CROWN POINT.2

River. Amherst remained at Crown Point long enough to construct a sufficient number of rude boats to convey his troops, artillery, and baggage, and then started to drive his enemy before him, across the St. Lawrence. It was now mid-autumn [Oct. 11], and heavy storms compelled him to return to Crown Point, and place his troops in winter quarters.' While there, they constructed that strong fortress, whose picturesque ruins, after the lapse of almost a hundred years, yet [1867] attest its strength. Accompanied by Sir William Johnson, as his lieutenant, Prideaux collected his forces (chiefly provincials)" at Oswego, and sailed from thence to Niagara. He landed without opposition, on the 17th of July, and immediately commenced the siege. On the same day he was killed, by the bursting of a gun, and was succeeded in command by General Johnson. The beleaguered garrison, in daily expectation of reinforcements which had been ordered from the southern and western forts, held out bravely for three weeks, when, on the 24th of July, the expected troops appeared. They were almost three thousand strong, one half being French regulars, and the remainder Indians, many of them from the Creek' and Cherokee nations. A severe conflict ensued. The relief forces were completely routed, and on the following day [July 25], Fort Niagara and its dependencies, and the garrison of seven hundred men, were surrendered to Johnson. The connecting link of French military posts between Canada and Louisiana was effectually broken, never again to be united. Encumbered with his prisoners, and unable to procure a sufficient number of vessels for the purpose, Johnson could not proceed to Montreal, to co-operate with Amherst and Wolfe on the St. Lawrence, according to the original plan. He garrisoned Fort Niagara, and returned home.

7

R

BRICK

R

FORT NIAGARA.

ILAS

Animated with high hopes, Wolfe left Louisburg, with eight thousand troops, under a convoy of twenty-two line-of-battle ships, and as many frigates

While at Crown Point, Major Rogers, at the head of his celebrated Rangers, went on an expedition against the St. Francis Indians, who had long been a terror to the frontier settlements of New England. The village was destroyed, a large number of Indians were slain, and the Rangers were completely victorious. They suffered from cold and hunger while on their return, and many were left dead in the forest before the party reached the nearest settlement at Bellows Falls. Rogers went to England after the war, returned in 1775, joined the British army at New York, and soon went to England again, where he died.

2 The above diagram shows the general form of the military works at Crown Point. These, like the ruins at Ticonderoga, are quite picturesque remains of the past. A A A shows the position of the strong stone barracks, portions of which are yet standing. W shows the place of a very deep well, dug through the solid rock. It was filled up, and so remained until a few years ago, when some money-diggers, foolishly believing there was treasure at the bottom, cleaned it out. They found nothing but a few scraps of iron and other rubbish.

4

Page 30.

Page 27.

6

Page 180.

9 Johnson's influence over the Six Nations, made many of them disregard the treaty of neutrality made with Montcalm [note 4, page 192], and a considerable number accompanied him to Niagara. * Page 199. James Wolfe was the son of a British general, and was born in Kent, England, in 1726. Before he was twenty years of age, he was distinguished in battle. He was now only thirty-three years old.

BURYING PLACE

and smaller armed vessels, commanded by Admirals Holmes and Saunders. and, on the 27th of June, landed upon Orleans Island, a few miles below Quebec. That city then, as now, consisted of an Upper and Lower Town, the former within fortified walls, upon the top and declivities of a high peninsula; the latter lying upon a narrow beach at the edge of the water. Upon the heights, three hundred feet above the water, was a level plateau called the Plains of Abraham. At the mouth of the St. Charles, which here enters the St. Lawrence, the French had moored several floating batteries. The town was strongly garrisoned by French regulars, and along the north bank of the St. Lawrence, from the St. Charles to the Montmorenci River, was the main French army, under Montcalm,2 in a fortified camp. It was composed chiefly of Canadian militia and Indians.

GENERAL WOLFE.

