Historic Highways of America/Volume 5/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV
THE OLD OR A NEW ROAD?
SO many are the versions of the story of the building of Forbes's Road through Pennsylvania that it was with utmost interest that the present writer took up the task of examining the only sources of reliable information: the correspondence of General Forbes, Colonel Bouquet, and Sir John St. Clair, as preserved in the Bouquet Papers at the British Museum, and at the British Public Records Office. While these letters were supplemented by frequent personal interviews which have never been recorded, yet the testimony given by them is overwhelming that, until the very last, both men, Forbes and Bouquet, were quite undecided what route to Fort Duquesne was most practicable; both were open to conviction, and were equally disinterested parties, thinking only of the good of the cause to which both soon gave their lives. No one can read this voluminous correspondence and believe for one moment that General Forbes was prejudiced in favor of a Pennsylvania route by Pennsylvania intriguers, as has been frequently asserted;[1] nor that the brave Swiss Bouquet was at any time determined to guide the army whose van he bravely led by any but the most expeditious and practicable thoroughfare. That both men knew of the bitter factional fight which was waging, this correspondence makes very clear; that both were made doubly proof against factional arguments, because of this knowledge, is equally plain.
Before entering upon a consideration of the Forbes-Bouquet-St. Clair correspondence, it must be always remembered that General Forbes had originally planned to make the campaign by the old Braddock Road from Virginia and had issued orders for the assembling of both provincial and regular troops at "Conegochieque" (Conococheague), on the road built by Governor Sharpe from Alexandria to Fort Frederick in 1754, over which Dunbar's column marched.[2] It was undoubtedly his purpose to march south from Philadelphia over the old Monoccasy road to the Potomac and then westward over the Braddock routes which converged upon Fort Cumberland. From there the main track of Braddock's army offered an open way toward Fort Duquesne. As previously suggested it was the advice of Sir John St. Clair, his quartermaster-general, that influenced Forbes to alter his plan and march straight westward from Philadelphia toward Lancaster and the Pennsylvania frontier. Whatever may have induced St. Clair to give this advice, it is sure he had learned some lessons from the disastrous campaign of 1755 when he led Braddock through a country quite devoid of carriages, horses, and produce; Pennsylvania, on the other hand, was the granary of America;[3] and, if a road was lacking, horses and wagons were not, and it was better to lack what could be provided than to lack that which could not possibly be obtained.
On May 20, Forbes wrote Bouquet from Philadelphia that it was time the magazines were being formed. One week later (May 21), Sir John St. Clair wrote Bouquet from Winchester: "Governor Sharpe has been here with me and is returned to Frederick Town in Maryland." It would seem that Sir John's change of mind concerning the advisability of Forbes opening a new route westward dated from Governor Sharpe's visit; for, on the day following (May 28), he writes Bouquet: "I am not anxious about the cutting the Road to Rays Town from Fort Cumberland, it may be done in 4 days, or in 2, if the two Ends are gone upon at the same time; but I am afraid you will have a deal of work from Fort Loudon to Rays Town, which I am afraid will be Troublesome." On the cover of this letter Bouquet made the following memorandum: "The Officer Commanding the Virginia Troops, soon to March into Pennsylvania, is to take Directions from Henry Pollan living upon the Temporary line, or in his absence, from any Sensible person about his House, for the nearest and best Waggon Road From said Pollans or the Widow McGaws to Fort Loudon, to which place the Troops are to March, Shippensburg being much out of the Way."[4]
Bouquet reached Carlisle on the twenty-fourth of May, and wrote Forbes as follows on the day after: "I shall order Washington's Regiment to Fort Cumberland and as soon as we take post at Reas Town 300 of them must cut the Road along the Path from Fort Cumberland to Reas Town and join us."
