Read Ebook: The Old Glade (Forbes's) Road (Pennsylvania State Road) by Hulbert Archer Butler

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Bouquet evidently laid the sum and substance of St. Clair's letters before General Forbes who, on July 6, delivered himself in reply as follows: "Sir John St. Clair was the person who first advised me to go by Raes town, why he has altered his sentiments I do not know, or to what purpose make the road from Fort Frederick to Cumberland, as most certainly we shall now all go by Raes town, but I am afraid that Sir John is led by passions, he says he knows very well that we shall not find a road from Raes town across the Allegany, and that to go by Raes town to F. Cumberland is a great way about, but this he ought to have said two months ago or hold his peace now. Pray examine the Country tother side of the Allegany particularly the Laurell Ridge that he says its impossible we can pass without going into Braddock's old road. What his views are in those suggestions I know not, but I should be sorry to be obliged to alter ones schemes so late in the day, particularly as it was S^ Johns proper business to have forseen and to have foretold all this. Who to the Contrary was the first adviser. Let the road to Fort Cumberland from Raes town be finished with all Diligence because if we must go by Fort Cumberland it must be through Raes town as it is now too late to make use of the road by Fort Frederick and I fancy you will agree that ... there is no time to be lost." General Forbes wrote an interesting letter to Pitt under the date of July 10. Speaking of Raystown he writes: "The place having its name from one Rae, who designed to have made a plantation there several years ago." Speaking of the country he observes: "Being an immense Forest of 240 miles in Extent, intersected by several ranges of mountains, impenetrable almost to any thing human save the Indians who have foot paths or tracks through those desarts, by the help of which, we make our roads.... I am in hopes of finding a better way over the Alleganey Mountain, than that from fort Cumberland which General Braddock took. If so I shall shorten both my march, and my labor of the road about 40 miles, which is a great consideration. For were I to pursue M^r Braddock's route, I should save but little labour, as that road is now a brush wood, by the sprouts from the old stumps, which must be cut down and made proper for Carriages as well as any other passage that we must attempt." Yet his letter to Bouquet on the day after, July 11, says that Forbes was not stickling for the new road: "I shall hurry up the troops, directly," he wrote, "so pray see for a road across the Alligeny or by Fort Cumberland, which Garrison may if necessary be clearing Braddocks old road." However, lest he be put under the necessity of taking the longer route, he wrote again to Bouquet by James Grant: "that the Road over the Allegany may be reconnoitred, for he is unwilling to be put under the necessity of making any Detour."

On July 14 General Forbes wrote Bouquet from Carlisle: "I ... have all along thought the road from F. Frederick to Cumberland superfluous, if we could have done without it, which I am glad to understand we can do by Raes town. It would have been double pleasure if from thence we could have got a good road across the Laurell hill, But by Cap^t Wards journal I begin to fear it will be difficult, altho I would have you continue to make further tryalls, for I should be very sorry to pass by Fort Cumberland. I am sensible that some foolish people have made partys to drive us into that road, as well as into the road by Fort Frederick, but as I utterly detest all partys and views in military operations, so you may very well guess, how and what arguments I have had with S^ John St Clair upon that subject. But I expect Governor Sharp here this night when I shall know more of this same road. I hope your second detachment across the Allegeny have been able to ascertain what route we must take, and that consequently you are sett about clearing of it.... I have sent up Major Armstrong with one Demming an old Indian trader who has been many a time upon the road from Raes town to Fort duquesne, he says there is no Difficulty in the road across the Laurell Hill and that He leaves the Yohageny all the way upon his left hand about 8 miles, and that it is only 40 miles from the Laurell Hill to Fort duquesne, along the top of the Chestnut ridge.... As I presume you may want Forage, and as S^ John has confessed that he had provided none but at Fort Cumberland If you therefore think it necessary, send Waggons to Fort Cumberland for part of it.... Let me hear immediately your resolution about the road."

To this Bouquet replied that he had sent orders to have Braddock's Road reconnoitred and cleared; "at all events it may serve to deceive the Enemy." He was daily in expectation of news from his exploring parties on Laurel Hill and promised Forbes to forward their report as soon as he received it.

