George. Just at this time Colonel Williams's regiment and the Mohawks came in sight, marching toward the fort. Dieskau quickly formed an ambush, and the English were entrapped; but the Indian allies of the French showed themselves to their countrymen, and would not fire. The Canadians and the French poured in a deadly volley; both Williams and Hendrick fell dead, and the English were thrown into confusion. But Colonel Whiting rallied the troops, returned the enemy's fire, and retreated toward the lake. St. Pierre, one of the French generals, was killed.

The noise of battle was heard in Johnson's camp, and preparations were made for a general engagement. There were no entrenchments, but trees were hastily felled for breastworks, and the cannons were brought into position. It was Dieskau's plan to rush into the English camp along with the fugitives whom he was driving before him; but the Indians, afraid of Johnson's guns, would not join in the assault; the Red men retired to a hill at a safe distance. The Canadians were disheartened; and the handful of French regulars made the onset almost unsupported. It was the fiercest battle which had yet been fought on American soil. For five hours the conflict was incessant. In the beginning of the engagement Johnson received a slight wound and left the field; but the troops of New England fought on without a commander. Nearly all of Dieskau's regulars were killed. At last the English troops leaped over the fallen trees, charged across the field, and completed the rout. Three times Dieskau was wounded, but he would not retire. His aids came to bear him off; one was shot dead, and he forbade the others. He ordered his servants to bring him his military dress, and then seated himself on the stump of a tree. A renegade Frenchman belonging to the English army rushed up to make him a prisoner. The wounded general felt for his watch to tender it in token of surrender. The Frenchman, thinking that Dieskau was searching for a pistol, fired, and the brave commander fell, mortally wounded.

The victory, though complete, was dearly purchased. Two hundred and sixteen of the English were killed, and many others wounded. General Johnson, who had done but little, was greatly praised; Parliament made him a baronet for gaining a victory which the provincials gained for him. Made wiser by the battle, he now constructed on the site of his camp a substantial fort, and named it William Henry. The defences of Fort Edward were strengthened with an additional garrison, and the remainder of the troops returned to their homes. Meanwhile, the French had reinforced Crown Point, and had seized and fortified Ticonderoga. Such was the condition of affairs at the close of 1755.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TWO YEARS OF DISASTER.

AFTER the death of Braddock the chief command of the English

forces in America was given to Governor Shirley. But no regular military organization had been effected; and the war was carried on in a desultory manner. Braddock had ruined one army; Shirley had scattered another. On Lake George, Johnson had achieved a marked success. In the beginning of 1756, Washington at the head of the Virginian provincials repelled the French and Indians in the valley of the Shenandoah. At the same time the Pennsylvania volunteers, choosing Franklin for their colonel, marched to the banks of the Lehigh, built a fort, and made a successful campaign. In the preceding December, Shirley met the colonial governors at New York and planned the movements for the following year. One expedition, proceeding by way of the Kennebec, was to threaten Quebec. Forts Frontenac, Toronto and Niagara were to be taken. Du Quesne, Detroit and Mackinaw, deprived of their communications, must of course surrender.

In the mean time, after much debate in Parliament, it was decided to consolidate and put under one authority all the military forces in America. The earl of Loudoun received the appointment of commanderin-chief. General Abercrombie was second in rank; and forty British and German officers were commissioned to organize and discipline the colonial army. In the last of April, 1756, Abercrombie, with two battalions of regulars, sailed for New York. Lord Loudoun was to follow with a fleet of transports, bearing the artillery, tents, ammunition and equipage of the expedition. The commander waited a month for his vessels, and then sailed without them. On the 15th of June a man-ofvar was despatched to America with a hundred thousand pounds to reimburse the colonies for the expenses of the previous campaigns. At the Same time the corps of British officers arrived at New York. Meanwhile,

on the 17th of May, Great Britain, after nearly two years of actual hostilities, made an open declaration of war, which was followed by a similar declaration on the part of France.

On the 25th of June, Abercrombie reached Albany. He began his great campaign by surveying the town, digging a ditch and quartering

his soldiers with the citizens. In July, Lord Loudoun arrived and assumed the command of the colonial army. The French, meanwhile, profiting by these delays, organized a force of more than five thousand men, crossed Lake Ontario and laid siege to Oswego. The marquis of Montcalm, who had succeeded Dieskau as commander-in-chief, led the expedition. At the mouth of Oswego River there were two forts; the old block-house on the west and the new Fort Ontario on the east. The latter was first attacked. Thirty pieces of cannon were brought to bear on the fortress. After a brave defence of one day, the little garrison abandoned the works and escaped to the old fort across the river. This place was also invested by the French. For two days the English, numbering only fourteen hundred, held out against the besiegers, and then surrendered. A vast amount of ammunition, small arms, accoutrements and provisions fell to the captors. Six vessels of war, three hundred boats, a hundred and twenty cannon and three chests of money were the further fruits of a victory by which France gained the only important outpost of England on the lakes. To please his Indian allies, Montcalm ordered Oswego to be razed to the ground.

