20. The expedition against Crown Point and Ticonderoga was intrusted to General Abercromby. With an army of sixteen thousand men, "the largest body of European origin that had ever been assembled in America," Aber Successes . and cromby left the head of Lake George in the early failures. part of July (1758). The vast flotilla, consisting of nine hundred small boats and one hundred and thirty-five whale-boats, with artillery on rafts, proceeded slowly down the lake. Banners fluttered in the breeze, arms glittered in the sunshine, and martial music echoed along the wood-clad mountains. Landing at the northern end of the lake, the army commenced a march through the dense forests towards Ticonderoga, which was then commanded by Montcalm. The advance, under Lord Howe, was suddenly met by the French, and repulsed, the young and lamented leader being killed. 21. "With Lord Howe expired the master-spirit of the enterprise." The troops fell back to the landing place; but resuming their march, advanced against the fort and made an assault. The attempt failed, with the loss of nearly two thousand men ; "Abercromby hurried the army back to the boats, and did not rest till he had placed the lake between himself and Montcalm." The expeditions against Louisburg and Duquesne were successful. Louisburg was taken after a desperate resistance. Duquesne made no defense. It was abandoned on the approach of the English, and its name changed to Fort Pitt. 22. The great object of the campaign of 1759 was the reduction of Canada. Niagara was taken, and the French were driven from the posts on Lake Champlain. With eight Capture thousand men, General Wolfe ascended the St. of Quebec. Lawrence river to proceed against Quebec. He landed his army upon an island below the city; and made a daring assault upon the French intrenchments; but it resulted in defeat and serious loss. 'Wolfe was greatly dispirited by this repulse. The emotions of his mind, co-operating with great fatigue of body, brought on a fever, which nearly proved 66 1759 Capture of Quebec. 109 fatal; and it was almost a month before he was able to resume his command in person. 23. While stretched upon his bed in his tent, he arranged a plan for scaling the almost inaccessible Heights of Abraham, and gaining possession of that elevated plateau in the rear of Quebec. The camp was now broken up, and all the troops and artillery, except a garrison left on the island, were taken by a part of the fleet far up the river, while the remainder lingered and made feigned preparations for a second attack upon Montcalm's intrenchments. It was the 12th of September, and the brief Canadian summer was over. After midnight the army left the vessels; and in flat-boats, without oars or sails, they glided down noiselessly with the tide, followed by the ships soon afterward. GENERAL WOLFE. 24. At his evening mess on the ship, Wolfe composed and sang impromptu that little song of the camp, commencing 'Why, soldiers, why, Should we be melancholy, boys? Whose business 'tis to die.' And as he sat among his officers, and floated softly down the river at the past-midnight hour, a shadow seemed to come upon his heart, and he repeated, in low, musing tones, that touching stanza of Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard' The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike the inevitable hour: The paths of glory lead but to the grave !' 6 At the close he whispered: Now, gentlemen, I would prefer being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow.' 25. The flotilla reached a cove which Wolfe had marked for a landing place, and which still bears his name, before daybreak. At the head of the main division, Wolfe pushed eagerly up a narrow and rough ravine, while the light infantry and Highlanders climbed the steep acclivity by the aid of the maple, spruce, and ash saplings, and shrubs, which covered its rugged face. The sergeant's guard on its brow was soon dispersed, and at dawn, on the 13th, almost five thousand British troops were drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, three hundred feet above the St. Law rence. 26. Montcalm could hardly believe the messenger who brought him intelligence of this marshalling of the English upon the weak side of the city. 'It can be but a small party come to burn a few houses, and return,' he said; but he was soon undeceived. Then he saw the imminent danger to which the town and garrison were exposed, and he immediately abandoned his intrenchments, and led a large portion of his army to attack the invaders. Wolfe placed himself on the right: Montcalm was on the left. So the two commanders stood face to face. Wolfe ordered his men to load with two bullets each, and to reserve their âre until the French should be within forty yards. 27. These orders were strictly obeyed, and the doubleshotted guns did terrible execution. After delivering several rounds in rapid succession, which threw the French into confusion, the English charged upon them furiously with their bayonets. While urging on his battalions in this charge, Wolfe was slightly wounded in the wrist. He stanched the blood with a handkerchief, and, while cheering on his men, received a second wound. A few minutes afterward, another bullet struck him on the breast, and brought him to the ground mortally wounded. At that moment, regardless of self, he thought only of victory for his troops. 1763 6 Closing Events of the War. 111 'Support me,' he said to an officer near him; let not my brave soldiers see me drop. The day is ours-keep it !' it!' He was taken to the rear while his troops continued to charge. 28. The officer on whose shoulder he was leaning, exclaimed, They run! they run! The waning light returned to the dim eyes of the hero, and he asked, 'Who run?'-'The enemy, sir; they give way everywhere.'- What,' feebly exclaimed Wolfe, do they run already? Now God be praised, I die happy!' These were his last words, and, in the midst of sorrowing companions, just at the moment of victory, he expired. Montcalm, who was fighting gallantly at the head of the French, also received a mortal wound. 'Death is cer 6 tain,' said his surgeon. I am glad of it,' replied Montcalm: how long shall I live?' Ten or twelve hours, perhaps less.' 'So much the better: I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec.' Five days afterward the city capitulated." Closing events of the war. 29. This victory really decided the war, though the French, the next year, made an attempt to recover Quebec. Montreal was also surrendered, and thus the whole of Canada became the property of the English (1760). In 1763 a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, by the terms of which, France gave up to Great Britain all her American possessions east of the Mississippi and north of the I'-ber-ville river, in Louisiana. This gave great dissatisfaction to the Indians of the northwest, for they disliked the English. Soon a combination, known as the "Pontiac Conspiracy," was formed by the various tribes, and all the posts were captured, except Niagara, Fort Pitt, and Detroit. Hundreds of families were butchered or driven from their homes. Detroit was besieged six months, but the Indians were finally compelled to sue for peace (1763). Pontiac, their great leader, wandered to the Mississippi, and there, in The Iberville is an outlet of the Mississippi, fourteen miles south of Baton Rouge, connecting the Mississippi on the east with Lake Maurepas, a forest, an Indian who had been bribed with a barrel of liquor, stole close upon his track and buried a tomahawk in his brain (1769). Condition of the Colonies. 1. At the close of the French and Indian War the thirteen colonies that afterward became the United States, contained a population of more than two millions of persons, one fourth of whom at least were negro slaves. This estiPopulation. mate does not include the Indians. The whites were descendants, in large part, of persons who had come from the old world to secure for themselves freedom to wor ship God as they desired. In general, they were intelligent and industrious, and of good moral and religious culture.1 The number of slaves imported into the colonies direct from Africa up to this time, was probably not far from three hundred thousand. Slavery existed in all the colonies, though, Georgia at first, had laws against the holding of slaves, and the Quakers were always opposed to slavery. "Slavery is opposed to the gospel," said Oglethorpe, and yet, within seven years after his settlement was begun, slave-ships were discharging their cargoes at Savannah. 2. The number of slaves in New England was small, but Governor Stuyvesant so encouraged their importation into his province, that, at one time, there were more slaves in New York, in proportion to the white population, than in Virginia. Afterward the slaves in Virginia were the majority of her inhabitants. Philadelphia, with a population not much exceeding thirty thousand, was the first city in size and wealth. New York came next, though that city never was, even under English rule and up to the close of colonial times, 1 The Huguenots came in great numbers, and settled in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and South Carolina. Large settlements were also made by the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in New Hampshire, Western Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. |