THE FIVE OBJECTIVE POINTS OF THE WAR.
1. Fort du Quesne was the key to the region west of the Alleghanies, and as long as the French held it, Virginia and Pennsylvania were exposed to Indian attacks.
2. The possession of Louisburg and Acadia threatened New England, while it gave control over the Newfoundland fisheries. French privateers harbored there, darted out and captured English ships, and then returned where they were safe from pursuit.
3. Crown Point and Ticonderoga controlled the route to Canada by the way of Lake George and Lake Champlain, and also offered a safe starting-point for French expeditions against New York and New England.
4. Niagara lay on the portage between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and thus protected the great fur trade of the upper lakes and the West.
5. Quebec being the strongest fortification in Canada, gave control of the St. Lawrence, and largely decided the possession of that province.
We thus see why these points were so persistently attacked by the English, and so obstinately defended by the French. We shall speak of them in order.
1. FORT DU QUESNE.
The First Expedition (1755) was commanded by General Braddock, Washington acting as aide-de-camp. The general was a regular British officer, proud and conceited. Washington warned him of the dangers of savage warfare, but his suggestions were received with contempt.
[Footnote: "The Indians," said Braddock, "may frighten continental troops, but they can make no impression on the king's regulars!">[
The column came within ten miles of the fort, marching along the Monongahela in regular array, drums beating and colors flying. Suddenly, in ascending a little slope, with a deep ravine and thick underbrush on either side, they encountered the Indians lying in ambush. The terrible war-whoop resounded on every hand. The British regulars huddled together, and, frightened, fired by platoons, at random, against rocks and trees. The Virginia troops alone sprang into the forest and fought the savages in Indian style. Washington seemed everywhere present. An Indian chief with his braves especially singled him out.
[Footnote: Fifteen years after, this old Indian chief came "a long way" to see the Virginia officer at whom he fired a rifle fifteen times without hitting him, during the Monongahela fight. Washington never received a wound in battle.]
Four balls passed through his clothes. Two horses were shot under him. Braddock was mortally wounded and borne from the field. At last, when the continental troops were nearly all killed, the regulars turned and fled disgracefully, abandoning everything to the foe. Washington covered their flight and saved the wreck of the army from pursuit.
Second Expedition (1758).—General Forbes led the second expedition, Washington commanding tho Virginia troops. The general lost so much time in building roads that, in November, he was fifty miles from the fort. A council of war decided to give up the attempt. But Washington receiving news of the weakness of the French garrison, urged a forward movement. He himself led the advance guard, and by his vigilance dispelled all danger of Indian surprise. The French fired the fort, and fled at his approach. As the flag of England floated out over the ruined ramparts, this gateway of the west was named Pittsburg.
[Footnote: This was in honor of William Pitt, prime minister of England, whose true friendship for the colonies was warmly appreciated in America. He came into power in 1758, and from that time the war took on a different aspect.]
2. ACADIA AND LOUISBURG.
1. Acadia.—Scarcely had the war commenced, when an attack was made on Acadia. The French forts at the head of the Bay of Fundy were quickly taken, and the entire region east of the Penobscot fell into the hands of the English.
[Footnote: This victory was disgraced by an act of heartless cruelty. The Acadians were a simple-minded, rural people. They readily gave up their arms and meekly submitted to their conquerors. But the English authorities, knowing their sympathy with the French and coveting their rich farms, drove old and young on board the ships at the point of the bayonet, and distributed them among the colonies. Families were broken up, their homes burned, and, poor exiles, the broken-hearted Acadians met everywhere only insult and abuse. Longfellow, in his beautiful poem "Evangeline," has revived in the present generation a warm sympathy for these people, whose misfortunes he has so pathetically recorded.]
2. Louisburg (1757).—General Loudoun collected an army at Halifax for an attack on Louisburg. After spending all summer in drilling his troops, "he gave up the attempt on learning that the French fleet contained one more ship than his own!" The next year Generals Amherst and Wolfe captured the city after a severe bombardment, and took possession of the entire island.
[Footnote: Abandoning Louisburg, the English made Halifax, as it is to-day, their rendezvous in that region.]
3. CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA.
1. Battle of Lake George.—About the time of Braddock's expedition, another was undertaken against Crown Point. The French under Dieskau (de-es-ko) were met near the head of Lake George.
[Footnote: The brave Dieskau was severely wounded. In the pursuit, a soldier found him leaning against a stump. As he fumbled for his watch to propitiate his enemy, the soldier thinking him to be searching for his pistol, shot him.]
[Footnote: Johnson, the English commander, received word of the approach of the enemy, and sent out Colonel Williams with twelve hundred men to stop them. In the skirmish Williams was killed. He was the real founder of Williams College, having by his will, made while on his way to battle, bequeathed a sum to found a free school for Western Massachusetts.]
Fortunately, General Johnson, being slightly wounded, early in the action retired to his tent, whereupon General Lyman, with his provincial troops, regained the battle then nearly lost. This victory following closely on the heels of Braddock's disaster, excited great joy. Johnson was voted knighthood and $25,000; Lyman, the real victor, received nothing. This battle ended the attempt to take Crown Point. Johnson loitered away the summer in building a fort near by, which he called William Henry.
