Colonels Williams and Whiting, with the Sachem Hendrick and his Indians, to intercept their march. Dieskau discovered this detachment, and drew them into an ambush, and overwhelmed them with a sudden explosion;" Col. Williams fell-Hendrick fell, and many other brave: officers and soldiers strewed the field of death, and the remnant fled to the camp. The enemy pursued, and a warm action commenced; the fugitives rallied under cover of the breastworks, and the main army under Gen. Johnson, mowed down the ranks of the enemy with cannon and musquetry; Dieskau manouvered, and advanced to the attack with great skill and bravery; but all in vain: the fire was so severe he was obliged to beat a retreat; General Johnson ordered the charge, the troops leapt over the breastworks, and pursued the victory; the enemy fled in disorder; the carnage was great,* and the Baron Dieskau, (mortally wounded,) fell into the hands of the English. This victory was complete, and opened the way for an easy access to Crown-Point; yet the season was so far advanced, and the enemy in such force, that Gen. Johnson abandoned the expedition, and spent the remainder of the campaign in strengthening the military posts on Lake George.

This action, added to the defeat of Gen. Braddoc, and the failure of the enterprise against Niagara, under Gen. Shirley, gave a general alarm throughout the country. Reinforcements were called for by the generals, and the colonies met the call promptly. Connecticut sent on two regiments, consisting of 1400 men, to join Gen. Johnson, which were equipped, and marched in one week. Gen. Johnson opened a road through the wilderness to Lake George, built two forts, and furnished them with cannon and military stores, besides constructing numerous boats and

*About one fourth of the French were killed and taken prisoners.

3

batteaux, &c. and in November he disbanded the levies, and retired to Albany.

Such was the general success of this expedition, that his majesty created the general a Baronet, and Parliament rewarded him with a present of 5000l. sterling, and the troops received the applause of the nation.

2. The Indians kept up their ravages upon the back settle-. ments of Virginia and Pennsylvania, with great boldness, as well as destruction, through the summer and even winter, of 1755-6, and those colonies made a resistance too feeble to be named.

Such was the termination of the first campaign in America; the parties were nearly balanced, and retired from the scene, to spend the winter in maturing their plans, and collecting materials, to begin the work of death the ensuing season. The war in America, and the British capture. of the French commerce, filled all Europe with alarm and intrigue, which led England to enter into a treaty with the king of Prussia, in order to cover Hanover from a theatened French invasion; and a subsidiary treaty with the Empress of Russia for the supply of 50,000 men, to be held in readiness in Lithuania, to act as occasion might require. This confederacy brought the powers of Europe to a decisive coalition. France remembered the treaty of Breslaw, 1742, by which the king of Prussia deserted the confederacy, and left the French army to be sacrificed in Prague. The court of Vienna remembered the same treaty by which the empress ceded to the king of Prussia, the Duchy of Silisia, to detach him from the confederacy against her. Under these impressions, these powers confederated against the king of Prussia, with a secret treaty to divide up his dominions, as well as to seize on Hanover, the hereditary dominions of the king of England, and thus find employment for his resources in Europe, whilst France carried on war against his colonies in India and America, Rus VOL. J.

40

sia, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain, were finally brought into the league against the king of Prussia, and the war became general throughout Europe,

England at this time had lost her military spirit, and given up the sword to a standing army, for the protection and defence of the nation; whilst her militia, who had been the glory of the crown, had fallen into neglect, and become engrossed in commerce and the arts. In this degraded state of the nation, the minister suffered a military force, to be brought over from the German dominions, to protect the nation against a threatened French invasion, in 1756. Things being thus balanced in Europe, all parties prepared for action with the opening of the spring.

CAMPAIGN OF 1756, IN AMERICA.

The war had now raged in America two years, and upon the ocean one; yet England and France, still kept up their negociations, and war had not been declared by either, 2. until Great Britain made her declaration in May, and France in June.

