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Michigan Chapter Eight Border Wars of the Colonists
It was rejected, on the ground that it infringed the rights of the crown. Nevertheless, the colonies continued to co-operate. The British parliament made an appropriation of two hundred thousand pounds sterling, which money was sent over and distributed among the colonies in proportion to the number of troops which each should supply for military service.
In the following year Gen. Braddock was sent out to take command of the colonial forces. He conferred with the several governors and a plan of campaign was agreed upon. This involved an attack upon the French forts at Crown Point, Frontenac, Niagara and Duquesne. A force of three hundred British and three thousand colonial troops was despatched to Nova Scotia and reduced that colony to a state of subjection. Braddock 'himself took up his quarters at Alexandria
and his little army was quartered there and in the neighboring towns of Fredericksburg and Bladensburg. He had brought with him from Ireland two regiments of infantry, intending to supplement his force with the provincial levies. Braddock was the son of a major-general and himself had a military record of promotions for gallant conduct under fire. In the conferences which followed the assembling of the forces Braddock took as his special task the capture of Fort Duquesne. To Sir William Johnson was assigned the responsibility of leading a force against Crown Point, and to Governor Shirley of Massachusetts was to be given the glory of overcoming Forts Frontenac and Niagara. Franklin, then postmaster of Philadelphia, undertook to raise the necessary funds among the business men and farmers of Pennsylvania to provide the transportation of troops and supplies for the quartermaster and commissary departments for the Braddock expedition. The fact that England and France happened to be at peace at this particular moment was not allowed to interfere. The claim was made that all these forts occupied by the French were on English soil and this was held to be sufficient provocation for driving the invaders out.
Michigan
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