bram wandered; and while
always insisting that he knew the country well, he
led them during four days hither and thither among
a labyrinth of nameless mountains, clambering over
rocks, wading through snowdrifts, struggling among
fallen trees, tiU on the fifth day they saw -with
despair that they had circled back to their o-wn start
ing-point. On the next morning, when they were
on the ice of Lake George, not far from Rogers
Rock, a blinding storm of sleet and snow drove in
their faces. Spent as they were, it was death to
stop, and bending their heads against the blast, they
fought their way forward, now on the ice, and now
in the adjacent forest, till in the afternoon the storm

1758.] PRINGLE AND ROCHE. 219
ceased, and they found themselves on the bank of an
unknown stream. It was the outlet of the lake ; for
they h^d wandered into the valley of Ticonderoga,
and were not tMee mUes from the French fort. In
crossing the torrent Pringle lost his gun, and was
near losing his life. All three of the party were
drenched to the sMn; and, becoming now for the
first time aware of where they were, they resolved on
yielding themselves prisoners to save their lives.
Night, however, again found them in the forest.
Their gmde became delirious, saw visions of Indians
all around, and, murmuring incoherently, straggled
off a Uttle way, seated Mmself in the snow, and was
soon dead. The two officers, themselves but half
aUve, walked all mght round a tree to keep the blood
in motion. In the mornmg, again toiling on, they
presently saw the fort across the intervening snow-
fields, and approached it, waving a white handker
chief. Several French officers dashed towards them
at fuU speed, and reached them m time to save them
from the clutches of the Indians, whose camps were
near at hand. They were kindly treated, recovered
from the effects of their frightful ordeal, and were
afterwards exchanged. Pringle lived to old age, and
died in 1800, semor major-general of the British
army.! 1 Rogers, two days after reaching Fort Edward, made a detailed
report of the fight, which was printed in the New Hampshire Gazette
and other provincial papers. It is substantially incorporated in his
pubUshed Journals, which also contain a long letter from Pringle to
Colonel Haviland, dated at Carillon (Ticonderoga), 28 March, and

220 A WINTER OF DISCONTENT. [1758.
giving an excellent account of his and Roche's adventures. It was
sent by a flag of truce, which soon after arrived from Fort Edward
with a letter for Vaudreuil. The French accounts of the fight are
Hebecourt a [ Vaudreuil ?], 15 Mars, 1758. Montcalm au Ministre de
la Guerre, 10 Avril, 1758. Doreil a Belleisle, 30 Avril, 1758. Bou
gainville, Journal. Relation de V Affaire de Roger, 19 Mars, 1758.
Autre Relation, meme date. Levis, Journal. According to Lfevis, the
French force consisted of two hundred and fifty Indians and
Canadians, and a number of officers, cadets, and soldiers. Rogers
puts it at seven hundred. Most of the French -writers put the force
of the rangers, correctly, at about one hundred and eighty. Rogers
reports his loss at one hundred and twenty-five. None of the
wounded seem to have escaped, being either murdered after the
fight, or killed by exposure in the woods. The Indians brought in
one hundred and forty-four scalps, having no doubt divided some
of them, after their ingenious custom. Rogers threw off his over
coat during the fight, and it was found on the field, with his com
mission in the pocket ; whence the report of his death. There is
an unsupported tradition that he escaped by sUding on his snow-
shoes down a precipice of Rogers Rock.

CHAPTER XVII.
1753-1760. BIGOT.
His Life and Character. — Canadian Society — Oppicial
Festivities. — A Party op Pleasure. — Hospitalities op
Bigot. — Desperate Gambling. — ChAteau Bigot. — Cana
dian Ladies. — Cadet. — La Friponne. — Oppicial Ras
cality. — Methods op Peculation. — Cruel Frauds on
the Acadians. — Military Corruption. — PiiAN. — Love
AND Kna-very. — -Varin and his Partners. — "Vaudreuil and
THE Peculators : he depends Bigot ; praises Cadet and
Pean. — Canadian Finances. — Peril op Bigot. — Threats
op the Minister. — Evidence op Montcalm. — Impending
Ruin op the Confederates.
At this stormy epoch of Canadian history the
simster figure of the mtendant Bigot moves con
spicuous on the scene. Not that he was answerable
for all the manifold corruption that infected the
colony, for much of it was rife before his time, and
had a -ritality of its o-wn ; but his office and character
made Mm the centre of it, and, more than any other
man, he marshaUed and orgamzed the forces of
knavery. In the dual government of Canada the governor
represented the Kmg and commanded the troops;
wMle the intendant was charged with tiade, finance,
justice, and all other departments of civil administra-

222 BIGOT. [1753.
tion.i In former times the two functionaries usuaUy
quarrelled; but between Vaudreuil and Bigot there
was perfect harmony.
Frangois Bigot, in the words of his biographer, was
"bom in the bosom of the magistracy," both his
father and his grandfather having held honorable
positions in the parliament of, Bordeaux. ^ In appear
ance he was not prepossessing, though his ugly,
pimpled face was joined with easy and agreeable
manners. In spite of indifferent health, he was
untirmg both in pleasure and in work, a sMlf ul man
of business, of great official experience, energetic,
good-natured, free-handed, ready to oblige Ms friends
and aid them in their needs at the expense of the
King, his master; fond of social enjoyments, lavish
in hospitality.
A year or two before the war began, the engmeer
Franquet was sent from France to strengthen
Louisbourg and mspect the defences of Canada.
He kept a copious journal, full of curious observa
tion, and affording bright glimpses not only of the
social life of the intendant, but of Canadian society
in the upper or official class. Thus, among various
matters of the kind, he gives us the foUo-wing.
Bigot, who was in Quebec, had occasion to go to
Montieal to meet the governor; and this official
journey was tiimed into a pleasure excursion, of
1 See " Old RiSgime in Canada."
2 Proces de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Memoire pour Messire Francois
Bigot, accuse, contre Monsieur le Procureur-General du Roi, accusateur.

1753.] A PARTY OF PLEASURE. 223
which the King paid aU the costs. Those favored
-with in-ritations, a privilege highly prized, were
Franquet, with seven or eight military officers and a
correspondmg number of ladies, includmg the -wife of
Major P^an, of whom Bigot was enamoured. A
chief steward, cooks, servants, and other attendants,
followed the party. The guests had been requested
to send their portmanteaus to the Intendant's Palace
six days before, that they might be sent forward on
sledges along with bedding, table ser-rice, cooMng
utensUs, and numberless articles of comfort and
luxury. Orders were given to the inhabitants along
the way, on pam of imprisonment, to level the snow
drifts and beat the road smooth with ox-teams, as
also to provide relays of horses. It is true that they
were well paid for this last service ; so well that the
hire of a horse to Montreal and back agam would
cost the King the entire value of the animal. On
the eighth of February the party met at the palace ;
and after a grand dinner set out upon their journey
m twenty or more sleighs, some -with two guests and
a driver, and the rest with servants and attendants.
The procession passed at full tiot along St. Vallier
Street amid the shouts of an admiring crowd, stopped
towards night at Pomte-aux-Trembles, where each
looked for lodging ; and then they aU met and supped
¦with the mtendant. The miUtia captam of the place
was ordered to have fresh horses ready at seven
in the moming, when Bigot regaled his friends with
tea, coffee, and chocolate, after which they set out

224 BIGOT. [1753.
again, drove to Cap-Sante, and stopped two hours at
the house of the miUtia captain to breakfast and warm
themselves. In the afternoon they reached Ste.
Anne-de-la-P^rade, when Bigot gave them a supper
at the house in which he lodged, and they spent the
evening at cards.
The next mormng brought them to TMee Rivers,
where Madame Marin, Franquet's travelling com-
pamon, wanted to stop to see her sister, the -wife of
Rigaud, who was then governor of the place.
Madame de Rigaud, being ill, received her visitors
in bed, and ordered an ample dinner to be provided
for them ; after which they returned to her chamber
for coffee and conversation. Then they all set out
again, saluted by the cannon of the fort.
Their next stopping-place was Isle-au-Castor,
where, being seated at cards before supper, they were
agreeably surprised by the appearance of the gov
ernor, who had come down from Montreal to meet
them with four officers, Duchesnaye, Marin, Le
Mercier, and P^an. Many were the embraces and
compliments ; and m the morning they all journeyed
on together, stoppmg towards night at the largest
house they could find, where their servants took away
the partitions to make room, and they sat down to a
supper, followed by the inevitable game of cards.
On the next mght they reached Montreal and were
lodged at the intendancy, the official residence of
the hospitable Bigot. The succeeding day was spent
in visiting persons of eminence and consideration,

1755-1759.] HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER. 225
among whom are to be noted the names, soon to
become notorious, of Varin, naval commissary,
Martel, King's storekeeper, Antoine Pemsseault,
and FrauQois Maurin. A succession of festivities
followed, including the benediction of three fiags for
a band of militia on their way to the Ohio. All
persons of quality m Montieal were inrited on this
occasion, and the governor gave them a dinner and a
supper. Bigot, however, outdid Mm m the plenitude
of his hospitality, since, in the week before Lent,
forty guests supped every evening at his table, and
dances, masquerades, and cards consumed the mght.^
His chief abode was at Quebec, in the capacious
but somewhat ugly building known as the Intendant's
Palace. Here it was his custom during the war to
entertain twenty persons at dinner every day; and
there was also a hall for dancmg, with a gallery
to wMch the citizens were admitted as spectators.^
The bounteous mtendant provided a separate dan-
cing-haU for the populace; and, though at the same
time he plundered and ruined them, his gracious
demeanor long kept Mm a place in their hearts.
GambUng was the chief feature of his entertamments,
and the stakes grew deeper as the war went on. He
played desperately himself, and early in 1758 lost
two hundred and four thousand francs, — a loss
which he well knew how to repair. Besides his
official residence on the banks of the St. Charles, he
had a country house about five miles distant, a mas-
1 Franquet, Journal. ^ De Gasp^, Memoires, 119.
vol. ii. — 15

226 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
sive old stone buUding in the woods at the foot of the
mountain of Charlebourg; its ruins are now known
as Chateau Bigot. In its day it was called the
Hermitage ; though the uses to which it was appUed
savored nothing of asceticism. Tradition connects
it and its o-wner -with a romantic, but more than
doubtful, story of love, jealousy, and murder.
The chief Canadian families were so social in their
habits and so connected by intermarriage that, along
with the French ci-vU and miUtary officers of the
colomal establishment, they formed a society whose
members all knew each other, Uke the corresponding
class in Virgima. There was among them a social
facility and ease rare in democratic commimities ; and
in the ladies of Quebec and Montreal were often seen
graces which visitors from France were astomshed to
find at the edge of a -wUderness. Yet this small
though Uvely society had anomalies which grew more
obtrusive towards the close of the war. Knavery
makes strange compamons ; and at the tables of high
ci-ril officials and colony officers of rank sat guests
as boorish m manners as they were worthless in
character. Foremost among these was Joseph Cadet, son of a
butcher at Quebec, who at thirteen went to sea as a
pilot's boy, then kept the cows of an inhabitant of
Charlebourg, and at last took up his father's tiade
and prospered in it. ^ In 1756 Bigot got him appointed
1 Proces de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Memoire pour Messire Francois
Bigot. Compare Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

1748-1760.] OFFICIAL KNAVERY. 227
commissary-general, and made a contract with Mm
which flung wide open the doors of peculation. In
the next two years Cadet and his associates, P^an^
Maurin, Corpron, and Pemsseault, sold to the King,
for about twenty-three miUion francs, provisions
which cost them eleven miUions, leavmg a net profit
of about twelve millions. It was not legally proved
that the intendant shared Cadet's gains ; but there is
no reasonable doubt that he did so. Bigot's chief
profits rose, however, from other sources. It was
his busmess to see that the Kmg's storehouses for
the supply of tioops, militia, and Indians were kept
weU stocked. To this end he and Br^ard, naval
comptroUer at Quebec, made a partnership with the
commercial house of Gradis and Son at Bordeaux.
He next told the colomal mimster that there were
stores enough already in Canada to last three years,
and that it would be more to the advantage of the
Kmg to buy them in the colony than to take the risk
of sendmg them from France.^ Gradis and Son then
sMpped them to Canada in large quantities, while
Br^ard or his agent declared at the custom-house
that they belonged to the King, and so escaped the
payment of duties. They were then, as occasion
rose, sold to the King at a huge profit, always under
fictitious names. Often they were sold to some
favored merchant or speculator, who sold them in
turn to Bigot's confederate, the Kmg's storekeeper;
and sometimes they passed through several successive
1 Bigot au Ministre, 8 Octobre, 1749.

228 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
hands, till the price rose to double or triple the first
cost, the intendant and Ms partners sharing the gains
-vrith friends and allies. They would let nobody else
seU to the King ; and thus a grinding monopoly was
established, to the great profit of those who held it.^
Under the name of a trader named Claverie, Bigot,
some time before the war, set up a warehouse on land
belonging to the King and not far from Ms own
palace. Here the goods shipped from Bordeaux
were collected, to be sold in retaU to the citizens,
and in wholesale to favored merchants and the
King. This establishment was popularly kno-wn as
La Friponne, or The Cheat. There was another
Friponne at Montreal, wMch was leagued -with that
of Quebec, and received goods from it.
Bigot and his accomplices invented many other
profitable frauds. Thus he was charged -with the
disposal of the large quantity of furs belonging to
Ms master, which it was Ms duty to seU at pubUc
auction, after due notice, to the highest bidder.
Instead of this, he sold them privately at a low price
to his own confederates. It was also his duty to
provide tiansportation for tioops, artillery, prorisions,
and stores, in which he made good profit by letting
to the King, at high prices, boats or vessels which
he had Mmself bought or hired for the purpose.^
Yet these and other ilUcit gains still left Mm but
1 Proces de Bigot, Cadet, et autres. Memoire sur les Fraudes com-
mises dans la Colonic. Compare Memoires sur le Canada, 1^49-1760.
^ Jugement rendu souverainement dans I' Affaire du Canada.

A View of Miramichi.

1748-1760.] OFFICIAL KNAVERY. 229
the second place as public plunderer. Cadet, the
commissary-general, reaped an ampler harvest, and
became the richest man in the colony. One of the
operations of this scoundrel, accomplished -with the
help of Bigot, consisted in buying for six hundred
thousand francs a quantity of stores belonging to the
King, and then seUing them back to him for one
miUion four hundred thousand.^ It was further
sho-wn on Ms trial that in 1759 he received 1,614,354
francs for stores furnished at the post of Miramichi,
wMle the value of those actually furnished was but
889,544 francs; thus gi-vmg him a fraudulent profit
of more than seven hundred and twenty-four thou-
sand.2 Cadet's cMef resource was the falsification of
accounts. The service of the King in Canada was
fenced about by rigid formalities. When supplies
were wanted at any of the miUtary posts, the com
mandant made a reqmsition specifying their nature
and quantity, while, before pay could be drawn for
them, the King's storekeeper, the local commissary,
and the inspector must set their names as vouchers to
the Ust, and finaUy Bigot must sign it.^ But precau
tions were useless where all were leagued to rob the
King. It appeared on Cadet's trial that by gifts of
wine, brandy, or money he had bribed the officers,
both civU and mUitary, at aU the principal forts to
1 Prods de Bigot, Cadet, et autres. Requite du Procureur-General,
19 Decembre, 1761.
2 Proces de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Memoire pour Messire Frangois
Bigot. ' Memoire sur le Canada (Archives Nationales).

230 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
attest the truth of accounts in which the suppUes
furmshed by him were set at more than t-wice their
true amount. Of the many frauds charged against
him there was one peculiarly odious. Large num
bers of refugee Acadians were to be supplied with
rations to keep them alive. Instead of wholesome
food, mouldered and unsalable salt cod was sent
them, and paid for by the King at inordmate prices.^
It was but one of many heartless outiages practised
by Canadian officials on this unhappy people.
Cadet told the intendant that the inhabitants were
hoarding their grain, and got an order from him
requiring them to sell it at a low fixed price, on pain
of ha-ring it seized. Thus nearly the whole feU into
his hands. Famine ensued; and he then sold it at
a great profit, partly to the King, and partly to its
first owners. Another of his devices was to sell
prorisions to the King wMch, being sent to the out
lying forts, were falsely reported as consumed; on
which he sold them to the King a second time.
Not without reason does a writer of the time exclaim :
" This is the land of abuses, ignorance, prejudice, and
aU that is monstious in government. Peculation,
monopoly, and plunder have become a bottomless
abyss." 2
The command of a fort brought such opportunities
of making money that, according to Bougainrille,
the mere prospect of appointment to it for the usual
1 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
^ Considerations sur I'Etat present du Canada.

1748-1760.] OFFICIAL KNAVERY. 231
term of three years was thought enough for a young
man to marry upon. It was a favor in the gift of
the governor, who was accused of sharing the profits.
These came partly from the fur-trade, and still more
from frauds of various kinds. For example, a requi
sition was made for supplies as gifts to the Indians
in order to keep them friendly or send them on the
war-path; and their number was put many times
above the tiuth in order to get more goods, which
the commandant and his confederates then bartered
for furs on their own account, instead of giving them
as presents. " And, " says a contemporary, address
ing the colonial mimster, "those who treat the
savages so basely are officers of the King, depositaries
of his authority, mmisters of that Great Onontio
whom they call their father." ^ At the post of Green
Bay, the partisan officer Marin, and Rigaud, the
governor's brother, made in a short time a profit of
three hundred and twelve thousand francs.^ " Why
is it," asks Bougainville, "that of all which the King
sends to the Indians two tMrds are stolen, and the
rest sold to them instead of being given? " ^
The transportation of military stores gave another
opportumty of plunder. The contractor would pro
cure from the governor or the local commandant an
order requiring the inhabitants to serve him as
1 Considerations sur I'Mtat priseni du Canada.
2 Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonic. Bougainville,
Memoire sur I'Ftat de la Nouvelle France.
^ Bougainville, Journal.

232 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
boatmen, drivers, or porters, under a promise of
exemption that year from duty as soldiers. This
saved Mm his cMef item of expense, and the profits
of his contiact rose in proportion.
A contagion of knavery ran through the official
life of the colony ; and to resist it demanded no com
mon share of moral robustness. The officers of the
troops of the Une were not much -within its influence ;
but those of the militia and colony regulars, whether
of French or Canadian birth, shared the corruption
of the civil service. Seventeen of them, includmg
six chevaliers of St. Loms and eight commandants of
forts, were afterwards arraigned for fraud and malver
sation, though some of the number were acquitted.
Bougainrille gives the names of four other Canadian
officers as honorable exceptions to the general demor
alization, — Benoit, Repentigny, Lain6, and Le
Borgne; "not enough," he observes, "to save
Sodom." Conspicuous among these mUitary thieves was
Major P^an, whose qualities as a soldier have been
questioned, but who nevertheless had shown almost
as much vigor in serving the King during the Ohio
campaign of 1753 as he afterwards displayed effrontery
in cheating him. " Le petit P^an " had married a
young wife, MademoiseUe Desm^loizes, Canadian
like himself, well born, and famed for beauty, viva
city, and wit. Bigot, who was near sixty, became
her accepted lover; and the fortune of Pdan was
made. His first success seems to have taken him by

1748-1760.] P^AN; VARIN. 238
surprise. He had bought as a speculation a large
quantity of grain, with money of the King lent him
by the intendant. Bigot, officially omnipotent, then
issued an order raising the commodity to a price far
above that paid by P^an, who thus made a profit of
fifty thousand crowns.^ A few years later his wealth
was estimated at from two to four million francs.
Madame P^an became a power m Canada, the dis
penser of favors and offices; and aU who sought
opportunity to rob the King hastened to pay her their
court. P^an, jilted by his o-wn wife, made prosperous
love to the -wife of his partner, Pemsseault; who,
though the daughter of a Montieal tradesman, had
the air of a woman of rank, and presided with
dignity and grace at a hospitable board where were
gathered the clerks of Cadet and other lesser lights
of the admmistrative hierarchy. It was often honored
by the presence of the ChevaUer de Ldvis, who,
captivated by the charms of the hostess, condescended
to a society which Ms friends condemned as unworthy
of Ms station. He succeeded P^an in the graces of
Madame Pemsseault, and after the war took her with
him to France; while the aggrieved husband found
consolation m the wives of the small functionaries
under Ms orders.^
Another prominent name on the roll of knavery-
was that of Varin, commissary of marine, and Bigot's
1 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760. Memoire sur les Fraudes,
etc. Compare Pouchot, i. 8.
" Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.

234 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
deputy at Montieal, a Frenchman of low degree,
small in stature, sharp--witted, indefatigable, con
ceited, arrogant, headstrong, capricious, and disso
lute. Worthless as he was, he found a place m the
court circle of the governor, and aspired to supplant
Bigot in the intendancy. To this end, as weU as to
save himself from justice, he had the fatuity to turn
informer and lay bare the sins of his confederates,
though forced at the same time to betray his own.
Among his comrades and allies may be mentioned
Deschenaux, son of a shoemaker at Quebec, and
secretary to the intendant; Martel, King's store
keeper at Montreal; the humpback Maurin, who is
not to be confounded -with the partisan officer Marin ;
and Corpron, a clerk whom several tradesmen had
dismissed for rascality, but who was now in the
confidence of Cadet, to whom he made himself use
ful, and in whose service he grew rich.
Canada was the prey of official jackals, — true
lion's proriders, since they helped to prepare a way
for the imperial beast, who, roused at last from his
lethargy, was gathering his strength to seize her for
his own. Honesty could not be expected from a
body of men clothed -with arbitiary and iU-defined
powers, ruling with absolute sway an unfortunate
people who had no voice in their own destinies, and
answerable only to an apathetic master three thousand
miles away. Nor did the Canadian Church, though
supreme, check the corruptions that sprang up and
flourished under its eye. The governor Mmself was

1748-1760.] VAUDREUIL PRAISES HIM. 235
charged with sharing the plunder; and though he
was acquitted on his trial, it is certain that Bigot
had him well in hand, that he was intimate with the
chief robbers, and that they found help in his weak
compliances and wUful blmdness. He put his step
son, Le Verrier, in command at Michilimackinac,
where, by fraud and the connivance of his stepfather,
the young man made a fortune.^ When the colonial
mimster berated the intendant for maladministration,
VaudreuU became his advocate, and wrote thus in
his defence : " I cannot conceal from you, Monseigneur,
how deeply M. Bigot feels the suspicions expressed
in your letters to Mm. He does not deserve them, I
am sure. He is full of zeal for the service of the
King ; but as he is rich, or passes as such, and as he
has merit, the ill-disposed are jealous, and insinuate
that he has prospered at the expense of His Majesty.
I am certain that it is not true, and that nobody is a
better citizen than he, or has the King's interest
more at heart." ^ For Cadet, the butcher's son, the
governor asked a patent of nobility as a reward for
Ms services.^ When P^an went to France in 1758,
Vaudreuil wrote to the colonial mimster: "I have
great confidence in him. He knows the colony and
its needs. You can trust all he says. He will
explain everything in the best manner. I shall be
extremely sensible to any kindness you may show
1 Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.
^ Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Octobre, 1759.
8 Ibid., 7 Novembre, 1759.

236 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
him, and hope that when you know him you will
like him as much as I do."i
Administrative corruption was not the only bane
of Canada. Her financial condition was desperate.
The ordinary circulating medium consisted of what
was known as card money, and amounted to only a
miUion of francs. This bemg msufficient. Bigot,
like his predecessor Hoequart, issued promissory
notes on his own authority, and made them legal
tender. They were for sums from one franc to a
hundred, and were called ordonnances. Their issue
was blamed at Versailles as an encroachment on the
royal prerogative, though they were recognized by
the ministry in view of the necessity of the case.
Every autumn those who held them to any consider
able amount might bring them to the colonial treas
urer, who gave in return bills of exchange on the
royal treasury in France. At first these bills were
promptly paid; then delays took place, and the notes
depreciated; till in 1759 the ministry, aghast at
the amount, refused payment, and the utmost dismay
and confusion followed.^
The vast jarring, discordant mechanism of corrup
tion grew incontroUable ; it seized upon Bigot, and
dragged him, despite Mmself, into perils wMch his
prudence would have shunned. He was becoming a
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 6 Aoiit, 1758.
* Reflexions sommaires sur le Commerce qui s'est fait en Canada.
£tat present du Canada. Compare Stevenson, Card Money of
Canada, in Transactions of the Historical Society of Quebec, 1873-
1875.

1748-1760.] MINISTERIAL REBUKES. 237
victim to the rapacity of his own confederates, whom
he dared not offend by refusing his connivance and
his signature to frauds which became more and more
recMessly audacious. He asked leave to retire from
office, in the hope that his successor would bear the
brunt of the ministerial displeasure. P^an had
withdrawn already, and with the fruits of his plunder
bought land in France, where he thought Mmself
safe. But though the intendant had long been an
object of distrust, and had often been warned to
mend Ms ways,^ yet such was his energy, his execu
tive power, and his fertiUty of resource, that in the
crisis of the war it was hard to dispense with him.
Neither Ms abilities, however, nor his strong connec
tions in France, nor an aUy whom he had secured in
the bureau of the colomal minister himself, could
avail Mm much longer; and the letters from Ver
sailles became appaUing in rebuke and menace.
"The sMp ' Britanma,' " -wrote the minister,
Berryer, "laden with goods such as are wanted m
the colony, was captured by a privateer from St.
Malo, and brought into Quebec. You sold the
whole cargo for eight hundred thousand francs. The
purchasers made a profit of two milUons. You
bought back a part for the Kmg at one million, or
two hundred thousand more than the price for which
you sold the whole. With conduct like this it is
no wonder that the expenses of the colony become
insupportable. The amount of your drafts on the
1 Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1751-1758.

