The sad story of Ticonderoga is now seldom told and almost forgotten; the disasters or triumphs of that year's campaign have left upon its scene no traces more permanent than those of the cloud and sunshine of an April day. In the eventual century since passed, our country has emerged from the direst strife that ever shook the world, triumphant by land and sea, great in power and in wisdom, proudest among the nations of the earth, still humblest in reverence of Heaven. The memory of this remote disaster can not now, even for a moment, dim the light of "England's matchless glory." But such records give a lesson that may not be forgotten. Men bearing the same name have each at different periods played important parts in British military history; though both have long since passed away, their examples are still before us.[136] The British soldier, in time of danger, will not hesitate to elect between the fate of Abercromby who survived the shameful rout of Ticonderoga, and that of the stout Sir Ralph who fell upon the Egyptian plains.[137]
On the 9th the troops were ordered to embark and retire to Fort William Henry, which place they reached that night. Even when there the general did not consider his army safe till he had strengthened the defenses. Still diffident, he sent the artillery and ammunition on to Albany, and afterward even to New York. By this defensive attitude he neutralized the advantage which his greatly superior strength gave him over the enemy, and thus for another year was deferred the acquisition of the "Gates of Canada"—the Lakes George and Champlain, and the Richelieu River.
When Abercromby was fully secured in his old position, and discipline in a measure re-established in the army, he hearkened to the earnest solicitations of the indefatigable Bradstreet, that a force might be sent to revenge on Fort Frontenac the ruin of Oswego, and thus to gain the command of Lake Ontario. The carrying out of this plan was worthily committed to him who had designed it, and a detachment of Artillery, and two companies of regulars, with 2800 Provincial militia and boatmen, were allotted for the task. The pusillanimous destruction of the navigation of Wood Creek by General Webb in 1756 proved a most vexatious and harassing difficulty in this expedition. But the resolution and energy of Bradstreet overcame every obstacle; with immense labor and hardship, his men removed the logs from the river, and at length rendered it navigable. On the 13th of August the artillery and stores were embarked, and the same day the army moved by land to the Oneida Lake; thence, by the stream of the Onondaga, past the scene of their leader's brilliant victory, to the waters of Lake Ontario, where they again embarked.
On the 25th, Bradstreet landed without opposition within a mile of Fort Frontenac; he found this famed position[138] weakly fortified and worse garrisoned, through the unaccountable negligence of the Marquis de Vaudreuil. After the victory at Ticonderoga, the French governor had dispatched the Chevalier de Longueuil, with immense presents, to meet the chiefs of the Iroquois at Oswego, with a view of gaining their important alliance, and of inducing them to abandon all relations with the English, by representing their cause as ruined through Abercromby's defeat. He in some measure succeeded in his mission; the Indian deputies assured him of their attachment, but said that, as all their brethren had not been consulted, they must communicate with them before giving a decisive answer. When the conference ended, the chevalier returned to Montreal by Fort Frontenac, where he stopped for a day, and informed M. de Noyan, the commandant, of the danger that threatened his position from Bradstreet's advance. Every thing was speedily done to strengthen the fort which the limited means at hand permitted; but De Noyan, well aware that without aid resistance would be vain, urged upon De Longueuil to send him re-enforcements as soon as he could reach the governor. This the chevalier neglected, and Fort Frontenac and its worthy commandant were left to their fate. When too late indeed, the Marquis de Vaudreuil dispatched M. de Plessis Fabiot, with 1500 Canadian militia, toward Lake Ontario, but by the time they reached La Chine intelligence arrived that caused the greater part of the force to return to whence they came.
