The Passing of New France | Page 9

in 1755 made
itself felt four years later, and a long distance away, at the very crisis of
the war on land.
Strange as it seems to us now, all this fighting had taken place in a time
of nominal peace. But in 1756 the Seven Years' War broke out in
Europe, and then many plans were made, especially in the English
colonies in America, for the conquest of Canada. The British forces
were greater than the French, all told on both sides, both then and
throughout the war. But the thirteen colonies could not agree. Some of
them were hot, others lukewarm, others, such as the Quakers of
Pennsylvania, cold. Moreover, the British generals were of little use,
and the colonial ones squabbled as the colonies themselves squabbled.
Pitt had not yet taken charge of the war, and the British in America

were either doing nothing or doing harm.
There was only one trained and competent general on the whole
continent; and that general was Montcalm. Though new to warfare in
the wilds he soon understood it as well as those who had waged it all
their lives; and he saw at a glance that an attack on Oswego was the key
to the whole campaign. Louisbourg was, as yet, safe enough; and the
British movements against Lake Champlain were so slow and foolish
that he turned them to good account for his own purposes.
At the end of June, 1756, Montcalm arrived at Ticonderoga, where he
had already posted his second-in-command, the Chevalier de Levis,
with 3,000 men. He walked all over the country thereabouts and seized
the lie of the land so well that he knew it thoroughly when he came
back, two years later, and won his greatest victory. He kept his men
busy too. He moved them forward so boldly and so cleverly that the
British who had been planning the capture of the fort never thought of
attacking him, but made sure only of defending themselves. All this
was but a feint to put the British off their guard elsewhere. Suddenly,
while Levis kept up the show of force, Montcalm himself left secretly
for Montreal, saw Vaudreuil, who, like Bigot, was still all bows and
smiles, and left again, with equal suddenness, for Fort Frontenac (now
Kingston) on July 21. From this point he intended to attack Oswego.
At the entrance to the Thousand Islands there was a point, called by the
voyageurs Point Baptism, where every new-comer into the 'Upper
Countries' had to pay the old hands to drink his health. The French
regulars, 1,300 strong, were all new to the West, and, as they formed
nearly half of Montcalm's little army, the 'baptism' of so many
newcomers caused a great deal of jollity in camp that night. Serious
work was, however, ahead. Fort Frontenac was reached on the 29th;
and here the report that Villiers, with the advance guard, had already
taken from the British 200 canoes and 300 prisoners soon flew round
and raised the men's spirits to the highest pitch.
Montcalm at once sent out two armed ships, with twenty-eight cannon
between them, to cut off Oswego by water, while he sent a picked body
of Canadians and Indians into the woods on the south shore to cut the

place off by land. There was no time to lose, since the British were, on
the whole, much stronger, and might make up their slow minds to send
an army to the rescue. Montcalm lost not a moment. He sailed across
the lake with his 3,000 men and all his guns and stores, and landed at
Sackett's Harbour, which his advance guard had already seized and
prepared. Then, hiding in the mouths of rivers by day and marching and
rowing by night, his army arrived safely within cannon-shot of Oswego
under cover of the dark on August 10.
There were three forts at the mouth of the Oswego. The first was Fort
Ontario; then, across the river, stood Fort Oswego; and, beyond that
again, little Fort George. These forts were held by about 1,800 British,
mostly American colonists, with 123 guns of all kinds.
While it was still dark Montcalm gave out his orders. At the first streak
of dawn the Indians and Canadians were in position to protect the
engineers and working parties. Only one accident marred the success of
the opening day. One of the French engineers was returning to camp
through the woods at dusk, when an Indian, mistaking him for an
enemy, shot him dead. It is said that this Indian felt so sorry for what he
had done that he vowed to avenge the engineer's loss on the British, and
did not stop scalp-hunting during the rest of the war; but went on until
he had lifted as