The evident plan of Sir John St. Clair to divert Bouquet from the route he had originally outlined is disclosed further in a letter written from Winchester on May 31, in which he says: "I cannot send Colo Byrd to you as all the Cherokees have resolved never more to go to Pennsylvania, on account of the Soldiers of fort Loudon, taking up arms against them, by Capt Trent's Instigation." Under the same date, however, Bouquet wrote St. Clair and in the letter gave the order which he had preserved in form of a memorandum on the back of St. Clair's letter of May 28. Sir John, however, became more and more insistent that the Virginia and Maryland routes should be employed; on June 6 he wrote Bouquet that "the Pattomack has as much water in it as the Po at Cremona," intending to show how useful the stream would be for transporting army stores to Fort Cumberland. On June 9—when Washington arrived at Winchester—St. Clair wrote Bouquet: "I send you this by John Walker who is the best Woodsman I ever knew, he will be usefull in reconnoitering the road to be cut on the other Side of the Mountain, but do not attempt it too far to the Right." In this letter St. Clair again reiterates the threat that the Cherokees will not go into Pennsylvania. And in a postscript, written in French, he adds a parting shot: "I think you will have some trouble to find a road from the mountain to the great falls of the Yougheogany." On June 11 St. Clair again wrote: "I had great dependence on John Walker the Guide for finding the Road from the Allegheny Ridge to the great Crossing, I detained him the other day, on purpose, to know if he wou'd attempt to find it. The answer that he made me, was, that he knew that Country very well, having hunted there many years, that the Hills run across the line the Road ought to go and are very steep: That he was sent by Colo Dunbar, from the great Crossing, to acquaint Colo Burd, of the defeat of the Army, and that the year after he was taken prisoner by the Shanese, and carried [over] that Road, to the french fort; and that the Shanese (who he was acquainted with and speaks their Language) told him, that was the best way to get out of these Mountains and Laurell Thicketts. On the whole he says that the Road may be made, with a great deal of labor, & time, but that it must be reconoiter'd, when the leaves are off the Trees; being impossible to do it at this season. Considering all these Circumstances and the Season of the Year advancing so fast, and the Small Number of Indians we have left, I must send you my opinion (which always was that if I was to carry a Convoy from Lancaster to fort Cumberland I would pass by, or near Reas Town). That we have not time to reconoitre the Road in question, and open it, without taking up more time than we have to spare, and which wou'd give the french and Indians too favorable an opportunity of attacking on that laborious Work. I think it will be more eligible to fall down on fort Cumberland, and get on from thence to the great Crossing, after making a Block house, at the little meadows. This will advance us 40 miles from fort Cumberland, and a deposite may be made at that place."
No one can read this strange letter without realizing Bouquet's unhappy situation: a vacillating know-nothing for quartermaster-general, and a commander-in-chief detained from coming to the front. Bouquet wrote to Forbes, who answered that the course of the proposed new road should be examined before that route was abandoned. "I have yours of the 14th," wrote Forbes on June 19, "from Fort Loudon and I am sorry that you are obliged to change our Route, and shall be glad to find the road proposed by Govr Sharp practicable, in which case I should think it ought to be sett about immediately.[5] . . I suppose you will reconnoitre the road across the Allegany mountains from Reas town and if found impracticable, that the Fort Cumberland Garrison should open the old road[6] forward towards the Crossing of the Yohagani . . I find we must take nothing by report in this country, for there are many who have their own designs in representing things, so I am glad you have proceeded to Reas town, where you will be able to judge of the roads and act accordingly . . Let there be no stops put to the roads as that is our principall care at present." No one can believe that the author of this letter was the blindly prejudiced man some have painted him.
Bouquet was, however, not to be contented with an examination of one route westward; his scouts were out in three directions: on Braddock's Road, on the Old Trading Path running westward from Raystown (now Bedford), and also on the upper path toward the Allegheny by way of the Indian Frank's Town. In all this Forbes seconded him as shown by his letter of June 27: "I approve much of your trying to pass the Laurel Hill leaving the Yohageny to the left, as also of knowing what can be done by the path from Franks town or even from the head of the Susquehannah, For I have all along had in view to have partys, to fall upon their Settlements about Venango and there abouts while we are pushing forward our principale Design." In the meantime old Sir John kept up his current of objections, so wretchedly ill-timed; he wrote thus from Carlisle June 30: "I shall be glad you may find a Waggon Road leaving the Yougheagany on the left, it is what I never cou'd find, I think the Experiment is dangerous at present and going on an uncertainty when by falling down upon fort Cumberland, we have our Road opened; should [the wagon road] be made use of, then the Collums of our army would be too far assunder." St. Clair had been pushing the opening of the road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland in the expectation that the army would consequently "fall down" to the more southernly westward road even before reaching Fort Cumberland. Three days previous to the last letter quoted he wrote Bouquet: "I have this morning [June 27] received the report that the road from fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland is practicable."
