Hence it was that Colonel
Mercer, commandant at Oswego, thinking it better to lose the fort than
to lose both fort and garrison, signalled to them from across the river
to abandon their position and join him on the other side. Boats were
sent to bring them off; and they passed over unmolested, after spiking
their cannon and firing off their ammunition or throwing it into the
well.
The fate of Oswego was now sealed. The principal work, called Old
Oswego, or Fort Pepperell, stood at the mouth of the river on the west
side, nearly opposite Fort Ontario, and less than five hundred yards
distant from it. The trading-house, which formed the centre of the
place, was built of rough stone laid in clay, and the wall which
enclosed it was of the same materials; both would crumble in an instant
at the touch of a twelve-pound shot. Towards the west and south they had
been protected by an outer line of earthworks, mounted with cannon, and
forming an entrenched camp; while the side towards Fort Ontario was left
wholly exposed, in the rash confidence that this work, standing on the
opposite heights, would guard against attack from that quarter. On a
hill, a fourth of a mile beyond Old Oswego, stood the unfinished
stockade called New Oswego, Fort George, or, by reason of its
worthlessness, Fort Rascal. It had served as a cattle pen before the
French appeared, but was now occupied by a hundred and fifty Jersey
provincials.
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