PITT CALLED TO THE HEAD OF THE EMPIRE. 153 men-munitions of war-military talent-knowledge of the country-clearness of vision-ripeness of judgment-sound common sense, to have done the work. But all these resources were rendered ineffectual. Imperial orders must be obeyed, whatever the cost. British rapacity and pride, British incompetency and ignorance, had full sway. But the merits of the case were beginning to be understood in England. The intelligent classes there were now doing their own thinking. The power of the throne was growing weak; the independence of Parliament was being established. An uninterrupted correspondence had been long going on between the enlightened and liberal-minded men of the British Islands and the colonists; and although they had no representation in the legislature of Great Britain, they made their influence felt. The imperious but imbecile ministry had to give way, and William Pitt was called to power-June, 1757. Better judgment now ruled, and more vigorous measures adopted. Whatever was to be done hereafter, would be attended with some decisive results. The great minister saw the remedy, and adopted the first means in his power to atone for the blunders of his predecessors. Lord Loudoun's character had been well described by Dr. Franklin, who said that, 'Like St. George on the signs, he was always on horseback, but never rode forward.' This incompetent commander was recalled, and Gen. Abercrombie appointed his successor. Admiral Boscawen sailed with a strong naval armament, and twelve thousand efficient troops. The minister addressed a generous letter to the colonies, asking them to raise and clothe twenty thousand men, pledging to furnish them provisions, tents, and arms, while all the money advanced by the colonists in this cause should be returned. This appeal produced a magical effect. New England at once raised 15,000 men; New York 2,700; New Jersey 1,000; Pennsylvania 3,000; and Virginia 2,000. The other colonies did their share. Taxes were everywhere freely imposed. Those laid on real estate in Massachusetts, particularly, exceeded half the income of the proprietors. But being done by their own representatives in the colonial legislature, it was done cheerfully; while a trifling tax afterwards laid upon tea, without their consent, began a revolution. May, 1758.-Early in the following May, when Gen. Abercrombie took command, he found fifty thousand men ready for the campaign; a force so disproportioned to the French, that they outnumbered the entire male French population on the continent; for the best authorities did not at this time credit the entire number of the male population of Canada, capable of bearing arms, at more than twenty thousand; and one-quarter of these were regular French troops-force enough, under proper management, to have extinguished the French power in twelve months. Surrender of Louisburg, Cape Breton, and St. John, July 26, 1758.-The campaign of 1758 was well conceived. Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Duquesne, were the strong points to be assailed. Admiral Boscawen's fleet 154 THE RENDEZVOUS ON LAKE GEORGE. of forty armed vessels, transporting more than twelve thousand men, un ler the command of Gen. Amherst, and Wolfe, his lieutenant, entered Gabarus Bay. Landing his troops, he commenced an attack from the shore, and a bombardment of the fortress from the fleet. Whatever there is of splendor The siege and bombardment in land or naval warfare was seen there. lasted fifty days, before the heroic defenders of Louisburg struck their colors. If the scope of this work admitted, I should yield to the fascination, and attempt some description of this memorable siege; but the record has often enough been made in history, and it has embellished the pages of romance; -the stream must bear us on. Five thousand prisoners, and all their mili tary stores, fell into the hands of the victor, and the first heavy blow of English valor had fallen on the doomed French power in North America. Montcalm at Ticonderoga.-Heavier work, however, than besieging a fortress was now to be done. The chief interest of the struggle centred around Ticonderoga,-there the expectations and fortunes of both parties were clustering. The brilliant and experienced Montcalm held Ticonderoga, with four thousand men, and nothing had been neglected to strengthen the position. Abercrombie had reached Lake George with seven thousand regulars, nine thousand Provincials, and a heavy train of effective artillery. He had a lieutenant than whom England could furnish no one of his age more able and gallant. Lord Howe, the younger brother of the Admiral of the same name,— who in 1776-1777 commanded the British fleet on the American coast in the early period of the Revolution,-and also of Sir William Howe, the commander of the land forces,-had only reached the age of thirty-four. Enthusiastic love and perfect discipline marked the command of his troops. No cloud seemed to hang over so well-appointed and formidable an expedition. The Rendezvous on Lake George, July 5, 1758.—It was one of those balmy summer days, when our climate seems to find its paradise on the magical shores of Lake George, where the deep blue of the northern heavens is softened into Italian loveliness by the blending of purple and gold in the western heavens at sunset. The lake stretches away to the north, and on its bosom without a ripple, rest the pictures of the mountains so perfectly photographed, that the eye can hardly discern the almost invisible line that divides one landscape from the other. On the morning of the 5th of July, at daybreak, the whole armament, carrying more than fifteen thousand men, in nine hundred small-boats, and one hundred and thirty-five whale-boats, with their artillery mounted on rafts, embarked for Ticonderoga. It was the largest body of troops ever assembled in the hemisphere. It was a gala spectacle. Numberless banners streamed over the broad flotilla, flashing with brilliant uniforms, and gay with exultation; while strains of martial music rolled over the bosom of the silver lake, to lose themselves in their own echoes among the neighboring mountains. 