In the civil history of the colonies there is very little to chronicle during this period. In Pennsylvania a dispute arose respecting the rights of the proprietaries to exempt their own lands from taxes raised for the defence of those lands. Benjamin Franklin visited England in consequence, and the question was decided by the proprietaries yielding on certain conditions. In Georgia, also, arose a dispute in which the Creek Indians took a lively interest, as it grew out of the claims of that Mary Musgrove, the Indian interpreter, who had materially aided Oglethorpe on his arrival in that country. Mary had now married, for her third husband, Thomas Bosomworth, Oglethorpe’s former agent for Indian affairs, but who, having taken orders in England, had returned as successor of Wesley and Whitfield, and claimed the islands on the coast and a tract of land above Savannah, which the Creeks had made over to her, as well as twelve years’ arrears of salary as Indian interpreter. The dispute, after having continued twelve years, was settled at this time to the entire satisfaction of Mary and her nation. The island of St. Catherine was secured to her and her husband, and £2,000 paid in liquidation of her other demands. Georgia was also, about the same time, divided into parishes, and the Church of England established by law.
The unfortunate results of the campaigns of 1756–7 were extremely humiliating to England, and so strong was the feeling against the ministry and their measures, that a change was necessary. A new administration was formed, at the head of which was William Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham; Lord Loudon was recalled; additional forces were raised in America, and a large naval armament and 12,000 additional troops were promised. After this great expenditure of money and of blood on the part of the English, the French still held all the disputed territory. The English were still in possession of the Bay of Fundy, it is true; but Louisburg, commanding the entrance of the St. Lawrence, Crown Point and Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, Frontenac and Niagara on Lake Ontario, Presque Island on Lake Erie, and the chain of posts thence to the Ohio, were still in the hands of the French. They had driven the English from Fort Oswego and Lake George, and had compelled the Six Nations to neutrality. A devastating war was raging along the whole north-western frontier; scalping parties advanced to the very centre of Massachusetts; to within a short distance of Philadelphia, and kept Maryland and Virginia in perpetual alarm.[[5]]
The campaign of 1758 began in earnest. Pitt addressed a circular to the colonies, demanding at least 20,000 men; the crown undertook to provide arms, ammunition, tents and provisions; the colonies were to raise, clothe and pay the levies, but were to be reimbursed by parliament. This energetic impulse was cheerfully responded to. Massachusetts voted 7,000 men, besides such as were needed for frontier defence. The advances of Massachusetts during the year amounted to about £250,000. Individual Boston merchants paid taxes to the amount of £500. The tax on real estate amounted to 13s. 4d. in the pound. Connecticut voted 5,000 men; New Hampshire and Rhode Island a regiment of 500 men each; New Jersey 1,000; Pennsylvania appropriated £100,000 for bringing 2,700 men into the field; Virginia raised 2,000. To co-operate with these colonial levies, the Royal Americans were recalled from Canada, and large reinforcements were sent from England. Abercrombie, the new commander-in-chief, found 50,000 men at his disposal—a greater number than the whole male population of New France. The total number of Canadians able to bear arms was 20,000; the regular troops amounted to about 5,000; besides which, the constant occupation of war had caused agriculture to be neglected. Canada was at this time almost in a state of famine.[[6]] “I shudder,” wrote Montcalm to the French government, in February 1758, “when I think of provisions. The famine is very great; New France needs peace, or sooner or later it must fall; so great is the number of the English; so great our difficulty in obtaining supplies.” The French army, and the whole of Canada, were put on restricted allowance of food.
