CHAPTER XVII
A NEW CAMPAIGN
As already told, affairs in the colonies looked blue indeed, and somehardy pioneers who had risked their all in making their homes in thisnew country were afraid that ere long they would be forced to eithergive in to the Indians or come under French rule. Three campaigns hadbeen fought, and still the French were masters, and held Louisburg,Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Frontenac, and the long chain of posts fromNiagara to the Ohio and thence to the Mississippi. The English fort atOswego had been destroyed and the French had compelled the Six Nations,the most powerful Indian organization ever known, either to remainneutral or else give them aid.
To add to English alarm, the war in Europe also took a turn in favor ofthe French. This brought a storm of protests upon the English ministry,and George II. was compelled to make a change. As a consequence WilliamPitt was placed in entire control of foreign and colonial affairs.
Pitt was a man of both wisdom and action, and his plans for a newcampaign in America aroused the colonies as they had not been arousedbefore. An army of fifty thousand men, English regulars and colonialmilitia, was gathered, and it was resolved that a three-headed campaignshould be instituted at once, one against Louisburg, another againstTiconderoga and a third against Fort Duquesne.
The first blow was struck early in June, 1758, when the English appearedbefore Louisburg with thirty-eight ships of war and an army of fourteenthousand men. There was a vigorous attack, and something of a siege, andlate in July the place capitulated, and this fall also included thecapture of the islands of Prince Edward and Cape Breton.
The advance upon Ticonderoga was not so successful, although a portionof the troops under gallant Israel Putnam, afterwards so famous in theRevolution, dispersed some of the French and captured a hundred andforty-eight prisoners. Following this, an attack was made upon FortFrontenac, located where the city of Kingston, Canada, is now situated,and here the English laid the fort in ruins and captured nine vesselscarrying guns and supplies.
The people of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were anxious that theattack on Fort Duquesne be made at once, but as we already know, thearmies, especially such as had to march through the wilderness, movedvery slowly. The command of this expedition was placed in the hands ofGeneral Forbes, a gallant officer but one who was far from being inproper health for such an undertaking. This general left Philadelphiaearly in July with the main portion of his command, and after a hardmarch reached Raytown, ninety miles eastward of Fort Duquesne, and nowknown as Bedford.
While General Forbes was thus moving westward Colonel Washington, whohad been ordered to join the main command, gathered together all hisavailable troops and moved northward from Winchester to Fort Cumberland,called in these pages by its, then, common name of Will's Creek.
The spring had passed slowly to those of the Morris family located atWinchester. Strange to say although Joseph Morris' wound healed itseemed next to impossible for the pioneer to get back his strength, andthe most he could do was to walk around the rooms of the Gibson home, oraround the dooryard, supported by his wife or others.
"My legs won't support me," he said. "They feel as if they'd let me downin a heap at any minute."
"It is the effects of the fever," said Mrs. Morris. "The doctor says youwill have to take it easy for several months."
Rodney, too, had suffered from the march through the forest and from thefighting and was confined more or less to the house.
"It's a shame--and just after I thought I was getting so strong," sighedthe cripple. "Somehow, we seem to be an ill-fated family."
During all those dreary months no direct word had come to themconcerning little Nell, but through White Buffalo had come a report thata certain tribe of Indians known as the Little Waters had several whitegirls in their keeping and that one old Indian chief had taken one ofthe captives as his daughter, he being childless.
"If they take 'em in as their children they'll treat 'em puttycivil-like," said Sam Barringford. "But I reckon you don't want to loselittle Nell even so."
"No! no!" said Mrs. Morris. "Oh, we must get her back somehow!"
After this news was brought in, Barringford and Dave's father wentnorth-westward once more, in the hope of opening negotiations with theIndians. How this trip would turn out was still a question, althoughWhite Buffalo declared that little could be done so long as the warhatchet remained unburied between the English and the French Indians.
As soon as the new call came for additional troops to the colonialmilitia, Dave signified his intention of once more entering the serviceunder his old commander, Colonel Washington. About this he did nothesitate to see Washington personally.
