OHIO

FORT DU QUESNE.

Quesne before the garrison should receive re-inforcements, he made forced marches with twelve hundred men, leaving Colonel Dunbar, his second in command, to follow with the remainder, and the wagons. Colonel Washington' had consented to act as Braddock's aid, and to him was given the command of the provincials. Knowing, far better than Braddock, the perils of their march and the kind of warfare they might expect, he ventured, modestly, to give advice, founded upon his experience. But the haughty general would listen to no suggestions, especially from a provincial subordinate. This obstinacy resulted in his ruin. When within ten miles of Fort du Quesne, and while marching at noon-day, on the 9th of July, in fancied security, on the south side of the Monongahela, a volley of bullets and a cloud of arrows assailed the advanced guard, under Lieutenant-Colonel Gage. They came from a thicket and ravine close by, where a thousand dusky warriors lay in ambush. Again Washington asked permission to fight according to the provincial custom, but was refused. Braddock must maneuver according to European tactics, or not at all. three hours, deadly volley after volley fell upon the British columns, while Braddock attempted to maintain order, where all was confusion. The slain soon covered the ground. Every mounted officer but Washington was killed or maimed, and finally, the really brave Braddock himself, after having several horses shot under him, was mortally wounded." Washington remained unhurt. Under his direction the provincials rallied, while the regulars, seeing their general fall, were fleeing in great confusion. The provincials covered their retreat

GEN. BRADDOCK.

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so gallantly, that the enemy did not follow. A week afterward, Washington read the impressive funeral service of the Anglican Church,' over the corpse of Braddock, by torchlight [July 15, 1755]; and he was buried, where his grave may now [1856] be seen, near the National road, between the fifty-third and fifty-fourth mile from Cumberland, in Maryland. Colonel Dunbar received the flying troops, and marched to Philadelphia in August, with the broken companies. Washington, with the southern provincials, went back to Virginia. Thus ended the second expedition of the campaign of 1755.

1 Page 181. 2 Afterward General Gage, commander-in-chief of the British troops at Boston, at the beginning of the Revolution. Page 226.

Braddock was shot by Thomas Faucett, one of the provincial soldiers. His plea was selfpreservation. Braddock had issued a positive order, that none of the English should protect themselves behind trees, as the French and Indians did. Faucett's brother had taken such position, and when Braddock perceived it, he struck him to the earth with his sword. Thomas, on seeing his brother fall, shot Braddock in the back, and then the provincials, fighting as they pleased, were saved from utter destruction.

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Dr. Craik, who was with Washington at this time, and also attended him in his last illness, says, that while in the Ohio country with him, fifteen years afterward, an old Indian chief came, as he said, "a long way" to see the Virginia colonel at whom he fired his rifle fifteen times during the battle on the Monongahela, without hitting him. Washington was never wounded in battle. On this occasion he had two horses shot under him, and four bullets passed through his coat. Writing of this to his brother, he remarked, "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation, * * * although death was leveling my companions on every side." Note 1, page 168. See picture on page 187.

The third expedition, under Governor Shirley, designed to operate against the French posts at Niagara and Frontenac, experienced less disasters, but was quite as unsuccessful. It was late in August before Shirley had collected the main body of his troops at Oswego, from whence he intended to go to Niagara by water. His force was twenty-five hundred strong on the 1st of September, yet circumstances compelled him to hesitate. The prevalence of storms, and of sickness in his camp, and, finally, the desertion of the greater part of his Indian allies,' made it perilous to proceed, and he relinquished the design. Leaving sufficient men to garrison the forts which he had commenced at Oswego,' he marched the remainder to Albany [Oct. 24], and returned to Massachusetts.

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The fourth expedition, under General Johnson, prepared for attacking Crown Point, accomplished more than that of Braddock' or Shirley, but failed to achieve its main object. In July [1755], about six thousand troops, drawn from New England, New York, and New Jersey, had assembled at the head of boat navigation on the Hudson (now the village of Fort Edward), fifty miles north of Albany. They were under the command of General Lyman,5 of Connecticut; and before the arrival of General Johnson, in August, with cannons and stores, they had erected a strong fortification, which was afterward. called Fort Edward. On his arrival, Johnson took command, and with the main body of the troops, marched to the head of Lake George, about fifteen miles distant, where he established a camp, protected on both sides by an impassable swamp.

