the rousing of the Indians on one side and the other, made the great
forest which stretched across northern New York and New England
populous with troops and resonant with the sounds of war. Those solemn
woodland aisles and quiet glades were desecrated by marchings and
campings, and in the ravines and recesses lay the corpses of men in
uniforms, the grim remains of peasants who had been born three thousand
miles away. Passing through the depths of the wilderness, apparently
remote from all human habitation, suddenly one would come upon a
fortress, frowning with heavy guns, and surrounded by the log-built
barracks of the soldiery, who, in the intervals of siege and combat,
passed their days impatiently, thinking of the distant homes from which
they came, and muttering their discontent at inaction and uncertainty.
The region round the junction of Lake George and Lake Champlain, where
stood the strongholds of Fort Edward and Fort William Henry, of Crown
Point and Ticonderoga, was the scene of many desperate conflicts,
between 1758 and 1780; and the wolves of the forest, and the bears of
the Vermont mountains, were disturbed in their lairs by the tumults and
the restless evolutions, and wandered eastward until they came among
the startled hamlets and frontier farms of the settlements. The
savagery of man, surpassing theirs, drove them to seek shelter amid the
abodes of man himself; but there was no safety for them there, as many
a bloody head and paws, trophies of rustic marksmanship, attested. The
dominion of the wilderness was approaching its end in America.
Everywhere you might hear the roll of the drum, and there was no family
but had its soldier, and few that did not have their dead. There were a
score of thousand British troops in the northern provinces, and every
week brought rumors and alarms, and portents of victory or defeat. The
haggard post-rider came galloping in with news from north and west,
which the throng of anxious village folks gather to hear. There have
been skirmishes, successes, retreats, surprises, massacres,
retaliations; there is news from Niagara and Oswego on far away Lake
Ontario, and echoes of the guns at Ticonderoga. There are proclamations
for enlistment, and requisitions for ammunition; and the tailors in the
towns are busy cutting out scarlet uniforms and decorating them with
gold braid. Markets for the supply of troops are established in the
woods, far from any settled habitations, where shrewd farmers bargain
with the hungry soldiery for carcasses of pigs and beeves, and for
disheveled hens from distant farmyards; the butcher's shop is kept
under the spreading brandies of the trees, from whose low limbs dangle
the tempting wares, and a stump serves as a chopping-block. Under the
shrubbery, where the sun cannot penetrate, are stored home-made firkins
full of yellow butter, and great cheeses, and heaps of substantial
home-baked bread. Kegs of hard cider and spruce beer and perhaps more
potent brews are abroach, and behind the haggling and jesting and
bustle you may catch the sound of muskets or the whoop of the Indians
from afar. Meanwhile, in the settlements, all manner of industries were
stimulated, and a great number of women throughout the country, left to
take care of their children and themselves by the absence of their
men-folk, went into business of all kinds, and drove a thriving trade.
Lotteries were also popular, the promoters retaining a good share of
the profits after the nominal object of the transaction had been
attained. It was well that the war operations were carried on far from
the populous regions, so that only the fighters themselves were
involved in the immediate consequences. The battle was for the homes of
posterity, where as yet the woodman's ax had never been heard, except
to provide defenses against death, instead of habitations for life.
Those who could not go to the war sat round the broad country
hearthstones at night, with the fire of logs leaping up the great
cavern of the chimney, telling stories of past exploits, speculating as
to the present, praying perhaps for the future, and pausing now and
then to listen to strange noises abroad in the night-ridden
sky--strains of ghostly music playing a march or a charge, or the
thunder of phantom guns.