General Abercrombie was appointed to succeed General Shirley in the command; and Lord Loudon was appointed commander in chief, and governor of Virginia. NewEngland, together with New-York and New-Jersey, were zealous and active, in raising, equiping, and forwarding their troops for the war ; but the generals did not arrive in America until June and July. The plan of the campaign had been early formed by a council of war held at New-York, and the plan of the last campaign was renewed. The northern expeditions were assigned to the northern colonies, and the expedition against Fort Duquesne, to the southern colonies.

The colonies of New-England, New-York, and NewJersey, assembled at Albany about 7000 men; these added to the regiments of regulars, amounted to an army of

ten thousand men, and Gen. Abercrombie arrived in June, and took the command. This fine army, well appointed, and in high spirits, lay idle waiting for the arrival of Lord Loudon from England. In July the general sent Colonel Bradstreet with a detachment, to convey provisions to the fort of Oswego; he executed his commission with fidelity and dispatch; but on his return he fell into an Indian ambush, as he ascended the river Onondaga; he flew to a small island, landed his men, and prepared for his defence; the Indians rose from their ambush, rushed into the water, and commenced a desperate attack. Col. Bradstreet met the attack with a firm, and well directed fire, which routed the enemy, and put them to flight; he next advanced with two hundred men against another division of the same party, and put them to flight, in a close, and desperate ac"tion; he then advanced to the attack of a third party, still higher up the river, put them to flight, and in the three actions destroyed about 150 of the enemy, with a loss of about 70 of his own men; which opened his way for a safe return to Albany. In this expedition Col. Bradstreet learnt that a formidable force of French and Indians, were on their way from Canada, against Fort Oswego, and gave notice to Gen. Abercrombie, who detached Gen. Webb with one regiment, for the relief of the fortress.

On the 29th, of July, Lord Loudon arrived at Albany, and took the command; at which time Gen. Winslow, with about 7000 provincials, had advanced to Lake George, and lay with impatience waiting for orders to advance against Crown-Point; but the general lay inactive at Albany, with about 3000 regular troops, until about the middle of August, when Gen. Webb began his march for the support of Oswego. At which time Gen. Montcalm had invested the fortress, with about three thousand Canadians and Indians, blocked up the river, and opened his trenches before Fort Ontario, (which stood upon an eminence that commanded

Fort Oswego,) on the 12th of August; the English made a firm resistance for one day, then spiked their cannon, abandoned the fort, and retired to Oswego. Gen. Montcalm, availed himself of this commanding position, and opened his fire upon Oswego with such success, that Col. Mercer, the commanding officer, was killed, and the fort surrendered on the 14th.

Thus fell Oswego the strong hold of America, defended by 121 pieces of cannon, 14 mortars, 2 frigates, 200 boats and batteaux, and a garrison of sixteen hundred men, well supplied with provisions, and all kinds of military stores. Gen. Montcalm dismantled the forts, and carried off the booty into Canada. With the fall of this fortress, the Lakes Erie and Ontario, together with the whole northwestern frontier, were laid open to the enemy, and the finest scitlements fell a prey to their ravages.

Gen. Webb heard of the fall of Oswego, when at the portage from the Mohawk to Wood-Creek; he first secured his position, and next his retreat, and returned in safety to Albany. Lord Loudon had remained safe at Albany, until September, when the provincials were disbanded, and the regulars went into winter quarters, and the campaign closed, 1756.

This campaign needs no comment. The southern department was equally successful with the northern; their frontier had been ravaged, their villages burnt, their settlers butchered, and Fort Greenville, on the borders of Pennsylvania, surprised and taken; terror, and distress, and even dispair reigned in the south.

Great were the expectations of the minister from British troops, and British generals in America, and great were the exultations of the colonies, that a Peer of England had condescended to command their armies, and lead them to victory, conquest, and glory; but what was their mortification when their troops were disbanded in September, and