BOOK the disaster which his conduct had occasioned in another X. quarter, and which crowned the disgrace of this inglorious 1757. campaign.1 Loss of 9 Aug. Montcalm, the French commander, availing himself of the unskilful movements by which Lord Loudoun had withdrawn so large a portion of the British force from New York to Halifax, advanced with an army of nine thousand men, and laid siege to Fort William-Henry, which was garrisoned by nearly three thousand troops, partly English and partly American, and commanded by a brave English officer, Colonel Monroe. The security of this important post was supposed to be still farther promoted by the proximity of Fort Edward, which was scarcely fourteen miles from it, and where the English General Webb was stationed with a force of four thousand men. Had Webb done his duty, the besiegers might have been repulsed, and Fort William-Henry preserved: but though he had timely notice of the approach of the enemy, yet with strange indolence or timidity, he neither summoned the American governments to aid the place with their militia, nor despatched a single company of his own soldiers to its succour. Nay, whether or not he desired, so far was he from hoping to avert, its capture, that the only communication which he made to Monroe, during the siege, was a letter advising him to surrender without delay. Montcalm, on the other hand, who was endowed with a high degree of military genius, pressed the assault on Fort William-Henry with the utmost vigour and skill. He had inspired his own daring spirit into the French soldiers, and had roused the fury and enthusiasm of his Indian auxiliaries by promising revenge proportioned to their losses, and plunder as the reward of their conquest. After a spirited resistance, which, however, endured only for six days, Monroe, finding that his ammunition was exhausted, and that hopes of relief were desperate, was compelled to sur 2 1 The recent fate of Admiral Byng whom the British court meanly sacrificed to popular rage, for an unsuccessful engagement at sea, was supposed to have paralysed the energy of many British officers at this juncture. 2 "On the very day he invested the place, he sent a letter to Colonel Monroe, telling him he thought himself obliged, in humanity, to desire he would surrender the fort, and not provoke the great number of savages in the French army by a vain resistance. A detachment of your garrison, he said, has lately experienced their cruelty. I have it yet in my power to constrain them, and oblige them to observe a capitulation, as none of them hitherto are killed."-Smollett. render the place by a capitulation, of which the terms were CHAP. far more honourable to the vanquished, than the fulfilment of V. them was to the victors. It was conditioned that the garrison 1757. should not serve against the French for eighteen months; that they should march out with the honours of war; and, retaining their private baggage, be escorted to Fort Edward by French troops, as a security against the lawless ferocity of the Indians. But these savages were incensed at the terms which Montcalm (whether swayed by generous respect for a gallant foe, or apprehensive that Webb would be roused at length from his supine indifference) had granted to the garrison; and seeing no reason why the French general should postpone the interest of his allies to that of his enemies, were determined that if he broke his word with either party, it should not be with them. Of the scene of cruelty and bloodshed which ensued, the accounts which have been transmitted are not less uniform and authentic than horrible and disgusting. The only point which is wrapped in obscurity, is, how far the French general and his troops were voluntarily or unavoidably spectators of the violation of the treaty which they stood pledged to fulfil. According to some accounts, no escort whatever was furnished to the British garrison. According to others, the escort was a mere mockery, both in respect of the numbers of the French guards, and of their willingness to defend their civilized enemies against their savage friends. It is certain, that the escort, if there was any, proved totally ineffectual: and this acknowledged circumstance, taken in conjunction with the prior occurrences at Oswego, is sufficient to stain the character of Montcalm with a suspicion of treachery and dishonour, which as it has never yet been satisfactorily repelled, seems likely to prove as lasting as his name. No sooner had the garrison marched out, and surrendered their arms in reliance upon the pledge of the French general, than a furious and irresistible attack was made upon them by the Indians, who stripped them both of their baggage and their clothes, and murdered or made pri 1 It is not uncommon for the historians of remote events to suppose that passionate contemporary statements must be erroneous. Yet surely, it is absurd to expect that scenes of cruelty and injustice should be dispassionately described either by the victims or by their friends. BOOK soners of all who atempted resistance. X. 1757. At least 1500 persons were thus slaughtered, or carried into captivity. Such was the lot of eighty men belonging to a New Hamsphire regiment, of which the complement was no more than two hundred. A number of Indian allies of the English, and who had formed part of the garrison, fared still more miserably. They were seized without scruple by their savage enemies, and perished in lingering and barbarous torture. Of the garrison of Fort William-Henry, little more than a half were enabled to gain the shelter of Fort Edward, in a straggling and wretched condition. The British colonists were struck with the most painful surprise and alarm at the intelligence of this disaster. Many persons were induced to question the fidelity of General Webb, whose conduct, indeed, though not justly obnoxious to this charge, yet merited the sharpest and most contemptuous censure; and all were inflamed with the highest indignation by the atrocious breach of Montcalm's treaty with the garrison of Fort William-Henry.1 Webb, roused at length from his lethargy, by personal apprehension, hastily invoked the succour of the states of New England. The call was promptly obeyed; and a portion of the militia of