The Prophecy of John Adams and its Fulfillment

Procrastination marked every step of the campaign on the part of the English. Loudon did not send General James Abercrombie (his lieutenant) with troops until near the close of April. The ship with money was not dispatched until the middle of June, at which time Abercrombie arrived; and the commander-in-chief did not reach our shores until past midsummer. The plan of the campaign called for ten thousand men to attack Crown Point; six thousand to proceed against Niagara; three thousand against Fort Du Quesne, and two thousand to cross the country from the Kennebeck to the Chaudiere-a feat performed by Arnold and a few followers, twenty years afterward--to attack some French settlements in Canada. Many of those destined for Crown Point and Niagara were already at Albany when Abercrombie arrived. He was not remarkable for either vigor or fore-thought. He loved his ease, and was a great stickler for the assertion of royal authority; and instead of stimulating the provincials with hope and patriotism, he depressed them with disappointment and disgust. Seven thousand troops were there, under General Winslow, impatient to be led to Lake Champlain; and another party were anxiously awaiting orders to hasten to Oswego, for rumors came down through the forests from the St. Lawrence that the French were about to move in large force against the English frontiers.

But the Scotch general seemed more intent upon asserting royal authority by forcing the colonists to have the regular troops quartered upon them, than in pressing forward against the enemy; and he cast a firebrand into the army at Albany (composed of regular and provincial troops, about ten thousand strong), by compelling the officers of the latter to obey the commands of those of the former of equal rank. He and Mayor Sybrant Van Schaick had many stormy interviews about the billeting of regulars upon the people. On one occasion, there was an open quarrel between the lean Scotchman and the burly Dutchman, when the mayor, terribly excited, shook his fist at the general and exclaimed: "Go back again with your troops; we can defend our frontiers ourselves." The general triumphed; and he sent to his superiors, at a time when Crown Point should have been in his possession, and the garrison at Fort Niagara his prisoners, a shout of exultation because of his victory, saying: "In spite of every subterfuge, the soldiers are at last billeted upon the town." This victory cheered the hearts of the Lords of Trade, who now believed that the absolute submission of the colonies was an event near at hand.

Abercrombie loitered in Albany, waiting for the arrival of Loudon, when he predicted mighty things would be done. He would go neither backward nor forward, but wasted strength there in constructing useless fortifications, when the best defence for that city would have been the security of the frontier posts. Meanwhile the brave and active Colonel John Bradstreet arrived from Oswego with the startling news that the French and Indians were threatening the forts there, and that a strong force was actually moving at the foot of Lake Ontario for the capture of the post. But Abercrombie was unmoved, and the ten thousand men, chafing with impatience and suffering from sickness, were kept at Albany.

Bradstreet had gained laurels at Louisburg eleven years before, and had been made lieutenant-governor of St. Johns, Newfoundland. Knowing his worth, Shirley had called him into active military service, and sent him from Albany, with a competent force, to provision the garrison at Oswego. With two hundred provincial troops and forty companies of boatmen, he crossed the country by way of the Mohawk River, Wood Creek, Oneida Lake and the Oswego River, and placed in the fort at Oswego provisions for five thousand troops for six months. He was accompanied by Captain (afterward General) Schuyler, as commissary.

Bradstreet had observed that his descent of the Oswego River had been watched by French and Indian scouts. He had gone only nine miles up that stream on his return, when he was attacked by a strong party of French regulars, Canadians and savages. The provincials drove some of them from an island in the river, and there Bradstreet made a defensive stand. One of the Canadians, too badly wounded to fly with his companions, remained, and a boatman was about to dispatch him, when young Schuyler saved his life. Soon afterward Bradstreet abandoned the island and drove the assailants back into the forest. Owing to accident, there was only one bateau left at the island when the colonel ordered his men away. It was hardly sufficient to carry the commander and the little party with him. The wounded Canadian begged to be taken in, but he was refused. "Then throw me into the river," he cried, "and not leave me here to perish with hunger and thirst." The heart of Captain Schuyler was touched by the poor fellow's appeal, and handling his weapons and coat to a companion-in-arms, he bore the wounded man to the water, swam with him across the deep channel, and placed him in the hands of a surgeon. The soldier survived; and nineteen years afterward, when Schuyler, at the head of the northern army of the Revolution, sent a proclamation in the French language into Canada inviting the inhabitants to join the patriots, that soldier, living near Chamblee, enlisted under the banner of Ethan Allen, that he might see and thank the preserver of his life. He went to Schuyler's tent, on the Isle aux Noix, and kissed the general's hand in token of his gratitude.