Dobbs, was on the battle-field; but Dobbs's company at the
time was scouting in the woods. When the fierce attack fell upon
the baggage a train, Boone succeeded in effecting his escape only
by cutting the traces of his team and fleeing on one of the
horses. To his dying day Boone continued to censure Braddock's
conduct, and reprehended especially his fatal neglect to employ
strong flank-guards and a sufficient number of Provincial scouts
thoroughly acquainted with the wilderness and all the wiles and
strategies of savage warfare.

For a number of months following Braddock's defeat there was a
great rush of the frightened people southward. In a letter to
Dinwiddie, Washington expresses the apprehension that Augusta,
Frederick, and Hampshire County will soon be depopulated, as the
whole back country is in motion toward the southern colonies.
During this same summer Governor Arthur Dobbs of North Carolina
made a tour of exploration through the western part of the
colony, seeking a site for a fort to guard the frontier. The
frontier company of fifty men which was to garrison the projected
fort was placed under the command of Hugh Waddell, now promoted
to the rank of captain, though only twenty-one years old. In
addition to Waddell's company, armed patrols were required for
the protection of the Rowan County frontier; and during the
summer Indian alarms were frequent at the Moravian village of
Bethabara, whose inhabitants had heard with distress on March
31st of the slaughter of eleven Moravians on the Mahoni and of
the ruin of Gnadenhutten. Many of the settlers in the outlying
districts of Rowan fled for safety to the refuge of the little
village; and frequently every available house, every place of
temporary abode was filled with panic stricken refugees. So
persistent were the depredations of the Indians and so alarmed
were the scattered Rowan settlers by the news of the murders and
the destruction of Vaul's Fort in Virginia (June 25, 1756) that
at a conference on July 5th the Moravians "decided to protect our
houses with palisades, and make them safe before the enemy should
in vade our tract or attack us, for if the people were all going
to retreat we would be the last left on the frontier and the
first point of attack." By July 23d, they had constructed a
strong defense for their settlement, afterward called the "Dutch
Fort" by the Indians. The principal structure was a stockade,
triangular in plan, some three hundred