still keeps the name of Lord Howe. The three French pickets precipitately retired. As the enemy had burnt the bridges, the army, leaving behind its provisions, artillery, and all heavy baggage, formed in four columns, the regulars in the centre and provincials on the flanks, and began its march round the bend along the west side of the outlet, over ground uneven and densely wooded. "If these people," said Montcalm, "do but give me time to gain the position I have chosen on the heights of Carillon, I shall beat them." The columns, led by bewildered guides, broke and jostled each other; they had proceeded about two miles, and an advanced party was near Trout Brook, when the right centre, where Lord Howe had command, suddenly came upon the party of De Trépézée, who had lost his way and for twelve hours had been wandering in the forest. The worn-out stragglers, less than three hundred in number, fought bravely, but were soon overwhelmed; some were killed; some drowned in the stream; one hundred and fifty-nine surrendered. But Lord Howe, foremost in the skirmish, was the first to fall, expiring immediately. The grief of his fellow-soldiers, and the confusion that followed his death, spoke his eulogy; Massachusetts raised his monument in Westminster Abbey; America long cherished his memory. The English passed the following night under arms 1758. in the forest. On the morning of the seventh, Abercrombie had no better plan than to draw back to the landing-place. An hour before noon, Bradstreet, with a strong detachment, rebuilt the bridges, and took possession of the ground near the saw-mills; on which the general joined him with the whole army, and encamped that night not more than a mile and a half from the enemy. Early the next day, Abercrombie sent Clerk, the chief engineer, across the outlet to reconnoitre the French lines, which he reported to be of flimsy construction, strong in appearance only. Stark, of New Hampshire, as well as some English officers, with a keener eye and sounder judgment, saw well-finished preparations of defence; but the general, apprehending that Montcalm already commanded six thousand men, and that De Levi was hastening to join him with three thousand more, gave orders, without waiting for cannon to be brought up, to storm the breastworks that very day. For that end, a triple line was formed, out of reach of cannon-shot; the first consisted, on the left, of the rangers; in the centre, of the boatmen; on the right, of the light infantry; the second, of provincials, with wide openings between their regiments; the third, of the regulars. Troops of Connecticut and New Jersey formed a rear-guard. During these arrangements, Sir William Johnson arrived with four hundred and forty warriors of the Six Nations, who gazed with inactive apathy on the white men that had come so far to shed each other's blood. 1758. On the sixth of July, Montcalm called in all his parties, which amounted to no more than two thousand eight hundred French and four hundred and fifty Canadians. That day, he employed the second battalion of Berry in strengthening his post. The next day, his whole army toiled incredibly; the officers giving the example, and planting the flags on the breast work. In the evening, De Levi returned from an intended expedition against the Mohawks, bringing four hundred chosen men; and at night all bivouacked along the intrenchment. On the morning of the eighth, the drums of the French beat to arms, that the troops, now thirty-six hundred and fifty in number, might know their stations; and then, without pausing to return the fire of musketry from English light troops on the declivities of the mountain, they resumed their work. The right of their defences rested on a hillock, from which the plain between the lines and the lake was to have been flanked by four pieces of cannon, but the battery could not be finished; the left extended to a scarp surmounted by an abattis. For a hundred yards in front of the intermediate breastwork, which consisted of piles of logs, the approach was obstructed by felled trees with their branches pointing outwards, stumps, and rubbish of all sorts. The English army, obeying the orders of a commander who remained out of sight and far behind during the action, rushed forward with fixed bayonets to carry the lines, the regulars advancing through the openings between the provincial regiments, and taking the lead. Montcalm, who stood just within the trenches, threw off his coat for 1758. the sunny work of the July afternoon, and forbade a musket to be fired till he commanded; then, as the English drew very near in three principal columns to attack simultaneously the left, the centre, and the right, and became entangled among the rubbish and. broken into disorder by clambering over logs and projecting limbs, at his word a sudden and incessant fire from swivels and small arms mowed down brave officers and men by hundreds. Their intrepidity made the carnage terrible. The attacks were continued all the afternoon, generally with the greatest vivacity. When the English endeavored to turn the left, Bourlamarque opposed them till he was dangerously wounded; and Montcalm, who watched every movement, sent re-enforcements at the moment of crisis. On the right, the grenadiers and Scottish Highlanders charged for three hours, without faltering and without