along the narrow track, Beaujeu leading them on, dressed in a fringed hunting-shirt, and wearing a silver gorget on his breast. He stopped, turned and waved his hat, and his French followers, crowding across the road, opened a murderous fire upon the head of the British column; while, screeching their war cries, the Indians thronged into the ravines, or crouched behind rocks and trees on both flanks of the advancing troops. The astonished grenadiers returned the fire, and returned it with good effect; for a random shot struck down the brave Beaujeu, and the courage of the assailants was staggered by his fall. Dumas, second in command, rallied them to the attack; and while he, with the French and Canadians, made good the pass in front, the Indians from their lurking places opened a deadly fire on the right and left. In a few moments all was confusion. The advance guard fell back on the main body, and every trace of subordination vanished. The fire soon extended along the whole length of the army, from front to rear. Scarce an enemy could be seen, though the forests resounded with their yells; though every bush and tree was alive with incessant flashes; though the lead flew like a haíl-storm, and the men went down by scores. The regular troops seemed bereft of their senses. They huddled together in the road like flocks of sheep; and happy did he think himself who could wedge his way into the midst of the crowd, and place a barrier of human flesh between his life and the shot of the ambushed marksmen. Many were seen eagerly loading their muskets, and then firing them into the air, or shooting their own comrades, in the insanity of their terror. The officers, for the most part, displayed a conspicuous gallantry; but threats and commands were wasted alike on the panic-stricken multitude. It is said that, at the outset, Braddock showed signs of fear; but he soon recovered his wonted intrepidity. Five horses were shot under him, and five times he mounted afresh. He stormed and shouted, and, while the Virginians were fighting to good purpose, each man behind a tree, like the Indians themselves, he ordered them, with furious menace, to form in platoons, where the fire of the enemy mowed them down like grass. At length, a mortal shot silenced him, and two provincials bore him off the field. Washington rode through the tumult, calm and

undaunted. Two horses were killed under him, and four bullets pierced his clothes; but his hour was not come, and he escaped without a wound. Gates was shot through the body, and Gage, also, was severely wounded. Of eighty-six officers only twentythree remained unhurt; and of twelve hundred soldiers, who crossed the Monongahela, more than seven hundred were killed and wounded. None suffered more severely than the Virginians, who had displayed throughout a degree of courage and steadiness which put the cowardice of the regulars to shame. The havoc among them was terrible, for, of their whole number, scarcely onefifth left the field alive.

The slaughter lasted three hours, when, at length, the survivors, as if impelled by a general impulse, rushed tumultuously from the place of carnage, and, with dastardly precipitation, fled across the Monongahela. The enemy did not pursue beyond the river, flocking to the field to collect the plunder, and gather a rich harvest of scalps. The routed troops pursued their flight until they met the rear division of the army, under Colonel Dunbar; and then their senseless terrors did not abate. Dunbar's soldiers caught the infection. Common baggage, provisions and wagons were destroyed, and all fled together, eager to escape from the shadows of those awful woods, whose horrors haunted their imagination. They passed the defenseless settlements of the border, and hurried on to Philadelphia, leaving the unhappy people to defend themselves as they might against the tomahawk and scalping-knife.

The calamities of this disgraceful rout did not cease with the loss of a few hundred soldiers on the field of battle; for it brought upon the province all the miseries of an Indian war. Those among the tribes who had thus far stood neutral, wavering between the French and English, now hesitated no longer. Many of them had been disgusted by the contemptuous behavior of Braddock. All had learned to despise the courage of the English, and to regard their own prowess with unbounded complacency. It is not in Indian nature to stand quiet in the midst of war; and the defeat of Braddock was a signal for the western savages to snatch their tomahawks and assail the English settlements with one accord, murdering and pillaging with ruthless fury, and turning the fron

tier of Pennsylvania and Virginia into one wide scene of havoc and desolation.

The three remaining expeditions which the British ministry had planned for that year's campaign were attended with various

HON JOHN N. MELLEN.

JOHN N. MELLEN, the present State Senator from the twenty-first senatorial district of this State, was born in the town of Garry, Chautauqua county, New York, September 30, 1831. His father, Leander Mellen, was born at Shaftsbury, Bennington county, Vt., February 17, 1797.

