There was printed at Grenoble, in 1756, a Relation de la prise des forts de Choueguen, ou Oswego, & de ce qui s’est passée cette année en Canada. A small edition was privately reprinted in 1882, from a copy belonging to Mr. S. L. M. Barlow, of New York.[1420] Martin, in his De Montcalm en Canada, ch. iii., presents the modern French view, as also does Garneau, Hist. du Canada, 4th ed., vol. ii. 251. Maurault, in his Hist. des Abénakis (1866), tells the part of the Indians in the siege.
Of the partisan warfare conducted by Rogers and Putnam, we have the best accounts in the reports which the former made to his commanding officer.[1421] These various reports constitute the volume which was published in London in 1765 “for the author,” called Journals of Major Robert Rogers, containing an account of the several excursions he made under the generals who commanded, during the late war.[1422] Rogers’ Journals are written in a direct way, apparently without exaggeration, but sometimes veil the atrocities which he had not screened in the original reports.[1423] Parkman points out that the account of his scout of Jan. 19, 1756, is much abridged in the composite Journals.
The exploits of Rogers are frequently chronicled in Winslow’s Journal, and there are other notes in the Mass. Archives, vol. lxxvi. Parkman cites Bougainville’s Journal as giving the French record.[1424] There is a contemporary account of one of Rogers’ principal actions, in what Trumbull[1425] calls “perhaps the rarest of all narratives of Indian captivities.” The edition which is mentioned is a second one, published at Boston in 1760, and Sabin[1426] does not record the first. It is called A plain narrative of the uncommon sufferings and remarkable deliverance of Thomas Brown, of Charlestown in New England, who returned to his father’s house the beginning of Jan., 1760, after having been absent three years and about eight months; containing an account of the engagement, Jan., 1757, in which Captain Spikeman was killed and the author left for dead.
Of Putnam’s exploits there is a report (Oct. 9, 1755) in the Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. p. 172. The Life of Putnam by Humphreys chronicles his partisan career, while that by Tarbox passes it over hurriedly. Hollister’s and other histories of Connecticut give it in outline.
The circulars of Pitt to the colonies, asking that assistance be rendered to Loudon, and (Feb. 4, 1757) urging the raising of additional troops, is in New Jersey Archives, viii. Pt. ii. pp. 209, 241. There are in the Israel Williams MSS. (Mass. Hist. Soc.) letters of Loudon, dated Boston, Jan. 29 and Feb., 1757, respecting the organization of the next campaign.
For the attack on Fort William Henry (1757) conducted by Rigaud, Parkman[1427] cites, as usual, his MS. French documents,[1428] but gives for the English side a letter from the fort (Mar. 26, 1757), in the Boston Gazette, no. 106, and in the Boston Evening Post, no. 1,128; with notes of other letters in the Boston News-Letter, no. 2,860.
The best account yet published of Montcalm’s later campaign against Fort William Henry (the Fort George of the French) is contained in the last chapter of the first volume of Parkman’s Montcalm and Wolfe.[1429]
On the French side there is the work of Pouchot, and Dr. Hough’s translation of it (i. 101). The Rough List of Mr. Barlow’s library (no. 941) shows, as the only copy known, a Relation de la prise du Fort Georges, ou Guillaume Henry, situé sur le lac Saint-Sacrement, et de ce qui s’est passé cette année en Canada (12 pp.), Paris, 1757.
Of the documentary evidence of the time Parkman makes full use. He secured from the Public Record Office in London the correspondence of Webb and a letter and journal of Colonel Frye, who commanded the Massachusetts troops, and from these he gives extracts in his Appendix F.[1430]