upon him to be one of the most valuable men upon earth," said Dr. Doddridge, the hymn writer; "he has, joined to an ardent sense of religion, solid learning, consummate prudence, great candour and sweetness of temper; and a certain nobleness of soul, capable of contriving and acting the greatest things, without seeming to be conscious of having done them." Ambitions he undoubtedly had, but they seem to me to have been worthy ones and to have sprung rather from his temperament than from self-interest, for his disposition was curiously compounded of the scholar and the man of action, the pietist and the statesman. He had his periods of seclusion and quiet, but he could not always remain a student; the active life of the world called to him, not so much because there might be a chance of advancement there, as because that way seemed his happiest path. In the coming of the Great Awakening he believed he saw a true revival of religion, though perverted in some of its manifestations, and he held courageously to his course in opposition to the political "Old Lights," saying, in regard to those who threw suspicion on his motives, that "it was a small thing for him to be judged of man's judgment." When at last the cause of civil liberty prevailed and the obnoxious and unconstitutional laws were dropped from the statute book, no small share of the victory was his.

But the people's minds were not to be given over entirely to these religious controversies, for murmurs of war were in the air. Early in 1744-the same year in which Whitefield, the evangelist, came to this country-the war of the Austrian Succession. broke out and into the midst of the political and theological discussions came the news of the taking of Canso and the attack upon Annapolis by the French military governor at Louisburg, the impregnable fortress at Cape Breton. This threatening move of the French, who had received word of the outbreak of hostilities before the news reached the English colonies, resulted in the audacious plan of a counter move which should be nothing less than an attempt to take that fortress itself. In the course of the negotiations between Massachusetts and Connecticut

regarding this plan Jonathan Trumbull and Elisha Williams were sent to Boston on behalf of this colony to confer with Governor Shirley and while there they met William Pepperrell, the proposed commander of the expedition, who was SO impressed by Mr. Williams's personality that on March 8th he wrote Lieutenant Governor Roger Wolcott, who was to be second in command under Pepperrell, as follows:

"I have had some conversation with Mr. Williams, whom I perceive to be a Gentleman of good Council and accomplishments, & should be very desirous to have his Assistance in the Army. And if he may go in a military Capacity in your regiment, Suitable to his Honour & worth so that we may have the advantage of his advices, I should be well pleased with it, & inasmuch as he is a Person of distinguished Learning & Gifts & has been to great Acceptance in Sacred orders, if he might also officiate as a Chaplain to that Regiment, I know of nothing unsuitable in it.”*

This suggestion was followed, and Elisha Williams sailed away from New London, April 14, 1745, as chaplain of Connecticut's quota in one of the most desperate and astonishingly successful ventures ever undertaken by a patriarchal and motley assemblage of yeomen. Of his experience in that campaign we may only conjecture; there is no record left. But for the former minister and college rector, who had a relish for the spice of life, the adventure must have had its interest. It was, indeed, a change from the study and the assembly chamber to the swampy trenches and shot-swept hillocks that confronted the greatest stronghold of France in the new world, but it was a change that doubtless had its advantages. Add the experiences of a soldier to the training of a college president, minister and colonial magistrate, and, with promising material to work on, the result should make a broad and strong individuality. And Mr. Williams was, I am sure, sincere in this service in fact the sincerity and enthusiasm of the men who made up that expedition was not the least admirable thing about it. In the appendix to his funeral sermon the unknown

author says, "He engaged in it (the expedition) with a pleasing Prospect of Serving Christ, by doing some special Service to his King and Country, in assisting to promote the Religion of the Army, and to reduce a Place which his Heart was extreamly engaged to have taken out of the Hands of our inveterate Enemies, the French."

On the fall of Louisburg, Mr. Williams was requested by the Assembly to remain in the same capacity in the garrison, but this he does not seem to have done, for the Rev. Simon Backus appears as chaplain on the roll of the Connecticut troops at this time. It is interesting to observe that Mr. Backus, who now succeeded Mr. Williams as chaplain, had been also his successor in the Newington pulpit. But the new chaplain never returned to Newington, for in the pestilence that spread through the captured town in the following spring he sickened and died.