238 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
tieasury is frightful. The fortunes of your subor
dinates throw suspicion on your administration."
And m another letter on the same day: "How could
it happen that the small-pox among the Indians cost
the King a miUion francs ? What does tMs expense
mean ? Who is answerable for it ? Is it the officers
who command the posts, or is it the storekeepers?
You give me no particulars. What has become of
the immense quantity of provisions sent to Canada
last year ? I am forced to conclude that the Kmg's
stores are set down as consumed from the moment
they arrive, and then sold to His Majesty at exorbi
tant prices. Thus the King buys stores m France,
and then buys them again in Canada. I no longer
wonder at the immense fortunes made in the colony. " ^
Some months later the minister -writes: "You pay
bUls without examination, and then find an error in
your accounts of tMee miUion six hundred thousand
francs. In tiie letters from Canada I see nothing
but incessant speculation m provisions and goods,
which are sold to the King for ten times more than
they cost in France. For the last time, I exhort you
to give these things your serious attention, for they
will not escape from mme."^
"I write, Monsieur, to answer your last two
letters, in wMch you teU me that instead of sixteen
millions, your drafts on the treasury for 1758 will
reach twenty-four miUions, and that this year they
1 Le Ministre a Bigot, 19 Janvier, 1759.
2 Ibid., 29 Aout, 1759.

1748-1760.] REVELATIONS OF MONTCALM. 239
wiU rise to from thirty-one to thirty-tMee millions.
It seems, then, that there are no bounds to the
expenses of Canada. They double almost every year,
while you seem to give yourself no concern except to
get them paid. Do you suppose that I can advise
the King to approve such an administration? or do
you think that you can take the immense sum of
tMrty-three mUlions out of the royal tieasury by
merely assuring me that you have signed drafts for
it? This, too, for expenses incurred irregularly,
often needlessly, always wastefuUy; which make the
fortune of everybody who has the least hand in them,
and about wMch you know so little that after report
ing them at sixteen millions, you fmd two months
after that they -wUl reach twenty-four. You are
accused of haring given the furnishing of provisions
to one man, who, under the name of commissary-
general, has set what prices he pleased ; of buying for
the King at second or third hand what you might
have got from the producer at half the price; of
ha-ring in tMs and other ways made the fortunes of
persons connected with you; and of living in splendor
in the midst of a pubUc misery, which all the letters
from the colony agree in ascribing to bad administia-
tion, and in charging M. de Vaudreuil with weak
ness in not preventmg." ^
These drastic utterances seem to have been partly
due to a letter -written by Montcalm in cipher to the
Marechal de BeUeisle, then minister of war. It
1 Le Ministre a Bigot, 29 Aoiit, 1759 (second letter of this date).

240 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
painted the deplorable condition of Canada, and
exposed -without reserve the peculations and robberies
of those intrusted with its interests. "It seems,"
said the general, " as if they were all hastening to
make their fortunes before the loss of the colony;
which many of them perhaps desire as a veU to their
conduct." He gives among other cases that of Le
Mercier, chief of Canadian artillery, who had come
to Canada as a private soldier twenty years before,
and had so prospered on fraudulent contracts that he
would soon be worth nearly a million. "I have
often," continues Montcalm, "spoken of these ex
penditures to M. de Vaudreuil and M. Bigot; and
each throws the blame on the other." ^ And yet at
the same time Vaudreml was assuring the mimster
that Bigot was without blame.
Some two months before Montcalm -wrote this
letter, the mimster, Berryer, sent a despatch to the
governor and intendant which filled them -with ire
and mortification. It ordered them to do nothmg
without consulting the general of the French regu
lars, not only in matters of war, but in aU matters of
admmistration touching the defence and preservation
of the colony. A plainer proof of confidence on one
hand and distrust on the other could not have been
given. 2
One Querdisien-Tremais was sent from Bordeaux
1 Montcalm au Ministre de la Guerre, Lettre confidentielle, 12 Avril,
1759. 2 Le Ministre a Vaudreuil et Bigot, 20 Fevrier, 1759.

1748-1760.] EVIDENCE. 241
.as an agent of government to make investigation.
He played the part of detective, wormed himself into
4;he secrets of the confederates, and after six months
of patient inquisition traced out four distinct combi
nations for public plunder. Explicit orders were
now given to Bigot, who, seeing no other escape,
'broke with Cadet, and made him disgorge two mil
lions of stolen money. The commissary-general and
Ms partners became so terrified that they afterwards
gave up nearly seven miUions more.-^ Stormy events
followed, and the culprits found shelter for a time
.amid the tumults of war. Peculation did not cease,
ibut a day of reckonmg was at hand.
Note. — The printed documents of the trial of Bigot and the
¦ other peculators include the defence of Bigot, of which the first
part occupies 303 quarto pages, and the second part 764. Among
the other papers are the arguments for P6an, Varin, Saint-Blin,
Boishebert, Martel, Joncaire-Chabert, and several more, along with
the elaborate Jugement rendu, the Requites du Procureur-General, the
Reponse aux Memoires de M. Bigot et du Sieur Pean, etc., forming
together five quarto volumes, all of which I have carefully exam
ined. These are in the Library of Harvard University. There is
another set, also of five volumes, in the Library of the Historical
Society of Quebec, containing most of the papers just mentioned,
-and, bound -with them, various others in manuscript, among which
are documents in defence of Vaudreuil (printed in part), Estfebe,
Corpron, Penisseault, Maurin, and Br^ard. I have examined this
•collection also. The manuscript Ordres du Roy et Depeches des
Ministres, 1751-1760, as well as the letters of Vaudreuil, Bougain
viUe, Daine, Doreil, and Montcalm throw much Ught on the malad
ministration of the time ; as do many contemporary documents,
notably those entitled Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la
1 Proces de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Memoire pour Francois Bigot,
:¦&"' partie. VOL. II. — 16

242 BIGOT. [1748-1760.
Colonic, Stat present du Canada, and Memoire sur le Canada
(Arcliives Nationales). The remarkable anonymous work printed
by the Historical Society of Quebec under the title Memoires sur le
Canada depuis 1749 jusqu'a 1760, is full of curious matter concern
ing Bigot and his associates which squares well with other e-vi-
dence. This is the source from which Smith, in his History of
Canada (Quebec, 1815), drew most of his information on the sub
ject. A manuscript which seems to be the original draft of this val
uable document was preserved at the Bastile, and, with other papers,
was thrown into the street when that castle was destroyed. They
were gathered up, and afterwards bought by a Russian named
Dubrowski, who carried them to St. Petersburg. Lord Dufferin,
when minister there, procured a copy of the manuscript in ques
tion, which is now in the keeping of Abbe H. Verreau at Montreal,
to whose kindness I owe the opportunity of examining it. In sub
stance, it differs Uttle from the printed work, though the language
and the arrangement often vary from it. The author, whoever he
may have been, was deeply versed in Canadian affairs of the time,
and though often caustic, is generaUy trustworthy.

CHAPTER XVIII.
1757, 1758.
PITT.
Frederic op Prussia. — The Coalition against him : his
Desperate Position. — Rossbach. — Leuthen. — Reverses op
England. — Weakness op the Ministry. — A Change. —
Pitt and Newcastle. — Character op Pitt. — Sources op
his Power : his Aims. — Louis XV. — Pompadour : she con-
TEOLS THE COUKT AND DIRECTS THE WaE. — GlOOMT PsOS-
PECTS OP England. — Disasters. — The New Ministry. —
Inspiring Influence op Pitt. — The Tide turns. — British
Victories. — Pitt's Plans for America. — Louisbourg,
Ticonderoga, Duquesne. — New Commanders. — Naval
Battles.
The war kindled in the American forest was now
raging in full conflagration among the Mngdoms of
Europe ; and in the midst stood Frederic of Prussia,
a veritable fire-Mng. He had learned through secret
agents that he was to be attacked, and that the wrath
of Maria Theresa -with her two allies. Pompadour and
the Empress of Russia, was soon to wreak itself upon
him. With his usual prompt audacity he anticipated
his enemies, marched into Saxony, and began the
Continental war. His position seemed desperate.
England, sundered from Austiia, her old aUy, had
made common cause -with him ; but he had no other
friend worth the counting. France, Russia, Austria,

244 PITT. [1757.
Sweden, Saxony, the collective Germamc Empire,
and most of the smaller German States had joined
hands for Ms ruin, eager to crush Mm and di-ride the
spoil, parcelUng out his domimons among themselves
in advance by solemn mutual compact. Against the
five miUions of Prussia were arrayed populations of
more than a hundred mUlions. The Uttle Mngdom
was open on all sides to attack, and her enemies
were spurred on by the bitterest animosity. It was
thought that one campaign would end the war. The
war lasted seven years, and Prussia came out of it
tiiumphant. Such a warrior as her indomitable Mug
Europe has rarely seen. If the Seven Years' War
made the maritime and colonial greatness of England,
it also raised Prussia to the rank of a first-class
Power. Frederic began -with a victory, routing the Austrians
in one of the fiercest of recorded conflicts, the battie
of Prague. Then m his turn he was beaten at
Kolin. AU seemed lost. The hosts of the coalition
were rolling in upon him Uke a deluge. Surrounded
by enemies, in the jaws of destruction, hoping for
little but to die in battle, tMs strange hero solaced
Mmself with an exhaustless effusion of bad verses,
sometimes mournful, sometimes cynical, sometimes
indignant, and sometimes breathing a dauntless reso
lution ; till, when his hour came, he tMew do-wn his
pen to achieve those feats of arms wMch stamp Mm
one of the foremost soldiers of the world.
The French and Imperialists, in overwhelming

1757.] REVERSES OF ENGLAND. 245
force, thought to crush him at Rossbach. He put
them to shameful rout; and then, instead of bonfires
and Te Deums, mocked at them in doggerel rhymes
of amazing indecency. While he was beatmg the
French, the Austrians took SUesia from him. He
marched to recover it, found them strongly posted at
Leuthen, eighty thousand men against thirty thou
sand, and without hesitation resolved to attack them.
Never was he more heroic than on the eve of this, his
crowning triumph. "The hour is at hand," he said
to his generals. "I mean, in spite of the rules of
military art, to attack Prince Karl's army, which is
nearly thrice our o-wn. This risk I must run, or all
is lost. We must beat him or die, aU of us, before
Ms batteries." He burst unawares upon the Austrian
left, and rolled their whole host together, corps upon
corps, in a tumult of irretrievable ruin.
While her great ally was reaping a full harvest of
laurels, England, dragged into the Continental war
because that apple of discord, Hanover, belonged to
her King, found little but humiUation. Minorca was
-wrested from her, and the ministiy had an innocent
man shot to avert from themselves the popular indig
nation; while the same ministry, scared by a phantom
of invasion, brought over German troops to defend
British soil. But now an event took place pregnant
with glorious consequence. The reins of power fell
into the hands of WilUam Pitt. He had already
held them for a brief space, forced into ofiice at the
end of 1756 by popular clamor, in spite of the Whig

246 PITT. [1757.
leaders and against the wishes of the King. But the
place was untenable. Newcastle's parliament would
not support him; the Duke of Cumberland opposed
him; the King hated him; and in April, 1757, he
was dismissed. Then ensued eleven weeks of bicker
ing and dispute, during which, in the midst of a
great war, England was left without a government.
It became clear that none was possible without Pitt;
and none with him could be permanent and strong
uMess joined with those influences which had thus
far contioUed the majorities of Parliament. There
fore an extiaordinary umon was brought about; Lord
Chesterfield acting as go-between to reconcile the ill-
assorted pair. One of them brought to the aUiance
the confidence and support of the people ; the other,
court management, borough mterest, and parUament
ary connections. Newcastle was made First Lord of
the Treasury, and Pitt, the old enemy who had
repeatedly browbeat and ridiculed him, became
Secretary of State, with the lead of the House of
Commons and full contiol of the war and foreign
affairs. It was a partnership of magpie and eagle.
The dirty work of government, intrigue, bribery, and
aU the patronage that did not affect the war, fell to
the share of the old politician. If Pitt could appoint
generals, admirals, and ambassadors, Newcastle was
welcome to the rest. "I wiU borrow the duke's
majorities to carry on the government," said the new
secretary; and with the audacious self-confidence
that was one of Ms traits, he told the Duke of

1757.] HIS CHARACTER. 247
DevonsMre, " I am sure that I can save tMs country,
and that nobody else can." England hailed with one
acclaim the undaunted leader who asked for no
reward but the honor of servmg her. The hour had
found the man. For the next four years this impos
ing figure towers supreme in British history.
He had glarmg faults, some of them of a sort not
to have been expected in Mm. Vanity, the common
weakness of smaU minds, was the most disfiguring
foible of tMs great one. He had not the simplicity
which becomes greatness so well. He could give
Mmself theatrical airs, strike attitudes, and dart
stage lightnings from his eyes ; yet he was formidable
even in Ms affectations. Behind his great intellectual
powers lay a burning enthusiasm, a force of passion
and fierce intensity of wiU, that gave redoubled
impetus to the fiery shafts of his eloquence ; and the
haughty and masterful nature of the man had its
share in the ascendency wMch he long held over
ParUament. He would blast the labored argument
of an adversary by a look of scorn or a contemptuous
wave of the hand.
The Great Commoner was not a man of the people
in the popular sense of that hackneyed pMase.
Though himself poor, being a younger son, he came
of a rich and influential family; he was patrician at
heart; both his faults and his virtues, Ms proud
incorruptibility and passionate, domineering patriot
ism, bore the patrician stamp. Yet he loved Uberty
and he loved the people, because they were the

248 PITT. [1757;
English people. The effusive humanitarianism of
to-day had no part in Mm, and the democracy of
to-day would detest him. Yet to the middle-class;
England of his own time, that unenfranchised Eng
land which had Uttle representation in Parliament,
he was a voice, an inspiration, and a tower of
strength. He would not flatter the people; but,
turning -with contempt from the tricks and devices of
ofiScial poUtics, he threw Mmself with a confidence
that never wavered on their patriotism and publio
spirit. They answered Mm with a boundless trust,
asked but to foUow his lead, gave him without stint
their money and their blood, loved him for his-
domestic -rirtues and his dismterestedness, believed
him even in his self-contiadiction, and idolized him
even in Ms bursts of arrogant passion. It was he
who waked England from her lethargy, shook off
the speU that Newcastle and his feUow-enchanters
had cast over her, and taught her to know herself
again. A heart that beat in unison -with all that was
British found responsive throbs in every corner of
the vast empire that through him was to become more
vast. With the instinct of his fervid patriotism he
would join all its far-extended members into one,
not by vain assertions of parUamentary supremacy,
but by bonds of sympathy and ties of a common
freedom and a common cause.
The passion for power and glory subdued in him
aU the sordid parts of humanity, and he made the
power and glory of England one -with Ms own. He-

1757.] POMPADOUR. 249
could change front tMough resentment or tMough
policy ; but in whatever path he moved, his objects
were the same : not to curb the power of France in
America, but to annihilate it; crush her navy, cripple
her foreign trade, ruin her in India, in Africa, and
wherever else, east or west, she had found foothold ;
gain for England the mastery of the seas, open to
her the great Mgh ways of the globe, make her supreme
in commerce and colonization; and wMle Umiting
the acti-rities of her rival to the European conti
nent, give to her the whole world for a sphere.
To this British Roman was opposed the pampered
Sardanapalus of VersaiUes, with the silken favorite
who by calculated adultery had bought the power to
rum France. The Marquise de Pompadour, who
began life as Jeanne Poisson, — Jane Fish, — daughter
of the head clerk of a bauMng house, who then
became -wife of a rich fmancier, and then, as mistress
of the King, rose to a pinnacle of gilded ignominy,
chose this time to turn out of office the two miaisters
who had shown most abUity and force, — Argenson,
head of the department of war, and Machault, head
of the marine and colonies ; the one because he was
not subservient to her will, and the other because
he had un-wittingly touched the self-love of her royal
paramour. She aspired to a share in the conduct of
the war, and not only made and unmade ministers
and generals, but discussed campaigns and battles
with them, wMle they listened to her prating with a
show of obsequious respect, since to lose her favor

250 PITT. [1757.
was to risk losing all. A few months later, when
blows fell hea-vy and fast, she turned a deaf ear to
representations of financial straits and military dis
asters, played the heroine, affected a greatness of
soul superior to misfortune, and in her perfumed
boudoir varied her tiresome graces by posing as a
Roman matron. In fact, she never wavered in her
spite against Frederic, and her fortitude was perfect
in bearing the sufferings of others and defying
dangers that could not touch her.
When Pitt took office it was not over France, but
over England, that the clouds hung dense and black.
Her prospects were of the gloomiest. " Whoever is
in or whoever is out, " -wrote Chesterfield, " I am sure
we are undone both at home and abroad : at home by
our increasing debt and expenses ; abroad by our Ul-
luck and incapacity. We are no longer a nation."
And his despondency was shared by many at the
beginning of the most triumphant administration in
British history. The shuffling weakness of Ms
predecessors had left Pitt a heritage of tribulation.
From America came news of Loudon's mamfold
failures; from Germany that of the miscarriage of
the Duke of Cumberland, who, at the head of an
army of Germans in British pay, had been forced to
sign the convention of Kloster-Zeven, by which he
promised to disband them. To these disasters was
added a tMrd, of which the new government alone
had to bear the burden. At the end of summer Pitt
sent a great expedition to attack Rochefort; the mill-

1757.] HIS INSPIRING INFLUENCE. 251
tary and naval commanders disagreed, and the con
sequence was failure. There was no light except
from far-off India, where Clive won the great victory
of Plassey, avenged the Black Hole of Calcutta, and
prepared the ruin of the French power and the undis
puted ascendency of England.
If the English had smaU cause as yet to rejoice in
their own successes, they found comfort in those of
their Prussian allies. The rout of the French at
Rossbach and of the Austrians at Leuthen spread joy
through their island. More than this, they felt that
they had found at last a leader after their own heart;
and the consciousness regenerated them. For the
paltering imbecility of the old ministry they had the
unconquerable courage, the iron purpose, the unwav
ering faith, the inextinguishable hope, of the new
one. " England has long been in labor, " said Frederic
of Prussia, "and at last she has brought forth a
man." It was not only that instead of weak com
manders Pitt gave her strong ones; the same men
who had served her feebly under the blight of the
Newcastle admimstration served her manfully and
well under his robust impulsion. "Nobody ever
entered his closet," said Colonel Barr^, "who did
not come out of it a braver man." That inspiration
was felt wherever the British flag waved. Zeal
awakened -with the assurance that conspicuous merit
was sure of its reward, and that no officer who did
his duty would now be made a sacrifice, like Admiral
Byng, to appease public indignation at ministerial

252 PITT. [1757.
failures. As Nature, languishmg in chUl vapors and
dull smothering fogs, revives at the touch of the sun,
so did England spring into fresh Ufe under the kin
dling influence of one great man.
With the opening of the year 1758 her course of
Continental victories began. The Duke of Cumber
land, the King's son, was recaUed in disgrace, and
a general of another stamp, Prmce Ferdinand of
Brunswick, was placed in command of the Germans
in British pay, with the contingent of EngUsh tioops
now added to them. The French, too, changed com
manders. The Duke of Richelieu, a dissolute old
beau, returned to Paris to spend in heartless gallan
tries the wealth he had gained by plunder; and a
young soldier-churchman, the Comte de Clermont,
took his place. Prince Ferdinand pushed him hard
with an inferior force, drove him out of Hanover,
and captured eleven thousand of his soldiers. Cler
mont was recalled, and was succeeded by Contades,
another incapable. One of his subordinates won for
him the battle of Lutterberg ; but the generalship of
Ferdinand made it a barren -rictory, and the cam
paign remained a success for the English. They
made descents on the French coasts, captured St.
Servan, a suburb of St. Malo, and burned tMee
ships-of-the-line, twenty-four privateers, and sixty
merchantmen; then entered Cherbourg, destroyed
the forts, carried off or spiked the cannon, and
burned twenty-seven vessels, — a success partially
offset by a failure on the coast of Brittany, where

1757,1758.] HIS PLANS FOR AMERICA. 253
they were repulsed with some loss. In Africa they
drove the French from the Guinea coast, and seized
their establishment at Senegal.
It was towards America that Pitt turned his
heartiest efforts. His first aim was to take Louis
bourg, as a step towards taking Quebec; then
Ticonderoga, that thorn in the side of the northern
colonies ; and lastly Fort Duquesne, the Key of the
Great West. He recalled Loudon, for whom he had
a fierce contempt; but there were infiuences which
he couli not disregard, and Major-General Aber
crombie, who was next in order of rank, an indifferent
soldier, though a veteran in years, was allowed to
succeed him, and lead in person the attack on Ticon
deroga.^ Pitt hoped that Brigadier Lord Howe, an
admirable officer, who was joined with Abercrombie,
would be the real commander, and make amends for
aU shortcomings of his chief. To command the
Louisbourg expedition. Colonel Jeffrey Amherst was
recalled from the German war, and made at one leap
a major-general.* He was energetic and resolute,
somewhat cautious and slow, but with a bulldog
tenacity of grip. Under him were three brigadiers,
Whitmore, Lawrence, and Wolfe, of whom the
youngest is the most noteworthy. In the lucMess
Rochefort expedition. Colonel James WoKe was
1 Order, War Office, 19 December, 1757.
* Pitt to Abercrombie, 27 January, 1758. Instructions for our Trusty
and Well-beloved Jeffrey Amherst, Esq., Major-General of our Forces
in North America, 3 March, 1758.

254 PITT. [1757, 1758.
conspicuous by a dasMng gaUantry that did not
escape the eye of Pitt, always on the watch for men
to do his work. The young officer was ardent, head
long, void of fear, often rash, almost fanatical in his
devotion to roilitary duty, and recMess of life when
the glory of England or his own was at stake. The
third expedition, that against Fort Duquesne, was
given to Brigadier John Forbes, whose quaUties well
fitted him for the task.
During his first short term of office, Pitt had given
a new species of troops to the British army. These
were the Scotch Highlanders, who had risen against
the House of Hanover in 1745, and would rise against
it again should France accompUsh her favorite scheme
of throwing a force into Scotland to excite another
insurrection for the Stuarts. But they would be
useful to fight the French abroad, though dangerous
as their possible allies at home ; and two regiments of
them were now ordered to America.
Delay had been the rmn of the last year's attempt
against Lomsbourg. This time preparation was
urged on apace; and before the end of -winter two
fleets had put to sea: one, under Admiral Boscawen,
was destined for Louisbourg; wMle the other, under
Admiral Osborn, sailed for the Mediterranean to
intercept the French fleet of Admiral La Clue, who
was about to sail from Toulon for America. Osborn,
cruising between the coasts of Spain and Africa,
barred the way to the Straits of Gibraltar, and kept
his enemy imprisoned. La Clue made no attempt to

1758.] NAVAL BATTLES. 255
force a passage; but several combats of detached
ships took place, one of wMch is too remarkable to
pass unnoticed. Captain Gardiner of the " Monmouth, ' '
a ship of four hundred and seventy men and sixty-
four guns, engaged the French ship " Foudroyant, "
carrymg a thousand men and eighty-four guns of
heavier metal than those of the Englishman. Gardi
ner had lately been reproved by Anson, First Lord of
the Admiralty, for some alleged misconduct or short
coming, and he thought of nothing but retrieving his
honor. "We must take her," he said to his crew as
the " Foudroyant " hove in sight. " She looks more
than a match for us, but I will not quit her while
tMs ship can swim or I have a soul left alive ; " and
the sailors answered with cheers. The fight was
long and furious. Gardiner was killed by a musket-
shot, begging his first lieutenant with his dying
breath not to haul do-wn his flag. The lieutenant
nailed it to the mast. At length the " Foudroyant "
ceased from thundering, struck her colors, and was
carried a prize to England. ^
The typical British naval officer of that time was a
rugged sea-dog, a tough and stubborn fighter, though
no more so than the poUter generations that foUowed,
at home on the quarter-deck, but no ornament to the
drawing-room, by reason of what his contemporary,
Entick, the strenuous chronicler of the war, calls,
not unapprovingly, "the ferocity of his manners."
WMle Osborn held La Clue imprisoned at Toulon,
1 Entick, iii. 56-60.

256 PITT. [1758.
Sir Edward Hawke, worthy leader of such men,
sailed with seven sMps-of-the-line and three frigates
to intercept a French squadron from Rochefort con
voying a fleet of transports with troops for America.
The French ships cut their cables and ran for the
shore, where most of them stranded in the mud, and
some threw cannon and mumtions overboard to float
themselves. The expedition was broken up. Of
the many ships fitted out tMs year for the succor of
Canada and Louisbourg, comparatively few reached
their destination, and these for the most part singly
or by twos and threes.
MeanwhUe Admiral Boscawen -with his fleet bore
away for Halifax, the place of rendezvous, and
Amherst, in the sMp "DubUn," followed in Ms
wake.

