1758, 1759

The Brink of Ruin

"Never was general in a more critical position than I was: God has
delivered me; his be the praise! He gives me health, though I am worn
out with labor, fatigue, and miserable dissensions that have determined
me to ask for my recall. Heaven grant that I may get it!"

Thus wrote Montcalm to his mother after his triumph at Ticonderoga. That
great exploit had entailed a train of vexations, for it stirred the envy
of Vaudreuil, more especially as it was due to the troops of the line,
with no help from Indians, and very little from Canadians. The Governor
assured the Colonial Minister that the victory would have bad results,
though he gives no hint what these might be; that Montcalm had
mismanaged the whole affair; that he would have been beaten but for the
manifest interposition of Heaven;[670] and, finally, that he had failed
to follow his (Vaudreuil's) directions, and had therefore enabled the
English to escape. The real directions of the Governor, dictated,
perhaps, by dread lest his rival should reap laurels, were to avoid a
general engagement; and it was only by setting them at nought that
Abercromby had been routed. After the battle a sharp correspondence
passed between the two chiefs. The Governor, who had left Montcalm to
his own resources before the crisis, sent him Canadians and Indians in
abundance after it was over; while he cautiously refrained from
committing himself by positive orders, repeated again and again that if
these reinforcements were used to harass Abercromby's communications,
the whole English army would fall back to the Hudson, and leave baggage
and artillery a prey to the French. These preposterous assertions and
tardy succors were thought by Montcalm to be a device for giving color
to the charge that he had not only failed to deserve victory, but had
failed also to make use of it.[671] He did what was possible, and sent
strong detachments to act in the English rear; which, though they did
not, and could not, compel the enemy to fall back, caused no slight
annoyance, till Rogers checked them by the defeat of Marin. Nevertheless
Vaudreuil pretended on one hand that Montcalm had done nothing with the
Canadians and Indians sent him, and on the other that these same
Canadians and Indians had triumphed over the enemy by their mere
presence at Ticonderoga. "It was my activity in sending these succors to
Carillon [_Ticonderoga_] that forced the English to retreat. T