150 WAR FORMALLY PROCLAIMED AGAINST FRANCE.

afterwards president of the Stamp Act Congress, held in New York—and the coolness of Nathan Whiting, of New Haven, saved the little army from de struction. It was a flight back to the lake, where the French followed up their success by a gallant assault. But to their dismay the heavy ordnance which Johnson had already mounted upon breastworks of logs, opened upon them a deadly fire. Dieskau was disabled by dangerous wounds, and

the Indians fled with wild shrieks in terror to the woods. But the French troops still maintained the conflict with desperate courage, until the fall of their commander, when they were forced to retreat towards Crown Point, The arrival of Gen. Lyman with reinforcements from Fort Edward ended the conflict. The baggage fell into the hands of a detachment of New Hampshire troops, and the victory was complete.'

Close of the Campaign of 1755.-Gen. Johnson was content with his victory. On the site of his camp he constructed Fort William Henry, which he garrisoned as well as Fort Edward. Returning to Albany, he disbanded the main body of his troops. The credit of the victory clearly belonged to Gen. Lyman; but no allusion to his gallant conduct was made in the despatches of his superior officer, who, through the representation of his friends at London, had the honor of knighthood bestowed upon him, with a considerable sum of money. Thus ended the last campaign of the second year of the French and Indian War.

War Formally Proclaimed against France, May 17, 1756.-The Campaign of that Year.-England now began to prosecute the war in America with greater vigor. At a convention of the colonial Governors held at Albany, the campaign for the year had been arranged in the early spring. Gen. Johnson's retirement from the field so early the year before, had left the French fair opportunities to fortify Crown Point, and it was determined to send an expedition of ten thousand men to attack it. Six thousand were to be led against Niagara, and three thousand were to march against Fort Duquesne; while two thousand were to be sent beyond the Kennebec to destroy the settlements on the Chaudière river. Success would most likely have attended the expedition against Crown Point, which was intrusted to Gen. Winslow, who had already collected seven thousand men at Albany, had not Abercrombie, the Acting General-in-Chief, arrived, and by injudicious interferences caused so much delay that the French had time

1 Dieskau was found mortally wounded, carried into the English camp, and there tenderly treated. He was afterwards conveyed to New York, from whence he sailed to England, where he died.-Lossing's Hist. of the U. S., p. 190-Note.

John Stark was with Johnson's army in the campaign of 1755. Bancroft says of him: Then a lieutenant of a rugged nature, but of the coolest judgment, skilled at discovering the paths of the wilderness, and knowing the ways to the hearts of the backwoodsmen

And Israel Putnam, to whom, at the age of they seven, the Assembly of Connecticut had just give the rank of second lieutenant. The great-hearted chieftain, Hendrick, famed for his clear voice and flashing eye. Hendrick, who alone

was on horseback, was killed on the spot: Williams also fell; but Nathan Whiting, of New Haven, con ducted the retreat in good order, often rallying and turning to fire.'

In a skirmish, Putnam, with twelve or fourteen of a little party, got separated and taken prisoner by the Indians; his comrades were scalped. In after life he used to relate how one of the savages gashed his cheek with a tomahawk, bound him to a forest tree, and kin dled about him a crackling fire; but his thoughts glanced aside to the wife of his youth and the group of childrea that gambolled in his field; when the French officer, Marin, happening to descry his danger, rescued him from death, to be exchanged in the autumn.'

MONTCALM VICTORIOUS AT THE NORTH.

151

to make preparations formidable enough to disconcert the plan of the whole campaign.

Meantime the Marquis de Montcalm, who had succeeded Baron Dieskau as commander of the French troops in Canada, taking advantage of this delay, crossed Lake Ontario with a force of five thousand French troopsCanadians, militia, and Indian allies, with thirty pieces of cannon-and landed only a few miles below Oswego. Fort Ontario was too weak to be defended, and Col. Mercer withdrew to stronger fortifications across the river. A gallant defence was made; but Mercer was killed, and the garrison of fourteen hundred men surrendered. All the provisions, ammunition, and armament, consisting of a hundred and thirty-four pieces of cannon, with all the vessels in the harbor, fell into the hands of Montcalm. This terrible blow paralyzed all further British and colonial movements for the season. The fortifications at Oswego were destroyed. In their comparative helplessness, the Six Nations were forced into a treaty of neutrality, and when the campaign ended, the French had every reason for congratulation.