CHAPTER XIX.
1758.
LGUlSBOtrRG.
Condition op the Fortress. — Arrival op the English. —
Gallantry op Wolfe. — The English Camp. — The Siege
BEGUN. — Progress op the Besiegers. — Sallies op the
Ebbnch. — Madame Drucouk. — Courtesies op War. —
French Ships destroyed. — Conflagration. — Eury op the
Bombardment. — Exploit op English Sailors. — The End
NEAR. — The White Flag. — Surrender. — Reception of
THE News in England and America. — Wolfe not satis-
pied : HIS Letters to Amherst ; he destroys GASpii ; re
turns to England.
The stormy coast of Cape Breton is indented by a
small land-locked bay, between which and the ocean
Ues a tongue of land dotted -with a few grazing sheep,
and intersected by rows of stone that mark more or
less distinctly the lines of what once were stieets.
Green mounds and embankments of earth enclose the
whole space, and beneath the highest of them yawn
arches and caverns of ancient masonry. TMs grassy
soUtude was once the "DunMrk of America;" the
vaulted caverns where the sheep find shelter from
the ram were casemates where terrified women sought
refuge from storms of shot and shell, and the shape
less green mounds were citadel, bastion, rampart, and
VOL. II. — 17

258 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
glacis. Here stood Louisbourg; and not all the
efforts of its conquerors, nor all the havoc of succeed
ing times, have availed to efface it. Men in hundreds
toiled for months with lever, spade, and gunpowder
in the work of destiuction, and for more than a
century it has served as a stone quarry; but the
remains of its vast defences stiU tell their tale of
human valor and human woe.
Stand on the mounds that were once the King's
Bastion. The glistening sea spreads eastward three
thousand miles, and its waves meet their first rebuff
against this iron coast. Lighthouse Point is white
with foam; jets of spray spout from the rocks of
Goat Island ; mist curls in clouds from the seething
surf that lashes the crags of Black Point, and the sea
boils Uke a caldron among the reefs by the harbor's
mouth; but on the calm water -within, the small
fishing vessels rest tianquil at their moormgs.
Beyond lies a hamlet of fishermen by the edge of the
water, and a few scattered dwellings dot the rough
MUs, bristled -with stunted firs, that gird the quiet
basin; while close at hand, witMn the precinct of
the vamshed fortress, stand two small farmhouses.
All else is a solitude of ocean, rock, marsh, and
forest.^ At the beginning of June, 1758, the place wore
another aspect. Since the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
vast sums had been spent in repairing and stiengthen-
1 Louisbourg is described as I saw it ten days before writing the
above, after an easterly gale.

A View of Louisbourg.

1758.] CONDITION OF THE FORTRESS. 259
ing it; and Louisbourg was the strongest fortress in
French or British America. Nevertheless it had its-
weaknesses. The original plan of the works had not
been fully carried out; and owing, it is said, to the
bad quality of the mortar, the masonry of the ram
parts was in so poor a condition that it had been
replaced in some parts -with fascines. The circuit of
the fortifications was more than a mile and a half,
and the town contained about four thousand inhabit
ants. The best buildings in it were the convent, the
hospital, the King's storehouses, and the chapel and
governor's quarters, wMch were under the same
roof. Of the private houses, only seven or eight
were of stone, the rest being humble wooden struc
tures, suited to a population of fishermen. The gar
rison consisted of the battaUons of Artois, Bourgogne,
Cambis, and Volontaires Strangers, with two com
panies of artUlery and twenty-four of colony tioops
from Canada, — in aU tMee thousand and eighty
regular troops, besides officers ; ^ and to these were
added a body of armed inhabitants and a band of
Indians. In the harbor were five ships-of-the-line
and seven frigates, carrying in all five hundred and
forty-four guns and about three thousand men.^ Two
1 Journal du Siege de Louisbourg. Twenty-nine hundred regulars
were able to bear arms when the siege began. Houlliere, Command
ant des Troupes, au Ministre, 6 Aout, 1758.
2 Le Prudent, 74 guns ; Entreprenant, 74 ; Capricieux, 64 ;
Celfebre, 64; Bienf aisant, 64 ; ApoUon, 50; Chevre, 22; Biche, 18;
Eidfele, 22 ; :6cho, 26 ; Are'thuse, 36 ; Comete, 30. The Bizarre, 64,
sailed for France on the eighth of June, and was followed by the
Comete.

260 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
hundred and nineteen cannon and seventeen mortars
were mounted on the walls and outworks.^ Of these
last the most important were the Grand Battery on
the shore of the harbor opposite its mouth, and the
Island Battery on the rocky islet at its entiance.
The strongest front of the works was on the land
side, along the base of the peninsular triangle on
wMch the town stood. This front, about twelve
hundred yards in extent, reached from the sea on the
left to the harbor on the right, and consisted of four
bastions with their connecting curtains, the Princess's,
the Queen's, the King's, and the Dauphin's. The
King's Bastion formed part of the citadel. The
glacis before it sloped down to an extensive marsh,
which, with an adjacent pond, completely protected
this part of the line. On the right, however, towards
the harbor, the ground was high enough to offer
advantages to an enemy, as was also the case, to a
less degree, on the left, towards the sea. The best
defence of Louisbourg was the craggy shore, that,
for leagues on either hand, was accessible only at a
few points, and even there with difficulty. AU these
points were vigilantly watched.
There had been signs of the enemy from the first
opening of spring. In the intervals of fog, rain, and
snow-squalls, sails were seen hovering on the distant
sea; and during the latter part of May a squadron
of nme ships cruised off the mouth of the harbor,
1 £tat d'Artillerie, appended to the Journal of Drucour. There
were also forty-four cannon in reserve.

1758.] SIGNS OF DANGER. 261
appearing and disappearing, sometimes driven away
by gales, sometimes lost in fogs, and sometimes
approacMng to -within cannon-shot of the batteries.
Their object was to blockade the port, — in which
they failed; for French ships had come in at inter
vals, till, as we have seen, twelve of them lay safe
anchored in the harbor, with more than a year's
supply of provisions for the garrison.
At length, on the first of June, the southeastern
horizon was white with a cloud of canvas. The
long-expected crisis was come. Drucour, the gov
ernor, sent two thousand regulars, with about a
thousand miUtia and Indians, to guard the various
landing-places; and the rest, aided by the sailors,
remained to hold the town.^
At the end of May Admiral Boscawen was at
Halifax with twenty-three ships-of-the-Une, eighteen
frigates and fireships, and a fleet of transports, on
board of which were eleven thousand and six hundred
soldiers, aU regulars, except five hundred provmcial
rangers. 2 Amherst had not yet arrived, and on the
twenty-eighth, Boscawen, in pursuance of Ms orders
and to prevent loss of time, put to sea without him ;
but scarcely had the fleet sailed out of Halifax, when
they met the sMp that bore the expected general.
^ Rapport de Drucour. Journal du Siege.
¦¦' Of this force, according to Mante, only 9,900 were fit for duty.
The table printed by Knox (i. 127) shows a total of 11,112, besides
officers, artillery, and rangers. The Authentic Account of the Reduc
tion of Louisbourg, by a Spectator, puts the force at 11,326 men, be
sides officers. Entick makes the whole 11,936.

262 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
Amherst took command of the troops ; and the expe
dition held its way till the second of June, when they
saw the rocky shore -Une of Cape Breton, and descried
the masts of the French squadron in the harbor of
Louisbourg. Boscawen sailed into Gabarus Bay. The sea was
rough; but in the afternoon Amherst, Lawrence,
and Wolfe, with a number of naval officers, recon
noitied the shore in boats, coasting it for miles, and
approaching it as near as the French batteries would
permit. The rocks were white -with surf, and every
accessible point was strongly guarded. Boscawen
saw little chance of success. He sent for his cap
tains, and consulted them separately. They thought,
like him, that it would be rash to attempt a landing,
and proposed a council of war. One of them alone,
an old sea officer named Ferguson, advised his com
mander to take the responsibiUty himself, hold no
council, and make the attempt at every risk.
Boscawen took his ad-rice, and declared that he
would not leave Gabarus Bay till he had fulfiUed
his mstiuctions and set the troops on shore. ^
West of Louisbourg there were three accessible
places. Freshwater Cove, four miles from the town,
and Flat Point, and White Point, which were nearer,
the last being -within a mUe of the fortifications.
East of the town there was an inlet caUed Lorambec,
also available for landing. In order to distract the
attention of the enemy, it was resolved to tMeaten
1 Entick, iu. 224.

sier eiices
A-.^rcndvEccrOavorks and- batteries
S. ^Pvst Xcaidaig Plctm
C. EngUsTv JHedffuJfts.
M.JEnfflisTv .Batteries.
£. Fond.
F. Su^e Waives.
C Farackois.
H. Frincess's BasUtm.
I. Oueenw SctstCarv.
¦J. Xi^Cg's Bastioiv.
X. Bca^hiiCs MaslioTi'.
Z, Grmi^ Faitepy.
-M. IsUaid'Fattery-

iiESi m isiiiWiii
1758.

1758.] ATTEMPTS AT LANDING. 263
all these places, and to form the troops into three
divisions, two of which, under Lawrence and Whit
more, were to advance towards Flat Point and White
Point, whUe a detached regiment was to make a feint
at Lorambec. WoKe, with the third division, was to
make the real attack and try to force a landing at
Freshwater Cove, which, as it proved, was the most
stiongly defended of aU. When on shore Wolfe was
an habitual invaUd, and when at sea every heave of
the sMp made Mm -wretched; but his ardor was
unquenchable. Before leaving England he wrote to
a friend : " Being of the profession of arms, I would
seek all occasions to serve ; and therefore have thrown
myself in the way of the American war, though I
know that the very passage threatens my life, and
that my constitution must be utterly ruined and
undone." On the next day, the tMrd, the surf was so high
that nothing could be attempted. On the fourth
there was a thick fog and a gale. The frigate
" Trent " strack on a rock, and some of the transports
were near being stranded. On the fifth there was
another fog and a raging surf. On the sixth there
was fog, with ram in the moming and better weather
towards noon, whereupon the signal was made and
the tioops entered the boats ; but the sea rose again,
and they were ordered back to the ships. On the
seventh more fog and more surf till night, when the
sea grew calmer, and orders were given for another
attempt. At two in the morning of the eighth the

264 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
tioops were in the boats again. At daybreak the
frigates of the squadron, anchoring before each point
of real or pretended attack, opened a fierce cannonade
on the French intienchments ; and, a quarter of an
hour after, the three divisions rowed towards the
shore. That of the left, under Wolfe, consisted of
four companies of grenadiers, with the Ught infantry
and New England rangers, followed and supported
by Eraser's HigManders and eight more companies
of grenadiers. They pulled for Freshwater Cove.
Here there was a crescent-shaped beach, a quarter of
a mile long, with rocks at each end. On the shore
above, about a thousand Frenchmen, under Lieuten
ant-Colonel de Saint- Julien, lay behind intrench-
ments covered in front by spruce and fir tiees, felled
and laid on the ground with the tops outward.^
Eight cannon and swivels were planted to sweep
every part of the beach and its approaches, and these
pieces were masked by young evergreens stuck in the
ground before them.
The English were allowed to come within close
range unmolested. Then the batteries opened, and a
deadly storm of grape and musketry was poured upon
the boats. It was clear in an instant that to advance
farther would be destiuction; and Wolfe waved his
hand as a signal to sheer off. At some distance on
the right, and little exposed to the fire, were tMee
1 Drucour reports 985 soldiers as stationed here under Saint-
Julien ; there were also some Indians. Freshwater Cove, otherwise
Kennington Cove, was called La Cormorandifere by the French.

1758.] A BOLD MOVEMENT. 265
boats of light infantry under Lieutenants Hopkins
and Bro-wn and Ensign Grant; who, mistaMng the
signal or wilfuUy misinterpreting it, made directly
for the shore before them. It was a few rods east of
the beach ; a craggy coast and a strand stre-wn with
rocks and lashed with breakers, but sheltered from
the cannon by a small projecting point. The three
officers leaped ashore, followed by their men. Wolfe
saw the movement, and hastened to support it. The
boat of Major Scott, who commanded the light
infantry and rangers, next came up, and was stove in
an instant; but Scott gained the shore, climbed the
crags, and found himself with ten men in front of
some seventy French and Indians. Half his followers
were MUed and wounded, and three bullets were
shot through his clothes ; but with admirable gallantry
he held Ms ground till others came to his aid.^ The
remaimng boats now reached the landing. Many
were stove among the rocks, and others were overset;
some of the men were dragged back by the surf and
drowned ; some lost their muskets, and were drenched
to the skin: but the greater part got safe ashore.
Among the foremost was seen the tall, attenuated
form of Brigadier Wolfe, armed with nothing but a
cane, as he leaped into the surf and climbed the crags
with his soldiers. As they reached the top they
formed in compact order, and attacked and carried
with the bayonet the nearest French battery, a few
rods distant. The di-rision of Lawrence soon came
1 Pichon, Memoires du Cap-Breton, 284.

266 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
up ; and as the attention of the enemy was now dis
tracted, they made their landing with little opposition
at the farther end of the beach, whither they were
followed by Amherst himself. The French, attacked
on right and left, and fearing, with good reason, that
they would be cut off from the town, abandoned all
their cannon and fled into the woods. About seventy
of them were captured and fifty Mlled. The rest,
circling among the hills and around the marshes,
made their way to Lomsbourg, and those at the
intermediate posts joined their flight. The English
followed through a matted growth of firs till they
reached the cleared ground; when the cannon, open
ing on them from the ramparts, stopped the pursuit.
The first move of the great game was played and
won.^ Amherst made his camp just beyond range of the
French cannon, and Flat Point Cove was chosen as
the landing-place of guns and stores. Clearing the
ground, maMng roads, and pitching tents filled the
rest of the day. At night there was a glare of flames
from the direction of the to-wn. The French had
abandoned the Grand Battery after setting fire to the
buildings in it and to the houses and fish-stages along
the shore of the harbor. During the following days
1 Journal of Amherst, in Mante, 117. Amherst to Pitt, 11 June,
1758. Authentic Account of the Reduction of Louisbourg, by a Specta
tor, 11. General Orders of Amherst, 3-7 June, 1759. Letter from an
Officer, in Knox, i. 191; Entick, iii. 225. The French accounts
generally agree in essentials with the English. The EngUsh lost
one hundred and nine, killed, wounded, and drowned.

1758.] THE SIEGE BEGUN. 267
stores were landed as fast as the surf would permit:
but the task was so difficult that from first to last
more than a hundred boats were stove in accomplish
ing it; and such was the violence of the waves that
none of the siege-guns could be got ashore till the
eighteenth. The camp extended two miles along a
stream that flowed down to the Cove among the low,
woody hills that curved around the town and harbor.
Redoubts were made to protect its front, and block
houses to guard its left and rear from the bands of
Acadians kno-wn to be hovering in the woods.
Wolfe, with twelve hundred men, made his way
six or seven miles round the harbor, took possession
of the battery at Lighthouse Point wMch the French
had abandoned, planted guns and mortars, and opened
Gxe on the Island Battery that guarded the entrance.
Other guns were placed at different points along the
shore, and soon opened on the French ships. The
ships and batteries replied. The artillery fight raged
night and day; tUl on the twenty-fifth the island
guns were dismounted and silenced. Wolfe then
stiengthened his posts, secured his commumcations,
and returned to the main army in front of the to-wn.
Amherst had reconnoitred the ground and chosen
a hillock at the edge of the marsh, less than half a
mile from the ramparts, as the point for opening his
trenches. A road with an epaulement to protect it
must first be made to the spot; and as the way was
over a tract of deep mud covered with water-weeds
and moss, the labor was prodigious. A thousand

268 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
men worked at it day and night under the tire of
the to-wn and ships.
When the French looked landward from their
ramparts they could see scarcely a sign of the impend
ing storm. Behind them Wolfe's cannon were play
ing busily from Lighthouse Point and the heights
around the harbor; but, before them, the broad flat
marsh and the low hills seemed almost a solitude.
Two miles distant, they could descry some of the
English tents ; but the greater part were Mdden by
the inequalities of the ground. On the right, a
prolongation of the harbor reached nearly half a mile
beyond the town, ending in a small lagoon formed by
a projecting sandbar, and kno-wn as the Barachois.
Near this bar lay moored the little frigate " Ar^thuse, "
under a gallant officer named Vauquelin. Her posi
tion was a perilous one; but so long as she could
maintain it she could sweep -with her fire the ground
before the works, and seriously impede the operations
of the enemy. The other naval captains were less
venturous; and when the English landed, they
wanted to leave the harbor and save their ships.
Drucour insisted that they should stay to aid the
defence, and they compUed ; but soon left their moor
ings and anchored as close as possible under the guns
of the town, in order to escape the fire of Wolfe's
batteries. Hence there was great murmuring among
the military officers, who would have had them
engage the hostile guns at short range. The frigate
"l^cho," under cover of a fog, had been sent to

1758.] PROGRESS OF BESIEGERS. 269
Quebec for aid; but she was chased and captured;
and, a day or two after, the French saw her pass the
mouth of the harbor with an English flag at her
mast-head. When Wolfe had silenced the Island Battery, a
new and imminent danger threatened Louisbourg.
Boscawen might enter the harbor, overpower the
French naval force, and cannonade the town on its
weakest side. Therefore Drucour resolved to sink
four large ships at the entrance ; and on a dark and
foggy night this was successfully accomplished.
Two more vessels were afterwards sunk, and the
harbor was then thought safe.
The English had at last finished their preparations,
and were urging on the siege with determined vigor.
The landward view was a solitude no longer. They
could be seen in multitudes piling earth and fascines
beyond the hillock at the edge of the marsh. On the
twenty-fifth they occupied the hillock itself, and
fortified themselves there under a shower of bombs.
Then they threw up earth on the right, and pushed
their approaches towards the Barachois, in spite of a
hot fire from the frigate "Ar^thuse." Next they
appeared on the left towards the sea about a third of
a mUe from the Princess's Bastion. It was Wolfe,
with a stiong detachment, throwing up a redoubt
and opening an intrenchment. Late on the night of
the nmth of July six hundred French troops sallied
to interrupt the work. The English grenadiers in
the trenches fought stubbornly with bayonet and

270 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
sword, but were forced back to the second line, where
a desperate conffict in the dark took place ; and after
severe loss on both sides the French were driven
back. Some days before, there had been another
sortie on the opposite side, near the Barachois, result
ing in a repulse of the French and the seizure by
Wolfe of a more advanced position.
Various courtesies were exchanged between the
two commanders. Drucour, on occasion of a flag of
truce, wrote to Amherst that there was a surgeon of
uncommon skill in Louisbourg, whose services were
at the command of any English officer who might
need them. Amherst on his part sent to his enemy
letters and messages from wounded Frenchmen in
his hands, adding his compUments to Madame
Drucour, with an expression of regret for the dis
quiet to which she was exposed, begging her at the
same time to accept a gift of pineapples from the
West Indies. She returned Ms courtesy by sending
him a basket of wine; after wMch amenities the
cannon roared again. Madame Drucour was a woman
of heroic spirit. Every day she was on the ramparts,
where her presence roused the soldiers to enthusiasm ;
and every day with her own hand she fired three
cannon to encourage them.
The English lines grew closer and closer, and their
fire more and more destructive. Desgouttes, the
naval commander, withdrew the "Ar^thuse" from
her exposed position, where her fire had greatly
annoyed the besiegers. The shot-holes in her sides

1758.] WOLFE SEIZES GALLOWS HILL. 271
were plugged up, and in the dark night of the four
teenth of July she was towed through the obstructions
in the mouth of the harbor, and sent to France to
report the situation of Louisbourg. More fortunate
than her predecessor, she escaped the English in a
fog. OMy five vessels now remained afloat m the
harbor, and these were feebly manned, as the greater
part of their officers and crews had come ashore, to
the number of two thousand, lodging under tents
in the town, amid the scarcely suppressed murmurs
of the army officers.
On the eighth of July news came that the partisan
Boishebert was approaching -with four hundred Aca
dians, Canadians, and Micmacs to attack the EngUsh
outposts and detachments. He did Uttle or notMng,
however, besides capturing a few stragglers. On
the sixteenth, early in the evening, a party of Eng
Ush, led by Wolfe, dashed forward, drove off a band
of French volunteers, seized a rising ground called
Hauteur-de-la-Potence, or Gallows Hill, and began
to mtrench themselves scarcely three hundred yards
from the Dauphin's Bastion. The town opened on
them furiously -with grape-shot; but in the intervals
of the firing the sound of their picks and spades
could plainly be heard. In the morning they were
seen tMowing up earth like moles as they burrowed
their way forward; and on the twenty -first they
opened another paraUel, -within two hundred yards
of the rampart. StUl their sappers pushed on.
Every day they had more guns in position, and on

272 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
right and left their fire grew hotter. Their pickets
made a lodgement along the foot of the glacis, and
fired up the slope at the French in the covered way.
The twenty-first was a memorable day. In the
afternoon a bomb fell on the sMp " C^lfebre " and set
her on fire. An explosion followed. The few men
on board could not save her, and she drifted from her
moorings. The -wind blew the flames into the rig
ging of the "Entreprenant," and then into that of
the "Capricieux." At night aU three were m full
blaze ; for when the fire broke out the English bat
teries turned on them a tempest of shot and shell to
prevent it from being extinguished. The glare of
the triple conflagration lighted up the town, the
trenches, the harbor, and the surrounding hills;
wMle the burmng ships shot off their guns at random
as they slowly drifted westward, and grounded at
last near the Barachois. In the mormng they were
consumed to the water's edge ; and of all the squadron
the " Prudent " and the " Bienfaisant " alone were
left. In the citadel, of wMch the King's Bastion formed
the front, there was a large oblong stone building
contaimng the chapel, lodgings for men and officers,
and at the southern end the quarters of the governor.
On the mornmg after the burning of the ships a shell
fell through the roof among a party of soldiers in the
chamber below, burst, and set the place on fire. In
half an hour the chapel and all the northern part of
the building were in flames ; and no sooner did the

1758.] CONFLAGRATION. 273
smoke rise above the bastion than the English threw
into it a steady shower of missiles. Yet soldiers,
sailors, and inhabitants hastened to the spot, and
labored desperately to check the fire. They saved
the end occupied by Drucour and his wife, but all
the rest was destroyed. Under the adjacent ram
part were the casemates, one of which was crowded
with wounded officers, and the rest with women and
children seeking shelter in these subterranean dens.
Before the entiances there was a long barrier of
timber to protect them from explodmg sheUs ; and as
the wind blew the flames towards it, there was danger
that it would take fire and suffocate those -within.
They rushed out, crazed with fright, and ran hither
and tMther with outcries and shrieks amid the storm
of iron.
In the neighboring Queen's Bastion was a large
range of barracks built of wood by the New England
troops after their capture of the fortress in 1745. So
ffimsy and combustible was it that the French -writers
caU it a "house of cards " and "a paper of matches."
Here were lodged the greater part of the garrison :
but such was the danger of fire, that they were now
ordered to leave it; and they accordmgly lay in the
streets or along the foot of the ramparts, under
shelters of timber which gave some Uttle protection
agamst bombs. The order was weU timed ; for on
the night after the fire in the King's Bastion, a shell
filled with combustibles set this building also in
flames. A fearful scene ensued. All the EngUsh
VOL. II. — 18

274 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
batteries opened upon it. The roar of mortars and
cannon, the rushing and screaming of round-shot and
grape, the hissing of fuses and the explosion of
grenades and bombs mingled with a storm of musketry
from the covered way and trenches; while, by the
glare of the conflagration, the English regiments
were seen drawn up in battle array, before the ram
parts, as if preparing for an assault.
Two days after, at one o'clock in the morning, a
burst of loud cheers was heard in the distance, fol
lowed by confused cries and the noise of musketry,
which lasted but a moment. Six hundred English
saUors had silently rowed into the harbor and seized
the two remaining ships, the " Prudent " and the
"Bienfaisant." After the first hubbub all was silent
for half an hour. Then a light glowed through the
tMck fog that covered the water. The " Prudent "
was burning. Being aground with the low tide, her
captors had set her on fire, allo-wing the men on
board to escape to the town in her boats. The flames
soon wrapped her from stem to stem; and as the
broad glare pierced the illumined mists, the English
sailors, reckless of shot and shell, towed her com
panion-ship, with all on board, to a safe anchorage
under Wolfe's batteries.
The position of the besieged was deplorable.
Nearly a fourth of their number were in the hospitals ;
while the rest, exhausted with incessant toil, could
find no place to snatch an hour of sleep ; " and yet, "
says an officer, "they still show ardor." "To-day,"

1758.] THE END NEAR. 275
he again says, on the twenty-fourth, " the fire of th©
place is so weak that it is more like funeral guns
than a defence." On the front of the town only four
cannon could fire at all. The rest were either dis
mounted or silenced by the musketry from the
tienches. The masonry of the ramparts had been
shaken by the concussion of their own guns; and
now, in the DaupMn's and King's bastions, the
English shot brought it do-wn in masses. The
tienches had been pushed so close on the rising
grounds at the right that a great part of the covered
way was enfiladed, wMle a battery on a hill across
the harbor swept the whole front with a flank fire.
Amherst had ordered the gunners to spare the houses
of the town ; but, according to French accounts, the
order had Uttle effect, for shot and shell fell every
where. "There is not a house in the place," says
the Diary just quoted, " that has not felt the effects
of tMs formidable artillery. From yesterday mom
ing till seven o'clock this evening we reckon that a
thousand or twelve hundred bombs, great and small,
have been thrown into the to-wn, accompamed all the
time by the fire of forty pieces of cannon, served with
an activity not often seen. The hospital and the
houses around it, which also serve as hospitals, are
attacked -with cannon and mortar. The surgeon
trembles as he amputates a limb amid cries of Gare
la homle ! and leaves his patient in the midst of the
operation, lest he should share his fate. The sick
and wounded, stretched on mattiesses, utter cries of

276 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
pain, wMch do not cease till a shot or the bursting of
a shell ends them." ^ On the twenty-sixth the last
cannon was sUenced in front of the to-wn, and the
EngUsh batteries had made a breach wMch seemed
practicable for assault.
On the day before, Drucour, -with his chief officers
and the engmeer, Franquet, had made the tour of
the covered way, and examined the state of the
defences. All but Franquet were for offering to
capitulate. Early on the next morning a council of
war was held, at wMch were present Drucour,
Franquet, Desgouttes, naval commander, Houlliere,
commander of the regulars, and the several chiefs of
battaUons. Franquet presented a memorial setting
forth the state of the fortifications. As it was he
who had reconstructed and repaired them, he was
anxious to show the quaUty of his work in the best
light possible ; and therefore, in the view of his audi
tors, he understated the effects of the English fire.
Hence an altercation arose, ending in a unanimous
decision to ask for terms. Accordmgly, at ten
o'clock, a white flag was displayed over the breach in
the DaupMn's Bastion, and an officer named Loppinot
was sent out with offers to capitulate. The answer
1 Early in the siege Drucour wrote to Amherst asking that the
hospital should be exempt from fire. Amherst answered that shot
and sheU might fall on any part of so smaU a to-wn, but promised
to insure the sick and wounded from molestation if Drucour would
send them either to the island at the mouth of the harbor, or to any
of the ships, if anchored apart from the rest. The offer was
declined, for reasons not stated. Drucour gives the correspondence
in his Diary.

