In July, 1758, this great army, great for its day and place, left Fort William Henry in hundreds of batteaux and whale boats to attack Fort Carillon. It must have been an extraordinarily beautiful sight, that vast fleet of little boats filled with the Red Coats and the plaids of Highlanders. Early in the morning of July 6th the army landed on what is now known as Howe’s Cove at the northern end of Lake George. The army immediately advanced in three columns but was soon lost in the dense forest which then covered the whole country. An advance party of French under the Sieur de Trepezec had been watching the landing from what the French called Mount Pelee, but which is now called Roger’s Rock. In trying to return to the Fort they had also lost their way and met one of the advancing columns, commanded by George Augustus, Viscount Howe, a grandson of George the First of England. At the first fire Lord Howe was killed and with his death the heart went out of the army. He was the real leader of the expedition. Captain Monypenny, his aide, reported his death in the following letter: [Illustration: The Marquis de Montcalm (From a Pastel in the Museum.)] To Mr. Calcraft, dated Camp at Lake George, 11th July, 1758: “Sir: “It is with the utmost concern, I write you of the death of Lord Howe. On the 6th the whole army landed without opposition, at the carrying place, about seven miles from Ticonderoga. About two o’clock, they march’d in four columns, to invest the breast work, where the enemy was encamp’d, near the Fort. The Rangers were before the army and the light infantry and marksmen at the heads of the columns. We expected, and met with some opposition near a small river, which we had to cross. When the firing began on the part of the left column, Lord Howe thinking it would be of the greatest consequence, to beat the enemy with the light troops, so as not to stop the march of the main body, went up with them, and had just gained the top of the hill, where the firing was, when he was killed. Never ball had a more deadly direction. It entered his breast on the left side, and (as the surgeans say) pierced his lungs, and heart, and shattered his back bone. I was about six yards from him, he fell on his back and never moved, only his hands quivered an instant. “The French party was about 400 men, ’tis computed 200 of them were killed, 160, whereof five are officers, are prisoners; their commanding officer, and the partizan who conducted them were killed, by the prisoner’s account, in short, very few, if any, got back.