At the Fall of Montreal: A Soldier Boy's Final Victory
9781465677792
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
“This looks like a good spot for fishing.” “I don’t know but that you are right, Dave. Those trees back of us cut off most of the sunlight, and a hollow like that ought to be good for at least one fair-sized trout.” “Do you think any of the other soldiers have been down to this part of the lake?” “Hardly,” answered Henry Morris. “At least, there are no signs of them,” he went on, as he examined the ground with the care of an Indian trailer. “If we are the first to try this vicinity we certainly ought to have good luck,” continued Dave Morris, as he dropped several of the traps he carried to the ground and began to prepare his fishing pole for use. “By the way, do you think there are any Indians in this vicinity?” “Only those who are under command of Sir William Johnson. They sent all the French redskins about their business in short order.” “How long do you suppose our troops will be kept around Fort Niagara?” “I’m sure I don’t know, Dave. We may get marching orders at any time. Now that the fort is ours all Sir William has to do is to leave a small force in command and then sail down the lake and the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec. We’ve got the French on the run and we ought to keep ’em on the run until they give up fighting altogether.” “I wonder if General Wolfe has had a battle yet.” “I shouldn’t be surprised. Reckon we’ll get word in a few days. But come, let us keep quiet, or we won’t get even a perch, much less a trout,” concluded Henry Morris. David and Henry Morris were two young soldiers in the Colonial army, stationed at present at Fort Niagara, a stronghold located on the Niagara River, close to where that stream emptied into Lake Ontario. The two youths were cousins, and when at home lived at Wills’ Creek, where the town of Cumberland, Va., stands to-day. The household consisted of Dave’s father, Mr. James Morris, who was a widower, and of Mr. Joseph Morris, his wife Lucy, and their three children: Rodney, the oldest, who was something of a cripple; Henry, already mentioned, and little Nell, the family pet. When James Morris’s wife died the man, who was a trapper and a trader, became very disconsolate, and leaving his son Dave in his brother’s charge, he wandered to the West and established a trading-post on the Kinotah, a river flowing into the Ohio. This was at the time when George Washington was a young surveyor; and in the first volume of this series, entitled “With Washington in the West,” I related many of the particulars of how Dave fell in with the future President of our country, helped him in his surveying, and later on, when war broke out between the English and the French, marched under Washington in Braddock’s disastrous campaign against Fort Duquesne, located where the city of Pittsburg now stands. The defeat of General Braddock meant much to James Morris. He had spent both time and money in establishing his trading-post on the Kinotah, and though a rascally French trader named Jean Bevoir had done his utmost to cheat him out of his belongings, Mr. Morris had considered his property safe until the trading-post was taken and he was made a prisoner. Dave was also captured by the French, but father and son escaped by the aid of White Buffalo, a friendly Indian of the Delawares, and Sam Barringford, an old frontiersman and a warm personal friend of all the Morrises. Both England and her American colonies were now thoroughly aroused to the importance of a strong attack on the French and their Indian allies; and in the second volume of the series, entitled “Marching on Niagara,” were given the particulars of another campaign against Fort Duquesne, which was captured and renamed Fort Pitt, and then of a long and hard campaign against Fort Niagara, in which both Dave and Henry took an active part, accompanied by the ever-faithful Sam Barringford.