1758.] NEGOTIATIONS. 277
was prompt and stem: the garrison must surrender
as prisoners of war; a definite reply must be given
-witMn an hour; in case of refusal the place -will be
attacked by land and sea.^
Great was the emotion in the council ; and one of
its members, D'Anthonay, lieutenant-colonel of the
battalion of Volontaires Strangers, was sent to pro
pose less rigorous terms. Amherst would not speak
with Mm; and jointly with Boscawen despatched
this note to the governor: —
Sie, — We have just received the reply which it has
pleased your Excellency to make as to the conditions of
the capitulation offered you. We shall not change in the
least our views regarding them. It depends on your
Excellency to accept them or not; and you will have the
goodness to give your answer, yes or no, within half an
hour. We have the honor to be, etc.,
E. Boscawen,
J. Amherst.^
Drucour answered as follows : —
Gentlemen, — To reply to your Excellencies in as few
words as possible, I have the honor to repeat that my
position also remains the same, and that I persist in my
first resolution. I have the honor to be, etc.,
The Chevalier de Drucour.
In other words, he refused the English terms, and
declared his purpose to abide the assault. Loppinot
1 Mante and other English -writers give the text of this reply.
" Translated from the Journal of Drucour.

278 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
was sent back to the English camp with this note of
defiance. He was no sooner gone than Provost, the
intendant, an officer of functions purely civil, brought
the governor a memorial which, with or without the
knowledge of the military authorities, he had dra-wn
up in anticipation of the emergency. " The violent
resolution which the council continues to hold," said
this document, "obliges me, for the good of the
state, the preservation of the King's subjects, and
the averting of horrors shocMng to humanity, to lay
before your eyes the consequences that may ensue.
What will become of the four thousand souls who
compose the families of this town, of the thousand or
twelve hundred sick in the hospitals, and the officers
and crews of our unfortunate ships? They wiU be
delivered over to camage and the rage of an unbridled
soldiery, eager for plunder, and impelled to deeds of
horror by pretended resentment at what has formerly
happened in Canada. Thus they -will all be destioyed,
and the memory of their fate wiU live forever in our
colonies. ... It remains. Monsieur," continues the
paper, "to remind you that the councils you have
held thus far have been composed of none but mili
tary officers. I am not surprised at their views.
The glory of the King's arms and the honor of their
several corps have mspired them. You and I alone
are charged -with the administration of the colony and
the care of the King's subjects who compose it.
These gentlemen, therefore, have had no regard for
them. They think oMy of themselves and their

1758.] SURRENDER. 279
soldiers, whose business it is to encounter the utmost
extremity of perU. It is at the prayer of an intimi
dated people that I lay before you the considerations
specified in this memorial."
"In view of these considerations," writes Drucour,
" joined to the impossibUity of resisting an assault,
M. le Chevalier de Courserac undertook in my behalf
to run after the bearer of my answer to the English
commander and brmg it back." It is evident that
the bearer of the note had been in no hurry to deliver
it, for he had scarcely got beyond the fortifica
tions when Courserac overtook and stopped him.
D'Anthonay, with Duvivier, major of the battalion
of Artois, and Loppinot, the first messenger, was
then sent to the English camp, empowered to accept
the terms imposed. An EngUsh spectator thus
describes their arrival: "A lieutenant-colonel came
runnmg out of the garrison, maMng signs at a dis
tance, and bawling out as loud as he could, ' We
accept I We accept ! ' He was followed by two others ;
and they were all conducted to General Amherst's
headquarters."^ At eleven o'clock at night they
returned -with the articles of capitulation and the
foUo-wing letter: —
Sir, — We have the honor to send your Excellency the
articles of capitulation signed.
Lieutenant-Colonel D'Anthonay has not failed to speak
in behalf of the inhabitants of the town ; and it is nowise
* Authentic Account of the Siege of Louisbourg, by a Spectator,

280 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
our intention to distress them, hut to give them all the
aid in our power.
Your Excellency will have the goodness to sign a dupli
cate of the articles and send it to us.
It only remains to assure your Excellency that we shall
with great pleasure seize every opportunity to convince
your Excellency that we are with the most perfect con
sideration, Sir, your Excellency's most obedient servants,
E. Boscawen.
J. Amherst.
The articles stipulated that the garrison should be
sent to England, prisoners of war, in British ships;
that all artillery, arms, munitions, and stores, both
in Louisbourg and elsewhere on the Island of Cape
Breton, as well as on Isle St. Jean, now Prince
Edward's Island, should be given up intact ; that the
gate of the Dauphin's Bastion should be deUvered to
the British troops at eight o'clock in the morning;
and that the garrison should lay down their arms at
noon. The victors, on their part, promised to give
the French sick and wounded the same care as their
own, and to protect private property from pillage.
Drucour signed the paper at midnight, and in the
mornmg a body of grenadiers took possession of the
Dauphm's Gate. The rude soldiery poured in,
swarthy -with wind and sun, and begrimed with
smoke and dust; the garrison, drawn up on the
esplanade, flung down their muskets and marched
from the ground with tears of rage; the cross of
St. George floated over the shattered rampart; and

1758.] ITS CAPTURE. 281
Louisbourg, with the two great islands that depended
on it, passed to the British Crown. Guards were
posted, a stern discipline was enforced, and perfect
order mamtamed. The conquerors and the conquered
exchanged greetings, and the EngUsh general was
lavish of courtesies to the brave lady who had aided
the defence so well. "Every favor she asked was
granted," says a Frenchman present.
Drucour and Ms garrison had made a gallant
defence. It had been Ms aim to prolong the siege
tiU it should be too late for Amherst to co-operate
-with Abercrombie in an attack on Canada; and in
this, at least, he succeeded.
Five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven officers,
soldiers, and saUors were prisoners in the hands of
the victors. Eighteeri mortars and two hundred and
twenty-one cannon were found in the to-wn, along
with a great quantity of arms, munitions, and stores.^
At the middle of August such of the prisoners as
were not disabled by wounds or sickness were
embarked for England, and the merchants and inhab
itants were sent to France. Brigadier WMtmore, as
governor of Louisbourg, remained with four regi
ments to hold guard over the desolation they had
made. The fall of the French stronghold was hailed in
England -with noisy rapture. Addresses of congratu-
1 Account of the Guns, Mortars, Shot, Shell, etc., found in the Town
of Louisbourg upon its Surrender this day, signed Jeffrey Amherst, 27
July, 1758.

282 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
lation to the Kmg poured in from all the cities of the
Mngdom, and the captured flags were hung in St.
Paul's amid the roar of cannon and the shouts of the
populace. The provinces shared these rejoicings.
Sermons of thanksgiving resounded from countless
New England pulpits. At Ne-wport there were fire
works and Uluminations ; and, adds the pious reporter,
"We have reason to believe that Christians will
make wise and religious improvement of so signal a
favor of Divine Providence." At Philadelphia a like
display was seen, with music and universal ringing
of bells. At Boston "a stately bonfire Uke a pyramid
was kindled on the top of Fort Hill, which made a
lofty and prodigious blaze;" though here certain
jealous patiiots protested against celebrating a rictory
won by British regulars, and not by New England
men. At New York there was a grand official dinner
at the Province Arms in Broadway, where every
loyal toast was echoed by the cannon of Fort George ;
and iUummations and fixeworks closed the day.^ In
the camp of Abercrombie at Lake George, Chaplain
Cleaveland, of Bagley's Massachusetts regiment,
wrote : " The General put out orders that the breast
work should be lined with troops, and to fire tMee
rounds for joy, and give thanks to God in a religious
way. " 2 But nowhere did the tidings find a warmer
welcome than in the small detached forts scattered
through the solitudes of Nova Scotia, where the miU-
1 These particulars are from the pro-vincial newspapers.
^ Cleaveland, Journal.

1758.] GOOD NEWS AT ANNAPOLIS. 283
tary exiles, restless from inaction, listened with
greedy ears for every word from the great world
whence they were banished. So slow were their
commumcations with it that the fall of Louisbourg
was known in England before it had reached them
all. Captain John Knox, then in garrison at An
napolis, tells how it was greeted there more than five
weeks after the event. It was the sixth of Septem
ber. A sloop from Boston was seen coming up the
bay. Soldiers and officers ran down to the wharf to
ask for news. "Every soul," says Knox, "was
impatient, yet shy of asking; at length, the vessel
being come near enough to be spoken to, I called
out, ' What news from Lomsbourg? ' To which the
master simply repUed, and with some gravity, ' Noth
ing stiange.' This answer, which was so coldly
deUvered, threw us all into great consternation, and
we looked at each other without being able to speak;
some of us even turned away with an intent to
return to the fort. At length one of our soldiers,
not yet satisfied, called out with some warmth,
' Damn you, PumpMn, isn't Louisbourg taken yet? '
The poor New England man then answered : ' Taken,
yes, above a month ago, and I have been there since ;
but if you have never heard it before, I have got a
good parcel of letters for you now. ' If our appre
hensions were great at first, words are insufficient to
express our transports at this speech, the latter part
of which we hardly waited for; but instantly all hats
flew off, and we made the neighboring woods resound

284 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
¦with our cheers and huzzas for almost half an hour.
The master of the sloop was amazed beyond expres
sion, and declared he thought we had heard of the
success of our arms eastward before, and had sought
to banter Mm."^ At night there was a grand bon
fire and universal festivity in the fort and village.
Amherst proceeded to complete Ms conquest by the
subjection of all the adjacent possessions of France.
Major Dalling was sent to occupy Port Espagnol,
now Sydney. Colonel Monckton was despatched to
the Bay of Fundy and the river St. John -with an
order " to destroy the vermin who are settled there. " ^
Lord RoUo, with the thirty-fifth regiment and two
battalions of the sixtieth, received the submission
of Isle St. Jean, and tried to remove the inhabitants,
— -with small success; for out of more than four
thousand he could catch but seven hundred.^
The ardent and indomitable Wolfe had been the
Ufe of the siege. Wherever there was need of a
quick eye, a prompt decision, and a bold dash, there
his lank figure was always in the front. Yet he was
only half pleased with what had been done. The
capture of Lomsbourg, he thought, should be but the
prelude of greater conquests ; and he had hoped that
the fleet and army would sail up the St. Lawrence

1 Knox, Historical Journal, i. 158.
2 Orders of Amherst to Wolfe, 15 August, 1758 ; Ibid., to Monckton,.
24 August, 1758; Report of Monckton, 12 November, 1758.
^ Villejouin, commandant a I'Isle St. Jean, au Ministre, 8 Septembre,.
1758.

1758.] DISCONTENT OF WOLFE. 285
and attack Quebec. Impetuous and impatient by
nature, and irritable -with disease, he chafed at the
delay that followed the capitulation, and -wrote to his
father a few days after it : " We are gathering straw
berries and other wUd fruits of the country, with a
seeming indifference about what is doing in other
parts of the world. Our army, however, on the con
tinent wants our help." Growing more anxious, he
sent Amherst a note to ask his intentions; and the
general replied, " What I most wish to do is to go to
Quebec. I have proposed it to the Admiral, and
yesterday he seemed to think it impracticable." On
wMch WoKe -wrote again : " If the Admiral will not
carry us to Quebec, reinforcements should certainly
be sent to the contment without losing a moment.
This damned French garrison take up our time and
attention, wMch might be better bestowed. The
transports are ready, and a smaU convoy would carry
a brigade to Boston or New York. With the rest of
the troops we might make an offensive and destruc
tive war in the Bay of Fundy and the GiUf of St.
Lawrence. I beg pardon for this freedom, but I
cannot look coolly upon the bloody inroads of those
hell-hounds, the Canadians; and if notMng further
is to be done, I must desire leave to quit the army."
Amherst answered that though he had meant at
first to go to Quebec with the whole army, late events
on the contment made it impossible; and that he
now thought it best to go with five or six regiments
to the aid of Abercrombie. He asked Wolfe to con-

286 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
tinue to communicate his views to him, and would
not hear for a moment of his leaving the army ; add-
mg, "I know nothing that can tend more to His
Majesty's ser-rice than your assisting in it. " Wolfe
again wrote to Ms commander, with whom he was on
terms of friendship: "An offensive, daring kind of
war will awe the Indians and ruin the French.
Blockhouses and a trembUng defensive encourage the
meanest scoundrels to attack us. If you will attempt
to cut up New France by the roots, I will come with
pleasure to assist."
Amherst, with such speed as Ms deliberate nature
would permit, sailed with six regiments for Boston
to reinforce Abercrombie at Lake George, wMle
Wolfe set out on an errand but little to his UMng.
He had orders to proceed to Gaspd, Miramichi, and
other settlements on the GuK of St. Lawrence,
destroy them, and disperse their inhabitants; a
measure of needless and unpardonable rigor, wMch,
while detesting it, he executed with characteristic
thoroughness. "Sir Charles Hardy and I," he -wrote
to his father, " are preparing to rob the fishermen of
their nets and burn their huts. When that great
exploit is at an end, I return to Louisbourg, and
thence to England." Having finished the work, he
wrote to Amherst: "Your orders were carried into
execution. We have done a great deal of miscMef,
and spread the terror of His Majesty's arms through
the Gulf, but have added nothmg to the reputation
of them." The destruction of property was great;

1758.] EVIDENCE. 287
yet, as Knox writes, " he would not suffer the least
barbarity to be committed upon the persons of the
¦wretched inhabitants." ^
He returned to Louisbourg, and sailed for Eng
land to recrmt his shattered health for greater
conflicts. Note. — Four long and minute French diaries of the siege of
Louisbourg are before me. The first, that of Drucour, covers a
hundred and six foUo pages, and contains his correspondence with
Amherst, Boscawen, and Desgouttes. The second is that of the
naval captain, Tourville, commander of the ship " Capricieux,'' and
covers fifty pages. The third is by an oflicer of the garrison whose
name does not appear. The fourth, of about a hundred pages, is
by another oflScer of the garrison, and is also anonymous. It is an
excellent record of what passed each day, and of the changing con
ditions, moral and physical, of the besieged. These four Journals,
though clearly independent of each other, agree in nearly all essen
tial particulars. I have also numerous letters from the principal
officers, military, naval, and civil, engaged in the defence, —
Drucour, Desgouttes, HouUifere, Beaussier, MaroUes, Tourville,
Courserac, Franquet, Villejouin, Provost, and Querdisien. These,
with various other documents relating to the siege, were copied
from the originals in the Archives de la Marine. Among printed
authorities on the French side may be mentioned Pichon, Lettres et
Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire du Cap-Breton, and the Campaign of
Louisbourg, by the Chevalier Johnstone, a Scotch Jacobite serving
under Drucour.
The chief authorities on the English side are the official Journal
of Amherst, printed in the London Magazine and in other contem
porary periodicals, and also in Mante, History of the Late War ; five
letters from Amherst to Pitt, written during the siege (Public
Kecord OfBce) ; an excellent private Journal called An Authentic
Account of the Reduction of Louisbourg, by a Spectator, parts of which
have been copied verbatim by Entick without acknowledgment;
1 "Les Anglais ont tres-bien trait^s les prisonniers qn'ils ont f aits
dans cette partie" [Gaspe, etc.]. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4 Novembre,
1758.

288 LOUISBOURG. [1758.
the admirable Journal of Captain John Knox, which contains numer
ous letters and orders relating to the siege ; and the correspondence
of Wolfe contained in his Life by Wright. Before me is the Diary
of a captain or subaltern in the army of Amherst at Louisbourg,
found in the garret of an old house at Windsor, Nova Scotia, on an
estate belonging in 1760 to Chief Justice Deschamps. I owe the
use of it to the kindness of George Wiggins, Esq., of Windsor,
N. S. Mante gives an excellent plan of the siege operations, and
another will be found in Jefferys, Natural and Civil History of
French Dominions in North America.

CHAPTER XX.
1758.
TICONDEEOGA.
Activity op the Pbovinces. — Sacrifices op MASSACHtrsETTS. —
The Akmt at Lake Geokge. — Proposed Incubsion op Lisvis.
— Peeplexities op Montcalm: his Plan op Depence. —
Camp of Abercrombie: his Character. — Lord Howe: his
Popularity. — Embarkation op Abercrombie. — Advance
DOWN Lake Georse. — LANDma. — Forest Skirmish. — Death
OF Howe: its Effects. — Position op the French. — The
Lines op Ticonderoga. — Blunders oe Abercrombie. — The
Assault. — A Frightful Scene. — Incidents of the Battle.
— British Repulse. — Panic. — Retreat. — Triumph op Mont
calm.
In the last year Loudon called on the colonists for
four thousand men. This year Pitt asked them for
twenty thousand, and promised that the King would
supply arms, ammunition, tents, and prorisions,
lea-ring to the prorinces only the raising, clothing,
and pay of their soldiers ; and he added the assurance
that Parliament would be asked to make some com
pensation even for these. ^ Thus encouraged, cheered
by the removal of Loudon, and animated by the
unwonted -rigor of British miUtary preparation, the
several prorincial assemblies voted men in abundance,
1 Pitt to the Colonial Governors, 30 December, 1757.
vol. il — 19

290 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
though the usual vexatious delays took place in
raising, equipping, and sending them to the field.
In this connection, an able English -writer has
brought against the colonies, and especially against
Massachusetts, charges wMch deserve attention.
Viscount Bury says : " Of all the colomes, Massachu
setts was the first which discovered the designs of
the French and remonstiated against their aggres
sions ; of all the colonies she most zealously promoted
measures of union for the common defence, and
made the greatest exertions in furtherance of her
views." But he adds that there is a reverse to the
picture, and that "tMs colony, so high-spirited, so
warlike, and apparently so loyal, would never move
hand or foot in her own defence till certain of repay
ment by the mother country." ^ The groundlessness
of tMs charge is shown by abundant proofs, one of
which will be enough. The Englishman PownaU,
who had succeeded Shirley as royal governor of the
province, made this year a report of its condition to
Pitt. Massachusetts, he says, " has been the frontier
and advanced guard of all the colonies against the
enemy in Canada," and has always taken the lead in
military affairs. In the three past years she has
spent on the expeditions of Johnson, Winslow, and
Loudon £242,356, besides about £45,000 a year to
support the provincial government, at the same time
maintaining a number of forts and garrisons, keeping
up scouting-parties, and building, equipping, and
1 Bury, Exodus of the Western Nations, ii. 250, 251.

Governor Thomas Pownall.

Copyriaht.jSo'j.bij XiUl^'.^raiDn.&CF

Goupil A a'J^aru .

1758.] EFFORTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 291
manning a ship of twenty guns for the service of the
King. In the first two months of the present year,,
1758, she made a further miUtary outlay of £172,239.
Of aU these sums she has received from Parliament
a reimbursement of only £70,117, and hence she is
deep m debt ; yet, in addition, she has this . year
raised, paid, maintained, and clothed seven thousand
soldiers placed under the command of General
Abercrombie, besides above twenty-five hundred more
serving the King by land or sea; amounting in all to
about one m four of her able-bodied men.
Massachusetts was extiemely poor by the standards
of the present day, living by fishing, farming, and a
tiade sorely hampered by the British navigation laws.
Her contributions of money and men were not
ordained by an absolute Mng, but made by the volun
tary act of a tiee people. Po-wnaU goes on to say
that her present war-debt, due -within three years,
is £366,698 sterling, and that to meet it she has
imposed on herself taxes amounting, m the to-wn of
Boston, to thirteen sMlUngs and twopence to every
pound of mcome from real and personal estate ; that
her people are in distiess, that she is anxious to
continue her efforts in the public cause, but that
-without some further reimbursement she is exhausted
and helpless. 1 Yet in the next year she incurred a
1 PownaU to Pitt, 30 September, 1758 (PubUc Record Office, Amer
ica and West Indies, Ixxi.). " The province of Massachusetts Bay
has exerted itself with great zeal and at vast expense for the pubUo
service." Registers of Privy Council, 26 July, 1757.

292 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
new and heavy debt. In 1760 Parliament repaid her
£59,575.^ Far from being fuUy reimbursed, the
end of the war found her on the brink of bankruptcy.
Connecticut made equal sacrifices in the common
cause, — highly to her honor, for she was Uttle
exposed to danger, being covered by the neighboring
provinces; wMle impoverished New Hampshire put
one in tMee of her able-bodied men into the field.^
In June the combined British and provincial force
which Abercrombie was to lead against Ticonderoga
was gathered at the head of Lake George; whUe
Montcalm lay at its outlet around the walls of the
French stionghold, with an army not one-fourth so
numerous. Vaudreml had devised a plan for saving
Ticonderoga by a diversion mto the valley of the
Mohawk under L^vis, Rigaud, and Longueml, with
sixteen hundred men, who were to be joined by as
many Indians. The English forts of that region
were to be attacked, Schenectady threatened, and
the Five Nations compeUed to declare for France.'
Thus, as the governor gave out, the English would
be forced to cease from aggression, leave Montcalm
in peace, and think only of defending themselves.*

1 Bollan, Agent of Massachusetts, to Speaker of Assembly, 20 March,
1760. It was her share of £200,000 granted to all the colonies in the
proportion of their respective efforts.
2 Address to His Majesty from the Governor, Council, and Assembly
of New Hampshire, January, 1759.
° Levis au Ministre, 17 Juin, 1758. Doreil au Ministre, 16 Juin,
1758. Montcalm a sa Femme, 18 Avril, 1758.
* Correspondance de Vaudreuil, 1768. Livre d'Ordres, Juin, 175S.

1758.] POSITION OF MONTCALM. 293
" TMs, " writes Bougainrille on the fifteenth of June,
"is what M. de Vaudreuil thmks -will happen,
because he never doubts anything. Ticonderoga,
which is the point really threatened, is abandoned
without support to the tioops of the line and their
general. It would even be wished that they might
meet a reverse, if the consequences to the colony
would not be too disastious."
The proposed movement promised, no doubt, great
advantages; but it was not destined to take effect.
Some rangers taken on Lake George by a partisan
officer named Langy declared -with pardonable exag
geration that twenty-five or thirty thousand men
would attack Ticonderoga in less than a fortnight.
Vaudreml saw Mmself forced to abandon his Mohawk
expedition, and to order L^vis and his followers,
who had not yet left Montieal, to reinforce Montcalm.^
Why they did not go at once is not clear. The
governor declares that there were not boats enough.
From whatever cause, there was a long delay, and
Montcalm was left to defend himself as he could.
He hesitated whether he should not fall back to
Crown Point. The engineer, Lotbim^re, opposed the
plan, as did also Le Mercier. ^ It was but a choice
of difficulties, and he stayed at Ticonderoga. His
troops were disposed as they had been in the summer
1 Bigot au Ministre, 21 Juillet, 1758.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 893. Lotbinifere's relative, Vaudreuil, con
firms the statement. Montcalm had not, as has been said, begun
already to fall back.

294 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
before; one battaUon, that of Berry, being left near
the fort, while the main body, under Montcalm
Mmself, was encamped by the saw-mill at the Falls,
and the rest, under Bourlamaque, occupied the head
of the portage, with a small advanced force at the
landing-place on Lake George. It remained to deter
mine at which of these points he should concentrate
them and make his stand against the English. Ruin
threatened him in any case; each position had its
fatal weakness or its peculiar danger, and his best
hope was m the ignorance or blundering of his enemy.
He seems to have been several days in a state of
indecision. In the afternoon of the fifth of July the partisan
Langy, who had again gone out to reconnoitre
towards the head of Lake George, came back in haste
with the report that the English were embarked in
great force. Montcalm sent a canoe do-wn Lake
Champlain to hasten L^vis to his aid, and ordered
the battalion of Berry to begin a breastwork and
abattis on the high ground in front of the fort. That
they were not begun before shows that he was in
doubt as to Ms plan of defence ; and that his whole
army was not now set to work at them shows that
Ms doubt was still unsolved.
It was nearly a month since Abercrombie had begun
his camp at the head of Lake George. Here, on the
ground where Johnson had beaten Dieskau, where
Montcalm had planted his batteries, and Monro
vainly defended the wooden ramparts of Fort WilUam

1758.] LORD HOWE. 295
Henry, were now assembled more than fifteen thou
sand men ; and the shores, the foot of the mountains,
and the broken plains between them were studded
tMck -with tents. Of regulars there were six thou
sand three hundred and sixty-seven, officers and
soldiers, and of provincials nine thousand and thirty-
four.i To the New England leries, or at least to
their chaplains, the expedition seemed a crusade
against the abomination of Babylon; and they dis
coursed in their sermons of Moses sending forth
Joshua against Amalek. Abercrombie raised to his
place by poUtical influence, was littie but the nominal
commander. "A heavy man," said Wolfe in a letter
to his father; "an aged gentleman, infirm in body
and mind, " -wrote WilUam Parkman, a boy of seven
teen, who carried a musket in a Massachusetts regi
ment, and kept in his knapsack a dingy little
note-book, in which he jotted down what passed e^ch
day. 2 The age of the aged gentleman was fifty-two.
Pitt meant that the actual command of the army
should be m the hands of Brigadier Lord Howe,' and
he was in fact its real cMef ; " the noblest Englishman
that has appeared in my time, and the best soldier in
the British army," says Wolfe.* And he elsewhere
speaks of him as "that great man." Abercrombie
testifies to the umversal respect and love with which
1 Abercrombie to Pitt, 12 July, 1758.
2 Great-uncle of the writer, and son of the Rev. Ebenezer Park-
man, graduate of Harvard, and minister of Westborough, Mass.
8 Chesterfield, Letters, iv. 260 (ed. Mahon).
* Wolfe to his Father, 7 August, 1758, in Wright, 450.

