THE OLD OR A NEW ROAD?
So many are the versions of the story of the building of Forbes's Road
through Pennsylvania that it was with utmost interest that the present
writer took up the task of examining the only sources of reliable
information: the correspondence of General Forbes, Colonel Bouquet, and
Sir John St. Clair, as preserved in the Bouquet Papers at the British
Museum, and at the British Public Records Office. While these letters
were supplemented by frequent personal interviews which have never been
recorded, yet the testimony given by them is overwhelming that, until
the very last, both men, Forbes and Bouquet, were quite undecided what
route to Fort Duquesne was most practicable; both were open to
conviction, and were equally disinterested parties, thinking only of the
good of the cause to which both soon gave their lives. No one can read
this voluminous correspondence and believe for one moment that General
Forbes was prejudiced in favor of a Pennsylvania route by Pennsylvania
intriguers, as has been frequently asserted;[59] nor that the brave
Swiss Bouquet was at any time determined to guide the army whose van he
bravely led by any but the most expeditious and practicable
thoroughfare. That both men knew of the bitter factional fight which was
waging, this correspondence makes very clear; that both were made doubly
proof against factional arguments, because of this knowledge, is equally
plain.
Before entering upon a consideration of the Forbes-Bouquet-St. Clair
correspondence, it must be always remembered that General Forbes had
originally planned to make the campaign by the old Braddock Road from
Virginia and had issued orders for the assembling of both provincial and
regular troops at "Conegochieque" (Conococheague), on the road built by
Governor Sharpe from Alexandria to Fort Frederick in 1754, over which
Dunbar's column marched.[60] It was undoubtedly his purpose to march
south from Philadelphia over the old Monoccasy road to the Potomac and
then westward over the Braddock routes which converged upon Fort
Cumberland. From there the main track of Braddock's army offered an open
way toward Fort Duquesne. As previously suggested it was the advice of
Sir John St. Clair, his quartermaster-general, that influenced Forbes to
alter his plan and march straight westward from Philadelphia toward
Lancaster and the Pennsylvania frontier. Whatever may have induced St.
Clair to give this advice, it is sure he had learned some lessons from
the disastrous campaign of 1755 when he led Braddock through a country
quite devoid of carriages, horses, and produce; Pennsylvania, on the
other hand, was the granary of America;[61] and, if a road was lacking,
horses and wagons were not, and it was better to lack what could be
provided than to lack that which could not possibly be obtained.
On May 20, Forbes wrote Bouquet from Philadelphia that it was time the
magazines were being formed. One week later (May 21), Sir John St. Clair
wrote Bouquet from Winchester: "Governor Sharpe has been here with me
and is returned to Frederick Town in Maryland." It would seem that Sir
John's change of mind concerning the advisability of Forbes opening a
new route westward dated from Governor Sharpe's visit; for, on the day
following (May 28), he writes Bouquet: "I am not anxious about the
cutting the Road to Rays Town from Fort Cumberland, it may be done in 4
days, or in 2, if the two Ends are gone upon at the same time; but I am
afraid you will have a deal of work from Fort Loudon to Rays Town, which
I am afraid will be Troublesome." On the cover of this letter Bouquet
made the following memorandum: "The Officer Commanding the Virginia
Troops, soon to March into Pennsylvania, is to take Directions from
Henry Pollan living upon the Temporary line, or in his absence, from any
Sensible person about his House, for the nearest and best Waggon Road
From said Pollans or the Widow McGaws to Fort Loudon, to which place
the Troops are to March, Shippensburg being much out of the Way."[62]
Bouquet reached Carlisle on the twenty-fourth of May, and wrote Forbes
as follows on the day after: "I shall order Washington's Regiment to
Fort Cumberland and as soon as we take post at Reas Town 300 of them
must cut the Road along the Path from Fort Cumberland to Reas Town and
join us."
