f, were joined beyond the other ford by Gage, who had rallied some
eighty men; and this was all that remained of that gallant army which
scarce six hours before was by friend and foe alike deemed invincible.
With little interruption the march was continued through that night and
the ensuing day, till at 10 P.M. on July 10th they came to Gist's
plantation; where early on the 11th some wagons and hospital stores
arrived from Dunbar for their relief. Despite the intensity of his
agonies, Braddock still persisted in the exercise of his authority and
the fulfilment of his duties. From Gist's he detailed a party to return
toward the Monongahela with a supply of provisions to be left on the
road for the benefit of stragglers yet behind, and Dunbar was commanded
to send to him the only two remaining old companies of the Forty-fourth
and Forty-eighth, with more wagons to bring off the wounded; and on
Friday, July 11th, he arrived at Dunbar's camp. Through this and all the
preceding day men half famished, without arms and bewildered with
terror, had been joining Dunbar; his camp was in the utmost confusion,
and his soldiers were deserting without ceremony.

Braddock's strength was now fast ebbing away. Informed of the
disorganized condition of the remaining troops, he abandoned all hope of
a prosperous termination to the expedition. He saw that not only death,
but utter defeat, was inevitable. But conscious of the odium the latter
event would excite, he nobly resolved that the sole responsibility of
the measure should rest with himself, and consulted with no one upon the
steps he pursued. He merely issued his orders, and insisted that they
were obeyed. Thus, after destroying the stores to prevent their falling
into the hands of the enemy--of whose pursuit he did not doubt--the
march was to be resumed on Saturday, July 12th, toward Will's Creek.
Ill-judged as these orders were, they met with but too ready
acquiescence at the hands of Dunbar, whose advice was neither asked nor
tendered on the occasion. Thus the great mass of those stores which had
been so painfully brought thither were destroyed. Of the artillery but
two six-pounders were preserved; the cohorns were broken or buried, and
the shells bursted. One hundred fifty wagons were burned; the
powder-casks were staved in, and their contents, to the amount of fifty
thousand pounds, cast into a spring; and the provisions were scattered
abroad upon the ground or thrown into the wa