On the battlefield, however, ineptitude seemed inevitable as long as generals who had been promoted because of connections rather than commpetence [sic] remained in command. Loudoun’s successor, Abercromby, passed up opportunities to attack Fort Ticonderoga in July 1758, before the French could call in reinforcements; then, when French reinforcements had arrived but before much of his artillery was in place at a commanding height, Mount Defiance, Abercromby ordered a frontal assault by bayonet.
The result was told by one soldier, David Perry: “Our orders were to ‘run to the breastwork and get in if we could.’ But their lines were full, and they killed our men so fast, that we could not gain it. We got behind trees, logs and stumps, and covered ourselves as we could from the enemy’s fire. The ground was strewed with the dead and dying… I could hear the men screaming, and see them dying all around me. I lay there some time. A man could not sand erect without being hit, any more than he could stand out in a shower, without having drops of rain fall upon him; for the balls came by handsfull.” Again, Britain’s professionals had betrayed America’s volunteers: Overall, over 550 soldiers died, and fourteen hundred were wounded.
Source:
Olasky, Marvin. “The War to End All Wars.” Fighting for Liberty and Virtue: Political and Cultural Wars in Eighteenth-Century America. Crossway Books, 1995. 102. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Perry’s recollections quoted in Anderson, A People’s Army, 11-12.
Further Reading:
[General James Abercrombie or Abercromby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Abercrombie_(British_Army_officer,_born_1706\))
The Battle of Carillon, also known as the 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga
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