Bouquet evidently laid the sum and substance of St. Clair's letters before General Forbes who, on July 6, delivered himself in reply as follows: "Sir John St. Clair was the person who first advised me to go by Raes town, why he has altered his sentiments I do not know, or to what purpose make the road from Fort Frederick to Cumberland, as most certainly we shall now all go by Raes town, but I am afraid that Sir John is led by passions, he says he knows very well that we shall not find a road from Raes town across the Allegany, and that to go by Raes town to F. Cumberland is a great way about, but this he ought to have said two months ago or hold his peace now. Pray examine the Country tother side of the Allegany particularly the Laurell Ridge that he says its impossible we can pass without going into Braddock's old road. What his views are in those suggestions I know not, but I should be sorry to be obliged to alter ones schemes so late in the day, particularly as it was Sir Johns proper business to have forseen and to have foretold all this. Who to the Contrary was the first adviser. Let the road to Fort Cumberland from Raes town be finished with all Diligence because if we must go by Fort Cumberland it must be through Raes town as it is now too late to make use of the road by Fort Frederick and I fancy you will agree that . . there is no time to be lost." General Forbes wrote an interesting letter to Pitt under the date of July 10. Speaking of Raystown he writes: "The place having its name from one Rae, who designed to have made a plantation there several years ago." Speaking of the country he observes: "Being an immense Forest of 240 miles in Extent, intersected by several ranges of mountains, impenetrable almost to any thing human save the Indians (if they be allowed the appelation) who have foot paths or tracks through those desarts, by the help of which, we make our roads. . . I am in hopes of finding a better way over the Alleganey Mountain, than that from fort Cumberland which General Braddock took. If so I shall shorten both my march, and my labor of the road about 40 miles, which is a great consideration. For were I to pursue Mr Braddock's route, I should save but little labour, as that road is now a brush wood, by the sprouts from the old stumps, which must be cut down and made proper for Carriages as well as any other passage that we must attempt." Yet his letter to Bouquet on the day after, July 11, says that Forbes was not stickling for the new road: "I shall hurry up the troops, directly," he wrote, "so pray see for a road across the Alligeny or by Fort Cumberland, which Garrison may if necessary be clearing Braddocks old road." However, lest he be put under the necessity of taking the longer route, he wrote again to Bouquet by James Grant: "that the Road over the Allegany may be reconnoitred, for he (Forbes) is unwilling to be put under the necessity of making any Detour."
On July 14 General Forbes wrote Bouquet from Carlisle: "I . . have all along thought the road from F. Frederick to Cumberland superfluous, if we could have done without it, which I am glad to understand we can do by Raes town. It would have been double pleasure if from thence we could have got a good road across the Laurell hill, But by Capt Wards journal I begin to fear it will be difficult, altho I would have you continue to make further tryalls, for I should be very sorry to pass by Fort Cumberland. I am sensible that some foolish people have made partys to drive us into that road, as well as into the road by Fort Frederick, but as I utterly detest all partys and views in military operations, so you may very well guess, how and what arguments I have had with Sir John St Clair upon that subject. But I expect Governor Sharp here this night when I shall know more of this same road. I hope your second detachment across the Allegeny have been able to ascertain what route we must take, and that consequently you are sett about clearing of it. . . I have sent up Major Armstrong with one Demming an old Indian trader who has been many a time upon the road from Raes town to Fort duquesne, he says there is no Difficulty in the road across the Laurell Hill and that He leaves the Yohageny all the way upon his left hand about 8 miles, and that it is only 40 miles from the Laurell Hill to Fort duquesne, along the top of the Chestnut ridge. . . As I presume you may want Forage, and as Sir John has confessed that he had provided none but at Fort Cumberland (I suppose on purpose to drive me into that road, for what purpose I know not) If you therefore think it necessary, send Waggons to Fort Cumberland for part of it. . . Let me hear immediately your resolution about the road."
