USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 5
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51
MONTCALM.
[1756.]
drowned. He then marched still further up the river and routed a third party .*
In these several actions, extending over a period of three hours, about seventy of his men were killed and wounded. Twice that number of the enemy were killed, and about seventy of them were taken prisoners. From these prisoners he learned that a large body of the enemy had stationed themselves on the west side of Lake Ontario, with artillery and all the other equipments for the siege of Oswego. Brad- street hastened to Albany with the news. Before this, Gen- eral Webb, with one regiment, had received orders to hold himself in readiness to march to the relief of that post; but when Lord Loudoun arrived in Albany, he had not begun his march.t
General Winslow, with seven thousand New England and New York troops, had already advanced to the south land- ing of Lake George. In perfect health, high spirits, and well provisioned, they were impatient to be led against the enemy. This army left to itself, with such a leader as Winslow was, would have taken possession of Crown Point before that time, if they had been allowed to move forward. But large numbers of batteaux-men still lay at Albany, Schenectady and other places, and three thousand soldiers were kept loitering behind to guard the lazy generals who lingered at Albany until about the middle of August. Even General Webb did not begin his march until the 12th of August. If he had been sick of a camp fever during the whole summer, he would have been quite as useful, and would have had a much better reputation in his own and in after time.
But the reader is not to infer that the operations of the enemy were confined to casual ambuscades and irregular skirmishing. On the other hand, the Marquis de Montcalm, §
Graham. + Trumbull. + Trumbull.
§ Montcalm, Louis Joseph de St. Veran, marquis de, was a native of Candiac, and descended from a noble family. Having been bred to arms, he was particularly distinguished at the battle of Placenza in 1746. He rose to the rank of field marshall and was made governor of Canada in 1756. After having successfully
52
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
one of the ablest military chieftains of that age, with about three thousand men, proceeded to invest the forts at Oswego .* He blockaded the harbor with two armed vessels, and stationed a strong party on the roads between Albany and the forts, as if he was in league with Webb and the other officers, who were lagging behind, and was striving to save their sensitive nerves from any shock that might be occasioned by some piece of ill-timed intelligence relating to the remote and dangerous region bordering upon lake Ontario.
On the 12th of August, Montcalm opened his trenches before Fort Ontario at midnight with thirty-two pieces of cannon and a number of brass mortars and howitzers. This fortress was situated upon a high hill and commanded Fort Oswego so completely as to protect it and render it secure as long as the English garrison could man their guns and bring them to bear upon an enemy from this more elevated site. But strange as it doubtless seemed to the marquis, the garrison, after throwing away their shells and ammunition with little injury to the French, the next day spiked their cannon and retired to Fort Oswego, where they could be more easily reached by the shot of the besiegers.t The French lost no time in seizing the eminence that had been so unnecessarily given up to them, and pointing the deserted guns toward the lower fort, opened such a brisk fire upon it, and sustained it with such unabated vigor, that the garrison suffered severely from the attack. Colonel Mercer, who commanded, was killed by a cannon ball on the 13th, and after his death the officers were so divided in opinion as to the proper course to be pursued, and the soldiers were in such a state of conster- nation, that the enemy were not long in gaining possession of the fortress. On the 14th, the garrison, consisting of fourteen hundred men, capitulated, and surrendered into the hands of their conquerors one hundred and twenty-one pieces of cannon, fourteen mortars, a well-stored magazine,
opposed Lord Loudoun and Abercrombie, he was killed at the siege of Quebec in 1759.
* Holmes, ii. 70.
+ Holmes, ii. 70.
53
WOOD CREEK FILLED UP.