'They passed over the broader expanse of waters to the first narrows; they ABERCROMBIE'S DEFEAT-DEATH OF HOWE. 155 came where the mountains, then mantled with forests, step down to the water's edge; and in the richest hues of evening light they halted at Sabbath Day Point. Long afterwards Stark remembered that on that night Howe, reclining in his tent on a bear-skin, and bent on winning a hero's name, questioned him closely as to the position of Ticonderoga, and the fittest mode of conducting the attack.' ' Reaching the foot of the lake the next day, a strong detachment under Howe advanced with incompetent guides through a vast tangled morass, which seemed to be the only mode of reaching the stronghold of the French at Ticonderoga—a distance of four miles. In the passage, they were surprised by an attack from a strong scouting party which Montcalm, cognizant of all their movements, had posted to dispute their advance. A desperate and victorious struggle followed, but it was at the terrible sacrifice of the loss of the young British commander. The victorious party had to fall back to the landing-place, where Abercrombie, learning that a strong force under Montcalm was advancing to protect the fort, hastily pressed forward with the main body of his troops, leaving his artillery behind him. In the face of the enemy's fire, Abercrombie gave orders for his troops to attack and scale the fort, in the old style of British valor. A brave but ineffectual struggle of four hours followed, in which even the courage of his men proved of no avail against Montcalm's impregnable position; and the attacking army was obliged to fall back to the ground they had held that morning, leaving two thousand of the best troops dead, or helpless from their wounds, in the deep gloom of the morass, which was overshadowed by a dense and lofty forest. Once more this consummate French commander, by his superior strategy⚫ and vigilance, wrested victory from his assailants, who far outnumbered him. Slowly the shattered expedition retraced its way over the calm lake, where the vanquished leader sat down in despondency, overwhelmed by the greatness of his disaster. His camp, however, was filled with brave spirits, who could no longer brook this supine inactivity. The British standard was still floating over an encampment of upwards of twelve thousand men, hundreds of them gallant young soldiers, who, during the rest of this campaign, and through the toils of the coming Revolution, were, on both sides of the struggle, to win imperishable fame. There were Israel Putnam, and Stark, Philip Schuyler, Charles Lee, Ward, Pomeroy, Gridley, and Nathaniel Woodhull-who was to win such reputation in the Revolution at the time of Washington's retreat from Long Island—and hundreds of others who were tak ing those great lessons in war, which were too well learned in this school of discipline and valor ever to be fogotten. Among them was Col. Bradstreet, who after earnest solicitation prevailed upon Abercombie to give him a detachment of three thousand men, to march against Frontenac. He reached Oswego, and crossing Lake Ontario, all his movements being characterized by celerity, he landed, and two days later-August 27, 1758-he had captured the fort, the garrison, and 1 Bancroft, vol. iv., p. 299. 156 THE CAPTURE OF FORT DUQUESNE. all the shipping in the harbor. Till the moment of triumph, he had lost but four men. He had made eight hundred prisoners, and in the spoils he reckoned nine armed vessels, sixty cannon, sixteen mortars, and large quantities of ammunitions and stores of goods for traffic with the Indians. After this brilliant achievement, in spite of the loss of five hundred men by the prevalence of a fearful disease which broke out in his camp, he reached the spot where Rome now stands, and built Fort Stanwix, which was to become so important a post during the Revolution. The fourth expedition in this campaign of 1758 was intrusted to Gen. John Forbes against Fort Duquesne. It consisted of nine thousand men, when it marched from Fort Cumberland and Raystown,—the most effective, because the best managed portion being the Virginia troops under Col. Washington. Once more incapacity well-nigh defeated the object of the expedition. Against the earnest advice of Washington, Forbes, who seemed to be in the interest of certain Pennsylvania land speculators, persisted in constructing a new road across the mountains, instead of taking the old and easy track left by Braddock. This caused a delay that nearly proved fatal; for before Forbes, with his six thousand troops, had crossed the Alleghanies, the French had reinforced Fort Duquesne by about a thousand men. Delay had eaten up the days until the 8th of November, before any decisive step had been taken. But from prisoners it was ascertained that Fort Duquesne was not strong enough to offer any effectual resistance to so overpowering a force; and yet the timid Forbes had induced the Council of War to decide on abandoning the enterprise altogether. For once the counsels of Washington were heeded. He was allowed to advance with a strong detachment, to be followed by the whole army. Knowing the ground so well, and inspiring the troops with his own indomitable courage, he pressed on, when he found that the day before, on the news of his approach, the French commander had abandoned the fort, and razed it to the ground, destroying all else he could. The American army marched in, and the British standard was run up; while a new consecration was given to the conquered ground by calling it Fort Pitt, around which afterwards rose the great city of Pittsburg.1 ་ 1 By a series of wonderful marches, and overcoming obstacles too numerous and vast for us to form any adequate conception of, Washington, on the 25th of November, 1758, pointed out to Armstrong the meeting of the two rivers. The commander-in-chief, with his own hand, raised the British flag over the ruined bastions of the fortress. As the banners of England floated over the waters,' says Bancroft, the place, at the suggestion of Forbes, was with one voice called Pittsburg, It is the most enduring monument to William Pitt. America raised to his name statues that have been wrongfully broken, and granite piles of which not one stone remains upon another; but, long as the Monongahela and the Alleghany shall flow to form the Ohio, long as the English tongue shall be the language of freedom in the boundless valley which their waters traverse, his name shall stand inscribed on the gateway of the west.' The twenty-sixth was observed as a day of thanksgiving for success, and when was success of greater importance? The connection between the seaside and the world beyond the mountains was established forever; a vast territory was secured; the civilization of liberty and commerce ar.1 religion was henceforth to maintain the undisputed possesssion of the Ohio. 