change did not appeal to the commander-in-chief; Butler was called to account for his action, apologized, and stated his reasons. St. Clair had ordered that the army march in three lines, contending that it was far more easy to cut three roads, ten feet in width each, than to cut one road of thirty or forty. St. Clair's method was that pursued by the wisest and most successful generals—Forbes and Bouquet—in hewing the first roads across the Alleghenies. "The quantity of timber," St. Clair records, "increases in a surprising proportion, as the width of the road is increased;"[1] the veteran conqueror of Fort Duquesne, General Forbes, wrote his right-hand man Colonel Bouquet under the same circumstances, urging the cutting of several paths, saying, "I don't mean here to cut down any large trees, only to clear away the Brushwood and saplins. . ."[2] Temporarily, St. Clair allowed Butler's alteration to stand, but