Another of the blunders of the British ministry had been the appointment the year before of Lord Loudoun, not only as Governor of Virginia, against the wishes of the people, but as Commander-in-Chief. His ignorance and inefficiency had already proved disastrous enough; but they were to work still more fatally. Leaving Lake Champlain and the whole Canadian frontier in undisturbed possession of the French, he decided to limit the campaign of 1757 to the capture of Louisburg. Although the folly of the plan was apparent, yet the patriotism of New England gave him six thousand troops by the first of June. He sailed for Halifax, where he was joined by the fleet of Admiral Holborne, who, in addition to a powerful naval arma. ment, brought with him five thousand regular troops of the British army. But before the expedition had set out for Cape Breton, six thousand troops had reinforced the fortress at Louisburg, and a fleet still larger than the English was anchored under its guns in the harbor. The expedition thus terminated in disgrace.

A brave though tardy effort had been made to hold Lake George and its approaches. Col. Munroe, a gallant English officer, with a garrison of three thousand men, commanded Fort William Henry; while Fort Edward was held by a still larger force, under Gen. Webb. But through the inefficiency of the latter commander, and his delay in sending aid to Col. Munroe, who was now closely besieged by Montcalm, the commander of Lake George fortress, after a brave defence of six days, maintained with such valor as to command the admiration of the French General, and under the advice of Webb, who furnished him no relief-had to surrender. Montcalm had tendered honorable terms of capitulation, with a pledge of safe escort to Fort Edward. But before Munroe's troops had marched one mile on their way, the two thousand savages under Montcalm, pursued them with slaughter, till they came within range of

152

FATAL POLICY OF THE BRITISH MINISTRY.

the guns of Fort Edward. Montcalm afterwards solemnly declared that it was utterly beyond his power to restrain his Indian allies; and most likely he told the truth. So much the worse for the atrocious policy which invoked such infernal alliances of savages by the belligerents on either side!

While the Indians were engaged in that bloody work, Montcalm proceeded to lay Fort William Henry in ashes; and those seared mounds and charred timbers lay undisturbed till 1854, when a beautiful summer hotel, erected by the enterprising citizens of the neighboring village of Caldwell, rose over the ruins.

The Campaign of 1758.-The imperial spirit of British domination, which during the last century so paralyzed the power of the Thirteen Colonies, and which retarded the growth of the whole colonial system of Great Britain throughout the world, yielded to no enlightened policy here, however fatal were the results which attended it. The British ministry did not understand how strong were the elements of independence which per vaded the colonies; nor how sturdy their manhood, nurtured under such hardy training. They knew little of the political wisdom displayed by these found. ers of States-how deep had been their studies of government; how patient their investigations in political science; how thoroughly they understood the laws of political growth and organization. Least of all did the statesmen of England comprehend the means by which a complete union of the colonies could be effected for prosecuting the struggle against France. The civil and military officers sent to the colonies came with preconceived notions, which would not yield to new facts. They could not learn from experience, until the time for the lesson had passed. While Braddock lay dying, after Washington's consummate retreat, expressions of unavailing regret often fell from his lips; and in all subsequent time, a review of the fatal errors which were committed by the ministry, by the Parliament, the civil governors and commanders sent over to the colonies, confirm the folly of the one side, and the wisdom of the other. Even in civil affairs, the statesmen of America showed themselves as far superior to the British rulers, as our own generals proved themselves during the French War, to the generals of the British army, when fighting in their new fields.

The disasters which had already attended the two previous campaigns, might now have been atoned for, if the advice of the strong men of the colonies could have prevailed. At that time Benjamin Franklin, and other great men who alone were capable of managing affairs, saw just how things stood; but their suggestions were unheeded-no protest, argument, or imploration availed. If they could have had their way, they would have ended the French war in a few months.' There was material enough of all sorts—

Oh, that we had nothing to do with Great Britain forever'-was then the wish of John Adams, in his heart, as he said in a letter to Otis."

To show how much better our continental officers could fight an American battle, than the English, look

at the record of the war of the Revolution, where the English still followed out the same ideas they had practised in the French War, and where just as often they got the worst of it.