On July 21 Bouquet wrote General Forbes: "I waited for the return of Captain Ward before replying . He arrived yesterday evening, his journal being so vague and confused that I could not understand anything from it. Captain Gordon is making an extract from it which I send with this. They are convinced that a waggon road could be made across Laurell Hill, not so bad as that from Fort Littleton to this place, & that there is water and grass all the way, but little forage between the two mountains. The slope of the Alleghany is the worst, the country between that and Laurell Hill is passable, and this last mountain, is very easy to cross: all the guides & officers who were on the Ohio agree that from Lawrell Hill onwards there are no further difficulties; it is a chain of hills easy to cross. They have thought it impracticable to continue the road cut by Colonel Burd to join the Braddock road, except by following the whole length of Lawrell Hill, which would make the road longer than if taken through Cumberland; the rest of the country is rendered impassable by marshes, &c. The pack horses have just arrived. We must give them a day's rest, & on the day after tomorrow Major Armstrong will set out with a party of 100 volunteers to mark out the road, and will send me a man every day to inform me of his progress & observations. There is no spot suitable for the making of a depot until one comes to the foot of the other slope of Lawrell Hill, which may be about 45 miles from here; there is sufficient water there, and forage, but as it would entail too great a risk to leave his party on the other side of Lawrell Hill, I shall give him instructions to reconnoitre, & to mark out the site of the depot, & then return to Edmund's Swamp, where I will in the first place send him a reinforcement with provisions, so that he may make an entrenched camp there, which will serve as flying base; and if the report he makes of his route is favourable, I shall send 600 men to take a post at Loyal Hanny, which I conceive to be the proper place for the chief depot; from there it will be more easy to push his parties forward than from this place. I hope you will be here before the main detachment marches, and in that case I shall go myself, if you approve. I wish the new levies may be able to join before that time, so as to be able to form the three Pennsylvania battalions, and get them into order. I shall have here the two companies of workmen from Virginia, to be employed in cutting the road as soon as you shall have decided upon your route. I shall await your arrival before beginning, because the pack horses cross without difficulty, and will suffice to carry their provisions. As regards your route the Virginia party continues in full force, and although the secret motive of their policy seems to me not above suspicion of partiality, it nevertheless appears to me an additional reason for acting with double caution in a matter of this consequence, so as to have ample answers for all their clamors, if any accident happens, which they would not fail to attribute to the choice of a fresh route. Captain Patterson, who set out two days after Captain Ward with a party of 13 men to reconnoitre the fort, has returned with them without accomplishing anything. He tried to cross the two mountains in a direct line with the fort, but he found Lawrell Hill impassible, and the different reports agree in the fact that there is no other pass to be found except the Indian Path reconnoitred by Captain Ward. The guide Dunning speaks of a gap he crossed 16 years ago, but no one knows this gap, which he declares he found in 'Hunting Horses.' He is marching with the Major and two or three other guides.... The communication with Cumberland is cut, and it is an excellent road."

On July 20 Forbes wrote, by the hand of St. Clair, to Bouquet asking that all the guides then with him be sent to Carlisle for a conference with the general. Three days later Bouquet answered as follows: "Major Armstrong has three guides with him: McConnell, Brown and Starrat. I am sending you all that are left there,--Frazer, Walker, Garret, and the two that are at Littleton,--Ohins and Lowry. If those from Cumberland arrive in time, I will send them on afterwards."

On July 25 Washington wrote Bouquet from Fort Cumberland: "I do not incline to propose any thing that may seem officious, but would it not facilitate the operation of the campaign, if the Virginian troops were ordered to proceed as far as the Great Crossing, and construct forts at the most advantageous situations as they advance, opening the road at the same time? In such a case, I should be glad to be joined by that part of my regiment at Raystown. Major Peachey, who commands the working party on Braddock's road, writes to me, that he finds few repairs wanting. Tonight I shall order him to proceed as far as Savage River, and then return, as his party is too weak to adventure further.... I shall most cheerfully work on any road, pursue any route or enter upon any service, that the General or yourself may think me usefully imployed in, or qualified for, and shall never have a will of my own, when a duty is required of me. But since you desire me to speak my sentiments freely, permit me to observe, that after having conversed with all the guides, and having been informed by others, who have a knowledge of the country, I am convinced that a road, to be compared with General Braddock's, or indeed, that will be fit for transportation even by packhorses, cannot be made. I have no predilection for the route you have in mind, not because difficulties appear therein, but because I doubt whether satisfaction can be given in the execution of the plan. I know not what reports you may have received from your reconnoitring parties; but I have been uniformly told, that, if you expect a tolerable road by Raystown, you will be disappointed, for no movement can be made that way without destroying our horses. I should be extremely glad of one hour's conference with you, when the General arrives. I could then explain myself more fully, and, I think, demonstrate the advantages of pushing out a body of light troops in this quarter. I would make a trip to Raystown with great pleasure, if my presence here could be dispensed with for a day or two, of which you can best judge."

With Washington's letter came also one from General Forbes, written July 23. From it these extracts are to the point: "As I disclaim all parties myself, I should be sorry that they were to Creep in amongst us. I therefore conceive what the Virginia folks would be at, for to me it appears to be them, and them only, that want to drive us into the road by Fort Cumberland, no doubt in opposition to the Pennsylvanians who by Raes town would have a nigher Communication to the Ohio. S^ John St. Clair was the first person that proposed and enforced me in to take the road by Raes town, I having previous to this ordered our Army to assemble at Conegochegue which I was obliged afterwards to alter to Raestown at his Instance, altho he then declared that he nor nobody else knew any thing of the road leading from the Laurell hill, but as he has represented it of late impracticable to me, I was therefore pressing to have the Communication opened from Raes town to Fort Cumberland. S^ John I am afraid had got a new light at Winchester, and I believe from thence proceeded to the opening the road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland. I put the Question fairly to him yesterday morning by asking him if he knew of any Intention of making me change measures and forcing me into the Fort Cumberland road, when he knew that it was at his Instance solely, that I had changed it to Raes town; I showed him Cap^t Ward's Journal & description of the road from Raestown to the top of the Laurell Hill, telling him at the same time, that if an easy road could be found there, or made there, that I was amazed he should know nothing off it, which was evident by his telling me of late that the Laurel hill was impracticable, he appeared nonplused, but rather than appear ignorant, he said that there were many Indian Traders that knew those roads very well; I stopt him short by saying if that was the case, that I was very sorry he had never found them out, or never thought it worth his while to examine them. In short he knows nothing of the matter. Col^l Byrd in a paragraph of his letter from Fort Cumberland, amongst other things writes, that he has upwards of sixty Indians waiting my arrival, and ready to accompany me, but they will not follow me unless I go by Fort Cumberland. This is a new system of military Discipline truly; and shows that my Good friend Byrd is either made the Cats Foot of himself, or he little knows me, if he imagines that Sixty scoundrels are to direct me in my measures. As we are now so far advanced as Raestown I should look fickle in my measures, in changing, to go by Fort Cumberland, without being made thoroughly sensible of the impracticability of passing by the shortest way over the Laurell Hill to the Ohio. The difference at present in the length of road the one way and the other stands thus--

"From Raestown to Fort Cumberland, 34 miles or upwards

"From Fort Cumberland to Fort Duquesne by Ge^ Braddocks, 125 miles in all 160 to which add the passage of rivers &c and the last 8 miles not cut.

"The other road--

"From Raestown to the top of the Laurell Hill 46 miles

"From then to Fort Duquesne suppose 40 or 50 miles in all 90 with no rivers to obstruct you and nothing to stop you that I can see, except the Bugbear, a tremendous pass of the Laurel Hill.

"If what I say is true and those two roads are compared, I don't see that I am to Hesitate one moment which to take unless I take a party likewise, which I hope never to do in Army matters.

Under the same date General Forbes wrote as follows to Major-general Abercrombie: "Scouting Parties have been sent out, with the best Guides we could find, and according to the Reports which some of them have made, the Road over the Allegeny Mountain and the Lawrel Ridge will be found practicable for Carriages, which will be of infinate Consequence, will facilitate Our Matters much by shortening the March at least 70 miles, besides the Advantage of having no Rivers to pass, as We shall keep the Yeogheny upon our Left.... The Troops are all in Motion ... but I have Retarded the March of some of them upon the Route from this Place, as I am unwilling to bring them together till the Route is finally determined."

On the twenty-sixth Bouquet wrote Forbes as follows:

"There, my dear General, you have in brief the reports and opinions which have reached me; I will add no reflection of my own, hoping to see you every day. Do you not think it would be well to see Colonel Washington here, before making your decision? and if our parties continue to send favourable news, to convert him to give way to the evidence?"

In reply to Washington's letter of the twenty-fifth Bouquet wrote: "Nothing can exceed your generous dispositions for the service. I see with the utmost satisfaction, that you are above the influences of prejudice, and ready to go heartily where reason and judgement shall direct. I wish, sincerely, that we may all entertain one and the same opinion; therefore I desire to have an interview with you at the houses built half way between our camps. I will communicate all the intelligence, which it has been in my power to collect; and, by weighing impartially the advantages and disadvantages of each route, I hope we shall be able to determine what is most eligible, and save the General trouble and loss of time."

In this same letter Bouquet wrote, concerning the general situation: "You will see from the extract appended from Major Armstrong's letters the report he makes thereupon. All seems practicable and even easy, but I put too little confidence in the observations of a young man without experience to act upon his judgement. I have therefore sent Colonel Burd, Rhor and Captain Ward to reconnoitre the Allegheny, to make an examination of all the difficulties, and thus put me into a position to decide what reliance is to be placed on the rest of the discoveries. Unfortunately they have found things very different, and this mountain which these gentlemen crossed so easily is worse than Seydeling Hill, and the ascent much longer. Considering that it was impossible to cut a waggon road on this slope without immense labour, they searched along the mountain for another pass, and found about two miles to the North a gap of which no one was aware.... It seems that, with much labour, one might make a much easier road there than the other; it remains to be seen what obstacles are still to be encountered before Loyal Hanning. Sir John has arrived, and I have communicated to him all I know on the subject; and he starts today or tomorrow morning with Colonel Burd, Rhor and 200 men to reconnoitre this gap, and the whole route as far as Loyal Hanning. He will spend 6 or 7 days on this survey, and I hope on his return you will be able to form a decision. And, in order that no time may be lost, I will make a commencement of the work if the thing is practicable without awaiting your orders. I have thought it best not to do so up to the present, in order not to lay ourselves open to public reflections if we commenced and abandoned different routes. I agree with you that you cannot take the Cumberland route untill you are in a position to demonstrate the impossibility of finding another road, or at any rate the impossibility of opening one without risking the expedition by too great an expenditure of time. We are in a cruel position, if you are reduced to a single line of communication. It is 64 miles from Cumberland to Gist, and there are only three places capable of furnishing forage sufficient for the army; the rest would not suffice for a single night. The frost, which commences at the end of October, destroys all the grass, and the rivers overflowing in the spring cut off all communication.... If we open a new route, we have not enough axes." On the same day Forbes wrote Bouquet by the hand of Halket a decisive letter in which he said: "he thinks that no time should be lost in making the new Road, he has directed me to inform you that you are immediately to begin the opening of it agreeable to the manner he wrote to you in his last letter, as he sees all the advantages he can propose by going that Route, and will avoid innumerable Inconveniencys he would encounter was he to go the other, he is at the same time extremely surprised at the partial disposition that appears in those Virginia Gentlemans sentiments, as there can be no sort of comparison between the two Routes when you consider the situation of the Troops now at Reastown, & that their is not the least reason to expect that we shall meet with any difficulties but what may be easily surmounted." On the next day but one Forbes wrote: "he told you my opinion of the Laurell Hill road, and that I thought it ought to be sett about directly, as it is good to have two Strings to one Bow."

On this day Washington wrote a last letter to Bouquet in behalf of the Braddock route:

"The matters, of which we spoke relative to the roads, have since our parting, been the subject of my closest reflection; and, so far am I from altering my opinion, that, the more time and attention I bestow, the more I am confirmed in it; and the reasons for taking Braddock's road appear in a stronger point of view. To enumerate the whole of these reasons would be tedious, and to you, who are become so much master of the subject, unnecessary. I shall therefore, briefly mention a few only, which I think so obvious in themselves, that they must effectually remove objections. Several years ago the Virginians and Pennsylvanians commenced a trade with the Indians settled on the Ohio, and, to obviate the many inconveniencies of a bad road, they, after reiterated and ineffectual efforts to discover where a good one might be made, employed for the purpose several of the most intelligent Indians, who, in the course of many years' hunting, had acquired a perfect knowledge of these mountains. The Indians, having taken the greatest pains to gain the rewards offered for this discovery, declared, that the path leading from Will's Creek was infinitely preferable to any, that could be made at any other place. Time and experience so clearly demonstrated this truth, that the Pennsylvania traders commonly carried out their goods by Will's Creek. Therefore, the Ohio Company, in 1753, at a considerable expense, opened the road. In 1754 the troops, whom I had the honor to command, greatly repaired it, as far as Gist's plantation; and, in 1755, it was widened and completed by General Braddock to within six miles of Fort Duquesne. A road, that has so long been opened, and so well and so often repaired, must be much firmer and better than a new one, allowing the ground to be equally good.

"But, supposing it were practicable to make a road from Raystown quite as good as General Braddock's,--I ask, have we time to do it? Certainly not. To surmount the difficulties to be encountered in making it over such mountains, covered with woods and rocks, would require so much time, as to blast our otherwise well-grounded hopes of striking the important stroke this season.

"The favorable accounts, that some give of the forage on the Raystown road, as being so much better than that on the other, are certainly exaggerated. It is well known, that, on both routes, the rich valleys between the mountains abound with good forage, and that those, which are stony and bushy, are destitute of it. Colonel Byrd and the engineer, who accompanied him, confirm this fact. Surely the meadows on Braddock's road would greatly overbalance the advantage of having grass to the foot of the ridge, on the Raystown road; and all agree, that a more barren road is nowhere to be found, than that from Raystown to the inhabitants, which is likewise to be considered.

"Another principal objection made to General Braddock's road is in regard to the waters. But these seldom swell so much, as to obstruct the passage. The Youghiogany River, which is the most rapid and soonest filled, I have crossed with a body of troops, after more than thirty days' almost continued rain. In fine, any difficulties on this score are so trivial, that they really are not worth mentioning. The Monongahela, the largest of all these rivers, may, if necessary, easily be avoided, as Mr. Frazer the principal guide informs me, by passing a defile, and even that, he says, may be shunned.

"Again, it is said, there are many defiles on this road. I grant that there are some, but I know of none that may not be traversed; and I should be glad to be informed where a road can be had, over these mountains, not subject to the same inconvenience. The shortness of the distance between Raystown and Loyal Hanna is used as an argument against this road, which bears in it something unaccountable to me; for I must beg leave to ask, whether it requires more time, or is more difficult and expensive, to go one hundred and forty-five miles in a good road already made to our hands, than to cut one hundred miles anew, and a great part of the way over impassable mountains.

"That the old road is many miles nearer Winchester in Virginia, and Fort Frederic in Maryland, than the contemplated one, is incontestable; and I will here show the distances from Carlisle by the two routes, fixing the different stages, some of which I have from information only, but others I believe to be exact.

"From this computation there appears to be a difference of nineteen miles only. Were all the supplies necessarily to come from Carlisle, it is well known, that the goodness of the old road is a sufficient compensation for the shortness of the other, as the wrecked and broken wagons there clearly demonstrate....

"... From what has been said relative to the two roads, it appears to me very clear, that the old one is infinitely better, than the other can be made, and that there is no room to hesitate in deciding which to take, when we consider the advanced season, and the little time left to execute our plan."

But Forbes's letter of the thirty-first was decisive, and, following his orders, Colonel Bouquet began cutting a new road westward from Raystown August 1.

THE NEW ROAD

The correspondence included in the chapter preceding affords probably the utmost light that can be thrown today upon the reason of the making of the great Pennsylvanian thoroughfare to the Ohio. It cannot be affirmed, as has often been said, that Forbes was early prejudiced in favor of a Pennsylvania route; he never could have been such a hypocrite as to pen the words to be found on page 94. That his first plans were completely altered at the advice of Sir John St. Clair is very plain from his letters to Governor Denny and to Colonel Bouquet ; but up to the very last he leaves the question open, to be decided wholly according to the reports of the guides and explorers. It is difficult, however, to reconcile the words in Forbes's letter to Bouquet of July 23, in which he states that St. Clair, when advising the Raystown route, affirmed "that he nor nobody else knew anything of the road leading from Laurell hill." It is evident from this that Forbes originally expected to fall down to the Braddock road from Raystown, but that when once on the ground, with the distances clear in his mind, he was compelled to find a shorter road westward if there was one to be found. This is the only explanation of his immediate change of plan at St. Clair's advice, knowing that St. Clair had found no route westward by Laurel Hill; it seems that St. Clair thought only of proceeding via Raystown to Fort Cumberland, as he affirmed in his letter of June 9 to Bouquet. St. Clair was undoubtedly right in deciding that the best course to Fort Cumberland from Philadelphia for the army was through populous Pennsylvania, and his understanding that the Braddock Road would be followed from that point would easily explain why he had provided forage at Fort Cumberland, which occasioned Forbes's criticism in his letter of July 14. Indeed from Forbes's letters of June 16, 19, and 27, it does not seem that he had any definite plan for the construction of a new road.

On the other hand Forbes very correctly doubted the advisability of using Braddock's long route when his army was once gathered together along the road from Carlisle to Raystown. Bouquet stated his position very soundly when he said: "You cannot take the Cumberland until you are in a position to demonstrate the impossibility of finding another road, or at any rate the impossibility of opening one without risking the expedition by too great an expenditure of time." Moreover, Forbes had a comprehensive view of the situation such as probably no one else had.

So far as Bouquet's position was concerned, his correspondence shows that he was assiduous in carrying out Forbes's directions; as to any conspiracy on his part to win Forbes over to the Pennsylvania route, as Washington insinuated, who can believe one existed after reading his letters? Bouquet very properly threw the burden of ultimate decision upon Forbes, as it was his duty to do; he sent him all the information which he could obtain, pro and con, concerning all routes; he sent Colonel Burd out, with his guides, in order to have testimony upon which he was sure he could rely; he urged Forbes to defer his decision of route until he could have a personal interview with Washington; he had Braddock's Road partly cleared and plainly described it as needing "very little in the way of repair;" he never seems to have attempted to minimize the difficulties of making a new route or maximize those of the old; he continually urges the necessity of great caution in the selection of a route.

The motives which directed the movements of Sir John St. Clair during these months of controversy are quite beyond fathoming. It is easy to believe that the "new light," which Forbes said Sir John had received "at Winchester," made it clear that if he did not send the army over the southern route to Cumberland, it was possible that Forbes would never traverse Braddock's Road at all. It is certain that upon Governor Sharpe's and Washington's arrival upon the scene, Sir John began to shower upon Bouquet letters advising the opening of the Fort Frederick-Fort Cumberland road; "and I believe from thence," Forbes wrote of St. Clair's meeting with Governor Sharpe, "proceeded to the opening the road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland." Indeed, it would be interesting to know whether it was not St. Clair's suddenly raised clamor over the length of the Raystown route to Fort Cumberland that determined Forbes to ignore Fort Cumberland and push out on a new, shorter route to the Ohio.

Whatever were St. Clair's reasons for such vacillating plans, it is sure he fell into disgrace in Forbes's eyes. In addition to the upbraiding he received from the general's own lips, Forbes wrote in his letter of July 14 that the wagons were the plague of his life and denied that St. Clair had taken "the smallest pains" or made the "least inquiry" concerning the matters he had been detailed to care for. Again, in Forbes's letter to Bouquet of July 17 he says: "Sir John acknowledges taking some and applying them to the use of the Virginians &c which is terrible." In a letter previously quoted Forbes affirms that St. Clair--who was sent in advance of the army to settle the matter of route--"knows nothing of the matter." Forbes's wrath at St. Clair reached a climax before the end of August when he savagely declared that he suspected his "heart as well as the head."

And now as to Washington. His letters are typical of the young man to whom these western forests were not unfamiliar; they are patriotic and loyal. Though he was standing for election to the House of Burgesses in his home county, he had refused to accept a leave of absence to do his electioneering--which in no wise prevented his election. I cannot find any ill-boding prophecy in his letters, concerning the making of a new road westward from Raystown, which after events did not justify. He affirmed that Forbes could not reach Fort Duquesne by a new road before the winter set in; and no prophecy ever seemed more accurately fulfilled. For before Fort Duquesne was reached it was decided not to attempt to continue the campaign further. An unexpected occurrence suddenly turned the tide and Forbes went on--to a splendid conquest. But, nevertheless, Washington's prophecy was, not long after it was made, found to have been that of a wise man. Had Forbes been one iota less fortunate than Braddock was unfortunate, Washington's words would have come true to the letter. So much for his judgment, which Forbes ignored.

But Washington's knowledge was limited, so far as the general situation of the army was concerned. Forbes's expedition was one of three simultaneous campaigns; and the three commanders were somewhat dependent upon each other. At any time Forbes might be called upon to give assistance to Abercrombie or Johnson. Forbes was in constant correspondence with both of his colleagues; after Abercrombie's repulse the prosecution of the Fort Duquesne campaign, it may almost be said, was in question. At any rate it was important to have open the shortest possible route of communication to the northern colonies where the other campaigns were being pushed; in case Fort Duquesne was captured a straight road through populous, grain-growing Pennsylvania would be of utmost importance; especially as Pennsylvania abounded in vehicles, while in Virginia they were scarce.

Washington thought only of a quick campaign completed in the same season as begun. Forbes, however, was not in eager haste and had good reason for moving slowly. As early as August 9 he wrote Bouquet: "Between you and I be it said, as we are now so late, we are yet too soon. This is a parable that I shall soon explain." Three reasons appealed to Forbes for moving slowly, though it is doubtful if he intended moving as slowly as he actually did move: Frederick Post, the missionary, had been sent to the Indians on the Beaver asking them to withdraw from the French; the Indian chiefs were invited to the treaty at Easton, where their alliance with the French would, it was hoped, be undermined; winter was drawing on apace, when the Indians who were with the French would withdraw to their villages and begin to prepare for the inclement season.

One of the direct serious charges brought against Washington was that he did "not know the difference between a party and an army." This is brought by Colonel Bouquet and I do not believe that he was in error or that the accusation can be proved unjust. Washington had had much experience, such as it was, in the Fort Necessity campaign, with Braddock, and on the Virginia frontier. But the Fort Necessity campaign was conspicuous as a political, not a military event. The force he led west did not number two hundred men. This was, surely, a party, not an army. Now, be it remembered, the great difficulty of leading any body of men, small or great, lay in provisioning them and feeding the horses. The larger the army the greater the difficulty--indeed the difficulty trebled as the number of men and horses was doubled. On those mountain roads the second wagon was drawn with much greater difficulty than the first. Again, a small body of men could, in part, be supplied with food from the forests; in the case of an army this source of supply must be ignored. In the case of Washington's Fort Necessity campaign, how did his handful of men fare? They nearly starved--and capitulated because they did not have the food to give them the necessary strength to retreat. This was not Washington's fault, for he, properly, left this matter with those whose business it was; but the experience certainly did not teach him how to handle an army.

It is clear from preceding pages that, on the Virginia frontier, he learned no lessons on the control of large bodies of men.

But now, in 1758, as colonel of an important branch of the army General Forbes was throwing across the Alleghenies, Washington came forward conspicuously as a champion of a certain route to be pursued by an army of five thousand men. Frankly, what did he know of the needs of five thousand men on a march of two hundred miles from their base of supplies? His correspondence on this point is not satisfactory. He had never passed over the Pennsylvania Road, and, though he understood better than anyone what it meant to cut a new road, he does not answer the argument that the Braddock Road failed to offer as much pasturage for horses and cattle as the Pennsylvania route. He confines himself largely to the matter of celerity: and the situation, as we have explained, did not demand haste. Forbes had the best of reasons for moving slowly. From a commissary's standpoint Washington's argument could have had no weight whatever.

Washington was strongly prejudiced in favor of the Virginia route; and no man could have had better reasons for prejudice, as will be shown. He argued conspicuously and vehemently on a subject with which he had no experience. Great and good as he became, and brave and faithful as he was, it is all the easier to confess to a weakness which was due to a lack of experience and to loyal, old-time Virginia pride. It is an exceedingly pleasant duty to emphasize the fact that, after his repeated arguments were cast aside by his superiors and a route was chosen in the face of the strongest opposition he could bring to bear on the subject, the young man swallowed his chagrin and the slights under which his fine spirit must have writhed, and worked manfully and heroically for measures which he had heartily opposed. In all that he had done in the past five years he never played the man better than here and now.

The controversy as to whether Forbes's route should be through Pennsylvania or Virginia serves to bring into clear perspective one of the most interesting and one of the most important phases of our study--the meaning of the building of a road at that time to either one of those colonies. Nothing could emphasize this more than the sharpness of the quarrel and the position of those concerned in it. It meant very much to Pennsylvania to have Forbes cut a road to the Ohio in both of the two ways suggested by Washington to Governor Fouquier--it fortified her frontier and opened a future avenue of trade. The Old Trading Path had been her best course westward and her trade with the Indians had been nothing to what it would now become. But such as it had been, it was most distasteful to the Virginians to the south who called the West their own. This rivalry was intense for more than a quarter of a century and came near ending in bloodshed; the quarrel was only forgotten in the tumultuous days of 1775. General Forbes seems to have understood very well that his new road would be of utmost importance to Pennsylvania as that province would then have a "nigher Communication to the Ohio;" and that was the very reason he cut it: because it was shorter--not to please Pennsylvania. If Fort Duquesne was to be captured and fortified and manned and supplied, the shortest route thither would be, as the dark days of 1764 and 1775 and 1791 proved, a desperately long road to travel.

On the other hand the building of Forbes's road in Pennsylvania was a boon which that province far less deserved than Virginia. Virginia men and capital were foremost in the field for securing the Indian trade of the Ohio; they had, nearly ten years before, secured a grant of land between the Monongahela and Kanawha, and sent explorers and a number of pioneers to occupy the land; their private means had been given to clear the first white man's road thither and erect storehouses at Wills Creek and Redstone; the activity of these ambitious, worthy men had brought on the war now existing. When open strife became the colonies' only hope of holding the West, Virginia was first and foremost in the field; the same spirit that showed itself in commercial energy was very evident when war broke out, and for four years Virginia had given of her treasure and of her citizens for the cause. During this time Pennsylvania had hardly lifted a finger, steadily pursuing a course which brought down upon her legislators most bitter invectives from every portion of the colonies. And now, in the last year of the war, the conquering army was to pass through Pennsylvania to the Ohio, building a road thither which should for all time give this province an advantage very much greater than that ever enjoyed by any of the others. True, Braddock's Road curled along over the mountains, but after the defeat by the Monongahela it had never been used except by small parties on foot and had become well-nigh impassable otherwise. We do not know what Washington wrote in the letter which Forbes so roundly criticised, but it can easily be conceived, without detriment to his character, that he might have spoken in a way Forbes could not understand concerning lethargic Pennsylvania's undeserved good fortune. But Forbes had the present to deal with, not the past, and the shortest route to the Ohio was all too long.

This became alarmingly plain in a very short time after the day, August 1, on which Bouquet began to cut it. The story of the hewing of this road cannot be told better than by quoting the fragments appertaining to it contained in the letters of those closely concerned in its building. Old St. Clair, who, as we have seen, was sent on by Forbes to Bouquet, was the advance supervisor. As early as August 12 he was writing Bouquet from "Camp on y^e Side of Alleganys" that not as much progress had been made as he had hoped, and that the "Work to be done on this Road is immense. Send as many men as you can with digging tools, this is a most diabolical work, and whiskey must be had. I told you that the road wou'd take 500 Men 5 Days in cutting to the Top of the Mountain." On the sixteenth he wrote: "A small retrench^t is picked out at Kikeny Pawlings."

"... The Stages will be from Rays Town to the Shanoe Cabins 11 Miles, to S^r Allan McLeans camp 9 or 10 Miles to Edmunds Swamp 9 or 10 Miles."

"... The Pack Horses returning from Kikoney Paulins have taken the other Road, so you may send them back loaded."

Forbes, writing to Bouquet, refers as follows to the new road August 7: "Extremely well satisfied with your accounts of the Road, and very glad to find that you have, entered upon the making of it;" : "I hope your new road advances briskly, and that from the Alleghany Hill to Laurell Hill may be carrying forward by different partys, at the same time, that you are making the pass of the Allegany practicable;" : "I hope the new road goes on fast and that soon we shall be able to take post at Loyal Haning. I see nothing that can facilitate this more than by still amusing the Enemy by pushing Considerable parties along M^r Braddock's route, which parties might endeavour to try to find communications betwixt the two roads where they approach the nearest, or where most likely such passages can be found. As it will be necessary very soon to make a disposition of our small Army I beg you will give your thoughts a little that way. At present I think the greatest part ought to be assembled at Raestown to make our main push by that road, while Col^l Washington, or some other officer might push along the other road and might join us if a Communication can be found when called upon. But this is only an Idea in Embryo...." : "In carrying forward the new road I think there might easily be a small road carried on at the same time, at about 100 yards to the right and left of it, and parallel with it, by which our flanking partys might advance easier along with the line. I dont mean here to cut down any large trees, only to clear away the Brushwood and saplins, so as the men either on foot or on horseback may pass the easier along...."

Bouquet forwarded this order to St. Clair on August 23, also writing: "Colonel Burd is to command on the West of Lawrell Hill, and to march without delay and before the Road is cut to Loyal H-- ." On the same date St. Clair wrote Bouquet from Stoney Creek as follows: "I wrote you yesterday ... that three waggons have got to this place, the Road not so good as I shall make it.... I hope to get to Kikoney Pawlins to morrow night, if not shall do it next day. Tell Mr Sinclair to send me my Down Quilt the weather is cold." That evening he wrote again, in reply to Bouquet's letter, from "Kikoney Paulins:" "It is impossible for me to tell you any more than I have done about the Road to L-- H-- . I required 600 Men to make the Road over the Lai Ri--ge in three days on condition I was to see it done my Self, and perhaps I might reach L-- H the 3^d Day. I expect to get the Road cleared as far as the clear fields a Mile from the foot of L--R on this Side, by the time the A--y comes up, and work afterwards with as many men as the Other Corps will give me." From Edmonds Swamp St. Clair wrote next : "I got the Waggons safe as far as this post yesterday the road is so far good, and if it had not rain'd so hard I was in hopes to report the Road good this Night to Kikoney Pawlings.... If you think the Road from Rays town to the Shanoe Cabins will be wet in the autumn, it wou'd be well to open the Road over the two Risings, and it wou'd be shorter for our Returned Waggons. I shall send out a Reconoitering party 25 Miles northward that we may know the Paths that lead to sidling Hill."

Forbes alone realized that despatch was not to be, necessarily, the secret of the success of his campaign, though he had urged Bouquet to hasten the roadmaking as fast as possible. He had his eyes fixed elsewhere than on the Allegheny ranges; he knew the Indians at Fort Duquesne were weary of the listless campaign; that Bradstreet had been sent against Fort Frontenac ; that by the first of September a hundred Indians were already gathered at Easton ready for a treaty; that the brave Post was now among the Delawares bringing the final opportunity for them to abandon the French cause. On September 2 he wrote Bouquet hinting of all these circumstances and urging delay in everything but mere road-building. On the sixth of September Forbes wrote Pitt:

"In my last I had the honour to acquaint you, of my proceedings in the new road across the Alleganey mountains, and over Laurell Hill, strait to the Ohio, by which I have saved a great deal of way, and prevented the misfortunes that the overflowing of those rivers might occasion.

"I acquainted you likewise of the suspicions I had, of the small trust I could repose in the Pennsylvanians in assisting of me with anyone necessary, or any help in furthering the service that they did not think themselves compelled to do by the words of your letter to them.... My advanced post consisting of 1500 men, are now in possession of a strong post 9 miles on the other side of Laurell Hill, and about 40 from Fort Du Quesne, nor had the Enemy even suspected my attempting such a road till very lately, they having been all along securing the strong passes, and fords of the rivers upon Gen^l Braddock's route."

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