To this Bouquet replied that he had sent orders to have Braddock's Road reconnoitred and cleared; "at all events it may serve to deceive the Enemy." He was daily in expectation of news from his exploring parties on Laurel Hill and promised Forbes to forward their report as soon as he received it.
Washington had now reached Fort Cumberland and was soon in correspondence with Bouquet at Raystown thirty-four miles to the northward. July 16 he wrote: "I shall direct the officer, that marches out, to take particular pains in reconnoitring General Braddock's road, though I have had repeated information, that it only wants such small repairs, as could with ease be made as fast as the army would march."[7] On the twenty-first he wrote: "The bridge is finished at this place, and tomorrow Major Peachey, with three hundred men, will proceed to open General Braddock's road. I shall direct them to go to George's Creek, ten miles in advance. By that time I may possibly hear from you . . for it will be needless to open a road, of which no use will be made afterwards."[8] Thus it is clear that, as late as July 20, Washington at Fort Cumberland, Bouquet at Raystown, and Forbes at Carlisle were all in doubt as to the army's route.
On July 21 Bouquet wrote General Forbes: "I waited for the return of Captain Ward before replying [to Forbes's letters of the 14th and 17th inst]. He arrived yesterday evening, his journal being so vague and confused that I could not understand anything from it. Captain Gordon is making an extract from it which I send with this. They are convinced that a waggon road could be made across Laurell Hill, not so bad as that from Fort Littleton to this place, & that there is water and grass all the way, but little forage between the two mountains. The slope of the Alleghany is the worst, the country between that and Laurell Hill is passable, and this last mountain, (of which they have made a sample—) is very easy to cross: all the guides & officers who were on the Ohio agree that from Lawrell Hill onwards there are no further difficulties; it is a chain of hills easy to cross. They have thought it impracticable to continue the road cut by Colonel Burd to join the Braddock road, except by following the whole length of Lawrell Hill, which would make the road longer than if taken through Cumberland; the rest of the country is rendered impassable by marshes, &c. The pack horses have just arrived. We must give them a day's rest, & on the day after tomorrow Major Armstrong will set out with a party of 100 volunteers to mark out the road, and will send me a man every day (or every two days) to inform me of his progress & observations. There is no spot suitable for the making of a depôt until one comes to the foot of the other slope of Lawrell Hill, which may be about 45 miles from here; there is sufficient water there, and forage, but as it would entail too great a risk to leave his party on the other side of Lawrell Hill, I shall give him instructions to reconnoitre, & to mark out the site of the depot, & then return to Edmund's Swamp, where I will in the first place send him a reinforcement with provisions, so that he may make an entrenched camp there, which will serve as flying base; and if the report he makes of his route is favourable, I shall send 600 men (in all) to take a post at Loyal Hanny, which I conceive to be the proper place for the chief depôt; from there it will be more easy to push his parties forward than from this place. I hope you will be here before the main detachment marches, and in that case I shall go myself, if you approve. I wish the new levies may be able to join before that time, so as to be able to form the three Pennsylvania battalions, and get them into order. I shall have here the two companies of workmen from Virginia, to be employed in cutting the road as soon as you shall have decided upon your route. I shall await your arrival before beginning, because the pack horses cross without difficulty, and will suffice to carry their provisions. As regards your route the Virginia party continues in full force, and although the secret motive of their policy seems to me not above suspicion of partiality, it nevertheless appears to me an additional reason for acting with double caution in a matter of this consequence, so as to have ample answers for all their clamors, if any accident happens, which they would not fail to attribute to the choice of a fresh route. Captain Patterson, who set out two days after Captain Ward with a party of 13 men to reconnoitre the fort, has returned with them without accomplishing anything. He tried to cross the two mountains in a direct line with the fort, but he found Lawrell Hill impassible, and the different reports agree in the fact that there is no other pass to be found except the Indian Path reconnoitred by Captain Ward. The guide Dunning speaks of a gap he crossed 16 years ago, but no one knows this gap, which he declares he found in 'Hunting Horses.' He is marching with the Major and two or three other guides. . . The communication with Cumberland is cut, and it is an excellent road."[9]
On July 20 Forbes wrote, by the hand of St. Clair, to Bouquet asking that all the guides then with him be sent to Carlisle for a conference with the general. Three days later Bouquet answered as follows: "Major Armstrong has three guides (and three Indians) with him: McConnell, Brown and Starrat. I am sending you all that are left there,—Frazer, Walker, Garret, and the two that are at Littleton,—Ohins and Lowry. If those from Cumberland arrive in time, I will send them on afterwards."
