Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/134

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��yohi Stark.

��pathless with snows, the frozen lake, the wilderness which has no shelter against the cold and storms, the perilous ambush where defeat may be followed by the scalping-knife, or tortures, or captivity among the far- therest tribes, — all cannot chill their daring. On skates they glide over the lakes ; on snow-shoes they pene- trate the woods."

In the early part of the winter of 1756-'57, the English and French ar- mies, under the respective commands of Lord Loudon and Gen. Montcalm, confronting each other in the vicinity of Lake George, retired to winter quarters ; the main body of the Eng- lish regulars falling back on Albany and New York city, the provincial soldiers dismissed and sent to their homes, and the French falling back to Montreal. Each general, how- ever, left his frontier posts well gar- risoned, to be held as the base of further military operations the fol- lowing season ; the force left by the French at their forts about Ticon- deroga and Crown Point, at the northerly end of Lake George, being about 1,200 men, including Indians, and the English force at Fort Edward and Fort William Henry, near the southerly end of the lake, consisting mainly of four companies of Rangers, two companies at each fort. The company of Lieut. JStark was posted at Fort Edward. All through the winter the Rangers patrolled the lake, and kept a vigilant outlook upon the French garrisons.

In the middle of this winter a des- perate battle was fought in the imme- diate vicinity of Ticonderoga, which, for numbers engaged, was one of the most bloody of the war, and in which

��Lieut. John Stark won his commis- sion as captain.

On the 15th of January, 1757, Capt. Rogers, with Lieut. Stark and Ensign Page with fifty Rangers, left Fort Edward to reconnoitre, in more than usual force, the situation and condition of the enemy at the north- erly end of the lake. The snow was four feet deep on a level. They halted at Fort William Henry one day to secure provisions and snow- shoes, and on the 17th, being re- enforced by Capt. Spikemau, Lieut. Kennedy, and Ensigns Brewer and Rogers, with about thirt}^ Rangers, they started down Lake George on the ice, and at night encamped on the east side of the first narrows.

On the morning of the 18th some of the men who had been ovei'cora'e by the severe exertions of the pre- vious day's march were sent back, thus reducing the effective force to seventy-four men, officers included. This day they proceeded twelve miles farther down the lake, and encamped on the west shore. On the 19th, after proceeding three miles farther on the lake, they took to the west shore, put on their snow-shoes, and travelled eight miles to the north- west, and encamped three miles from the lake. On the 20th they travelled over the snow all day to the north- east, and encamped three miles from the west shore of Lake Champlain, half wav between Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The next day, January 21st, being now in the very heart of the enemy's country, they proceeded to watch the passage of parties on Lake Champlain, going and coming between the forts, and soon discov- ered a convoy of ten sleds passing

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