Massachusetts and Connecticut was despatched to check the victorious progress of the French, who, it was feared, would not only make an easy conquest of Fort Edward, but penetrate to Albany. So zealously was this service undertaken by Massachusetts, that a large extent of its own frontier was stripped of its defenders, and left for a time in a very precarious situation. But Montcalm, whether daunted by this vigorous demonstration, or satisfied with the blow which he had struck, and engrossed with the care of improving its propitious influence on the minds of the Indians, refrained from even investing Fort Edward, and made no farther attempt at present to extend the circle of his conquests. The only additional operation of the French, this season, was a predatory enterprise in concert with their Indian allies against the flourishing British settle "I was a little child when this transaction took place, and distinctly remember the strong emotions which it every where excited, and which hitherto time has not been able to efface." Dwight. Fenimore Cooper's tale, "The last of the Mohicans," has given an immortal interest to the fate of Fort William-Henry. V. 1757. ments at German Flats, in the province of New York, and C H A P. along the Mohawk river, which they utterly wasted with fire and sword. At sea, from a fleet of twenty-one British merchant vessels, homeward-bound from Carolina, they succeeded in making prizes of nineteen, which were loaded with valuable cargoes. Thus ended a campaign, which covered Britain, and her cabinet, and commanders, with disgrace, and filled her colonies with the most gloomy apprehension and discontent. By an act of parliament which was passed this year, the permission formerly granted of importing bar-iron, duty free, from North America, into the port of London, was extended to every port in Great Britain. 2 1 between the British Lord Loudoun concluded, as he had commenced, this year, Dispute with a proceeding that gave much offence to the Americans, Massachuand showed him capable of exerting, in a dispute with their setts and provincial governments, a greater degree of promptitude and Comenergy than he had been able to display against the common mander. enemy. Governor Pownall having been apprised that a British regiment was to be stationed at Boston, communicated this information to the general court of Massachusetts, which ordered accommodations to be provided for 1,000 men at Castle Island,—in terms which plainly expressed their understanding that this was not a measure of necessary obedience, but voluntary disbursement on the national account. Soon afterwards, a number of officers who repaired to Boston from Nova Scotia for the purpose of recruiting their regiments, finding that this service was impeded by their residence in barracks at the castle, required the justices of the peace to quarter and billet them upon the citizens in conformity with the practice in the parent state, and the provisions of the act of parliament by which that practice was commanded. The justices, however, refused to comply with this requisition, as they considered that the act of parliament did not extend to America,3 a 1 Trumbull. Minot. Belknap. Franklin's Memoirs. Carver's Travels in America. Smollett. Dwight's Travels. 2 See Note I. at the end of the volume. 3 A similar opposition to the desire of the government occurred in the parent state about a year before, when the English innkeepers refused to entertain the soldiers of certain Hessian regiments which had been transported to England, in consequence of an apprehended invasion from France,-because they conceived that the act of parliament did not extend to foreign troops. London Annual Register for 1758. Smollett. So little was the liberty of the press understood or enjoyed in England at 1757. BOOK and that they had no authority to grant billets without the X. sanction of the legislative assembly of the province. The officers, thereupon, complained to Lord Loudoun, who signified in peremptory terms his commands that the justices should grant the accommodation that had been required from them; declaring that in his opinion the act of parliament did extend to America, and to every part of his majesty's dominions where the public exigencies might oblige him to send troops either for the defence of his territories or the security of his subjects. His arguments failing to produce any impression on the magistracy or legislature of the province, he was proNov. 15. voked to assume a still higher tone; and at length acquainted Governor Pownall that the patience and gentleness which he had hitherto employed were exhausted; that he had no leisure for farther parley, but, having already sufficiently confuted the reasoning of the provincials, he was prepared to adopt more vigorous measures for ensuring their obedience, and preventing the whole continent from being thrown into confusion by their factious obstinacy. The justices, he said, might yet avert this extremity by immediately performing their duty, to which no act of assembly could lend additional sanction; and accordingly he had instructed his messenger to remain forty-eight hours in Boston, to ascertain and report if they had improved or neglected the opportunity. If the messenger on his return should report that the provincial authorities were still refractory, he protested that he would instantly give orders to three battalions of British troops which he had in New York, Long Island, and Connecticut, to march upon and occupy Boston; and if more were wanting, he had two other battalions in New Jersey, besides a body of troops in Pennsylvania, at hand to support them. The provincial authorities, though alarmed by this communication, and anxious to avoid the collision with which it menaced them, were averse to yield to force what they had refused to argument. Hoping at once to satisfy Lord Loudoun, and preserve their privileges, the asDec. 6. sembly passed a law of which the provisions were somewhat, though by no means entirely, similar to the act of parliament this period that the author of the ably written historical part of the Annual Register rarely ventured to designate the statesmen whose conduct he relates more fully than by the initial letters of their names or titles. |