[1756.]
two sloops of war that had been built to cover the troops in the Niagara expedition, two hundred boats and batteaux, and provisions enough to have held out until relief could have been looked for from any quarter except Albany .*
The garrison consisted of the regiments of Shirley and Pepperell, and surrendered upon the express terms that they should not be plundered by the Indians, should be treated with humanity, and conducted safely to Montreal. All these conditions were shamefully violated. Instead of sending them to Montreal under a force sufficient to protect them, Montcalm instantly delivered up twenty of his prisoners to his Indian allies as victims to atone for the death of an equal number of savages who had fallen by the common fortune of war during the siege. The rest of the garrison, so far from being pro- tected, were exposed to the bitterest taunts of savage exulta- tion. Most of them were plundered, many were scalped, and some were assassinated. The forts were at once dis- mantled and all those precious munitions that had been transported through the wilderness at such cost and at so great an expenditure of labor, were carried off to strengthen the French fortifications against that evil day that had been protracted so long by the inefficiency of the English generals.
By this untoward capitulation, the French gained the exclusive dominion of the two great lakes, Erie and Ontario, with the whole country of the five nations. The territory bordering on Wood Creek and the Mohawk was also laid open to their ravages.
General Webb had advanced as far as the carrying place between the Mohawk river and Wood Creek, when tidings reached him of the fall of Oswego. Dreading an attack from the enemy, he began to cut down trees and cast them into the river. In this way he soon rendered it impassible even for canoes. The French, who were as ignorant of his numbers and resources as he was of theirs, adopted the same
* See Holmes, Trumbull, Bancroft, etc.
54
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
measure to prevent his advancing. He was therefore obliged to retrace his steps, which he did in a very stately and orderly manner. Indeed his march in either direction was more like the movement of a funeral proces- sion, than like the hurried steps of an invading or retreating army.
The Earl of Loudoun, who appears to have thought that the fall of Oswego was quite a suitable close of this painfully protracted drama, although he had yet left him three good months for operation before winter would set in, and although the army, now at the southern landing of Lake George, could have made an attack upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point in ten days, declared that the season was already too far spent to render it safe to make any attempt upon either of those places during that year. He therefore passed the autumn in preparations for an early campaign the next spring. He strengthened the two forts, Edward and William Henry, and overwhelmed them with garrisons. The pro- vincials returned home to spend the winter, and the regulars who were not employed at the forts, went into winter quar- ters at Albany .*
The reader cannot fail to be impressed with the difference between this campaign and that of the preceding year. In 1755, a small army of colonial troops, officered by men of their own choice, had cut through the woods, constructed roads and bridges, erected two forts at well chosen points, built ships in addition to a vast number of boats and batteaux, and to crown all this work, in itself glorious enough without such a consummation, this ill-equipped and comparatively undisciplined army had gained a brilliant victory and taken captive the leader of the French army. They had also taken all the preliminary steps of a vigorous campaign in 1756, and had rallied to the rendezvous as early as the season would allow them to take the field in the spring-burning with a noble ardor to meet the enemy and complete what they had before so well begun.
* Trumbull, ii. 377.
55
INDIGNATION OF THE COLONIES.
[1756.]
On the other hand, the campaign of 1756-with the finest army that had ever set foot upon the continent, with the patronage of the British government, with regular troops, with arms and ammunition in abundance, with roads, boats, forts, and the precious experience of the preceding year- lost two forts, and sustained a disreputable defeat, without driving the enemy from a single position, or taking possession of a single foot of unoccupied land, and went into winter quar- ters almost before the frost had shaken down the leaves from the forest trees.
The mortification and chagrin that pervaded New Eng- land, when the result of British generalship was made known, contrasted strangely enough with the flattering demonstra- tions of joy that had welcomed Abercrombie and Loudoun. to America .*
Thus all the plans of operation, that had been concerted with such wisdom by the provincial governors, were paralyzed.
Even General Winslow, who, I have no doubt, would have taken Ticonderoga and Crown Point with the provincial troops, had the British officers allowed him to do so, was not permitted to advance against these fortresses, but was obliged by Lord Loudoun to remain in his camp and fortify it against the incursions of the French-that had no existence except in the imaginations of the British officers. To repel this anticipated invasion, General Webb, with fourteen hun- dred British regulars, and Sir William Johnson, with one thousand militia, were kept idle during the whole summer.t Never, surely, were so many able-bodied men so busily em- ployed in doing nothing. Throughout Connecticut the indig- nation of the people flashed out from the lively features of the freemen, who discussed the bad policy of the viceroy
* The people of New England had formed high expectations of Loudoun and Abercrombie. Loudoun, in particular, was everywhere greeted with enthusiasm. " In New Haven," says Dr. Trumbull, " the Rev. President Clap, and the prin- cipal gentlemen of the town, waited on him in the most respectful manner. The president presented his lordship with their joint congratulations on the safe arrival of a peer of the realm in North America."
+ Holmes, ii. 71.
56
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
with a freedom that would have shocked his sense of pro- priety had he been able to listen to it.
. In the face of all these calamities, the British parliament made great preparations to prosecute the war with vigor as soon as the spring of 1757 should open.
In May, Admiral Holborn and Commodore Holmes sailed from Cork for America, with eleven ships of the line, a fire- ship, a bomb-ketch, and fifty transports, with six thousand regular troops on board. The fleet and armament arrived at Halifax in good order on the 9th of July. General Hopson had charge of the land force .*
The colonies, supposing that the expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point was to be renewed, again levied their requisite quotas of men. Connecticut, who had the year before raised double the number that had been required of her, once more brought her full complement of soldiers into the field. It is not difficult, therefore, to imagine their disappointment, when they learned that their darling enterprise was to be abandoned, after all this expense of time and money, and that the colonial troops were to be employed in an idle attempt upon Louisbourg. To say nothing of the childish and whimsical policy of the British government, the colonies felt ill at ease under the prospect of having their forces called to act at such a distance from home, while all the vast regions that lay to the west and north were open to the incursions of an enemy whom twelve thousand troops had been found inadequate to keep at bay, and who, flushed with recent victories, might be expected to prove more dan- gerous now than ever before. Even if the French should confine themselves to the limits of the country that they then held, they would at least have another year to strengthen their posts and fortify themselves in their position.
In January, Lord Loudoun had met at Boston a council of the governors of New England and Nova Scotia, and with the most unfeeling insolence, and a shocking disregard of truth, had charged upon the colonial army and provincial
* Trumbull, ii. 379 ; Holmes, ii. 74.
57
EXPEDITION AGAINST LOUISBOURG.
[1757.]
governments all the disasters of the campaign of 1756. He must have seen a flat negative to this arrogant declaration in the faces of the gentlemen composing the council, for he hastened to soothe their insulted feelings by informing them that he should require only four thousand provincial troops,* who were to be sent to New York and there placed under his command for some important and secret service that his duty and fidelity to his sovereign forbade him to disclose. As the numbers demanded were so much less than the colonies had reason to expect, the requisition was complied with, and in the spring more than six thousand provincial troops were placed at his disposal and embarked at New York for Halifax.
It was not known that the expedition against Crown Point was given up, until the troops had reached New York t Perhaps the colonies were partly reconciled to this foolish departure from the original plan, by the reflection that Lou- doun, by absenting himself, would at least be prevented from doing any further mischief. If he could not restore the forts that he had lost, he could lose no more ; and if he could not drag out of Wood Creek the logs and tree-tops with which he had obstructed its navigation, he would not again encum- ber the waters of that great highway to the west.
But his lordship's naval operations were as disastrous as those that he conducted by land. He was as ignorant of the strength of Louisbourg as he had been of that of Crown Point. He found to his astonishment, on arriving in the neighborhood of Cape Breton, that it was not only a fortified place, but that it was a stronghold of a very formidable character, containing a garrison of six thousand veteran
* Holmes, ii. 74. The apportionment made by Lord Loudoun for New Eng land, was as follows : Massachusetts, eighteen hundred men ; Connecticut, four- teen hundred ; Rhode Island, four hundred and fifty ; New Hampshire, three hundred and fifty. The Connecticut troops were placed under the command of the following officers, viz. Phineas Lyman, colonel; Nathan Whiting, lieut. colo- nel; and Nathan Payson, major. Israel Putnam was captain of one of the four- teen companies.
+ Graham, iv. 5.
58
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
troops, and a large body of militia. To add to the obstacles that were in the way of his achieving a military reputation as boundless as his desires and as solid as his inactivity, while the army was lingering at Halifax, gleaning informa- tion of the fortress, it was made still more inaccessible by the arrival of seventeen line-of-battle ships, that quietly moored themselves in the harbor and showed what the good earl thought to be such evident signs of participating in the quarrel, that he prudently gave up the enterprise and returned to New York .*
While this farce was being enacted, the Marquis de Mont- calm, elated with the successes of the previous year, and exulting at the news that the British and provincial troops were taking a pleasure trip to Halifax, summoned all his powers of mind, and rallied all his forces, to strike a blow at the vitals of the English power in the north. General Webb commanded in that quarter, and Montcalm, astute and keen in his knowledge of men, had by this time learned what sort of opposition he was likely to meet at such hands. He resolved to avail himself of the absence of so large a share of the British and provincial troops, and sieze upon Fort Wil- liam Henry. I have already described the position of this fortress, and have spoken of its relative importance. In ad- dition to this, as it stood near the spot where his predecessor, the Baron Dieskau, had been taken captive, it would add not a little to the reputation of Montcalm could he blot out the stains of the inglorious defeat that had fallen upon the French arms within sight of the fort. Summoning his forces from Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and the adjacent stations, and rallying to his standard a larger number of Indians than his nation had ever employed before on any one occasion, he set out with an army of about eight thousand men.
A few days before he crossed the lake, General Webb, whose head-quarters were at Fort Edward, ordered Major Israel Putnam, t of Connecticut, with two hundred men, to
* Holmes, ii. 74.
t In May 1756, the assembly granted " to Captain Israel Putnam, the number of
59
PUTNAM RECONNOITRES THE ENEMY.
[1757.]
escort him to Fort William Henry. His object in visiting this fort was to inspect it, and find out by actual observation the strength of the place. What could have stimulated the general to such a pitch of temerity, is to this day a mystery. His conduct on the occasion was at variance with his whole previous and subsequent life. Had he suspected the possi- ble approach of the enemy, no character in all history would have been less likely to have visited Fort William Henry. Yet not only did he allow Putnam to conduct him to that fortress, but he permitted him to go down the lake in broad day light, and, having landed at North-west bay, to stay on shore there until he could learn what was the condition of the enemy at Ticonderoga, and the other posts in that quarter.
Putnam proceeded with eighteen volunteers, in three whale boats, and before he had reached North-west bay, he dis- covered a party of men on an island. As he had not approached near enough to the island to alarm the enemy, he left two of his boats to fish at a safe distance, and hastened back to the fort with the tidings. The general, when he saw the leader of the scouting party rowing back his boat alone, and with such velocity that it almost flew through the water, took it for granted that the rest of the company had been taken captives, and sent a skiff with strict orders that Put- nam alone should come ashore. Putnam, who was able to see no good reason why the lives of seventeen brave men should be wantonly sacrificed, explained to General Webb their situation and begged earnestly that he might be permit- ted to return, complete his mission, and bring back his companions. With much reluctance General Webb finally yielded to his solicitations.
With a glad heart Putnam returned, and passing by the spot where the occupants of the whale boats were still engaged in fishing, as if sport only had tempted them to explore the
fifty Spanish milled dollars, and thirty such dollars to Captain Noah Grant, as a gratuity, for their extraordinary services and good conduct in ranging and scout- ing the winter past for the annoyance of the enemy near Crown Point."
60
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
windings of the most beautiful of American lakes, he rowed his boat still nearer to the North-west bay until, pausing upon the crystal waters, he could see by the aid of a good glass a large army in motion and advancing towards him. Had they been a flock of wild fowl gliding over the bosom of the lake, Putnam could not have regarded them with emotions less akin to fear. Long and earnestly he gazed upon them, scanning their equipments and trying to esti- mate their numbers, in order that he might come to some conclusion as to their probable destination. So lost was he in the contemplation of this exciting spectacle, that several of the canoes filled with wild graceful forest-men, like the light clouds that fly with vapory wings in the van of the black thunder-storm, had come up with him and almost surrounded him, before he thought of flight. But the bows of these swarthy voyagers, rent from the sasafrass-tree, were not more elastic than his muscles, nor were the sinews of the deer that bent them into the shape of the crescent moon, more tough and wiry than his own. He dashed through the midst of them, and leading back his little party, reported to General Webb the approach of a hostile army. At the same time he expressed his conviction that the expedition was designed for the capture of Fort William Henry. Gen. Webb enjoined upon him the strictest silence in regard to so delicate a subject, and bade him put his men under an oath of secrecy while he made ready without loss of time to return to Fort Edward.
