ening their works at Crown Point, and were fortifying Ticonderoga,' he thought it prudent to cease offensive operations. He garrisoned Fort Edward and Fort William Henry, returned to Albany, and as the season was advanced [October, 1755], he dispersed the remainder of his troops. For his services in this campaign, the king conferred the honor of knighthood upon him, and gave him twenty-five thousand dollars with which to support the dignity. This honor and emolument properly belonged to General Lyman, the real hero of the campaign. Johnson had Sir Peter Warren and other friends at court, and so won the unmerited prize. FORT WILLIAM HENRY. CAMPAIGN OF 1756. The home governments now took up the quarrel. The campaign of 1755, having assumed all the essential features of regular war, and there appearing no prospect of reconciliation of the belligerents, England formally proclaimed hostilities against France, on the 17th of May, 1756, and the latter soon afterward [June 9] reciprocrated the action. Governor Shirley, who had become commander-in chief, after the death of Braddock, was superseded by General Abercrombie in the spring of 1756. He came as the lieutenant of Lord Loudon, whom the king had appointed to the chief command in America, and also governor of Virginia. Loudon was an indolent man, and a remarkable procrastinater, and the active general-in-chief was Abercrombie, who, also, was not remarkable for his skill and forethought as a commander. He arrived with several British regiments early in June. The plan of the campaign for that year had already been arranged by a convention of colonial governors held at Albany early in the season. Ten thousand men were to attack Crown Point; six thousand were to proceed against Niagara;" three thousand against Fort du Quesne; and two thousand were to cross the country from the Kennebec, to attack the French settlements on the Chaudiere River. ABERCROMBIE The command of the expedition against Crown Point was intrusted to General Winslow,' who had collected seven thousand men at Albany, when Aber 1 Page 196. "Lyman urged Johnson to pursue the French, and assail Crown Point. The Mohawks burned for an opportunity to avenge the death of Hendrick. But Johnson preferred ease and safety, and spent the autumn in constructing Fort William Henry. He meanly withheld all praise from Lyman, in his dispatches to government. Johnson was born in Ireland, in 1714. He came to America to take charge of the lands of his uncle, Admiral Warren [page 137], on the Mohawk River, and gained great influence over the Indians of New York. He died at his seat (now the village of Johnstown) in the Mohawk valley, in 1774. A strong party in England, irritated by the failures of the campaign of 1755, cast the blame of Braddock's defeat and other disasters, upon the Americans, and finally procured the recall of Shirley. He completely vindicated his character, and was afterward appointed governor of the Bahama Islands. 4 Page 200. Page 200. • Page 186. 7 Page 185. crombie arrived. Difficulties immediately occurred, respecting military rank, and caused delay. They were not adjusted when the tardy Loudon arrived, at midsummer; and his arrogant assumption of superior rank for the royal officers, increased the irritation and discontent of the provincial troops. When these matters were finally adjusted, in August, the French had gained such positive advantages, that the whole plan of the campaign was disconcerted. Baron Dieskau' was succeeded by the Marquis de Montcalm, in the command of the French troops in Canada. Perceiving the delay of the English, and knowing that a large number of their troops was at Albany, short of provisions, and suffering from small-pox, and counting wisely upon the inefficiency of their commander-in-chief, he collected about five thousand Frenchmen, Canadians, and Indians, at Frontenac, and crossing Lake Ontario, landed, with thirty pieces of cannon, a few miles east of Oswego. Two days afterward, he appeared before Fort Ontario [Aug. 11, 1756], on the east side of the river, then in command of Colonel Mercer. After a short but brave resistance, the garrison abandoned the fort [Aug. 12], and withdrew to an older fortification, on the west side of the river. Their commander was killed, and they were soon obliged to surrender themselves [Aug. 14] prisoners 4 open to The loss of Oswego was a severe blow to the English. When intelligence of that event reached Loudon, he recalled the troops then on their way toward Lake Champlain; and all the other expeditions were abandoned. Forts William Henrys and Edward' were strengthened; fifteen hundred volunteers and drafted militia, under Washington, were placed in stockades' for the defense of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers; and on the western borders of the Carolinas several military posts were established as a protection against the BLOCK HOUSE. 