296 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
officers and men regarded him, and Pitt calls him " a
character of ancient times; a complete model of
military virtue. " ^ High as this praise is, it seems
to have been deserved. The young nobleman, who
was then in his thirty-fourth year, had the qualities.
of a leader of men. The army felt him, from general
to drummer-boy. He was its soul ; and while breath
ing into it Ms own energy and ardor, and bracing it
by stringent discipline, he broke through the tiadi-
tions of the service and gave it new shapes to suit
the time and place. During the past year he had
studied the art of forest warfare, and joined Rogers
and Ms rangers in their scouting-parties, sharing all
their hardships and making himself one of them.
Perhaps the reforms that he introduced were fruits
of this rough self-imposed schooUng. He made
officers and men throw off all useless encumbrances,
cut their hair close, wear leggings to protect them
from briers, brown the barrels of their muskets, and
carry in their knapsacks thirty pounds of meal, which
they cooked for themselves ; so that, according to an
admiring Frenchman, they could Uve a month with
out their supply-tiains.^ "You would laugh to see
the droU figure we all make," writes an officer.
" Regulars as well as provincials have cut their coats
so as scarcely to reach their waists. No officer or
private is allowed to carry more than one blanket and
a bearskin. A small portmanteau is allowed each
1 Pitt to Grenville, 22 August, 1758, in Grenville Papers, i. 262.
' Pouchot, Demiere Guerre de I'Amerique, i. 140.

1758.] LORD HOWE. 297
officer. No women follow the camp to wash our
Unen. Lord Howe has already shown an example
by going to the brook and washing his o-wn.''^
Here, as in aU things, he shared the lot of the
soldier, and reqmred his officers to share it. A story
is told of him that before the army embarked he
invited some of them to dinner in his tent, where
they found no seats but logs, and no carpet but bear-
sMns. A servant presently placed on the ground a
large dish of pork and peas, on which Ms lordship
took from his pocket a sheath containmg a knife and
fork and began to cut the meat. The guests looked
on in some embarrassment; upon which he said: "Is
it possible, gentlemen, that you have come on this
campaign without providing yourselves -with what is
necessary?" And he gave each of them a sheath,
with a knife and fork, Uke Ms o-wn.
Yet this Lycurgus of the camp, as a contemporary
calls Mm, is described as a man of social accomplish
ments rare even in Ms rank. He made himself
greatiy beloved by the prorincial officers, -with many
of whom he was on terms of intimacy, and he did
what he could to break do-wn the barriers between
the colonial soldiers and the British regulars. When
he was at Albany, sharing with other high officers
the Mndly hospitalities of Mrs. Schuyler, he so won
the heart of that excellent matron that she loved
Mm like a son; and, though not given to such
1 Letter from Camp, 12 June, 1758, in Boston Evening Post.
Another, in Boston News Letter, contains similar statements.

298 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
effusion, embraced Mm with tears on the morning
when he left her to lead his division to the lake.^ In
Westmmster Abbey may be seen the tablet on which
Massachusetts pays grateful tribute to Ms virtues,
and commemorates "the affection her officers and
soldiers bore to his command."
On the evening of the fourth of July, baggage,
stores, and ammunition were aU on board the boats,
and the whole army embarked on the morning of the
fifth. The arrangements were perfect. Each corps
marched without confusion to its appointed station
on the beach, and the sun was scarcely above the
ridge of French Mountain when all were afloat. A
spectator watcMng them from the shore says that
when the fleet was three miles on its way, the surface
of the lake at that distance was completely hidden
from sight. 2 There were mne hundred bateaux, a
hundred and thirty-five whaleboats, and a large
number of hea-vy flatboats carrying the artillery. The
whole advanced m three divisions, the regulars in
the centre, and the provincials on the flanks. Each
corps had its flags and its music. The day was fair
and men and officers were in the Mghest spirits.
Before ten o'clock they began to enter the Narrows;
and the boats of the three divisions extended them
selves mto long fiiles as the mountains closed on
either hand upon the contracted lake. From front
to rear the Une was six miles long. The spectacle
1 Mrs. Grant, Memoirs of an American Lady, 226 (ed. 1876).
^ Letter from Lake George, in Boston News Letter.

1758.] ADVANCE OP ABERCROMBIE. 299
was superb: the brightness of the summer day; the
romantic beauty of the scenery ; the sheen and sparkle
of those crystal waters; the countless islets, tufted
with pine, birch, and fir; the bordering mountains,
-with their green summits and sunny crags ; the fiash
of oars and gUtter of weapons; the banners, the
varied umforms, and the notes of bugle, trumpet,
bagpipe, and drum, answered and prolonged by a
hundred woodland echoes. "I never beheld so
deUghtiul a prospect," -wrote a wounded officer at
Albany a fortmght after.
Rogers -with the rangers, and Gage -with the light
infantry, led the way in whaleboats, followed by
Bradstreet -with Ms corps of boatmen, armed and
drilled as soldiers. Then came the main body. The
central column of regulars was commanded by Lord
Howe, Ms own regiment, the fifty-fifth, in the van,
followed by the Royal Americans, the twenty-
.seventh, forty-fourth, forty-sixth, and eightieth
infantry, and the Highlanders of the forty-second,
-with their major, Duncan CampbeU of Inverawe,
silent and gloomy amid the general cheer, for his soul
was dark with foreshadowmgs of death. ^ With this
central column came what are described as two float
ing castles, wMch were no doubt batteries to cover
the landmg of the tioops. On the right hand and
the left were the prorincials, uniformed in blue,
regiment after regiment, from Massachusetts, Con
necticut, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
^ See Appendix G.

300 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
Behind them aU came the bateaux, loaded -with
stores and baggage, and the heavy flatboats that
carried the artillery, wMle a rear-guard of prorin
cials and regulars closed the long procession.^
At five in the afternoon they reached Sabbath-
Day Point, twenty-five mUes down the lake, where
they stopped tiU late in the evenmg, waiting for the
baggage and artillery, wMch had lagged behind ; and
here Lord Howe, lymg on a bearsMn by the side of
the ranger, John Stark, questioned him as to the
position of Ticonderoga and its best points of
approach. At about eleven o'clock they set out
again, and at daybreak entered what was then caUed
the Second Narrows ; that is to say, the contraction
of the lake where it approaches its outlets Close on
their left, ruddy in the warm sunrise, rose the vast
bare face of Rogers Rock, whence a French advance
party, under Langy and an officer named Trepezec,
was watching their movements. Lord Howe, with
Rogers and Bradstreet, went in whaleboats to recon
noitre the landing. At the place which the French
called the Burned Camp, where Montcalm had embarked
the summer before, they saw a detachment of the
enemy too weak to oppose them. Their men landed
and drove them off. At noon the whole army was
on shore. Rogers, with a party of rangers, was
ordered forward to reconnoitie, and the troops were
formed for the march.
1 Letter from Lake George, in Boston News Letter. Even Rogers,
the ranger, speaks of the beauty of the scene.

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Tyconderoga
i:jciu:ajv^a tion.
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JS. Jtetrevnchrrvent.
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U. Irhtrenchmen.t to Cauver if JSalteauS.
Men iylfM. Meyer of y-6o^Reff^

1758.] LANGY AND TREPEZEC. 301
From this part of the shore ^ a plain covered -with
forest stretched northwestward half a mile or more
to the mountains behind which lay the valley of
Trout Brook. On this plain the army began its
march m four columns, with the intention of passing
round the western bank of the river of the outlet,
since the bridge over it had been destroyed. Rogers,
-with the provincial regiments of Fitch and Lyman,
led the way, at some distance before the rest. The
forest was extremely dense and heavy, and so
obstructed -with undergrowth that it was impossible
to see more than a few yards in any direction, while
the ground was encumbered with fallen trees in
every stage of decay. The ranks were broken, and
the men struggled on as they could in dampness and
shade, under a canopy of boughs that the sun could
scarcely pierce. The difficulty mcreased when, after
advancing about a mile, they came upon undulating
and broken ground. They were now not far from
the upper rapids of the outlet. The guides became
bewildered in the maze of trunks and boughs; the
marching columns were confused, and fell in one
upon the other. They were in the strange situation
of an army lost m the woods.
The advanced party of French under Langy and
Trepezec, about three hundred and fifty m all, regu
lars and Canadians, had tried to retieat; but before
they could do so, the whole EngUsh army had passed
1 Between the old and new steamboat-landings, and parts
adjacent.

302 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
them, landed, and placed itself between them and
their countrymen. They had no resource but to take
to the woods. They seem to have cUmbed the steep
gorge at the side of Rogers Rock and followed the
Indian path that led to the valley of Trout Brook,
thinking to descend it, and, by circling along the
outskirts of the valley of Ticonderoga, reach Mont
calm's camp at the saw-miU. Langy was used to
bush-ranging; but he too became perplexed in the
blind intricacies of the forest. Towards the close of
the day he and Ms men had come out from the valley
of Trout Brook, and were near the junction of that
stream with the river of the outlet, in a state of some
anxiety, for they could see notMng but brown trunks
and green boughs. Could any of them have cUmbed
one of the great pines that here and there reared their
shaggy spires Mgh above the surrounding forest,
they would have discovered where they were, but
would have gamed not the faintest knowledge of the
enemy. Out of the woods on the right they would
have seen a smoke rising from the burning huts of
the French camp at the head of the portage, wMch
Bourlamaque had set on fire and. abandoned. At a
mile or more in front, the saw-mill at the FaUs might
perhaps have been descried, and, by glimpses between
the trees, the tents of the neighboring camp where
Montcalm still lay with his main force. All the rest
seemed lonely as the grave ; mountain and valley lay
wrapped in primeval woods, and none could have
dreamed that, not far distant, an army was groping

1758.] DEATH OF HOWE. 303
its way, buried in foliage; no rumbling of wagons
and artillery trains, for none were there; all silent
but the cawing of some crow flappmg his black wings
over the sea of tree-tops.
Lord Howe, with Major Israel Putnam and two
hundred rangers, was at the head of the principal
column, wMch was a little in advance of the three
others. Suddenly the challenge. Qui vive ! rang
sharply from the thickets in front. Frangais I was
the reply. Langy's men were not deceived: they
fired out of the bushes. The shots were returned ; a
hot sMrmish followed; and Lord Howe dropped
dead, shot tMough the breast. All was confusion.
The dull, vicious reports of musketry in thick woods,
at first few and scattering, then in fierce and rapid
volleys, reached the troops beMnd. They could
hear, but see notMng. Already harassed and per
plexed, they became perturbed. For all they knew,
Montcalm's whole army was upon them. Nothing
prevented a panic but the steadiness of the rangers,
who maintained the fight alone till the rest came
back to their senses. Rogers, with his reconnoitiing
party, and the regiments of Fitch and Lyman, were
at no great distance in front. They all turned on
hearing the musketry, and thus the French were
caught between two fires. They fought with despera
tion. About fifty of them at length escaped; a
hundred and forty-eight were captured, and the rest
Mlled or drowned in trying to cross the rapids. The
loss of the English was small in numbers, but im-

304 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
measurable in the death of Howe. " The fall of this
noble and brave officer," says Rogers, "seemed to
produce an almost general languor and consternation
through the whole army." "In Lord Howe," writes
another contemporary, Major Thomas Mante, "the
soul of General Abercrombie's army seemed to expire.
From the unhappy moment the General was deprived
of his ad-rice, neither order nor discipUne was
observed, and a stiange kind of infatuation usurped
the place of resolution." The death of one man was
the ruin of fifteen thousand.
The evil news was despatched to Albany, and in
two or three days the messenger who bore it passed
the house of Mrs. Schuyler on the meadows above
the to-wn. "In the afternoon," says her biographer,
" a man was seen coming from the north galloping
violently -without his hat. Pedrom, as he was famil
iarly caUed, Colonel Schuyler's only survi-ring
brother, was with her, and ran instantly to inquire,
well knowing that he rode express. The man gal
loped on, crying out that Lord Howe was killed.
The mind of our good aunt had been so engrossed by
her anxiety and fears for the event impending, and
so impressed with the merit and magnammity of her
favorite hero, that her wonted firmness sank under
the stroke, and she broke out into bitter lamenta
tions. This had such an effect on her friends and
domestics that shrieks and sobs of anguish echoed
tMough every part of the house."
The effect of the loss was seen at once. The army

1758.] MONTCALM FALLS BACK. 305
was needlessly kept under arms all night in the
forest, and in the mormng was ordered back to the
landing whence it came.i Towards noon, however,
Bradstreet was sent with a detachment of regulars
and provincials to take possession of the saw-mill at
the Falls, which Montcalm had abandoned the even
ing before. Bradstreet rebuilt the bridges destroyed
by the retiring enemy, and sent word to his com
mander that the way was open ; on wMch Abercrombie
again put his army in motion, reached the Falls late
in the afternoon, and occupied the deserted encamp
ment of the French.
Montcalm -with Ms main force had held tMs posi
tion at the Falls through most of the precedmg day,
doubtful, it seems, to the last whether he should not
make Ms fmal stand there. Bourlamaque was for
doing so ; but two old officers, Bern^s and Montguy,
pomted out the danger that the English would
¦occupy the neighboring heights ;2 whereupon Mont
calm at length resolved to fall back. The camp was
broken up at five o'clock. Some of the troops
embarked in bateaux, wMle others marched a mile
and a half along the forest road, passed the place
where the battalion of Berry was stiU at work on the
breastwork begun in the mormng, and made their
bivouac a little farther on, upon the cleared ground
that surrounded the fort.
The peninsula of Ticonderoga consists of a rocky
plateau, with low grounds on each side, bordering
1 Abercrombie to Pitt, 12 July, 1758. ^ Pouchot, i. 145.
VOL. II. — 20

306 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
Lake Champlain on the one hand, and the outlet of
Lake George on the other. The fort stood near the
end of the peninsula, which points towards the south
east. Thence, as one goes westward, the ground
declines a Uttle, and then slowly rises, till, about half
a mile from the fort, it reaches its greatest elevation,
and begins still more gradually to decline again.
Thus a ridge is formed across the plateau between
the steep declivities that smk to the low grounds on
right and left. Some weeks before, a French officer
named Hugues had suggested the defence of tMs ridge
by means of an abattis.^ Montcalm approved his
plan ; and now, at the eleventh hour, he resolved to
make Ms stand here. The two engineers, Pontleroy
and Desandromn, had already traced the outline of
the works, and the soldiers of the battaUon of Berry-
had made some progress m constructing them. At
da-wn of the seventh, whUe Abercrombie, fortunately
for his enemy, was dra-wing his troops back to the
landing-place, the whole French army fell to their
task. The regimental colors were plai>ted along the
line, and the officers, stripped to the shirt, took axe
in hand and labored with their men. The trees that
covered the ground were hewn down by thousands,
the tops lopped off, and the trunks piled one upon
another to form a massive breastwork. The line
foUowed the top of the ridge, along which it zig
zagged in such a manner that the whole front could
be swept by flank-fires of musketry and grape.
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 708.

1758.] FRENCH DEFENCES. 30T
Abercrombie describes the wall of logs as between
eight and nine feet high ; ^ in which case there must
have been a rude banquette, or platform to fire from,
on the inner side. It was certainly so high that
nothing could be seen over it but the crowns of the
soldiers' hats. The upper tier was formed of single
logs, in wMch notches were cut to serve as loopholes ;
and in some places sods and bags of sand were piled
along the top, with narrow spaces to fire through.^
From the central part of the line the ground sloped
away like a natural glacis; while at the sides, and
especially on the left, it was undulating and broken.
Over this whole space, to the distance of a musket-
shot from the works, the forest was cut down, and
the tiees left lying where they fell among the stumps,
with tops turned outwards, forming one vast abattis,
which, as a Massachusetts officer says, looked like a
forest laid flat by a hurricane.^ But the most formi
dable obstiuction was immediately along the front
of the breastwork, where the ground was covered
-with hea-vy boughs, overlapping and interlaced, with
sharpened points bristUng into the face of the assail
ant Uke the quills of a porcupine. As these works
were all of wood, no vestige of them remains. The
earthworks now shown to tourists as the lines of
1 Abercrombie to Barrington, 12 July, 1758. "At least eight feet
high." Rogers, Journals, 116.
2 A Swiss officer of the Royal Americans, writing on the four
teenth, says that there were two, and iu some parts three, rows of
loopholes. See the letter in Pennsylvania Archives, iu. 472.
» Colonel Oliver Partridge to his Wife, 12 July, 1758.

308 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
Montcalm are of later construction; and though on
the same ground, are not on the same plan.^
Here, then, was a position which, if attacked in
front with musketry alone, might be called impreg
nable. But would Abercrombie so attack it? He
had several alternatives. He might attempt the
flank and rear of his enemy by way of the low
grounds on the right and left of the plateau, a move
ment wMch the precautions of Montcalm had made
difficult, but not impossible. Or, instead of leaving
his artillery idle on the stiand of Lake George, he
might bring it to the front and batter the breastwork,
wMch, though impervious to musketiy, was worth
less against heavy cannon. Or he might do what
Burgoyne did with success a score of years later, and
plant a battery on the heights of Rattlesnake Hill,
now called Mount Defiance, which commanded the
position of the French, and whence the inside of their
breastwork could be scoured -with round-shot from
end to end. Or, while threatening the French front
with a part of his army, he could march the rest a
short distance through the woods on his left to the
road which led from Ticonderoga to Crown Point,
and which would soon have brought him to the place
called Five-Mile Point, where Lake Champlain nar
rows to the width of an easy rifle-shot, and where a
battery of field-pieces would have cut off aU Mont-
1 A new Une of works was begun four days after the battle, to
replace the log breastwork. Malartic, Journal. Travaux fails a
Carillon, 1758.

1758.] EVE OP BATTLE. 309
calm's supplies and closed his only way of retreat.
As the French were pro-risioned for but eight days,
their position would thus have been desperate. They
plainly saw the danger; and Doreil declares that had
the movement been made, their whole army must
have surrendered.^ Montcalm had done what he
could ; but the danger of his position was ine-ritable
and extreme. His hope lay in Abercrombie; and it
was a hope well founded. The action of the English
general answered the utmost -wishes of his enemy.
Abercrombie had been told by his prisoners that
Montcalm had six thousand men, and that three
thousand more were expected every hour. There
fore he was in haste to attack before these succors
could arrive. As was the general, so was the army.
"I believe," writes an officer, "we were one and all
infatuated by a notion of carrying every obstacle by
a mere coup de mousqueterie." ^ Leadership perished
¦with Lord Howe, and notMng was left but blind,
headlong valor.
Clerk, chief engineer, was sent to reconnoitre the
French works from Motmt Defiance ; and came back
¦with the report that, to judge from what he could
see, they might be carried by assault. Then, with
out waiting to brmg up his cannon, Abercrombie pre
pared to storm the lines.
J Doreil au Ministre, 28 Juillet, 1758. The ChevaUer Johnstone
thought that Montcalm was saved by Abercrombie's ignorance of
the ground. A Dialogue in Hades (Quebec Historical Society).
2 See the letter in Knox, i. 148.

310 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
The French finished their breastwork and abattis
on the evening of the seventh, encamped behind
them, slung their kettles, and rested after their heavy
toil. L^ris had not yet appeared; but at twilight
one of Ms officers. Captain Pouchot, arrived with
three hundred regulars, and announced that his com
mander would come before moming with a hundred
more. The reinforcement, though small, was wel
come, and L^vis was a host in himself. Pouchot was
told that the army was half a mile off. Thither he
repaired, made his report to Montcalm, and looked
¦with amazement at the prodigious amount of work
accomplished in one day.^ L^vis himself arrived in
the course of the mght, and approved the arrange
ment of the troops. They lay beMnd their Unes tiU
daybreak ; then the drums beat, and they formed in
order of battle. ^ The battalions of La Sarre and
Languedoc were posted on the left, under Bourla
maque, the first battaUon of Berry ¦with that of Royal
RoussiUon in the centre, under Montcalm, and those
of La Reine, B^am, and GMenne on the right, under
Ldvis. A detachment of volunteers occupied the
low grounds between the breastwork and the outlet
of Lake George; while, at the foot of the declivity
on the side towards Lake Champlain, were stationed
four hundred and fifty colony regulars and Canadians,
beMnd an abattis which they had made for them-

1758

1 Pouchot, i. 137.
2 Livre d' Ordres, Disposition de Defense des Retranchements, 8 Juillet,

1758.] THE ASSAULT. 311
selves ; and as they were covered by the cannon of
the fort, there was some hope that they would check
any flank movement which the English might attempt
on that side. Their posts being thus assigned, the
men fell to work again to strengthen their defences.
Including those who came with L^vis, the total force
of effective soldiers was now tMrty-six hundred.^
Soon after nine o'clock a distant and harmless fire
of smaU-arms began on the slopes of Mount Defiance;
It came from a party of Indians who had just arrived
with Sir WilUam Johnson, and who, after amusing
themselves in tMs manner for a time, remained for
the rest of the day safe spectators of the fight. The
soldiers worked undisturbed till noon, when volleys
of musketry were heard from the forest in front. It
was the English light troops driving in the French
pickets. A cannon was fired as a signal to drop tools
and form for battle. The white uniforms lined the
breastwork m a tiiple row, with the grenadiers behind
them as a reserve, and the second battalion of Berry
watching the fianks and rear.
Meanwhile the English army had moved forward
from its camp by the saw-mill. First came the
rangers, the light infantry, and Bradstreet's armed
boatmen, who, emerging into the open space, began
a spattering fire. Some of the provincial tioops fol-
1 Montcalm, Relation de la Victoire remportee a Carillon, 8 Juillet,
1758. Vaudreuil puts the number at 4,760, besides officers, which
includes the garrison and laborers at the fort. Vaudreuil au Ministre,
28 Juillet, 1758.

312 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
lowed, extending from left to right, and opemng fire
in turn; then the regulars, who had formed in col
umns of attack under cover of the forest, advanced
their solid red masses into the sunlight, and passing
through the intervals between the provincial regi
ments, pushed forward to the assault. Across the
rough ground, ¦with its maze of fallen trees whose
leaves hung ¦withering in the July sun, they could
see the top of the breastwork, but not the men behind
it; when, in an instant, aU the Ime was obscured by
a gush of smoke, a crash of exploding fire-arms tore
the air, and grapeshot and musket-balls swept the
whole space like a tempest; "a damnable fire," says
an officer who heard them screaming about his ears.
The EngUsh had been ordered to carry the works
with the bayonet; but their ranks were broken by
the obstructions through which they struggled in
vain to force their way, and they soon began to fire
in turn. The storm raged in full fury for an hour.
The assailants pushed close to the breastwork; but
there they were stopped by the bristling mass of
sharpened branches, which they could not pass under
the murderous cross-fires that swept them from front
and flank. At length they fell back, exclaiming
that the works were impregnable. Abercrombie,
who was at the saw-mill, a mile and a half in the
rear, sent orders to attack again, and again they
came on as before.
The scene was frightful : masses of infuriated men
who could not go forward and would not go back;

1758.] INCIDENTS OP THE BATTLE. 313
Btraimng for an enemy they could not reach, and
firing on an enemy they could not see ; caught in the
entanglement of fallen trees; tripped by briers,
stumbling over logs, tearing tMough boughs ; shout
ing, yeUing, cursmg, and pelted aU the while with
bullets that Mlled them by scores, stretched them on
the ground, or hung them on jagged branches in
stiange attitudes of death. The pro-rincials sup
ported the regulars with spirit, and some of them
forced their way to the foot of the wooden wall.
The French fought with the intrepid gayety of
their nation, and shouts of Vive le Boi ! and Vive
notre General I mingled with the din of musketry.
Montcalm, -with his coat off, for the day was hot,
directed the defence of the centre, and repaired to
any part of the line where the danger for the time
seemed greatest. He is warm in praise of his enemy,
and declares that between one and seven o'clock they
attacked Mm six successive times. Early in the
action Abercrombie tried to turn the French left by
sending twenty bateaux, fiUed with troops, down the
outlet of Lake George. They were met by the fire
of the volunteers stationed to defend the low grounds
on that side, and, still advancing, came within range
of the cannon of the fort, which sank two of them
and drove back the rest.
A curious incident happened durmg one of the
attacks. De Bassignac, a captain in the battalion
of Royal RoussiUon, tied his handkerchief to the end
of a musket and waved it over the breastwork in

314 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
defiance. The English mistook it for a sign of
surrender, and came forward with aU possible speed,
holding their muskets crossed over their heads in
both hands, and crying Quarter. The French made
the same mistake; and tMnking that their enemies
were gi-ring themselves up as prisoners, ceased firing,
and mounted on the top of the breastwork to receive
them. Captain Pouchot, astonished, as he says, to
see them perched there, looked out to learn the
cause, and saw that the enemy meant anytMng but
surrender. Whereupon he shouted -with aU Ms
might: ^^ Tirez ! Tirez! Ne voyez-vous pas que ces
gens-la vont vous enlever ? " The soldiers, stUl stand-
mg on the breastwork, mstantly gave the EngUsh a
volley, wMch kUled some of them, and sent back the
rest discomfited.^
TMs was set to the account of GalUc tieachery.
"Another deceit the enemy put upon us," says a
miUtary letter--writer : " they raised their hats above
the breastwork, which our people fired at; they,
ha-ring loopholes to fire through, and bemg covered
by the sods, we did them little damage, except
shooting their hats to pieces. " ^ In one of the last
assaults a soldier of the Rhode Island regiment,
WilUam Smith, managed to get through all obstiuc-
tions and ensconce Mmself close under the breast
work, where in the confusion he remained for a time
1 Pouchot, i. 153. Both NUes and Entick mention the incident.
^ Letter from Saratoga, 12 July, 1758, in New Hampshire Gazette.
Compare Pennsylvania Archives, iii, 474.

