Shirley resigned
his command, and Abercromby requested him to go to New York, wait there
till Lord Loudon arrived, and lay before him the state of affairs.[411]
Shirley waited till the twenty-third of July, when the Earl at length
appeared. He was a rough Scotch lord, hot and irascible; and the
communications of his predecessor, made, no doubt, in a manner somewhat
pompous and self-satisfied, did not please him. "I got from
Major-General Shirley," he says, "a few papers of very little use; only
he insinuated to me that I would find everything prepared, and have
nothing to do but to pull laurels; which I understand was his constant
conversation before my arrival."[412]
[Footnote 411: _Shirley to Fox, 4 July, 1756._]
[Footnote 412: _Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756._]
Loudon sailed up the Hudson in no placid mood. On reaching Albany he
abandoned the attempt against Niagara and Frontenac; and had resolved to
turn his whole force against Ticonderoga, when he was met by an obstacle
that both perplexed and angered him. By a royal order lately issued,
all general and field officers with provincial commissions were to take
rank only as eldest captains when serving in conjunction with regular
troops.[413] Hence the whole provincial army, as Winslow observes, might
be put under the command of any British major.[414] The announcement of
this regulation naturally caused great discontent. The New England
officers held a meeting, and voted with one voice that in their belief
its enforcement would break up the provincial army and prevent the
raising of another.
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