With Wolfe in Canada: The Winning of a Continent

  Chapter 10: The Fight At Lake George.

  Fortunate was it, for the remnant of Braddock's force, that the Indianswere too much occupied in gathering the abundant harvest of scalps, tooanxious to return to the fort to exhibit these trophies of theirbravery, to press on in pursuit; for, had they done so, few indeed ofthe panic-stricken fugitives would ever have lived to tell the tale.All night these continued their flight, expecting every moment to hearthe dreaded war whoop burst out again in the woods round them.

  Colonel Washington had been ordered, by the dying general, to press onon horseback to the camp of Dunbar, and to tell him to forward waggons,provisions, and ammunition; but the panic, which had seized the mainforce, had already been spread by flying teamsters to Dunbar's camp.Many soldiers and waggoners at once took flight, and the panic washeightened when the remnants of Braddock's force arrived. There was noreason to suppose that they were pursued, and even had they been so,their force was ample to repel any attack that could be made upon it;but probably their commander saw that, in their present state of utterdemoralization, they could not be trusted to fight, and that the firstIndian war whoop would start them again in flight. Still, it was clearthat a retreat would leave the whole border open to the ravages of theIndians, and Colonel Dunbar was greatly blamed for the course he took.

  A hundred waggons were burned, the cannon and shells burst, and thebarrels of powder emptied into the stream, the stores of provisionsscattered through the woods, and then the force began its retreat overthe mountains to Fort Cumberland, sixty miles away. General Braddockdied the day that the retreat began. His last words were:

  "We shall know better how to deal with them next time."

  The news of the disaster came like a thunderbolt upon the colonists.Success had been regarded as certain, and the news that some fourteenhundred English troops had been utterly routed, by a body of French andIndians of half their strength, seemed almost incredible. The onlyconsolation was that the hundred and fifty Virginians, who hadaccompanied the regulars, had all, as was acknowledged by the Englishofficers themselves, fought with the greatest bravery, and had kepttheir coolness and presence of mind till the last, and that on them noshadow of the discredit of the affair rested. Indeed, it was said thatthe greater part were killed not by the fire of the Indians, but bythat of the troops, who, standing in masses, fired in all directions,regardless of what was in front of them.

  But Colonel Dunbar, not satisfied with retreating to the safe shelterof Fort Cumberland, to the amazement of the colonists, insisted uponwithdrawing with his own force to Philadelphia, leaving the whole ofthe frontier open to the assaults of the hostile Indians. After waitinga short time at Philadelphia, he marched slowly on to join a forceoperating against the French in the region of Lake George, more thantwo hundred miles to the north. He took with him only the regulars, theprovincial regiments being under the control of the governors of theirown states.

  Washington therefore remained behind in Virginia with the regiment ofthat colony. The blanks made in Braddock's fight were filled up, andthe force raised to a thousand strong. With these he was to protect afrontier of three hundred and fifty miles long, against an active andenterprising foe more numerous than himself, and who, acting on theother side of the mountain, and in the shade of the deep forests, couldchoose their own time of attack, and launch themselves suddenly uponany village throughout the whole length of the frontier.

  Nor were the troops at his disposal the material which a commanderwould wish to have in his hand. Individually they were brave, but beingrecruited among the poor whites, the most turbulent and troublesomepart of the population, they were wholly unamenable to discipline, andWashington had no means whatever for enforcing it. He applied to theHouse of Assembly to pass a law enabling him to punish disobedience,but for months they hesitated to pass any such ordinance, on the excusethat it would trench on the liberty of free white men.

  The service, indeed, was most unpopular, and Washington, whoseheadquarters were at Winchester, could do nothing whatever to assistthe settlements on the border. His officers were as unruly as the men,and he was further hampered by having to comply with the orders ofGovernor Dinwiddie, at Williamsburg, two hundred miles away.

  "What do you mean to do?" he had asked James Walsham, the day that thebeaten army arrived at Fort Cumberland.

  "I do not know," James said. "I certainly will not continue withDunbar, who seems to me to be acting like a coward; nor do I wish to gointo action with regulars again; not, at least, until they have beentaught that, if they are to fight Indians successfully in the forests,they must abandon all their traditions of drill, and must fight inIndian fashion. I should like to stay with you, if you will allow me."