On July 25 Washington wrote Bouquet from Fort Cumberland: "I do not incline to propose any thing that may seem officious, but would it not facilitate the operation of the campaign, if the Virginian troops were ordered to proceed as far as the Great Crossing, and construct forts at the most advantageous situations as they advance, opening the road at the same time? In such a case, I should be glad to be joined by that part of my regiment at Raystown. Major Peachey, who commands the working party on Braddock's road, writes to me, that he finds few repairs wanting. Tonight I shall order him to proceed as far as Savage River, and then return, as his party is too weak to adventure further. . . I shall most cheerfully work on any road, pursue any route or enter upon any service, that the General or yourself may think me usefully imployed in, or qualified for, and shall never have a will of my own, when a duty is required of me. But since you desire me to speak my sentiments freely, permit me to observe, that after having conversed with all the guides, and having been informed by others, who have a knowledge of the country, I am convinced that a road, to be compared with General Braddock's, or indeed, that will be fit for transportation even by packhorses, cannot be made. I have no predilection for the route you have in mind, not because difficulties appear therein, but because I doubt whether satisfaction can be given in the execution of the plan. I know not what reports you may have received from your reconnoitring parties; but I have been uniformly told, that, if you expect a tolerable road by Raystown, you will be disappointed, for no movement can be made that way without destroying our horses. I should be extremely glad of one hour's conference with you, when the General arrives. I could then explain myself more fully, and, I think, demonstrate the advantages of pushing out a body of light troops in this quarter. I would make a trip to Raystown with great pleasure, if my presence here could be dispensed with for a day or two, of which you can best judge."
With Washington's letter came also one from General Forbes, written July 23. From it these extracts are to the point: "As I disclaim all parties (factions) myself, I should be sorry that they were to Creep in amongst us. I therefore conceive what the Virginia folks would be att, for to me it appears to be them, and them only, that want to drive us into the road by Fort Cumberland, no doubt in opposition to the Pennsylvanians who by Raes town would _-_III.png)
Forbes's Road to Raystown (1757)
[The dotted line to the Youghiogheny shows the line of Burd's Road]
(From the original in the British Museum)
"From Raestown to Fort Cumberland, 34 miles or upwards
"From Fort Cumberland to Fort Duquesne by Genl Braddocks, 125 miles in all 160 to which add the passage of rivers &c and the last 8 miles not cut.
"The other road—
"From Raestown to the top of the Laurell Hill 46 miles
"From then to Fort Duquesne suppose 40 or 50 miles in all 90 with no rivers to obstruct you and nothing to stop you that I can see, except the Bugbear, a tremendous pass of the Laurel Hill.
"If what I say is true and those two roads are compared, I don't see that I am to Hesitate one moment which to take unless I take a party [join a faction] likewise, which I hope never to do in Army matters.
"I have now told you my Opinion, and what I think of the affairs of the road, but to judge at such Distance, and of a Country I never saw, nor heard spoke off but in Capt Ward's account, I therefore can say nothing decisive, so have sent up Sir John St Clair in order that he may explore that new road and determine the most Ellegible to be pursued, but this I think need not hinder you from proceeding upon the new road as soon as you can Conveniently. . . I have spoke very roundly upon this subject [roads and forage] to Sir John, who was sent up the Country from Philadelphia for no other purpose than to fix the roads and provide forage, both of which I am sorry to say it, are yet to begin—but all this entre nous until I see you."
Under the same date (July 25) General Forbes wrote as follows to Major-general Abercrombie: "Scouting Parties have been sent out, with the best Guides we could find, and according to the Reports which some of them have made, the Road over the Allegeny Mountain and the Lawrel Ridge will be found practicable for Carriages, which will be of infinate Consequence, will facilitate Our Matters much by shortening the March at least 70 miles, besides the Advantage of having no Rivers to pass, as We shall keep the Yeogheny upon our Left. . . The Troops are all in Motion . . but I have Retarded the March of some of them upon the Route from this Place, as I am unwilling to bring them together till the Route is finally determined."
