Wounding of Baron Dieskau. From a Painting in the Museum
“I remained until February hoping to be able to use the garrison to advance the works; but finding that it was not possible to make the garrison work, I decided to return to Montreal after the barracks had been finished, to recuperate from the fatigues of the campaign and the unwholesome food I had taken.
“I left [Montreal] this year [1756] at the end of April and arrived at the Fort the first days of May, when I resumed work which dragged on for nearly a month not having the required workmen. During this campaign we raised all the Fort to the height of the cordon. The earth ramparts were made,—the platforms of the bastions completed, a cover built for each bastion bomb-proof, two stone barracks built, the ditches of the place dug to the rock everywhere, part of the rock even removed on two fronts, the ditches of the two demi-lunes also excavated to the rock, a store-house established outside the Fort as well as a hospital. The parapet was raised on the two fronts exposed to the enemy’s batteries if he undertook to besiege this place, the exterior part of the Fort supported by masonry resting on the solid rock. The next campaign will be devoted to overhauling the main body of the place and building the two demi-lunes proposed, as well as the redoubt at the extreme of the Carillon Point. We will also work at the covered way and the glacis. There will be two barracks to build in stone in the interior of the Fort. As there is but one bastion exposed to attack I think it would be well to protect it by a counter guard. This would constitute an additional obstruction which might discourage the enemy from any attack on that side and, should he do so, I would hope that the place, once completed, he would not succeed. I would be flattered, My Lord, if you gave me your orders to work with more latitude and, if you approve the counter guard which would not be very expensive, I would beg of you to order it by the first ships coming from France in order to embrace at the same time the whole works. M. le Comte de la Galissoniere to whom I communicated the information which I have acquired on this district will not let you ignore how advantageous it is and of what consequence it is to France. I presume to flatter myself, My Lord, that you will consider me for the position occupied heretofore by M. de Lery. I think I have worked in a manner to deserve it.”
It was during the summer of 1757 that De Lotbiniere started to substitute stone for most of the timbers he had used on the outer walls of the Fort.
Abercromby’s Expedition Against Fort Ticonderoga Embarking at Head of Lake George
Courtesy Glens Falls Insurance Company
CHAPTER FOUR
Abercromby’s Defeat
In 1758 the Fort was almost completed. General James Abercromby had gathered at the head of Lake George the greatest army ever seen on the American continent, almost 15,000 men, of which 6,000 were British regulars and the rest provincials from New England, New York and New Jersey.
In July, 1758, this great army, great for its day and place, left Fort William Henry in hundreds of batteaux and whale boats to attack Fort Carillon. It must have been an extraordinarily beautiful sight, that vast fleet of little boats filled with the Red Coats and the plaids of Highlanders. Early in the morning of July 6th the army landed on what is now known as Howe’s Cove at the northern end of Lake George. The army immediately advanced in three columns but was soon lost in the dense forest which then covered the whole country. An advance party of French under the Sieur de Trepezec had been watching the landing from what the French called Mount Pelee, but which is now called Roger’s Rock. In trying to return to the Fort they had also lost their way and met one of the advancing columns, commanded by George Augustus, Viscount Howe, a grandson of George the First of England. At the first fire Lord Howe was killed and with his death the heart went out of the army. He was the real leader of the expedition. Captain Monypenny, his aide, reported his death in the following letter:
