USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
*Said Benjamin Franklin to Braddock, on the eve of his march, "The- only danger I apprehend, of obstruction to your march, is from the ambus- cades of the Indians." "He smiled at my ignorance," continued Franklin, "and replied : 'These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw militia, but upon the king's regular troops, sir, it is impossible they should make an impression.'"-Autobiography of Franklin.
+Nephew to him who, in 1685, had conducted La Salle's colony to the- coast of Texas.
Washington at the head of the Virginia Provincials Covering the Retreat of Braddock.
(From Lossing's History of the United States, published by the Harpers.)
II5:
Battle on the Monongahela.
required consummate skill in savage war practice. At first they flatly refused, but appealing to their chivalry by saying he would go alone, they all followed him with a yell of admiration that toned up their confidence to the required pitch.
Taking their course up the Monogahela, they soon drew near the locality of the destined ambuscade,. when, with noiseless footstep, each proceeded to his separate place of concealment beside the road over which Braddock was soon to pass. At one o'clock, his advance, led by Col. Gage (afterward Gen. Gage, of Boston memory), came within close range, when the silence of the forest was broken by a murderous fire into his ranks. It was returned with the usual courage .. of British soldiers, and not without effect, for Beaujeu. was killed on the spot.
Dumas, the second in command, now took his place .. A tempest of bullets met the English in front and flank. Gage fell back, and although Braddock, with the cour- age of a lion, dashed to the front, commanding order, confusion was inevitable. Three horses were shot un- der him in his fruitless labor. No attempt was made by him to charge into the thicket which concealed the foe, but Washington, at the head of a few of his back- woods comrades, left their ranks, and fought from cov- ert positions; till a panic had seized upon the English. soldiers, and they fled in confusion.
Here young Washington won his first laurels. Ever in the front, he had two horses shot under him and some shots fired through his clothes, but at the head of his Virginia bush fighters, he covered the retreat of the British with admirable skill, holding the savage victors back in their pursuit of the routed invaders. Braddock was mortally wounded ; Lossing says, by a shot from one of Washington's soldiers, named Thomas Fancet, in revenge, for having cut down his brother for seeking a covert position contrary to his orders; 36 British offi- cers were killed and 37 wounded, among whom was Col. Gage; 715 privates were killed or wounded. The French and Indian loss, all told, was less than 50. The fugitives made all haste to Dunbar's camp, a small post to keep communication open with the settlements, where a day of turmoil was spent in arranging for their long retreat. The baggage was set fire to, after reserv-
116
Expedition Against the Acadians.
ing provisions enough to last them on their way back, and the discomfitted soldiers resumed their retreat to Virginia, there to tell the tale of their humiliation. Six days later Braddock died while on the retreat and was buried 53 miles west of Cumberland, where an humble monument marks the spot beside the National road built there; Washington read the funeral service over his grave by torch light, July 15th, 1755.
While this disastrous attempt to wrest the portals to the West from the French was in progress; far in the East, on the bleak coast of Nova Scotia, the New En- gland plow-boys were striking a fatal blow against the French possessions in Acadia. This settlement had been made in 1604, three years before that of James- town. In 1613 it had been invaded by Argall, of the Jamestown colony, and, from that day forward, an al- most unceasing border warfare had existed between the English colonists and the Acadians, to detail which would fill a volume.
The fleet entrusted with this expedition sailed from Boston on the 20th of May, under the command of Gen. Monckton, as proposed; but the provincials, 2,000 in number, designed as land forces, had been raised by John Winslow, of Massachusetts, and insisted on being led by him, which request was granted by Gov. Shirley.
The whole country belonged to the English by treaty stipulations, except Cape Breton island, but the Aca- dians had erected several forts within its boundaries, under the impression that it would ultimately fall into the lap of France. These forts were easily taken by the invaders, and Acadia became a conquered province. Now came the perplexing question, what to do with the inhabitants.
Says Haliburton, "They were not British subjects, inasmuch as they had refused to take the oath of alle- giance, and therefore could scarcely be considered rebels. They were not prisoners of war, because they had been suffered for nearly half a century to retain their possessions, and their neutrality had been accepted in lieu of their allegiance." With all, however, they were an offense to the New Englanders.
Their civilization had been made of more elastic ma- terials than the tight-twisted woof of Puritanism. In- deed, no great chasm need be bridged over between
II7
Expedition Against Ft. Niagara.
them and their red allies, the Indians, whom they had armed to fight the English colonists, to bring them to- gether on a plane of equality. The colonists were full of bitterness against them on account of old scores, and now their day of vengeance had come.
