nd men were in the highest hopes, and looked forward with
confidence to the coming evening, when they were to plant their
victorious banners on the ramparts of Fort Duquesne. Although they had
marched thus far without serious molestation, yet Col. Washington's
fears of an ambuscade were not a whit diminished; for he felt quite
certain that they should never reach the French fort without an
attempt being made to surprise, or drive them back. Full of these
apprehensions, he went to Gen. Braddock, and, pointing out to him the
danger hanging over them, urged him by all means to send out the
Virginia rangers to scour the woods and thickets, front and flank, and
beat up the enemy, should any chance to be lurking near with the
design of drawing them into an ambuscade. No advice, as it afterwards
turned out, could have been more timely: but, coming from a raw
provincial colonel, Braddock cast it aside with angry impatience; and
when the line of march was formed, as if to show in what light esteem
he held it, he ordered the rangers to the rear, to guard the baggage.
Before daybreak, a large party of pioneers, or road-cutters, with a
small guard of regulars, numbering in all about three hundred, had
gone on before to open a passage for the army through the woods, and
make the fords more passable by levelling the banks.

The midsummer sun was shooting its first beams, level and red, among
the Alleghany hills, when the little army, having crossed the
Monongahela at the upper ford, stood on its southern bank, forming in
line of march. By order of their general, officers and men had scoured
and polished their arms and accoutrements the night before; and now
appeared in full uniform, as if some grand military parade were to be
the programme of the day. The whole line was soon moving slowly
forward, with fifes playing, drums beating, and colors flying; the
regulars keeping step the while to the "Grenadier's March." In the
clear and tranquil depths of the river, as they moved along its shady
banks, could be seen, as in a mirror, the long array of
leather-shirted rangers and red-coated regulars, with their sun-lit
arms and prancing steeds, and bright banners that floated in the
morning breeze. This brilliant spectacle, so well set off by the
smiling river in front and the frowning woods beyond, formed a picture
that ever lived in the memory of Washington; and in after-years he
used often to say, that, as it then appeared to him, he thoug