enemy, that the Canadians and Indians in their service fled
immediately into the woods on each side of the camp, and there squatted
under bushes, or skulked behind trees, from whence they continued firing
with very little execution, most of their shot being intercepted by the
brakes and thickets; for they never had the courage to advance to the
verge of the wood. Baron Dieskau, who commanded the French, being thus
left alone with his regular troops at the front of the camp, finding he
could not make a close attack upon the centre with his small number
of men, moved first to the left, and then to the right, at both which
places he endeavoured to force a passage, but was repulsed, being
unsupported by the irregulars. Instead of retreating, as he ought in
prudence to have done, he still continued his platoon and bush firing
till four o'clock in the afternoon, during which time his regular troops
suffered greatly by the fire from the camp, and were at last thrown into
confusion; which was no sooner perceived by general Johnson's men, than
they, without waiting for orders, leaped over their breastwork, attacked
the enemy on all sides, and after killing and taking a considerable
number of them, entirely dispersed the rest. The French, whose numbers
at the beginning of this engagement amounted to about two thousand men,
including two hundred grenadiers, eight hundred Canadians, and the rest
Indians of different nations, had between seven and eight hundred men
killed, and thirty taken prisoners; among the latter was baron Dieskau
himself, whom they found at a little distance from the field of battle,
dangerously wounded, and leaning on the stump of a tree for his support.
The English lost about two hundred men, and those chiefly of the
detachment under Colonel Williams; for they had very few either killed
or wounded in the attack upon their camp, and not any of distinction,
except colonel Tit-comb killed, and the general himself and major
Nichols wounded. Among the slain of the detachment, which would probably
have been entirely cut off had not lieutenant-colonel Cole been sent out
from the camp with three hundred men, with which he stopped the enemy's
pursuit, and covered the retreat of his friends, were colonel Williams,
major Ashly, six captains, and several subalterns, besides private men;
and the Indians reckoned that they had lost forty men, besides the brave
old Hendrick, the Mohawk sachem, or chief captain.

BRAVE