Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 111. Fort Carillon.

On the morning of March 10, 1758, a series of letters arrived in Boston from Southern Secretary

William Pitt, announcing that Lord Lowndon was to be replaced as commander-in-chief by Major General Abercrombie,

as well as the changes in Britain's approach to the war effort that we discussed last week.

The Chathamite system

Lounden had spent the winter planning for the next phase of the war in the usual heavy-handed manner,

and it looked as though the colonies

had reached their breaking points. Massachusetts was preparing to vote against continuing to supply

the war with money and menpower, having previously been the principal contributor. The removal of

Lowndon and the shift in tone worked wonders.

The governor, Thomas Pownall, called a special session of the Assembly, which met that

night to discuss the letters. The next morning, the Assembly voted to raise 7,000 soldiers, days after refusing to raise 2,128 for Lounden.

The shock wave rippled around the continent. Connecticut voted to raise 5,000, Rhode Island, 1,000, New Hampshire, 800, Delaware, 300.

New York increased its levy to 2,680, Pennsylvania to 2,700, while Virginia doubled its military,

raising militiamen to occupy the frontier forts, as well as two regiments

for an expedition into the Ohio Valley. Maryland was embroiled in an internal political conflict.

So it didn't do anything, but all other colonies increased their forces. Within a month of Pitt's letter, over 23,000

provincials had been raised, and that's not counting the thousands more involved in supplying them.

This is truly remarkable, but it needs to be made clear what exactly is happening here. Pitt's policies worked, but not entirely for the

reasons he was expecting. There are three key points here. One, why Lowndon's policies didn't work.

Two, why Pitts did. And three, how this fits into the big picture. To deal with the

first point, Lowndon thought the Colonials were lazy and selfish. He couldn't understand why they

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