THE FIGHT WITH FRANCE FOR NORTH AMERICA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14279, 30 July 1908, Page 2

THE FIGHT WITH FRANCE FOR NORTH AMERICA

11.-OUR QUINTUPLE ATTACK ANI OUR QUADRUPLE DEFEAT. In the first part of the second of tin series reference was made to the tw first of the four expeditions from th American colonies hv tho .purpose of crush ing the French' and their allies, th Indians; in this, the concluding part, th other two expeditions are briefly rcfcrrci to. • 3.-CANADA VIA LAKE CHAMPLAD AND THE RICHELIEU RIVER. The second expedition, that- to Oswego made Albany on the Hudson its base, am tho third did the samo. A glance a the map will show Albany in ono of th angles of a triangle—tho route to Ontarii via the Mohawk and Lako Oswego form ing ono side; the Hudson, Lakes Gcorg. and Champlain, the second; and the St Lawrence, the third. Johnson, though .a man of capacity, hai no military exnerienco whatever, hut wa made a general and given command o about 6000 provincials. As a prcliminar; to the campaign, says Bradley, hi gathered together about," 1000 Iroquois a his manor, where ho lived i;i prince!; style, and extended hospitality alike li pale, face and Indian, and indulged will an orgie of roast oxen and of eloquence and then threw down the war belt. Bu British reverses bad so honeycombed th six nations that not more than perhaps 40 responded to his appeal. Many of lu white troops were inexperienced in lmsl warfare, and had no military experience but he eventually readied Lake Gcdrgc though ho had considerable difficulty ii getting his cannon, stores, and boats ove the shaggy ridgos separating the Hudsoi from the southern shore of the lake, For Edward marks tbe point where the expedi 1 ion left the river at its turn, and For William Henry tho point where fresh en trenchinents wero thrown up. Johnson' forces were divided between the two forts Fifty miles north, on Lako Champlain, wai Crown Point, occupied by 3500 of th. enemy, of whom about 1200 were Indians Dicskau, who commanded the French a Crown Point, hearing that Johnson's troop were divided, sent south a specially picket contingent of 1500 men, of whom abou 600 were Indians. Leaving out interven ing details, the Now England men salliec forth ''and swept, upon the fee with toma, hawks and clubbed muskots, driving then ultimately from the field, Johnson wai wounded; Dicskau was not only wounded but, captured, and as he was sitting help lessly against a tree, With three bullet! already in bis legs, a soldier seeing him levelled his piece, and, in spite of hi: victim's protest, shot him through botl thighs. Fortunately for the credit of tht New Englanders, the rascal turned out k be- a. French desm'tcr." Dicskau was taker to Johnson's tent, received every consideration, and, when able to travel, eenl dowr the Hudson with an armed escort. It due course be was sent to England as i prisoner. For the rest of bis life hi was more or less a wreck from his wounds, but he always remembered with gratitude that Johnson saved him from the scalping knife and the torture of the Indian. This slight success—it was in 1755—was magnified is much as possible, and Johnson received a baronetcy and £5000. The object of the war. however, the driving ol the French from Lake Champlain and -the occupancy of Crown Point, was unachieved, lu 1756. Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Morit-cabn-Gozoii de Saint Veran, briefly named Montcalm, was rent out- to take the position of I'ommander-in-chief. Wo have seen that lie destroyed Fort. Oswego on Lake Ontario, a fort- which threatened Fons Niagara and Frontenac; and now, in the following year, Fort William Henry met with a like fate. In due time store ships came from France, and in July, 1757, Montcalm had at, Fort Carillon, generally known as Ticondcroga, a well-equipped force of 8000 men ready to advance south upon Fort William Henry. "The last day of July saw tho surface, of Lake George milled by tho splash of thousands of oarblades and hundreds of Indian paddles; 250 boats were there, carrying 5000 men, and swarms of savages in canoes glided in the van. The cream of French-Canadian chivalry was there, and famous regiments from old Ffctnce, with officers and men now hardened by American campaigning, flushed with former victories, and conscious, many of them, that war here meant more than a great and bloody game. . . Provisions for some weeks had been shipped, and heavy siege guii3, mounted on platforms 6lung between baits lashed together, brought up the rear of this motley armament-." Ou arrival he surrounded the fort and sent in Bourgainville to offer Monroe terms of surrender, but Monroe replied that it was his duty to hold the fort, and that he would do so to the best of his ability. Montcalm then got his W cannons into position, and in five days " the ramparts were flying in fragments before their fierce discharge." Webb, at Fort Edward, could not or would not send up assistance. Ammunition was nearly exhausted, most of the gmuj had burst, smallpox had broken out, and there were the women and children to think of. The while fiap was hoi-sled, and Montcalm apprecialing Monroe's bravery and patriotism allowed the trcops to march out with the honours of war and carrying personal The drink, stores, and munition! of war of any value were set under guavt' and the rest given over to the Indians Then came the massacre which dimmoc Montcalm's name. Ai Oswego ho pre