1758.] BRAVERY OF HIGHLANDERS. 315
unnoticed, improving his advantages meanwhile by
shooting several Frenchmen. Being at length ob
served, a soldier fired vertically down upon him and
wounded him severely, but not enough to prevent
Ms springing up, striMng at one of his enemies over
the top of the wall, and braimng him with his
hatchet. A British officer who saw the feat, and
was struck by the reckless daring of the man, ordered
two regulars to bring Mm off; which, covered by a
brisk fire of musketry, they succeeded in doing. A
letter from the camp two or three weeks later reports
him as in a fair way to recover, being, says the
writer, much braced and invigorated by his anger
against the French, on whom he was swearing to
have his revenge.-'
Towards five o'clock two English columns jomed
in a most determined assault on the extreme right of
the French, defended by the battalions of Guienne
and B^arn. The danger for a time was imminent.
Montcalm hastened to the spot -with the reserves.
The assailants hewed their way to the foot of the
breastwork; and though agam and again repulsed,
they again and agam renewed the attack. The
HigManders fought -with stubborn and unconquerable
fury. "Even those who were mortally wounded,"
-writes one of their Ueutenants, "cried to their com
panions not to lose a thought upon them, but to fol
low their officers and mind the honor of their country.
1 Letter from Lake George, 26 July, 1758, in Boston Gazette. The
«tory is given, -without much variation, in several other letters.

316 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
Their ardor was such that it was difficult to bring
them off."^ Their major, Campbell of Inverawe,
found his foreboding true. He received a mortal
shot, and Ms clansmen bore Mm from the field.
Twenty-five of their officers were killed or wounded,
and half the men fell under the deadly fire that
poured from the loopholes. Captain John CampbeU
and a few followers tore their way through the
abattis, climbed the breastwork, leaped do-wn among
the French, and were bayoneted there. ^
As the colony tioops and Canadians on the low
ground were left undisturbed, L^vis sent them an
order to make a sortie and attack the left fiank of
the charging columns. They accordingly posted
themselves among the trees along the declivity, and
fired upwards at the enemy, who presently shifted
their position to the right, out of the Une of shot.
The assault stiU continued, but in vain ; and at six
there was another effort, equally fruitless. From
tMs time till half-past seven a lingering fight was
kept up by the rangers and other provincials, firing
from ttie edge of the woods and from behind the
stumps, bushes, and fallen trees in front of the lines.
Its only objects were to cover their comrades, who
were collecting and bringing off the wounded, and
to protect the retieat of the regulars, who fell back
m disorder to the Falls. As twilight came on, the
^ Letter of Lieutenant William Grant, in Maclachlan's Highlands, h.
340 (ed. 1875).
2 Ibid., u. 339.

1758.] RETREAT. 317
last combatant withdrew, and none were left but the
dead. Abercrombie had lost in killed, wounded, and
missing, nineteen hundred and forty-four officers
and men.i The loss of the French, not counting
that of Langy's detachment, was three hundred
and seventy-seven. Bourlamaque was dangerously
wounded; Bougainville slightly; and the hat of
Ldvis was twice shot through.^
Montcalm, -with a mighty load lifted from his soul,
passed along the Unes, and gave the tired soldiers
the thanks they nobly deserved. Beer, wine, and
food were served out to them, and they bivouacked
for the night on the level ground between the breast
work and the fort. The enemy had met a terrible
rebuff; yet the danger was not over. Abercrombie
stiU had more than thirteen thousand men, and he
might renew the attack with cannon. But, on the
mornmg of the mnth, a band of volunteers who had
gone out to watch Mm brought back the report that
he was m full retieat. The saw-mill at the Falls
was on fire, and the last EngUsh soldier was gone.
On the morning of the tenth, L^vis, with a strong
.detachment, foUowed the road to the landing-place,
and found signs that a panic had overtaken the
defeated tioops. They had left behind several hun
dred barrels of provisions and a large quantity of
baggage; while in a marshy place that they had
crossed was found a considerable number of their
1 See Appendix G.
2 Levis au Ministre, 13 Juillet, 1758.

318 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
shoes, which had stuck in the mud, and which they
had not stopped to recover. They had embarked on
the moming after the battle, and retreated to the
head of the lake in a disorder and dejection wofuUy
conteasted with the pomp of their advance. A gal
lant army was sacrificed by the blunders of its
cMef. Montcalm announced his victory to his •wife in a
strain of exaggeration that marks the exaltation of
his mind. "Without Indians, almost without Cana
dians or colony tioops, — I had oMy f pur hundred, —
alone with L^vis and Bourlamaque and the troops of
the Une, tMrty-one hundred fighting men, I have
beaten an army of twenty-five thousand. They
repassed the lake precipitately, ¦with a loss of at least
five thousand. TMs glorious day does infinite honor
to the valor of our battalions. I have no time to
¦write more. I am well, my dearest, and I embrace
you." And he ¦wrote to his friend Doreil: "The
army, the too-small army of the Kmg, has beaten the
enemy. What a day for France ! If I had had two
hundred Indians to send out at the head of a thou
sand picked men under the Chevalier de L^vis, not
many would have escaped. Ah, my dear Doreil,
what soldiers are ours ! I never saw the like. Why
were they not at Louisbourg ? "
On the morrow of his victory he caused a great
cross to be planted on the battle-field, inscribed with
these Unes, composed by the soldier-scholar him
self, —

1758.] CHANSONS. 319
" Quid dux ? quid miles ? quid strata ingentia ligna ?
En signum ! en victor ! Deus hic, Deus ipse triumphat."
" Soldier and chief and rampart's strength are nought ;
Behold the conquering Cross ! 'T is God the triumph wrought." i
1 Along with the above paraphrase I may give that of Montcalm
himself, which was also inscribed on the cross : —
" Chretien ! ce ne fat point Montcalm et la prudence,
Ces arbres reu-vers^s, ces h^ros, leurs exploits.
Qui des Anglais confus ont bris^ I'esp^rance;
C'est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix."
In the same letter in which Montcalm sent these lines to his
mother he says : " Je vous envoie, pour vous amuser, deux chansons
sur le combat du 8 Juillet, dont I'une est en style des poissardes de
Paris." One of these songs, which were -written by soldiers after
the battle, begins, — " Je chante des Fran9ois
La valeur et la gloire.
Qui toujours sur I'Anglois
Remportent la victoire.
Ce sont des b^ros,
Tous nos g^neraux,
Et Montcalm et L^vis,
Et Bourlamaque aussi.
" Mars, qui les engendra
Pour I'honneur de la France,
D'abord les anima
De sa haute vaillance,
Et les transporta
Dans le Canada,
Ou I'on voit les Francois
Culbuter les Anglois."
The other effusion of the miUtary muse is in a different strain,
"en style des poissardes de Paris." The foUowing is a specimen,
given literatim : — " L'aumSnier fit I'exhortation,
Puis il donnit I'absolution ;
Ais^ment cela se peut croire.

320 TICONDEROGA. [1758.
Enfants, dit-il, auimez-vous !
L'bon Dieu, sa mfere, tout est pour vous.
S  ^ .' j' sommes catholiques. Les Anglois sont des heretiques.
" Ce sont des chiens ; U coups d'pieds, a coups d'poings f aut leur
casser la gueule et la mS,choire.
" Soldats, oflSciers, generaux,
Chacun en ce jour fut h^ros.
Ais^ment cela se peut croire.
Montcalm, comme defunt Annibal,
S'montroit soldat et g^n^ral.
S — ^ .' sil y avoit quelqu'un qui ne Vaimit point !
" Je veux etre un ohien ; h. coups d'pieds, a coups d'poings, j'lui
cass'rai la gueule et la m^choire."
This is an allusion to Vaudreuil. On the battle of Ticonderoga,
see Appendix G.

CHAPTER XXI.
1768.
FORT FRONTENAC.
The Routed Abmt. — Indignation at Aberckombib. — John
Cleaveland and his Brother Chaplains. — Eegflaks and
Provincials. — Provincial Surgeons. — French Raids. —
Rogers defeats Marin. — Adventures or Putnam. — Expe
dition op Bradstreet. — Capture of Fort Frontenac.
The rashness of Abercrombie before the fight was
matched by Ms poltroonery after it. Such was Ms
terror that on the evening of his defeat he sent an
order to Colonel Cummings, commanding at Fort
William Henry, to send all the sick and wounded
and aU the hea-yy artiUery to New York without
delay. ^ He himself followed so closely upon this
<Jisgraceful missive that Cummings had no time to
obey it.
The defeated and humbled troops proceeded to
reoccupy the ground they had left a few days before
in the flush of confidence and pride; and young
Colonel WiUiams, of Massachusetts, lost no time in
sendmg the miserable story to his uncle Israel. His
letter, which is dated "Lake George (sorrowful
1 Cunningham, aide-de-camp of Abercrombie, to Cummings, 8 July^
1758. VOL. II. — 21

322 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
situation), July y" 11*^, " ends thus: "I have told
facts ; you may put the epithets upon them. In one
word, what with fatigue, want of sleep, exercise of
mind, and lea-ring the place we went to capture,
the best part of the army is unhinged. I have told
enough to make you sick, if the relation acts on
you as the facts have on me."
In the routed army was the sturdy John Cleave
land, minister of Ipswich, and now chaplain of
Bagley's Massachusetts regiment, who regarded the
retreat with a disgust that was shared by many
others. "This day, " he -writes in his Diary, at the
head of Lake George, two days after the battle,
"wherever I went I found people, officers and
soldiers, astonished that we left the French ground,
and commenting on the stiange conduct m commg
off." From this time forth the provincials called
their commander Mrs. Nabbycrombie.^ He thought
of nothing but fortifying himself. " Towards even
ing," continues the chaplain, "the General, -with his
Rehoboam counsellors, came over to line out a fort
on the rocky hUl where our breastwork was last year.
Now we begin to think strongly that the grand
expedition against Canada is laid aside, and a founda
tion made totaUy to impoverish our country." The
whole army was soon intrenched. The chaplain of
Bagley's, -with Ms brother Ebenezer, chaplain of
another regiment, one day walked round the camp
1 Trumbull, Hist. Connecticut, ii. 392. " Nabby " (Abigail) was
then a common female name in New England.

1758.] CALEB REA. 323
and carefully inspected it. The tour proved satisfac
tory to the miUtant divines, and John Cleaveland
reported to his wife : " We have built an extraordi
nary good breastwork, sufficient to defend ourselves
against twenty thousand of the enemy, though at
present we have not above a tMrd part of that num
ber fit for duty." Many of the troops had been sent
to the Mohawk, and others to the Hudson.
In the regiment of which Cleaveland was chaplain
there was a young surgeon from Danvers, Dr. Caleb
Rea, who also kept a copious diary, and, being of a
serious turn, listened with edification to the prayers
and exhortations to which the yeoman soldiery were
daily summoned. In Ms zeal, he made an inquest
among them for singers, and chose the most melo
dious to form a regimental choir, " the better to carry
on the daUy service of singing psalms ; " insomuch
that the New England camp was vocal -with rustic
harmony, smcere, if somewhat nasal. These seemly
observances were not inconsistent with a certain
amount of disorder among the more turbulent spirits,
who, removed from the repressive influence of tight-
laced village communities, sometimes indulged in
conduct wMch grieved the conscientious surgeon.
The rural New England of that time, -with its narrow
ness, its prejudices, its oddities, its combative
energy, and mgged, unconquerable stiength, is
among the things of the past, or Ungers in remote
corners where the whistle of the locomotive is never
heard. It has spread itself in swarming milUons

B24 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
over half a continent, changmg with changing condi
tions; and even the part of it that cUngs to the
ancestral Mve has tiansformed and contmues to
-transform itself.
The pro-rincials were happy in their chaplains,
among whom there reigned a marveUous harmony,
EpiscopaUans, Presbyterians, and Congregationallsts
meetmg t-wice a week to hold prayer-meetings together.
"A rare instance indeed," says Dr. Rea, "and per
haps scarce ever was an army blessed -with such a set
of chaplains before." On one occasion, just before
the fatal expedition, nme of them, after prayers and
breakfast, went together to caU upon the general.
"He treated us very Mndly," says the chaplain of
Bagley's, " and told us that he hoped we would teach
the people to do their duty and be courageous ; and
told us a story of a chaplam in Germany, where he
was, who just before the action told the soldiers he
had not time to say much, and therefore should only
say: ' Be courageous; for no cowards go to heaven.'
The General tieated us to a bowl of punch and a
bottle of wine, and then we took our leave of
Mm." 1
When Cleaveland and the more gifted among his
bretMen preached of a Sunday, officers and men of
the regulars, no less than the provincials, came to
listen; yet that pious Sabbatarian, Dr. Rea, saw
¦¦ For the use of the Diary of Chaplain Cleaveland, as well as of
his letters to his -wife, I am indebted to the kindness of Miss Abby
E. Cleaveland, his descendant.

1758.] REGULARS AND PROVINCIALS. 325
much to afflict Ms conscience. "Sad, sad it is to
see how the Sabbath is profaned in the camp," above
all by " the horrid custom of swearing, more especially
among the regulars; and I can't but charge our
defeat on this sin."
It would have been well had the harmony that pre
vaUed among the chaplains found its counterpart
among the men of the sword ; but between the British
regular officers and those of the provinces there was
anytMng but an equal brotherhood. It is true that
Pitt, in the spirit of conciliation which he always
showed towards the colonies, had procured a change
m the regulations concerning the relative rank of
British and pro-rincial officers, thus putting them in
a position much nearer equaUty; but this, while
appeasing the pro-rincials, seems to have annoyed the
others. Till the campaign was nearly over, not a
smgle pro-rincial colonel had been asked to join in a
councU of war; and, complams Cleaveland, "they
know no more of what is to be done than a sergeant,
tiU the orders come out." Of the British officers,
the greater part had seen but Uttle active service.
Most of them were men of family, exceedingly preju
diced and insular, whose knowledge of the world
was limited to certam classes of their own country
men, and who looked do-wn on all others, whether
domestic or foreign. Towards the pro-rincials their
attitude was one of tranquil superiority, though its
tianquillity was occasionally disturbed by what they
regarded as absurd pretension on the part of the

326 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
colony officers. One of them gave vent to his feel
ings in an article in the "London CMonicle," in
wMch he advanced the very reasonable proposition
that " a farmer is not to be taken from the plough
and made an officer in a day; " and he was answered
wrathf uUy, at great length, in the " Boston Evening
Post, " by a -writer signing Mmself " A New England
Man." The provincial officers, on the other hand,
and especially those of New England, being no less
narrow and prejudiced, filled -with a sensitive pride
and a jealous local patriotism, and bred up m a lofty
appreciation of the merits and importance of their
country, regarded British superciUousness with a
resentment which their strong love for England could
not overcome. This feeUng was far from being
confined to the officers. A provincial regiment sta
tioned at Half-Moon, on the Hudson, thought itself
affronted by Captam Crmkshank, a regular officer;
and the men were so incensed that nearly half of
them went off in a body. The deportment of British
officers in the Seven Years' War no doubt had some
part in hastenmg on the Revolution.
What with levelling Montcalm's siege works,
planting palisades, and grubbing up stumps in their
bungling and laborious way, the regulars found
abundant occupation. Discipline was stiff and
peremptory. The wooden horse and the wMpping-
post were conspicuous objects in the camp, and often
in use. Caleb Rea, bemg tender-hearted, never went
to see the lash laid on; for, as he quaintly observes.

1758.] PROVINCIAL SURGEONS. 327
" the cries were satisfactory to me, without the sight
of the strokes." He and the rest of the doctors
found active exercise for such skill as they had, since
fever and dysentery were making scarcely less havoc
than the buUets at Ticonderoga. This came from
the bad state of the camps and unwholesome food.
The provincial surgeons seem to have been very little
impressed -with the importance of sanitary regula
tions, and to have thought it their business not to
prevent disease, but only to cure it. The one grand
essential in their eyes was a well-stocked medicine-
chest, rich in exhaustless stores of rhubarb, ipe
cacuanha, and calomel. Even this sometimes failed.
Colonel WilUams reports "the sick destitute of
everytMng proper for them; medicine-chest empty;
nothmg but their dirty blankets for beds ; Dr. Ashley
dead. Dr. Wright gone home, low enough; Bille
worn off Ms legs, — such is our case. I have near a
hundred sick. Lost a sergeant and a private last
mght." ^ Chaplain Cleaveland himself, though stiong
of frame, did not escape ; but he found solace in his
tiouble tiom the congemal society of a brother
chaplam, Mr. Emerson, of New Hampshire, "a
right-do-wn hearty Christian minister, of savory con
versation," who came to see Mm in his tent, break
fasted -with him, and joined Mm in prayer. Being
somewhat better, he one day thought to recreate him
self -with the apostoUc occupation of fisMng. The
1 Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, i September,
1758.

328 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
sport was poor; the fish bit slowly; and as he lay in
his boat, stUl languid with Ms malady, he had leisure
to reflect on the contrasted works of Providence and
man, — the bright lake basMng amid its mountains, a
dream of wilderness beauty, and the swarms of harsh
humamty on the shore beside him, with their pas
sions, discords, and miseries. But it was -with the
strong meat of Calvinistic theology, and not -with
reveries like these, that he was accustomed to nourish
his military flock.
WMle at one end of the lake the force of Aber
crombie was diminished by detachments and disease,
that of Montcalm at the other was so increased by
reinforcements that a forward movement on his part
seemed possible. He contented himself, however,
¦with strengthening the fort, reconstiucting the lines
that he had defended so weU, and sending out fre
quent war-parties by way of Wood Creek and South
Bay, to harass Abercrombie's commumcations with
Fort Edward. These parties, some of which con
sisted of several hundred men, were generally more
or less successful ; and one of them, under La Corne,
surprised and destioyed a large wagon train escorted
by forty soldiers. When Abercrombie heard of it, he
ordered Rogers, with a strong detachment of provin
cials, Ught mfantry, and rangers, to go down the
lake in boats, cross the mountains to the narrow
waters of Lake Champlain, and cut off the enemy.
But though Rogers set out at two in the morning,
the French retreated so fast that he arrived too late.

1758.J WAR-PARTIES. 329
As he was on his way back, he was met by a mes
senger from the general with orders to intercept other
French parties reported to be hovering about Fort
Edward. On this he retraced his steps, marched
through the forest to where Whitehall now stands,
and thence made his way up Wood Creek to old Fort
Anne, a relic of former wars, abandoned and faUing
to decay. Here, on the neglected " clearing " that
surrounded the ruin, his followers encamped. They
counted seven hundred in all, and consisted of about
eighty rangers, a body of Connecticut men under
Major Putnam, and a smaU regular force, chiefly
light infantry, under Captain Dalzell, the brave
officer who was afterwards Mlled by Pontiac's war
riors at Detioit.
Up to this time Rogers had observed his usual
caution, commanding silence on the march, and for-
biddmg fires at mght; but, seeing no signs of an
enemy, he forgot himself; and on the foUo-wing
mormng, the eighth of August, he and Lieutenant
Irwin, of the Ught infantry, amused themselves by
firing at a mark on a wager. The shots reached the
ears of four hundred and fifty French and Indians,
under the famous partisan Marin, who at once took
steps to reconnoitre and ambuscade his rash enemy.
For nearly a mUe from the old fort the forest had
formerly been cut down and burned ; and Nature had
now begun to reassert herself, covering the open tiact
with a dense growth of bushes and saplings almost
impervious to anything but a wild-cat, had it not

330 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
been tiaversed by a narrow Indian path. Along this
path the men were forced to march in single file. At
about seven o'clock, when the two marksmen had
decided their bet, and before the hea-vy dew of the
mght was dried upon the bushes, the party slung
their packs and set out. Putnam was in the front
-with his Connecticut men; Dalzell foUowed -with the
regulars; and Rogers, -with his rangers, brought up
the rear of the long and slender line. Putnam him
self led the way, shouldering through the bushes,
gun in hand; and just as the bluff yeoman emerged
from them to enter the forest-growth beyond, the
air was rent with yells, the thickets before him were
filled -with Indians, and one of them, a Caughnawaga
chief, sprang upon Mm, hatchet in hand. He had
time to cock his gun and snap it at the breast of his
assailant; but it missed fire, and he was instantly
seized and dragged back into the forest, as were also
a lieutenant named Tracy and three private men.
Then the firmg began. The French and Indians,
lying across the path in a semi-circle, had the advan
tage of position and surprise. The Connecticut men
fell back among the bushes in disorder; but soon
rallied, and held the enemy in check while Dalzell
and Rogers — ¦ the latter of whom was nearly a mile
beMnd — were struggling through briers and thickets
to their aid. So close was the brushwood that it was
full half an hour before they could get their followers
ranged in some Mnd of order in front of the enemy;
and even then each man was forced to fight for him-

1758.] BATTLE NEAR FORT ANNE. 331
self as best he could. Humphreys, the biographer of
Putnam, blames Rogers severely for not coming at
once to the aid of the Connecticut men; but two of
their captains declare that he came -with all possible
speed; while a regular officer present highly praised
Mm to Abercrombie for cool and officer-like conduct, i
As a man his deserts were small; as a bush-fighter
he was beyond reproach.
Another officer recounts from hearsay the remark
able conduct of an Indian, who sprang mto the midst
of the English and Mlled two of them with his
hatchet; then mounted on a log and defied them all.
One of the regulars tried to knock him do-wn with
the butt of Ms musket; but though the blow made
Mm bleed, he did not fall, and would have killed his
assailant if Rogers had not shot Mm dead.^ The fir
ing lasted about two hours. At length some of the
Canadians gave way, and the rest of the French and
Indians followed. ^ They broke mto small parties to
elude pursuit, and reunitmg towards evemng, made
their bivouac on a spot surrounded by impervious
swamps. Rogers remained on the field and buried all his
o-wn dead, forty-nine in number. Then he resumed
his march to Fort Edward, carrying the wounded on
1 Letter from the Camp at Lake George, 5 September, 1758, signed by
Captains Maynard and Giddings, and printed in the Boston Weekly
Advertiser. " Rogers deserves much to be commended." Abercrombie
to Pitt, 19 August, 1758.
2 Thomas Barnsley to Bouquet, 7 September, 1758.
8 Doreil au Ministre, 31 Aoiit, 1757.

332 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
Utters of branches till the next day, when he met a
detachment coming with wagons to his relief. A party
sent out soon after for the purpose reported that they
had found and buried more than a hundred French
and Indians. From this time forward the war-parties
from Ticonderoga greatly relented in their activity.
The adventures of the captured Putnam were
sufficiently remarkable. The Indians, after dragging
Mm to the rear, lashed him fast to a tree so that he
could not move a Umb, and a young savage amused
himself by throwing a hatchet at his head, stiiMng it
into the wood as close as possible to the mark with
out hitting it. A French petty officer then thrust
the muzzle of his gun violently agamst the prisoner's
body, pretended to fire it at him, and at last struck
Mm in the face -with the butt; after which dastardly
proceeding he left him. The French and Indians
being forced after a time to fall back, Putnam found
himself between the combatants and exposed to
bullets from both sides ; but the enemy, partially
recovering the ground they had lost, unbound him,
and led him to a safe distance from the fight. When
the retreat began, the Indians hurried him along
with them, stripped of coat, waistcoat, shoes, and
stockings, his back burdened -with as many packs of
the wounded as could be piled upon it, and his -wrists
bound so tightly together that the pain became
intense. In his torment he begged them to Mil Mm ;
on which a French officer who was near persuaded
them to untie his hands and take off some of the

1758.] ADVENTURES OF PUTNAM. 333
packs, and the chief who had captured him gave him
a pair of moccasons to protect his lacerated feet.
When they encamped at night, they prepared to
burn him alive, stripped Mm naked, tied him to a
tiee, and gathered dry wood to pile about him. A
sudden shower of rain interrupted their pastime; but
when it was over they began again, and surrounded
him -with a circle of brush-wood wMch they set on
fire. As they were yeUing and dancing their delight
at the contortions with which he tried to avoid the
rising flames, Marin, hearing what was going for
ward, broke through the crowd, and with a comageous
humanity not too common among Canadian officers,
dashed aside the burning brush, untied the prisoner,
and angrily upbraided his tormentors. He then
restored Mm to the cMef who had captured him, and
whose right of property in his prize the others had
failed to respect. The Caughnawaga treated him at
first -with kindness ; but, -with the help of his tribes
men, took effectual means to prevent his escape, by
laying him on Ms back, stretcMng his arms and legs
m the form of a St. Andrew's cross, and bmding the
-wrists and anMes fast to the stems of young trees.
This was a mode of securing prisoners in vogue
among Indians from immemorial time ; but, not satis
fied with it, they placed brushwood upon his body,
and then laid across it the long slender stems of
saplings, on the ends of which several warriors lay
do-wn to sleep, so that the slightest movement on his
part would rouse them. Thus he passed a night of

334 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
misery, which did not prevent him from thinkmg of
the ludicrous figure he made in the hands of the
ta-wny Philistiaes.
On the next night, after a painful march, he
reached Ticonderoga, where he was questioned by
Montcalm, and afterwards sent to Montreal in charge
of a French officer, who showed him the utmost
Mndness. On arri-ring, wofuUy tattered, bruised,
scorched, and torn, he found a friend in Colonel
Schuyler, himself a prisoner on parole, who helped
him in his need, and through whose good offices the
future major-general of the Continental Army was
included in the next exchange of prisoners.^
The petty -rictory over Marin was followed by a
more substantial success. Early m September Aber
crombie's melancholy camp was cheered with the tid
ings that the important French post of Fort Frontenac,
which contiolled Lake Ontario, wMch had baffled

1 On Putnam's adventures, Humphrey's, 57 (1818). He had the
story from Putnam himself, and seems to give it with substantial
correctness, though his account of the battle is at several points
erroneous. The " Molang " of his account is Marin. On the battle,
besides authorities already cited. Recollections of Thomson Maxwell,
a, soldier present (Essex Institute, vii. 97). Rogers, Journals, 117.
Letter from Camp in Boston Gazette, no. 117. Another in New
Hampshire Gazette, no. 104. Gentleman's Magazine, 1758, p. 498.
Malartic, Journal du Regiment de Beam. Eevis, Journal de la Guerre
en Canada. The French notices of the affair are few and brief.
They admit a defeat, but exaggerate the force and the losses of the
English, and underrate their own. Malartic, however, says that
Marin set out with four hundred men, and was soon after joined by
an additional number of Indians ; which nearly answers to the best
English accounts.

