ET. 26.] FOOLHARDINESS OF GRANT-DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES. 95 whole object seems to have been by open bra- | plunder of the field of battle, were hastening vado to provoke an action. The enemy were in pursuit of the fugitives. Bullitt suffered apprised, through their scouts, of his approach, them to come near, when, on a concerted sigbut suffered him to advance unmolested. Ar- nal, a destructive fire was opened from behind riving at night in the neighborhood of the fort, the baggage waggons. They were checked for he posted his men on a hill, and sent out a a time; but were again pressing forward in party of observation, who set fire to a log house greater numbers, when Bullitt and his men near the walls, and returned to the encamp- held out the signal of capitulation, and adment. As if this were not sufficient to put the vanced as if to surrender. When within eight enemy on the alert, he ordered the reveille to yards of the enemy, they suddenly levelled be beaten in the morning in several places; their arms, poured a most effective volley, and then, posting Major Lewis with his provincial then charged with the bayonet. The Indians troops at a distance in the rear to protect the fled in dismay, and Bullitt took advantage of baggage, he marshalled his regulars in battle this check to retreat with all speed, collecting array, and sent an engineer, with a covering the wounded and the scattered fugitives as he party, to take a plan of the works in full view advanced. The routed detachment came back of the garrison. in fragments to Colonel Bouquet's camp at Loyal Hannan, with the loss of twenty-one officers and two hundred and seventy-three privates killed and taken. The Highlanders and the Virginians were those that fought the best and suffered the most in this bloody battle. Washington's regiment lost six officers and sixty-two privates. Not a gun was fired by the fort; the silence which was maintained was mistaken for fear, and increased the arrogance and blind security of the British commander. At length, when he was thrown off his guard, there was a sudden | sally of the garrison, and an attack on the flanks by Indians hid in ambush. A scene now occurred similar to that of the defeat of Braddock. The British officers marshalled their men according to Europeun tactics, and the Highlanders for some time stood their ground bravely; but the destructive fire and horrid yells of the Indians soon produced panic and confusion. Major Lewis, at the first noise of the attack, left Captain Bullitt, with fifty Virginians, to guard the baggage, and hastened with the main part of his men to the scene of action. The contest was kept up for some time, but the confusion was irretrievable. The Indians sallied from their concealment, and attacked with the tomahawk and scalping-knife. Lewis fought hand to hand with an Indian brave, whom he laid dead at his feet, but was surrounded by others, and only saved his life by surrendering himself to a French officer, Major Grant surrendered himself in like manner. The whole detachment was put to the rout with dreadful carnage. Captain Bullitt rallied several of the fugitives, and prepared to make a forlorn stand, as the only chance where the enemy was overwhelming and merciless. Despatching the most valuable baggage with the strongest horses, he made a barricade with the baggage waggons, behind which he posted his men, giving them orders how they were to act. All this was the thought and the work almost of a moment, for the savages, having finished the havoc and If Washington could have taken any pride in seeing his presages of misfortune verified, he might have been gratified by the result of this rash "irruption into the enemy's country,' which was exactly what he had predicted. In his letters to Governor Fauquier, however, he bears lightly on the error of Col. Bouquet. "From all accounts I can collect," says he, "it appears very clear that this was a very illconcerted, or a very ill-executed plan, perhaps both; but it seems to be generally acknowledged that Major Grant exceeded his orders, and that no disposition was made for engaging." Washington, who was at Raystown when the disastrous news arrived, was publicly complimented by General Forbes, on the gallant conduct of his Virginian troops, and Bullitt's behavior was "a matter of great admiration." The latter was soon after rewarded with a major's commission. As a further mark of the high opinion now entertained of provincial troops for frontier service, Washington was given the command of a division, partly composed of his own men, to keep in the advance of the main body, clear the roads, throw out scouting parties, and repel Indian attacks. It was the 5th of November before the whole army assembled