otherwise must have accrued in furnishing
stores, camp equipages, etc. Whereas the cost will now be easy
(comparatively speaking), as baggage, horses, tents, and some
other necessaries, will constitute the whole of the charge.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ford, I, 146-49.]

The army began to move about the middle of May, but it went very
slowly. During June Washington was taken with an acute fever, in
spite of which he pressed on, but he became so weak that he had to be
carried in a cart, as he was unable to sit his horse. Braddock, with
the main army, had gone on ahead, and Washington feared that the
battle, which he believed imminent, would be fought before he came up
with the front. But he rejoined the troops on July 8th. The next day
they forded the Monongahela and proceeded to attack Fort Duquesne.
Writing from Fort Cumberland, on July 18th, Washington gave Governor
Dinwiddie the following account of Braddock's defeat. The one thing
happened which Washington had felt anxious about--a surprise by the
Indians. He had more than once warned Braddock of this danger, and
Benjamin Franklin had warned him too before the expedition started,
but Braddock, with perfect British contempt, had replied that though
savages might be formidable to raw Colonials, they could make
no impression on disciplined troops. The surprise came and thus
Washington reports it:

When we came to this place, we were attacked (very unexpectedly)
by about three hundred French and Indians. Our numbers consisted
of about thirteen hundred well armed men, chiefly Regulars, who
were immediately struck with such an inconceivable panick, that
nothing but confusion and disobedience of orders prevailed among
them. The officers, in general, behaved with incomparable bravery,
for which they greatly suffered, there being near 60 killed and
wounded--a large proportion, out of the number we had!

The Virginia companies behaved like men and died like soldiers;
for I believe out of three companies that were on the ground that
day scarce thirty were left alive. Capt. Peyroney and all his
officers, down to a corporal, were killed; Capt. Polson had
almost as hard a fate, for only one of his escaped. In short, the
dastardly behaviour of the Regular troops (so-called) exposed
those who were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death;
and, at length, in despite of every effort to the contrary, broke