In pursuance of the above instructions I immediately sent officers into the New England provinces, where, by the assistance of my friends, the requested augmentation of Rangers was quickly compleated, the whole five companies being ready for service by the 4th of March.
Four of these companies were sent to Louisburg to join General Amherst, and one joined the corps under my command; and tho’ I was at the whole expence of raising the five companies, I never got the least allowance for it, and one of the captains dying, to whom I had delivered a thousand dollars as advance pay for his company, which, agreeable to the instructions I received, had a right to do; yet was I obliged to account with the government for this money, and entirely lost every penny of it. It has already been mentioned, that the garrison at Fort Edward, was this winter under the command of Lieut. Col. Haviland. This gentleman, about the 28th of February, ordered out a scout under the direction of one Putnam, Captain of a company of one of the Connecticut provincial regiments, with some of my men, given out publickly at the same time, that, upon Putnam’s return, I should be sent to the French forts with a strong party of 400 Rangers.
This was known not only to all the officers, but soldiers also, at Fort Edward before Putnam’s departure.
While this party was out, a servant of Mr. Best, a sutler to the Rangers, was captivated by a flying party of the enemy from Ticonderoga; unfortunately too, one of Putnam’s men had left him at Lake George, and deserted to the enemy. Upon Captain Putnam’s return, we were informed he had ventured within eight miles of the French fort at Ticonderoga, and that a party he had sent to make discoveries had reported to him, that there were near 600 Indians not far from the enemy’s quarters.
March 10, 1758. Soon after the said Captain Putnam’s return, in consequence of positive orders from Col. Haviland, I this day began a march from Fort Edward for the neighbourhood of Carillon, not with a party of 400 men, as at first given out, but of 180 men only, officers included, one Captain, one Lieutenant, and one Ensign, and three volunteers, viz. Mess. Creed, Kent and Wrightson, one serjeant, and one private, all of the 27th regiment; and a detachment from the four companies of Rangers, quartered on the island near Fort Edward, viz. Capt. Buckley, Lieutenants Philips, Moore, Crafton, Campbell, and Pottinger; Ensigns Ross, Wait, M’Donald, and White, and 162 private men. I acknowledge I entered upon this service, and viewed this small detachment of brave men march out, with no little concern and uneasiness of mind; for, as there was the greatest reason to suspect, that the French were, by the prisoner and deserter above mentioned, fully informed of the design of sending me out upon Putnam’s return: what could I think to see my party, instead of being strengthened and augmented, reduced to less than one half the number at first proposed? I must confess it appeared to me (ignorant and unskilled as I then was in politicks and the art of war) incomprehensible; but my commander doubtless had his reasons, and is able to vindicate his own conduct. We marched to the half-way brook, in the road leading to Lake George, and there encamped the first night.
The 11th we proceeded as far as the first Narrows on Lake George, and encamped that evening on the east-side of the lake; and after dark, I sent a party three miles further down, to see if the enemy might be coming towards our forts, but they returned without discovering any. We were, however, on our guard, and kept parties walking on the lake all night, besides centries at all necessary places on the land.
The 12th we marched from our encampment at sunrise, and having distanced it about three miles, I saw a dog running across the lake, whereupon I sent a detachment to reconnoitre the island, thinking the Indians might have laid in ambush there for us; but no such could be discovered; upon which I thought it expedient to put to shore and lay by till night, to prevent any party from descrying us on the lake, from hills, or otherwise. We halted at a place called Sabbath-day Point, on the west-side of the lake, and sent our parties to look down the lake with perspective glasses, which we had for that purpose. As soon as it was dark we proceeded down the lake. I sent Lieutenant Phillips with fifteen men, as an advanced guard, some of whom went before him on scates, while Ensign Ross flanked us on the left under the west-shore, near which we kept the main body, marching as close as possible, to prevent separation, it being a very dark night. In this manner we continued our march till within eight miles of the French advanced guards, when Lieutenant Phillips sent a man on scates back to me, to desire me to halt; upon which I ordered my men to squat down upon the ice. Mr. Phillips soon came to me himself, leaving his party to look out, and said, he imagined he had discovered a fire[2] on the east-shore, but was not certain; upon which I sent with him Ensign White, to make further discovery. In about an hour they returned, fully persuaded that a party of the enemy was encamped there. I then called in the advanced guard, and flanking party, and marched on to the west-shore, where, in a thicket, we hid our sleys and packs, leaving a small guard with them, and with the remainder I marched to attack the enemy’s encampment, if there was any; but when we came near the place, no fires were to be seen, which made us conclude that we had mistaken some bleach patches of snow, or pieces of rotten wood, for fire (which in the night, at a distances resembles it) whereupon we returned to our packs, and there lay the remainder of the night without fire.
