Part 23 (1/2)
1756_.]
[Footnote 418: Bougainville, _Journal_.]
Another penman, very different from the military critic, was also on the spot, noting down every day what he saw and felt. This was John Graham, minister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and now chaplain of Lyman's regiment. His spirit, by nature far from buoyant, was depressed by bodily ailments, and still more by the extremely secular character of his present surroundings. It appears by his Diary that he left home ”under great exercise of mind,” and was detained at Albany for a time, being, as he says, taken with an ague-fit and a quinsy; but at length he reached the camp at Fort Edward, where deep despondency fell upon him.
”Labor under great discouragements,” says the Diary, under date of July twenty-eighth; ”for find my business but mean in the esteem of many, and think there's not much for a chaplain to do.” Again, Tuesday, August seventeenth: ”Breakfasted this morning with the General. But a graceless meal; never a blessing asked, nor thanks given. At the evening sacrifice a more open scene of wickedness. The General and head officers, with some of the regular officers, in General Lyman's tent, within four rods of the place of public prayers. None came to prayers; but they fixed a table without the door of the tent, where a head colonel was posted to make punch in the sight of all, they within drinking, talking, and laughing during the whole of the service, to the disturbance and disaffection of most present. This was not only a bare neglect, but an open contempt, of the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d by the heads of this army. 'Twas but last Sabbath that General Lyman spent the time of divine service in the afternoon in his tent, drinking in company with Mr. Gordon, a regular officer. I have oft heard cursing and swearing in his presence by some provincial field-officers, but never heard a reproof nor so much as a check to them come from his mouth, though he never uses such language himself. Lord, what is man! Truly, the May-game of Fortune!
Lord, make me know my duty, and what I ought to do!”
That night his sleep was broken and his soul troubled by angry voices under his window, where one Colonel Glasier was berating, in unhallowed language, the captain of the guard; and here the chaplain's Journal abruptly ends.[419]
[Footnote 419: I owe to my friend George S. Hale, Esq., the opportunity of examining the autograph Journal; it has since been printed in the _Magazine of American History_ for March, 1882.]
A brother minister, bearing no likeness to the worthy Graham, appeared on the same spot some time after. This was Chaplain William Crawford, of Worcester, who, having neglected to bring money to the war, suffered much annoyance, aggravated by what he thought a want of due consideration for his person and office. His indignation finds vent in a letter to his townsman, Timothy Paine, member of the General Court: ”No man can reasonably expect that I can with any propriety discharge the duty of a chaplain when I have nothing either to eat or drink, nor any conveniency to write a line other than to sit down upon a stump and put a piece of paper upon my knee. As for Mr. Weld [_another chaplain_], he is easy and silent whatever treatment he meets with, and I suppose they thought to find me the same easy and ductile person; but may the wide yawning earth devour me first! The state of the camp is just such as one at home would guess it to be,--nothing but a hurry and confusion of vice and wickedness, with a stygian atmosphere to breathe in.”[420] The vice and wickedness of which he complains appear to have consisted in a frequent infraction of the standing order against ”Curseing and Swareing,” as well as of that which required attendance on daily prayers, and enjoined ”the people to appear in a decent manner, clean and shaved,” at the two Sunday sermons.[421]
[Footnote 420: The autograph letter is in Ma.s.sachusetts Archives, LVI.
no. 142. The same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of Ma.s.sachusetts, in which he speaks of the forlorn condition in which Chaplain Weld reached the camp. Of Chaplain Crawford, he says that he came decently clothed, but without bed or blanket, till he, Frye, lent them to him, and got Captain Learned to take him into his tent.
Chaplains usually had a separate tent, or shared that of the colonel.]
[Footnote 421: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow_.]
At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to the committees of the several provinces: ”It looks as if it won't be long before we are fit for a remove,”--that is, for an advance on Ticonderoga. On the twelfth Loudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth regiment and some of Bradstreet's boatmen to reinforce Oswego.[422] They had been ready for a month; but confusion and misunderstanding arising from the change of command had prevented their departure.[423] Yet the utmost anxiety had prevailed for the safety of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth Surgeon Thomas Williams wrote: ”Whether Oswego is yet ours is uncertain. Would hope it is, as the reverse would be such a terrible shock as the country never felt, and may be a sad omen of what is coming upon poor sinful New England. Indeed we can't expect anything but to be severely chastened till we are humbled for our pride and haughtiness.”[424]
[Footnote 422: _Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756_.]
[Footnote 423: _Conduct of Major-General s.h.i.+rley briefly stated. s.h.i.+rley to Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756. s.h.i.+rley to Fox, 16 Sept. 1756_.]
