EXPEDITION AGAINST CROWN POINT AND NIAGARA RESOLVED ON.

Our colonies to the north of Pennsylvania were more active, and more successful in their preparations for war. New York, following the example of New England, passed an act to prohibit the sending of provisions to any French port or settlement on the continent of North America, or any of the adjacent islands; and also for raising forty-five thousand pounds, on estates real and personal, for the better defence of their colony, which lay more exposed than any other to a French invasion from Crown Point. However, this sum, great as it might seem to them, was far from being sufficient; nor, indeed, could they have provided properly for their security, without the assistance of our other colonies to the east of them; but with their help, and the additional succour of the small body of regular troops expected under Colonel Dunbar, they boldly resolved upon offensive measures, which when practicable are always the safest; and two expeditions, one against the French fort at Crown Point, and the other against their fort at Niagara, between the lakes Ontario and Erie, were set on foot at the same time. The former of these expeditions was appointed to be executed under the command of general Johnson, a native of Ireland, who had long resided upon the Mohawk river, in the western parts of New York, where he had acquired a considerable estate, and was universally beloved, not only by the inhabitants, but also by the neighbouring Indians, whose language he had learnt, and whose affections he had gained by his humanity towards them. The expedition against Niagara was commanded by general Shirley himself.

The rendezvous of the troops for both these expeditions was appointed to be at Albany, where most of them arrived before the end of June; but the artillery, batteaux, provisions, and other necessaries for the attempt upon Crown Point, could not be prepared till the eighth of August, when general Johnson set out with them from Albany for the Carrying-place from Hudson’s river to Lake George. There the troops had already arrived, under the command of major-general Lyman, and consisted of between five and six thousand men, besides Indians, raised by the governments of Boston, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New York. Every thing was then prepared as fast as possible for a march; and towards the end of the month, general Johnson advanced about fourteen miles forward with his troops, and encamped in a very strong situation, covered on each side by a thick wooded swamp, by Lake George in his rear, and by a breast-work of trees, cut down for that purpose, in his front. Here he resolved to wait the arrival of his batteaux, and afterwards to proceed to Ticonderoga, at the other end of the lake, from whence it was but about fifteen miles to the fort at the south end of Lake Colaer, or Champlain, called Fort Frederick by the French, and by us Crown Point. Whilst he was thus encamped, some of his Indian scouts, of which he took care to send out numbers along both sides, and to the farther end of Lake George, brought him intelligence that a considerable number of the enemy were then on their march from Ticonderoga, by the way of the south bay, towards the fortified encampment, since called Fort Edward, which general Lyman had built at the Carrying-place; and in which four or five hundred of the New Hampshire and New York men had been left as a garrison. Upon this information general Johnson sent two expresses, one after the other, to colonel Blanchard their commander, with orders to call in all his out-parties, and to keep his whole force within the intrenchments. About twelve o’clock at night, those who had been sent upon the second express returned with an account of their having seen the enemy within four miles of the camp at the Carrying-place, which they scarcely doubted their having by that time attacked. Important as the defence of this place was for the safety of the whole army, and imminent as the danger seemed to be, it does not appear that the general then called any council of war, or resolved upon any thing for its relief; but early the next morning he called a council, wherein it was unadvisedly resolved to detach a thousand men, with a number of Indians, to intercept, or, as the general’s expression was in his letter, to catch the enemy in their retreat, either as victors, or as defeated in their design. This expedient was resolved on, though no one knew the number of the enemy, nor could obtain any information in that respect from the Indian scouts, because the Indians have no words or signs for expressing any large number, which, when it exceeds their reckoning, they signify by pointing to the stars in the firmament, or to the hair of their head; and this they often do to denote a number less than a thousand, as well as to signify ten thousand, or any greater number.

Between eight and nine o’clock in the morning a thousand men, with two hundred Indians, were detached under the command of colonel Williams; but they had not been gone two hours when those in the camp began to hear a close firing, at about three or four miles’ distance, as they judged; as it approached nearer and nearer, they rightly supposed that the detachment was overpowered, and retreating towards the camp; which was soon confirmed by some fugitives, and presently after by whole companies, who fled back in great confusion. In a very short time after, the enemy appeared marching in regular order up to the centre of the camp, where the consternation was so great, that, if they had attacked the breastwork directly, they might probably have thrown all into confusion, and obtained an easy victory; but fortunately for the English, they halted for some time at about an hundred and fifty yards’ distance, and from thence began their attack with platoon firing, too far off to do much hurt, especially against troops who were defended by a strong breastwork. On the contrary, this ineffectual fire served only to raise the spirits of these last, who, having prepared their artillery during the time that the French halted, began to play it so briskly upon the enemy, that the Canadians and Indians in their service fled immediately into the woods on each side of the camp, and there squatted under bushes, or skulked behind trees, from whence they continued firing with very little execution, most of their shot being intercepted by the brakes and thickets; for they never had the courage to advance to the verge of the wood. Baron Dieskau, who commanded the French, being thus left alone with his regular troops at the front of the camp, finding he could not make a close attack upon the centre with his small number of men, moved first to the left, and then to the right, at both which places he endeavoured to force a passage, but was repulsed, being unsupported by the irregulars. Instead of retreating, as he ought in prudence to have done, he still continued his platoon and bush firing till four o’clock in the afternoon, during which time his regular troops suffered greatly by the fire from the camp, and were at last thrown into confusion; which was no sooner perceived by general Johnson’s men, than they, without waiting for orders, leaped over their breastwork, attacked the enemy on all sides, and after killing and taking a considerable number of them, entirely dispersed the rest. The French, whose numbers at the beginning of this engagement amounted to about two thousand men, including two hundred grenadiers, eight hundred Canadians, and the rest Indians of different nations, had between seven and eight hundred men killed, and thirty taken prisoners; among the latter was baron Dieskau himself, whom they found at a little distance from the field of battle, dangerously wounded, and leaning on the stump of a tree for his support. The English lost about two hundred men, and those chiefly of the detachment under Colonel Williams; for they had very few either killed or wounded in the attack upon their camp, and not any of distinction, except colonel Tit-comb killed, and the general himself and major Nichols wounded. Among the slain of the detachment, which would probably have been entirely cut off had not lieutenant-colonel Cole been sent out from the camp with three hundred men, with which he stopped the enemy’s pursuit, and covered the retreat of his friends, were colonel Williams, major Ashly, six captains, and several subalterns, besides private men; and the Indians reckoned that they had lost forty men, besides the brave old Hendrick, the Mohawk sachem, or chief captain.