The 13th, in the morning, I deliberated with the officers how to proceed, who were unanimously of opinion, that it was best to go by land in snow-shoes, lest the enemy should discover us on the lake; we accordingly continued our march on the west-side, keeping on the back of the mountains that overlooked the French advanced guards. At twelve of the clock we halted two miles west of those guards, and there refreshed ourselves till three, that the day-scout from the fort might be returned home before we advanced; intending at night to ambuscade some of their roads, in order to trepan them in the morning. We then marched in two divisions, the one headed by Captain Buckley, the other by myself: Ensigns White and Wait had the rear-guard, the other officers were posted properly in each division, having a rivulet at a small distance on our left, and a steep mountain on our right. We kept close to the mountain, that the advanced guard might better observe the rivulet, on the ice of which I imagined they would travel it out, as the snow was four feet deep, and very bad traveling on snow-shoes.
In this manner we marched a mile and an half, when our advanced guard informed me of the enemy being in their view; and soon after, that they had ascertained their number to be ninety-six, chiefly Indians.
We immediately laid down our packs, and prepared for battle, supposing these to be the whole number or main body of the enemy, who were marching on our left up the rivulet, upon the ice. I ordered Ensign M’Donald to the command of the advanced guard, which, as we faced to the left made a flanking party to our right. We marched to within a few yards of the bank, which was higher than the ground we occupied; and observing the ground gradually to descend from the bank of the rivulet to the foot of the mountain, we extended our party along the bank, far enough to command the whole of the enemy’s at once; we waited till their front was nearly opposite to our left wing, when I fired a gun, as a signal for a general discharge upon them, whereupon we gave them the first fire, which killed above forty Indians; the rest retreated, and were pursued by about one half of our people. I now imagined the enemy totally defeated, and ordered Ensign M’Donald to head the flying remains of them, that none might escape; but we soon found our mistake, and that the party we had attacked were only their advanced guard, their main body coming up, consisting of 600 more, Canadians and Indians; upon which I ordered our people to retreat to their own ground, which we gained at the expence of fifty men killed; the remainder I rallied, and drew up in pretty good order, where they fought with such intrepidity and bravery as obliged the enemy (tho’ seven to one in number) to retreat a second time; but we, not being in a condition to pursue them, they rallied again, and recovered their ground, and warmly pushed us in front and both wings, while the mountain defended our rear; but they were so warmly received, that their flanking parties soon retreated to their main body with considerable loss. This threw the whole again into disorder, and they retreated a third time; but our number being now too far reduced to take advantage of their disorder, they rallied again, and made a fresh attack upon us. About this time we discovered 200 Indians going up the mountain on our right, as we supposed, to get possession of the rising ground, and attack our rear; to prevent which I sent Lieutenant Phillips, with eighteen men, to gain the first possession, and beat them back; which he did, and being suspicious that the enemy would go round on our left, and take possession of the other part of the hill, I sent Lieutenant Crafton, with fifteen men, to prevent them there; and soon after desired two Gentlemen, who were there, volunteers in the party,[3] with a few men, to go and support him, which they did with great bravery.