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.Loudoun s twelve thousandmen sat where they were.With the Mohawks departed and winter approaching, Johnson recruited scoutsfrom among the frontiersmen of New Hampshire.Robert Rogers led these men,training them on the job, and they claimed a few startling successes in the winter of1756 1757.Rogers s company of rangers irritated the French, patrolled the no-man s land, and took prisoners.On January 21, 1757, the rangers staged a full-fledged assault on French encampments at the edge of Champlain, but the Frenchregulars repulsed the attack.Thousands of Indian allies still aided the French, but in winter the Indians seemedmore determined to eat and drink their way through the French stores than to ha-rass the British.In the spring of 1757, the French promised the Indians a decisivebattle under a new commander, Count Louis de Montcalm.The Indians, knowingthat no battle was ever really decisive, preferred to think of the campaign as the oc-casion for settling scores.Still, over three hundred joined a French force of twelvehundred in a preliminary sortie against Fort William Henry.Montcalm, the French field commander, had arrived in Canada in May 1756.A ca-reer officer and a slight, short figure of poise, grace, gentility, and quick wit, heseemed as out of place in the forest as Braddock.But unlike the brusque and directBriton, Montcalm was a romantic.As brave as any officer, with wounds all over hisbody to prove it, he had an almost mystical sense of the grandeur of France and aself-depreciating sense of humor.As he wrote to his family, I see that I shall haveplenty of work.Our campaign will soon begin.Everything is in motion.Don t expectdetails about our operations; generals never speak of movements till they are over. For the second assault on Fort William Henry, Montcalm assembled one thou-sand Indians from the Great Lakes region.Hundreds more came from Canada andNew England.By the middle of July, he could also call on six battalions of regularinfantry, some 2,570 men.The troupes de la marine contributed over 600 men, and theCanadian militia on hand numbered 2,546 men.Two hundred and fifty open boatsbrought the troops and cannons (some of the guns captured from Braddock) to the 406 FROM PROVI NCES OF EMPI RE TO A NEW NATI ONsouthern foot of Lake George, from which the attackers could clearly see the wallsof the fort.On August 3, the siege began.Colonel Henry Monro had at his disposal some fifteen hundred men, most ofthem colonists serving in newly established regiments, to hold the fortress.Webb,who was with Monro, left in a hurry, saying that he was off to raise reinforcements.Instead, he locked himself in Fort Edward and stayed there for the rest of the battle.Montcalm arrived, ordered the encirclement of the British position, then offeredto parley with Monro.Montcalm s representative politely asked if the British wouldsurrender, and Monro politely declined.The French then carried out a textbookeighteenth-century siege, digging zigzag trenches to inch their cannons and evenmore deadly mortars closer and closer to the walls.On August 9, Monro agreed tosurrender.Montcalm s terms were generous, for the British had fought well and de-served, according to the customs of war, honorable treatment.The British were al-lowed to march out of the fort with their arms and one cannon, so long as theypromised not to fight against the French or their allies for the next eighteen months.The Indian allies of the French were astounded and felt betrayed.Where were thespoils of war? Where the prisoners to be ransomed? Montcalm explained the termsto the chiefs who assembled at his behest, but not all came, and those who camecould not guarantee to control their warriors.No sooner had the British opened thegates and allowed the French to enter, than individual Indians rushed into the fortto scavenge the officers closets full of gaudy uniforms.Montcalm had to appear toquiet disputes.Fearing more serious mischief, the French and British agreed that thegarrison, including women and children, would leave under escort.The Indians quickly tumbled to this subterfuge, and by the morning, as the Britishtroops began their march south, thousands of Indians gathered around the rear ofthe column and fell on the wounded.As many as sixty or seventy Anglo-Americansdied in the few minutes before the French gained control of the situation.Frenchpriests and officers rushed into the melee at considerable risk to themselves to savethe lives of the British and colonials.French officers persuaded the Indians to takeprisoners rather than kill and scalp their enemies.The French attempted to ransomthe prisoners on the spot, reunite families, and aid the wounded.Seeking the safety of Fort Edward, the troops in the van began to run.When thefastest reached Fort Edward, they told tales of terrible carnage.For obvious reasons,those who had fled the scene of the massacre exaggerated its duration and severityelse their flight would seem cowardly.Webb, still paralyzed with fear, refused tobudge.Four days later, on August 14, the French returned some five hundred of theirprisoners, including Colonel Monro, in perfect health.(Only the barest outlines ofthe story of the massacre in James Fenimore Cooper s The Last of the Mohicans aretrue.)During the siege, William Johnson was raising Mohawk troops to rescue the gar-rison
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