The campaign, as we have said, began in earnest; there was no trifling, no delay. Three simultaneous expeditions were decided upon; against Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Du Quesne. The possession of Louisburg was deemed very important, as opening the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and thus admitting the English at once to the capital of Canada. In June, Boscawen appeared before Louisburg with thirty-eight ships of war, convoying an army of 14,000 men, chiefly regulars, under General Amherst, but including a considerable body of New England troops. The siege commenced. It was here that General Wolfe first distinguished himself in America; his amiable disposition and calm, clear judgment early won the esteem and admiration of the colonists. Here, also, served Isaac Barre, raised by Wolfe from a subaltern position to the rank of major of brigade. The siege was conducted with great skill and energy, and on the 27th of July, this celebrated fortress was in the hands of the English, and with it the islands of Cape Breton, Prince Edward’s Island and their dependencies. The garrison became prisoners of war; the inhabitants were shipped off to France. Such was the end of the French power on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
While the siege of Louisburg was going forward, General Abercrombie, with 16,000 men and a great force of artillery, advanced against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. On the 16th of July, having embarked at Fort William Henry, he advanced down Lake George, and landing near the northern extremity of the lake, the march commenced through a thick wood towards the fort, which Montcalm held with about 4,000 men. Unfortunately, the vanguard—headed by the young and gallant Lord Howe, who, like Wolfe, had already gained the enthusiastic affection of the Americans—ignorant of the ground, lost their way and fell in with a French scouting party, when a skirmish took place, and though the enemy was driven back, Lord Howe fell. The grief of the provincial troops, and, indeed, of the whole northern colonies, was very great for the loss of this brave young man, to whose memory Massachusetts afterwards erected a monument in Westminster Abbey.[[7]]
The death of Lord Howe is said to have considerably abated the ardour of the troops; nevertheless, Abercrombie, without waiting for the coming up of his artillery, hastened on the attack of Ticonderoga, having been assured that the works were unfinished, and that it might easily be taken. The result, however, proved the contrary. The breast-work was of great strength, and defended by felled trees, their branches sharpened, and pointing outwards like spears. The utmost intrepidity, however, was shown in the attack; but, with the loss of about 2,000 killed and wounded, Abercrombie was repulsed, and the next day made a disorderly retreat to Fort William Henry.
Colonel Bradstreet, being about to march at the head of the provincials of New York and New England against Fort Frontenac, obtained from Abercrombie, after this defeat, a detachment of 3,000 men, and with these, having marched to Oswego, he crossed Lake Ontario, and on the 25th of August attacked Fort Frontenac, which in two days’ time surrendered. Three armed vessels were taken, and the fort, which contained military stores intended for the Indians, and provisions for the south-western troops, was destroyed. On their return, the troops assisted in erecting Fort Stanwix, midway between Oswego and Albany. Among the officers who served with Bradstreet were Woodhull and Van Schaick, afterwards distinguished in the revolutionary war.
The expedition against Fort Du Quesne was entrusted to General Forbes, who early in July commenced his march with 7,000 men, including the Pennsylvanian and Virginian levies, the royal Americans recalled from South Carolina, and a body of Cherokee Indians. Washington, who headed the Virginian troops, and was then at Cumberland ready to join the main army, advised that the military road cut by Braddock’s army should be made use of; instead of which, Forbes, induced by some Pennsylvanian land-speculators, commenced making a new road from Ray’s Town, where the Pennsylvanian forces were stationed, to the Ohio. Whilst a needless delay was thus caused, Major Grant, who, with 800 men, had been sent forward to reconnoitre, was repulsed with the loss of 300 men, and himself taken prisoner. This misfortune, and the loss of time caused by making the road, which drove them into the cold season, together with considerable desertion and sickness, so dispirited the troops, that a council of officers determined to abandon the enterprise for the present. Just at that moment, however, a number of French prisoners accidentally brought in, revealed the feeble state of the garrison, and the news of the taking of Fort Frontenac reaching them at the same time, it was resolved to push forward immediately; and though they were then fifty miles from Du Quesne, and had, at the commencement of winter, to traverse untracked forests, they succeeded in arriving at the fort on the 25th of November, when it was found to be a pile of ruins, the garrison having set fire to it the day before, and retired down the Ohio.
The possession of this post caused great joy. New works were erected on the site of Du Quesne, the name of which was now changed to Fort Pitt, afterwards Pittsburg, now the Birmingham of America.
The consequence of this success was immediately seen, by the disposition which the Indians showed for peace. The frontiers of Virginia and Maryland were relieved from their incursions; and at a grand council held at Easton, in Pennsylvania, not only deputies of the Six Nations, but from their dependent tribes, the Delawares and others, met Sir William Johnson and the governors of New York and New Jersey, and solemn treaties of peace were entered into. In order to check the north-eastern Indians, who still remained hostile, and to prevent their intercourse with Canada, Fort Pownall was erected; the first permanent English settlement in that district.