"[424]
[Footnote 422: _Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756_.]
[Footnote 423: _Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Shirley
to Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756. Shirley to Fox, 16 Sept. 1756_.]
[Footnote 424: _Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug.
1756_.]
His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely reached the Great Carrying
Place, when tidings of disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. The
French had descended in force upon Oswego, taken it with all its
garrison; and, as report ran, were advancing into the province, six
thousand strong. Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great labor, of
the trees that choked it. Webb ordered others to be felled and thrown
into the stream to stop the progress of the enemy; then, with shameful
precipitation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place, and retreated
down the Mohawk to German Flats. Loudon ordered Winslow to think no more
of Ticonderoga, but to stay where he was and hold the French in check.
All was astonishment and dismay at the sudden blow. "Oswego has changed
masters, and I think we may justly fear that the whole of our country
will soon follow, unless a merciful God prevent, and awake a sinful
people to repentance and reformation." Thus wrote Dr. Thomas Williams to
his wife from the camp at Fort Edward. "Such a shocking affair has never
found a place in English annals," wrote the surgeon's young relative,
Colonel William Williams.
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