[Footnote: Two years after, Montcalm, the new French general, swept down from Canada and captured this fort with its garrison, although Webb was at Fort Edward, fourteen miles below, with six thousand men lying idly in camp. The victory is noted for an illustration of savage treachery. The English had been guaranteed a safe escort to Fort Edward. But they had scarcely left the fort when the Indians fell upon them to plunder and to slaughter. In vain did the French officers peril their lives to save their captives from the lawless tomahawk. "Kill me," cried Montcalm, in desperation, "but spare the English, who are under my protection." The Indian fury, however, was implacable, and the march of the prisoners to Fort Edward became a flight for life.]
In the fall he returned to Albany and disbanded his troops.
2. Attack on Ticonderoga.—On a calm Sunday morning, about four months before the fall of Fort du Quesne, a thousand boats full of soldiers, with waving flags and strains of martial music, swept down Lake George to attack Ticonderoga. General Abercrombie ordered an assault before his artillery came up, and while the battle raged lay hid away in the rear. A disastrous repulse was the result.
[Footnote: While the main army was delaying after this failure, Colonel Bradstreet obtained permission to go against Fort Frontenac, on the present site of Kingston. Crossing the lake, he captured the fort and a large quantity of stores intended for Fort Du Quesne. The loss disheartened the garrison of the latter place, frightened off their Indian allies, and did much to cause its evacuation on the approach of the English.]
3. Capture of both Forts.—The next year (1759), at the approach of General Amherst with a large army, both Ticonderoga and Crown Point were evacuated.
4. NIAGARA.
1. About the time of Braddock's expedition, General Shirley marched to capture Niagara. But reaching Oswego and learning of that disastrous defeat, he was discouraged. He simply built a fort and came home.
[Footnote: The next year that indefatigable general, Montcalm, crossed the lake from Canada and captured this fort with its garrison and a large amount of public stores.]
2. Nothing further was done toward the capture of this important post for four years, when it was invested by General Prideaux (pre-do). In spite of desperate attempts made to relieve the garrison, it was at last compelled to surrender (1759). New York was thus extended to Niagara River, and the West was secured to the English.
[Footnote: Prideaux was accidentally killed during the siege, but his successor, Johnson, satisfactorily carried out his plans.]
5. QUEBEC (1759).—The same summer in which Niagara, Crown Point, and Ticonderoga were occupied by the English, General Wolfe anchored with a large fleet and eight thousand land troops in front of Quebec. Opposed to him was the vigilant French general, Montcalm, with a command equal to his own. The English cannon easily destroyed the lower city next the river, but the citadel being on higher ground, was far out of their reach. The bank of the river, for miles a high craggy wall, bristled with cannon at every landing-place. For months Wolfe lingered before the city, vainly seeking some feasible point of attack. Carefully reconnoitering the precipitous bluff above the city, his sharp eyes at length discovered a narrow path winding among the rocks to the top, and he determined to lead his army up this ascent.
[Footnote: It was expected that the two armies engaged in the capture of these forts would join Wolfe in the attack on Quebec; but for various reasons they made no attempt to do so, and Wolfe was left to perform his task alone.]
[Illustration: QUEBEC IN EARLY TIMES]
[Footnote: General Wolfe was a great admirer of the poet Gray. As he went the rounds for final inspection on the beautiful starlight evening before the attack, he remarked to those in the boat with him. "'I would rather be the author of The Elegy in a Country Churchyard' than to have the glory of beating the French to morrow," and amid the rippling of the water and the dashing of the oars he repeated
"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour
The paths of glory lead but to the grave">[
To distract the enemy's attention, he took his men several miles up the river. Thence dropping down silently by night with the ebb-tide, they landed, clambered up the steep cliff, quickly dispersed the guard, and at day-break stood arrayed in order of battle on the Plains of Abraham.
[Footnote: Although Wolfe rose from a sick-bed to lead his troops, he was the first man to land. The shore was lined with French sentinels. A captain who understood French and had been assigned this duty, answered the challenge of the sentinel near the landing, and thus warded off the first danger of alarm.]
Montcalm, astonished at the audacity of the attempt, could scarcely believe it possible. When convinced of its truth he at once made an impetuous attack. Wolfe's veterans held their fire until the French were close at hand, then poured upon them rapid, steady volleys. The enemy soon wavered. Wolfe, placing himself at the head, now ordered a bayonet charge. Already twice wounded, he still pushed forward. A third ball struck him. He was carried to the rear. "They run! They run!" exclaimed the officer on whom he leaned. "Who run?" he faintly gasped. "The French," was the reply. "Now God be praised, I die happy," murmured the expiring hero. Montcalm, too, was fatally wounded as he was vainly trying to rally the fugitives. On being told by the surgeon that he could not live more than twelve hours, he answered, "So much the better. I shall not see the surrender of Quebec."
Five days afterward (September 18, 1759,) the city and garrison capitulated.