at Loyal Hannan. Winter was now at hand, and upwards of fifty miles of 96 FORT DUQUESNE ABANDONED-WASHINGTON'S MARRIAGE. [1759. wilderness were yet to be traversed, by a road | veterans assisted, with heavy hearts and frenot yet formed, before they could reach Fort quent ejaculations of poignant feeling, who had Duquesne. Again, Washington's predictions been present in the scenes of defeat and carseemed likely to be verified, and the expedition nage. to be defeated by delay; for in a council of war, it was determined to be impracticable to advance further with the army that season. Three prisoners, however, who were brought in, gave such an account of the weak state of the garrison at Fort Duquesne, its want of provisions, and the defection of the Indians, that it was determined to push forward. The march was accordingly resumed, but without tents or baggage, and with only a light train of artillery. Washington still kept the advance. After leaving Loyal Hannan, the road presented traces of the late defeat of Grant; being strewed with human bones, the sad relics of fugitives cut down by the Indians, or of wounded soldiers who had died on the retreat; they lay mouldering in various stages of decay, mingled with the bones of horses and of oxen. As they approached Fort Duquesne, these mementoes of former disasters became more frequent; and the bones of those massacred in the defeat of Braddock, still lay scattered about the battle field, whitening in the sun. At length the army arrived in sight of Fort Duquesne, advancing with great precaution, and expecting a vigorous defence; but that formidable fortress, the terror and scourge of the frontier, and the object of such warlike enterprise, fell without a blow. The recent successes of the English forces in Canada, particularly the capture and destruction of Fort Frontenac, had left the garrison without hope of reinforcements and supplies. The whole force, at the time, did not exceed five hundred men, and the provisions were nearly exhausted. The commander, therefore, waited only until the English army was within one day's march, when he embarked his troops at night in bateaux, blew up his magazines, set fire to the fort, and retreated down the Ohio, by the light of the flames. On the 25th of November, Washington, with the advanced guard, marched in, and planted the British flag on the yet smoking ruins. One of the first offices of the army was to collect and bury, in one common tomb, the bones of their fellow-soldiers who had fallen in the battles of Braddock and Grant. In this pious duty it is said every one joined, from the general down to the private soldier; and some The ruins of the fortress were now put in a defensible state, and garrisoned by two hundred men from Washington's regiment; the name was changed to that of Fort Pitt, in honor of the illustrious British minister, whose measures had given vigor and effect to this year's campaign; it has since been modified into Pittsburg, and designates one of the most busy and populous cities of the interior. The reduction of Fort Duquesne terminated, as Washington had foreseen, the troubles and dangers of the southern frontier. The French domination of the Ohio was at an end; the Indians, as usual, paid homage to the conquering power, and a treaty of peace was concluded with all the tribes between the Ohio and the lakes. With this campaign ended, for the present, the military career of Washington. His great object was attained, the restoration of quiet and security to his native province; and, having abandoned all hope of attaining rank in the regular army, and his health being much impaired, he gave up his commission at the close of the year, and retired from the service, followed by the applause of his fellow-soldiers, and the gratitude and admiration of all his countrymen. His marriage with Mrs. Custis took place shortly after his return. It was celebrated on the 6th of January, 1759, at the White House, the residence of the bride, in the good old hospitable style of Virginia, amid a joyous assemblage of relatives and friends. CHAPTER XXV. BEFORE following Washington into the retirement of domestic life, we think it proper to notice the events which closed the great struggle between England and France for empire in America. In that struggle he had first become practised in arms, and schooled in the ways of the world; and its results will be found connected with the history of his later years. General Abercrombie had been superseded as commander-in-chief of the forces in America by Major-General Amherst, who had gained great favor by the reduction of Louisburg. ET. 27.] FORT NIAGARA TAKEN-AMHERST AT TICONDEROGA. 