"I'll be glad to have you with us," said Washington, after the youth hadexplained matters. "I remember how you acted in our other campaignagainst Fort Duquesne, and I haven't forgotten, Master David, how weshot the bear,"--this with a twinkle in his eye. "Yes, join us by allmeans if you care to do so." And Dave signed the muster roll thatday,--as a colonial militiaman, at a salary of ten-pence a day, twopenceto be deducted for clothing and other necessaries! This was the regularrate of pay, and for those days was considered quite fair.
It must be confessed that the troops under Colonel Washington formed amotley collection. Many of the best of the pioneers and frontiersmen hadgrown tired of the delays in the past and now refused to re-enlist,fearful that they would be called on to do nothing but wait around thefort, while the summer harvests at home demanded their attention.Drumming up recruits proved the hardest kind of work, and the companieswere made up in some cases of men who knew not the meaning of homelife--hardy trappers and traders, some industrious enough, but othersgiven to drink and brawling, and not a few who lived almost as theIndians did, using the redmen's style of dress and occasionally paintingtheir faces, "jes' fer the sport on't," as they expressed it. When itcame to fighting these men were like human tigers, but in camp and onthe march it was next to impossible to bring them under militarydiscipline. Many refused to carry rations as the regular soldiers did,preferring to bring down game as they needed it, and if game was nothandy they appropriated a pig or a cow belonging to some settler--thusbringing additional trouble on the command.
"So you are going with the soldiers," said Henry, when Dave told him ofwhat he had done. "Well, if you go I shall go too--that is, if motherwill let me."
Henry put in the proviso with an anxious look on his face, for he knewhow difficult would be his task of getting his parent's consent.
"No, no, Henry!" cried Mrs. Morris. "With your father and Rodney so ill,and with Nell gone, how can I spare you?"
"But, mother, somebody has got to fight the French," insisted the son."If we don't fight them, and whip them, how shall we ever get back toour home? I don't want to give all that up, do you?"
A long argument followed, and at last Mrs. Morris said she would let herson know about it in the morning.
White Buffalo came in that night with news. "The Little Waters have goneto the setting sun, to the French," he said. "White Buffalo has beentold they will remain there until winter comes again."
"To Fort Duquesne!" cried Dave. "I'm glad of it. Now if we take thatfort perhaps we'll be able to rescue Nell and the Rose twins."
This news decided Mrs. Morris, and with tears standing in her eyes shetold Henry he might go with Dave and Colonel Washington. "And may Godgrant that you return with Nell safe and sound," she added.
A few days later found the two young soldiers on the march. It wassomething of a gala day for Winchester, and the post was gay with flagsand bunting. The long drums rolled and the fifes piped up cheerily asthe command passed out of the town and on the trail running northward toCumberland. Many were in the best of spirits, hoping that the downfallof Fort Duquesne would be speedily accomplished.
The town was scarcely left behind however, before the music came to anend, and the command moved on by the route step--that is, every soldierstepping out to suit himself. This was necessary, for the wa
y was rough,having fallen into disuse since the beginning of the troubles with theIndians.
"I heard a report that we are not to use the old Braddock road to FortDuquesne," said Henry, as he trudged alongside of Dave. "ColonelWashington advised using it, but General Forbes is going to cut a roadof his own."
"If he does that we'll be all fall and winter getting to the fort,"answered Dave. "How foolish not to use a road already made."
"It's queer they won't take Colonel Washington's advice. He knows thisterritory better than anybody."
"There is a good deal of military jealousy afloat," was the answer."English officers hate to see a colonial get ahead of them. They want tohead the whole game."
The second night out the troops encamped near a large brook. It was hotand Dave and Henry were glad enough to take a swim in the stream as soonas they got the chance. They were soon in the water and diving andsporting to their heart's content. Then Henry caught a branch hangingover the water's edge and pulled himself up into the tree.
"See what a fine dive I can take from here," he called to his cousin.
"Don't you do it," cried Dave. "You may go too deep and strike your headon a rock."
"I'll be careful," was Henry's answer. "Here goes!"
With a quick movement he leaped from one limb to another. As the secondlimb gave a sudden swish Henry uttered a cry of alarm. Then he cametumbling into the water with a loud splash. After him tumbled a wildcat,snarling in rage at being thus unceremoniously disturbed. The wildcatstruck close to where Dave was treading water and on the instant made aleap for the young soldier's shoulder.