1 Page 189. Note 5, page 180. A palisaded block-house, built by order of Governor Burnet in 1727, near the spot where Fort Pepperell was erected. A redoubt or block-house is a fortified building, of peculiar construction, well cab culated for defense. They were generally built of logs, in the form represented in the engraving. They were usually two stories, with narrow openings through which to fire muskets from within. They were sometimes prepared with openings for cannons. This was to please the SIX NATIONS, who had never felt contented with this supporter of power in their midst. The demolition of these forts, induced the Indians to assume an attitude of neutrality, by a solemn treaty. Page 191. It commanded a view of the lake from its head to the Narrows, fifteen miles. Page 190. The Hudson is divided at Fort Edward, into two channels, by Roger's Island, upon which the provincial troops out of the fort, usually encamped. Note 2, page 183. Cherokees' and Creeks,' whom French emissaries were exciting to hostilities against the English. Hitherto, since the commencement of hostilities, some of the colonial Assemblies had been slow to make appropriations for the support of the war. Pennsylvania and South Carolina, actuated by different motives, had held back, but now the former made an appropriation of thirty thousand pounds, to be issued in paper, and the latter granted four thousand pounds toward enlisting two companies for the public service. The most important achievement of the provincials during that year, was the chastisement of the Indians at Kittaning, their chief town, situated on the Alleghany River. During several months they had spread terror and desolation along the western frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and almost a thousand white people had been murdered or carried into captivity. These acts aroused the people of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Franklin undertook the military command of the frontier, with the rank of colonel. His troops were voluntary militia. Under his directions, a chain of forts and blockhouses was erected along the base of the Kittaning mountains, from the Delaware to the Maryland line. Franklin soon perceived that he was not in his right place, and he abandoned military life forever. The Indians continuing their depredations, Colonel John Armstrong of Pennsylvania,' accompanied by Captain Mercer of Virginia, with about three hundred men, attacked them on the night of the 8th of September [1756], killed their principal chiefs, destroyed their town, and completely humbled them. Thus ended the campaign of 1756. The French still held in possession almost all of the territory in dispute, and of the most important of their military posts. They had also expelled the English from Oswego and Lake George, and had compelled the powerful SIX NATIONS to make a treaty of neutrality. On the whole, the campaign of 1756 closed with advantages on the part of the French. CAMPAIGN OF 1757. A military council was held at Boston on the 19th of January, 1757, when Lord Loudon proposed to confine the operations of that year to an expedition against Louisburg,' and to the defense of the frontiers. Because he was commander-in-chief, wiser and better men acquiesced in his plans, but deplored his want of judgment and executive force. The people of New England, in particular, were greatly disappointed when they ascertained that the execution of their favorite scheme of driving the French from Lake Champlain was to be deferred. However, the general ardor of the colonists was not abated, and the call for troops was so promptly responded to, that Loudon found himself at the head of six thousand provincials on the first of June. The capture of Louisburg was Loudon's first care. He sailed from New York on the 20th of that month, and on arriving at Halifax ten days afterward [June 30], he was joined 1 Page 27. 3 2 Page 30. He was a general in the war for Independence, twenty years later. See note 1, page 249. • Page 269. Page 137. by Admiral Holborne, with a powerful naval armament and five thousand land troops, from England. They were about to proceed to Cape Breton,' when they were informed that six thousand troops were in the fortress at Louisburg,' and that a French fleet, larger than Holborne's, was lying in that harbor. The latter had arrived and taken position while Loudon was moving slowly, with his characteristic indecision. The enterprise was abandoned, and Loudon returned to New York [Aug. 31], to hear of defeat and disgrace on the northern frontier, the result of his ignorance and utter unskillfulness. Montcalm had again borne away important trophies of victory. Toward the close of July, he left Ticonderoga with about nine thousand men (of whom two thousand were Indians), and proceeded to besiege Fort William Henry, at the head of Lake George. The garrison of three thousand men was commanded by Colonel Monro, a brave English officer, who felt strengthened in his position by the close proximity of his chief, General Webb, who was at the head of four thousand troops at Fort Edward, only fifteen miles distant. But his confidence in his commanding general was sadly misplaced. When Montcalm demanded a surrender of the fort and garrison [August 3, 1757], Monro boldly refused, and sent an express to General Webb, for aid. It was not furnished. For six days Montcalm continued the siege, and expresses were sent daily to Webb for reinforcements, but in vain. Even when General Johnson, with a corps of provincials and Putnam's Rangers, had, on reluctant permission, marched several miles in the direction of the beleaguered fort, Webb recalled them, and sent a letter to Monro, advising him to surrender. That letter was intercepted by Montcalm,' and with a peremptory demand for capitulation, he sent it to Monro. Perceiving further resistance to be useless, Monro yielded. Montcalm was so pleased with the bravery displayed by the garrison, that he agreed upon very honorable terms of surrender, and promised the troops a safe escort to Fort Edward. His Indians, expecting blood and booty, were enraged by the merciful terms, and at the moment when the English entered the forests a mile from Fort William Henry, the savages fell upon them with great fury, slaughtered a large number, plundered their baggage, and pursued them to within cannon shot of Fort Edward. Montcalm declared his inability to restrain the Indians, and expressed his deep sorrow. The fort and all its appendages were burned or otherwise destroyed." It was never rebuilt; and until 1854, nothing marked LAKE GEORGE AND VICINITY. 