Attached to this letter is a report of troops at Lake George, June 29, 1758, and the roll of the 42nd was as follows:
“10 companies, 1 Lt. Colonel, 1 Major, 8 Captains, 18 Lieutenants, 7 Ensigns, 1 Chaplain, 1 Adjutant, 1 QuarterMaster, 1 Surgeon, 2 Mates, 40 Sergeants, 18 Drummers; Rank and File—981 fit for duty, 11 sick present, 6 in general hospital, 2 on command, 1,000 total. 1 drummer and 40 rank and file wanting to complete.”
We find the solution of why there were only 1,000 of the Black Watch with the Ticonderoga expedition when its strength was known to be 1,300 at that time, in another extract of the Report of June 29th from Abercrombie to Pitt: “I have left two additional Companies of Lord John Murray’s to garrison Fort Edward. The other additional company of the 42nd which was blown into Antego (Antigua), I hear is arrived at New York, which I have ordered up to Albany.”
This is confirmed in more detail in a letter from Sir Robert Menzies to Mr. Murray of Strowan, dated Rannock, 6th Sept., 1758, in which is an extract from a letter received by Menzies from “Jamie Stewart.”[18]
“That, after the additional Companies arrived in Fort Edward, the best men were picked out to compleat the Regiment in place of the sick and old men that were put in their place. That, as Capt. Reid was left behind sick at Albany, Capt. Murray was appointed to his company and Reid to the additionals, as Capt. Abercrombie was to Capt. Murray’s Company. That the additional companies, with Captains Sterling, Reid, and Abercrombie, etc., were left at Fort Edward, where they had nothing to do but to garrison the Fort and divert themselves.”
Everything is now in readiness for the attack on Ticonderoga and an army of six thousand three hundred seventy-seven regulars and nine thousand thirty-four provincials (Abercrombie to Pitt July 12, 1758) embarked at Lake George early on the morning of July 5th. There were nine hundred batteaux, a hundred and thirty-five whale boats and a large number of heavy flatboats carrying the artillery and from front to rear the line was six miles long.
—Courtesy Glens Falls Insurance Co.
Parkman in his “Montcalm and Wolfe” paints the scene as follows: