ur of inspection he
descended Wills' Creek and the Potomac for two hundred miles in a
canoe to Alexandria, and repaired to Virginia to meet General
Braddock. The latter had landed on the 20th of February, at Hampton,
in Virginia, and proceeded to Williamsburg to consult with Governor
Dinwiddie. Shortly afterwards he was joined there by Commodore Keppel,
whose squadron of two ships-of-war, and several transports, had
anchored in the Chesapeake. On board of these ships were two prime
regiments of about five hundred men each--one commanded by Sir Peter
Halket, the other by Colonel Dunbar; together with a train of
artillery, and the necessary munitions of war. The regiments were to
be augmented to seven hundred men, each by men selected by Sir John
St. Clair from Virginia companies recently raised. Alexandria was
fixed upon as the place where the troops should disembark and encamp.
The ships were accordingly ordered up to that place, and the levies
directed to repair thither.

The plan of the campaign included the use of Indian allies. Governor
Dinwiddie had already sent Christopher Gist to engage the Cherokees
and Catawbas, the bravest of the Southern tribes, who he had no doubt
would take up the hatchet for the English, peace being first
concluded, through the mediation of his government, between them and
the Six Nations; and he gave Braddock reason to expect at least four
hundred Indians to join him at Fort Cumberland. General Braddock
apprehended difficulty in procuring wagons and horses sufficient to
attend him in his march. Sir John St. Clair, in the course of his tour
of inspection, had met with two Dutch settlers, at the foot of the
Blue Ridge, who engaged to furnish two hundred wagons and fifteen
hundred carrying horses, to be at Fort Cumberland early in May.
Governor Sharpe was to furnish above a hundred wagons for the
transportation of stores, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. Keppel
furnished four cannons from his ships, for the attack on Fort
Duquesne, and thirty picked seamen to assist in dragging them over the
mountains. They were to aid also in passing the troops and artillery
on floats or in boats, across the rivers, and were under the command
of a midshipman and lieutenant.

Trusting to these arrangements, Braddock proceeded to Alexandria. The
troops had all been disembarked before his arrival, and the Virginia
levies, selected by Sir John St. Clair to join the regiments of
regulars, were arrived. Th