97 According to the plan of operations for 1759, | within the thundering sound of the one, and General Wolfe, who had risen to fame by his gallant conduct in the same affair, was to ascend the St. Lawrence in a fleet of ships of war, with eight thousand men, as soon as the river should be free of ice, and lay siege to Quebec, the capital of Canada. General Amherst, in the mean time, was to advance, as Abercrombie had done, by Lake George, against Ticonderoga and Crown Point; reduce those forts, cross Lake Champlain, push on to the St. Lawrence, and co-operate with Wolfe. A third expedition, under Brigadier-General Prideaux, aided by Sir William Johnson and his Indian warriors, was to attack Fort Niagara, which controlled the whole country of the Six Nations, and commanded the navigation of the great lakes, and the intercourse between Canada and Louisiana. Having reduced this fort, he was to traverse Lake Ontario, descend the St. Lawrence, capture Montreal, and join his forces with those of Amherst. The last-mentioned expedition was the first executed. General Prideaux embarked at Oswego on the first of July, with a large body of troops, regulars and provincials, the latter partly from New York. He was accompanied by Sir William Johnson, and his Indian braves of the Mohawk. Landing at an inlet of Lake Ontario, within a few miles of Fort Niagara, he advanced, without being opposed, and proceeded to invest it. The garrison, six hundred strong, made a resolute defence. The siege was carried on by regular approaches, but pressed with vigor. On the 20th of July, Pri- | deaux, in visiting his trenches, was killed by the bursting of a cohorn. Informed by express of this misfortune, General Amherst detached from the main army Brigadier-General Gage, the officer who had led Braddock's advance, to take the command. In the mean time, the siege had been conducted by Sir William Johnson with courage and sagacity. He was destitute of military science, but had a natural aptness for warfare, especially for the rough kind carried on in the wilderness. Being informed by his scouts that twelve hundred regular troops, drawn from Detroit, Venango, and Presque Isle, and led by D'Aubry, with a number of Indian auxiliaries, were hastening to the rescue, he detached a force of grenadiers and light infantry, with some of his Mohawk warriors, to intercept them. They came in sight of each other on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort, the distant view of the other. Johnson's "braves" advanced to have a parley with the hostile redskins. The latter received them with a war-whoop, and Frenchman and savage made an impetuous onset. Johnson's regulars and provincials stood their ground firmly, while his red warriors fell on the flanks of the enemy. After a sharp conflict, the French were broken, routed, and pursued through the woods, with great carnage. Among the prisoners taken were seventeen officers. The next day Sir William Johnson sent a trumpet, summoning the garrison to surrender, to spare the effusion of blood, and prevent outrages by the Indians. They had no alternative; were permitted to march out with the honors of war, and were protected by Sir William from his Indian allies. Thus was secured the key to the communication between Lakes Ontario and Erie, and to the vast interior region connected with them. The blow alarmed the French for the safety of Montreal, and De Levi, the second in command of their Canadian forces, hastened up from before Quebec, and took post at the fort of Oswegatchie (now Ogdensburg), to defend the passes of the St. Lawrence. We now proceed to notice the expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In the month of July, General Amherst embarked with nearly twelve thousand men, at the upper part of Lake George, and proceeded down it, as Abercrombie had done in the preceding year, in a vast fleet of whale-boats, bateaux, and rafts, and all the glitter and parade of war. On the 22d, the army debarked at the lower part of the lake, and advanced toward Ticonderoga. After a slight skirmish with the advanced guard, they secured the old post at the saw-mill. Montcalm was no longer in the fort; he was absent for the protection of Quebec. The garrison did not exceed four hundred men. Bourlamarque, a brave officer, who commanded, at first seemed disposed to make defence; but, against such overwhelming force, it would have been madness. Dismantling the fortifications, therefore, he abandoned them, as he did likewise those at Crown Point, and retreated down the lake, to assemble forces, and make a stand at the Isle Aux Noix, for the protection of Montreal and the province. Instead of following him up, and hastening to co-operate with Wolfe, General Amherst proceeded to repair the works at Ticonderoga, 98 GENERAL WOLFE AT QUEBEC. [1759. and erect a new fort at Crown Point, though