The seven new companies embarked for the West Indies where they joined with the Old Buffs, Kings, 6th, 63rd, 64th, 800 marines and a detachment of artillery amounting in all to 5,560 men under the command of Major Generals Hopson and Barrington and of Brigadier Generals Haldane, Armiger, Trapaud and Clavering, in an exposition against Martinique and Gaudaloupe. This resulted in the capture of Gaudaloupe but was not altogether a success and a great many men were lost by fever and sickness. Of the Royal Highlanders Ensign MacLean was killed, Lieutenants MacLean, Leslie, Sinclair and Robertson were wounded, and Major Anstruther and Captain Arbuthnot died of the fever. One hundred and six privates were killed, wounded or died of disease.
This was a severe initiation for the new recruits who had been herding sheep on their native hills nine months before, but as has always been the case with the Black Watch they acquitted themselves with distinction. The seven companies were then embarked for New York to join the First Battalion where they arrived in July. They just missed being at the capture of Ticonderoga. Major Gordon Graham was ordered at the end of July by General Amherst then at Crown Point to take command of the seven companies and to march them up to Oswego. In August they were ordered to join the First Battalion, Capt. Stewart with 150 men being left at Oswego and the First and Second Battalions, now united, served together for the rest of the campaign.
We will now return to the Veterans of the previous year. After wintering in New York (or on Long Island, as another authority states) the old Black Watch now the first Battalion of the Royal Highlanders, recruited again to its full strength and the three additional companies now a part of the Second Battalion, joined Amherst at Fort Edward in June, 1759.[33] Col. Grant of the 42nd with the Royal Highlanders and light infantry of the army moved forward to Lake George the 20th and the main part of the army followed on the 21st. For five years now Lake George had been the annual mustering place of armies.
The campaign this season comprehended three very important enterprises—Wolfe was to attack Quebec from Lower Canada, Prideaux was to proceed against Niagara, and Amherst, now Commander in Chief and successor of General Abercrombie, was to drive the French from Lake Champlain and if possible join Wolfe on the St. Lawrence.
The army under Amherst consisted of the Royals, 17th, 27th, Royal Highlanders, two battalions of the 55th, Montgomery’s Highlanders, nine battalions of Provincials, and a battalion of light infantry and a body of Rangers and Indians with a detachment of artillery. When joined by the 2d battalion of the Royal Americans from the West Indies, this army amounted to 14,500 men.
Major Alexander Campbell of the 77th writes from Fort Edward, June 19th, 1759:
“Our General is beloved by his soldiers, Honoured and Esteem’d by his officers, Carful of mens lives and healths, in short he is the man I would choose to serve under of any I know in the service. Our Regiment are healthy and in High spirits as are the whole army, and I hope we soon will stricke a stroke that will bring credite and Glory to our General and Army and Satisfaction to our Country and friends.”
Amherst never remained long in one place without building a fort. Fortified places were built at intervals of three or four miles along the road to Fort Edward and especially at the station called Halfway Brook, while for the whole distance a broad belt of wood on both sides was cut down and burned to deprive a skulking enemy of cover. At Lake George he started a fort, now called Fort George, the ruins of which are in the Lake George Battle Ground Park of which this Association is custodian.
July 21st, 1759, Lake George again witnessed a military pageant as the army embarked for its second attack on Fort Ticonderoga. At daylight they landed, beat back a French detachment and marched by the portage road to the sawmill. There was little resistance and the army marched to the former line of entrenchments which had proved so fatal to Abercrombie. These had been reconstructed partly of earth and partly of logs, and as the French made no attempt at their defence the English encamped along their front and found them excellent shelter from the cannon of the fort. It is the general impression that the French retreated with only faint resistance and that there was hardly a shot fired at the second attempt to capture Fort Carrillon but the following letter from Capt. Murray would correct this impression:
“Camp at the Lines of Burning Theanderoga, 27 July, 1758.