Bradstreet at first threw up his works at 500 yards from the fort. Finding that the distance was too great, and the fire of the enemy little to be feared, he pushed closer on, and gained possession of an old intrenchment near the defenses, whence he opened fire with vigor and effect. A little after seven o'clock on the morning of the 27th, the French surrendered, being without hope of succor, and of themselves alone utterly incapable of a successful defense. The garrison, consisting of only 120 regular soldiers and forty Indians, became prisoners of war; and sixty pieces of cannon, sixteen mortars, an immense supply of provisions, stores, and ammunition, with all the shipping on the lake, fell into the hands of the victors. Among the prizes were several vessels richly laden with furs, to the value, it is said, of 70,000 louis d'ors. The attacking army had not to lament the loss of a single soldier.[139]
The fort thus easily won was a quadrangle, each face about 100 yards in length; thirty pieces of cannon were mounted upon the walls, and the rest of the artillery was in reserve, but the garrison was altogether insufficient for the defense of the works. The very large amount of stores, ammunition, and provision which were thus left exposed were of vital importance to the supply of the distant Western forts, and the detachments on the Ohio, at Fort du Quesne and elsewhere. In obedience to an unaccountable order of General Abercromby, Bradstreet had no choice but to burn and destroy the artillery, provisions, and stores of every kind, and even the shipping, except two vessels which were retained to convey the valuable peltries to the southern shores of the lake. The fort was also ruined and abandoned; however, M. du Plessis Fabiot sent on a detachment from La Chine, with M. de Pont le Roy, the engineer, who speedily restored it. At the same time, another body of troops was sent to strengthen the distant post of Niagara. In the mean while, Bradstreet re-embarked his force and returned to the British colonies by the same route as he had advanced.[140]
At this time Fort Frontenac was the general rendezvous of all the Northern and Western Indian nations, the center of trade not only with the French, but also among themselves. Thither they repaired from all directions, even from the distance of 1000 miles, bearing with them their rich peltries, with immense labor, to exchange for European goods. The French traders had learned the art of conciliating these children of the forest, and among them attachment and esteem overcame even the force of interest. It was notorious that the British merchants at Albany could supply far better and cheaper articles, and actually forwarded large stores of all kinds to furnish the warehouses of their Canadian rivals; yet the savages annually passed by this favorable market, and bore the spoils of the chase to the French settlement on the distant shores of Lake Ontario.
These annual meetings of the Red Men, however, had another object besides that of commerce; the events of the preceding year were related and canvassed, and council held upon the conduct of the future. Here feuds were reconciled by the good offices of neutral tribes, old alliances were strengthened, and new ones arranged. In these assemblies, the actual presence of the French gave them an important influence over the deliberations, and colored, to a considerable extent, the policy of the Indian nations. On every account, therefore, the destruction of Fort Frontenac was a great gain to the British cause.
It now remained for the Marquis de Vaudreuil to announce the loss of Fort Frontenac to the court of France, and to endeavor to make it appear that he was free from blame in the unfortunate transaction. He determined at all hazards to conceal the fact that his neglecting to forward the required re-enforcements was the direct cause of the disaster. The only mode of escape which suggested itself to his mean mind was to throw the blame upon another; the unhappy commandant, De Noyan, was selected as the victim of his falsehood. To prevent that officer from forwarding to France his own statement of the case, the treacherous governor himself undertook to represent the affair in a light that could not fail to clear De Noyan of all responsibility. The snare was successful; the brave commandant, guileless himself, doubted not the honor of his chief, and blindly trusted him. De Vaudreuil, unmindful alike of truth and justice, threw the whole weight of blame upon his subordinate, and ascribed without scruple the loss of the fort to the pusillanimity of the defenders. De Noyan, when too late, found that he had been cruelly deceived; he appealed in vain, again and again, to the court for redress, and at length retired from the service in which he had met only with treachery and injustice.
While Abercromby's intrenchments afforded him complete security, the presence of his great but now useless army gave no protection to the English frontier. The ever active and vigilant Montcalm lost no opportunity of harassing outposts, assailing remote settlements, and intercepting convoys. On the 17th of July, a party of twenty Provincials, with three officers, was destroyed by the French light troops in the neighborhood of Half-way Brook, and ten days afterward, near the same place, 116 wagoners, with their escort of sixteen Rangers, were surprised and horribly massacred, in spite of the late severe warning. At length the general was aroused to exertion: he selected Major Rogers, already famous in partisan warfare, and, with a force of 700 men, sent him to seek the marauders; they, however, effected their escape unharmed. When the British were returning from this vain pursuit, a dispatch arrived from head-quarters, directing them to scour the country to the south and east of Lake Champlain, and retire by the route of Fort Edward.