1758.] EXPEDITION OF BRADSTREET. 335
SMrley in his attempt against Niagara, and given
Montcalm the means of conquering Oswego, had
faUen into British hands. " This is a glorious piece
of news, and may God have all the glory of the
same ! " writes Chaplain Cleaveland in his Diary.
Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet had planned the stroke
long before, and proposed it first to Loudon, and
then to Abercrombie. Loudon accepted it; but his
successor received it coldly, though Lord Howe was
warm in its favor. At length, under the pressure of
a councU of war, Abercrombie consented that the
attempt should be made, and gave Bradstieet three
thousand men, nearly all provincials. With these he
made his way, up the Mohawk and down the Onon
daga, to the lonely and dismal spot where Oswego
had once stood. By dint of much persuasion a few
Oneidas joined Mm ; though, like most of the Five
Nations, they had been nearly lost to the English
tMough the effects of the defeat at Ticonderoga. On
the twenty-second of August his fleet of whale-boats
and bateaux pushed out on Lake Ontario; and,
three days after, landed near the French fort. On
the mght of the twenty-sixth Bradstreet made a
lodgement -witMn less than two hundred yards of it;
and early in the moming De Noyau, the commandant,
surrendered Mmself and his followers, numbering a
hundred and ten soldiers and laborers, prisoners of
war. With them were taken nine armed vessels,
carrying from eight to eighteen guns, and forming
the whole French naval force on Lake Ontario. The

336 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
crews escaped. An enormous quantity of provisions,
naval stores, mumtions, and Indian goods intended
for the supply of the western posts fell into the hands
of the English, who kept what they could carry off,
and burned the rest. In the fort were found sixtj'
cannon and sixteen mortars, wMch the -rictors used
to batter down the walls ; and then, reserving a few
of the best, knocked off the trunnions of the others.
The Oneidas were bent on scalping some of the
prisoners. Bradstreet forbade it. They begged that
he would do as the French did, — turn his back and
shut his eyes; but he forced them to abstam from
all violence, and consoled them by a Uon's share of
the plunder. In accordance -with the orders of
Abercrombie, the fort was dismantled, and all the
bmldings in or around it burned, as were also the
vessels, except the two largest, which were reserved
to carry off some of the captured goods. Then, -with
boats deeply laden, the detachment returned to
Oswego; where, after unloading and burning the
two vessels, they proceeded towards Albany, leaving
a thousand of their number at the new fort which
Brigadier Stan-wix was building at the Great Carry
ing Place of the Mohawk.
Next to Louisbourg, this was the hea-riest blow
that the French had yet received. Their command
of Lake Ontario was gone. New France was cut m
two; and unless the severed parts could speedily
reunite, aU the posts of the interior would be in
imminent jeopardy. If Bradstreet had been followed

1758.] ITS CAPTURE. 337
by another body of men to reoccupy and rebuild
¦Oswego, thus recovering a harbor on Lake Ontario,
all the captured French vessels could have been
brought thither, and the command of this inland sea
assured at once. Even as it was, the advantages
were immense. A host of savage warriors, thus far
incUned to France or wavering between the two
beUigerents, stood henceforth neutral, or gave them
selves to England; while Fort Duquesne, deprived
of the supplies on wMch it depended, could make
but faint resistance to its advancing enemy.
Amherst, with five regiments from Louisbourg,
-came, early in October, to join Abercrombie at Lake
George, and the two commanders discussed the ques
tion of again attacMng Ticonderoga. Both thought
the season too late. A fortnight after, a deserter
brought news that Montcalm was breaking up his
•camp. Abercrombie followed his example. The
opposing armies Med off each to its -winter-quarters,
and only a few scouting parties kept alive the
embers of war on the waters and mountains of Lake
George. Meanwhile Brigadier Forbes was climbing the
AUeghames, hewing his way through the forests of
western Pennsylvania, and toiling inch by inch
towards Ms goal of Fort Duquesne. ^
1 On the capture of Fort Frontenac, Bradstreet to Abercrombie, 31
August, 1758. Impartial Account of Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet's
Expedition, by a Volunteer in the Expedition (London, 1759). Letter
from a New York officer to his colonel, ia Boston Gazette, no. 182
VOL. IL — 22

338 FORT FRONTENAC. [1758.
Several letters from persons in the expedition, in Boston Evening
Post, no. 1,208, New Hampshire Gazette, no. 104, and Boston News
Letter, no. 2,932. Abercrombie to Pitt, 25 November, 1758. Lieutenant
Macauley to Horatio Gates, 30 August, 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre,
30 Octobre, 1758. Pouchot, i. 162. Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-
1760.

CHAPTER XXII.
1758.
FORT DUQUESNE.
DnrwiDDiE and Washington. — Brigadier Forbes: his Abmt.
— Conflicting Views. — Difficulties. — Illness of Forbes:
HIS Sufferings ; his Fortitude ; his Difference with
Washington. — Sir John Sinclair. — Troublesome Allies.
— Scouting Parties. — Boasts of Vaudreuil. — Forbes and
THE Indians. — Mission op Christian Frederic Post. —
Council of Peace. — Second Mission of Post. — Defeat of
Grant. — Distress op Forbes. — Dark Prospects. — Advance
of the Armt. — Capture of the French Fort. — The
Slain of Braddock's Field. — Death of Forbes.
During the last year Loudon, filled with vain
schemes agamst Louisbourg, had left the French
scalping-parties to their work of havoc on the western
borders. In Virginia Washington still toiled at his
hopeless task of defending with a single regiment a
forest frontier of more than three hundred miles ; and
in Pennsylvania the Assembly thought more of quar
relling -with their governor than of protecting the
tormented settiers. Fort Duquesne, the source of all
the evil, was left undisturbed. In vain Washington
urged the futUity of defensive war, and the necessity
of attacMng the enemy in Ms stionghold. His posi
tion, trying at the best, was made more so by the
behavior of Dmwiddie. That crusty Scotchman had

340 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
conceived a dislike to him, and sometimes treated
him in a manner that must have been imspeakably
galling to the proud and passionate young man, who,
nevertheless, unconquerable in his sense of public
duty, curbed Mmself to patience, or the semblance
of it.
Dinwiddie was now gone, and a new governor had
taken his place. The conduct of the war, too, had
changed, and in the plans of Pitt the capture of Fort
Duquesne held an important place. Brigadier John
Forbes was charged -with it. He was a Scotch
veteran, forty-eight years of age, who had begun life
as a student of medicine, and who ended it as an able
and faitMul soldier. Though a well-bred man of the
world, his tastes were simple ; he detested ceremony,
and dealt tiankly and plainly with the colomsts, who
both respected and liked him. In April he was in
Philadelphia waiting for his army, wMch as yet had
no existence; for the pro-rincials were not enUsted,
and an expected battalion of Highlanders had not
arrived. It was the end of June before they were aU
on the march ; and meanwhile the general was attacked
-with a painful and dangerous malady, which would
have totally disabled a less resolute man.
His force consisted of provincials from Pennsyl
vania, Virginia, Maryland, and North CaroUna, with
twelve hundred Highlanders of Montgomery's regi
ment and a detachment of Royal Americans, amount
ing in all, with wagoners and camp foUowers, to
between six and seven thousand men. The Royal

1758.] OPPOSING PLANS. 341
American regiment was a new corps raised, in the
colonies, largely from among the Germans of Penn
sylvania. Its officers were from Europe; and con
spicuous among them was Lieutenant-Colonel Henry
Bouquet, a brave and accomplished Swiss, who
eommanded one of the four battalions of which the
regiment was composed. Early in July he was
encamped -with the advance-guard at the hamlet of
Raystown, now the town of Bedford, among the
eastern heights of the AUeghanies. Here his tents
were pitched in an opemng of the forest by the banks
of a small stieam ; and Virginians in hunting-shirts,
Highlanders in Mlt and plaid, and Royal Americans
in regulation scarlet, labored at tMowing up intrench-
ments and palisades, wMle around stood the silent
mountains in their mantles of green.
Now rose the question whether the army should
proceed in a direct course to Fort Duquesne, hewing
a new road through the forest, or march thirty-four
mUes to Fort Cumberland, and thence follow the
road made by Braddock. It was the interest of
Pennsylvania that Forbes should choose the former
route, and of Virginia that he should choose the
latter. The Old Dominion did not wish to see a
highway cut for her rival to those rich lands of the
Ohio which she called her own. Washington, who
was then at Fort Cumberland with a part of his
regiment, was earnest for the old road; and in an
inter-riew -with Bouquet midway between that place
and Raystown, he spared no effort to bring him to

342 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
the same opinion. But the quartermaster-general.
Sir John Sinclair, who was supposed to know the
country, had ad-rised the Pennsylvania route; and
both Bouquet and Forbes were resolved to take it.
It was shorter, and when once made would furnish
readier and more abundant supplies of food and
forage ; but to make it would consume a vast amount
of time and labor. Washington foretold the rum of
the expedition unless it took Braddock's road. Ardent
Virginian as he was, there is no cause to believe that
his decision was based on any but miUtary reasons ;
but Forbes thought otherwise, and found great fault
-with Mm. Bouquet did him more justice. " Colonel
Washington," he writes to the general, "is fflled
with a sincere zeal to aid the expedition, and is ready
to march -with equal activity by whatever way you
choose." The fate of Braddock had impressed itself on all
the army, and inspired a caution that was but too
much needed; since, except WasMngton's men and
a few others among the provincials, the whole, from
general to drummer-boy, were total stiangers to that
insidious warfare of the forest in which their enemies,
red and white, had no rival. Instead of marcMng,
like Braddock, at one stietch for Fort Duquesne,
burdened with a long and cumbrous baggage-tiain, it
was the plan of Forbes to push on by slow stages,
establishing fortified magazines as he went, and at
last, when -within easy distance of the fort, to advance
upon it -with all his force, as little impeded as possible

1758.] PROVINCIAL TROOPS. 343
with wagons and pack-horses. He bore no likeness
to his predecessor except in determined resolution,
and he did not hesitate to embrace miUtary heresies
which would have driven Braddock to fury. To
Bouquet, in whom he placed a well-merited trust,
he -wrote, " I have been long in your opinion of equip
ping numbers of our men like the savages, and I
fancy Colonel Burd, of Virgima, has most of his best
people equipped in that manner. In this country we
must learn the art of war from enemy Indians, or
anybody else who has seen it carried on here."
His provmcials displeased Mm, not without reason ;
for the greater part were but the crudest material for
an army, unruly, and recalcitrant to discipline.
Some of them came to the rendevzous at Carlisle
with old pro-rince muskets, the locks tied on with a
string; others brought fowling-pieces of their own,
and others carried nothing but walMng-sticks ; wMle
many had never fired a gun in their lives. ^ Forbes
reported to Pitt that their officers, except a few in
the Mgher ranks, were " an extremely bad collection
of broken mnkeepers, horse-jockeys, and Indian
tiaders; " nor is he more flattering towards the men,
though as to some of them he afterwards changed
his mind.^
While Bouquet was with the advance at Raystown,
Forbes was stiU in PhiladelpMa, trying to bring the
army mto shape, and collecting provisions, horses,
1 Correspondence of Forbes and Bouquet, July, August, 1758.
^ Forbes to Pitt, 6 September, 1758.

344 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758-.
and wagons ; much vexed meantime by the Assembly,
whose tedious disputes about taxmg the proprietaries
greatly obstiucted the service. "No sergeant or
quartermaster of a regiment," he says, "is obliged to
look into more details than I am ; and if I did not
see to everything myself, we should never get out of
tMs town." July had begun before he could reach
the frontier village of Carlisle, where he found every
tMng in confusion. After restoring some order, he
wrote to Bouquet: "I have been and stiU am but
poorly, with a cursed flux, but shall move day after
to-morrow." He was doomed to disappointment;
and it was not tUl the ninth of August that he sent
another letter from the same place to the same miU
tary friend. "I am now able to write after three
weeks of a most violent and tormenting distemper,
which, thank God, seems now much abated as to
pam, but has left me as weak as a new-born infant.
However, I hope to have strength enough to set out
from this place on Friday next." The disease was
an inflammation of the stomach and o'ther vital
organs ; and when he should have been in bed, with
complete repose of body and mind, he was racked
continually with the toils and worries of a most
arduous campaign.
He left Carlisle on the eleventh, carried on a kind
of Utter made of a hurdle slung between two horses ;
and two days later he wrote from Shippensburg:
"My journey here from Carlyle raised my disorder
and pains to so intolerable a degree that I was obliged

1758.] FORBES AND WASHINGTON. 345
to stop, and may not get away for a day or two."
Again, on the eighteenth: "I am better, and partly
free from the excruciating pain I suffered; but still
so weak that I can scarce bear motion." He lay
helpless at Shippensburg tiU September was weU
advanced. On the second he says : " I really cannot
describe how I have suffered both in body and mind
of late, and the relapses have been worse as the dis
appointment was greater; " and on the fourth, still
writing to Bouquet, who in the camp at Raystown
was strugglmg with many tribulations : " I am sorry
you have met with so many cross accidents to vex
you, and have such a parcel of scoundrels as the
prorincials to work with ; mais le vin est tire, and you
must drop a little of the gentleman and treat them
as they deserve. Seal and send off the enclosed
despatch to Sir John by some sure hand. He is a
very odd man, and I am sorry it has been my fate to
have any concern -with him. I am afraid our army
will not admit of division, lest one half m6et with a
check; therefore I would consult Colonel Washing
ton, though perhaps not follow his advice, as his
behavior about the roads was noways like a soldier.
I thank my good cousin for his letter, and have only
to say that I have all my life been subject to err; but
I now reform, as I go to bed at eight at night, if able
to sit up so late."
Nobody can read the letters of Washington at this
time -without feeling that the imputations of Forbes
were unjust, and that here, as elsewhere, his ruling

346 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
motive was the public good.^ Forbes himself, seeing
the rugged and difficult nature of the country, began
to doubt whether after aU he had not better have
chosen the old road of Braddock. He soon had an
interview with its chief advocates, the two Virginia
colonels, Washington and Burd, and reported the
result to Bouquet, adding : " I told them that, what
ever they thought, I had acted on the best informa
tion to be had, and could safely say for myself, and
believed I might answer for you, that the good of
the service was all we had at heart, not valuing
provincial interests, jealousies, or suspicions one
single twopence." It must be owned that, consider
ing the slow and sure mode of advance which he had
wisely adopted, the old soldier was probably right in
his choice; since before the army could reach Fort
Duquesne, the autumnal floods would have made the
Youghiogany and the Monongahela impassable.
The Sir John mentioned by Forbes was the quar
termaster-general. Sir John Sinclair, who had gone
forward with Virginians and other troops from the
camp of Bouquet to make the road over the main
range of the AUeghanies, whence he sent back the
following memorandum of his requirements : " Pick
axes, crows, and shovels; likewise more whiskey.
Send me the newspapers, and tell my black to send

' Besides the printed letters, there is an autograph collection of
his correspondence with Bouquet in 1758 (forming vol. 21,641,
Additional Manuscripts, British Museum). Copies of the whole are
before me.

1758.] FORBES AND THE INDIANS. 347
me a candlestick and half a loaf of sugar." He was
extremely inefficient; and Forbes, out of all patience
-with Mm, wrote confidentially to Bouquet that Ms
only talent was for thro-wing everything into confu
sion. Yet he found fault with everybody else, and
would discharge volleys of oaths at all who met his
disapproval. From tMs cause or some other, Lieu
tenant-Colonel Stephen, of the Virginians, told him
that he would break his sword rather than be longer
under his orders. " As I had not sufficient strength, "
says Sinclair, " to take him by the neck from among
Ms own men, I was obliged to let him have his own
way, that I might not be the occasion of bloodshed."
He succeeded at last in arresting him, and Major
Lewis, of the same regiment, took his place.
The aid of Indians as scouts and sMrmishers was
of the last importance to an army so weak in the arts
of woodcraft, and efforts were made to engage the
serrices of the friendly Cherokees and Catawbas,
many of whom came to the camp, where their caprice,
insolence, and rapacity tried to the utmost the patience
of the commanders. That of Sir John Sinclair had
already been overcome by his dealiags with the pro-
-rincial authorities; and he wrote in good French, at
the taU of a letter to the Swiss colonel: "Adieu,
my dear Bouquet. The greatest curse that our Lord
can pronounce agamst the worst of sinners is to give
them business to do -with provincial commissioners
and friendly Indians." A band of sixty warriors
told Colonel Burd that they would join the army on

348 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
condition that it went? by Braddock's road. "This,"
-wrote Forbes, on hearing of the proposal, " is a new
system of military discipUne tiuly, and shows that
my good friend Burd is either made a cat's-foot of
himself, or little knows me if he imagines that sixty
scoundrels are to direct me in my measures."^
Bouquet, with a pUant tact rarely seen in the bom
Briton, took great pains to please these troublesome
alUes, and went so far as to adopt one of them as his
son.^ A considerable number jomed the army; but
they nearly aU went off when the stock of presents
provided for them was exhausted.
Forbes was in total ignorance of the strength and
movements of the enemy. The Indians reported
their numbers to be at least equal to his own; but
nothing could be learned from them with certainty,
by reason of their inveterate habit of lymg. Several
scouting-parties of whites were therefore sent for
ward, of which the most successful was that of a
young Virgmian officer, accompanied by a sergeant
and five Indians. At a little distance from the
French fort, the Indians stopped to paint themselves
and practise incantations. The chief warrior of the
party then took certain charms from an otter-skin
bag and tied them about the necks of the other
Indians. On that of the officer he hung the otter-
sMn itself; while to the sergeant he gave a smaU
1 The above extracts are from the Bouquet and Haldimand Papers,
British Museum.
2 Bouquet to Forbes, 3 June, 1758.

1758.] ADVANCE OF FORBES. 349
packet of paint from the same mystic receptacle.
"He told us," reports the officer, "that none of us
could be shot, for those tMngs would turn the balls
from us ; and then shook hands with us, and told us
to go and fight like men," Thus armed against
fate, they mounted the high ground afterwards called
Grant's Hill, where, covered by trees and bushes,
they had a good -riew of the fort, and saw plainly
that the reports of the French force were greatly
exaggerated.^ MeanwMle Bouquet's men pushed on the heavy
work of road-maMng up the main range of the AUe
ghanies, and, what proved far worse, the parallel
mountain ridge of Laurel Hill, hewing, digging,
blasting, laying fascines and gabions to support the
track along the sides of steep declivities, or worming
their way Uke moles tMough the jungle of swamp
and forest. Forbes described the country to Pitt as
an "immense uninhabited wilderness, overgrown
everywhere with trees and brushwood, so that no
where can one see twenty yards. " In tiuth, as far
as eye or mind could reach, a prodigious forest vege
tation spread its impervious canopy over Mil, valley,
and plain, and wrapped the stern and awful waste in
the shadows of the tomb.
Having secured Ms magazines at Raystown, and
built a fort there named Fort Bedford, Bouquet made
a forward movement of some forty miles, crossed the
1 Journal of a Reconnoitring Party, August, 1758. The writer seems
to have been Ensign Chew, of Washington's regiment.

350 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758,
main AUeghany and Laurel HiU, and, taMng post on
a stream caUed Loyalhannon Creek, began another
depot of supplies as a base for the final advance on
Fort Duquesne, wMch was scarcely fifty mUes distant.
Vaudreuil had learned from prisoners the march
of Forbes, and, with his usual egotism, announced
to the colonial mmister what he had done m conse
quence. "I have provided for the safety of Fort
Duquesne." "I have sent reinforcements to M. de
Ligneris, who commands there." "Ihave done the
impossible to supply him with provisions, and I am
now sending them in abundance, m order that the
tioops I may perhaps have occasion to send to drive
off the English may not be delayed." "A stronger
fort is needed on the Ohio ; but I cannot build one
till after the peace; then I will take care to build
such a one as will thenceforth keep the English out
of that country." Some weeks later he was less con
fident, and very anxious for news from Ligneris.
He says that he has sent him all the succors he
could, and ordered troops to go to his aid from
Niagara, Detroit, and Illinois, as well as the militia
of Detioit, with the Indians there and elsewhere
in the West, — Hurons, Ottawas, Pottawattamies,
Miamis, and other tribes. What he fears is that the
English will not attack the fort till all these Indians
have grown tired of waiting, and have gone home
again. 1 This was precisely the mtention of Forbes,
and the chief object of his long delays.
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, Juillet, Aoiit, Octobre, 1758.

1758.] WAVERING ALLIES. 351
He had another good reason for maMng no haste.
There was hope that the Delawares and Shawanoes,
who lived witMn easy reach of Fort Duquesne, and
who for the past three years had spread havoc
tMoughout the English border, might now be won
over from the French alUance. Forbes wrote to
Bouquet from Shippensburg : " After many intrigues
-with Quakers, the Provincial Commissioners, the
Governor, etc., and by the downright bullying of Six
William Johnson, I hope I have now brought about
a general convention of the Indians. " ^ The conven
tion was to include the Five Nations, the Delawares,
the Shawanoes, and other tribes, who had accepted
wampum belts of invitation, and promised to meet
the governor and commissioners of the various
provinces at the town of Easton, before the middle
of September. This seeming miracle was -wrought
by several causes. The Indians in the French inter
est, always greedy for presents, had not of late got
enough to satisfy them. Many of those destined for
them had been taken on the way from France by
British cruisers, and the rest had passed through the
hands of official knaves, who sold the greater part for
their o-wn profit. Again, the goods supplied by
French fur-tiaders were few and dear; and the Indians
remembered with regret the abundance and compara
tive cheapness of those they had from the English
before the war. At the same time it was reported
among them that a British army was marching to the
1 Forbes to Bouquet, 18 August, 1758.

352 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
Ohio strong enough to drive out the French from aU
that country; and the Delawares and Shawanoes of
the West began to waver in their attachment to
the falling cause. The eastern Delawares, Uving at
Wyoming and elsewhere on the upper Susquehanna,
had made their peace vnth. the EngUsh in the summer
before ; and their great chief, Teedyuscung, tMnking
it for his interest that the tribes of the OMo should
follow his example, sent them wampum belts, inviting
them to lay down the hatchet. The Five Nations,
with Johnson at one end of the Confederacy and
Joncaire at the other, — the one cajoling them in
behalf of England, and the other in behalf of France,
— were still divided in counsel ; but even among the
Senecas, the tribe most under Joncaire's influence,
there was a party so far inclined to England that,
like the Delaware chief, they sent wampum to the
Ohio, inviting peace. But the influence most potent
in reclaiming the warriors of the West was of a
different kind. Christian Frederic Post, a member
of the Moravian brotherhood, had been sent at the
instance of Forbes as an envoy to the hostile tribes
from the governor and Council of Pennsylvania. He
spoke the Delaware language, knew the Indians
well, had lived among them, had married a converted
squaw, and by Ms simplicity of character, directness,
and perfect honesty, gained their full confidence.
He now accepted his terrible mission, and calmly
prepared to place Mmself in the clutches of the
tiger. He was a plain German, upheld by a sense

1758.] MISSION OF POST. 353
of duty and a single-hearted trust in God; alone,
with no great discipUned organization to impel and
support him, and no visions and illusions such as
kindled and sustained the splendid heroism of the
-early Jesuit martyrs. Yet his errand was no whit
less perilous. And here we may notice the contrast'
between the mission settlements of the Mora-rians in
Pennsylvania and those which the later Jesuits and
the Sulpitians had established at Caughnawaga, St.
Francis, La Presentation, and other places. The
Mora-rians were apostles of peace, and they succeeded
to a surprising degree in weamng their converts from
their ferocious instincts and warlike habits; while
the Mission Indians of Canada retained all their
native fierceness, and were systematically impelled
to use their tomahawks against the enemies of the
Church. Their wigwams were hung with scalps,
male and female, adult and infant; and these so-
called missions were but nests of baptized savages,
who wore the crucifix instead of the medicine-bag,
and were encouraged by the government for purposes
of war.^
The Mora-rian envoy made his way to the Delaware
to-wn, of Kushkushkee, on Beaver Creek, northwest
of Fort Duquesne, where the three chiefs known as
King Beaver, Shingas, and Delaware George received
' Of the Hurons of the mission of Lorette, BougainviUe says :
"lis sont toujours sauvages autant que ceux qui sont les moins
apprivois^s." And yet they had been converts under Jesuit con
trol for more than four generations. The case was no better at the
.other missions ; and at St. Francis it seems to have been worse.
VOL. II.— 23

354 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
him Mndly, and conducted him to another town on
the same stieam. Here his reception was different.
A crowd of warriors, their faces distorted with rage,
surrounded him, brandishing kmves and threatening
to MU him ; but others took Ms part, and, order being
at last restored, he read them his message from
the governor, which seemed to please them. They
insisted, however, that he should go with them to
Fort Duquesne, in order that the Indians assembled
there might hear it also. Against this dangerous
proposal he protested in vain. On arriring near the
fort, the French demanded that he should be given
up to them, and, being refused, offered a great
reward for his scalp; on wMch Ms friends ad-rised
him to keep close by the camp-fire, as parties were
out -with intent to MU him. "Accordingly," says
Post, " I stuck to the fire as if I had been chained
there. On the next day the Indians, with a great
many French officers, came out to hear what I had
to say. The officers brought with them a table,
pens, ink, and paper. I spoke in the midst of them
with a free conscience, and perceived by their looks
that they were not pleased with what I said." The
substance of his message was an invitation to the
Indians to renew the old chain of friendsMp, joined
-with a warning that an EngUsh army was on its way
to drive off the French, and that they would do well
to stand neutral.
He addressed an audience filled with an inordinate
sense of their own power and importance, believing

1758.] COUNCIL OF PEACE. 355
themselves greater and braver than either of th©
European nations, and yet deeply jealous of both..
"We have heard," they said, "that the French and
EngUsh mean to kill all the Indians and divide the
land among themselves." And on this string they
harped continually. If they had kno-wn their true
interest, they would have made no peace with the
English, but would have united as one man to form
a barrier of fire against their farther progress ; for the
West in English hands meant farms, vUlages, cities,
the rmn of the forest, the extermination of the game,
and the expulsion of those who lived on it; while the
West in French hands meant but scattered posts of
war and tiade, -with the native tribes cherished as
indispensable aUies.
After waiting some days, the three tribes of the
Delawares met in council, and made their answer to
the message brought by Post. It was worthy of a
proud and warUke race, and was to the effect that
since their brothers of Pennsylvania wished to renew
the old peace-chain, they on their part were willing
to do so, prorided that the wampum belt should be
sent them in the name, not of Pennsylvania alone,
but of the rest of the provinces also.
Having now accompUshed his errand. Post wished
to return home ; but the Indians were seized with an
access of distrust, and would not let him go. This
jealousy redoubled when they saw him writing in his
notebook. "It is a troublesome cross and heavy
yoke to draw this people," he says; "they can punish

356 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
and squeeze a body's heart to the utmost. There
came some together and examined me about what I
had -wrote yesterday. I told them I writ what was
my duty. ' Brothers, I teU you I am not afraid of
you. I have a good conscience before God and man.
I tell you, brothers, there is a bad spirit in your
hearts, which breeds jealousy, and will keep you ever
in fear. ' " At last they let Mm go ; and, eluding a
party that lay in wait for his scalp, he journeyed
twelve days through the forest, and reached Fort
Augusta -with the report of his mission.^
As the result of it, a great convention of white
men and red was held at Easton m October. The
neighboring provinces had been asked to send their
delegates, and some of them did so; wMle belts of
inritation were sent to the Indians far and near. Sir
WilUam Johnson, for reasons best known to himself,
at first opposed the plan ; but was afterwards led to
favor it and to induce tribes under his influence to
join in the grand pacification. The Five Nations,
with the smaller tribes lately admitted into their
confederacy, the Delawares of the Susquehanna, the
Mohegans, and several kindred bands, all had their
representatives at the meeting. The conferences
lasted nineteen days, -with the ineritable formalities
of such occasions, and the weary repetition of con
ventional metaphors and long--winded speeches. At
length, every difficulty being settled, the governor of
Pennsylvania, in behalf of all the English, rose -with
1 Journal of Christian Frederic Post, July, August, September, 1758.

1758.] SECOND MISSION OF POST. 357
a wampum belt in his hand, and addressed the ta-wny
congregation thus: "By this belt we heal your
wounds; we remove your grief; we take the hatchet
out of your heads; we make a hole in the earth, and
burj' it so deep that nobody can dig it up agam."
Then, laying the first belt before them, he took
another, very large, made of white wampum beads,
in token of peace: "By this belt we renew aU our
treaties; we brighten the chain of friendship; we
put fresh earth to the roots of the tree of peace, that
it may bear up against every storm, and Uve and
flourish wMle the sun shines and the rivers run."
And he gave them the belt with the request that
they would send it to their friends and allies, and
in-rite them to take hold also of the chain of friend
sMp. Accordingly all present agreed on a joint mes
sage of peace to the tribes of the Ohio.^
Frederic Post, with several white and Indian
companions, was chosen to bear it. A small escort
of soldiers that attended him as far as the Alleghany
was cut to pieces on its return by a band of the very
warriors to whom he was carrying his offers of friend
sMp; and other tenants of the grim and frowning
wUderness met the invaders of their domain with
inhospitable greetings. " The wolves made a terrible
music tMs night," he writes at his first bivouac after
leaving Loyalhannon. When he reached the Delaware
to^wns Ms reception was ominous. The young war
riors said : " Anybody can see with half an eye that
1 Minutes of Conferences at Easton, October, 1758.

358 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
the EngUsh only mean to cheat us. Let us knock
the messengers in the head." Some of them had
attacked an EngUsh outpost, and had been repulsed ;
hence, in the words of Post, "They were possessed
with a murdering spirit, and with bloody vengeance
were thirsty and drunk. I said: 'As God has stopped
the mouths of the lions that they could not devour
Daniel, so he will preserve us from their fury.' "
The cMefs and elders were of a different mind from
their fierce and capricious young men. They met
during the evening in the log-house where Post and
his party lodged ; and here a French officer presently
arrived with a string of wampum from the command
ant, inviting them to help htm drive back the army
of Forbes. The string was scornfuUy rejected.
" They kicked it tiom one to another as if it were a
snake. Captain Peter took a stick, and with it flung
the stiing from one end of the room to the other,
and said : ' Give it to the French captain ; he boasted
of Ms fighting, now let us see Mm fight. We have
often ventured our lives for him, and got hardly a
loaf of bread in return ; and now he tMnks we shall
jump to serve him. ' Then we saw the French cap
tain mortified to the uttermost. He looked as pale
as death. The Indians discoursed and joked till
midnight, and the French captain sent messengers
at midnight to Fort Duquesne."
There was a grand councU, at wMch the French
officer was present; and Post delivered the peace
message from the councU at Easton, along with

1758.] GRANT'S EXPEDITION. 359
another with wMch Forbes had charged him. " The
messages pleased all the hearers except the French
captain. He shook his head in bitter grief, and
often changed countenance. Isaac Still [an Indian]
ran him do^wn with great boldness, and pointed at
him, saying, ' There he sits ! ' They all said : ' The
French always deceived us ! ' pointing at the French
captam; who, bowing down his head, turned quite
pale, and could look no one in the face. AU the
Indians began to mock and laugh at him. He could
hold it no longer, and went out. " ^
The overtures of peace were accepted, and the
Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mingoes were no longer
enemies of the English. The loss was the more
disheartening to the French, since, some weeks
before, they had gained a success which they hoped
would confirm the adhesion of all their wavering
alUes. Major Grant, of the Highlanders, had urged
Bouquet to send him to reconnoitre Fort Duquesne,
capture prisoners, and strike a blow that would
ammate the assailants and discourage the assailed.
Bouquet, forgetting his usual prudence, consented;
and Grant set out from the camp at Loyalhannon
with about eight hundred men, Highlanders, Royal
Americans, and prorincials. On the fourteenth of
September, at two in the moming, he reached the
top of the rismg ground thenceforth called Grant's
Hill, half a mile or more from the French fort. The
forest and the darkness of the night hid him com-
1 Journal of Christian Frederic Post, October, November, 1758.

360 FORT DUQUESNE. [175&.
plet6ly from the enemy. He ordered Major Lewis,
of the Virginians, to take with him half the detach
ment, descend to the open plain before the fort, and
attack the Indians known to be encamped there >
after wMch he was to make a feigned retreat ta
the hill, where the rest of the tioops were to lie in
ambush and receive the pursuers. Lewis set out on
his errand, while Grant waited anxiously for the
result. Dawn was near, and all was silent; tUl at
length Lewis returned, and incensed his commander
by declaring that his men had lost their way in the
dark woods, and fallen into such confusion that the-
attempt was impracticable. The morning twilight
now began, but the country was ¦wrapped in tMck
fog. Grant abandoned his first plan, and sent a few
Highlanders into the cleared ground to burn a ware
house that had been seen there. He was convinced
that the French and their Indians were too few to
attack him, though their numbers in fact were fax
greater than Ms own.^ Infatuated with this idea,
and bent on taking prisoners, he had the incredible
rashness to diride his force in such a way that the
several parts could not support each other. Lewis,
¦with two hundred men, was sent to guard the bag
gage two miles in the rear, where a company of
1 Grant to Forbes, no date. "Les rapports sur le nombre des
Fran9ais varient de 3,000 h 1,200." Bouquet a Forbes, 17 Septembre,
1758. Bigot says that 3,500 daUy rations were delivered at Fort
Duquesne throughout the summer. Bigot au Ministre, 22 Novembre,
1758. In October the number had fallen to 1,180, which included
Indians. Ligneris a Vaudreuil, 18 Octobre, 1758.

1758.] THE ATTACK. 361
Virginians, under Captain BulUtt, was already sta
tioned. A hundred Pennsylvanians were posted far
off on the right, towards the Alleghany, while Cap
tain Mackenzie, -with a detachment of Highlanders,
was sent to the left, towards the Monongahela.
Then, the fog haring cleared a Uttle, Captain
Macdonald, -with another company of Highlanders,
was ordered mto the open plain to reconnoitie the
fort and make a plan of it. Grant himself remaining
on the hill -with a hundred of his own regiment and a
company of Maryland men. " In order to put on a
good countenance, " he says, " and convince our men
they had no reason to be afraid, I gave directions to
our drums to beat the reveUle. The tioops were in
an advantageous post, and I must own I thought we
had nothing to fear." Macdonald was at this time
on the plain, midway between the woods and the
fort, and in full sight of it. The roll of the drums
from the MU was answered by a burst of war-whoops,
and the French came swarming out like hornets,
many of them m their shirts, ha-ring just leaped from
their beds. They all rushed upon Macdonald and
Ms men, who met them with a volley that checked
their advance; on which they surrounded him at a
distance, and tiled to cut off his retreat. The High
landers broke through, and gained the woods, with
the loss of their commander, who was shot dead. A
crowd of French foUowed close, and soon put them
to rout, driving them and Mackenzie's party back to
the hill where Grant was posted. Here there was a

362 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
hot fight in the forest, lasting about three quarters of
an hour. At length the force of numbers, the
novelty of the situation, and the appalling yells of
the Canadians and Indians, completely overcame the
Highlanders, so intrepid in the ordinary situations of
war. They broke away in a wild and disorderly
retreat. "Fear," says Grant, "got the better of
every other passion; and I trust I shall never again
see such a panic among troops."
His only hope was in the detachment he had sent
to the rear under Le^wis to guard the baggage. But
Lewis and his men, when they heard the firing in
front, had left their post and pushed forward to help
their comrades, taking a straight course through the
forest; wMle Grant was retreating along the path
by which he had advanced the night before. Thus
they missed each other ; and when Grant reached the
spot where he expected to find Le^wis, he saw to his
dismay that nobody was there but Captain Bullitt
and his company. He cried in despair that he was a
rumed man ; not without reason, for the whole body
of French and Indians was upon him. Such of his
men as held together were forced towards the Alle
ghany, and, ¦writes Bouquet, "would probably have
been cut to pieces but for Captain Bullitt and Ms
Virginians, who kept up the fight against the whole
French force till two-thirds of them were Mlled."
They were offered quarter, but refused it; and the
surrivors were driven at last into the Alleghany,
where some were drowned, and others swam over and

1758.] DEFEAT OF GRANT. 363
escaped. Grant was surrounded and captured, and
Le^wis, who presently came up, was also made
prisoner, along with some of his men, after a stiff
resistance. Thus ended this mismanaged affair,
which cost the English two hundred and seventy-
three killed, wounded, and taken. The rest got
back safe to Loyalhannon.^
The invalid general was deeply touched by this
reverse, yet expressed Mmself with a moderation that
does Mm honor. He ¦wrote to Bouquet from Rays
town: "Your letter of the seventeenth I read with
no less surprise than concern, as I could hot believe
that such an attempt would have been made ¦without
my knowledge and concurrence. The breaking in
upon our fair and flattering hopes of success touches
me most sensibly. There are two wounded Highland
officers just now arrived, who give so lame an account
of the matter that one can draw notMng from them,
only that my friend Grant most certainly lost his
-wits, and by his thirst of fame brought on his own
perdition, and ran great risk of ours."^
1 On Grant's defeat, Chrant to Forbes, no date, a long and minute
report, written whUe a prisoner. Bouquet a Forbes, 17 Septembre,
1758. Forbes to Pitt, 20 October, 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1
Novembre, 1758. Letters from camp in Boston Evening Post, Boston
Weekly Advertiser, Boston News Letter, and other provincial news
papers of the time. List of Killed, Wounded, and Missing in the
Action of September 14. Gentleman's Magazine, xxix. 173. Hazard's
Pennsylvania Register, viu. 141. Olden Time, i. 179. Vaudreuil, with
characteristic exaggeration, represents all Grant's party as killed or
taken, except a few who died of starvation. The returns show that
540 came back safe, out of 813.
2 Forbes to Bouquet, 23 September, 1758.

364 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
The French pushed their advantage with spirit.
Early in October a large body of them hovered m the
woods about the camp at Loyalhannon, drove back a
detachment sent agamst them, approached under
cover of the tiees, and, though beaten off, withdrew
deUberately, after burymg their dead and MUing
great numbers of horses and cattle.^ But, with all
their courageous energy, their position was desperate.
The militia of Louisiana and the IlUnois left the fort
in November and went home ; the Indians of Detroit
and the Wabash would stay no longer; and, worse
yet, the supplies destined for Fort Duquesne had
been destroyed by Bradstieet at Fort Frontenac.
Hence Ligneris was compelled by prospective star
vation to dismiss the greater part of his force, and
await the approach of Ms enemy with those that
remained. His enemy was in a plight hardly better than his
own. Autumnal rains, uncommonly heavy and per
sistent, had rmned the newly cut road. On the
mountains the torrents tore it up, and in the valleys
the wheels of the wagons and cannon churned it into
soft mud. The horses, overworked and underfed,
were fast breaking down. The forest had little food
for them, and they were forced to drag their own
oats and com, as weU as suppUes for the army,
1 Burd to Bouquet, 12 October, 1758. Bouquet a Forbes, 13 Octobre,
1758. Forbes to Pitt, 20 October, 1758. Letter from Loyalhannon, 14
October, in Olden Time, i. 180. Letters from Camp, in Boston News
Letter. Ligneris a Vaudreuil, 18 Octobre, 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre,
20 Novembre, 1758.

1758.] DARK PROSPECTS. 365
through two hundred miles of wilderness. In the,
-wretched condition of the road this was no longer pos
sible. The magazines of prorisions formed at Rays
town and Loyalhannon to support the army on its
forward march were emptied faster than they could
be filled. Early in October the elements relented;
the clouds broke, the sky was bright again, and the
sun shone out in splendor on mountains radiant in
the Uvery of autumn. A gleam of hope revisited
the heart of Forbes. It was but a flattering illusion.
The sullen clouds returned, and a chill, impenetrable
veil of mist and rain hid the mountains and the
trees. Dejected Nature wept and would not be com
forted. Above, below, around, all was trickling,
oozing, pattering, gushing. In the miserable encamp
ments the starved horses stood steaming in the rain,
and the men crouched, disgusted, under their drip
ping tents, wMle the drenched picket-guard in the
neighboring forest paced dolefully through black
mire and spongy mosses. The rain turned to snow;
the descending flakes clung to the many-colored
foliage, or melted from sight in the trench of half-
liquid clay that was called a road. The wheels of
the wagons sank in it to the hub, and to advance
or retieat was alike impossible.
Forbes tiom his sick bed at Raysto-wn -wrote to
Bouquet: "Your description of the road pierces me
to the very soul." And a few days later to Pitt: "I
am in the greatest distress, occasioned by rains
unusual at this season, which have rendered the clay

366 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
roads absolutely impracticable. If the weather does
not favor, I shall be absolutely locked up in the
mountains. I cannot form any judgment how I am
to extricate myself, as everything depends on the
weather, which snows and rains frightfully." There
was no improvement. In the next week he writes to
Bouquet: "These four days of constant rain have
completely ruined the road. The wagons would
cut it up more m an hour than we could repair in a
week. I have written to General Abercrombie, but
have not had one scrape of a pen from him since the
beginning of September; so it looks as if we were
either forgot or left to our fate."^ Wasted and tor
tured by disease, the perplexed commander was
forced to burden himself with a multitude of details
which would else have been neglected, and to do the
work of commissary and quartermaster as well as
general. "My time," he writes, "is disagreeably
spent between business and medicine."
In the beginmng of November he was carried to
Loyalhannon, where the whole army was then gath
ered. There was a council of officers, and they
resolved to attempt nothing more that season; but,
a few days later, three prisoners were brought in who
reported the defenceless condition of the French, on
which Forbes gave orders to advance again. The
wagons and all the artillery, except a few light
pieces, were left behind; and on the eighteenth of
1 Forbes to Bouquet, 15 October, 1758. Ibid., 25 October, 1758.
Forbes to Pitt, 20 October, 1758.

1758.] ADVANCE OF THE ARMY. 367
November twenty-five hundred picked men marched
for Fort Duquesne, without tents or baggage, and
burdened only wi^h knapsacks and blankets. Wash
ington and Colonel Armstrong, of the Pennsyl
vanians, had opened a way for them by cutting a
road to within a day's march of the French fort. On
the evemng of the twenty-fourth, the detachment
encamped among the hills of Turkey Creek ; and the
men on guard heard at midnight a dull and hea-vy
sound booming over the western woods. Was it a
magazine exploded by accident, or were the French
blo-wing up their works ? In the morning the march
was resumed, a stiong advance-guard leading the
way. Forbes came next, carried in his litter; and
the troops foUowed in three parallel columns, the
Highlanders in the centre under Montgomery, their
colonel, and the Royal Americans and provincials on
the right and left, under Bouquet and Washington.^
Thus, gmded by the tap of the drum at the head of
each column, they moved slowly through the forest,
over damp, fallen leaves, crisp with frost, beneath an
endless entanglement of bare gray twigs that sighed
and moaned in the bleak November wind. It was
dusk when they emerged upon the open plain and
saw Fort Duquesne before them, -with its background
of wintry hills beyond the Monongahela and the
AUeghany. During the last three miles they had
passed the scattered bodies of those slain two months
1 Letter from a British Officer in the Expedition, 25 February, 1759,
Gentleman's Magazine, xxix. 171.

368 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
before at the defeat of Grant; and it is said that, as
they neared the fort, the Highlanders were goaded
to fury at seeing the heads of their slaughtered com
rades stuck on poles, round which the Mlts were
hung derisively, in imitation of petticoats. Their
rage was vain; the enemy was gone. Only a few
Indians lingered about the place, who reported that
the garrison, to the number of four or five hundred,
had retreated, some down the Ohio, some overland
towards Presq'isle, and the rest, -with their com
mander, up the Alleghany to Venango, called by the
French, Fort Machault. They had burned the
barracks and storehouses, and blown up the forti
fications. The first care of the victors was to provide defence
and shelter for those of their number on whom the
dangerous task was to fall of keeping what they had
won. A stockade was planted around a cluster of
tiaders' cabins and soldiers' huts, which Forbes
named Pittsburg, in honor of the great minister. It
was not till the next autumn that General Stan-wix
built, hard by, the regular fortified work called Fort
Pitt.i Captain West, brother of Benjamin West,
the painter, led a detachment of Pennsylvanians,
with Indian guides, through the forests of the
Monongahela, to search for the bones of those who
had fallen under Braddock. In the heart of the
savage wood they found them in abundance, gnawed
by wolves and foxes, and covered -with the dead
1 Stanwix to Pitt, 20 November, 1759.

1758.] THE HOMEWARD MARCH. 369
leaves of four successive autumns. Major Halket, of
Forbes' staff, had joined the party; and, with the
help of an Indian who was in the fight, he presently
found two skeletons lying under a tree. In one of
them he recognized, by a peculiarity of the teeth,
the remains of his father. Sir Peter Halket, and in
the other he believed that he saw the bones of a
brother who had fallen at his father's side. The
young officer fainted at the sight. The two skeletons
were buried together, covered with a Highland plaid,
and the Pennsylvanian woodsmen fired a volley over
the grave. The rest of the bones were undistinguish-
able ; and, being carefully gathered up, they were all
interred in a deep trench dug in the freezing ground.^
The work of the new fort was pushed on apace,
and the task of holding it for the -winter was assigned
to Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer, of the Virginians,
-with two hundred provincials. The number was
far too small. It was certain that, unless rigor
ously prevented by a counter attack, the French
would gather in early spring from all their nearer
western posts, Niagara, Detroit, Presq'isle, Le
Boeuf, and Venango, to retake the place ; but there
was no food for a larger garrison, and the risk must
be run.
The rest of the tioops, with steps quickened by
hunger, began their homeward march early in Decem
ber. "We would soon make M. de Ligneris shift
his quarters at Venango," -writes Bouquet just after
1 Gait, Life of Benjamin West, i. 64 (ed. 1820).
VOL. u. — 24

370 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
the fort was taken, " if we only had provisions ; but
we are scarcely able to maintain ourselves a few days
here. After God, the success of tMs expedition is
entirely due to the General, who, by bringing about
the treaty with the Indians at Easton, struck the
French a stunning blow, wisely delayed our advance
to wait the effects of that treaty, secured aU our
posts and left nothing to chance, and resisted the
urgent solicitation to take Braddock's road, which
would have been our destiuction. In aU Ms measures
he has shown the greatest prudence, firmness, and
ability." ^ No sooner was his work done, than Forbes
fell into a state of entire prostration, so that for a
time he could neither write a letter nor dictate one.
He managed, however, two days after reaching Fort
Duquesne, to send Aniherst a brief notice of his suc
cess, adding: "I shall leave this place as soon as I
am able to stand ; but God knows when I shall reach
PMladelphia, if I ever do." ^ On the way back, a
hut with a chimney was built for him at each stop
ping-place, and on the twenty-eighth of December
Major Halket writes from " Tomahawk Camp " :
"How great was our disappointment, on coming to
this ground last night, to find that the chimney was
unlaid, no fire made, nor any wood cut that would
burn. This distressed the General to the greatest
degree, by obliging him after his long journey to sit
above two hours without any fire, exposed to a snow-
1 Bouquet to Chief Justice Allen, 25 November, 1758.
2 Forbes to Amherst, 26 November, 1758.

1758.] PERIL OF CANADA. 371
storm, wMch had very near destroyed him entirely;
but with great difficulty, by the assistance of some
cordials, he was brought to." ^ At length, carried
all the way in his litter, he reached Philadelphia,
where, after lingering through the winter, he died in
March, and was buried with miUtary honors in the
chancel of CMist Church.
If his acMevement was not brilliant, its solid
value was above price. It opened the Great West
to English enterprise, took from France half her
savage allies, and reUeved the western borders from
the scourge of Indian war. From southern New
York to North Carolina, the frontier populations had
cause to bless the memory of the steadfast and all-
enduring soldier.
So ended the campaign of 1768. The centre of
the French had held its own tiiumphantly at Ticon
deroga; but their left had been forced back by the
capture of Louisbourg, and their right by that of
Fort Duquesne, while their entire right -wing had
been wellmgh cut off by the destruction of Fort
Frontenac. The outlook was dark. Their o-wn
Indians were turmng against them. "They have
struck us," wrote Doreil to the minister of war;
" they have seized three canoes loaded with furs on
Lake Ontario, and murdered the men in them : sad
forerunner of what we have to fear! Peace, Mon
seigneur, give us peace! Pardon me, but I cannot
repeat that word too often."
1 Halket to Bouquet, 28 December, 1758.

372 FORT DUQUESNE. [1758.
Note. — The Bouquet and Haldimand Papers in the British
Museum contain a mass of curious correspondence of the principal
persons engaged in the expedition under Forbes ; copies of it all
are before me. The PubUc Record Office, America and West Indies,
has also furnished much material, including the official letters
of Forbes. The Writings of Washington, the Archives and Colonial
Records of Pennsylvania, and the magazines and newspapers of the
time may be mentioned among the sources of information, along
with a variety of misceUaneous contemporary letters. The Journals
of Christian Frederic Post are printed in fuU iu the Olden Time
and elsewhere.

END OF VOL. n.

P^vkinms marks \
Volume XIV. 5

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Volume XIV.

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