ers, who had got
wind of his arrival, dropped in, and he told again the story of the
meeting with the enemy. It was certain that there were from six to eight
hundred French and a great number of Indians before us, while we were
barely three hundred, and as I returned to my post, I wondered if
Colonel Washington would dare press on to face such odds. The answer came
in the morning, when the order was given to march as usual. Two days
later, we had reached Will's Creek, where we found Lieutenant Ward and
his men awaiting us. He stated that there were not less than a thousand
French at the forks of the Ohio. It was sheer folly to advance with our
petty force in face of odds so overwhelming, and a council of the
officers was called by Colonel Washington to determine what course to
follow. It was decided that we advance as far as Red Stone Creek, on the
Monongahela, thirty-seven miles this side the Forks, and there erect a
fortification and await fresh orders. Stores had already been built at
Red Stone for our munitions, and from there our great guns could be sent
by water so soon as we were ready to attack the French. In conclusion, it
was judged that it were better to occupy our men in cutting a road
through the wilderness than that they should be allowed to waste their
time in idleness and dissipation.

Captain Trent and the thirty men who were with him, hearing from the
Indians of the disaster which had overtaken their companions, marched
back to meet us, and joined us the next day. Trent himself met cold
welcome, for his absence from the fort at the time of the attack was held
to be most culpable. Dinwiddie was so enraged, when he learned of it,
that he ordered Trent court-martialed forthwith, but this was never done.
His backwoodsmen were wild and reckless fellows, incapable of
discipline, and soon took themselves off to the settlements, while we
toiled on westward through the now unbroken forest. Our advance to Will's
Creek had been difficult enough, but it was nothing to the task which now
confronted us, for the country grew more rough and broken, and there was
not the semblance of a road. We were a week in making twenty miles, and
accomplished that only by labor well-nigh superhuman.

The story of one day was the story of all the others. Obstacles
confronted us at every step, but we struggled forward, dragging the
wagons ourselves when the horses gave out, as they soon did, and finally,
toward the end of May, we wo