According to these orders, Rogers pursued his difficult march, without, however, much success in distressing the enemy, as, from the superior information furnished to the French by the Indians, they always managed to avoid the unequal combat. On the 8th of August, however, they assembled a force of about 500 men, and, choosing a favorable situation, in some measure surprised the British detachment, despite the unsleeping caution of its able chief. Rogers's strength had been by this time, through hardship, desertion, and other causes, reduced almost to a level with that of his present opponents, and it was not without extreme difficulty that he succeeded in holding his ground. In the first onset a major and two lieutenants fell into the hands of the enemy, and several of his advance guard were slain. However, under his brave and skillful conduct, the British soon, in turn, won the advantage, and, after a sharp and sanguinary combat of an hour's duration, the assailants abandoned the field, leaving no less than 190 of their men killed and wounded. Although the victors lost only forty of their number, fatigue, and the cautions observed by the enemy during the retreat forbade pursuit. Rogers therefore continued his march homeward, and arrived at head-quarters without any thing further worthy of record having occurred.
Brigadier-general Stanwix had been detached, with a considerable force of Provincial troops, to erect a fort in a favorable position on the important carrying place between Wood Creek, at the Oneida Lake, and the Mohawk River, with a view to encourage and protect the friendly Indians in those districts from the enmity of the French and their allies. He performed this valuable but unostentatious service with ability and success; the works which he there established and garrisoned still bear his name.[141]
We must now return to the third expedition of the campaign against Fort du Quesne, led by General Forbes. Although this chief had put his army in motion before Abercromby marched upon the Northern Lakes, he had not been able to get his last division out of Philadelphia till the 30th of June: 350 of the 60th, or Royal American regiment, 1200 of the 77th, Montgomery's Highlanders,[142] and upward of 5000 Provincials, composed his force.
The march over the Alleganies was long and difficult; the defiles, forests, swamps, and mountains were in themselves formidable obstacles, had there even been no hostile force in front. But the judicious arrangements of the general overcame alike the impediments and the perils of the advance, and some dangerous attacks of the Indians were repelled with vigorous alacrity. When the army reached Raystown,[143] a place about 90 miles from Fort du Quesne, Forbes halted his main body, and detached Lieutenant-colonel Bouquet, with 2000 men, to take post in advance of Loyal Hanning, while he constructed a new road, being determined not to avail himself of the route used by Braddock.
Bouquet was unfortunately fired with ambition to reduce the hostile stronghold before the arrival of his chief, and accordingly he detached Major Grant and 800 Highlanders to reconnoiter the works of Fort du Quesne. The major, probably with a similar ambition to that of his chief, endeavored to induce the French to give battle, and drew up his men on a neighboring height, beating a march as a challenge. The combat was accepted; the garrison sallied out, and, after a very severe action, routed the Highlanders with loss, and took 300 prisoners, including the commander. The broken remnant of Grant's force fell back in great disorder upon their comrades at Loyal Hanning.[144]
Cautioned, but not dispirited, by this untoward occurrence, Forbes advanced with his whole army as rapidly as the rugged country and unfavorable weather would permit, although so debilitated from illness that he was obliged to be borne on a litter. Several parties of French and Indians endeavored to impede his march, but were always repulsed; once, however, in a night attack, some loss and confusion were occasioned by the Highlanders and the Virginian Provincials firing upon each other through mistake. The French were not sufficiently elated by their victory over Grant to venture any serious opposition to Forbes's advance, and the loss of Fort Frontenac, from whence they had been expecting a supply of provisions and warlike stores, rendered successful resistance hopeless: M. de Lignières, their leader, therefore dismantled and abandoned the celebrated fort, and dropped down the stream of the Ohio to the friendly settlements on the Mississippi. The following day, the 25th of November, the British took possession of the deserted stronghold, and at once proceeded to put it in repair. Under the new owners, Pittsburg[145] was substituted for the former name of disastrous memory—Fort du Quesne.[146]
This advantage was of considerable importance to the British; the respect for their power among the Indians, which recent disasters in that country had much shaken, was fully restored, and most of the Western native tribes sent to offer aid, or, at least, neutrality. Brigadier-general Forbes lived but a brief space to enjoy the credit gained by this success; his naturally weak constitution was broken by the hardships of the expedition, and he died soon afterward at Philadelphia, in honor, and regretted by all who knew him.
With this expedition concluded the campaign of the year 1758. Although its events were checkered with disaster and disgrace, the general result was eminently favorable to England, and honorable to the illustrious minister who then directed her councils. The reduction of Louisburg and its dependencies would have been of itself sufficient to reward the sacrifices so freely made by her patriotic people. Now in possession of a magnificent harbor—the key of the River St. Lawrence, it would be an easy task to intercept any succor which France might endeavor to send to prop her tottering sway in Canada. The reduction of the Forts Frontenac and du Quesne had paralyzed the enemy's power in the West, and given to England all the territory for the possession of which the war had arisen. Abercromby's defeat had been solely a negative event; his overwhelming force still hung like a thunder-cloud upon the shores of the lakes, and Montcalm well knew that he owed his brilliant victory to the incapacity of the British general, not to the want of military virtue in the British troops. The men—whose desperate valor had been wasted against the impassable barrier at Carillon—burning with ardor to avenge their defeat under an abler chief, were still straining, like bloodhounds on a leash, by the Canadian frontier.
With the full accord of the British king and people, the great minister distributed honor and punishment to the principal actors in the important events of the past campaign. General Abercromby was superseded in his command,[147] and Amherst, the conqueror of Louisburg, appointed chief of the American armies in his place. Immediately on receiving this commission, the new general embarked at Halifax for Boston, and thence proceeded to New York, where he arrived on the 12th of December, and assumed the command of the forces. On the 24th of January following, the unhappy Abercromby sailed for England in the Remmington man-of-war. Brigadier-general Wolfe accompanied him, in consequence of permission granted in his original order of service to return when the expedition had succeeded. Colonel Monckton was left in command at Nova Scotia.