In accordance with the orders of Abercromby, the
fort was dismantled, and all the buildings in or around it burned, as
were also the vessels, except the two largest, which were reserved to
carry off some of the captured goods. Then, with boats deeply laden, the
detachment returned to Oswego; where, after unloading and burning the
two vessels, they proceeded towards Albany, leaving a thousand of their
number at the new fort which Brigadier Stanwix was building at the Great
Carrying Place of the Mohawk.
Next to Louisbourg, this was the heaviest blow that the French had yet
received. Their command of Lake Ontario was gone. New France was cut in
two; and unless the severed parts could speedily reunite, all the posts
of the interior would be in imminent jeopardy. If Bradstreet had been
followed by another body of men to reoccupy and rebuild Oswego, thus
recovering a harbor on Lake Ontario, all the captured French vessels
could have been brought thither, and the command of this inland sea
assured at once. Even as it was, the advantages were immense. A host of
savage warriors, thus far inclined to France or wavering between the two
belligerents, stood henceforth neutral, or gave themselves to England;
while Fort Duquesne, deprived of the supplies on which it depended,
could make but faint resistance to its advancing enemy.
Amherst, with five regiments from Louisbourg, came, early in October, to
join Abercromby at Lake George, and the two commanders discussed the
question of again attacking Ticonderoga.
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