arther difficulty in taking possession of the whole
island.[159]

[Footnote 159: Minot. Belknap. Belsham. Russel.]

This important acquisition was made with the loss of between five and
six hundred men, killed and wounded. The joy it diffused throughout
the colonies, long familiarised to disaster, was in proportion to
their former disappointments.

[Sidenote: Against Ticonderoga.]

The expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point was conducted by
general Abercrombie in person. His army, consisting of near sixteen
thousand effectives, of whom nine thousand were provincials, was
attended by a formidable train of artillery, and possessed every
requisite to ensure success.

On the 5th of July, he embarked on lake George, and reached the
landing place early the next morning. A disembarkation being effected
without opposition, the troops were immediately formed into four
columns, the British in the centre, and the Provincials on the flanks;
in which order they marched towards the advanced guard of the French,
composed of one battalion posted in a log camp, which, on the approach
of the English, made a precipitate retreat.

Abercrombie continued his march towards Ticonderoga, with the
intention of investing that place; but, the woods being thick, and the
guides unskilful, his columns were thrown into confusion, and, in some
measure, entangled with each other. In this situation lord Howe, at
the head of the right centre column, fell in with a part of the
advance guard of the French, which, in retreating from lake George,
was likewise lost in the wood. He immediately attacked and dispersed
them; killing several, and taking one hundred and forty-eight
prisoners, among whom were five officers.

This small advantage was purchased at a dear rate. Though only two
officers, on the side of the British, were killed, one of these was
lord Howe himself, who fell on the first fire. This gallant young
nobleman had endeared himself to the whole army. The British and
provincials alike lamented his death; and the assembly of
Massachusetts passed a vote for the erection of a superb cenotaph to
his memory, in the collegiate church of Westminster, among the heroes
and patriots of Great Britain.

Without farther opposition, the English army took possession of the
post at the Saw Mills, within two miles of Ticonderoga. This fortress,
which commands the communication between the two lakes, is encompassed
on three sides by water, an