Governor Shirley, who while in France in 1749 had married a French wife
and brought her home with him, and who for a while had the chief
command of the king's forces in America, was in disfavor with the
people, who suspected his wife of sending treasonable news to the
enemy; and having also proved inefficient as a soldier, he was recalled
to England in 1756, and vanished thenceforth as a factor in American
affairs, in which his influence had always been selfish and illiberal,
if not worse. Thomas Pownall succeeded him and held his position for
three years, when he was transferred to South Carolina. He was a man of
fashion, and of little weight. From the shuffle of men who appeared and
disappeared during the early years of the war, a few stand out in
permanent distinctness. Washington's reputation steadily increased;
Amherst, Wolfe and Lyman achieved distinction on the English side, and
Montcalm and Dieskau on the French. In 1757, General Loudoun, one of
the agents of the despoiling of Acadia, made a professed attempt to
capture Louisburg, which had been given back to the French at the last
peace; but after wasting a summer in vain drilling of his forces,
retired in dismay on learning that the French fleet outnumbered his own
by one vessel. The place was bombarded and taken the next year by
Amherst and Wolfe, but Halifax was the English headquarters in that
region. Before this however, in the summer of 1755, immediately after
the defeat of Braddock, an army of New Englanders assembled at Albany
to capture Crown Point, where the French had called together every
able-bodied man available. William Johnson was commander, and
associated with him was Phinehas Lyman, a natural-born soldier. They
marched to the southern shore of what the French called the Lake of the
Holy Sacrament, but which Johnson thought would better be named Lake
George. The army, with its Indian allies, numbered about thirty-four
hundred; a camping ground was cleared, but no intrenchments were thrown
up; no enemy seemed to be within reach. Dieskau, informed of the
advance, turned from his design against Oswego in the west, and marched
for Fort Edward, in the rear of Johnson's troops. By a mistake of the
guide he found himself approaching the open camp. Johnson sent a
Massachusetts man, Ephraim Williams, with a thousand troops, to save
Fort Edward. They nearly fell into an ambush; as it was, their party
was overpowered by the enemy; Williams was killed, but Whiting of
Connecticut guarded the retreat. During the action, a redoubt of logs
had been constructed in the camp, and was strengthened with baggage and
wagons. The Americans, with their fowling-pieces, defended this place
for five hours against two hundred regular French troops, six hundred
Canadians, and as many Indians. Johnson received a scratch early in the
engagement, and made it an excuse to retire; and Lyman assumed
direction. Dieskau bravely led the French regulars, nearly all of whom
were killed; he was four times wounded; the Canadians were intimidated.
At length, about half past four in the afternoon, the French retreated,
though the American losses equaled theirs; a body of them were pursued
by Macginnes of New Hampshire and left their baggage behind them in
their haste; but the body of Macginnes also remained on the field. The
credit for this battle, won by Lyman, was given by the English
government to Johnson, who received a baronetcy and a "tip" of five
thousand pounds. It would have been the first step in a series of
successes had not Johnson, instead of following up his victory, timidly
remained in camp, building Fort William Henry; and when winter
approached, he disbanded the New Englanders and retired. The French had
taken advantage of their opportunity to intrench themselves in
Ticonderoga, which was destined to become a name of awe for the
colonists. At the same time that Braddock marched on Fort Duquesne,
Shirley had set out with two thousand men to capture the fort at
Niagara, garrisoned by but thirty ill-armed men; the intention being to
form a junction there with the all-conquering Braddock. The latter's
annihilation took all the heart out of the superserviceable Shirley; he
got no further than Oswego, where he frittered the summer away, and
then retreated under a cloud of pretexts. He and the other royal
officials were all this while pleading for a general fund to be created
by Parliament, or in any other manner, so that a fund there be; and
asserting that the frontiers would otherwise be, and in fact were,
defenseless. In the face of such tales the colonies were of their own
motion providing all the necessary supplies for war, and Franklin had
taken personal charge of the northwest border. But the English ministry
saw in these measures only increasing peril from popular power, and
pushed forward a scheme for a military dictatorship. In May, 1756, war
was formally declared, and England arbitrarily forbade other nations to
carry French merchandise in their ships. Abercrombie was chosen general
for the prosecution of the campaign in America, and arrived at Albany,
after much dilatoriness, in June. Bradstreet reported that he had put
stores into Oswego for five thousand men; and that the place was
