by the English, and had built forts for their defence. To gain possession of these was the object of the expedition. 13. About two thousand militia, commanded by Colonel Winslow, embarked at Boston; and being joined on their passage by three hundred regulars, arrived, in April, at the place of destination. The forts were invested; the resistance made was trifling and ineffectual; and in a short time the English gained entire possession of the province, according to their own definition of its boundaries. Three only of their men were killed. 14. The preparations of General Braddock, in Virginia, had proceeded slowly. It had been found extremely difficult to procure horses, wagons, and provisions. Impatient of delay, he determined to set out with twelve hundred men, selected from the different corps, and to proceed, as rapidly as possible, towards fort Du Quesne. The residue of the army, and the heavy baggage, were left under the command of Col. Dunbar, who was directed to follow as soon as the preparations were completed. 15. Braddock had been educated in the English army; and in the science of war, as then taught in Europe, he deserved and enjoyed the reputation of more than ordinary skill. Of this reputation he was vain, and disdained to consider that his skill was totally inapplicable to the mode of warfare practised in the forests of America. Before he left England, he was repeatedly admonished to beware of a surprise; and on his march through the wilderness, the provincial officers frequently entreated him to scour the surrounding thickets. But he held these officers and the enemy in too much contempt to listen to this salutary counsel. 16. On approaching fort Du Quesne, Col. Washington, who accompanied him as his aid, made a last attempt to induce him to change his order of march. He explained the Indian mode of warfare; represented his danger; and offered to take command of the provincials and place himself in advance of the army. This offer was declined. The general proceeded, confident of the propriety of his conduct; the provincials followed, trembling for the consequences. 17. On the ninth of July, the army crossed the Monongahela, within a few miles of Du Quesne. Their route led through a defile, which they had nearly passed, when a tremendous yell and instantaneous discharge of fire arms suddenly burst upon them from an invisible foe. The van was thrown into confusion. The general led the main body to its support. For a moment, order was restored, and a short cessation of the enemy's fire, occasioned by the death of their commander, seemed to indicate that all danger was over. 18. But the attack was soon renewed witth increased fury. Concealed behind trees, logs, and rocks, the Indians poured upon the troops a deadly and incessant fire. Officers and men fell thickly around, and the survivers knew not where to direct their aim to revenge their slaughtered comrades. The whole body was again thrown into confusion. The general, obstinate and courageous, refused to retreat, but bent his whole efforts to restore and maintain order. He persisted in these efforts, until five horses had been shot under him, and every one of his officers on horseback, except colonel Washington, was either killed or wounded. 19. The general at length fell, and the rout became universal. The troops fled precipitately until they met the division under Dunbar, then sixty miles in the rear. To this body the same panic was communicated. Turning about, they fled with the rest, and although no enemy had been seen during the engagement, nor afterwards, yet the army continued retreating until it reached fort Cumberland, one hundred and twenty miles from the place of action. There they remained but a short time. With the remnant of the army, amounting to fifteen hundred men, colonel Dunbar, upon whom, on the death of Braddock, the command devolved, marched to Philadelphia, leaving the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia destitute of defence. 20. The provincial troops, whom Braddock had so much despised, displayed, during the battle, the utmost calmness and courage. Though placed in the rear, they alone, led on by Washington, advanced against the Indians and covered the retreat. Had they been permitted to fight in their own way, they could easily have defeated the enemy. In this battle, sixty-four, out of eighty-five officers, were either killed or wounded, and at least one half of the privates. 21. The two northern expeditions, though not so disastrous, were both unsuccessful. General Shirley, who had been appointed to command that against Niagara, met with so many delays that he did not reach Oswego until late in August. While embarking there to proceed against Niagara, the autumnal rains began, his troops became discouraged, his Indian allies deserted him, and he was compelled to relinquish his design. 22. The forces destined to attack Crown Point, and the requisite military stores, could not be collected at Albany until the last of August. Thence the army, under the command of general Johnson, proceeded to the south end of lake George, on their way to the place of destination. There he learned, that the armament, fitted out in the ports of France, eluding the English squadron, had arrived at Quebec, and that baron Dieskau, commander of the French forces, was advancing with an army towards the territories of the English. He halted, erected slight breastworks, and detached colonel Williams with a thousand men, to impede the progress of the enemy. 23. Dieskau, who was near, was immediately informed of the approach of this detachment. Without losing a moment, he directed his troops to conceal themselves. The English advanced into the midst of their enemy, and, from every quarter, received, at the same moment, a sudden and unexpected fire. Their leader fell, and the men fled, in disorder, to the camp. 24. They were followed closely by the enemy, who approached within one hundred and fifty yards of the breast-work: and, had they made an immediate assault, would probably, such was the panic of the English, have been successful. But here they halted, to make dispositions for a regular attack. The Indians and Canadians were despatched to the flanks, and the regular troops began the attack with firing, by platoons, at the centre Their fire was ineffectual, and the provincials gradually resumed their courage. 