Albany, with Captain (afterward General) Philip Schuyler as his chief assistant. Then Shirley returned to Massachusetts, leaving William Alexander (Lord Stirling), his secretary, in New York. In the meantime, the expedition entrusted to the leadership of William Johnson (then swaying immense influence over the Indians in the Mohawk Valley), and destined for wresting the strong post of Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, from the French, had been more successful than either that of Braddock or Shirley, although it did not achieve its intended object. His army consisted chiefly of New England militia and Indians-the former from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the latter from the Mohawk Valley. These were assembled at Albany, the New England men having Phineas Lyman for their chief commander. There were also some New York and New Jersey militia, with the army, when, in July, it was at the head of small-boat navigation on the Hudson, fifty miles above Albany, and numbering about six thousand able-bodied men. Among them were Putnam and Stark, who afterward became famous leaders in the war for independence. General Lyman was a graduate of Yale College, an acute statesman and brave soldier. While waiting on the banks of the upper Hudson for Johnson to join him, he employed his troops in the construction of a strong fort of logs and earth, which they insisted upon naming Fort Lyman, in honor of their beloved commander. When Johnson came in August, he deprived the CHAP. XIX. THE CAMP AT LAKE GEORGE. 545 general of that honor, and gave it the name of Fort Edward, in compliment to a royal scion. That act has been attributed to the jealousy of Johnson, who doubtless did not relish the popularity of his lieutenant; but it is more probable that it was done to gratify his passion for flattering royal persons. He took command of the troops on his arrival, and with the main body he marched to the head of a beautiful lake, more than a dozen miles distant, which the French had named Holy Sacrament, but which Johnson, in compliment to the king, named Lake George. There he formed a camp for five thousand men, protected on the north by the lake and on both flanks by impassable morasses and tangled forests. There the troops sat down in idleness waiting for the coming of wagons with stores and cannon for the expedition. It was a beautiful summer camp; but no trench was dug, no mound was raised, as a defence against an active and skillful foe. The three hundred Mohawk warriors, under "King Hendrick," were allowed to roam the forests at pleasure, for Johnson did not dream that a French army, like a wily serpent, was stealthily moving toward his camp. While the English provincials were thus making feeble preparations for seizing Crown Point, the French had been busy in the execution of measures to defend that post. Vaudreuil, the governor of Canada, had called to arms every able-bodied man in the vicinity of Montreal, and invited laborers from below to come up and gather the harvests. With these recruits, sixteen hundred strong, seven hundred regulars and as many savages (almost half of them emigrants from the Six Nations), the French were prepared to defend their fortress at Crown Point. A greater portion of them were placed under the command of the Baron Dieskau, who proceeded to the head of Lake Champlain, whence he intended to make a swift march upon Fort Edward, and capture it and its garrison by surprise. Four days, as secretly as possible, he traversed the woods, when it was found that his guides had lost their way, and that he was in the path to the head of Lake George, and four miles from Fort Edward. Indian scouts had told his savage followers of the great guns at Fort Edward, and that there were more in the camp on the borders of the lake. The barbarians, afraid of cannon, refused to attack the fort, but were willing to fall upon the exposed camp at the head of the lake. CHAPTER XX. MILITARY EVENTS AT THE HEAD OF LAKE GEORGE-HONORS WRONGLY BESTOWED-AN OPPOR- I T was a beautiful evening-the 7th of September, 1755-when an Indian scout came to Johnson's camp, at Lake George, with the startling news that a French army had been seen landing at the head of Lake Champlain, near the site of the village of White Hall. This messenger was followed by another at midnight, with the more alarming news that French and Indians were making a rapid march toward Fort Edward. Early in the morning a council was held, and it was proposed to send out a small party in three divisions to meet the foe. The shrewd Mohawk sachem and chief, King Hendrick, said: "If they are to fight, they are too few; if they are to be killed, they are too many." Then taking in his hands three strong sticks, he said: "Put them together and you cannot break them; take them separately and you can break them easily." His logic was apparent, and it was approved by the general, who ordered twelve hundred men in one body to hasten to the relief of Fort Edward. Colonel Ephraim Williams, of Massachusetts, was the chosen commander of the expedition, and with him went Hendrick and two hundred warriors of the Six Nations. Before their departure the white-haired chief, whose snowy locks covered his shoulders, mounted a gun-carriage and harangued his braves with his powerful voice, in eloquent words, exhorting them to be strong and true to their allies. A provincial officer, Lieutenant-Colonel (afterward General) Pomeroy, who was present, declared that while he could not understand a word of the old warrior's language, such was the power of his voice, his gestures and his whole manner, that his speech affected him more deeply than any other he had ever heard. The detachment had marched in fancied security to a defile at Rocky Brook, about four miles from camp, when they were assailed in front and CHAP. XX. WILLIAMS AND HENDRICK. 