already threatened by the enemy. Still the English delayed. Montcalm
arrived at Quebec to lead the French army, and immediately planned the
capture of Oswego. In August he took an outlying redoubt, and the
garrison of Oswego surrendered just as he was about to open fire upon
it. Sixteen hundred prisoners, over a hundred cannon, stores, boats and
money were the prize; and Montcalm destroyed the fort and returned in
triumph. Loudoun and Abercrombie, with an army of thousands of men,
which could have taken Canada with ease, thought only of keeping out of
Montcalm's way, pleading in excuse that they feared to trust the
"provincials"--who had thus far done all the fighting that had been
done, and won all the successes. In spite of the remonstrances of the
civic authorities, the British troops and officers were billeted upon
New York and Philadelphia. Two more frightened generals were never
seen; and the provinces were left open to the enemy's attack. But the
Americans took the war into their own hands. John Armstrong of
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, crossed the Alleghanies in September
and in a desperate fight destroyed an Indian tribe that had been
massacring along the border, burned their town and blew up their
powder. In January of 1757, Stark, a daring ranger, with seventy men,
made a dash on Lake George, and engaged a party of two hundred and
fifty French. About the same time, at Philadelphia and Boston it was
voted to raise men for the service; a hundred thousand pounds was also
voted, but the proprietors refused to pay their quota, and represented
in England that the Pennsylvanians were obstructing the measures for
defense. Franklin, sent to England to remonstrate, was told that the
king was the legislator of the colonies. All action was paralyzed by
the corruption and cowardice of the royal officials. The pusillanimity
of Loudoun, with his ten thousand men and powerful fleet in Nova
Scotia, has been already mentioned. In July Montcalm, with a mixed
force of more than seven thousand, advanced upon Fort William Henry.
Webb, who should have opposed him, retreated, leaving Monro with five
hundred men to hold the fort. He refused Montcalm's summons to
surrender; Webb, who might still have saved him, refused to do so; he
fought until his ammunition was gone and half his guns burst, and then
surrendered upon Montcalm's promise of the honors of war and an escort
out of the country. But the Indians had got rum from the English stores
and passed the night in drunken revelry; in the morning they set upon
the unarmed English as they left the fort, and began to plunder and
tomahawk them. Montcalm and his officers did their utmost to stop the
treacherous outrage; but thirty men were murdered. Montcalm has been
treated leniently by history; he was indeed a brilliant and heroic
soldier, and he had the crowning honor of dying bravely at Quebec; but
he cannot be held blameless in this affair. He had taught the Indians
that he was as one of themselves, had omitted no means of securing
their amity; had danced and sung with them and smiled approvingly on
their butcherings and scalpings; and he had no right to imagine that
they would believe him sincere in his promise to spare the prisoners.
It was too late for him to cry "Kill me, but spare them!" after the
massacre had commenced. It was his duty to have taken measures to
render such a thing impossible beforehand. He had touched pitch, and
was denied.
Disgrace and panic reigned among all the English commanders. Webb
whimpered to be allowed to fall back on the Hudson with his six
thousand men; Loudoun cowered in New York with his large army, and
could think of no better way of defending the northwest frontier than
by intrenching himself on Long Island. There was not an Englishman in
the Ohio or the St. Lawrence Basins. Everywhere beyond the narrow strip
of the colonies the French were paramount. In Europe, England's
position was almost as contemptible. Such was the result of the attempt
of the aristocracy to rule England. There was only one man who could
save England, and he was an old man, poor, a commoner, and sick almost
to death. But in 1757 William Pitt was called to the English helm,
accepted the responsibility, and steered the country from her darkest
to her most brilliant hour. The campaigns which drove the soldiers of
Louis XV. out of America were the first chapter of the movement which
ended in the expulsion of the British from the territory of the United
States. Catholicism and Protestantism were arrayed against each other
for the last time. Pitt was the man of the people; his ambition, though
generous, was as great as his abilities; the colonies knew him as their
friend. "I can save this country, and nobody else can," he said; and
bent his final energies to making England the foremost nation in the
world, and the most respected. The faith of Rome allied France with
Austria; and Prussia, with Frederic the Great, standing as the sole
bulwark of Protestantism on the Continent, was inevitably drawn toward
England.
With one movement of his all-powerful hand, Pitt reversed the
oppressive and suicidal policy of the colonial administration. Loudoun
was recalled; his excuses were vain. Amherst and Wolfe were sent out.