Mr. Mellen emigrated to Michigan in 1837, and settled in the town of Washington, Macomb county. He received a thorough common school education in the schools of that county, and removed to the town of Lenox, in the same county, in 1841. In 1869 he again changed his place of residence, and settled in the village of Romeo, where he still resides.

results. Acadia was quickly reduced by the forces of Colonel Monkton; but the glories of this easy victory were tarnished by an act of cruelty. Seven thousand of the unfortunate people, refusing to take the prescribed oath of allegiance, were seized by the conquerors, torn from their homes, placed on shipboard, like cargoes of negro slaves, and transported to the British provinces. The expedition against Niagara was a total failure, for the troops did not even reach their destination. The movement against Crown Point met with no better success, as regards the main object of the enterprise. Owing to the lateness of the season, and other causes, the troops proceeded no farther than Lake George; but the attempt was marked by a feat of arms, which, in that day of failures, was greeted, both in England and America, as a signal victory.

General Johnson, afterwards Sir William Johnson, had been charged with the conduct of the Crown Point expedition; and his little army, a rude assemblage of hunters and farmers from New York and New England, officers and men alike ignorant of war, lay encamped at the southern extremity of Lake George. Here, while they languidly pursued their preparations, their active enemy anticipated them. Baron Dieskau, who, with a body of troops, had reached Quebec in the squadron which sailed from Brest in the spring, had intended to take forcible possession of the English fort of Oswego, erected upon ground claimed by the French as a part of Canada. Learning Johnson's movement, he changed his plan, crossed Lake Champlain, made a circuit by way of Wood

From 1847 until 1853 Mr. Mellen was actively engaged in the government surveys of the Upper Peninsula, and explored the wild and picturesque scenery of the Lake Superior region. During the winter of 1853-54 he made a trip to the Pacific coast, and remained two years among the gold mines, becoming thoroughly conversant with the manners and customs of those bold adventurers who, in search of wealth, had forsaken their comfortable homes in the East, and exposed themselves to the dangers and hardships of this new country, peopled with hostile Indians. He was with Lieutenant Richardson on a topographical survey of Northern California, Oregon and Washington Territory, in 1856, and while on this expedition learned a considerable of the habits of the different tribes of Indians dwelling in those regions.

Creek, and gained the rear of the English army, with a force of about two thousand French and Indians. At midnight, on the seventh of September, the tidings reached Johnson that the army of the French baron was but a few miles distant from his camp. A council of war was called, and the resolution formed of detaching a thousand men to reconnoitre. If they are to be killed, said Hendrick, the Mohawk chief, they are too many; if they are to fight, they are too few. His remonstrance was unheeded; and the brave old savage, unable from age and corpulence to fight on foot, mounted his horse and joined the English detachment, with two hundred of his warriors. At sunrise, the party defiled from the camp, and, entering the forest, disappeared from the eyes of their comrades.

Those who remained behind labored with all the energy of alarm to fortify their unprotected camp. An hour elapsed, when, from the distance, was heard a sudden explosion of musketry. The excited soldiers suspended their work to listen. A rattling fire succeeded, deadened among the woods, but growing louder and nearer, till none could doubt that their comrades had met the French, and were defeated.

This was indeed the case. Marching through thick woods, by the narrow and newly-cut road which led along the valley southward from Lake George, Williams, the English commander, had led his men full into an ambuscade, where all Dieskau's army lay in wait to receive them. From the woods on both sides rose an appalling shout, followed by a storm of bullets. Williams was soon shot down; Hendrick shared his fate; many officers fell, and

In 1857 he returned to "the States," and was engaged in government surveys at the head of the Red River of the North, in the State of Minnesota. Here he acquired much valuable information of the soil, climate and products of that region, and also increased his knowledge of the peculiar traits of the red man. In 1860 he was occupied on surveys in the northern portion of Wisconsin, with Alfred Millard, Esq., and Harvey Mellen. He was employed in the early surveys of Dacota Territory in 1861-2-3, under the supervision of G. D. Hill, surveyor-general. Since that time Mr. Mellen has been engaged in exploring the unsettled portions of the States of Wisconsin and Michigan, in search of pine lands and minerals, in which he is an extensive dealer.