et
by Indians and in danger of being captured. Lieutenant
Archibald Blane in charge of it was making a gallant
defence against a horde of savages. Bouquet, while waiting
at Carlisle, engaged guides and sent in advance thirty
Highlanders, carefully selected men, to strengthen the
garrison under Blane. These, by keeping off the main
trail and using every precaution, succeeded in reaching
the fort without mishap.

Bouquet led his force westward. Sixty of his soldiers
were so ill that they were unable to march and had to be
carried in wagons. It was intended that the sick should
take the place of the men now in Forts Bedford and
Ligonier, and thus help to guard the rear. The road was
found to be in frightful condition. The spring freshets
had cut it up; deep gullies crossed the path; and the
bridges over the streams had been in most cases washed
away. As the little army advanced, panic-stricken settlers
by the way told stories of the destruction of homes and
the slaughter of friends. Fort Bedford, where Captain
Lewis Ourry was in command, was reached on the 25th. Here
three days were spent, and thirty more guides were secured
to serve as an advance-guard of scouts and give warning
of the presence of enemies. Bouquet had tried his
Highlanders at this work; but they were unfamiliar with
the forest, and, as they invariably got lost, were of no
value as scouts. Leaving his invalided officers and men
at Bedford, Bouquet, with horses rested and men refreshed,
pressed forward and arrived at Ligonier on August 2.
Preparations had now to be made for the final dash to
Fort Pitt, fifty odd miles away, over a path that was
beset by savages, who also occupied all the important
passes. It would be impossible to get through without a
battle--a wilderness battle--and the thought of the
Braddock disaster was in the minds of all. But Bouquet
was not a Braddock, and he was experienced in Indian
warfare. To attempt to pass ambuscades with a long train
of cumbersome wagons would be to invite disaster; so he
discarded his wagons and heavier stores, and having made
ready three hundred and forty pack-horses loaded with
flour, he decided to set out from Ligonier on the 4th of
August. It was planned to reach Bushy Creek--'Bushy Run,'
as Bouquet called it--on the following day, and there
rest and refresh horses and men. In the night a dash
would be made through the dangerous defile at Turtle
Creek; and, if the high broken country at this poi