Abercrombie sends Lieutenant Colonel John Bradstreet and…
July 1758 CE
On reaching the first crossing, where Bourlamaque had camped, they rebuild the bridge there, and proceed on to the sawmill crossing.
The army follows, and sets up its camp there.
Scouts and prisoners report to Abercrombie that Montcalm has six thousand men and is expecting the Chevalier de Lévis to arrive at any moment with three thousand reinforcements.
Abercrombie orders his engineer, Lieutenant Matthew Clerk, and one of his aides, Captain James Abercrombie (it is uncertain if the Abercrombies were related or not) to reconnoiter the French defenses.
After ascending Rattlesnake Hill (as Mount Defiance is known at this time), they report that the French position appears to be incomplete.
They are unaware that the French have disguised much of the works with shrubs and trees, and that they are in fact largely complete.
Clerk's report includes recommendations to fortify both the summit and the base of Rattlesnake Hill.
Abercrombie decides that they have to attack the next morning before Lévis and his supposed three thousand arrive.
Lévis arrives at the fort on the evening of July 7 with his troop of four hundred regulars.
Abercrombie holds a war council in the evening.
The options he presents to his staff are limited to asking if the next day's attack should be in three ranks or four; the council opts for three.
Abercrombie's plan of attack omits Clerk's recommendation to fortify the summit of Rattlesnake Hill; in addition to the frontal assault, four six-pound guns and a howitzer are to be floated down the La Chute River and mounted at the base of Rattlesnake Hill, with twenty bateaux of troops to support the effort.
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