signe Vaudreuil_. Bougainville, _Journal. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15
Juin, 1756_ (designs against Oswego). _Ibid., 13 Aout, 1755. Ibid., 30
Aout_. Pouchot, I. 67-81. _Relation de la Prise des Forts de Chouaguen.
Bigot au Ministre, 3 Sept. 1756 Journal du Siege de Chouaguen. Precis
des Evenements, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756. Ibid., 28
Aout, 1756. Desandrouins a----, meme date. Montcalm a sa Femme, 30
Aout_. Translations of several of the above papers, along with others
less important, will be found in _N.Y. Col. Docs._, X., and _Doc. Hist.
N.Y._, I.

_State of Facts relating to the Loss of Oswego_, in _London Magazine_
for 1757, p. 14. _Correspondence of Shirley. Correspondence of Loudon.
Littlehales to Loudon, 30 Aug. 1756. Hardy to Lords of Trade, 5 Sept.
1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated. Declaration of
some Soldiers of Shirley's Regiment_, in _N.Y. Col. Docs._, VII. 126.
Letter from an officer present, in _Boston Evening Post_ of _16 May,
1757_. The published plans and drawings of Oswego at this time are very
inexact.]

Chapter 13

1756, 1757

Partisan War

Shirley's grand scheme for cutting New France in twain had come to
wreck. There was an element of boyishness in him. He made bold plans
without weighing too closely his means of executing them. The year's
campaign would in all likelihood have succeeded if he could have acted
promptly; if he had had ready to his hand a well-trained and
well-officered force, furnished with material of war and means of
transportation, and prepared to move as soon as the streams and lakes of
New York were open, while those of Canada were still sealed with ice.
But timely action was out of his power. The army that should have moved
in April was not ready to move till August. Of the nine discordant
semi-republics whom he asked to join in the work, three or four refused,
some of the others were lukewarm, and all were slow. Even Massachusetts,
usually the foremost, failed to get all her men into the field till the
season was nearly ended. Having no military establishment, the colonies
were forced to improvise a new army for every campaign. Each of them
watched its neighbors, or, jealous lest it should do more than its just
share, waited for them to begin. Each popular assembly acted under the
eye of a frugal constituency, who, having little money, were as chary of
it as their descendants are lavish; and most of them were shaken by
inter