Amherst was never long in
one place without building a fort there. He now began one, which proved
wholly needless, on that flat rocky hill where the English made their
intrenched camp during the siege of Fort William Henry. Only one bastion
of it was ever finished, and this is still shown to tourists under the
name of Fort George.
The army embarked on Saturday, the twenty-first of July. The Reverend
Benjamin Pomeroy watched their departure in some concern, and wrote on
Monday to Abigail, his wife: "I could wish for more appearance of
dependence on God than was observable among them; yet I hope God will
grant deliverance unto Israel by them." There was another military
pageant, another long procession of boats and banners, among the
mountains and islands of Lake George. Night found them near the outlet;
and here they lay till morning, tossed unpleasantly on waves ruffled by
a summer gale. At daylight they landed, beat back a French detachment,
and marched by the portage road to the saw-mill at the waterfall. There
was little resistance. They occupied the heights, and then advanced to
the famous line of intrenchment against which the army of Abercromby had
hurled itself in vain. These works had been completely reconstructed,
partly of earth, and partly of logs. Amherst's followers were less
numerous than those of his predecessor, while the French commander,
Bourlamaque, had a force nearly equal to that of Montcalm in the summer
before; yet he made no attempt to defend the intrenchment, and the
English, encamping along its front, found it an excellent shelter from
the cannon of the fort beyond.
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