THE HEAVEN-BORN GENERAL.
IT IS HARD for Americans to realize that the French and Indian War was
more costly to Great Britain than was the War of the American
Revolution. As matter of fact, the British Government sent a larger
total of soldiers and sailors, and spent more blood and treasure in
defending the colonies and in wresting North America from the French,
than in endeavouring to coerce the revolted colonies. Though in the
various attempts at the reduction of Canada, no large armies like those
of Burgoyne or Cornwallis were lost by surrender, yet the number of men
slaughtered in siege and battle was greater, and the expeditions being
in the wilderness were much more costly. To throw a bomb into the
Niagara fort was like dropping a globe of silver; to fire canister, like
scattering a Danæan shower of guineas; while every effective bullet
required an outlay of pounds, as well as of shillings and pence.
Before the decision of the long controversy between Latin and Teutonic
civilization in America, at the fall of Quebec, another terrible
disaster, caused largely by British arrogance and contempt of American
experience, remains to be recorded. This time it was to be linked not
with the name of Braddock or Loudon, but with that of Abercrombie.
Under the quickening touch of the master-hand of Pitt, who knew the
topography of America, and had appointed the “young madman” Wolfe to
supersede Loudon, Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Du Quesne were chosen
as points of attack. Of the three expeditions planned, Abercrombie was
chosen to lead that which was to move to Canada by the great water-way
of Eastern New York.
We need not here repeat the oft-told story of the capture of Louisburg
by Amherst and Wolfe; or that of the fall of Fort Du Quesne, which
Washington named Pittsburg. Tremendous enthusiasm was kindled in the
colonies at the news of these successes. In England, when the stands of
French colours, after being carried through the streets of London and
laid at the feet of King George, were hung up in St. Paul’s Cathedral,
the whole nation took fresh courage, and believed final victory near.
The name of the dashing and spirited Wolfe was on every tongue; though
the other heroes were not forgotten. In New England the names of the
successful British leaders were made monumental in geography. Such
places as Wolfboro, Amherst, Boscawen, and many others on the map,
almost as numerous as the grains shaken from a pepper-box, testify to
popular gratitude and enthusiasm.
A different story is that of Abercrombie’s expedition. For the reduction
of the French fortress on Lake Corlaer, or Champlain, the largest army
ever gathered on the continent was encamped on the shores of Lake
George. Of the sixteen thousand men about three fifths were brilliantly
uniformed British regulars. For the first time the pavonine dress of the
bare-legged Highlanders was seen on large bodies of men on this side of
the Atlantic. Among the American militia officers were Stark, Putnam,
Bradstreet, and Rogers. The following of Sir William Johnson was three
hundred Indians. In over one thousand boats, with banners and music, the
host moved down the lake, making a superb pageant. In the first skirmish
in the woods between Lake George and Ticonderoga, the gallant Lord Howe
was killed. With Howe, fell the real head and leading mind of the
expedition for the capture of Fort Carillon, or Ticonderoga. Without
waiting for his artillery, which, being loaded on rafts, came more
slowly, Abercrombie, on the morning of July 8, ordered an attack on the
French abattis which had been made by Montcalm, two hundred yards in
front of the fort itself.
This movement was against the advice of John Stark, who saw in the
Frenchman’s line of defence a solid breastwork of logs. He knew, also,
that the trees, cut down and laid with their branches outward over the
space of three hundred feet in front of the breastwork, would throw the
attacking platoons and columns out of order. With Braddock-like contempt
for a provincial captain’s advice, Abercrombie, forgetting how the rude
brushwood defence at Lake George had enabled the militia to repulse
Dieskau’s regulars, ignored the hints given by Stark. Taking care to
remain safely at the saw-mills, some distance in the rear, Abercrombie
sent forward his men in four columns.
It was but a few minutes before all formations were hopelessly lost in
the jungle of brushwood. When Highlanders, rangers, British, and Yankees
were well entangled, sheets of fire issued from a line of heads behind
the log breastwork, while the French artillery also played bloody havoc.
Abercrombie, hearing of the initial disaster, left the saw-mills and
made off with himself to the boat-landing; thence, issuing his orders
for attacks on the left, the right, and the centre. For five hours,
without flinching, the victims of military incompetence furnished food
for French powder, and then broke into disorderly retreat. The whole
army followed their commander, and, when at the boats, would have sunk
them in their mad rush, but for the coolness and firmness of Colonel
Bradstreet. It is said that the French found, stuck in the mud, five
hundred pairs of shoes.
The Highlanders—old retainers of the Stuarts, but organized by Pitt to
fight for the Guelphs—lost in this battle one half of their number. The
total loss of the English was nearly two thousand men. Montcalm, the
skilful soldier, covered himself with glory. The Indians under Johnson,
being on the top of a hill, took no part in the fight, though active as
spectators.