Jjj vented Indian atrocities, though this was a regarded by Vaudreuil and all Canadians t a 6 a pernicious European prejudice. Here 1 the Indians got-out of hand for some time, i through the indifferenco of Canadian t D officers, who looked on while the savages a dragged tho wounded from their beds and 1 massacred them. The war whoop was y lie raised. Women and ohildren were toma- v ro hawked and others dragged off into tho j lie woods. " Their shrieks and cries, mingled 0 h- with the hideous yells of the Indians and t lie \ the shouts and curses of the impotent a lie British, made an unforgettable scene, j :d Montcalm and the French officers throw -j themselves upon tho savages, now half c N drunk with rum or blood, and did all that r men armed with authority and not -backed c o, by force, as they should have been, could ul do. . . The 1 memory of the massacre at drove many a bayonet home in the coming na years of British success that might othcrio wise have been stayed in mercy, and many r n- a Canadian sued in vain for his life at tho 1 je hands of a New England Ranger who i it. might otherwise have been spared. 'Re- t member Fort William Henry' became a 1 id terrible war cry in many a battle and in 1 as many a bloody backwoods skirmish. The 1 of French knew it well, and felt that it added 1 ry a fresh terror to defeat. The first im- c lie pulse of a.disarmed or captured Canadian \ at was to protest, by Voice and gesture that- ] ly ho had not, been present at that accursed s lo scene." _ . ] Hi Still another disaster on the same route f e, has to be recorded. In 1757 Abercroinbie t ut was in command, and with Albauy again- s tie a'! a 'base organised his expedition, which I 00 arrived at Fort William Henry with the £ Ufi intention of going down Lakes St. George a s " and Champlain and capturing Ticonderoga. g B > This was just about a year after the mas- <j '?> saoro just referred to. He had with him a m splendid force of about 15,000 troops, and er Bradstrect, "a colonial colonel of sense, }1 } zeal, daring, and military experience," had ™ 1500 craft, of various sorts under 800 boat- '' '!" men ready for the passage. Never before r 1 had so well-equipped a force been collected * , under one command in America. The a 16 armament darkened the surface of the lake. \ ' With Abercrombie was Lord Howe, a fine * ' soldier, with none of the narrow-minded ? prejudices which made the British officer * a k so offensive to the colonists. He apprcci- J 1 |>3 ated and adopted colonial methods and saw * ; f j military worth under homespun coats and s ,j(. hunting shirts, and in consequence the n . colonists would have followed .him any- Jl(l where. ' He snipped off the long tails of , a . the infantry, cut- their hair short, brownod . m their shining gun-barrels, and improved their " )S leg gear. In his treatment of colonials be a i t set a good example to his officers. Wolfe s p. declared him the best officer in the British ® Is army, and Pitt himself was scarcely less '■ ii, emphatic. He was tbe brain of the army; is but the first volley fired saw him fall, shot ,h through the heart. In- Westminster Abbey ie thero is a unique monument to him— c io unique because it was erected to his memory p n by the Government of Massachusetts. a % ' The armada floating down Lako Georgo w '," to the landing.plaoe just above the rapids I '" connecting it with Lake Champlain must c have been a magnificent sight, the more so e ', because not expected on an inland Jake, a k Says, Bradley: "From the whole dense H . flotilla came the glint and flash of burnished h arms, and-above the boats at intervals hung fj a the standards of famous regime.. fs, iin- r ~ patient to inscribe some American triumph w ie ou their folds, while the brave show of over a ,£ a thousand ttu-tans—these of the 'Black t e Watch '—filled in the picture. Ton thousand 6 1 ]_ oars, with measured beat, caught the sun- p |, light, and the bands of various regiments, I ,J with their martial music, woke the echoes I j. of the mountains, which as the lake nar- 1 K rowed lifted high above it upon either side g n thoir leafy sides and rooky crests. Many a b (1 man wont proudly down Lake George that, ii ;> day beneath the flag of England who, 20 fi y years later, was upon this very spot to be oi ■c found turning his sword against- his Mother tl f, Country and his King. . , . Now, how- ti r- ever, the French peril had crushed out for b d the moment such germs of future move- fi h ments as had already in vague fash-ion taken p it root. With France -upon her flanks, the o e very existence of Now England depended, I r- whether she liked it ..or not, upon tho p ; Mother Country." j r i. Montcalm, Levis, and others in Fort ■' n Ticonderoga wero unprepared for cvcntuali- y n tics, and had- not more than 3000 effectives, n •S but they surrounded themselves with "a n formidable breastwork of hewn logs girdled ? '• with the ehevaux de frise of fallen trees in '" tho midst of a tangled clearing." The fort N * could have been taken without a shot. From 6 '• Mount Defiance, an eminence near by, "he " " could have pounded at will the huddled mass I a of Frcnclunen within the entrenchments, or 5 " knocked their defences about their ears' in { \ an hour. . . . Thoy liad only a week's ~ " provisions, and were nearly 200 'miles from * ! their base. Even if no artillery had been t * available tho British general, with his 15,000 " , men, could have surrounded them, and ( 'q starved them out without firing a shot. Thore were sevoral alternatives, all practical { , e certainties, and probably bloodless ones; , ft and Montcalm knew this when, on the sole ' chance of having a blunderer in. front of t t . him. ho staked his all on this forest ridge ' j. at Ticonderoga." i ie But, instead of bombarding the position l 0 or sitting down and starving Montcalm ( y into a surrender, acting on tfie advico of . : (i a youthful and newly-appointed engineer, ( t g Abercrombie ordered the troops "to carry / i,l by steel alone thoso bristling batteries ' 1S behind which over 3000 Frenchmen lay i -d invisible and secure, with levelled mus- '■■ * g, kcts." •- Ho did not- even bring up hif ' ( cannon from tbe landing-place, though I e, while impregnable to bullet and bayonet, !

