Frostburg mining journal., 1883-09-29
FROSTBURG MD. SEPTEMBER 90 1883.
WHOLE NO., 625.

within reach of his blow. The news
had been brought towards the de-
cline of day in midsummer, by an
Indian runner, who also bore an
urgent request from Munro, the COM
mander of work on the shore of the
''holy lake." for a speedy and power
full reinforcement. 1t has already
been mentioned that the distance be-
tween these two posts was less than
five leagues. The rude path, which
originally formed their line of COM
munication, had been widened for
the passage of wagons; SO that the
distance which had been travelled by
the son of the forest in two hours,
might easily be effected by detach-
ment of troops, with their necessary
baggage, between the rising and set
ting of a summer sun. The loyal
servants of the British crown had
given to one of these forest Businesses
the name of William Henry, and to
the other that of Fort Edward; call
ing each after favorite prince of the
reigning family. The veteran Scotch
man just named held the first, with
a regiment of regulars and few pro-
yincials; a force really by far too
small to make head against the
formidable power that Montcalm was
leading to the foot of his northen
mounds. At the latter, however, lay
General Webb, who commanded the
armies of the king in the northern
provinces, with a body of more than
five thousand men. By uniting the
several detachments of his command,
this officer might have arrayed nearly
double that number of combatants
against the enterprising Frenchman,
who had ventured so far from his re-
Inducements, with an army but lit
tie superior in numbers.
But under the influence of their
degraded fortunes, both officers and
men appeared better disposed to await
the approach of their formidable an
tagonists, within their works, than to
resist the progress of their march, by
emulating the successful example of
the French at Fort du Quesne, and
striking a blow on their advance.
After the first surprise of the in
telligence had a little abated, rumor
was spread through the entrenched
camp, which stretched along the
margin of the Hudson, forming a
chain of outworks to the body of the
fort itself, that a chosen detachment
of fifteen hundred men was to depart,
with the dawn, for William Henry
post at the northern extremity of the
portage. That which at first was
only rumor, soon became certainty,
as orders passed from the quarters of
the commander-in chief to the several
corps he had selected for this SER
vice, to prepare for their speedy de-
parture. All doubts as to the inten-
tions of Webb now vanished, and an
hour or two of hurried footsteps and
anxious footsteps succeeded. The
novice in the military art flew from
point to point, retarding his own
preparation by the excess ofhis violent
and somewhyt distempered zeal;
while the more practised veteran
made his arrangements with delib-
Grafton that scorned every appearance
of haste; though his sober lineaments
and anxious eye sufficiently betrayed
that he had no very strong profession
al relish for the, as yet, untried and
dreaded warfare of the wilderness.
At length the sun set in a flood of
| glory behind the distant western hills,
and as darkness drew ITS veil around
the secluded spot the sounds of prep
aration diminished; the last light
finally disappeared from the log cabin
of some officer; the trees cast their
deeper shadows over the mounds and
the ripping stream, and a silence
soon pervaded the camp, as deep as
that which reigned in the vast forest
by which it was environed.
According to the orders of the pre-
ceding night, the heavy sleep of the
army was broken by the rolling of
the warning drums, whose rattling
echoes were heard issuing, ON the
damp morning air, out Of every vista
of the woods, just as day began to
draw the shaggy outlines of some tall
pines i'll the vicinity on the opening
| hriohtness of n soft and oloudless