USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 33
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governor received the members, and the treatment he gave them when about to deliver their message, were extremely unbecoming his station, indecent, unparliamentary, and had an evident tendency to destroy that freedom of access which the representatives of the freemen of the province have a right to, and without which the affairs of the government cannot be transacted."
The promptitude of the assembly to furnish military sup- plies produced new claims from the commanders. General Forbes required tents, arms, and camp necessaries, and that Pennsylvania should bear the expense of a party of Cherokees who had joined the British standard; and admiral Boscawen requested three hundred seamen, in consideration of which he promised to station a frigate in the Delaware bay. But the assembly pleaded to the requisition of general Forbes, his majesty's instructions to levy, clothe, and pay the troops only, and referred the Cherokee Indians to the crown, they having taken up arms at its invitation. Boscawen's request was refused, from the want of funds to raise the sailors.
The attack on fort Du Quesne was confided to brigadier- general Forbes, with a detachment from general Abercrom- bie's army, strengthened by the southern militia; the whole computed at seven thousand eight hundred and fifty men. * He began his march from Carlisle in the middle of July, to join colonel Bonquet, who was posted at Raystown. On his arrival, colonel Bonquet, with two thousand five hundred men, was advanced to Loyal Hanna, fifty miles further to the westward. The march of the main body was delayed until September, in consequence of the difficulty in procuring carriages and military stores, and of the tardiness with which the orders to the Virginia regulars, under colonel Washing- ton, to join, had been given. In the meantime, major Grant
* 350 royal Americans; four companies.
1200 highlanders; thirteen companies.
2600 Virginians.
2700 Pennsylvanians.
1000 wagoners, sutlers, and followers of the army.
Penn. Gazette, 1758, No. 1553.
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was detached by Bonquet, with eight hundred men, to re- connoitre the fort and adjacent country. He was attacked, surrounded by the enemy, and lost above three hundred men, killed and taken, and was himself among the prisoners; the remainder retired in great confusion. * Colonel Bonquet still continuing at Loyal Hanna, the enemy resolved to attack him in his camp. A force, estimated at twelve hundred French, and two hundred Indians, commanded by De Vetri, assailed him on the'eleventh of October with great vivacity, but was compelled to draw off with considerable loss, after a warm combat of four hours. A second attack was made during the night, but some shells thrown from the camp compelled them to retreat. The loss of colonel Bonquet amounted to sixty-seven rank and file, killed and wounded. Upon the twenty-third or twenty-fourth of October, general Forbes proceeded from Raystown to Loyal Hanna. He continued there until the seventeenth of November. On the twelfth of that month, colonel Washington, being out with a scouting party, fell in with a number of the enemy about three miles from the camp, whom he attacked, killing one, and taking three prisoners: among the latter was one Johnson, an Englishman, who had been captured by the In- dians in Lancaster county, from whom was derived full and correct information of the state of the garrison at Quebec. A most unfortunate occurrence happened to the provincials upon this occasion. The fire of Washington's party being heard at the camp, colonel Mercer, with a number of Virgi- nians, were sent to his assistance. The two parties approach- ing, in the dusk of the evening, reciprocally mistook each other for enemies; a number of shot were exchanged, by which a lieutenant and thirteen or fourteen Virginians were killed. On the thirteenth of November, a force of one thou- sand men, under colonel John Armstrong, was pushed for- ward, and the general followed on the seventeenth, with four thousand three hundred effective men, leaving strong garri- sons at Raystown and Loyal Hanna. For want of practical
* 14th September.
