Cumberland a successful base of supplies and center of operations against the French. Moreover the Virginia route, being not only one of the longest on which Braddock could have approached the French, was the least supplied with any manner of wagons. "For such is the attention," wrote Entick, "of the Virginians towards their staple trade of tobacco, that they scarce raise as much corn, as is necessary for their own subsistence; and their country being well provided with water-carriage in great rivers an army which requires a large supply of wheel-carriages and beasts of burden, could not expect to be furnished with them in a place where they are not in general use."[1] "Their Produce is Tobacco," wrote one of Braddock's army, of the Virginians, "they are so attached to that, and their Avarice to raise it, makes them neglect every Comfort of Life." As has often been said, Carlisle in Pennsylvania would have made a far better center of operations than Fort Cumberland, and eventually it proved to be Pennsylvania wagons in which the stores
- ↑ Entick History of the Late War, vol. i., p. 142.