  "I should be very glad to have you with me," Washington said; "but I donot think that you will see much action here. It will be a war offorays. The Indians will pounce upon a village or solitary farm house,murder and scalp the inhabitants, burn the buildings to the ground, andin an hour be far away beyond reach of pursuit. All that I can do is tooccupy the chief roads, by which they can advance into the heart of thecolony, and the people of the settlements lying west of that must,perforce, abandon their homesteads, and fly east until we are strongenough to again take up the offensive.

  "Were I in your place, I would at once take horse and ride north. Youwill then be in plenty of time, if inclined, to join in the expeditionagainst the French on Fort George, or in that which is going to marchon Niagara. I fancy the former will be ready first. You will findthings better managed there than here. The colonists in that part have,for many years, been accustomed to Indian fighting, and they will notbe hampered by having regular troops with them, whose officers' onlyidea of warfare is to keep their men standing in line as targets forthe enemy.

  "There are many bodies of experienced scouts, to which you can attachyourself, and you will see that white men can beat the Indians at theirown game."

  Although sorry to leave the young Virginian officer, James Walshamthought that he could not do better than follow his advice, andaccordingly, the next day, having procured another horse, he set off tojoin the column destined to operate on the lakes.

  The prevision of Washington was shortly realized, and a cloud of redwarriors descended on the border settlements, carrying murder, rapine,and ruin before them. Scores of quiet settlements were destroyed,hundreds of men, women, and children massacred, and in a short time thewhole of the outlying farms were deserted, and crowds of weepingfugitives flocked eastward behind the line held by Washington'sregiment.

  But bad as affairs were in Virginia, those in Pennsylvania wereinfinitely worse. They had, for many years, been on such friendly termswith the Indians, that many of the settlers had no arms, nor had theythe protection in the way of troops which the government of Virginiaput upon the frontier. The government of the colony was atPhiladelphia, far to the east, and sheltered from danger, and theQuaker assembly there refused to vote money for a single soldier toprotect the unhappy colonists on the frontier. They held it a sin tofight, and above all to fight with Indians, and as long as theythemselves were free from the danger, they turned a deaf ear to thetales of massacre, and to the pitiful cries for aid which came from thefrontier. But even greater than their objection to war, was theirpassion of resistance to the representative of royalty, the governor.

  Petition after petition came from the border for arms and ammunition,and for a militia law to enable the people to organize and defendthemselves; but the Quakers resisted, declaring that Braddock's defeatwas a just judgment upon him and his soldiers for molesting the Frenchin their settlement in Ohio. They passed, indeed, a bill for raisingfifty thousand pounds for the king's use, but affixed to it acondition, to which they knew well the governor could not assent; viz,that the proprietary lands were to pay their share of the tax.

  To this condition the governor was unable to assent, for, according tothe constitution of the colony, to which he was bound, the lands ofWilliam Penn and his descendants were free
of all taxation. For weeksthe deadlock continued. Every day brought news of massacres of tens,fifties, and even hundreds of persons, but the assembly remainedobstinate; until the mayor, aldermen, and principal citizens clamouredagainst them, and four thousand frontiersmen started on their march toPhiladelphia, to compel them to take measures for defence.

  Bodies of massacred men were brought from the frontier villages andparaded through the town, and so threatening became the aspect of thepopulation, that the Assembly of Quakers were at last obliged to pass amilitia law. It was, however, an absolutely useless one. It speciallyexcepted the Quakers from service, and constrained nobody, but declaredit lawful for such as chose to form themselves into companies, and toelect officers by ballot. The company officers might, if they saw fit,elect, also by ballot, colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors. Theselast might then, in conjunction with the governor, frame articles ofwar, to which, however, no officer or man was to be subjected, unless,after three days' consideration, he subscribed them in presence of ajustice of the peace, and declared his willingness to be bound by them.

  This mockery of a bill, drawn by Benjamin Franklin while the savageswere raging in the colony and the smoke of a hundred villages wasascending to the skies, was received with indignation by the people,and this rose to such a height that the Assembly must have yieldedunconditionally, had not a circumstance occurred which gave them adecent pretext for retreat.

  The governor informed them that he had just received a letter from theproprietors, as Penn's heirs were called, giving to the province fivethousand pounds to aid in its defence, on condition that the moneyshould be accepted as a free gift, and not as their proportion of anytax that was or might be laid by the Assembly.