The colonies were told that no compulsion should be put upon them; they
were expected to levy, clothe and pay their men, but the government
would repay their outlay. Instantly they responded, and their
contributions exceeded all anticipation. Massachusetts taxed herself
thirteen and fourpence in the pound. Provincial officers not above
colonel ranked with the British, and a new spirit animated all. On the
other hand, Canada suffered from famine, and Montcalm foresaw eventual
defeat. Amherst and Wolfe, with ten thousand men, captured Louisburg
and destroyed the fortifications. At the same time, a great army was
collected against Ticonderoga. Nine thousand provincials, with Stark,
Israel Putnam, and six hundred New England rangers, camped side by side
with over six thousand troops of the British regulars under Abercrombie
and Lord Howe. The French under Montcalm had erected Fort Carillon on
the outlet from Lake George to Champlain, approachable only from the
northwest. It was here that he planned his defense. The English
disembarked on the west side of the lake, protected by Point Howe. In
marching round the bend they came upon a French party of three hundred
and defeated them, Howe falling in the first attack. Montcalm was
behind intrenchments with thirty-six hundred men; Abercrombie rashly
gave orders to carry the works by storm without waiting for cannon, but
was careful to remain far in the rear during the action. The attack was
most gallantly and persistently delivered; nearly two thousand men,
mostly regulars, were killed; and, at the end of the murderous day,
Montcalm remained master of the field. Abercrombie still had four times
as many men as Montcalm, and with his artillery could easily have
carried the works and captured Ticonderoga; but he was by this time
"distilled almost to a jelly by the act of fear" and fled headlong at
once. Montcalm had not yet met his match.
Bradstreet, however, with seven hundred Massachusetts men and eleven
hundred New Yorkers, crossed Lake Ontario and took Port Frontenac, the
garrison fleeing at their approach. Amherst, on hearing of
Abercrombie's cowardice, embarked for Boston with over four thousand
men, marched thence to Albany and on to the camp; Abercrombie was sent
to England, and Amherst took his place as chief. The capture of Fort
Duquesne was the first thing planned. Over forty-five hundred men were
raised in South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia; Joseph Forbes
commanded them as brigadier-general; Washington led the Virginians;
John Armstrong and the boy, Anthony Wayne, were with the
Pennsylvanians. Washington, who had clad part of his men in Indian
deerskins, wanted to follow Braddock's line of march; but Forbes, who
had not long to live, though his brain remained clear, preferred to
build a road by which ready communication with Philadelphia could be
kept up. Washington got news that the Fort had but eight hundred
defenders, and a strong reconnaissance was sent forward, without his
knowledge, under Major Grant, who, thinking he had the French at
advantage, exposed himself and was defeated with a loss of three
hundred. The remaining five hundred reached camp in good order, thanks
to the discipline which had been given them by Washington. Forbes had
decided to advance no further that season--it was then November; but
Washington had information which caused him to gain permission to
advance with twenty-five hundred provincials, and he occupied
intrenchments near Duquesne. Nine days later the rest of the army
arrived; and the garrison of the Fort set fire to it at night and fled.
The place was entered by the troops, Armstrong raised the British flag,
and at Forbes' suggestion it was rechristened Pittsburgh. And there,
above the confluence of the two rivers, the city named after the Great
Commoner stands to-day. A vast and fertile country was thenceforward
opened to the east. After burying the bleaching bones of the men killed
under Braddock, a garrison was left on the spot, and the rest of the
army returned.
Washington, who had seen five years' arduous service, resigned his
commission, and after receiving cordial honors from his fellow officers
and the Virginia legislature, married the widow, Martha Custis, and
settled down as a planter in Mount Vernon. He was a delegate to the
Virginia House of Burgesses and to the Continental Congresses of 1774
and 1775; but it was not until the latter year that he reappeared as a
soldier, accepting the command of the Continental forces on the 15th of
June, not against the French, but against the English.
In 1759 the genius and spirit of Pitt began to be fully felt. The
English were triumphant in Europe, and a comprehensive plan for the
conquest of Canada was intrusted for the first time to men capable of
carrying it out. Thousands of men were enlisted and paid for by the
colonies north of Maryland. Stanwix, Amherst, Prideaux and Wolfe were
the chiefs in command. Fifty thousand English and provincial troops
were opposed by not more than an eighth as many half-starved Frenchmen
and Canadians. Montcalm had no illusions; he told the French Minister
of War that, barring extraordinary accidents, Canada's hour had come;
but he "was resolved to find his grave under the ruins of the colony."