A proclamation was issued for them to assemble in their churches-men, women and children. The man- date was obeyed. A solid phalanx of soldiers invironed them, and thence they were marched between two rows of fixed bayonets on board the English transports. The sails were spread, and the last sight of their evergreen shores soon vanished forever from their view, amid the smoke of their burning houses.
The number thus taken was 7,000. They were dis- tributed among the English colonists, where most of them died from disease, but the last remnant of them, assisted by the Quakers, crossed the Alleghenies after the war was over, and floated down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers on barges, to the French settlements of New Orleans.
Never were pilgrims treated with more compassion than they were, by the generous inhabitants of the place. A tract of land was given them on the river bank, now known on maps as the Acadian coast, on which they settled, and some of their descendants still live there .* Whatever may be the apology for this harsh decree, the maxim follows that-it is dangerous to be neutral on great issues.
As might be supposed, the laurels earned by this in- vasion, tarnished as they were by its closing scenes, had no weight in the question at issue. The French held the West and every avenue to it with a firm grip.
After the Acadian expedition had got under way, Gen. Shirley, in accordance with the original design of Braddock, set himself about raising new troops to op- erate against Ft. Niagara. It was late in the season before his army was ready to start, and by the time they had made their way up the Mohawk valley and across the wilds to the mouth of the Oswego river, it was late in the autumn.
His route from this point was to be taken along the the southern shore of Lake Ontario, by whale boats,
*Charlevoix, Raynal and Haliburton are the authorities from which this account is taken.
118
Advance of Dieskau.
but the lake was too boisterous for this. Here he waited thirteen days for the storm to abate, during which time his Indian allies, on whom he had placed great dependence for success, deserted, and the lake was yet too rough for safe navigation. The season was now so far advanced that he wisely deemed it imprud- ent to advance farther on a mission so dangerous, es- pecially as the French and Indians were so elated with their victory over Braddock, that a countless host of savages would rally around their standard at Niagara.
Before returning, he planned the construction of two forts to be erected at the mouth of the river, and left a part of his command, under Gen. Mercer, to build and garrison them.
We come now to the last of the four expeditions planned for the first year's campaign in the war, of which Gen. Johnson had the charge.
At the southern extremity of Lake Champlain, a narrow but deep and almost currentless strait invites the boatman along its rugged curves, till he finds him- self, after a few miles' rowing, on the shining waters of Lake George. Its fern-clad headlands, now the study of landscape sketchers and the inspiration of poets, have in times past been slippery with human blood, and every cove indenting its shore has been the hiding-place of war parties crouching for their prey. For a century, the war-whoop, the crack of the rifle, and the groan of the victim, were the oft-repeated sounds that rung from shore to shore over its placid waters. At the head of this lake Gen. Johnson's army lay encamped, leisurely making preparations to attack Crown Point, on the west bank of Lake Champlain.
Baron Dieskau had already formed a plan to make a descent on Oswego, but, learning of Johnson's inten- tions, he changed this plan and made a hasty march from the waters of Lake Champlain, through the for- ests which environ its south-eastern banks, with a view of surprising him. On the 7th of September, news came to Johnson that the French were approaching the fort where Col. Blanchard lay encamped with his New Hampshire militia, on the banks of the Hudson, about thirty miles distant. The anxious hours wore on till midnight, when a message came in breathless haste, and informed Johnson that Dieskau was advancing
.
119
Dieskau is Defeated.
upon his camp instead of Blanchard's. A council of war was immediately held, and it was determined to send a force of 1,200 men, among whom were 200 Iro- quois Indians, to meet him in the forests and check his advance, till fortifications could be erected.
Early the next morning they took up their march, under Col. Williams, leader of the provincials, and Hendricks, chief of the Mohawks, leader of the Indians. An hour passed, and the sound of fire-arms, muffled through the forest foliage, came to the ears of Johnson and his men. It suddenly grew louder, which showed that the French were driving this advance before them. Another force, of 300 men, were sent to cover their re- treat. At II o'olock, the defeated provincials began to return and gather within the frail defenses of Johnson's camp.
Unfortunately they had been waylaid, and many of their number killed at the first fire of the ambushed enemy. But, not losing their discretion, they sent back many a fatal shot into the ranks of their pursuers, as they fell back. The Indians, in particular, had distin- guished themselves. Forty of their number had been slain, among whom was Hendricks, their distinguished chief. Col. Williams was also among the killed.
