110 THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 
sions in America, and wrested from her grasp the con- 
trol of India, which she was also seeking to acquire. 
At the time of Pitt’s accession to power, affairs were 
not going on prosperously in America. The crush- 
ing defeat of Braddock had, indeed, been followed by 
the victory of Johnson over Dieskau at Lake George. 
But this victory did more harm than good; for John- 
son remained inactive after it, and Dieskau, having 
been taken prisoner, was succeeded by the famous 
Marquis of Montcalm, a general of great ability, who 
resumed offensive operations with vigour and success. 
In 1756 Montcalm destroyed Oswego; in 1757 he 
captured Fort William Henry, which Johnson had 
built to defend the northern approaches to the Hud- 
son; and in 1758 he defeated the English with heavy 
loss in the desperate battle of Ticonderoga. 
This signal defeat of the English possesses some 
interest as one among many illustrations of the diff- 
culty of carrying by storm a strongly intrenched posi- 
tion. In July, 1758, General Abercrombie, at the head 
of fifteen thousand men, the largest army that had ever 
been assembled in America, crossed Lake George, and 
advanced upon the strong position which barred the 
approach to Canada from the valley of the Hudson. 
In a preliminary skirmish was slain Lord Howe, elder 
brother of the admiral and the general of the War of 
Independence, an able and gallant officer, who had so 
endeared himself to the Americans that Massachusetts 
afterward raised a monument to his memory in West- 
minster Abbey. - The force with which Montcalm held 
Ticonderoga numbered little more than three thousand, 
and as it was thought that reénforcements were on their 
way to him, Abercrombie decided to hazard a direct as- 