Now that Louisburg was taken it was necessary to keep it and the garrison was maintained; and not only was it to be kept, it appeared, but it was to be used as a base of operations against the St. Lawrence valley and Quebec, for the Duke of Newcastle seemed at the outset to be determined on an aggressive campaign, and in the energetic Shirley, governor of Massachusetts, he found an enthusiastic ally. The seaboard colonies were soon called upon for men for this new venture and, as always, Connecticut responded generously, modifying her first proposal to send six hundred men by finally providing for a full regiment of one thousand, and increasing the pay offered at first. It is interesting to note in view of the fact that Elisha Williams, a former minister, was to command this regiment, that the men were to be allowed a half pint of rum per day.

For the military spirit had found a new devotee in Mr. Williams. Not only was he appointed colonel of this regiment, but also commander-in-chief of all the forces of the colony that might be engaged in the proposed expedition. The Louisburg campaign had opened a new world to him, and the eager, I had almost said adventurous, strain in his blood was in the ascendant now. In June the regimental commissaries were granted authority to impress "victuals" and were ordered to have seven

months rations ready for transportation by September 10th, and the recruiting went on. Some idea of the qualifications of the officers in this regiment may be gathered from a letter of Nathaniel Ellis of Stonington to Governor Law recommending Captain John Whiting of that town for a commission. "If reports have reached your Hon"," says Mr. Ellis, "that Mr. Whiting is inclined to ye Established church: This I can say, that Temptations have lain that way, but he seems to have overcome them."* On June 16, 1746, Admiral Warren writes to Governor Law, "I hear with pleasure that your companys are compleat." The regiment was, in fact, raised, armed and equipped and was ordered to rendezvous at New London, August 14th, where vessels that had been chartered or bought by the colony were to take it on board. Here Colonel Williams gathered his men on the appointed day and waited for the transports which were slow in coming, and after they came, he waited further orders, for it seemed that the plan might be changed even at the last moment and the expedition diverted against Crown Point and combined with the forces of New York and the more southern colonies that were to attack that stronghold. For the English allies for this undertaking had not arrived (with the exception of a few troops from Gibraltar) and the season was growing late for attacking Canada by way of the St. Lawrence. The regiment waited and hoped for orders and Colonel Williams wrote the governor asking for more tents and beds. But the English government had all it could do nearer home at this time and the days slipped on, the only orders of importance being a command from the governor September 2nd, to hold the regiment in readiness to march to Albany en route for Crown Point. As a matter of fact Governor Law was at this time objecting to Shirley's Crown Point diversion, on the ground that this was not contemplated or authorized so far as the New England colonies were concerned, in the Duke of Newcastle's original letter, and that the colonial troops might therefore receive no government pay. In any case the rendezvous at Louisburg was now * Original letter in Law MSS. in possession of Connecticut Historical Society. + Ibid.

were overcome.

tacitly abandoned, and as there seemed no necessity for remaining at New London, the officers and soldiers of Colonel Williams's command were ordered September 6th to return to their home stations or other places where they might be in readiness for the march to Albany, in case the governor's hesitations But suddenly all plans were upset by the startling news that a French squadron had appeared off the New England coast. It was, in fact, the great French fleet under D'Anville that had sailed from Rochelle in June and which, but for the storms and disasters that had followed it, would have wrought havoc along our shores-havoc that would have been a lasting reproach to the mother country for her neglect during this year of 1746. But of these storms and the fleet's impaired strength the colonists knew nothing. They only knew that a great danger was hovering on the coasts. In Boston, which hourly expected an attack, the excitement was intense. The militia from the neighboring counties poured into the town and the streets were full of soldiers. Shirley sent expresses to the other New England governors asking help; and Governor Law ordered Colonel Williams to recall his officers and men from furlough and to have them ready at an hour's notice to march "against a threatened invasion of our French enemy." At the same time half of every remaining regiment of the colony's forces was ordered to be in readiness for active service. But the days passed and there was no attack. Providence in the guise of storms and sickness had again come to the aid of the colonies, and when the remnants of the greatest fleet France ever sent against English North America gathered in Halifax harbor it was a pitiful showing they made. Disaster had followed disaster and with failure staring him in the face the French admiral succumbed to an attack of apoplexy (some said it was suicide by poison), and the second in command fell upon his sword. Menace from the fleet was at an end, but its appearance had prevented any offensive action for the time by the colonies.

Colonel Williams's regiment, however, remained ready for service, though the men were at their homes, having gone into