Except about 300 Indians, the whole of Johnson's army was made up of troops from the New England States and the State of New York, quite unaccustomed to the dexterous art of fighting, while Dieskau's command was composed of French regulars, disciplined into measured evolutions by service on the Continent. Added to these, also, was the usual complement of Canadian In- dians, whose war-whoop had often echoed through the forests of Canada to repel Iroquois invasion, or startled the lonesome borderers of New Hampshire, Massachu- setts and New York, on scalping excursions.
Before 12 o'clock, the gleam of French bayonets threw its hostile glare into the open spot in the forest where Ft. Henry stood. So little time had been given for its construction, that its walls, which were made of logs, were scarce three feet high ; and to accommodate themselves to these incomplete defenses, the whole army prostated themselves on the ground, none of them daring to stand erect lest he should be a target for French bullets.
I 20
Retreat of His Army.
Dieskau approached the place with a caution, unusual to the dash of French'men, and opened fire on it at a. respectful distance. This style of attack was well suited to the undisciplined soldiers of Johnson, inasmuch as it gave them time to tone up their courage. The attack was kept up till 4 o'clock, with severe loss to the French and but trifling to fhe besieged. Dieskau's Indians had been startled from their lurking places behind such trees as still remained within range of the fort, by some well-directed cannon shots, and the fire of the French was weakening.
At this juncture, Johnson's men rose to their feet, and dashed against the French with an impetuosity which would do honor to veterans. The enemy fled in broken ranks, and Dieskau was severely wounded in the vain attempt to rally them.
Unable to follow his defeated soldiers, he was taken a prisoner into the American camp. Johnson had also been wounded painfully, but not dangerously, and, while his wound was being dressed, Dieskau was. brought into his presence. The shadows of evening were lengthening as the French fled into the forest by the way they had come. Johnson's men did not follow them, and the retreaters traveled along the well-known way toward the banks of Wood Creek, where they were to embark for Lake Champlain and return to Canada .*
*Johnson was baroneted and further rewarded with a gift of £5,000 by the English court. He was now Sir William Johnson.
97
93
89
85
Longitude
West 81
from
48
0
SUPERIOR
LAKE
AMISSION OF S .MARY
Two Traders 1658
ST.IGNACE.
Dulhuty
1681
St. Anthony's Falls9
Hennepin 1680
MISS, OF ST. FR$.XAVIER
1669 /
1673
KE
R
A
DETROIT
FT. MIAMIS
La Salle 1679
L
1673
Maumee R.
SANDUSK T.VE
V
FT. STLOUIS
FT. MIAMIS L.
FT. CREVE COEUR
FT
o English Post
Br
1750
10
LESS
A
Missouri
VINCENNES
R.
Ohio R.
FT. OHARTRES
KASKĄŚKIA
S
C
ber
R.
36
R.
Arkansas
Tennessee
OLD FRENCH FT." Built by Tonty
1687
~
------
---
a R.
32
Cavelier
L
1541
Alabam
(La Salle assassinated 1687
DAUPHINE ID. Iberville:in-1699
FT.ST.LOUIS La Salle " 1685
La-Salle in 1682
28
GULF
OF
De Soto 1539 MEXICO
Rio Grande
97
93
89
85
LAKE MICHIGAN
6 MICHILMACINAĆ
JAKE HURON
FT.FR
N
Route Marquette & Joliet at CHICAGO O
Marquette & Joliet's
illinois
E
FT. OUATANON
n Wabash R.
R.
R.
U
1687
Mississippi
De Soto
Tombigby R.
Altamaha
+
Wisconsink
77
73
69
65
61
1534
ier
Car
0
48
QUEBEC.
MONTREAL
ACA DIA
LOUIS- BURG
So
SBuy of'S PORT ROYAL (Annapolis
Fundul?
CROWN PT.
KEONTIR
TICONDEROGAS FT. GEORGE
FT! WM.HENRY
FT. EDWARDSP
FT. NIAGARA OSWEGO Griffin built 1679
ALBANYA(FT.ORANGE
BOSTON
ESQUE ISLE- LE-BOEUF hington 1753 T.VENANGO
Delaware
Hudson R.
PLYMOUTH
SI
İ
NEW AMSTERDAM (New York ) R
FT.DUQUESNE Braddocks defeat
o PHILADELPHIA
40
ESSITY
Potomac
MBERLAND
E
U
James
O
R.
