A School History of the United States. John Bach McMaster
in the west. When Washington met Ensign Ward at Cumberland and heard the story of the surrender, he was at a loss just what to do; but knowing that he was expected to do something, he decided to go to a storehouse which the Ohio Company had built at the mouth of a stream called Redstone Creek in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pushing along, cutting as he went the first road that ever led down to the valley of the Mississippi from the Atlantic slope, he reached a narrow glade called the Great Meadows and there began to put up a breastwork which he named Fort Necessity. While so engaged news came that the French were near. Washington thereupon took a few men, and, coming suddenly on the French, killed or captured them all save one. Among the dead was Jumonville, the leader of the party. Well satisfied with this exploit, Washington pushed on with his entire force towards the Ohio. But, hearing that the French were advancing, he fell back to Fort Necessity, and there awaited them. He did not wait long; for the French and Indians came down in great force, and on July 4, 1754, forced him, after a brave resistance, to surrender. He was allowed to march out with drums beating and flags flying.[1]
[Footnote 1: Lodge's George Washington, pp. 69–74; Winsor's The Mississippi Basin, pp. 294–315.]
%83. The French and Indian War.%—Thus was begun what the colonists called the French and Indian War, but what was really a struggle between the French and the British for the possession of America. Knowing it to be such, both sides made great preparations for the contest. The French stood on the defensive. The British made the attack, and early in 1755 sent over one of their ablest officers, Major General Edward Braddock, to be commander in chief in America. He summoned the colonial governors to meet him at Alexandria, Va., where a plan for a campaign was agreed on.
%84. Plan for the War.%—Vast stretches of dense and almost impenetrable forest then separated the colonies of the two nations, but through this forest were three natural highways of communication: 1. Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the St. Lawrence River. 2. The Hudson, the Mohawk, Lake Ontario, and the Niagara River. 3. The Potomac to Fort Cumberland, and through the forest to Fort Duquesne.
It was decided, therefore, to have four expeditions.
1. One was to go north from New York to Lake Champlain, take the French fort at Crown Point, and move against Quebec.
2. Another was to sail from New England and make such a demonstration against the French towns to the northeast, as would prevent the French in that quarter going off to defend Quebec and Crown Point.
3. The third was to start from Albany, go up the Mohawk, and down the Oswego River to Lake Ontario, and along its shores to the Niagara River.
4. The fourth was to go from Fort Cumberland across Pennsylvania to Fort Duquesne.
%85. Braddock's Defeat, July 9, 1755.%—Braddock took command of this last expedition and made Washington one of his aids. For a while he found it impossible to move his army, for in Virginia horses and wagons were very scarce, and without them he could not carry his baggage or drag his cannon. At last Benjamin Franklin, then deputy postmaster-general of the colonies, persuaded the farmers of Pennsylvania, who had plenty, to rent the wagons and horses to the general.
All this took time, so that it was June before the army left Fort Cumberland and literally began to cut its way through the woods to Fort Duquesne. The march was slow, but all went well till the troops had crossed the Monongahela River and were but eight miles from the fort, when suddenly the advance guard came face to face with an army of Indians and French. The Indians and French instantly hid in the bushes and behind trees, and poured an incessant fire into the ranks of the British. They, too, would gladly have fought in Indian fashion. But Braddock thought this cowardly and would not allow them to get behind trees, so they stood huddled in groups, a fine mark for the Indians, till so many were killed that a retreat had to be ordered. Then they fled, and had it not been for Washington and his Virginians, who covered their flight, they would probably have been killed to a man.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., Chap. 7, pp. 162–187; T.J. Chapman's The French in the Allegheny Valley, pp. 60–72; Sargeant's History of Braddock's Expedition.]
Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died a few days later.
%86. The Other Expeditions.%—The expedition against Niagara was a failure. The officer in command did not take his army further than Oswego on Lake Ontario.
The expedition against Crown Point was partially successful, and a stubborn battle was fought and a victory won over the French on the shores of that beautiful sheet of water which the English ever after called Lake George in honor of the King.
%87. War declared.%—Up to this time all the fighting had been done along the frontier in America. But in May, 1756, Great Britain formally declared war against France. The French at once sent over Montcalm,[1] the very ablest Frenchman that ever commanded on this continent, and there followed two years of warfare disastrous to the British. Montcalm took and burned Oswego, won over the Indians to the cause of France, and was about to send a strong fleet to attack New England, when, toward the end of 1757, William Pitt was made virtually (though not in name) Prime Minister of England.
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., pp. 318–380.]
William Pitt was one of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived. He could see exactly what to do, and he could pick out exactly the right man to do it. No wonder, then, that as soon as he came into power the British began to gain victories.
%88. The Victories of 1758.%—Once more the French were attacked at their three vulnerable points, and this time with success. In 1758 Louisburg surrendered to Amherst and Boscawen. In that same year Washington captured Fort Duquesne, which, in honor of the great Prime Minister, was called Fort Pitt. A provincial officer named Bradstreet destroyed Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. This was a heavy blow to the French; for with Fort Frontenac gone and Fort Duquesne in English hands, the Ohio was cut off from Quebec.
An attack on Ticonderoga, however, was repulsed by Montcalm with dreadful loss to the English.
%89. The Victories of 1759; Wolfe.%—But the defeat was only temporary. At the siege of Louisburg a young officer named James Wolfe had greatly distinguished himself, and in return for this was selected by Pitt to command an expedition to Quebec. The previous attempts to reach that city had been by way of Lake George. The expedition of Wolfe sailed up the St. Lawrence, and landed below the city.
Quebec stands on the summit of a high hill with precipitous sides, and was then the most strongly fortified city in America. To take it seemed almost impossible. But the resolution of Wolfe overcame every obstacle: on the night of September 12, 1759, he led his troops to the foot of the cliff, climbed the heights, and early in the morning had his army drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, as the plateau behind the city was called. There a great battle was fought between the French, led by Montcalm, and the British, led by Wolfe. The British triumphed, and Quebec fell; but Wolfe and Montcalm were among the dead.[1]
[Footnote 1: Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Chaps. 25–27; A. Wright's Life of Wolfe; Sloan's French War and the Revolution, Chaps. 6–9.]
[Illustration: European Possessions 1763]
Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured a few weeks before. Montreal was taken in 1760, and the long struggle between the French and the English in America ended in the defeat of the French. The war dragged on in Europe till 1763, when peace was made at Paris.
%90. France driven out of America.%—With all the details of the treaty we are not concerned. It is enough for us to know that France divided her possessions on this continent between Great Britain and Spain. To Great Britain she gave Canada and Cape Breton, and all the islands save two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Entering what is now the United States, she drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi River from its source to a point just north of New Orleans. To Great Britain she surrendered all her territory east of this line. To Spain she gave all her possessions to the west of this line, together with the city of New Orleans. But Great Britain, during the war, had taken Havana from Spain. To get this back, Spain now gave up Florida