The Siege and Capture of Louisburg
THE campaign of 1758 opened with the siege of Louisburg. Admiral Boscawen arrived at Halifax early in May, with a fleet of almost forty vessels, bearing an army of ten thousand effective men led by Sir Jeffery Amherst, with General James Wolfe as his chief lieutenant. At near the close of May the whole armament left Halifax for Cape Breton, and landed on the shores of Gabarus Bay, not far from Louisburg, on the 8th of June. The surf was running high and breaking in foam on the rugged shore. Wolfe, at the head of the first division, ventured among the turbulent waters before the dawn. Several of his launches bearing troops were upset or shattered. When he reached shoal water, the impatient young general leaped into the sea waist-deep, drew his sword, and in the morning twilight led his soldiers against breastworks and abatis in the face of a sharp fire from batteries. The French were driven from their outworks into the fort, and the siege immediately began. It lasted almost fifty days.
The garrison at Louisburg was composed of twenty-five hundred regulars and six hundred militia, under the command of Chevalier de Drucourt. In the harbor were several ships of the line and some frigates; and vessels were sunk at the entrance of the harbor to prevent the ingress of an enemy. Wolfe was the soul of the expedition. Four days after the landing, he led some infantry and Highlanders to the capture of a battery on the northeast side of the harbor; and smaller works were soon secured. The English cannon were placed in battery and soon began to play upon other outworks, the fort, the town, and the vessels in the harbor. Four of the latter were burned and one was carried off by the English, late in July. The town of Louisburg was then reduced to a ruin. Almost all of the cannon of the fort had been dismantled by English shot and shell; and the French were compelled to capitulate on the 26th of the month. The next day the English took possession of the fort and town, with the islands of Cape Breton and Prince Edward; and all the coast nearly to the mouth of the St. Lawrence passed into the possession of Great Britain. The spoils of victory were about five thousand prisoners and a large quantity of munitions of war. After that victory, the French power in America began to wane. The attempt to capture Quebec was deferred until another year, and Wolfe returned home and received the plaudits of the nation.
Activity now prevailed throughout the colonies. The generous voice of Pitt had inspired the Americans with hope and enthusiasm. While Amherst and Wolfe were conquering in the East, Abercrombie and young Lord Howe were leading seven thousand regulars and nine thousand provincials through the forests of the upper Hudson, and over Lake George, against Ticonderoga. At the beginning of July, the whole armament, fifteen thousand strong, were at the head of Lake George.
Like Wolfe in the East, Lord Howe was the soul of the expedition in the North. He was a military Lycurgus, and introduced sweeping reforms. He abolished ornament in dress; caused the hair of his men to be cut short to prevent maladies engendered by wet locks; shortened the muskets to make them more convenient in tangled woods, and had their barrels painted black to prevent discovery by their glitter; made his men wear leggins, like the Indians, to ward off briers and insects, and forbade the carrying of chairs and tables and other useless things. In these reforms his lordship led by his personal example. One day he invited officers to dine with him. He received them cordially in his tent. The ground was covered with bearskins. For each guest was a log for a seat, such as his lordship occupied. Only pork and beans were served. He drew a sheath-knife and gave one to each of the officers, and told them to eat. His example was cheerfully followed.
Early on the 5th of July, 1758, Abercrombie's army moved down Lake George in more than a thousand bateaux and whale-boats, accompanied by artillery on rafts. Just at twilight they landed on a long, grassy cape for rest and refreshments, after a sultry day. It was Saturday evening. The soldiers strolled over the cape, and Lord Howe spent hours in his tent in consultation with Stark and other provincials, who knew the country well, concerning the situation of Ticonderoga and the region between it and Lake George. At a little before midnight, the soldiers were re-embarked. A most inspiring scene was presented. Howe, in a large boat, and surrounded by Rangers as a guard, led the van of the flotilla. The regulars occupied the centre; the provincials, the wings. The sky was starry and serene. Not a breeze ruffled the waters sleeping quietly in the shadows of the mountains. The oars were muffled; and so silently did the army move over the waters in the darkness, that not a scout upon the hills observed them. Day dawned just as they were abreast the Blue Mountain, four miles from their landing-place; and the first intimation which the outposts of the enemy there had of the approach of the English, was the apparition of scarlet uniforms as the boats swept around a point and the army prepared to land.