On the twenty-sixth Bouquet wrote Forbes as follows:
"I am sending you a letter I have received from Major Armstrong. By the report of the two guides he sent out it seems the thing is very practicable; in an affair of so much consequence as this I thought I ought to act with greatest caution. While the waggoner returned today with an escort to reconnoitre how the road could be laid so as to avoid all the detours and windings of the path; and I have asked Colonel Burd to go with Rhor tomorrow to the top of the mountain (Allegheny) to determine the straightest line from here to the foot of the ascent, and to mark the turnings of the road to reach the top. I hope you will be here on their return, and could then judge if it would be well to risk this route. In 3 days the Major will return to Edmund's Swamp, where there is abundant forage, and he will let me know what we must expect from Lawrell Hill. A man who has been 50 times by this path to the Ohio says that the remainder of the route after Loyal Hanny is a long series of hills, with swamps and bogs, but not of great ascent. He is a man named Fergusson, very limited, from whom one can elicit nothing precise; I have sent him with the Major and Dunnings. Upon the Major's report, we shall be sure of the route as far as Loyal Hanny; and, as regards the remainder, I am sending out Captain Patterson tomorrow with 4 men, to follow this same path to the end, and return forthwith to report, observing the bad places, and the facilities afforded by the country for obviating them, such as trees, stones, &c., the quantity of grass and water, the defiles, distances, &c. He ought to be back in 12 days at latest. Colonel Washington has had the beginning of the road cut from Braddock, [along Braddock's Road?] which I have fixed at 10 miles from Fort Cumberland. You will have been informed by the guides I sent you of the advantages of this route which is open, and needs very little in the way of repair; its drawbacks consist in the want of forage, its length, its defiles, and the crossing of rivers. Colonel Washington, who is animated with sincere zeal to contribute to the success of this expedition, and is ready to march wheresoever you may decide, writes me that, from all he has heard and from all the information he has been able to collect, our route is impracticable even for packhorses, so bad are the mountains, and that the Braddock road is the only one to take &c.
"There, my dear General, you have in brief the reports and opinions which have reached me; I will add no reflection of my own, hoping to see you every day. Do you not think it would be well to see Colonel Washington here, before making your decision? and if our parties continue to send favourable news, to convert him to give way to the evidence?"
In reply to Washington's letter of the twenty-fifth Bouquet wrote: "Nothing can exceed your generous dispositions for the service. I see with the utmost satisfaction, that you are above the influences of prejudice, and ready to go heartily where reason and judgement shall direct. I wish, sincerely, that we may all entertain one and the same opinion; therefore I desire to have an interview with you at the houses built half way between our camps. I will communicate all the intelligence, which it has been in my power to collect; and, by weighing impartially the advantages and disadvantages of each route, I hope we shall be able to determine what is most eligable, and save the General trouble and loss of time."[10]
Concerning this meeting Washington wrote as follows to his friend Major Francis Halket, then in Forbes's camp at Carlisle: "I am just returned (August 2nd)[11] from a conference with Colonel Bouquet. I find him fixed, I think I may say unalterably fixed, to lead you a new way to the Ohio, through a road, every inch of which is to be cut at this advanced season, when we have scarce time left to tread the beaten track, universally confessed to be the best passage through the mountains. If Colonel Bouquet succeeds in this point with the General, all is lost,—all is lost indeed,—our enterprise will be ruined, and we shall be stopped at the Laurel Hill this winter; but not to gather laurels, except of the kind that covers the mountains. The Southern Indians will turn against us, and these colonies will be desolated by such an accession to the enemy's strength. These must be the consequences of a miscarriage; and a miscarriage is the almost necessary consequence of our attempt to march the army by this new route. I have given my reasons at large to Colonel Bouquet. He desired that I would do so, that he might forward them to the General. Should this happen, you will be able to judge of their weight. I am uninfluenced by prejudice, having no hopes or fears but for the general good. Of this you may be assured, and that my sincere sentiments are spoken on this occasion."
