ed war whoop burst out again in the woods round them.

Colonel Washington had been ordered, by the dying general, to press on
on horseback to the camp of Dunbar, and to tell him to forward waggons,
provisions, and ammunition; but the panic, which had seized the main
force, had already been spread by flying teamsters to Dunbar's camp.
Many soldiers and waggoners at once took flight, and the panic was
heightened when the remnants of Braddock's force arrived. There was no
reason to suppose that they were pursued, and even had they been so,
their force was ample to repel any attack that could be made upon it;
but probably their commander saw that, in their present state of utter
demoralization, they could not be trusted to fight, and that the first
Indian war whoop would start them again in flight. Still, it was clear
that a retreat would leave the whole border open to the ravages of the
Indians, and Colonel Dunbar was greatly blamed for the course he took.

A hundred waggons were burned, the cannon and shells burst, and the
barrels of powder emptied into the stream, the stores of provisions
scattered through the woods, and then the force began its retreat over
the mountains to Fort Cumberland, sixty miles away. General Braddock
died the day that the retreat began. His last words were:

"We shall know better how to deal with them next time."

The news of the disaster came like a thunderbolt upon the colonists.
Success had been regarded as certain, and the news that some fourteen
hundred English troops had been utterly routed, by a body of French and
Indians of half their strength, seemed almost incredible. The only
consolation was that the hundred and fifty Virginians, who had
accompanied the regulars, had all, as was acknowledged by the English
officers themselves, fought with the greatest bravery, and had kept
their coolness and presence of mind till the last, and that on them no
shadow of the discredit of the affair rested. Indeed, it was said that
the greater part were killed not by the fire of the Indians, but by
that of the troops, who, standing in masses, fired in all directions,
regardless of what was in front of them.

But Colonel Dunbar, not satisfied with retreating to the safe shelter
of Fort Cumberland, to the amazement of the colonists, insisted upon
withdrawing with his own force to Philadelphia, leaving the whole of
the frontier open to the assaults of the hostile Indians. After waiting
a short time at P