CHAPTER XII. General Braddock arrives in America....Convention of the governors, and plan of the campaign resolved on...French expelled from Nova Scotia, and the inhabitants transplanted....Expedition against fort du Quésne....Battle of Monongahela....Defeat and death of Braddock..... Expedition against Crown Point.....Dieskau defeated.... Expedition against Niagara....Frontiers distressed by incursions of the Indians....Meeting of the governors at New York....Plan for the campaign of 1756....Command in America bestowed on lord Loudoun....Montcalm takes Oswego....All offensive operations abandoned by lord Loudoun....Small pox breaks out in Albany....Campaign closed....Campaign of 1757 opened....Admiral Holbourne arrives with a large armament at Halifax, where he is joined by the earl of Loudoun....Expedition against Louisbourg relinquished....Lord Loudoun returns to New York....Fort William Henry taken....Controversy between lord Loudoun and the assembly of Massachussetts. THE rich and extensive country between the Alleghany mountain and the Mississippi being claimed both by France and England, each treated the endeavours of the other to take possession of it, as an invasion of its own dominions, which was to be considered as an act of hostility, and to be repelled by force. Complaints of encroachment, therefore, were reciprocal; and each charged the other with being the aggressor. The establishment of the post on the Ohio, and the defeat of colonel Washington at the Little Meadows, were con 1753. CHAP. XII. sidered by the British government as the commencement of war in America. The con 1753. duct observed by the cabinet of Versailles now demonstrated, that the subject contended for must be relinquished or maintained by the sword; and that of London did not hesitate in choosing the latter of these alternatives. The resolution to send a few regiments of British soldiers to America for the purpose of maintaining the claims of their monarch was imme1755. diately taken; and very early in the year general Braddock embarked at Cork, at the head of a very respectable body of troops destined for this service. General Preparations to re-enforce their armies in Canada were, about the same time, making in the ports of France; intelligence of which being received in England, admiral Boscawen was ordered to the American station, for the purpose of intercepting the French fleet before it should enter the gulf of St. Lawrence. A very active offensive campaign was now meditated in America. One of the first meaarrives in. sures adopted by general Braddock, was a convention of the several governors for the Convention purpose of settling the plan of military operagovernors tions. This was held in Virginia on the 14th America. of the and plan of the campaign of April, where three expeditions were re solved on. The first and the most interesting was against fort du Quesne. This was undertaken by general Braddock in person; and the British CHAP. XII. troops, with such aids as could be drawn from 1755. Maryland and Virginia were to be employed in it. The reduction of this fort and the entire expulsion of the French from the Ohio and its waters, were anticipated as certain. The second was designed against Niagara and fort Frontignac. This was to be conducted by governor Shirley; and the American regulars, consisting of Shirley's and Pepperel's regiments, constituted the principal force relied on for the reduction of that place. The third was against Crown Point. This originated entirely with Massachussetts, and was to be executed altogether by colonial troops, raised by the provinces of New England and New York for the particular object. The command of it was given by the governors, who furnished the men for the expedition, to major general William Johnson, then one of the council of New York. While preparations were making for the several enterprises, an expedition, which had been previously determined on by the government of Massachussetts, was carried on against the posts occupied by the French in Nova Scotia. It has already been stated that the limits of this province still remained unsettled. The English claim extended to the St. Lawrence, while the French insisted on restricting it to CHAP. XII. the peninsula of Acadié. While the com1755. missioners of the two crowns were advancing, in fruitless memorials, the arguments in favour of the claims of their respective sovereigns, the French occupied the country in contest, and took measures for its defence. Against the forts they had constructed for the protection of the territory they claimed, south of the St. Lawrence, an enterprise was now resolved on. Although the force to be employed was to be drawn almost entirely from Massachussetts, the command of the expedition was conferred on lieutenant colonel Monckton, a British officer, in whose military talents more confidence was placed than in those of any provincial. The troops of Massachussetts, who were enlisted to serve for one year, if required, embarked at Boston on the 20th of May, together with Shirley's and Pepperel's regiments, amounting in the whole to about three thousand men, commanded by lieutenant colonel Winslow, who was a major general of the militia, and was an officer of great influence in the province. They arrived on the 28th in the basin of Annapolis Royal. From thence they sailed in a fleet of forty-one vessels to Chignecto, and anchored about five miles from fort Lawrence. Here they were joined by about three hundred British troops, with a small train of artillery; and having landed, immediately marched against Beau Sejour, the expelled from principal post held by the French in that CHAP. XII. country. On reaching the river Mussaguash, 1755. contended by the French to be the western limit of Nova Scotia, they found the enemy prepared to dispute its passage. A block house, defended by a few pieces of small cannon, had been constructed on its western bank, and a breast work had also been thrown up, behind which a few troops were posted. After a short conflict, the passage of the river was forced, with the loss of only one man, and the intrenchments were opened before Beau Sejour. On the fifth day the fort capitulated, and the garrison was conveyed to Louisbourg, at the French expense of the king of Great Britain, having Nova Scotia. stipulated, not to bear arms for six months. Fort Gaspereau soon afterwards surrendered on the same terms, and three twenty gun ships, with a snow, appearing in the river of St. Johns, the French set fire to their works at that place and entirely evacuated the country. Thus in the course of the month of June, with the loss of only three men killed, the English found themselves in complete possession of the whole province of Nova Scotia according to their own definition of its boundaries. This easy conquest, diffused throughout the northern colonies especially, a very general joy; and, from this first success, the most sanguine anticipations were indulged of the result of the campaign. |