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roads, the whole march was tedious and difficult-the ad- vance of ten miles a-day being deemed extraordinary pro- gress. The army was greatly afflicted by sickness, and weakened by desertion. Neglecting the road formerly cut by Braddock over the mountains, general Forbes opened a new one, by which he approached the fort. The capture of Frontignac, and the defection of the Indians from the French interest, had already prepared the way for his success. The garrison of fort Du Quesne, unsustained by their savage allies, and hopeless of reinforcements, the Canadian force lately en- gaged at Loyal Hanna having retired, held the place only until the approach of the English army should justify its abandonment. Accordingly, on the twenty-fourth of No- vember, when Forbes was within a day's march of the fort, they burned and abandoned it, and escaped by the Ohio river to their settlements upon the Mississippi. The ruined fortifications were seized by the English on the next day, and, being hastily repaired, were garrisoned by four hundred and fifty men, chiefly provincial troops, from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, under the command of colonel Mer- cer. The remainder of the army was marched into the in- terior, and quartered at Lancaster, Reading, and Philadelphia. There being no barracks at the former places, the soldiers were billetted upon the inhabitants, who complained griev- ously of the irregularity of the men, and the caprice, favour, and oppression, of the officers. The assembly, having re- monstrated in vain on these enormities, finally directed bar- racks to be erected at Lancaster .*
The troops raised by the province for the campaign merely, were discharged soon after the capture of fort Du Quesne. But the old troops were continued in service, at the requisi- tion of general Amherst, who had been appointed commander- in-chief of all the forces in America. Soon after, at the instance of Mr. Pitt, the assembly voted thirteen hundred additional troops, to act with the British and other colonial forces under the commander-in-chief, during the ensuing
* Votes of assembly. 'Penn. Gazette. Min. of Council.
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campaign, and they encouraged enlistments by proper boun- ties.
In October, another convention was held at Easton with the Indians, which lasted from the seventh to the twenty- sixth of that month, for the purpose of settling a definitive treaty of peace. There were present, on the part of the English, the governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Mr. George Croghan, the deputy-agent of sir William John- son for Indian affairs, four members of the council, and six members of the assembly of Pennsylvania, two agents for the province of New Jersey, and many magistrates and free- holders of this and the neighbouring provinces, together with some citizens of Philadelphia, chiefly Quakers. On the part of the Indians, there were deputies and chiefs of the Mo- hawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, Senecas, Tuscaroras, Nanticokes, Conies, Tuteloes, Chugnues, Delawares, Unamies, Minisinks, Mohicans, and Wappingers, with their women and children, amounting in all to about three hundred. Go- vernor Barnard, of New Jersey, attended in consequence of the request of the Senecas and Cayugas.
At the opening of the council, the Six nations complained of the presumption of Teedyuscung, in his late conference. He had boasted, they said, that he was the chief of ten na- tions; in which character they refused to recognise him, and tauntingly demanded, whether it had been given him by the English or French. But governor Denny allayed their in- dignation and jealousy, by representing the respect and ve- neration which Teedyuscung had always professed for the Six nations, and that he was considered by the English as the messenger only of ten nations. Thomas King, an Indian warrior, entered upon the development of the causes of the late Indian hostilities. The minds of the Indians were first soured, he said, by attacks upon war parties of the Shawanese and Senecas, passing through the province of Virginia, in which several warriors were killed, and others made prison- ers; they were further estranged by the inattention of the governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania to their solicitations, for aid to repel the French encroachments upon the Ohio, 47
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and the consequent departure or capture of the English traders, by which the Indians were made dependent upon Ca- nada for their ordinary supplies: the Minisinks had been de- frauded of large tracts of land in New Jersey, and had been pushed back so rapidly, that they were unable to discrimi- nate the many parcels of land which belonged to them, in- terspersed among those they had sold: the last purchase made by the proprietaries at Albany had been very unsatis- factory to the council of the Six nations, which refused to ratify the sale of more than had been settled by the whites, and for which payment had been made: and the Indians had been hardly dealt with, the whites refusing them permission to hunt, or to cut a single stick of timber upon their lands, notwithstanding their intention to reserve a common right to the game. Teedyuscung claimed a body of lands upon Tohiccon creek, which, he alleged, had been occupied by the whites, under a false pretence of purchase from the Six na- tions. The injustice of this claim, however, was immediately proved, by inspection of the deed from the Six nations, and by the testimony of the chiefs then present, who remem- bered the grant, and acknowledged that it had been honestly paid for.
