then afford a sufficient quantity of
water for the purpose. A rapid movement therefore might enable him to
carry the fort, before the arrival of the expected aid; but if this
measure should not be adopted, such were the delays attendant on the
march of the whole army, that rains sufficient to raise the waters
might reasonably be expected, and the whole force of the French would
probably be collected for their reception; a circumstance which would
render the success of the expedition doubtful.

This advice according well with the temper of the commander-in-chief,
it was determined in a council of war, held at the Little Meadows,
that twelve hundred select men, to be commanded by General Braddock in
person, should advance with the utmost expedition against fort Du
Quesne. Colonel Dunbar was to remain with the residue of the two
regiments, and all the heavy baggage.

{June 19.}

Although this select corps commenced its march with only thirty
carriages, including ammunition wagons, the hopes which had been
entertained of the celerity of its movements were not fulfilled. "I
found," said Colonel Washington, in a letter to his brother, written
during the march, "that instead of pushing on with vigour, without
regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every
mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook." By these means they
employed four days in reaching the great crossings of the Yohiogany,
only nineteen miles from the Little Meadows.

Colonel Washington was obliged to stop at that place;--the physician
having declared that his life would be endangered by continuing with
the army. He obeyed, with reluctance, the positive orders of the
general to remain at this camp, under the protection of a small guard,
until the arrival of Colonel Dunbar; having first received a promise
that means should be used to bring him up with the army before it
reached fort Du Quesne.

{July 8.}

The day before the action of the Monongahela he rejoined the general
in a covered wagon; and, though weak, entered on the duties of his
station.

In a short time after the action had commenced, Colonel Washington was
the only aid remaining alive, and unwounded. The whole duty of
carrying the orders of the commander-in-chief, in an engagement with
marksmen who selected officers, and especially those on horseback, for
their objects, devolved on him alone. Under these difficult
circumstances, he manifested that coolness, that self-p