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NEW ENGLAND AND CANADA
119

its limits. It was projected by Colonel Stoddard, of Northampton, and was well situated, in connection with the other forts, on the western frontier, to command all the paths, by which the Indians travelled from Canada to New-England."[1] This fort was on the celebrated highway from the Connecticut across country to Fort Edward on the Hudson River, so largely traveled throughout the period of military operations. In 1755 during Sir William Johnston's campaign against Fort Crown Point, New Hampshire raised five hundred men, under the command of Colonel Joseph Blanchard. "The Governor," writes Belknap, "ordered them to Connecticut river, to build a fort at Cohos, supposing it to be in their way to Crown Point. They first marched to Baker's-town, where they began to build batteaux, and consumed time and provisions to no purpose. By Shirley's advice they quitted that futile employment, and made a fatiguing march through the woods, by the way of Number-four, to Albany."[2]

  1. Belknap: History of New Hampshire, vol. ii, p. 290.
  2. Id., p. 291.