  Thereupon, the Assembly struck out the clause taxing the proprietoryestates, and the governor signed the bill. A small force was thenraised, which enabled the Indians to be to some extent kept in check;but there was no safety for the unhappy settlers in the west ofPennsylvania during the next three years, while the French fromMontreal were hounding on their savage allies, by gifts and rewards, todeeds of massacre and bloodshed.

  The northern colonies had shown a better spirit. Massachusetts, whichhad always been the foremost of the northern colonies in resistingFrench and Indian aggression, had at once taken the lead in preparationfor war. No less than 4500 men, being one in eight of her adult males,volunteered to fight the French, and enlisted for the variousexpeditions, some in the pay of the province, some in that of the king.Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, himself a colonist, wasrequested by his Assembly to nominate the commander. He did not choosean officer of that province, as this would have excited the jealousy ofthe others, but nominated William Johnson of New York--a choice whichnot only pleased that important province, but had great influence insecuring the alliance of the Indians of the Five Nations, among whomJohnson, who had held the post of Indian commissioner, was extremelypopular.

  Connecticut voted 1200 men, New Hampshire 500, Rhode Island 400, andNew York 800, all at their own charge. Johnson, before assuming thecommand, invited the warriors of the Five Nations to assemble incouncil. Eleven hundred Indian warriors answered the invitation, andafter four days' speech making agreed to join. Only 300 of them,however, took the field, for so many of their friends and relativeswere fighting for the French, that the rest, when they sobered downafter the excitement of the council, returned to their homes.

  The object of the expedition was the attack of Crown Point--animportant military post on Lake Champlain--and the colonists assemblednear Albany; but there were great delays. The five colonial assembliescontrolled their own troops and supplies. Connecticut had refused tosend her men until Shirley promised that her commanding officer shouldrank next to Johnson, and the whole movement was for some time at adeadlock, because the five governments could not agree about theircontributions of artillery and stores.

  The troops were a rough-looking body. Only one of the corps had a blueuniform, faced with red. The rest wore their ordinary farm clothing.All had brought their own guns, of every description and fashion. Theyhad no bayonets, but carried hatchets in their belts as a sort ofsubstitute.

  In point of morals the army, composed almost entirely of farmers andfarmers' sons, was exemplary. It is recorded that not a chicken wasstolen. In the camps of the Puritan soldiers of New England, sermonswere preached twice a week, and there were daily prayers and muchsinging of psalms; but these good people were much shocked by theprofane language of the troops from New York and Rhode Island, and someprophesied that disaster would be sure to fall upon the army from thiscause.

  Months were consumed in various delays; and, on the 21st of August,just as they were moving forward, four Mohawks, whom Johnson had sentinto Canada, returned with the news that the French were making greatpreparations, and that 8000 men were marching to defend Crown Point.The papers of General Braddock, which fell, with all the baggage of thearmy, into the hands of the French, had informed them of the object ofthe gathering at Albany, and now that they had no fear of any furtherattempt against their posts in Ohio, they were able to concentrate alltheir force for the defence of their posts on Lake Champlain.

  On the receipt of this alarming news, a council of war was held atAlbany, and messages were sent to the colonies asking forreinforcements. In the meantime, the army moved up the Hudson to thespot called the Great Carrying Place, where Colonel Lyman, who wassecond in command, had gone forward and erected a fort, which his mencalled after him, but was afterwards named Fort Edward.

  James Walsham joined the army a few days before it moved forward. Hewas received with great heartiness by General Johnson, to whom hebrought a letter of introduction from Colonel Washington, and who atonce offered him a position as one of his aides-de-camp. This he foundexceedingly pleasant, for Johnson was one of the most jovial and openhearted of commanders. His hospitality was profuse, and, his privatemeans being large, he was able to keep a capital table, which, on theline of march, all officers who happened to pass by were invited toshare. This was a contrast, indeed, to the discipline which hadprevailed in Braddock's columns, and James felt as if he were startingupon a great picnic, rather than upon an arduous march against asuperior force.

  After some hesitation as to the course the army should take, it wasresolved to march for Lake George. Gangs of axemen were sent to hew away, and, on the 26th, 2000 men marched for the lake, while ColonelBlanchard, of New Hampshire, remained with 500 to finish and defendFort Lyman. The march was made in a leisurely manner, and the forcetook two days to traverse the fourteen miles between Fort Lyman and thelake. They were now in a country hitherto untrodden by white men saveby solitary hunters.