Abercrombie retreated to the site of Fort William Henry at the head of
Lake George. The wildest rumours of the advancing victorious French army
now prevailed at Albany and in the Valley; but Johnson did much to allay
fear and restore confidence by sending out the militia, doubling the
guards, and garrisoning the forts and block-houses. Largely through his
earnest appeals, in person, to Abercrombie, General Stanwix was sent
with a large force to build a spacious fort at the one place where
direct boat navigation between Schenectady and Oswego is interrupted.
This portage of four miles—reduced to one mile by ditching and clearing
out the streams—was between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek, and made a
point of highest strategic importance. The fort—which was built and
named Fort Stanwix—had afterward a notable military history.
From this point Colonel Bradstreet, having obtained by a bare majority
in a council of war permission to attack Fort Frontenac, which for three
years he had longed to do, set out with twenty-seven hundred militia,
eleven hundred of whom were from New York. Johnson, who had sent Capt.
Thomas Butler with forty-two Indians, received from him, under date of
August 28, 1758, the joyful news of Bradstreet’s complete victory,
which, all considered, compensated for the disaster of Abercrombie. It
cleared Lake Ontario of all French shipping, and was in relative
influence and importance fully equal to Perry’s victory on Lake Erie,
over half a century later. None rejoiced more than the sons and
grandsons of the victims of the Schenectady massacre of 1690, which had
been instigated by Frontenac, after whom the fort had been named.
During this year Johnson was unusually active with the Indians, in
holding their loyalty to the British side or in maintaining their
neutrality. Many gatherings were held at his own house. In the great
council held at Easton, Penn., in October, 1758, five hundred Indians
were present, including delegates from all the Six Nations, the
Shawanese, Miamis, and Moheganders. The principal figure was
Teedyuscung, who insisted on his people being treated with the same
dignities accorded to the Iroquois. Indeed, if the explanation of the
Delawares be accepted, they had, in times long before, and at the
earnest request of the Indians both north and south of them, voluntarily
and by solemn treaty assumed a subordinate position as warriors and
refrained from war, in order to preserve peace, trade, and the general
good of the whole community of red men. They claimed, however, that it
was Iroquois overreaching in diplomacy and even downright treachery,
that made them seem to “accept the petticoat” and become “squaws.” It is
certain that Teedyuscung made it the aim of his life to secure for his
people the respect of the Iroquois and their equality with the proudest
of the red men. The Easton council lasted nineteen days, and was
productive of harmony both between the Indians and the whites, and among
the varied tribes themselves. The one who contributed most to this
gratifying success was not Johnson, but the honest German and Moravian,
Christian Post, who from his home in the Wyoming Valley had made a
journey and mission of peace, alone, among the tribes in the Ohio
Valley.
When Sir Jeffrey Amherst reached America as commander-in-chief of the
British forces, he came at once, with his four regiments at Albany, to
reinforce Abercrombie. He found at Lake George, by the end of May,
twelve thousand New York and New England militia. Johnson at once urged
upon him the importance of capturing Niagara, the port between the two
great lakes. Amherst agreed to the proposal, and warmly seconded it. In
place of the stockade which the French from the time of La Salle had
maintained, there was now a formidable fort. To Sir William Prideaux was
assigned the work of reducing this Western stronghold; and Johnson, in
order to assist him, called a council at Canajoharie to enlist the
Mohawks, Senecas, and other Indians in the expedition. After the usual
eloquence and expenditure of war-belts of wampum, Johnson led into the
field seven hundred warriors, whose painted faces showed they were on
the war-path. The Swegatchie braves also swelled this following, so that
on arriving at Niagara he wrote to William Pitt, Oct. 24, 1760, that his
Indian force numbered nine hundred and forty-three men.
By the 7th of July Prideaux with thirty-two hundred men, including
Johnson’s Indians, began siege operations. On the twelfth day he was
killed in the trenches by the bursting of a shell from a coehorn mortar.
This left the command to Johnson, who renewed operations with greater
vigour, and by the 22d breached the wall sufficiently for assault.
While active in the trenches with hot shot, bombs, and canister, Johnson
did not forget to keep out his scouts and rangers. From them he learned
that the French officer D’Aubrey was advancing to the relief of the
garrison with twelve hundred men whom he had gathered from all the four
French posts on the lakes. Leaving a force to continue the bombardment,
Johnson marched out with infantry and grenadiers, having the Indians on
his flanks, and attacked the advancing French with vigour. In this
battle the Indians fought like genuine soldiers, and threw the French
into disorder. Seeing this, the charge of the regulars and militia was
made with such force and fury that in less than an hour the fight was
over, and a splendid victory for the English was the result.
