r own troops and supplies. Connecticut had refused to
send her men until Shirley promised that her commanding officer should
rank next to Johnson, and the whole movement was for some time at a
deadlock, because the five governments could not agree about their
contributions of artillery and stores.

The troops were a rough-looking body. Only one of the corps had a blue
uniform, faced with red. The rest wore their ordinary farm clothing.
All had brought their own guns, of every description and fashion. They
had no bayonets, but carried hatchets in their belts as a sort of
substitute.

In point of morals the army, composed almost entirely of farmers and
farmers' sons, was exemplary. It is recorded that not a chicken was
stolen. In the camps of the Puritan soldiers of New England, sermons
were preached twice a week, and there were daily prayers and much
singing of psalms; but these good people were much shocked by the
profane language of the troops from New York and Rhode Island, and some
prophesied that disaster would be sure to fall upon the army from this
cause.

Months were consumed in various delays; and, on the 21st of August,
just as they were moving forward, four Mohawks, whom Johnson had sent
into Canada, returned with the news that the French were making great
preparations, and that 8000 men were marching to defend Crown Point.
The papers of General Braddock, which fell, with all the baggage of the
army, into the hands of the French, had informed them of the object of
the gathering at Albany, and now that they had no fear of any further
attempt against their posts in Ohio, they were able to concentrate all
their force for the defence of their posts on Lake Champlain.

On the receipt of this alarming news, a council of war was held at
Albany, and messages were sent to the colonies asking for
reinforcements. In the meantime, the army moved up the Hudson to the
spot called the Great Carrying Place, where Colonel Lyman, who was
second in command, had gone forward and erected a fort, which his men
called after him, but was afterwards named Fort Edward.

James Walsham joined the army a few days before it moved forward. He
was received with great heartiness by General Johnson, to whom he
brought a letter of introduction from Colonel Washington, and who at
once offered him a position as one of his aides-de-camp. This he found
exceedingly pleasant, for Johnson was one of the most jovial and open
hearted of commanders