And young General Wolfe had said, on being given the department of the
St. Lawrence, "I feel called upon to justify the notice taken of me by
such exertions and exposure of myself as will probably lead to my
fall." The premonitions of both these valiant soldiers were fulfilled.
Wolfe was at this time thirty-two years of age, and had spent half his
life in the army. The Marquis de Montcalm was forty-seven when he fell
on the Plains of Abraham. Neither general had been defeated up to the
moment they faced each other; neither could succumb to any less worthy
adversary.
But the first objective point was not Quebec, but Fort Niagara, which,
standing between Erie and Ontario, commanded the fur trade of the
country to the west. Prideaux, with an adequate force of English,
Americans and Indians, invested the place in July, D'Aubry, the French
commander, bringing up twelve hundred men to relieve it. Just before
the action, Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a mountain howitzer,
but Sir William Johnson was at hand to take his place. On the 24th the
battle took place; the French were flanked by the English Indians, and
charged by the English; they broke and fled, and the Fort surrendered
next day. Stanwix had meanwhile taken possession of all the French
posts between Pittsburgh and Erie. The English had got their enemy on
the run all along the line. Gage was the only English officer to
disgrace himself in this campaign; he squirmed out of compliance with
Amherst's order to occupy the passes of Ogdensburgh. Amherst, with
artillery and eleven thousand men, advanced on the hitherto invincible
Ticonderoga. The French knew they were beaten, and therefore, instead
of fighting, abandoned the famous stronghold and Crown Point, and
retreated down to Isle aux Nois, whither Amherst should have followed
them. Instead of doing so, he took to building and repairing
fortifications--the last infirmity of military minds of a certain
order--and finally went into winter quarters with nothing further done.
Amherst, at the end of the war, received the routine rewards of a
well-meaning and not defeated commander-in-chief; but it was Wolfe who
won immortality.
He collected his force of eight thousand men, including two battalions
of "Royal Americans," at Louisburg; among his ship captains was Cook
the explorer; Lieutenant-colonel Howe commanded a body of light
infantry. Before the end of June the army stepped ashore on the island
that fills the channel of the St. Lawrence below Quebec, called the
Isle of Orleans. Montcalm's camp was between them and the tall
acclivity on which stood the famous fortress, which had defied capture
for a hundred and thirty years. The French outnumbered the English, but
neither the physical condition nor the morale of their troops was good.
That beetling cliff was the ally on which Montcalm most depended. All
the landing-places up stream for nine miles had been fortified: the
small river St. Charles covered with its sedgy marshes the approach on
the north and east, while on the west another stream, the Montmorenci,
rising nearly at the same place as the St. Charles, falls in cataracts
into the St. Lawrence nine miles above the citadel. All these natural
features had been improved by military art. High up, north and west of
the city, spread the broad Plains of Abraham.
Wolfe's fleet commanded the river and the south shore. Point Levi, on
this shore, opposite Quebec, was fortified by the English, and siege
guns were mounted there, the channel being but a mile wide; the lower
town could be reached by the red-hot balls, but not the lofty citadel.
After personally examining the region during the greater part of July,
Wolfe decided on a double attack; one party to ford the Montmorenci,
which was practicable at a certain hour of the tide, and the other to
cross over in boats from Point Levi. But the boats grounded on some
rocks in the channel; and Wolfe was repulsed at the Montmorenci. Four
hundred men were lost. An expedition was now sent up stream to open
communication with Amherst; but though it was learned that Niagara,
Crown Point and Ticonderoga had fallen, Amherst did not appear. Wolfe
must do his work alone; the entire population of the country was
against him, and the strongest natural fortification in the world. His
eager anxiety threw him into a fever. "My constitution is entirely
ruined, without the consolation of having done any considerable service
to the state, and without any prospect of it," was what he wrote to the
English government. Four days afterward he was dying victorious on the
Plains of Abraham.