[405] Thus organized, they would, he hoped, require no
escort. Bradstreet was a New England officer who had been a captain in
the last war, somewhat dogged and self-opinioned, but brave, energetic,
and well fitted for this kind of service.
[Footnote 405: _Shirley to Fox, 7 May, 1756. Shirley to Abercromby, 27
June, 1756. London to Fox, 19 Aug. 1756._]
In May Vaudreuil sent Coulon de Villiers with eleven hundred soldiers,
Canadians, and Indians, to harass Oswego and cut its communications with
Albany.[406] Nevertheless Bradstreet safely conducted a convoy of
provisions and military stores to the garrison; and on the third of July
set out on his return with the empty boats. The party were pushing their
way up the river in three divisions. The first of these, consisting of a
hundred boats and three hundred men, with Bradstreet at their head, were
about nine miles from Oswego, when, at three in the afternoon, they
received a heavy volley from the forest on the east bank. It was fired
by a part of Villiers' command, consisting, by English accounts, of
about seven hundred men. A considerable number of the boatmen were
killed or disabled, and the others made for the shelter of the western
shore. Some prisoners were taken in the confusion; and if the French had
been content to stop here, they might fairly have claimed a kind of
victory; but, eager to push their advantage, they tried to cross under
cover of an island just above.
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