3 Page 191. 4 Page 190. 1 Note 5, page 137. 9 Page 137. Page 190. Israel Putnam, afterward a major-general in the army of the Revolution. He now held the commission of major, and with Major Rogers and his rangers, performed important services during the whole French and Indian War. 7 It is said that Montcalm was just on the point of raising the siege and returning to Ticonderoga, when Webb's cowardly letter fell into his hands. The number and strength of Johnson's troops had been greatly exaggerated, and Montcalm was preparing to flee. 8 Major Putnam visited the ruins while the fires were yet burning, and he described the scene as very appalling. The bodies of murdered Englishmen were scattered in every direction, some of its site but an irregular line of low mounds on the border of the lake, a short distance from the village of Caldwell. Since then a hotel has been erected upon the spot, for the accommodation of summer tourists. Thus ended the military operations of the inefficient Earl of Loudon, for the year 1757. The position of affairs in America now alarmed the English people. The result of the war, thus far, was humiliating to British pride, while it incited the French to greater efforts in the maintenance of their power in the West. In the Anglo-American' colonies there was much irritation. Thoroughly imbued with democratic ideas, and knowing their competency, unaided by royal troops, to assert and maintain their rights, they regarded the interferences of the home government as clogs upon their operations. Some of the royal governors were incompetent and rapacious, and all were marked by a haughty deportment, offensive to the sturdy democracy of the colonists. Their demands for men and money, did not always meet with cheerful and ample responses; and the arrogant assumption of the English officers, disgusted the commanders of the provincial troops, and often cooled the zeal of whole battalions of brave Americans. Untrammeled by the orders, exactions, and control of imperial power, the Americans would probably have settled the whole matter in a single campaign; but at the close of the second year of the war [1756] the result appeared more uncertain and remote than ever. The people of England had perceived this clearly, and clamored for the dismissal of the weak and corrupt ministry then in power. The popular will prevailed, and William Pitt, by far the ablest statesman England had yet produced, was called to the control of public affairs in June, 1757. Energy and good judgment marked every movement of his administration, especially in measures for prosecuting the war in America. Lord Loudon was recalled,' and General Abercrombie was appointed to succeed him. A strong naval armament was prepared and placed under the command of Admiral Boscawen; and twelve thousand additional English troops were allotted to the service in America. Pitt addressed a letter to the several colonies, asking them to raise and clothe twenty thousand men. He promised, in the name of Parliament, to furnish arms, tents, and provisions for them; and also to reimburse the several colonies all the money they should expend in raising and clothing the levies. These liberal offers had a magical effect, and an excess of levies soon appeared. New England alone raised fifteen thousand men; New York furnished almost twenty-seven hundred, New Jersey one them half consumed among the embers of the conflagration. Among the dead were more than one hundred women, many of whom had been scalped [note 4, page 14] by the Indians. 'This is the title given to Americans who are of English descent. Those who are descendants of the Saxons who settled in England, are called Anglo-Saxons. 2 Pitt gave as a chief reason for recalling Loudon, that he could never hear from him, and did not know what he was about. Loudon was always arranging great plans, but executed nothing. It was remarked to Dr. Franklin, when he made inquiries concerning him, that he was "like St. George on the signs-always on horseback, but never rides forward." " Page 191. Pitt had arranged such an admirable militia system for home defense, that a large number of the troops of the standing army could be spared for foreign service. Public and private advances during 1758, in Massachusetts alone, amounted to more than a million of dollars. The taxes on real estate, in order to raise money, were enormous; in many instances equal to two thirds of the income of the tax-payers. Yet it was levied by their own representatives, and they did not murmur. A few years later, an almost nominal tax in the form of duty |