Note 1372 — Chapter VIII · (continued 2)

Samuel Blodget’s Prospective plan of the battle near Lake George, on the eighth day of September, 1755, with an explanation thereof; containing a full, tho’ short History of that important affair, was engraved by Thomas Johnston, and published in Boston by Richard Draper, 1755. (Brinley, i. 209.) The size of the plate is 14×18 inches, and the text is called Account of the engagement near Lake George, with a whole sheet plan of the encampment and view of the battle between the English and the French and Indians (4to, pp. 5). It is dedicated to Gov. Shirley. A copy belonging to W. H. Whitmore is at present in the gallery of the Bostonian Society, Old State House, Boston. It was reëngraved (“not very accurately,” says Trumbull) by Jefferys in London, and was published Feb. 2, 1756, accompanied by An Explanation ... by Samuel Blodget, occasionally at the Camp, when the battle was fought. (Sabin, ii. 5,955; Harv. Coll. library, 5325.45.) Jefferys inserted the plate also in his General Topog. of North America and the West Indies, London, 1768. It was from Jefferys’ reproduction that it was repeated in Bancroft’s United States (orig. ed., iv. 210); in Gay’s Pop. Hist. United States, iii. p. 288; in Doc. Hist. New York, iv. 169; and in Dr. Hough’s ed. of Pouchot. The plate shows two engagements, with a side chart of the Hudson from New York upwards: first, the ambuscade in which Williams and Hendrick were killed; and second, the attack of Dieskau on the hastily formed breastwork at the lake. The plate, as engraved by Jefferys, is entitled A prospective View of the Battle fought near Lake George on the 8th of Sepr, 1755, between 2,000 English and 250 Mohawks under the Command of Genl Johnson, and 2,500 French and Indians under the Command of Genl Dieskau, in which the English were victorious, captivating the French General, with a number of his men, killing 700 and putting the rest to flight.