JAMESTOWN
LANTI
MAP ILLUSTRATING THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTHWEST
32
A T
T. AUGUSTINE
AND THE FRENCH & INDIAN WAR
30
A
1
8
73
/
R
Cape Fear/
B'
R
OLD CHARLESTON
GULF OF LAWRENCE
ST.
E
T.FRONTENAC C
0
C
British Possessions, colored Red. French. . .. .do .. .... do. .. Yellow. Spanish ..... do ..... .do ... Green.
CHAPTER V.
Lord Loudon appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Eng- lish forces - Gen. Montcalm appointed to command the French forces - English and French policy and diplomacy - Montcalm takes Oswego - Loudon's ex- pedition starts to attack Louisburg-Ft. William Henry taken by Montcalm-Loudon recalled and Gen. Aber- crombie put in his place-Louisburg taken by Admira- Boscawen-Gen. Abercrombie attacks Ticonderoga- Gen. Bradstreet takes Ft. Frontenac-Gen. Forbes' ex- pedition against Ft. Duquesne-Mission of Christian Frederic Post -- Ft. Duquesne evacuated and taken pos- session of by Forbes-Gen. Abercrombie recalled and Gen. Amherst put in his place-Ft. Niagara taken by Gen. Johnson-Ticonderoga and Crown Point evacuated -Quebec taken by Gen. Wolfe-Canada and the West given up to the English.
While the battle at Ft. Henry was going on, a small band of scouts, consisting of 80 men from Col. Blanch- ard's New Hampshire regiment and 40 men from the New York regiment, left Ft. Edwards and followed the track of the French army, as it had advanced in the morning toward Ft. Henry. At 4 o'clock the scouts came upon a camp in the forest, where the stores of the French army had been left under a small guard. These were easily dispersed, and the camp stores taken. Flushed with this success, the scouts now de- termined to meet the entire French army on their re- treat, and accordingly ambushed themselves in their path.
" In the gray of the evening, the retreating Frenchmen came up, but they were in no condition to renew a battle. They had been under fire since morning, while their new er.emy was fresh. although but a handful,
(125)
126
Loudon Appointed Commander-in-Chief.
and they sent from their covert a storm of bullets into the ranks of the already defeated fugitives, as they painfully toiled along the treacherous forest path, over which they had passed, in the morning, in confident zeal. A large number of the jaded Frenchmen were killed in the nocturnal fight, and their whole army fled in the utmost confusion. The Americans lost but six men .* The number engaged in the three battles were about 2,000 on each side. The loss of the Americans was about 300, and that of the French double that number. This brilliant feat of arms, closed the cam- paign of 1755, which had opened with the appalling de- feat of Braddock on the Monongahela.
While the provincial troops were winning the first laurels of the war, the shattered remnant of Braddock's army, instead of remaining near the frontier to hold the Indians in check, had gone into winter quarters in Philadelphia, greatly to the disgust of the border set- tlers of Virginia and Pennsylvania, who were now ex- posed to the savage raiders, whose council-fires blazed under the French flag in the Ohio country.
Early in the spring of 1756, Lord Loudon was ap- pointed Governor of Virginia and commander-in-chief of all the English and provincial forces in America. Gen. Abercrombie was appointed second in command. He arrived in America on the 25th of June, bringing two regiments with him, and made his headquarters at Albany, where a respectable force of provincials from New York and the New England States were ready for his service. Loudon did not arrive till the 29th of the succeeding month.
Gen. Montcalm had been appointed to take the chief command of the French forces, and had already arrived in the St. Lawrence with fresh recruits for the ap- proaching campaign.
Incredible as it may seem, no declaration of war had yet been made by either England or France, but both nations had been plying their seductive arts of diplo- macy, never so sweetly, to secure alliance. France had positive puposes at which she aimed, the chief one of which was to preserve her American possessions, and the means to be used in the achievement of this end were definitely settled upon, which, in brief, were to at- tack the allies of England on the Continent, by which
*Belknap's History of New Hampshire.
127
Contingent Diplomacy.
diversion New France in America was to be made in- vulnerable against her rival, whose strength must be largely occupied on the defensive at home.
The ultimatum of England was not less clearly de- fined than that of France, but the means by which it was to be brought about were more complicated. The tenacity with which the American colonists had clung to their political rights at the Albany convention of 1754, as well as the able statesmanship of the Connecti- cut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania Assemblies, not always in harmony with the crown, had awakened a sense of caution in the English court, in their dealings with their trans-Atlantic children, and the question came to the surface whether it was better to drive France entirely out of America, or allow her to retain enough there to become a rival to the English colonists, and thereby insure their loyalty through their obliga- tions for assistance in defending themselves from the French. King George II. shared these apprehensions, while William Pitt had always been in favor of pushing the war in America without fear of adverse conse- quences.
