Expedition against Fort Du Quesne

The general plan of operations against Canada was similar to that of Phipps and Winthrop, almost seventy years before. A strong land and naval force, under the command of General Wolfe and Admiral Saunders, were to ascend the St. Lawrence and attack Quebec. Another force, led by Amherst, was to drive the French from Lake Champlain, seize Montreal and join Wolfe at Quebec; and a third expedition, commanded by General Prideaux, was to take possession of Fort Niagara, and then hasten over Lake Ontario and down the St. Lawrence to Montreal. To General Stanwix was intrusted the task of completing the occupation of the posts in the West from Fort Pitt to Lake Erie.

Pitt would not listen to the vicious twaddle about enforcing royal authority in America, that fell from the lips of the Lords of Trade. "We want the limited co-operation of the Americans," said the wise minister, "and to have it we must be just and allow them freedom." These words ran like an electric thrill through the hearts of the colonists, and there was eagerness everywhere to manifest loyalty and to help the cause. Men and money were freely given; while the French in Canada, growing poorer and diminishing in numbers, received scanty aid and little encouragement from France. "The king relies on your zeal and obstinacy of courage," the French minister wrote to Montcalm. "Without unexpected good fortune or blunders on the part of the English," the general plainly replied, "Canada must be lost this campaign, or certainly the next." But France could do no more for her distant colony, for her wars nearer by had exhausted her treasury. With these relative prospects, the belligerents entered upon the contest in the early summer of 1759.

Late in June, Amherst was at the head of Lake George with about twelve thousand men, regulars and provincials in equal numbers. There he lingered for about a month, and then passed over that beautiful sheet of water with banners flying and martial music resounding, for he felt strong and did not seek concealment. On the 22d of July, he appeared before Fort Carillon, at Ticonderoga, with about eleven thousand men. Boulamarque, the French commander there, had just heard that Wolfe and Saunders were before Quebec. Seeing no chance for successful resistance nor reinforcements, he actually destroyed the fort and fled with his garrison down the Lake to Fort Frederic, on Crown Point, on the 26th. Amherst pursued, and on his approach on the 1st of August, the French abandoned that post also and fled to Isle-aux-Noix in the Sorel River, the outlet of Lake Champlain. Amherst took possession of Crown Point, without opposition; and if he had still pursued as he intended to do, he might have unfurled the British flag in triumph over the walls of Montreal before the close of September. The country between Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence had been shorn of men to reinforce Montcalm at Quebec, who called loudly for troops to avert impending danger there. Old men, women and children were compelled to gather in the harvests near Montreal, to avoid starvation, and the Indians with the French army had deserted their allies. But Amherst, deceived by reports of the strength of the French at the foot of the Lake, and of a strong-armed flotilla there, lingered at Crown Point until October, causing repairs to be made to the fort at Ticonderoga, and constructing a new one on the promontory where he was encamped. He had, meanwhile, been building vessels to transport his troops down the Lake. On these he embarked his army at the middle of October, when heavy storms sweeping over the waters, and a message from Quebec, caused him to turn back and put his army into winter quarters at Crown Point. Captain Loring, with a little squadron of armed vessels, defying the storms, went down the Lake and destroyed the French flotilla, and so gained the mastery over that important sheet of water. The troops at Crown Point built there that strong fortification whose picturesque ruins still attract the attention of the summer tourist on Lake Champlain.

Prideaux's little force, destined to capture Fort Niagara, sailed from Oswego on the first day of July, leaving Colonel Haldimand to repair the works there. The troops that embarked consisted of two New York battalions, one of Royal Americans, two British regiments, a detachment of artillery, and Indian auxiliaries under Sir William Johnson. They moved slowly along the southern shores of Lake Ontario, and on the 15th of July, landed six miles east of Fort Niagara without opposition. The siege was commenced immediately. The fort stood near the bank of the lake at the mouth of the swift-flowing Niagara River, where La Salle planted his stockade. The garrison was composed of a little more than six hundred soldiers. The commander, aware of danger, had sent for forces to be drawn from the posts between there and Fort Du Quesne and from the South, and they were on the way, almost three thousand strong, of whom one-half were Indians.