On the 30th of July, the English, after a slight skirmish, took possession of Point Levi, opposite Quebec, and throwing hot shot from a battery, they almost destroyed the Lower Town. They could not damage the strong fortifi

cations of the city from that distance, and Wolfe resolved to attack the French camp. He had already landed a large force, under Generals Townshend and Murray, and formed a camp [July 10, 1759], below the River Montmorenci. General Monckton, with grenadiers and other troops, crossed from Point Levi, and landed

upon the beach [July 31], at the base of the high river bank, just above that stream. Murray and Townshend were ordered to force a passage across the Montmorenci, and co-operate with him, but Monckton was too eager for attack to await their coming. He unwisely rushed forward, but was soon repulsed, and compelled to take shelter behind a block-house' near the beach, just as a heavy thunder-storm, which had been gathering for several hours, burst upon the combatants. Night came on before it ceased, and the roar of the rising tide warned the English to take to their boats. Five hundred of their number had perished.

Two months elapsed, and yet the English had gained no important advantages. Wolfe had received no intelligence from Amherst, and the future ap

1

These were a kind of flat-boats, with proper breastworks or other defenses, and armed with

cannons.

'He was descended from a noble family. He was appointed governor of Canada in 1756. His remains are beneath the Ursuline convent at Quebec.

Grenadiers are companies of the regular army, distinguished from the rest by some peculiarity of dress and accoutrements, and always composed of the tallest and most muscular men in the serv ice. They are generally employed in bayonet charges, and sometimes carry grenades, a kind of small bomb-shell. Note 3, page 192.

peared gloomy. The exposure, fatigue, and anxiety which he had endured produced a violent fever, and at the beginning of September [1759], he lay prostrate in his tent. He called a council of war at his bedside, and, on the suggestion of Townshend, it was resolved to scale the heights of Abraham,' and assail the town on its weakest side. Wolfe heartily approved of the design. A plan was speedily matured, and feeble as he was, the commander-in-chief determined to lead the assault in person. The camp at the Mon: morenci was broken up [Sept. 8], and the attention of Montcalm was diverted from the real designs of the English, by seeming preparations to again attack his lines. The affair was managed so secretly and skillfully, that even De Bourgainville, who had been sent up the St. Lawrence by Montcalm, with fifteen hundred men, to watch the movements of the English, had no suspicion of their designs.

All preparations having been completed, the English ascended the river, in several vessels of the fleet, on the evening of the 12th of September. They went several miles above the intended landing-place. Leaving the ships at midnight, they embarked in flat boats, with muffled oars, and moved silently down to the mouth of a ravine, a mile and a half from the city, and landed.' At dawn [Sept. 13], Lieutenant-Colonel Howe3 led the van up, the tangled ravine, in the face of a sharp fire from a guard above. He was followed by the generals and the remainder of the troops, with artillery; and at sunrise the whole army stood in battle array upon the Plains of Abraham. It was an

apparition little anticipated by the vigilant Montcalm. He perceived the peril of the city; and marching his whole army immediately from his encampment, crossed the St. Charles, and between nine and ten o'clock in the morning, confronted the English. A general, fierce, and bloody battle now ensued. Although twice severely wounded, Wolfe kept his feet; and as the two armies closed upon each other, he placed himself at the head of his grenadiers, and led them to a charge. At that moment a bullet entered his breast. He was carried to the rear, and a few moments afterward, Monckton, who took the command, also fell, severely wounded. Townshend continued the battle. Montcalm soon received a fatal wound; and the French, terribly pierced by English bayonets, and smitten by Highland broadswords, broke and fled. Wolfe died just as the battle ended, with a smile upon his lips, because his ears heard the victory-shouts of his army. Five hundred French

1 The declivity from Cape Diamond, on which the chief fortress stands, along the St. Lawrence to the cove below Sillery, was called by the general name of the Heights of Abraham, the plains of that name being on the top. See map on page 201.

This place is known as Wolfe's Cove; and the ravine, which here breaks the steepness of the rocky shore, and up which the English clambered, is called Wolfe's Ravine.

3 Afterward General Sir William Howe, the commander-in-chief of the English forces in America, when the Revolution had fairly commenced. Page 247.

4 He was carried into the city, and when told that he must die, he said, "So much the better; I shall then be spared the mortification of seeing the surrender of Quebec." His remains are yet in Quebec; those of Wolfe were conveyed to England. People of the two nations have long dwelt peaceably together in that ancient city, and they have united in erecting a tall granite obelisk, dedicated to the linked memory of Wolfe and Montcalm.