25. A few discharges of the artillery drove the Canadians and Indians to the swamps. The regulars, although deserted by the auxiliaries, maintained the conflict, for more than an hour, with much steadiness and resolution. Dieskau, convinced that all his efforts must be unavailing, then gave orders to retreat. This produced some confusion, which, being perceived by the provincials, they simultaneously, and without orders or concert, leaped over the intrenchments, fell upon the French soldiers, and killed, captured, or dispersed them. The baron was wounded and made prisoner. On 26. The next day, oolonel Blanchard, who commanded at fort Edward, despatched captain Folsom, of New-Hampshire, with two hundred men, to the assistance of general Johnson. his way, he discovered between three and four hundred of the enemy seated around a pond, not far from the place where colonel Williams had been defeated. Notwithstanding his inferiority in numbers, he determined to attack them. So impetuous was the onset, that, after a sharp conflict, the enemy fled. In the several engagements, the provincials lost about two hundred inen; the enemy upwards of seven hundred. 27. General Johnson, though strongly importuned by the government of Massachusetts, refused to proceed upon his expedition, which was abandoned, and most of his troops returned to their respective colonies. Thus ended the campaign of 1755. It opened with the brightest prospects, immense preparations had been made, yet not one of the objects of the three great expeditions had been attained. 28. During the fall and winter, the southern colonies were ravaged, and the usual barbarities perpetrated upon the frontier inhabitants, by the savages, who, on the defeat of Braddock, and the retreat of his army, saw nothing to restrain their fury. In Virginia and Pennsylvania, disputes existed between the governors and legislatures, which prevented all attention to the means of defence. Scarcely a post was maintained, or a soldier employed in their service. 29. The colonies, far from being discouraged by the misfortunes of the last campaign, determined to renew and increase their exertions. General Shirley, to whom the superintendence of all the military operations had been confided, assembled a council of war at New-York, to concert a plan for the ensuing year. He proposed that expeditions should be carried on against Du Quesne, Niagara, and Crown Point, and that a body of troops should be sent, by the way of the rivers Kennebec and Chaudiere, to alarm the French for the safety of Quebec. This plan was unanimously adopted by the council. 30. Shirley, on the last of January, returned to Boston, to meet the assembly of Massachusetts, of which colony he was governor. He endeavored to persuade them to concur in the measures proposed; but, disgusted with the proceedings of the last campaign, and especially at general Johnson's neglecting to pursue his advantages, they were unwilling to engage in offensive operations, unless the command of their forces should be given to general Winslow, who had acquired popularity by his success in Nova-Scotia. Their wishes were complied with, and their concurrence was then granted. 31. In April, news arrived from Great Britain, that the conduct of general Johnson, instead of being censured, was considered highly meritorious; that, as a reward for his success, the king had conferred upon him the title of baronet, and parliament a grant of five thousand pounds sterling; that his majesty disapproved of the conduct of Shirley, and had determined to remove him from command. 32. This information not being official, general Shirley continued his preparations with his usual activity and zeal. While engaged in collecting, at Albany, the troops from the different colonies, general Webb brought from England official information of his removal. On the 25th of June, general Abercrombie arrived, and took command of the army. It now consisted of about twelve thousand men, and was more numerous and bet ter prepared for the field than any army that had ever been assembled in America. 33. Singular as it may appear, while this sanguinary war raged in America, the intercourse between the two nations in Europe, not only continued uninterrupted, but seemed more than usually friendly. This unnatural state of things could not long continue. Great Britain declared war in May, and France in June. 34. The change of commanders delayed the operations of the English army. The French were active; and on the 12th of July, general Abercrombie received intelligence that they meditated an attack upon Oswego, a post of the utmost importance. General Webb was ordered to prepare to march with a regiment for the defence of that place. In the mean time, Lord Loudon, who had been appointed commander-in-chief over all the British forces in the colonies, arrived in Am 35. Amidst the ceremonies which followed, the affairs of the war were forgotten. General Webb did not begin his march until the 12th of August. Before he had proceeded far, he learned that Oswego was actually besieged by a large army of French and Indians. Alarmed for his own safety, he proceeded no farther, but employed his troops in erecting fortifications for their defence. 36. General Montcalm, the commander of the French troops in Canada, began the siege of Oswego on the 12th of August. On the 14th, the English commander having been killed, terms of surrender were proposed by the garrison, and were agreed to. These terms were shamefully violated. Several of the British officers and soldiers were insulted, robbed, and massacred by the Indians. Most of the sick were scalped in the hospitals, and the French general delivered twenty of the garrison to the sarages, that being the number they had lost during the siege. Those unhappy wretches were, doubtless, according to the Indian custom, tortured and burnt. 37. General Webb was permitted to retreat, unmolested, to Albany. Lord Loudon pretended it was now too late in the season to attempt any thing farther, though the troops under general Winslow were within a few days march of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and were sufficient in number to justify an attack upon those places. He devoted the remainder of the season to making preparations for an early and vigorous campaign the ensuing year. 38. This spring had opened with still more brilliant prospects than the last; and the season closed without the occurrence of a single event that was honourable to the British arms, or ad |