England and Russia had long been friends, and, as soon as war with France appeared inevitable, she made a treaty with the empress of Russia, by the condition of which Hanover (England's ally) was to be protected by Russian troops in the event of a European war, for which service England was to pay her. This treaty bore date of September 13th, 1755. A few months later both France and Prussia manifested dispositions to in- vade portions of Germany, the French incentive to which was to keep England busy at home, while she (France) made her American possessions secure, as al- ready stated.
Russia was now alarmed lest she might be attacked by Prussia, and, conscious of her inability to fulfill her treaty stipulations with England, as to the protection of Hanover, she applied to France for the preservation of the neutrality of that electorate.
These accumulating evidences of the rising power of Frederic stimulated England to make an alliance with him, which was done January 16th, 1756,- although by this treaty the interests of Russia, as well as those of Hanover, were left unprotected .* The effect was to
*Smollet's Hist. of England, vol. 4, p. 178.
I28
Oswego Taken.
unite the interests of Russia with France, and also those of Austria with the same power, although the two had long been enemies.
All this plotting and counter-plotting, which, by a paradoxical combination, transposed the friendships and enmities of the great powers of Europe, grew out of the issue between England and France, as to which should take possession of the Upper Ohio country, al- though the fortunes of war ultimately brought, into question, the patent to the title of Canada itself.
It began in a land speculation of the Ohio Company, whose regal title to lands on the Ohio river was not honored by the French court. The issue broadened as the war progressed, and after it closed, a new theatre, unexpectedly, opened before the world, that justified the arming of Europe to take a hand in its settlement. A new nation grew out of it, and ultimately Chicago grew out of it as the central force in this nation.
England was the first to throw off the plastic but al- ready blood-stained shield of diplomacy, and make an open declaration of war, which she did on the 18th of May, 1756. France retorted in kind the succeeding month.
While Gen. Abercrombie was wasting his time at Al- bany, in the summer of 1756, Montcalm gathered a force of 3,000 French soldiers, with a band of Indians, and made a descent on Oswego in August. His heavy artillery soon made the place untenable, and Col. Mer- cer, its commander, secured a retreat from it across the river, into another fort. Here he was again attacked, but he defended the place with exemplary courage till a fatal shot killed him.
His garrison attempted a retreat to another fort four miles up the river, under command of Gen. Schuyler; but the wary Montcalm flanked this movement with too formidable a force to make it possible, and the whole command of 1,400 men were obliged to give themselves up as prisoners, together with a large quantity of mili- tary stores, among which, however, there was no powder, for the garrison had spent it in their defense.
It had not been burnt in vain, as the loss of the French was a proof. Among the killed were 20 In- dians, and, to placate their surviving friends, as many American friends were given them to be killed, by the unscrupulous, not to say inhuman, leader of the French.
I29
Pitt Made Premier.
The sick and wounded, among whom was Lieut. de La Court, were scalped by the Indians, notwithstanding the terms of the surrender guaranteed their protection.
This closed the campaign of 1756, with a decided ad- vantage to the French and a prodigal waste of military force on the part of the English, which was attributable to the suspense which then hung over the political affairs of the English court. By this time, the popular feeling in England was in favor of pushing the war in America with vigor, and, against his hitherto declared ¿ convictions, the king now saw the necessity of adopting the policy of Pitt. Accordingly, this eminent statesman was appointed premier.
Even at this early period, one of the foundation stones of American liberty was laid. The landed pro- prietaries, under the original Penn grant, objected to have their estates taxed for the support of the war, and their influence was so great in the Assembly that Denny, the governor, dared not oppose them. On this account, Benjamin Franklin refused any political favors from him, but, on the contrary, wrote caustic articles against the sordid injustice of the proprietors.
The policy of Franklin prevailed. The estates in question had to bear their share of the taxation. Denny was recalled by Pitt, and Franklin began to be looked upon, even in England, as a statesman of no ordinary capacity. In America, a universal applause greeted him. The Assemblies of Georgia, Maryland, Pennsyl- vania, and Massachusetts, appointed him as their agent at the English court, and presented him five thousand pounds. Arriving in London, he sought an interview with Pitt, but that tenacious statesman forebore to let down the dignity of the British nation by holding a colloquy with an American postmaster. Through his secretary, however, he counseled with him in terms of high respect.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.