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While the provincial troops were making these preparations, General the Baron Dieskau (a French officer of much repute), with about two thousand men, chiefly Canadian militia and Indians, was approaching from Montreal, by way of Lake Champlain, to meet the English. When Johnson arrived at Lake George, on the 7th of September, Indian scouts informed him that Dieskau was disembarking at the head of Lake Champlain (now the village of

'Tribes of the SIX NATIONS [page 25], and some Stockbridge Indians. The latter were called Housatonics, from the river on which they were found. They were a division of the Mohegan [page 21] tribe.

Fort Ontario on the east, and Fort Pepperell on the west of Oswego River. Fort Pepperell was afterward called Fort Oswego. See map, page 192. The house was built of stone, and the walls were three feet thick. It was within a square inclosure composed of a thick wall, and two strong square towers.

Upon this tongue of land on Lake Champlain, the French erected a fortification, which they called Fort St. Frederick. On the Vermont side of the lake, opposite, there was a French settlement as early as 1731. In allusion to the chimnies of their houses, which remained long after the settlement was destroyed, it is still known as Chimney Point.

Page 185.

Born in Durham, Connecticut, in the year 1716. He was a graduate of Yale College, and became a lawyer. He was a member of the colonial Assembly in 1750, and performed important services during the whole war that soon afterward ensued. He commanded the expedition that captured Havana in 1762; and at the peace, in 1763, he became concerned in lands in the Mississippi region. He died in Florida in 1775.

It was first called Fort Lyman. Johnson, meanly jealous of General Lyman, changed the name to Fort Edward.

Dieskau and his French troops, on their way from France, narrowly escaped capture by Admiral Boscawen, who was cruising, with an English fleet, off Newfoundland. They eluded his fleet during a fog, and went in safety up the St. Lawrence.

Whitehall), preparatory to marching against Fort Edward. The next scouts brought Johnson the intelligence that Dieskau's Indians, terrified by the English cannons when they approached Fort Edward, had induced him to change his plans, and that he was marching to attack his camp. Colonel Ephraim Williams, of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was immediately sent [Sept. 8], with a thousand troops from that colony, and two hundred Mohawks,' under the famous chief, Hendrick, to intercept the enemy. They met in a narrow defile, four miles from Lake George. The English suddenly fell into an ambuscade. Williams and Hendrick

FORT EDWARD.

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were both killed, and their followers fell back in great confusion, upon Johnson's camp, hotly pursued by the victors. One of the Massachusetts regiments, which fought bravely in this action, was commanded by Timothy Ruggles, who was president of the Stamp Act Congress,' held at New York in 1765, but who, when the Revolution broke out, was active on the side of the Crown.

The commander-in-chief was assured of the disaster before the flying fugitives made their appearance. He immediately cast up a breastwork of logs and limbs, placed upon it two cannons which he had received from Fort Edward two days before, and when the enemy came rushing on, close upon the heels of the English, he was prepared to receive them. The fugitives had just reached Johnson's camp when Dieskau and his flushed victors appeared. Unsuspicious of heavy guns upon so rude a pile as Johnson's battery exhibited, they rushed forward, with sword, pike, and tomahawk, and made a spirited attack. One volley from the English cannons made the Indians flee in terror to the shelter of the deep forests around. The Canadian militia also fled, as General Lyman and a body of troops approached from Fort Edward; and, finally, the French troops, after continuing the conflict several hours, and losing their commander, withdrew, and hastened to Crown Point. Their baggage was captured by some New Hampshire troops from Fort Edward, and the defeat was complete.

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON.

General Johnson erected a fortification on the site of his camp, at the head of the lake, and called it Fort William Henry. It was constructed under the direction of Richard Gridley, who commanded the artillery in the siege of Louisburg, ten years before. Being informed that the French were strength

1 Page 23. While on his way north, Williams stopped at Albany, made his will, and bequeathed certain property to found a free school for western Massachusetts. That was the foundation of "Williams' College"-his best monument. The rock near which his body was found, on the right side of the road from Glenn's Falls to Lake George, still bears his name; and a collection of water on the bat tle-ground, is called Bloody Pond. Page 215. Dieskau was found mortally wounded, carried into the English camp, and there tenderly treated. He was afterward conveyed to New York, from whence he sailed to England, where he died. Note 1, page 137.

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