war," frankly acknowledged the
governor, "introduced by the French, which we are oblidged to
follow in our own defense." Most of the Indian allies
discontentedly returned home before the end of the year, but the
remainder waited until the next year, to take part in the
campaign against Fort Duquesne. Three North Carolina companies,
composed of trained soldiers and hardy frontiersmen, went through
this campaign under the command of Major Hugh Waddell, the
"Washington of North Carolina." Long of limb and broad of chest,
powerful, lithe, and active, Waddell was an ideal leader for this
arduous service, being fertile in expedient and skilful in the
employment of Indian tactics. With true provincial pride Governor
Dobbs records that Waddell "had great honor done him, being
employed in all reconnoitring parties, and dressed and acted as
an Indian; and his sergeant, Rogers, took the only Indian
prisoner, who gave Mr. Forbes certain intelligence of the forces
in Fort Duquesne, upon which they resolved to proceed." This
apparently trivial incident is remarkable, in that it proved to
be the decisive factor in a campaign that was about to be
abandoned. The information in regard to the state of the garrison
at Fort Duquesne, secured from the Indian, for the capture of
whom two leading officers had offered a reward of two hundred and
fifty pounds, emboldened Forbes to advance rather than to retire.
Upon reaching the fort (November 25th), he found it abandoned by
the enemy. Sergeant Rogers never received the reward promised by
General Forbes and the other English officer; but some time
afterward he was compensated by a modest sum from the colony of
North Carolina.

A series of unfortunate occurrences, chiefly the fault of the
whites, soon resulted in the precipitation of a terrible Indian
outbreak. A party of Cherokees, returning home in May, 1758,
seized some stray horses on the frontier of Virginia--never
dreaming of any wrong, says an old historian, as they saw it
frequently done by the whites. The owners of the horses, hastily
forming a party, went in pursuit of the Indians and killed twelve
or fourteen of the number. The relatives of the slain Indians,
greatly incensed, vowed vengeance upon the whites. Nor was the
tactless conduct of Forbes calculated to quiet this resentment;
for when Atta-kulla-kulla and nine other chieftains deserted in
disgust at the treatment accorded them, they were pursued by
Forbes's orders, apprehen