  They reached the southern end of the beautiful lake, which hitherto hadreceived no English name, and was now first called Lake George inhonour of the king. The men set to work, and felled trees until theyhad cleared a sufficient extent of ground for their camp, by the edgeof the water, and posted themselves with their back to the lake. Intheir front was a forest of pitch pine, on their right a marsh coveredwith thick brush wood, on their left a low hill. Things went on in thesame leisurely way which had marked the progress of the expedition.

  No attempt was made to clear away the forest in front, although itwould afford excellent cover for any enemy who might attack them, norwere any efforts made to discover the whereabouts or intention of theenemy. Every day waggons came up with provisions and boats.

  On September 7th, an Indian scout arrived about sunset, and reportedthat he had found the trail of a body of men moving from South Bay, thesouthern extremity of Lake Champlain, towards Fort Lyman. Johnsoncalled for a volunteer to carry a letter of warning to ColonelBlanchard. A waggoner named Adams offered to undertake the perilousservice, and rode off with the letter. Sentries were posted, and thecamp fell asleep.

  While Johnson had been taking his leisure on Lake George, the commanderof the French force, a German baron named Dieskau, was preparing asurprise for him. He had reached Crown Point at the
head of 3573men--regulars, Canadians, and Indians--and he at once moved forward,with the greater portion of his command, on Cariolon, or, as it wasafterwards called, Ticonderoga, a promontory at the junction of LakeGeorge with Lake Champlain, where he would bar the advance of theEnglish, whichever road they might take.

  The Indians with the French caused great trouble to their commander,doing nothing but feast and sleep, but, on September 4th, a party ofthem came in bringing a scalp and an English prisoner, caught near FortLyman.

  He was questioned, under the threat of being given over to the Indiansto torture, if he did not tell the truth, but the brave fellow,thinking he should lead the enemy into a trap, told them that theEnglish army had fallen back to Albany, leaving 500 men at Fort Lyman,which he represented as being entirely indefensible.

  Dieskau at once determined to attack that place, and, with 216 regularsof the battalions of Languedoc and La Reine, 684 Canadians, and about600 Indians, started in canoes and advanced up Lake Champlain, tillthey came to the end of South Bay. Each officer and man carriedprovisions for eight days in his knapsack.

  Two days' march brought them to within three miles of Fort Lyman, andthey encamped close to the road which led to Lake George. Just afterthey had encamped, a man rode by on horseback. It was Adams, Johnson'smessenger. He was shot by the Indians, and the letter found upon him.Soon afterwards, ten or twelve waggons appeared, in charge ofammunition drivers who had left the English camp without orders.

  Some of the drivers were shot, two taken prisoners, and the rest ranaway. The two prisoners declared that, contrary to the assertion of theprisoner at Ticonderoga, a large force lay encamped by the lake. TheIndians held a council, and presently informed Dieskau that they wouldnot attack the fort, which they believed to be provided with cannon,but would join in an attempt on the camp by the lake. Dieskau judged,from the report of the prisoners, that the colonists considerablyoutnumbered him, although in fact there was no great difference innumerical strength, the French column numbering 1500 and the colonialforce 2200, besides 300 Mohawk Indians. But Dieskau, emulous ofrepeating the defeat of Braddock, and believing the assertions of theCanadians that the colonial militia was contemptible, determined toattack, and early in the morning the column moved along the roadtowards the lake.

  When within four miles of Johnson's camp, they entered a rugged valley.On their right was a gorge, hidden in bushes, beyond which rose therocky height of French Mountain. On their left rose gradually theslopes of West Mountain. The ground was thickly covered with thicketand forest. The regulars marched along the road, the Canadians andIndians pushed their way through the woods as best they could. Whenwithin three miles of the lake, their scout brought in a prisoner, whotold them that an English column was approaching. The regulars werehalted on the road, the Canadians and Indians moved on ahead, and hidthemselves in ambush among the trees and bushes on either side of theroad.

  The waggoners, who had escaped the evening before, had reachedJohnson's camp about midnight, and reported that there was a war partyon the road near Fort Lyman. A council of war was held, and under anentire misconception of the force of the enemy, and the belief thatthey would speedily fall back from Fort Lyman, it was determined tosend out two detachments, each 500 strong, one towards Fort Lyman, theother to catch the enemy in their retreat. Hendrick, the chief of theMohawks, expressed his strong disapproval of this plan, and accordinglyit was resolved that the thousand men should go as one body. Hendrickstill disapproved of the plan, but nevertheless resolved to accompanythe column, and, mounting on a gun carriage, he harangued his warriorswith passionate eloquence, and they at once prepared to accompany them.He was too old and fat to go on foot, and the general lent him a horse,which he mounted, and took his place at the head of the column.