During this summer the Delawares, false to their treaty, rose in Western Pennsylvania and almost ruined the country. More than a thousand people were killed or carried into captivity. In August, Colonel John Armstrong, at the head of three hundred volunteers, crossed the Alleghanies, and after a twenty days' march reached the Indian town of Kittaning, forty-five miles north-east from Pittsburg. Lying in concealment until daydawn on the morning of September 8th, the English rose against the savages, and after a desperate battle destroyed them almost to a man. The village was burned and the spirit of the barbarians completely broken. The Americans lost sixteen men. Colonel Armstrong and Captain Hugh Mercer, afterward distinguished in the Revolution, were both severely wounded.

Lord Loudoun continued at Albany. His forces were amply sufficient to capture every stronghold of Canada in the space of six weeks. Instead of marching boldly to the north, he whiled away the summer and fall, talked about an attack from the French, digged ditches, slandered the provincial officers and waited for winter. When the frosts came, he made haste to distribute the colonial troops and to quarter the regulars on the principal towns. The vigilant French, learning what sort of a general they had to cope with, crowded Lake Champlain with boats, strengthened Crown Point and completed a fort at Ticonderoga. With the exception of Armstrong's expedition against the Indians, the year 1756 closed without a single substantial success on the part of the English.

And the year 1757 was equally disastrous. The campaign which was planned by Loudoun was limited to the conquest of Louisburg. Ever since the treaty of Utrecht the French had retained Cape Breton; and the fortress at Louisburg had been made one of the strongest on the continent. On the 20th of June, Lord Loudoun sailed from New York with an army of six thousand regulars. By the first of July he was at Halifax, where he was joined by Admiral Holbourn with a powerful fleet of sixteen men-of-war. troops fresh from the armies of England. Never was such a use made of a splendid armament. Loudoun landed before Halifax, cleared off a mustering plain, and set his officers to drilling regiments already skilled in To heighten the absurdity, the fields about the planted with onions. For it was said that the men might take

every manœuvre of war. city were

There were on board five thousand additional

the scurvy! By and by the news came that the French vessels in the harbor of Louisburg outnumbered by one the ships of the English squadron. To attack a force that seemed superior to his own was not a part of Loudoun's tactics. Ordering the fleet to go cruising around Cape Breton, he immediately embarked with his army, and sailed for New York. Arriving at this place, he proposed to his officers to fortify Long Island in order to defend the continent against an enemy whom he outnumbered

four to one.

Meanwhile, the daring Montcalm had made a brilliant campaign in the country of Lake George. With a force of six thousand French and Canadians and seventeen hundred Indians he proceeded up the Sorel, entered Lake Champlain, and reached Ticonderoga. The object of the expedition was to capture and destroy Fort William Henry. The French and the Iroquois, who had now abandoned the cause of the colonies, were fired with enthusiasm. Dragging their artillery and boats across the portage to Lake George, they re-embarked, and on the 3d of August laid siege to the English fort. The place was defended by only five hundred men under the brave Colonel Monro; but there were seventeen hundred additional troops within supporting distance in the adjacent trenches. All this while General Webb was at Fort Edward, but fourteen miles distant, with an army of more than four thousand British regulars. Instead of advancing to the relief of Fort William Henry, Webb held a council to determine if it were not better to retire to Albany, and sent a message to Colonel Monro advising capitulation.

For six days the French pressed the siege with vigor. The ammunition of the garrison was nearly exhausted; half of the guns were burst; nothing remained but to surrender. Honorable terms were granted. The English, retaining their private effects, were released on a pledge not to

re-enter the service for eighteen months. A safe escort was promised to Fort Edward. On the 9th of August the French took possession of the fortress. Unfortunately, the Indians procured a quantity of spirits from the English camp. Maddened with intoxication, and in spite of the utmost exertions of Montcalm and his officers, the savages fell upon the prisoners and began a massacre. Thirty of the English were tomahawked and many others dragged away into captivity. The retirement of the garrison to Fort Edward became a panic and a rout.

Such had been the successes of France during the year that the English had not a single hamlet or fortress remaining in the whole basin of the St. Lawrence. Every cabin where English was spoken had been swept out of the Ohio valley. At the close of the year 1757, France possessed twenty times as much American territory as England; and five times as much as England and Spain together. Such had been the imbecility of the English management in America that the flag of Great Britain was brought into disgrace.

GRE

CHAPTER XXXV.

TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES.

REAT was the discouragement in England. The duke of Newcastle and his associates in the government were obliged to resign. A new ministry was formed, at the head of which was placed that remarkable man William Pitt, called the Great Commoner. The imbecile Lord Loudoun was deposed from the American army. General Abercrombie was appointed to succeed him; but the main reliance for success was placed, not so much on the commander-in-chief, as on an efficient corps of subordinate officers whom the wisdom of Pitt now directed to America. Admiral Boscawen was put in command of the fleet, consisting of twentytwo ships of the line and fifteen frigates. The able general Amherst was to lead a division. Young Lord Howe, brave and amiable, was next in rank to Abercrombie. The gallant James Wolfe led a brigade. General Forbes held an important command; and Colonel Richard Montgomery was at the head of a regiment.

Three campaigns were planned for 1758. Amherst, acting in con