The evident plan of Sir John St. Clair to divert Bouquet from the route
he had originally outlined is disclosed further in a letter written from
Winchester on May 31, in which he says: "I cannot send Col^o Byrd to you
as all the Cherokees have resolved never more to go to Pennsylvania, on
account of the Soldiers of fort Loudon, taking up arms against them, by
Cap^t Trent's Instigation." Under the same date, however, Bouquet wrote
St. Clair and in the letter gave the order which he had preserved in
form of a memorandum on the back of St. Clair's letter of May 28. Sir
John, however, became more and more insistent that the Virginia and
Maryland routes should be employed; on June 6 he wrote Bouquet that "the
Pattomack has as much water in it as the Po at Cremona," intending to
show how useful the stream would be for transporting army stores to Fort
Cumberland. On June 9--when Washington arrived at Winchester--St. Clair
wrote Bouquet: "I send you this by John Walker who is the best Woodsman
I ever knew, he will be usefull in reconnoitering the road to be cut on
the other Side of the Mountain, but do not attempt it too far to the
Right." In this letter St. Clair again reiterates the threat that the
Cherokees will not go into Pennsylvania. And in a postscript, written in
French, he adds a parting shot: "I think you will have some trouble to
find a road from the mountain to the great falls of the Yougheogany." On
June 11 St. Clair again wrote: "I had great dependence on John Walker
the Guide for finding the Road from the Allegheny Ridge to the great
Crossing, I detained him the other day, on purpose, to know if he wou'd
attempt to find it. The answer that he made me, was, that he knew that
Country very well, having hunted there many years, that the Hills run
across the line the Road ought to go and are very steep: That he was
sent by Col^o Dunbar, from the great Crossing, to acquaint Col^o Burd,
of the defeat of the Army, and that the year after he was taken prisoner
by the Shanese, and carried [over] that Road, to the french fort; and
that the Shanese (who he was acquainted with and speaks their Language)
told him, that was the best way to get out of these Mountains and
Laurell Thicketts. On the whole he says that the Road may be made, with
a great deal of labor, & time, but that it must be reconoiter'd, when
the leaves are off the Trees; being impossible to do it at this season.
Considering all these Circumstances and the Season of the Year advancing
so fast, and the Small Number of Indians we have left, I must send you
my opinion (which always was that if I was to carry a Convoy from
Lancaster to fort Cumberland I would pass by, or near Reas Town). That
we have not time to reconoitre the Road in question, and open it,
without taking up more time than we have to spare, and which wou'd give
the french and Indians too favorable an opportunity of attacking on that
laborious Work. I think it will be more eligible to fall down on fort
Cumberland, and get on from thence to the great Crossing, after making a
Block house, at the little meadows. This will advance us 40 miles from
fort Cumberland, and a deposite may be made at that place."
No one can read this strange letter without realizing Bouquet's unhappy
situation: a vacillating know-nothing for quartermaster-general, and a
commander-in-chief detained from coming to the front. Bouquet wrote to
Forbes, who answered that the course of the proposed new road should be
examined before that route was abandoned. "I have yours of the 14^{th},"
wrote Forbes on June 19, "from Fort Loudon and I am sorry that you are
obliged to change our Route, and shall be glad to find the road proposed
by Gov^{r} Sharp practicable, in which case I should think it ought to
be sett about immediately.[63]... I suppose you will reconnoitre the
road across the Allegany mountains from Reas town and if found
unpracticable, that the Fort Cumberland Garrison should open the old
road[64] forward towards the Crossing of the Yohagani.... I find we must
take nothing by report in this country, for there are many who have
their own designs in representing things, so I am glad you have
proceeded to Reas town, where you will be able to judge of the roads and
act accordingly.... Let there be no stops put to the roads as that is
our principall care at present." No one can believe that the author of
this letter was the blindly prejudiced man some have painted him.
Bouquet was, however, not to be contented with an examination of one
route westward; his scouts were out in three directions: on Braddock's
Road, on the Old Trading Path running westward from Raystown (now
Bedford), and also on the upper path toward the Allegheny by way of the
Indian Frank's Town. In all this Forbes seconded him as shown by his
letter of June 27: "I approve much of your trying to pass the Laurel
Hill leaving the Yohageny to the left, as also of knowing what can be
done by the path from Franks town or even from the head of the
Susquehannah, For I have all along had in view to have partys, to fall
upon their Settlements about Venango and there abouts while we are
pushing forward our principale Design." In the meantime old Sir John
kept up his current of objections, so wretchedly ill-timed; he wrote
thus from Carlisle June 30: "I shall be glad you may find a Waggon Road
leaving the Yougheagany on the left, it is what I never cou'd find, I
think the Experiment is dangerous at present and going on an uncertainty
when by falling down upon fort Cumberland, we have our Road opened;
should [the wagon road] be made use of, then the Collums of our army
would be too far assunder." St. Clair had been pushing the opening of
the road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland in the expectation that
the army would consequently "fall down" to the more southernly westward
road even before reaching Fort Cumberland. Three days previous to the
last letter quoted he wrote Bouquet: "I have this morning [June 27]
received the report that the road from fort Frederick to Fort
Cumberland is practicable."
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^{ir} 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 (if they be allowed the appelation)
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
(Forbes) 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^{ir}
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^{ir} John has confessed that he had provided none but at Fort
Cumberland (I suppose on purpose to drive me into that road, for what
purpose I know not) 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.
Washington had now reached Fort Cumberland and was soon in
correspondence with Bouquet at Raystown thirty-four miles to the
northward. July 16 he wrote: "I shall direct the officer, that marches
out, to take particular pains in reconnoitring General Braddock's road,
though I have had repeated information, that it only wants such small
repairs, as could with ease be made as fast as the army would
march."[65] On the twenty-first he wrote: "The bridge is finished at
this place, and tomorrow Major Peachey, with three hundred men, will
proceed to open General Braddock's road. I shall direct them to go to
George's Creek, ten miles in advance. By that time I may possibly hear
from you ... for it will be needless to open a road, of which no use
will be made afterwards."[66] Thus it is clear that, as late as July 20,
Washington at Fort Cumberland, Bouquet at Raystown, and Forbes at
Carlisle were all in doubt as to the army's route.
On July 21 Bouquet wrote General Forbes: "I waited for the return of
Captain Ward before replying [to Forbes's letters of the 14th and 17th
inst]. 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, (of which they have made a sample--)
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 (or every two days) 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 (in all) 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."[67]
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 (and three Indians) 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."
[Illustration: FORBES'S ROAD TO RAYSTOWN (1757) [_The dotted
line to the Youghiogheny shows the line of Burd's Road_]
(_From the original in the British Museum_)]
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
(factions) 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 (than them) to the
Ohio. S^{ir} 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^{ir} 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^{nl} 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
[join a faction] likewise, which I hope never to do in Army matters.
"I have now told you my Opinion, and what I think of the affairs of the
road, but to judge at such Distance, and of a Country I never saw, nor
heard spoke off but in Cap^t Ward's account, I therefore can say nothing
decisive, so have sent up S^{ir} John St Clair in order that he may
explore that new road and determine the most Ellegible to be pursued,
but this I think need not hinder you from proceeding upon the new road
as soon as you can Conveniently.... I have spoke very roundly upon this
subject [roads and forage] to S^{ir} John, who was sent up the Country
from Philadelphia for no other purpose than to fix the roads and provide
forage, both of which I am sorry to say it, are yet to begin--but all
this _entre nous_ until I see you."
Under the same date (July 25) 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:
"I am sending you a letter I have received from Major Armstrong. By the
report of the two guides he sent out it seems the thing is very
practicable; in an affair of so much consequence as this I thought I
ought to act with greatest caution. While the waggoner returned today
with an escort to reconnoitre how the road could be laid so as to avoid
all the detours and windings of the path; and I have asked Colonel Burd
to go with Rhor tomorrow to the top of the mountain (Allegheny) to
determine the straightest line from here to the foot of the ascent, and
to mark the turnings of the road to reach the top. I hope you will be
here on their return, and could then judge if it would be well to risk
this route. In 3 days the Major will return to Edmund's Swamp, where
there is abundant forage, and he will let me know what we must expect
from Lawrell Hill. A man who has been 50 times by this path to the Ohio
says that the remainder of the route after Loyal Hanny is a long series
of hills, with swamps and bogs, but not of great ascent. He is a man
named Fergusson, very limited, from whom one can elicit nothing precise;
I have sent him with the Major and Dunnings. Upon the Major's report, we
shall be sure of the route as far as Loyal Hanny; and, as regards the
remainder, I am sending out Captain Patterson tomorrow with 4 men, to
follow this same path to the end, and return forthwith to report,
observing the bad places, and the facilities afforded by the country for
obviating them, such as trees, stones, &c., the quantity of grass and
water, the defiles, distances, &c. He ought to be back in 12 days at
latest. Colonel Washington has had the beginning of the road cut from
Braddock, [along Braddock's Road?] which I have fixed at 10 miles from
Fort Cumberland. You will have been informed by the guides I sent you
of the advantages of this route which is open, and needs very little in
the way of repair; its drawbacks consist in the want of forage, its
length, its defiles, and the crossing of rivers. Colonel Washington, who
is animated with sincere zeal to contribute to the success of this
expedition, and is ready to march wheresoever you may decide, writes me
that, from all he has heard and from all the information he has been
able to collect, our route is impracticable even for packhorses, so bad
are the mountains, and that the Braddock road is the only one to take
&c.
"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."[68]
Concerning this meeting Washington wrote as follows to his friend Major
Francis Halket, then in Forbes's camp at Carlisle: "I am just returned
(August 2^{nd})[69] from a conference with Colonel Bouquet. I find him
fixed, I think I may say unalterably fixed, to lead you a new way to the
Ohio, through a road, every inch of which is to be cut at this advanced
season, when we have scarce time left to tread the beaten track,
universally confessed to be the best passage through the mountains. If
Colonel Bouquet succeeds in this point with the General, all is
lost,--all is lost indeed,--our enterprise will be ruined, and we shall
be stopped at the Laurel Hill this winter; but not to gather _laurels_,
except of the kind that covers the mountains. The Southern Indians will
turn against us, and these colonies will be desolated by such an
accession to the enemy's strength. These must be the consequences of a
miscarriage; and a miscarriage is the almost necessary consequence of
our attempt to march the army by this new route. I have given my reasons
at large to Colonel Bouquet. He desired that I would do so, that he
might forward them to the General. Should this happen, you will be able
to judge of their weight. I am uninfluenced by prejudice, having no
hopes or fears but for the general good. Of this you may be assured, and
that my sincere sentiments are spoken on this occasion."
Concerning the same interview Bouquet wrote Forbes (July 31): "I have
had an interview with Colonel Washington, to ascertain how he conceives
the difficulties could be overcome; I got no satisfaction from it; _the
majority of these gentlemen do not know the difference between a party
and an army_, and, overlooking all difficulties, they believe everything
to be easy which flatters their ideas. What I shall have to tell you on
this point cannot be discussed in a letter...."
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 [Forbes] 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 [Halket] 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 Carlisle to Fort Duquesne by way of Raystown._
MILES.
From Carlisle to Shippensburg 21
" Shippensburg to Fort Loudoun 24
" Fort Loudoun to Fort Littleton 20
" Fort Littleton to Juniatta Crossing 14
" Juniatta Crossing to Raystown 14
----
93
" Raystown to Fort Duquesne 100
----
193
_From Carlisle to Fort Duquesne, by way of Forts Frederic and
Cumberland._
MILES.
From Carlisle to Shippensburg 21
" Shippensburg to Chambers's 12
" Chambers's to Pacelin's 12
" Pacelin's to Fort Frederic 12
" Fort Frederic to Fort Cumberland 40
----
97
" Fort Cumberland to Fort Duquesne 115
----
212
"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.