Vermont: A Study of IndependenceRobinson, Rowland Evans
History
Vermont: A Study of Independence
Robinson, Rowland Evans
Vermont -- History
Loudon at New York was engaged in a controversy with the government of
Massachusetts concerning the quartering of British troops, and
threatening to send an army to that province if his demands were not
speedily complied with, and so the campaign ended without honor or
advantage to the English. Its poor results were chiefly due to the
inefficiency of the British ministry, and the incapacity of the British
commanders to carry on this unaccustomed warfare of the wilderness, and
their unwillingness to avail themselves of the experience of the
colonial officers, whom they despised, thus leaving to their alert and
active enemy all the advantage of familiarity with its methods. So
universal was the complaint in England and her American colonies caused
by this and the preceding campaigns that the formation of a new ministry
became necessary, and William Pitt was appointed secretary of state.
In his plan of the American campaign, which was soon to be vigorously
undertaken, one army of 12,000 men was to attempt the conquest of
Louisburg; another, still larger, that of the French forts on Lake
Champlain; and a third, that of Fort Du Quesne, at the head of the Ohio
River. The expedition against Louisburg was commanded by General
Amherst, under whom were Generals Wolfe, Whitmore, and Lawrence. The
naval force, commanded by Admiral Boscawen, sailed for America early in
the spring, and in May, 1758, the whole armament of 157 sail was
gathered at Halifax. Sailing thence on the 28th, a part of the
transports arrived near Louisburg, and on the 8th of June the troops,
under General Wolfe, disembarked and invested the city. Louisburg was
garrisoned by 2,500 regulars, 300 militia, and later by a reinforcement
of 350 Canadians and Indians, and the harbor was defended by 11 French
ships of war. After a siege of several weeks, during which the French
warships were destroyed, the place surrendered to General Amherst on the
26th of July. In the beginning of the same month General Forbes set
forth from Philadelphia on his difficult march to Fort Du Quesne.
Obstacles which delayed and reverses which checked his progress did not
discourage him, although he was so debilitated by a mortal sickness that
for much of the distance he was carried on a litter; and in November he
took possession of the fort, which had been dismantled and abandoned by
the French, and gave it the name of Fort Pitt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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