If Crown Point is taken, it will not be for our sakes, but for those good people left behind."[299] There was edifying regularity in respect to form.  Sermons twice a week, daily prayers, and frequent psalm-singing alternated with the much-needed military drill.[300] “Prayers among us night and morning,” writes Private Jonathan Caswell, of Massachusetts, to his father.  “Here we lie, knowing not when we shall march for Crown Point; but I hope not long to tarry.  Desiring your prayers to God for me as I am going to war, I am Your Ever Dutiful son."[301]

[Footnote 299:  Papers of Colonel Israel Williams.]

[Footnote 300:  Massachusetts Archives.]

[Footnote 301:  Jonathan Caswell to John Caswell, 6 July, 1755.]

To Pomeroy and some of his brothers in arms it seemed that they were engaged in a kind of crusade against the myrmidons of Rome.  “As you have at heart the Protestant cause,” he wrote to his friend Israel Williams, “so I ask an interest in your prayers that the Lord of Hosts would go forth with us and give us victory over our unreasonable, encroaching, barbarous, murdering enemies.”

Both Williams the surgeon and Williams the colonel chafed at the incessant delays.  “The expedition goes on very much as a snail runs,” writes the former to his wife; “it seems we may possibly see Crown Point this time twelve months.”  The Colonel was vexed because everything was out of joint in the department of transportation:  wagoners mutinous for want of pay; ordnance stores, camp-kettles, and provisions left behind.  “As to rum,” he complains, “it won’t hold out nine weeks.  Things appear most melancholy to me.”  Even as he was writing, a report came of the defeat of Braddock; and, shocked at the blow, his pen traced the words:  “The Lord have mercy on poor New England!”

Johnson had sent four Mohawk scouts to Canada.  They returned on the twenty-first of August with the report that the French were all astir with preparation, and that eight thousand men were coming to defend Crown Point.  On this a council of war was called; and it was resolved to send to the several colonies for reinforcements.[302] Meanwhile the main body had moved up the river to the spot called the Great Carrying Place, where Lyman had begun a fortified storehouse, which his men called Fort Lyman, but which was afterwards named Fort Edward.  Two Indian trails led from this point to the waters of Lake Champlain, one by way of Lake George, and the other by way of Wood Creek.  There was doubt which course the army should take.  A road was begun to Wood Creek; then it was countermanded, and a party was sent to explore the path to Lake George.  “With submission to the general officers,” Surgeon Williams again writes, “I think it a very grand mistake that the business of reconnoitring was not done months agone.”  It was resolved at last to march for Lake George; gangs of axemen were sent to hew out the way; and on the twenty-sixth two thousand men were ordered to the lake, while Colonel Blanchard, of New Hampshire, remained with five hundred to finish and defend Fort Lyman.