All points of difference were, however, satisfactorily ad- justed. Governor Barnard consented to give the Minisinks one thousand pounds for their claims in New Jersey : the proprietary agents, Weiser and Peters, re-conveyed the lands of the last purchase, reclaimed by the Indians; and the In- dians confirmed the sale of such portion as was settled and had been paid for. To this pacification, all the tribes lately engaged in the war were parties, except the Twightees, upon the Ohio. These also had professed their desire for the re- turn of peace, and had declared that it was necessary only for the English to be strong, in order to revive it.
Immediately after this conference was concluded, Post was again sent to the Indian towns beyond the Ohio, to communi- cate the result. He was accompanied by several whites, and by a Cayuga chief, who bore a message from the Six nations, threatening war, should the Twightees and Shawanese still
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hesitate to make peace. But these threats were unnecessa- ry; they had already determined to abandon the French, although they expressed great unwillingness to permit the English to rebuild and garrison fort Pitt.
Teedyuscung having failed in his attempt to obtain lands from the province, endeavoured to procure from the Six na- tions a grant of the country about Wyoming and Shamokin. But the delegates of that confederacy present at the confe- rence, alleging their want of authority to convey, would only consent to his occupying it until the will of their council could be known. And they took occasion to reproach him for his breach of faith, in not returning the English prison- ers, according to his agreement at the conference in the preceding year. " It was a shame," they sneeringly told him, "for one who called himself a great man to tell lies;" and they warned him, " that he must not now fail."
General Forbes, who had struggled with ill health during the last campaign, died soon after its close, at Philadelphia. His command devolved upon brigadier-general Stanwix, who was charged with the defence of the frontiers of the middle provinces. This duty was rendered difficult, by the want of pack-horses, carriages, and light cavalry. The contracts for wagons with the farmers of Pennsylvania had not been ful- filled by the late general ; large sums were due for carriage hire, and damages sustained by the loss of horses and car- riages in the service. The horses and accoutrements of the light-horse troops, furnished by the assembly, had been de- stroyed, as the provincial commissioners believed, by gross negligence; and the pressure of necessity being removed, the legislature was not disposed to increase the burdens, which the people bore with great inconvenience, though with great patience. To the solicitations of the general, that they would enforce the supplies of horses and wagons by pecuniary penalties, they replied, that payment of the debts already due on this account was the surest means to obtain future services. But this act of justice was not immediately in the power of the general. Remittances from England had been delayed; and such was the scarcity of money in Philadelphia, that no
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purchaser could be found for bills upon the British treasury. Under these circumstances, colonel Hunter, the agent for the contractors for supplying money to the forces in North America, asked of the assembly a loan of one hundred thou- sand pounds currency in provincial bills, payable in instal- ments of six, twelve, and eighteen months. The house con- sented to loan him half that sum, but resolutely refused the entreaties of the general for two troops of light-horse.
ยท The British ministry having resolved to make powerful efforts for the total destruction of the French power in Ame- rica, determined to assail it in all its northern intrenchments. An army of eight thousand men, under general Wolfe, was prepared to attack Quebec as soon as the season would admit. General Amherst, with twelve thousand regular and provin- cial troops, was commanded to reduce the forts of Ticonde- roga and Crown Point, cross lake Champlain, and by the rivers Richelieu and St. Lawrence, join Wolfe before Que- bec; and general Prideaux, reinforced by a number of friend- ly Indians, commanded by Sir William Johnson, was directed to invest the French fort at the falls of Niagara, an important post, overawing the country of the Six nations, protecting the inland trade, the navigation of the great lakes, and the com- munication between Canada and Louisiana; and having re- duced this fort, to embark on lake Ontario, fall down the river St. Lawrence, capture Montreal, and then to unite and co- operate with the army of general Amherst. To general Stanwix was confided the southern department, with instruc- tions to watch the western frontier, and to erect proper forts for its defence. This plan was stupendous; but when we consider the nature of the country, that roads were to be cut through forests scarce explored, boats to be built to pass the lakes and rivers, that the enemy was in force on all the im- portant points on the route, and that the city of Quebec was strongly fortified by nature and art, it may be well question- ed whether a combined attack on Quebec alone did not hold forth greater prospects of success. Quebec being taken, the victorious army would have found little resistance from places
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of minor strength, whilst the British fleet commanding the St. Lawrence prevented all succour from France.