  Colonel Williams was in command, with Lieutenant Colonel Whiting assecond. They had no idea of meeting the enemy near the camp, and movedforward so carelessly that not a single scout was thrown out in frontor flank. The sharp eye of the old Indian chief was the first to detecta sign of the enemy, and, almost at the same moment, a gun was firedfrom the bushes. It is said that the Iroquois, seeing the Mohawks, whowere an allied tribe, in the van, wished to warn them of danger. Thewarning came too late to save the column from disaster, but it saved itfrom destruction. From the thicket on the left a deadly fire blazedout, and the head of the column was almost swept away. Hendrick's horsewas shot, and the chief killed with a bayonet as he tried to gain hisfeet.

  Colonel Williams, seeing rising ground on his right, made for it,calling his men to follow; but, as he climbed the slope, the enemy'sfire flashed out from behind every tree, and he fell dead. The men inthe rear pressed forward to support their comrades, when the enemy inthe bushes on the right flank also opened fire.

  Then a panic began. Some fled at once for the camp, and the wholecolumn recoiled in confusion, as from all sides the enemy burst out,shouting and yelling. Colonel Whiting, however, bravely rallied aportion of Williams' regiment, and, aided by some of the Mohawks, andby a detachment which Johnson sent out to his aid, covered the retreat,fighting behind the trees like the Indians, and falling back in goodorder with their faces to the enemy.

  So stern and obstinate was their resistance that the French haltedthree-quarters of a mile from the camp. They had inflicted a heavyblow, but had altogether failed in obtaining the complete success theylooked for. The obstinate defence of Whiting and his men had surprisedand dispirited them, and Dieskau, when he collected his men, found theIndians sullen and unmanageable, and the Canadians unwilling to advancefurther, for they were greatly depressed by the loss of a veteranofficer, Saint Pierre, who commanded them, and who had been killed inthe fight. At length, however, he persuaded all to move forward, theregulars leading the way.

  James Walsham had not accompanied the column, and was sitting atbreakfast with General Johnson, on the stump of a tree in front of histent, when, on the still air, a rattling sound broke out.

  "Musketry!" was the general exclamation.

  An instantaneous change came over the camp. The sound of laughing andtalking was hushed, and every man stopped at his work. Louder andlouder swelled the distant sound, until the shots could no longer bedistinguished apart. The rattle had become a steady roll.

  "It is a regular engagement!" the general exclaimed. "The enemy must bein force, and must have attacked Williams' column."

  General Johnson ordered one of his orderlies to mount and ride out atfull speed and see what was going on. A quarter of an hour passed. Noone returned to his work. The men stood in groups, talking in lowvoices, and listening to the distant roar.

  "It is clearer than it was," the general exclaimed.

  Several of the officers standing round agreed that the sound wasapproaching.

  "To work, lads!" the general said. "There is no time to be lost. Letall the axemen fell trees and lay them end to end to make a breastwork.The rest of you range the waggons in a line behind, and lay the boatsup in the intervals. Carry the line from the swamp, on the right there,to the slope of the hill."

  In an instant, the camp was a scene of animation, and the forestresounded with the strokes of the axe, and the shouts of the men asthey dragged the waggons to their position.

  "I was a fool," Johnson exclaimed, "not to fortify the camp before; butwho could have supposed that the French would have come down from CrownPoint to attack us here!"

  In a few minutes terror-stricken men, whites and Indians, arrived at arun through the forest, and reported that they had been attacked andsurprised by a great force in the forest, that Hendrick and ColonelWilliams were killed, and numbers of the men shot down. They reportedthat all was lost; but the heavy roll of fire, in the distance,contradicted their words; and showed that a portion of the column, atleast, was fighting sternly and steadily, though the sound indicatedthat they were falling back.

  Two hundred men had already been despatched to their assistance, andthe only effect of the news was to redouble the efforts of the rest.Soon
parties arrived carrying wounded; but it was not until an hour anda half after the engagement began, that the main body of the columnwere seen marching, in good order, back through the forest.