Concerning the same interview Bouquet wrote Forbes (July 31): "I have had an interview with Colonel Washington, to ascertain how he conceives the difficulties could be overcome; I got no satisfaction from it; the majority of these gentlemen do not know the difference between a party and an army, and, overlooking all difficulties, they believe everything to be easy which flatters their ideas. What I shall have to tell you on this point cannot be discussed in a letter. . ."
In this same letter Bouquet wrote, concerning the general situation: "You will see from the extract appended from Major Armstrong's letters the report he makes thereupon. All seems practicable and even easy, but I put too little confidence in the observations of a young man without experience to act upon his judgement. I have therefore sent Colonel Burd, Rhor and Captain Ward to reconnoitre the Allegheny, to make an examination of all the difficulties, and thus put me into a position to decide what reliance is to be placed on the rest of the discoveries. Unfortunately they have found things very different, and this mountain which these gentlemen crossed so easily is worse than Seydeling Hill, and the ascent much longer. Considering that it was impossible to cut a waggon road on this slope without immense labour, they searched along the mountain for another pass, and found about two miles to the North a gap of which no one was aware . . It seems that, with much labour, one might make a much easier road there than the other; it remains to be seen what obstacles are still to be encountered before Loyal Hanning. Sir John has arrived, and I have communicated to him all I know on the subject; and he starts today or tomorrow morning with Colonel Burd, Rhor and 200 men to reconnoitre this gap, and the whole route as far as Loyal Hanning. He will spend 6 or 7 days on this survey, and I hope on his return you will be able to form a decision. And, in order that no time may be lost, I will make a commencement of the work if the thing is practicable without awaiting your orders. I have thought it best not to do so up to the present, in order not to lay ourselves open to public reflections if we commenced and abandoned different routes. I agree with you that you cannot take the Cumberland route untill you are in a position to demonstrate the impossibility of finding another road, or at any rate the impossibility of opening one without risking the expedition by too great an expenditure of time. We are in a cruel position, if you are reduced to a single line of communication. It is 64 miles from Cumberland to Gist, and there are only three places capable of furnishing forage sufficient for the army; the rest would not suffice for a single night. The frost, which commences at the end of October, destroys all the grass, and the rivers overflowing in the spring cut off all communication. . . If we open a new route, we have not enough axes." On the same day Forbes wrote Bouquet by the hand of Halket a decisive letter in which he said: "he [Forbes] thinks that no time should be lost in making the new Road, he has directed me to inform you that you are immediately to begin the opening of it agreeable to the manner he wrote to you in his last letter, as he sees all the advantages he can propose by going that Route, and will avoid innumerable Inconveniencys he would encounter was he to go the other, he is at the same time extremely surprised at the partial disposition that appears in those Virginia Gentlemans sentiments, as there can be no sort of comparison between the two Routes when you consider the situation of the Troops now at Reastown, & that their is not the least reason to expect that we shall meet with any difficulties but what may be easily surmounted." On the next day but one Forbes wrote: "he [Halket] told you my opinion of the Laurell Hill road, and that I thought it ought to be sett about directly, as it is good to have two Strings to one Bow."
On this day Washington wrote a last letter to Bouquet in behalf of the Braddock route:
"The matters, of which we spoke relative to the roads, have since our parting, been the subject of my closest reflection; and, so far am I from altering my opinion, that, the more time and attention I bestow, the more I am confirmed in it; and the reasons for taking Braddock's road appear in a stronger point of view. To enumerate the whole of these reasons would be tedious, and to you, who are become so much master of the subject, unnecesary. I shall therefore, briefly mention a few only, which I think so obvious in themselves, that they must effectually remove objections. Several years ago the Virginians and Pennsylvanians commenced a trade with the Indians settled on the Ohio, and, to obviate the many inconveniencies of a bad road, they, after reiterated and ineffectual efforts to discover where a good one might be made, employed for the purpose several of the most intelligent Indians, who, in the course of many years' hunting, had acquired a perfect knowledge of these mountains. The Indians, having taken the greatest pains to gain the rewards offered for this discovery, declared, that the path leading from Will's Creek was infinitely preferable to any, that could be made at any other place. Time and experience so clearly demonstrated this truth, that the Pennsylvania traders commonly carried out their goods by Will's Creek. Therefore, the Ohio Company, in 1753, at a considerable expense, opened the road. In 1754 the troops, whom I had the honor to command, greatly repaired it, as far as Gist's plantation; and, in 1755, it was widened and completed by General Braddock to within six miles of Fort Duquesne. A road, that has so long been opened, and so well and so often repaired, must be much firmer and better than a new one, allowing the ground to be equally good.
