Person:Noah Ashley (2)

Major Ashley enlisted March 29, 1755, in Co. Ephraim Williams regiment. He was present "at a Council of War held at camp at Grate Carrying Place August 22, 1755, by the Honorable Major-General Johnson, Commander in Chief of the Provincial Troops raised in the present Expedition against Crown Point."

The expedition to Crown Point was under the command of Col. Johnson of the Hamshire County troops. The army advanced as far as the south end of Lake George in the latter part of August, and waited for the arrival or construction of batteaux to carry them to Crown Point. In the meantime Baron Dieskau with a large force of French regulars, Canadians and Indians had continued to advance, and on September 8th was within a few miles of Johnson's camp. The latter had sent forward that morning a thousand men and two hundred Mohawks under Col. Ephraim Williams to intercept the enemy who were supposed to be on the point of attacking Fort Edward. The advance of Col. Williams was discovered by Dieskau, who made his plans to ambush him at a point where the path lay through a ravine. The ambuscade was successful, although in their subsequent attack on the camp the enemy were worsted and driven off with loss. The fight lasted four hours and was hotly contested on both sides. The Hampshire regiment suffered most severely, forty six of the regiment being killed and twenty four wounded. Among the officers slain was Major Noah Ashley, who fell in the ambuscade. "There was a pond in the vicinity, behind which the retreating army took refuge, and into which the French threw the bodies of the slain."

1.   Francis Bacon Trowbridge. The Ashley Genealogy - A History of the Descendants of Robert Ashley of Springfield, Massachusetts. (Author)
   33 & 51-55, 23 MAR 2009.

   Birth, death (killed in battle 8 Sep 1755 near Lake George), marriage(s). See notes Quality: 4