  By this time the hasty defences were well-nigh completed, and all themen were employed in cutting down the thick brushwood outside, so as toclear the ground as far as possible, and so prevent the enemy fromstealing up, under shelter, to the felled trees.

  Three cannon were planted, to sweep the road that descended through thepines. Another was dragged up to the ridge of the hill. Two hundred andfifty men were now placed on each flank of the camp, the main bodystood behind the waggons or lay flat behind the logs and boats, theMassachusetts men on the right, the Connecticut men on the left.

  "Now, my lads," Johnson shouted, in his cheery voice, "you have got tofight. Remember, if they get inside not one of you will ever go back toyour families to tell the tale, while if you fight bravely you willbeat them back sure enough."

  In a few minutes, ranks of white-coated soldiers could be seen movingdown the roads, with their bayonets showing between the boughs. At thesame time, Indian war whoops rose loud in the forest, and then darkforms could be seen, bounding down the slope through the trees towardsthe camp in a throng.

  There was a movement of uneasiness among the young rustics, few of whomever heard a shot fired in anger before that morning; but the officers,standing pistol in hand, threatened to shoot any man who moved from hisposition.

  Could Dieskau have launched his whole force at once upon the camp atthat moment, he would probably have carried it, but this he waspowerless to do. His regular troops were well in hand; but the mob ofCanadians and Indians were scattered through the forest, shouting,yelling, and firing from behind trees.

  He thought, however, that if he led the regulars to the attack, theothers would come forward, and he therefore gave the word for theadvance. The French soldiers advanced steadily, until the trees grewthinner. They were deployed into line, and opened fire in regularvolleys. Scarcely had they done so, however, when Captain Eyre, whocommanded the artillery, opened upon them with grape from his threeguns, while from waggon, and boat, and fallen log, the musketry fireflashed out hot and bitter, and, reeling under the shower of iron andlead, the French line broke up, the soldiers took shelter behind trees,and thence returned the fire of the defenders.

  Johnson received a flesh wound in the thigh, and retired to his tent,where he spent the rest of the day. Lyman took the command, and to himthe credit of the victory is entirely due.

  For four hours the combat raged. The young soldiers had soon got overtheir first uneasiness, and fought as steadily and coolly as veterans.The musketry fire was unbroken. From every tree, bush, and rock therifles flashed out, and the leaden hail flew in a storm over the camp,and cut the leaves in a shower from the forest. Through this Lymanmoved to and fro among the men, directing, encouraging, cheering themon, escaping as by a miracle the balls which whistled round him. Savethe Indians on the English side, not a man but was engaged, thewaggoners taking their guns and joining in the fight.

  The Mohawks, however, held aloof, saying that they had come to seetheir English brothers fight, but, animated no doubt with the ideathat, if they abstained from taking part in the fray, and the day wentagainst the English, their friends the Iroquois would not harm them.

  The French Indians worked round on to high ground, beyond the swamp onthe left, and their fire thence took the defenders in the flank.Captain Eyre speedily turned his guns in that direction, and a fewwell-directed shells soon drove the Indians from their vantage ground.Dieskau directed his first attack against the left and centre; but theConnecticut men fought so stoutly, that he next tried to force theright, where the Massachusetts regiments of Titcomb, Ruggles, andWilliams held the line. For an hour he strove hard to break his waythrough the intrenchments, but the Massachusetts men stood firm,although Titcomb was killed and their loss was heavy.

  At length Dieskau, exposing himself within short range of the Englishlines, was hit in the leg. While his adjutant Montreuil was dressingthe wound, the general was again hit in the knee and thigh. He hadhimself placed behind a tree, and ordered Montreuil to lead theregulars in a last effort against the camp.

  But it was too late. The blood of the colonists was now up, and, singlyor in small bodies, they were crossing their lines of barricade, andworking up among the trees towards their assailants. The movementbecame general, and Lyman, seeing the spirit of his men, gave the word,and the whole of the troops, with a shout, leaped up and dashed throughthe wood against the enemy, falling upon them with their hatchets andthe butts of their guns.

  The French and their allies instantly fled. As the colonists passed thespot where Dieskau was sitting on the ground, one of them, singularlyenough himself a Frenchman, who had ten years before left Canada, firedat him and shot him through both legs. Others came up and stripped himof his clothes, but, on learning who he was, they carried him toJohnson, who received him with the greatest kindness, and had everyattention paid to him.