"But, supposing it were practicable to make a road from Raystown quite as good as General Braddock's,—I ask, have we time to do it? Certainly not. To surmount the difficulties to be encountered in making it over such mountains, covered with woods and rocks, would require so much time, as to blast our otherwise well-grounded hopes of striking the important stroke this season.
"The favorable accounts, that some give of the forage on the Raystown road, as being so much better than that on the other, are certainly exaggerated. It is well known, that, on both routes, the rich valleys between the mountains abound with good forage, and that those, which are stony and bushy, are destitute of it. Colonel Byrd and the engineer, who accompanied him, confirm this fact. Surely the meadows on Braddock's road would greatly overbalance the advantage of having grass to the foot of the ridge, on the Raystown road; and all agree, that a more barren road is nowhere to be found, than that from Raystown to the inhabitants, which is likewise to be considered.
"Another principal objection made to General Braddock's road is in regard to the waters. But these seldom swell so much, as to obstruct the passage. The Youghiogany River, which is the most rapid and soonest filled, I have crossed with a body of troops, after more than thirty days' almost continued rain. In fine, any difficulties on this score are so trivial, that they really are not worth mentioning. The Monongahela, the largest of all these rivers, may, if necessary, easily be avoided, as Mr. Frazer the principal guide informs me, by passing a defile, and even that, he says, may be shunned.
"Again, it is said, there are many defiles on this road. I grant that there are some, but I know of none that may not be traversed; and I should be glad to be informed where a road can be had, over these mountains, not subject to the same inconvenience. The shortness of the distance between Raystown and Loyal Hanna is used as an argument against this road, which bears in it something unaccountable to me; for I must beg leave to ask, whether it requires more time, or is more difficult and expensive, to go one hundred and forty-five miles in a good road already made to our hands, than to cut one hundred miles anew, and a great part of the way over impassable mountains.
"That the old road is many miles nearer Winchester in Virginia, and Fort Frederic in Maryland, than the contemplated one, is incontestable; and I will here show the distances from Carlisle by the two routes, fixing the different stages, some of which I have from information only, but others I believe to be exact.
| MILES. | ||||||||||||||||
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| 93 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 193 | ||||||||||||||||
| MILES. | ||||||||||||||||
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| 97 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 212 | ||||||||||||||||
"From this computation there appears to be a difference of nineteen miles only. Were all the supplies necessarily to come from Carlisle, it is well known, that the goodness of the old road is a sufficient compensation for the shortness of the other, as the wrecked and broken wagons there clearly demonstrate. . .
". . From what has been said relative to the two roads, it appears to me very clear, that the old one is infinitely better, than the other can be made, and that there is no room to hesitate in deciding which to take, when we consider the advanced season, and the little time left to execute our plan."
But Forbes's letter of the thirty-first was decisive, and, following his orders, Colonel Bouquet began cutting a new road westward from Raystown August 1.
- ↑ By Hildreth and others.
- ↑ Forbes to Governor Denny (of Pennsylvania), March 20, 1758: Pennsylvania Records, N, p. 206.
- ↑ Note 43, first reference.
- ↑ Cf. Historic Highways of America, vol. iv, p. 192.
- ↑ Fort Frederick—Fort Cumberland route.
- ↑ Braddock's Road.
- ↑ Sparks: Writings of Washington, vol. ii, p. 295.
- ↑ Id., p. 298.
- ↑ Bouquet never exaggerates the difficulties that would attend Forbes if he chose to march by Fort Cumberland.
- ↑ Sparks: Writings of Washington, (1834) vol. ii, p. 300, note.
- ↑ Quotations from Washington's correspondence can be identified by dates in Sparks's Writings of Washington.