t which required attendance on daily
prayers, and enjoined "the people to appear in a decent manner, clean
and shaved," at the two Sunday sermons.[421]

[Footnote 420: The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archives, LVI.
no. 142. The same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of
Massachusetts, in which he speaks of the forlorn condition in which
Chaplain Weld reached the camp. Of Chaplain Crawford, he says that he
came decently clothed, but without bed or blanket, till he, Frye, lent
them to him, and got Captain Learned to take him into his tent.
Chaplains usually had a separate tent, or shared that of the colonel.]

[Footnote 421: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow_.]

At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to the committees of the
several provinces: "It looks as if it won't be long before we are fit
for a remove,"--that is, for an advance on Ticonderoga. On the twelfth
Loudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth regiment and some of Bradstreet's
boatmen to reinforce Oswego.[422] They had been ready for a month; but
confusion and misunderstanding arising from the change of command had
prevented their departure.[423] Yet the utmost anxiety had prevailed for
the safety of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth Surgeon
Thomas Williams wrote: "Whether Oswego is yet ours is uncertain. Would
hope it is, as the reverse would be such a terrible shock as the country
never felt, and may be a sad omen of what is coming upon poor sinful New
England. Indeed we can't expect anything but to be severely chastened
till we are humbled for our pride and haughtiness."[424]

[Footnote 422: _Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756_.]

[Footnote 423: _Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Shirley
to Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756. Shirley to Fox, 16 Sept. 1756_.]

[Footnote 424: _Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug.
1756_.]

His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely reached the Great Carrying
Place, when tidings of disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. The
French had descended in force upon Oswego, taken it with all its
garrison; and, as report ran, were advancing into the province, six
thousand strong. Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great labor, of
the trees that choked it. Webb ordered others to be felled and thrown
into the stream to stop the progress of the enemy; then, with shameful
precipitation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place, and retreated
down the Mohawk to German Flats. Loudon