n great disgust in America;
and had rendered it disagreeable and difficult to carry on any
military operations which required a junction of British and
provincial troops. When consulted on this delicate subject, Winslow
assured general Abercrombie of his apprehensions that, if the result
of the junction should be to place the provincial troops under British
officers, it would produce general discontent, and perhaps desertion.
His officers concurred in this opinion; and it was finally agreed that
British troops should succeed the provincials in the posts then
occupied by them, so as to enable the whole colonial force to proceed
under Winslow, against Crown Point.

On the arrival of the earl of Loudoun, this subject was revived. The
question was seriously propounded, "whether the troops in the several
colonies of New England, armed with his majesty's arms, would, in
obedience to his commands signified to them, act in conjunction with
his European troops; and under the command of his commander in chief?"
The colonial officers answered this question in the affirmative; but
entreated it as a favour of his lordship, as the New England troops
had been raised on particular terms, that he would permit them, so far
as might consist with his majesty's service, to act separately. This
request was acceded to; but before the army could be put in motion,
the attention both of the Europeans and provincials, was directed to
their own defence.

[Sidenote: Montcalm takes Oswego.]

Monsieur de Montcalm, an able officer, who succeeded Dieskau in the
command of the French troops in Canada, sought to compensate by
superior activity, for the inferiority of his force. While the British
and Americans were adjusting their difficulties respecting rank, and
deliberating whether to attack Niagara or fort Du Quesne, Montcalm
advanced at the head of about five thousand Europeans, Canadians, and
Indians, against Oswego. In three days he brought up his artillery,
and opened a battery which played on the fort with considerable
effect. Colonel Mercer, the commanding officer, was killed; and, in a
few hours, the place was declared by the engineers to be no longer
tenable. The garrison, consisting of the regiments of Shirley and
Pepperel, amounting to sixteen hundred men, supplied with provisions
for five months, capitulated, and became prisoners of war. A
respectable naval armament, then on the lake, was also captured.

The fort at Oswego had been ere