FORT WILLIAM-HENRY TAKEN by the FRENCH.

Lord Loudon’s departure from New-York, with all the forces he was able to collect, afforded the marquis de Montcalm the fairest occasion of improving the successes of the former campaign. That general had, in the very commencement of the season, made three different attacks on fort William-Henry, in all of which he was repulsed by the vigour and resolution of the garrison. But his disappointment here was balanced by an advantage gained by a party of regulars and Indians at Ticonderoga. Colonel John Parker, with a detachment of near four hundred men, went by water, in whale and bay boats, to attack the enemy’s advanced guard at that place. Landing at night on an island, he sent before dawn three boats to the main land, which the enemy waylaid and took. Having procured the necessary intelligence from the prisoners of the colonel’s designs, they contrived their measures, placed three hundred men in ambush behind the point where he proposed landing, and sent three batteaux to the place of rendezvous. Colonel Parker mistaking these for his own boats, eagerly put to shore, was surrounded by the enemy, reinforced with four hundred men, and attacked with such impetuosity, that, of the whole detachment, only two officers and seventy private men escaped. Flushed with this advantage, animated by the absence of the British commander-in-chief, then at Halifax, and fired with a desire to revenge the disgrace he had lately sustained before fort Henry, Montcalm drew together all his forces, with intention to lay siege to that place. Fort William-Henry stands on the southern coast of Lake George; it was built with a view to protect and cover the frontiers of the English colonies, as well as to command the lake; the fortifications were good, defended by a garrison of near three thousand men, and covered by an army of four thousand, under the conduct of general Webb, posted at no great distance. When the marquis de Montcalm had assembled all the forces at Crown-Point, Ticonderoga, and the adjacent posts, together with a considerable body of Canadians and Indians, amounting in the whole to near ten thousand men, he marched directly to the fort, made his approaches, and began to batter it with a numerous train of artillery. On the very day he invested the place he sent a letter to colonel Monro the governor, telling him, he thought himself obliged, in humanity, to desire he would surrender the fort, and not provoke the great number of savages in the French army by a vain resistance. “A detachment of your garrison has lately,” say she, “experienced their cruelty; I have it yet in my power to restrain them, and oblige them to observe a capitulation, as none of them hitherto are killed. Your persisting in the defence of your fort can only retard its fate a few days, and must of necessity expose an unfortunate garrison, who can possibly receive no relief, considering the precautions taken to prevent it. I demand a decisive answer, for which purpose I have sent the sieur Funtbrane, one of my aids-de-camp. You may credit what he will inform you of, from Montcalm.” General Webb beheld his preparations with an indifference and security bordering on infatuation. It is credibly reported, that he had private-intelligence of all the French general’s designs and motions; yet, either despising his strength, or discrediting the information, he neglected collecting the militia in time; which, in conjunction with his own forces, would probably have obliged Montcalm to relinquish the attempt, or at least have rendered his success very doubtful and hazardous. The enemy meeting with no disturbance from the quarter they most dreaded, prosecuted the siege with vigour, and were warmly received by the garrison, who fired with great spirit till they had burst almost all their cannon, and expended their ammunition. Neither Montcalm’s promises or threats could prevail upon them to surrender, while they were in a condition to defend themselves, or could reasonably expect assistance from general Webb. They even persisted to hold out after prudence dictated they ought to surrender. Colonel Monro was sensible of the importance of his charge, and imagined that general Webb, though slow in his motions, would surely make some vigorous efforts either to raise the siege, or force a supply of ammunition, provisions, and other necessaries, into the garrison. At length necessity obliged him, after sustaining a siege from the third to the ninth day of August, to hang out a flag of truce, which was immediately answered by the French commander. Hostages were exchanged, and articles of capitulation signed by both parties. It was stipulated, that the garrison of fort William-Henry, and the troops in the intrenched camp, should march out with their arms, the baggage of the officers and soldiers, and all the usual necessaries of war, escorted by a detachment of French troops, and interpreters attached to the savages; that the gate of the fort should be delivered to the troops of the most christain king, immediately after signing the capitulation; and the retrenched camp, on the departure of the British forces; that the artillery, warlike stores, provisions, and in general every thing, except the effects of soldiers and officers, should, upon honour, be delivered to the French troops; for which purpose it was agreed there should be delivered, with the capitulation, an exact inventory of the stores and other particulars specified; that the garrison of the fort, and the troops in the retrenchment and dependencies, should not serve for the space of eighteen months, from the date of the capitulation, against his most christian majesty, or his allies; that with the capitulation there should be delivered an exact state of the troops, specifying the names of the officers, engineers, artillery-men, commissaries, and all employed; that the officers and soldiers, Canadians, women, and savages, made prisoners by land since the commencement of the war in North America, should be delivered in the space of three months at Carillon; in return for whom an equal number of the garrison of fort William-Henry should be capacitated to serve agreeably to the return given by the English officer, and the receipt of the French commanding officers, of the prisoners so delivered: that an officer should remain as an hostage, till the safe return of the escort sent with the troops of his Britannic majesty; that the sick and wounded, not in a condition to be transported to fort Edward, should remain under the protection of the marquis de Montcalm; who engaged to use them with tenderness and humanity, and to return them as soon as recovered: that provisions for two days should be issued out for the British troops: that in testimony of his esteem and respect for colonel Monro and his garrison, on account of their gallant defence, the marquis do Montcalm should return one cannon, a six-pounder. Whether the marquis de Montcalm was really assiduous to have these articles punctually executed we cannot pretend to determine; but certain it is, they were perfidiously broke in almost every instance. The savages in the French interest either paid no regard to the capitulation, or were permitted, from views of policy, to act the most treacherous, inhuman, and insidiuous part. They fell upon the British troops as they marched out, despoiled them of their few remaining effects, dragged the Indians in the English service out of their ranks, and assassinated them with circumstances of unheard-of barbarity. Some British soldiers, with their wives and children, are said to have been savagely murdered by those brutal Indians, whose ferocity the French commander could not effectually restrain. The greater part of the English garrison, however, arrived at fort Edward, under the protection of the French escort. The enemy demolished the fort, carried off the effects, provisions, artillery, and every thing else left by the garrison, together with the vessels preserved in the lake, and departed, without pursuing their success by any other attempt. Thus ended the third campaign in America, where, with an evident superiority over the enemy, an army of twenty thousand regular troops, a great number of provincial forces, and a prodigious naval power, not less than twenty ships of the line, we abandoned our allies, exposed our people, suffered them to be cruelly massacred in sight of our troops, and relinquished a large and valuable tract of country, to the eternal reproach and disgrace of the British name.