The summer was much advanced before general Amherst commenced his operations. But he was delayed for a short time only by the forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The enemy being instructed to retreat towards Quebec before any force which subjected them to imminent danger of defeat and capture; he obtained possession of the two forts before the first of August, with the loss, however, of colonel Roger Townsend, who, whilst reconnoitering Ticonderoga, was kill- ed by a cannon ball near the spot where, in the last year, lord Howe had fallen. From the first of August to the mid- dle of October, the general was employed in constructing a fleet to obtain the command of lake Champlain, and to trans- port his army in front of the enemy, who, with regulars, Canadians, and marines, had a force of three thousand five hundred men at the Isle aux Noix, on the north end of the lake. The French maritime force consisted of four large ves- sels, mounted with cannon, and manned with piquets from different regiments, under M. Le Bras, a captain of the navy, assisted by M. De Ugal, and other sea officers. On the ele- venth of the month general Amherst embarked his whole army in batteaux, protected by a sloop of sixteen guns, a bri- gantine, and a radeau eighty-four feet in length, carrying six large cannon. But on the next day the weather growing tempestuous, he was compelled to seek shelter in a bay on the western shore, where the men were landed for refresh- ment. But captain Loring, with his fleet, having sought and encountered the enemy, sunk two of his ships, and captured a third, which had been run aground and abandoned by the crew. The commander-in-chief having been several days wind bound, at length made a second attempt to pass down the lake; but, assailed by another storm, and the season for action being elapsed, he gave up his design, and returned to Crown Point, where he prepared to quarter his troops for the winter.
General Prideaux invested fort Niagara about the middle of July. On the twentieth of that month, he was slain, whilst
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visiting the trenches, by the bursting of a cohort, and his com- mand devolved upon Sir. William Johnson. The enemy, with twelve hundred troops, drawn from Detroit, Venango, and Presqu'isle, and a number of Indian auxiliaries, approach- ed, under the command of M. D'Aubry, to relieve the fort. On the evening of the twenty-third, Sir William posted his light-infantry and piquets on the road from the falls to the fortress. These he reinforced in the morning with the gre- nadiers, and part of the forty-sixth regiment, commanded by colonel Massey; another regiment, under lieutenant-colonel Farquhar was directed to support the guard of the trenches. About eight in the morning the enemy appeared, and animat- ed by the war-whoop of their allies, attacked the British with great impetuosity. But they met with a hot reception in front, whilst their rear was vigorously assailed by the English Indians. In less than an hour the whole French army was routed, and the general and all his officers taken prisoners. Immediately after the battle, which was fought in sight of the garrison, general Johnson sent a trumpet to the command- ing officer, with a list of seventeen officers, taken in the en- gagement, and exhorted him, to save further effusion of blood, to surrender whilst he had it in his power to restrain his . Indians. The commandant, after sending an officer to visit the prisoners, immediately capitulated. The garrison, com- posed of six hundred and seven effective men, were permitted to march out with the honours of war, and to retain their baggage; were protected from the insolence and rapacity of the Indians, and embarked upon the lake; the women, at their own request, for Montreal, and the men for New York.
This was the second victory obtained during this war by Sir William Johnson; in both he captured the commander of the enemy. His courage and sagacity, which owed nothing to a military education, has received just and unqualified praise from the English historians. They have compared him with lord Clive, who also was formed by circumstances and self-discipline. But military virtue was not the only ornament of Sir William. His justice, benevolence, and in-
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tegrity, gained him the unreserved confidence of the Indians, and enabled him frequently to temper their ferocity.
