[Illustration: _Quebec,_ from the opposite shore of the St. Lawrence.]
In 1755, the Marquis du Quesne having resigned, he was succeeded, in July, by the last French governor in Canada, the Marquis de Vandreuil de Cavagnal, whose administration was auspiciously opened by the defeat of the brave but rash General Braddock, on the 29th July, 1755, in one of the defiles of the Alleghany mountains. Braddock, accustomed to European, rather than to Indian warfare, neglected every precaution of scouts and advanced posts, and refused to make any preparations against the French and their Indian allies, who, when the enemy had entered a gorge, where retreat was almost impossible, poured from their ambuscades on the devoted British a deadly fire, under which the soldiers of the unfortunate Braddock fell rapidly, without even the satisfaction of seeing or meeting their foes. The death of their leader was the signal that further advance was hopeless; and to the credit of George Washington, the second in command, he succeeded in rescuing the remainder of the British army, who were afterwards joined by 6,000 provincial troops, under General Johnston and Governor Shirley. Johnston, with the intention of investing Crown Point, joined General Lyman near Lake George, where they were attacked by 3,000 French, commanded by Baron Dieskau. After a battle of four hours’ duration, the French retreated to Crown Point, with the loss of 1,000 men, and the capture of their leader, who was severely wounded. This success restored the drooping spirits of the British army, and helped to train the provincials (who were brigaded along with the regular troops,) for those contests which they were soon to wage for their independence with the very men by whose side they now fought hand to hand against the French—their subsequent allies. Little did Washington then contemplate the destiny that awaited him.
The campaign of 1755 was closed in October, by the British retiring to Albany, after reinforcing the garrison of Oswego, but without any attack on Crown Point. France, fully aware of the importance of Canada, sent out early in the ensuing year a large body of chosen troops, under the command of the gallant and experienced Major-General the Marquis de Montcalm, who soon invested Fort Oswego, and compelled the garrison to surrender. In the next year’s campaign (1757), success still signalized the progress of the French arms; Fort George was invested and captured; and the English prisoners, amounting to nearly 2,000 regular troops of His Majesty’s service, were brutally massacred while on their march to Fort Edward, by the Indian allies of the French—the latter asserting, or pretending that they were, through inability or neglect, incapacitated from preventing the perpetration of this horrid slaughter. The feelings with which the news of this monstrous deed was received in England, and throughout British America, may well be conceived; it helped to hasten the downfall of the French dominion in Canada, the deepest abhorrence being excited against those who permitted or sanctioned such a diabolical act. The elder Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chatham) then at the head of affairs, and in the full blaze of his eloquence, infused a noble spirit into His Majesty’s counsels, and so wielded the resources and energies of the nation, that the effects were speedily felt in America.