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desisted.

DEATH OF GENERAL BRADDOCK.

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Although four balls passed through Washington's coat, and two horses were shot under him, he escaped unhurt.

Washington's conduct in the action is described by an eyewitness whose verbal account is thus given by Mr. Paulding. "I saw him take hold of a brass field-piece, as if it had been a stick. He looked like a fury; he tore the sheet-lead from the touch-hole; he placed one hand on the muzzle, the other on the breach; he pulled with this, and he pushed with that, and wheeled it round as if it had been nothing. It tore the ground like a barshare. The powder monkey rushed up with the fire, and then the cannon began to bark, I tell you. They fought and they fought, and the Indians began to holla, when the rest of the brass cannon made the bark of the trees fly, and the Indians come down. That place they call Rock Hill, and there they left five hundred men dead on the ground."

After the slaughter had thus continued for three hours, General Braddock, after having three horses killed under him, received a shot through the right arm and the lungs, and was borne from the field by Colonel Gage. More than one half of the soldiers who had so proudly crossed the river, three hours before, were now killed or wounded, and the rest, on the fall of the general, fled precipitately. The provincials, who were among the last to leave the ground, were kept in order by Washington, and served to cover the retreat of the regulars. The officers in general remained on the field while there seemed any hope of rallying their troops, and consequently, out of eighty-six engaged, sixty-three were killed or wounded. Of the privates, seven hundred and fourteen fell. The rout was complete, and the more disgraceful in that it was before an inferior enemy, who attacked without the least hope of such success, and during the whole battle lost but forty men. Most of these were Indians killed in venturing out of the ravine to take scalps.

Captain Dumas thought his force too weak to pursue the fugitives, who fled precipitately until they had recrossed the Monongahela, when being no longer in immediate danger, they again formed. Colonel Washington hastened forward to bring up wagons and other conveyances for the wounded.

General Braddock, under the particular charge of Captain Stewart of the Virginia forces, was at first conveyed in a tumbril; afterwards he was placed on horseback, but being unable to ride, he was obliged to be carried by soldiers. In this way he was A kind of plough. See vignette on the title page.

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transported until, on the night of the 13th, when they arrived within a mile of Fort Necessity, where he died, and was buried in his cloak, in the road, to elude the search of the Indians. Washington, by the light of a torch, read the funeral service over his remains. The news of the defeat soon reached the rear division under Colonel Dunbar. The greatest confusion for a time reigned in his camp. The artillery stores were destroyed, the heavy baggage burned, and as soon as the fugitives arrived he took up the line of march with all speed for Philadelphia. Colonel Washington proceeded to Mount Vernon, justly indignant at the conduct of the regulars in the late engagement, though his own bravery and good conduct in the action gained him the applause of all his countrymen.

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HE expeditions against Niagara and Crown Point also failed, though their failure was not attended with such disastrous consequences as that against Fort Duquesne. The troops destined for both these expeditions assembled at Albany. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts took the command of that against Niagara. Various causes operating to prevent the commencement of his march, the season was well advanced before he left Albany. His army was composed of certain regiments of regulars from New England, New York, and New Jersey, and a few Indians. At last, in the month of July, (1755,) he commenced his march for Oswego, but before he arrived at that place, the news of the defeat of Braddock overtook him, and spread such a consternation through his army, that many deserted, and the Indians, always vacillating and inclined to favour the stronger party, began to manifest great unwillingness

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to proceed. The necessity of securing the good will and cooperation of his savage allies, made some farther delay inevitable, so that it was not until the 21st of August that he arrived at Oswego.

After remaining there for some time, in the hope of filling up his army, and waiting till all the Indians had left him, he made a vigorous effort to reach Niagara, but was prevented by a succession of heavy rains, and the increasing sickness of the few soldiers who remained with him. Considering these obstacles insurmountable, he left a garrison of seven hundred men at Oswego, under the command of Colonel Mercer, and instructing him to build two other forts, to secure the command of the lake, he returned with the remainder of the army to Albany.

The army destined for the reduction of Crown Point consisted of about five thousand men. The command was given to William Johnson, an Irishman, who began life as a common soldier, but whose uncommon bodily strength, with a rude energy of character, had enabled him to acquire the friendship of some of the most powerful chiefs of the Six Nations. During a residence of several years on the banks of the Mohawk, he cultivated this friendship with such assiduity, that now, on his being appointed commander of the expedition, he was immediately joined by Hendrick, one of the chiefs of that confederacy, with three hundred picked warriors.

Impatient to commence the campaign, Johnson made all haste. in collecting the artillery and military stores, and in the mean time sent the troops forward under General Lyman, the second in command, to the carrying place, about sixty miles above Albany, where he soon after joined them, and began to build a fort on the eastern side of the Hudson, which he called Fort Edward. Leaving a few men to garrison the new fort, he advanced with the main body of his army to the southern extremity of Lake George, where he learned that the enemy were erecting a fort at Ticonderoga, at the other extremity of the lake, and about fifteen miles below Crown Point. He resolved to push forward, hoping by so doing to reduce the new fort before it could be put in a state of defence, but before he advanced he received information which obliged him to stand on the defensive.

This intelligence, which changed the whole character of the campaign, was, that Baron Dieskau, an able commander, had recently arrived in Canada from France, with a large reinforcement, and that, having collected a considerable body of Canadians

JOHNSON'S EXPEDITION.

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and Indians, he was now advancing with great speed to attack the English settlements.

Johnson transmitted this intelligence to the colonies, and began with haste to fortify his camp. He could gain no definite idea of the numbers of Dieskau's army, the Indian spies uniformly reporting them as innumerable, by pointing to the stars in the sky, or the hairs of the head. It was impossible from their accounts to discover whether they fell short of a thousand, or exceeded ten thousand in number. Thus, left in doubt, and not knowing the destination of the enemy, Johnson secretly conveyed a few cannon from Fort Edward to his camp, and doubling his spies and scouts awaited the expected attack.

Dieskau at first proceeded towards Oswego, but on learning the advance of Johnson with an inferior army towards Crown Point, hastened to direct his operations against him; and so confident was he of an easy victory, that he made known his intention after the capture of Fort Edward to destroy Albany, ravage the neighbouring settlements, and cut off the English from all communication with Oswego, which would soon be compelled to surrender. His superior strength and skill rendered this result very probable; but victory does not always smile on the strong, and the wisdom of the most experienced may sometimes fail them.

Dieskau's hopes were raised to a high pitch, and his contempt for his English enemy greatly increased by a blunder of Johnson's; who, deceived by the information that the van of the enemy was advancing incautiously, on the sixth of September, sent forward a party of a thousand men under Colonel Williams, together with Hendrick and his Indians, to attack them. Scarcely had this party advanced three miles, when they found themselves almost surrounded by the whole French army. Nothing daunted, they commenced a spirited but hopeless conflict, which resulted in the death of their gallant leader, Colonel Williams; and Hendrick, with many of his followers, was also among the slain. The greater part of the detachment escaped to the camp, closely pursued by the victorious French.

Having heard, a few days before, that Johnson had no artillery at his camp, Dieskau was confident of victory, and consequently, instead of attacking the entrenchments at once, permitted his soldiers to pause at some distance, that they might be regularly formed, and advance with decency and in the true European style, to take possession of the fort.

Johnson, though now convinced of his great inferiority, but

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