About the close of June, the army of general Wolfe was landed on the large fertile and populous island of Orleans, situated in the river St. Lawrence, a little below Quebec. The major-general was aided by the brigadiers Monckton, Townshend, and Murray: all four were in the flower of their age, distinguished by their conduct, and eager for further fame. The first effort of the English general was to neutral- ize the inhabitants of Canada, by a proclamation, declaring the object of the war to be the humiliation of the French mo- narch, by the reduction of his American possessions; not to injure the industrious peasants, their wives, or children, or the ministers of religion. On the contrary, commiserating the misfortunes to which they were necessarily exposed by the quarrel, he tendered them his protection, and promised to maintain them in the enjoyment of their estates and reli- gion, on condition that they would remain quiet, and take no part in the contest; threatening them, in case they refused his offers, with vengeance and retaliation for the cruelties exer- cised by the French upon the English subjects in America. His exhortations were vain. The Canadians preferring their country and their duty to the insidious promises of an invad- ing enemy, deserted their villages, and submitted their farms upon the river to waste and spoil.
Quebec lies at the confluence of the rivers St. Lawrence and St. Charles, and consists of an upper and lower town. The lower is built upon the strand, which stretches along the base of the lofty rock, on which the upper is situated. This rock continues with a bold and steep front far to the westward, parallel to, and near the river St. Lawrence. On the east is the river St. Charles, which contained several armed vessels and floating batteries, protected by a boom drawn across its mouth. The channel of this river is rough and broken, and its borders intersected by ravines. On its left bank was en- camped a French army, of six thousand men, commanded by the marquis Montcalm, whose talents and success in the pre-
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sent war rendered him a worthy and dangerous antagonist for the English general.
A survey of these obstacles depressed the sanguine hopes of Wolfe, who, in his letter to Mr. Pitt, declared, that, even before commencing his operations, he could not flatter him- self with success. Yet, highly sensitive to praise and to shame, he resolved to succeed or perish. He seized Point Levi, on the southern side of the St. Lawrence, where he erected several batteries, which did great injury to the town, but made no impression on the works. Nor could he avail himself of his ships; the elevation of the principal fortifica- tions placing them beyond the reach of the fleet, while the river was commanded by the batteries on the shore. He la- boured in vain to induce Montcalm to abandon the strong and advantageous post he occupied; and, at length, resolved to attack him in his intrenchments. If he prevailed in this hardy enterprise, the St. Charles still intervened between him and the city; but this he deemed easy to surmount, as a vic- torious army finds no difficulties. Thirteen companies of English grenadiers, and part of the second battalion of royal Americans, were landed near the mouth of the Montmorenci, under the cover of the ships of war. The original plan was to attack a detached redoubt on the water's edge, apparently unprotected by the fire from the intrenchments, in the hope that Montcalm's efforts to relieve it might bring on a general engagement; or, should he suffer it to be captured, that from it the English general might better examine the situation and resources of the enemy.
On the approach of the British troops, the redoubt was evacuated; and Wolfe, observing some confusion in the French camp, resolved to storm it. With this view, he directed the grenadiers and Americans to form on the beach, and to wait until the whole army could be arranged for their support. Orders were despatched to Murray and Townshend to pre- pare their divisions for passing the river somewhat higher up. But the intemperate valour of the grenadiers and Ame- ricans marred these dispositions .* Rushing prematurely and
* July 31.
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irregularly upon the enemy, they were received with such a steady and constant fire, that, broken and disordered, they were compelled to seek shelter under the redoubt, exposed to a destructive cannonade. The general advancing with the other brigades, the fugitives formed behind these; but, discovering his attempt to be hopeless, he drew off his forces, with the loss of five hundred men. .
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Vexation and despair preyed upon Wolfe's health, and brought on fever and dysentery, which rendered him for a time totally unable to act with vigour. An effort was made, in conjunction with the fleet, to destroy the enemy's ships, to land on the northern shore, and provoke the enemy to battle; but the ships were too well secured to be approached, and two attempts to land proved abortive. A third was more successful. By a sudden descent at Chambaud, the English burned a considerable magazine, filled with arms, clothing, provisions, and ammunition; and they learned from some prisoners, the progress of generals Amherst and Johnson. Hopeless of approaching the town from below, Wolfe aban- doned the isle of Orleans, determined to confine his future efforts, to land, above the town. Part of the troops were left at Point Levi, and the remainder sailed with the fleet up the river. To watch these, Montcalm despatched fifteen hun- dred men, under the command of M. de Bourgainville.
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