1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 119 



ants were so terrified by the crashing of the balls 

 among the trunks and branches, that they gave 

 way at once. Dieskau still persisted in the attack. 

 From noon until past four o'clock, the firing was 

 scarcely abated, when at length the French, who 

 had suffered extremely, showed signs of wavering. 

 At this, with a general shout, the English broke 

 from their camp, and rushed upon their enemies, 

 striking them down with the huts of their guns, 

 and driving them through the woods like deer. 

 Dieskau was taken prisoner, dangerously wounded, 

 and leaning for support against the stump of a 

 tree. The slaughter would have been great, had 

 not the English general recalled the pursuers, and 

 suffered the French to continue their flight unmo- 

 lested. Fresh disasters still awaited the fugitives ; 

 for, as they approached the scene of that morning's 

 ambuscade, they were greeted by a volley of mus- 

 ketry. Two companies of New York and New 

 Hampshire rangers, who had come out from Fort 

 Edward as a scouting party, had lain in wait to 

 receive them. Favored by the darkness of the 

 woods, — for night was now approaching, — they 

 made so sudden and vigorous an attack, that the 

 French, though far superior in number, were totally 

 routed and dispersed.^ 



1 Holmes, II. 210. Trumbull, Hist. Conn. II. 368. Dwight, Travels, 

 III. 861. Hoyt, Indian Wars, 279. Entick, Hist. Late War, I. 153. Re- 

 view of Military Operations in North America. Johnson's Letter to the Pro- 

 vincial Governors. Blodgett's Prospective View of the Battle near Lake 

 George. 



Blodgett's pamphlet is accompanied by a curious engraving, giving a 

 bird's eye view of the battle, including the surprise of Williams' detach- 

 ment, and the subsequent attack on the camp of Johnson. In the first 



