Background
Daniel Webb was an Englishman, probably connected with the Wiltshire Webbs.
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Daniel Webb
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In March 1721, he purchased an ensigncy in the 16t Foot Guards; in April 1722, he became captain-lieutenant, with the rank of captain, in the same corps; and from 1725 to 1732 he led a company in Grove's regiment of foot. In 1732 he became a captain in the 4th Horse, which under Ligonier developed into one of the finest cavalry regiments in the army (Black Horse, 7th Dragoon Guards). He remained with that corps for twenty years. In 1742 he attained the rank of major and led a squadron at Dettingen and at Fontenoy; a few days after the latter battle, in 1745, he was made lieutenant-colonel and commanded the corps for ten years. Such service brought him favorably to the attention of Cumberland, the captain-general, and he was probably the Webb who in 1754 carried out the thankless task of settling the army accounts with Holland for the previous war. In November 1755, he succeeded Dunbar as colonel of the 48th Foot, then in America. On Cumberland's recommendation, who thought him a "sensible, discreet man as well as a good officer, " Webb early in 1756 was selected as third in command in North America under Lord Loudoun and James Abercromby; he was given a temporary commission as commander-in-chief, and sent to New York to supervise preparations for the campaign. Reaching New York only nine days before Abercromby, he never took over officially the chief command. The following August, on the news of the fall of Oswego, Loudoun made him a temporary major-general and sent him up the Mohawk River to make a stand against Montcalm's expected attack on the forts there. Panic-stricken by Indian rumors, Webb on his own initiative destroyed the forts and precipitately retreated. The colonists, suspended, as one of them said, in a "spider's web, " made him their chief target of scorn. Their outspoken bitterness combined that winter with a severe attack of the palsy to destroy completely his confidence in his own judgment, yet Loudoun had no one else to leave in command in New York in 1757 when the main army was in Nova Scotia. Distrustful of the provincials, fearful that he had been left without sufficient troops, Webb neglected to strengthen the New York posts or to take any of the measures advised by Loudoun. Of Montcalm's designs on Fort William Henry he had sufficient warning, yet for the six days of the siege in August he lay at Fort Edward, fourteen miles to the south, without attempting relief. Pitt recalled him in December 1757. He was, but probably because of his illness, the most incompetent staff officer who served in America during the Seven Years' War. In 1758, as quartermaster-general, he served in Germany, and in 1760 commanded a brigade at Warbourg. He was promoted major-general in 1759, and lieutenant-general in 1761. He became colonel in 1766 of the 8th Foot and in 1772 of the 14th Dragoons.