[Footnote 424: _Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug.
1756_.]
His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely reached the Great Carrying Place, when tidings of disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. The French had descended in force upon Oswego, taken it with all its garrison; and, as report ran, were advancing into the province, six thousand strong. Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great labor, of the trees that choked it. Webb ordered others to be felled and thrown into the stream to stop the progress of the enemy; then, with shameful precipitation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place, and retreated down the Mohawk to German Flats. Loudon ordered Winslow to think no more of Ticonderoga, but to stay where he was and hold the French in check.
All was astonishment and dismay at the sudden blow. ”Oswego has changed masters, and I think we may justly fear that the whole of our country will soon follow, unless a merciful G.o.d prevent, and awake a sinful people to repentance and reformation.” Thus wrote Dr. Thomas Williams to his wife from the camp at Fort Edward. ”Such a shocking affair has never found a place in English annals,” wrote the surgeon's young relative, Colonel William Williams. ”The loss is beyond account; but the dishonor done His Majesty's arms is infinitely greater.”[425] It remains to see how the catastrophe befell.
[Footnote 425: _Colonel William Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 30 Aug. 1756_.]
Since Vaudreuil became chief of the colony he had nursed the plan of seizing Oswego, yet hesitated to attempt it. Montcalm declares that he confirmed the Governor's wavering purpose; but Montcalm himself had hesitated. In July, however, there came exaggerated reports that the English were moving upon Ticonderoga in greatly increased numbers; and both Vaudreuil and the General conceived that a feint against Oswego would draw off the strength of the a.s.sailants, and, if promptly and secretly executed, might even be turned successfully into a real attack.
Vaudreuil thereupon recalled Montcalm from Ticonderoga.[426] Leaving the post in the keeping of Levis and three thousand men, he embarked on Lake Champlain, rowed day and night, and reached Montreal on the nineteenth.
Troops were arriving from Quebec, and Indians from the far west. A band of Menomonies from beyond Lake Michigan, naked, painted, plumed, greased, stamping, uttering sharp yelps, shaking feathered lances, brandis.h.i.+ng tomahawks, danced the war-dance before the Governor, to the thumping of the Indian drum. Bougainville looked on astonished, and thought of the Pyrrhic dance of the Greeks.
[Footnote 426: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 Aout, 1756. Montcalm a sa Femme, 20 Juillet, 1756_.]
Montcalm and he left Montreal on the twenty-first, and reached Fort Frontenac in eight days. Rigaud, brother of the Governor, had gone thither some time before, and crossed with seven hundred Canadians to the south side of the lake, where Villiers was encamped at Niaoure Bay, now Sackett's Harbor, with such of his detachment as war and disease had spared. Rigaud relieved him, and took command of the united bands. With their aid the engineer, Des...o...b..es, reconnoitred the English forts, and came back with the report that success was certain.[427] It was but a confirmation of what had already been learned from deserters and prisoners, who declared that the main fort was but a loopholed wall held by six or seven hundred men, ill fed, discontented, and mutinous.[428]
Others said that they had been driven to desert by the want of good food, and that within a year twelve hundred men had died of disease at Oswego.[429]
[Footnote 427: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4 Aout, 1756. Vaudreuil a Bourlamaque, Juin, 1756_.]
[Footnote 428: Bougainville, _Journal_.]
[Footnote 429: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756. Resume des Nouvelles du Canada, Sept. 1756_.]
The battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and Bearn, with the colony regulars, a body of Canadians, and about two hundred and fifty Indians, were destined for the enterprise. The whole force was a little above three thousand, abundantly supplied with artillery. La Sarre and Guienne were already at Fort Frontenac. Bearn was at Niagara, whence it arrived in a few days, much buffeted by the storms of Lake Ontario. On the fourth of August all was ready. Montcalm embarked at night with the first division, crossed in darkness to Wolf Island, lay there hidden all day, and embarking again in the evening, joined Rigaud at Niaoure Bay at seven o'clock in the morning of the sixth. The second division followed, with provisions, hospital train, and eighty artillery boats; and on the eighth all were united at the bay. On the ninth Rigaud, covered by the universal forest, marched in advance to protect the landing of the troops. Montcalm followed with the first division; and, coasting the sh.o.r.e in bateaux, landed at midnight of the tenth within half a league of the first English fort. Four cannon were planted in battery upon the strand, and the men bivouacked by their boats. So skilful were the a.s.sailants and so careless the a.s.sailed that the English knew nothing of their danger, till in the morning, a reconnoitring canoe discovered the invaders. Two armed vessels soon came to cannonade them; but their light guns were no match for the heavy artillery of the French, and they were forced to keep the offing.