547 flank by musketry and arrows. The French and Indians, who had been misled toward Johnson's camp, apprised by scouts of the march of the English, had formed an ambush in semi-circular shape, the centre cut by the path along which Williams' detachment was moving. The latter had fallen into the fatal trap. The attack was sharp and destructive. Williams and Hendrick were the only mounted men, and both were killed at the first volley. Williams fell dead, and Hendrick died soon afterward. The smitten detachment fled back to camp in a quick but orderly retreat conducted by Nathan Whitney, of New Haven, Connecticut. Colonel Williams was then about forty years of age. While he was passing through Albany on his way to join Johnson, he had made a will, by which he bequeathed his moderate estate to found and maintain a free school in Western Massachusetts. Such was the foundation of Williams' College, at Williamstown. When Hendrick's son heard of the death of his father, he placed his hand over his heart and said: "My father still lives. here. The son is now the father, and stands here ready to fight." The travelers on the highway between Glenn's Falls and Lake George may see a monument near the road, erected to the memory of Colonel Williams, not far from the spot where he fell. KING HENDRICK SPEAKING. With strange apathy Johnson had made no preparations for the defence of his camp. It was not until Williams had marched on the morning of the 8th, that he began to construct some breastworks of felled trees, and placed two or three cannons upon them. The firing at the ambush had been heard at the camp, and three hundred men were sent to the relief of the first detachment. These met the flying provincials, and joining in the retreat, they all rushed pell-mell into the camp, pursued by the French and Indians, who had cast many of their slain foes into a slimy pool which is still known as "Bloody Pond." Dieskau intended to rush into the camp with the fugitives and capture it, but his Indians, fearing cannon, halted on the crest of a hill from which they could see the dreaded great guns. So likewise did the intimidated Canadians. Dieskau, whose armorial legend was, "Boldness wins," pressed forward with his regulars, and at near noon a battle began. The French had no artillery, and their musket-balls had no effect upon the breastworks. The Canadians and Indians tardily took positions in sheltered places on the flanks, and did little service. The New Englanders had only their fowlingpieces. There was not a bayonet among them. They were good marksmen, and kept their enemies at bay during a conflict of more than four hours. Fortunately for the provincials, Johnson was slightly wounded in the thigh at the beginning of the action, and retired to his tent. He was not a skillful and experienced soldier like General Lyman who had just joined him, and into whose hands the conduct of the battle now fell. Lyman directed it with skill and bravery, until a greater portion of the French regulars were killed or wounded. A bomb-shell thrown by a howitzer from the provincial camp among the Canadians and savages had made them fly in terror to the woods, when the provincials, leaping over their breastworks, and clubbing their muskets, scattered the living remnants of the assailants. Dieskau, who had been three times wounded, would not retire, but sat upon a stump of a tree, with his saddle by his side, faint from loss of blood, when, from a musket discharged by a renegade Frenchman, he received an incurable wound. He was carried into the camp, where he was tenderly treated by General Johnson and his family. This kindness inspired the warmest gratitude in the breast of the baron, who, before he left America for France, presented an elegant sword to Johnson in token of that sentiment. The baron died in France, from the effect of his wounds in 1757. This repulse was lauded in England as a great victory. Johnson had very little to do with it, personally. It was the work of General Lyman and his New England troops. Yet the services of Lyman were overlooked. Johnson did not even mention him in connection with the battle, in his despatch. The king created Johnson a baronet, and parliament voted him thanks and the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars wherewith to support the dignity of the title. The recipient being a nephew of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, the influential friends of that officer, at court, secured the honor for Johnson.. For reasons inexplicable just now, the provincial commander remained at the head of Lake George, instead of pursuing the shattered remnant of Dieskau's army and driving the French from Ticonderoga, which they were fortifying. It was possible also, immediately after the panic produced by the repulse at Lake George, to drive them from Crown Point, the ultimate object of the expedition. General Lyman and others urged Johnson to |