a battery of artillery would have knocked the rude defences to pieces in an Ivjur. The carnage was frightful, and, curiously, it took place within a day of the third anniversary of Braddock's. disaster. Abercrombie, seeing steel was useless, imagining that Montcalm had 6000 with him and reinforcements on the road,' withdrew to his base at Fort William Henry, though ho still had 13,000 men and all his artillery. Of all his regiments, the Black Watch fared worst, going into action 1000 strong and coming out less than half that number. " Such was Ticonderoga, the least remembered, though one of the bloodiest, most desperate, and most dramatic battles of our history—at once a glory and a shame." 4. ACADIA: THE SEIZURE OF BEAUSEJOUR, Acadia was the French name of what- is now known as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and though nominally British was peopled by settlers of French extraction, and were used by priest and politician to further intrigues against the British. Two forts which were strongholds of French sympathisers wore Fort Beausejour, on Hie neck of the isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with Now Brunswick, and Louisbourg, on the east of Cape Breton Island. "The fort of Beausejour scowled across the narrow isthmus at the British station at Fort Laurence, and formed an admirable base for the devilries of Lc Loutrc," and occupied a strong strategical position in any attempt Franco might make to recover ■ Nova Scotia. A force was sent from Boston to attack it, did so, and followed up this success by also capturing Fort Gasperan on the northern side of the isthmus. 5. ACADIA: THE EXPEDITION AGAINST LOUISBOURG. In 1745 the American colonists, with the help of the British fleet, captured this really great fortress, but it was restored to France by treaty in 1748; but in 1757 an expedition under Loudon had concentrated at New York ready for transfer to Halifax. In July the transfer had been effeoted, and Loudon had niafsed under him 11,000 men; but he was told that behind the formidable ramparts aaid batteries of Louisbourg there were 7000 soldiers, of whom 1500 were Indians, and that in tho almost land-locked harbour there wore 23 ships, of the line, and three frigates carrying nearly 1400 guns. Loudon, not deeming it advisable to attack in tho face of such forces, shipped his army back to New York without firing a shot. The next article will have more io say about this great naval station—the Dunkirk of America. THE EXPATRIATION OF THE ACADIAN'S. No reference to this period would lie complete which did not mention the deportation of the Acadians, who occupied an awkward position between- the French, with whom their sympathies were, and the British, to whom they were subjected by conquest. In 1713 France gave up all claim to Acadia-, and the settlers took a modified oath of allegiance to the British Sovereign. But they were made tools of by the French, and were taught to stand fast by the Church and King Louis, and to resist- heresy and King George. As they were used to harass the British, and even assisted Indians in attaokiiig British settlers, any number, variouslv staled from 6000 lo 18,000, was dispossessed and expatriated, some settling in Canada—then a French lwssession,—and othere being distributed among the American eoioniics. The story is a pathetic one, and forms the groundwork of Longfellow's " Evangeline"; but it is hard to apportion the blame. Tt must, bo remembered that "the lives and fortunes of 4000 peaceful English settlers on the Halifax side were in daily jeopardy: that a considerable number of the exiles themselves had their hands red with the blood of Englishmen, not killed in fabfight, but. murdered in Indian fashion while peacefully pursuing their daily vocations on British soil; that the colonists and British officials were confronted with what proved one of the most pregnant struggles in medorn history, and were ill-equipped for it: and that they had treated these people with a consistent indulgence that had thon no parallel under such circumstances." (To be continued.)