'These dreary deserts,' wrote Forbes, will soon be the richest and most fertile of any possessed by the British in North America.' While Armstrong had been preparing that expedi tion whose success was due chiefly to Washington, young Benjamin West, and Anthony Wayne, then only a boy of thirteen, carried away by the enthusiasm of patriotic feeling, had volunteered. Three years had now gone by since Braddock's dreadful defeat, and soon after Pittsburg was taken a strong detachment went to see the field where Braddock's slaughtered men still lay. Here and there,' continues Brancroft, 'a skeleton was found, resting on the trunk of a fallen tree, as if a wounded man had sunk down in the attempt to fly. In some places wolves and crows had left signs of their ravages; in others, the blackness of ashes marked the scene of the revelry of cannibals. The trees still showed branches rent by cannon; trunks dotted with musket balls. Where the havoc had been the fiercest, bones lay whitening in confusion. None could be recognized, except that the son of Sir Peter Halket was called by the shrill whistle of a savage to the great tree near which his father and his brother had PITT'S NOBLE CONDUCT TOWARDS THE COLONIES. 157 This last expedition, which, but for Washington, would have proved a humiliating failure, broke the chain of connections which the French held be. tween the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico. It liberated the whole western frontier from the domination of the French, and the terror of the great Indian tribes which, stretching along for so vast a distance, had either been won over to the French, or been made to falter in their friendship for the colonies. It may be doubted if, during the wonderful achievements of Washington in the Revolution, he rendered at any one time a more substantial service to the nation, than at this period. Certain it is, that his conduct stamped his character then, and secured his fame with the country. Of all the military men who had thus far appeared on the continent, no one had displayed such extraordinary qualities. The Campaign of 1759.-Pitt had studied the whole American question, and he comprehended perfectly the business to be done. He determined by one bold stroke to rescue Canada from France, and wipe out her power in North America forever. 'The English colonists,' said he, and their descendants, can never be a great people-they can never be a useful and powerful ally of the Empire, until the French are driven from the continent.' Every means of information was at his disposal. He was removed by the penetration of his sagacity, the breadth of his judgment, his knowledge of human nature, and his divine common sense, from all possibility of being duped by false representations, or concealment of facts. Unswerved by the favor or the terror of the king, or his satellites, from the bold path of duty, he went forward, demanding from Parliament what they granted without hesi tation; for England well knew that he alone had rescued her name from disgrace on the continent of Europe. The hour, too, had come when she was to place herself ahead of Russia, then rapidly advancing to empire; of Prussia, then, under the great Frederick, beginning a career of steady progress, which was ere long to render her the arbiter of all Europe; and of France, which had become the foremost power on the globe, after the sceptre of Spain had begun to relax from the grasp of her departing statesmen. Of all men who, during this period, controlled the British empire, Pitt was the only one who commanded the unlimited confidence of Parliament, of England, and of America at the same time. He had pledged himself to reimburse to the colonists their expenses in raising troops, and now he promptly redeemed his word. Nearly a million dollars was devoted to that purpose for the last campaign, with which Massachusetts, with her share, redeemed what would otherwise have been been seen to fall together; and while Benjamin West and a company of Pennsylvanians formed a circle around, the Indians removed the thick covering of leaves, till they bared the relics of the youth lying across those of the older officer. The frames of the two thus united in death were wrapped in a Highland plaid, and consigned to one separate grave, amidst the ceremonies hat belong to the burial of the brave. The bones of he undistinguishable multitude, more than four hun dred and fifty in number, were indiscriminately cast into the ground, no one knowing for whom specially to weep. The chilling gloom of the forest at the coming of winter, the religious awe that mastered the savages, the grief of the son fainting at the fearful recognition of his father, the groups of soldiers sorrowing over the ghastly ruins of an army, formed a sombre scene of desolation. How is all changed! The banks of the broad and placid Monongahela smile with orchards and teeming harvests and gardens; with workshops and villas; the victories of peace have effaced the memorials of war; a railroad that sends its cars over the Alleghanies in fewer hours than the army had taken weeks fct its unresisted march, passes through the scene where the carnage was the worst; and in all that region na sounds now prevail but of life and activity and joy.' |