troops, a furious storm caused great damage to reither was in present danger of being attacked, the transports, and sank some of the small ror would be of use if Canada were conquered. craft. While it was still raging, a number of Amherst, however, was one of those cautious fire-ships, sent to destroy the fleet, came driving men, who, in seeking to be sure, are apt to be down. They were boarded intrepidly by the fatally slow. His delay enabled the enemy to British seamen, and towed out of the way of rally their forces at Isle Aux Noix, and call in doing harm. After much resistance, Wolfe esCanadian reinforcements, while it deprived tablished batteries at the west point of the Isle Wolfe of that co-operation which, it will be of Orleans, and at Point Levi, on the right (or shown, was most essential to the general suc- south) bank of the St. Lawrence, within cannon cess of the campaign. range of the city. Colonel Guy Carleton commanded at the former battery; Brigadier Monckton at the latter. From Point Levi bombshells and red-hot shot were discharged; many houses were set on fire in the upper town, the lower town was reduced to rubbish; the main fort, however, remained unharmed. Wolfe, with his eight thousand men, ascended the St. Lawrence in the fleet, in the month of June. With him came Brigadiers Monckton, Townshend, and Murray, youthful and brave like himself, and like himself, already schooled in arms. Monckton, it will be recollected, had signalized himself, when a colonel, in the expedition in 1755, in which the French were driven from Nova Scotia. The grenadiers of the army were commanded by Colonel Guy Carleton, and part of the light infantry by Lieutenant-Colonel William Howe, both destined to celebrity in after years in the annals of the American Revolution. Colonel Howe was brother of the gallant Lord Howe, whose fall in the preceding year was so generally lamented. Among the officers of the fleet was Jervis, the future admiral, and ultimately Earl St. Vincent; and the master of one of the ships was James Cook, afterwards renowned as a discov erer. Anxious for a decisive action, Wolfe, on the 9th of July, crossed over in boats from the Isle of Orleans, to the north bank of the St. Lawrence, and encamped below the Montmorency. It was an ill-judged position, for there was still that tumultuous stream, with its rocky banks, between him and the camp of Montcalm; but the ground he had chosen was higher than that occupied by the latter, and the Montmorency had a ford below the falls, passable at low tide. Another ford was discovered, three miles within land, but the banks were steep, and shagged with forest. At both fords the vigilant Montcalm had thrown up breast works, and posted troops. On the 18th of July, Wolfe made a reconnoitring expedition up the river, with two About the end of June, the troops debarked on the large, populous, and well-cultivated Isle of Orleans, a little below Quebec, and encamp-armed sloops, and two transports with troops. ed in its fertile fields. Quebec, the citadel of Canada, was strong by nature. It was built round the point of a rocky promontory, and flanked by precipices. The crystal current of the St. Lawrence swept by it on the right, and the river St. Charles flowed along on the left, before mingling with that mighty stream. The place was tolerably fortified, but art had not yet rendered it, as at the present day, impregnable. Montcalm commanded the post. His troops were more numerous than the assailants; but the greater part were Canadians, many of them inhabitants of Quebec; and he had a host of savages. His forces were drawn out along the northern shore below the city, from the river St. Charles to the Falls of Montmorency, and their position was secured by deep intrench He passed Quebec unharmed, and carefully noted the shores above it. Rugged cliffs rose almost from the water's edge. Above them, he was told, was an extent of level ground, called the Plains of Abraham, by which the upper town might be approached on its weakest side; but how was that plain to be attained, when the cliffs, for the most part, were inaccessible, and every practicable place fortified? He returned to Montmorency disappointed, and resolved to attack Montcalm in his camp, however difficult to be approached, and however strongly posted. Townshend and Murray with their brigades, were to cross the Montmorency at low tide, below the falls, and storm the redoubt thrown up in front of the ford. Monckton, at the same time, was to cross, with part of his brigade, in boats from Point Levi. The ship Centurion, stationed in the channel, The night after the debarkation of Wolfe's was to check the fire of a battery which com ments. ÆT. 27.] WOLFE BEFORE THE BATTLE. 