confusion; many fell within fifteen steps of the trench; some, it was said, upon it. About five o'clock, the columns which had attacked the French centre and right concentrated themselves on a salient point between the two; but De Levi flew from the right, and Montcalm himself brought up a reserve. At six, the two parties nearest the water turned desperately against the centre, and, being repulsed, made a last effort on the left. Thus were life and courage prodigally wasted, till: the bewildered English fired on an advanced party of their own, producing hopeless dejection; and after losing, in killed and wounded, nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, chiefly regulars, they fled promiscuously. The British general, during the battle, cowered safely at the saw-mills; and, when his presence was needed to rally the fugitives, was nowhere to be found. The second in command gave no orders; while Montcalm, careful of every duty, distributed refreshments among his exhausted soldiers, cheered them by thanks to each regiment for their incredible valor, and employed the coming night in strengthening his lines. 1758. The English still exceeded the French fourfold. Their artillery was near and could easily force a passage. The mountain over against Ticonderoga was in their possession. But Abercrombie, a victim to the "extremest fright and consternation," hurried the army that same evening to the boats, embarked the next morning, and did not rest till he had placed the lake between himself and Montcalm. Even then he sent artillery and ammunition to Albany for safety. The news overwhelmed Pitt with melancholy; but Bute, who insisted that "Abercrombie and the troops had done their duty," comforted himself in "the numbers lost" as proof of "the greatest intrepidity," thinking it better to have cause for "tears than "blushes;" and reserved all his sympathy for the "broken-hearted commander." Prince George expressed his hope, one day, by "superior help," to "restore the love of virtue and religion." While Abercrombie wearied his army with lining out a useless fort, the partisans of Montcalm were present everywhere. Just after the retreat of the English, they fell upon a regiment at the Half-way Brook between Fort Edward and Lake George. A fortnight later, they seized a convoy of wagoners at the same place. To intercept the French on their return, some hundred rangers scoured the forests near Woodcreek, marching in Indian file, Putnam in the rear, in front the commander Rogers, who, with a British officer, beguiled the way by firing at marks. The noise attracted hostile Indians to an ambuscade. A skirmish ensued, and Putnam, with twelve or fourteen more, was separated from the party. His comrades were scalped: in after-life, he used to relate how one of the savages gashed his cheek with a tomahawk, bound him to a forest tree, and kindled about him a crackling fire; how his thoughts glanced aside to the wife of his youth and the group of children that gambolled in his fields; when the brave French officer, Marin, happening to descry his danger, rescued him from death, to be exchanged in the autumn. Better success awaited Bradstreet. From the majority in a council of war, he extorted a reluctant leave to proceed against Fort Frontenac. Brigadier Stanwix placed under his command twenty-seven hundred men, all Americans, nearly seven hundred from Massachusetts, more than eleven hundred of them New Yorkers, among whom were the brothers James and George Clinton. There, too, were assembled one hundred and fifty warriors of the Six Nations; among them, Red Head, the renowned war-chief of Onondaga. Inspired by his eloquence in council, two-and-forty of them took Bradstreet for their friend and grasped the hatchet as his companions. At Oswego, towards which they moved with celerity, there remained scarce a vestige of the English fort; of the French there was no memorial but "a large wooden cross." As the Americans gazed with extreme pleasure on the scene around them, they were told that farther west, in "Genesee and Canasadaga, there were lands as fertile, rich, and luxuriant as any in the universe." Crossing Lake Ontario in open boats, they landed, on the twenty-fifth of August, within a mile of Fort Frontenac. It was a quadrangle, mounted with thirty pieces of cannon and sixteen small mortars. On the second day, such of the garrison as had not fled surrendered. Here, also, were military stores for Fort Duquesne and the interior dependencies, with nine armed vessels, each carrying from eight to eighteen guns; of these, two were sent to Oswego. After razing the fortress, and destroying such vessels and stores as could not be brought off, the Americans returned to Lake George. At the Oneida carrying-place, 1758. There the main army was wasting the season in supine inactivity. The news of the disastrous day at Ticonderoga induced Amherst, without orders, to conduct four regiments and a battalion from Louisburg. They landed in September at Boston, and at once entered on the march through the greenwood. In one of the regiments was Lieutenant Richard Montgomery, who remained near the northern lakes till 1760. When near Albany, Amherst hastened in advance, and on the fifth of October came upon the English camp. Early in November, despatches arrived, appointing him commander in chief. Returning to England, Aber |