" I hope your excellency does not intend to neglect so fair an opportunity of giving battle, should the enemy presume to land," interposed Major Putnam, who saw at a glance how easy it would be, with such an army as could be mustered from the two forts, to cut off the whole expedition.
" What do you think we should do here ?" asked General Webb, whose blood must have curdled at the suggestion of the provincial major.
The next day he returned to his head-quarters, and the day after he dispatched Colonel Monroe with his regiment to re-
.
61
[1757.] JOHNSON ATTEMPTS TO RELIEVE THE FORT.
inforce the garrison. Monroe took with him all his rich baggage and camp-equipage, in spite of Putnam's advice to the contrary. On the day after Colonel Monroe arrived at Fort William Henry, the Marquis de Montcalm landed his army and opened the siege. I have said that the army of the. French general amounted to about eight thousand men. As the garrison did not number more than about twenty-five hundred, it was easy to prophecy what would be its fate. Still, with the walls of a strong fortress to protect him, Monroe was not without hope that General Webb, who was only fourteen miles off with four thousand troops, would march to his assistance. He therefore, made a resolute stand, and discharged his shot with considerable effect into the camp of the besieging army. For many tedious days and nights this gallant officer continued to wage the un- equal conflict, awaiting with sleepless anxiety the return of messenger after messenger whom he had sent to implore General Webb to save the brave little garrison from impend- ing destruction.
Meanwhile the arrival of Sir William Johnson with his troops had very much augmented the army under General Webb, which was now of sufficient force to have annihilated the French army, could Montcalm have been fool-hardy enough to await their coming. Sir William Johnson now joined his solicitations to the supplicating messengers from the besieged fort, and Putnam in his bold manly way begged that he might be permitted to lead his handful of rangers to the scene of action. Trembling and irresolute day after day the general resisted these appeals, though they were seconded by the eloquent roar of the guns that still answered the over- whelming artillery of the beleaguering army.
At last, on the 8th or 9th day after the landing of the French, Sir William Johnson prevailed on General Webb to allow him to march with the provincials, militia, and Putnam's rangers, to the relief of the garrison. But scarcely had this scanty force advanced three miles from Fort Edward when the order was countermanded, and the reinforcement returned.
62
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
One of Montcalm's Indian videttes, seeing the provincial army marching toward Fort William Henry, as he scoured the woods in the neighborhood of Fort Edward, fled to the French camp with the startling intelligence. The French general questioned him as to the numbers of the approaching enemy.
"If you can count the leaves on the trees you can count them," replied the courier, in the vague, metaphorical language of his people.
Immediately the guns of the besiegers were silenced, and the army was ordered to make preparations to re-embark and abandon the attempt upon the fort, when the arrival of an- other runner who had seen the reinforcement on its return- march to Fort Edward, induced the marquis to begin the siege anew. With an admirable train of artillery, plenty of ammunition, and inspired with new hope, now that he had learn- ed how little he had to fear interruption from abroad, he made such a fierce attack upon the fort that Colonel Monroe, whose ammunition had begun to fail, now saw that he could not hold out much longer. Still he fought on at desperate odds, and would have continued to do so for many hours had it not been for the receipt of a letter from General Webb, addressed to himself, advising him to surrender without delay .* This letter had been intercepted by the enemy and was adroitly sent into the garrison at the most favorable time to make an impression. t
Thus counseled by the dastard who could have saved him without so much as lifting a finger, had he but permitted others to do what his cowardly soul rendered him incapable of attempting, the deserted and heart-broken commander of Fort William Henry was compelled to capitulate.
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