99 manded the ford; a train of artillery, planted | news of the capture of Fort Niagara, Ticonde on an eminence, was to enfilade the enemy's intrenchments; and two armed, flat-bottomed boats, were to be run on shore near the redoubt, and favor the crossing of the troops. roga, and Crown Point, and that Amherst was preparing to attack the Isle Aux Noix. better suggested itself. Wolfe, of a delicate constitution and sensitive nature, had been deeply mortified by the severe As usual, in complicated orders, part were check sustained at the Falls of Montmorency, misunderstood, or neglected, and confusion was fancying himself disgraced; and these successes the consequence. Many of the boats from of his fellow-commanders in other parts inPoint Levi ran aground on a shallow in the riv-creased his self-upbraiding. The difficulties er, where they were exposed to a severe fire of multiplying around him, and the delay of Genshot and shells. Wolfe, who was on the shore, eral Amherst in hastening to his aid, preyed indirecting every thing, endeavored to stop his cessantly on his spirits; he was dejected even impatient troops until the boats could be got to despondency, and declared he would never afloat, and the men landed. Thirteen compa- return without success, to be exposed, like other nies of grenadiers, and two hundred provin- unfortunate commanders, to the sneers and recials, were the first to land. Without waiting proaches of the populace. The agitation of his for Brigadier Monckton and his regiments; mind, and his acute sensibility, brought on a fewithout waiting for the co-operation of the ver, which for some time incapacitated him from troops under Townshend; without waiting even taking the field. to be drawn up in form, the grenadiers rushed In the midst of his illness he called a council impetuously towards the enemy's intrench- of war, in which the whole plan of operations ments. A sheeted fire mowed them down, and was altered. It was determined to convey drove them to take shelter behind the redoubt, troops above the town, and endeavor to make near the ford, which the enemy had abandoned. a diversion in that direction, or draw Montcalm Here they remained, unable to form under the into the open field. Before carrying this plan galling fire to which they were exposed, when- into effect, Wolfe again reconnoitred the town ever they ventured from their covert. Monck-in company with Admiral Saunders, but nothing ton's brigade at length was landed, drawn up in order, and advanced to their relief, driving The brief Canadian summer was over; they back the enemy. Thus protected, the grena- were in the month of September. The camp diers retreated as precipitately as they had ad- at Montmorency was broken up. The troops vanced, leaving many of their comrades wound- were transported to Point Levi, leaving a sufed on the field, who were massacred and scalp- ficient number to man the batteries on the Isle ed in their sight, by the savages. The delay of Orleans. On the fifth and sixth of Septemthus caused was fatal to the enterprise. The day ber the embarkation took place above Point was advanced; the weather became stormy; Levi, in transports which had been sent up for the tide began to make; at a later hour, re- the purpose. Montcalm detached De Bougaintreat, in case of a second repulse, would be im- ville, with fifteen hundred men, to keep along possible. Wolfe, therefore, gave up the at- the north shore above the town, watch the tack, and withdrew across the river, having lost movements of the squadron, and prevent a upwards of four hundred men, through this landing. To deceive him, Admiral Holmes headlong impetuosity of the grenadiers. The moved with the ships of war three leagues betwo vessels which had been run aground, were yond the place where the landing was to be atset on fire, lest they should fall into the hands tempted. He was to drop down, however, in of the enemy." the night, and protect the landing. Cook, the Brigadier Murray was now detached, with future discoverer, also, was employed with othtwelve hundred men, in transports, to ascenders to sound the river, and place buoys opposite above the town, and co-operate with Rear-Ad- the camp of Montcalm, as if an attack were miral Holmes, in destroying the enemy's ship-meditated in that quarter. ping, and making descents upon the north shore. Wolfe was still suffering under the effects of The shipping were safe from attack; some his late fever. "My constitution," writes he stores and ammunition were destroyed; some to a friend, "is entirely ruined, without the prisoners taken, and Murray returned with the consolation of having done any considerable service to the state, and without any prospect of it." Still he was unremitting in his exer * Wolfe's etter to Pitt, September 2d, 1759. 247023B |