With this expedition concluded the campaign of the year 1758. Although its events were checkered with disaster and disgrace, the general result was eminently favorable to England, and honorable to the illustrious minister who then directed her councils. The reduction of Louisburg and its dependencies would have been of itself sufficient to reward the sacrifices so freely made by her patriotic people. Now in possession of a magnificent harbor--the key of the River St. Lawrence, it would be an easy task to intercept any succor which France might endeavor to send to prop her tottering sway in Canada. The reduction of the Forts Frontenac and du Quesne had paralyzed the enemy's power in the West, and given to England all the territory for the possession of which the war had arisen. Abercromby's defeat had been solely a negative event; his overwhelming force still hung like a thunder-cloud upon the shores of the lakes, and Montcalm well knew that he owed his brilliant victory to the incapacity of the British general, not to the want of military virtue in the British troops. The men--whose desperate valor had been wasted against the impassable barrier at Carillon--burning with ardor to avenge their defeat under an abler chief, were still straining, like bloodhounds on a leash, by the Canadian frontier. With the full accord of the British king and people, the great minister distributed honor and punishment to the principal actors in the important events of the past campaign. General Abercromby was superseded in his command,[147] and Amherst, the conqueror of Louisburg, appointed chief of the American armies in his place. Immediately on receiving this commission, the new general embarked at Halifax for Boston, and thence proceeded to New York, where he arrived on the 12th of December, and assumed the command of the forces. On the 24th of January following, the unhappy Abercromby sailed for England in the Remmington man-of-war. Brigadier-general Wolfe accompanied him, in consequence of permission granted in his original order of service to return when the expedition had succeeded. Colonel Monckton was left in command at Nova Scotia. [Footnote 121: "Le Comte de Chatam, Guillaume Pitt, génie vaste, audacieux, intrépide, procure en peu d'années à l'Angleterre des succès si prodigieux, que l'evénement seul en prouvoit la possibilité."--Millot, tom. v., p. 47.]