Returning to camp and trench, Johnson sent Major Harvey to Captain
Pouchot, the French commander, to tell of the defeat of D’Aubrey, and to
advise capitulation, especially while it was possible to restrain the
Indians. Pouchot yielded; and the surrender of the whole force of over
six hundred took place the next morning. Johnson wisely had ready an
escort for the French prisoners, and not one of them lost his scalp or
was rudely treated by the Iroquois. While the women and children were
sent to Montreal, the men were marched by way of Oswego to New York, to
fill English prisons. The manner in which Johnson restrained the savages
was in marked contrast to the butcheries allowed, or only with great
difficulty prevented, by the French under similar circumstances.
Johnson’s victory at Niagara broke the chain of French forts along the
great valleys and water-ways from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the
delta of the Mississippi. One after another the French deserted the
other forts, except Detroit; and General Stanwix at once occupied them
or their ruins. Leaving Colonel Farquar at Niagara with a garrison of
seven hundred men, Johnson came to Oswego, there meeting General Gage,
who had been appointed to succeed Prideaux. Gage, perhaps irritated that
the provincial fur-trader or “Heaven-born general” had, instead of
himself, won the most brilliant of victories, refused to allow Johnson
to advance and destroy the French forts at La Galette and Oswegatchie,
or Ogdensburg. Finding that Gage, despite his advice and that of
Amherst, meant to do nothing of importance until the next year, Johnson,
after meeting the chief men of the Ottawa and Mississagey Indian tribes,
returned home. He was now the most popular man in the province; while
his name in England was joined with that of his fellow-tradesman, Clive,
as a “Heaven-born general.”
At his home Johnson learned that the French had at last abandoned
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, but by concentrating at the northern end of
Lake Champlain and fortifying their position, blocked the British
advance to Montreal. Amherst was therefore obliged to rest for the
winter; having first rebuilt the great fortresses, constructed Fort
George near the site of old Fort William Henry, and cut a road from the
New York lakes into the heart of New England. Critics of the
over-cautious Amherst say he should have pushed on and helped Wolfe to
conquer Quebec earlier. However, after so many mistakes and disasters
arising from rashness, such a man as Amherst was, perhaps, necessary.
Wolfe, however, succeeded, and on the Plains of Abraham won America for
Teutonic civilization, finding the path of glory a short one to the
grave.
Montreal still remained to the French; and when, the winter over, it was
resolved to attack this last stronghold from three points, Amherst with
the main army assembled at Schenectady was to proceed by way of Oswego
down the “ocean river” of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, General
Murray was to ascend the river from Quebec, while Colonel Haviland was
to advance by way of Lake Champlain. The colonial militia came in
slowly; but by the 12th of June Amherst left Schenectady with twelve
thousand men; while Johnson, arriving at Oswego July 25, led the first
detachment of six hundred Iroquois fighting men. His influence was
however so great that before embarking on Lake Ontario he had, from the
tribes formerly neutral, won over seven hundred more warriors. He also
sent runners with wampum belts to nine tribes of Indians living near
Montreal. These, on his arrival at Fort Levi, at once declared their
neutrality. It was thus from the danger of eight hundred hostile
warriors, familiar with every square rod of land and water, that
Amherst’s army was saved. Passing through the dangerous Lachine Rapids
with the loss of but forty-six men out of his ten thousand, he reached
Montreal. So perfectly was the plan of campaign carried out, that
Amherst and Murray appeared on opposite sides of the city on the same
day. Haldiman soon appeared from the south, and thus the three English
columns became practically one army within twenty-four hours. The city
surrendered on the 8th of September, 1760, and the French power in
America fell.
So fully were the Indians kept in hand by Johnson, that no atrocities
were committed by them, nor the enemy’s people or country in any way
harmed by their presence. In this campaign, in which the talents of
Johnson shone with conspicuous brilliancy, his military career
culminated.
The only French post of importance now remaining was Detroit. To carry
out the terms of the capitulation, and to plant the red flag with the
double cross in the remote Western posts, Captain Rogers, the celebrated
ranger, was sent westward on the 12th of September. At Presque Isle,
about a month later, Johnson’s deputy, Croghan, and interpreter,
Montour, with a force of Iroquois to serve as scouts, joined him.
Passing safely through the country under the influence of Pontiac,
having an interview with the great sachem on the site of Cleveland, they
reached Detroit, November 29. There, in the presence of hundreds of
Indians, heretofore the allies of France, the garrison marched out and
laid down their arms; the great chief, Pontiac, being one of the
witnesses of the memorable sight.