A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

1745.] HARDIHOOD OF THE BESIEGERS. 105at the first attempt, the wheels of the cannon sank tothe hubs in mud and moss, then the carriage, andfinally the piece itself slowly disappeared. Lieutenant-Colonel Meserve, of the New Hampshire regiment, aship-builder by trade, presently overcame the difficulty.By his direction sledges of timber were made,sixteen feet long and five feet wide ; a cannon wasplaced on each of these, and it was then draggedover the marsh by a team of two hundred men, harnessedwith rope-traces and breast-straps, and wadingto the knees. Horses or oxen would have founderedin the mire. The way had often to be changed, asthe mossy surface was soon churned into a hopelessslough along the line of march. The work could bedone only at night or in thick fog, the men beingcompletely exposed to the cannon of the town.Thirteen years after, when General Amherst besiegedLouisbourg again, he dragged his cannon to the samehill over the same marsh; but having at his command,instead of four thousand militiamen, eleventhousand British regulars, with all appliances andmeans to boot, he made a road, with prodigious labor,through the mire, and protected it from the Frenchshot by an epaulement, or lateral earthwork. ^Pepperrell writes in ardent words of the cheerfulnessof his men "under almost incredible hardships."Shoes and clothing failed, till many were in tattersand many barefooted ^ ; yet they toiled on with uncon-^ See " Montcalm and Wolfe," chap. xix.2 Pepperrell to Newcastle, 28 June, 1745.