of an enemy's being near him. This guard being disordered,
the general hurried the troops up to their assistance, which was done
in great confusion, thro' waggons, baggage, and cattle; and presently
the fire came upon their flank: the officers, being on horseback, were
more easily distinguish'd, pick'd out as marks, and fell very fast; and
the soldiers were crowded together in a huddle, having or hearing no
orders, and standing to be shot at till two-thirds of them were killed;
and then, being seiz'd with a panick, the whole fled with precipitation.

The waggoners took each a horse out of his team and scamper'd; their
example was immediately followed by others; so that all the waggons,
provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The general,
being wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary, Mr.
Shirley, was killed by his side; and out of eighty-six officers,
sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men
killed out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had been picked men
from the whole army; the rest had been left behind with Colonel Dunbar,
who was to follow with the heavier part of the stores, provisions, and
baggage. The flyers, not being pursu'd, arriv'd at Dunbar's camp, and
the panick they brought with them instantly seiz'd him and all his
people; and, tho' he had now above one thousand men, and the enemy who
had beaten Braddock did not at most exceed four hundred Indians and
French together, instead of proceeding, and endeavoring to recover some
of the lost honour, he ordered all the stores, ammunition, etc., to be
destroy'd, that he might have more horses to assist his flight towards
the settlements, and less lumber to remove. He was there met with
requests from the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania,
that he would post his troops on the frontiers, so as to afford some
protection to the inhabitants; but he continu'd his hasty march thro'
all the country, not thinking himself safe till he arriv'd at
Philadelphia, where the inhabitants could protect him. This whole
transaction gave us Americans the first suspicion that our exalted
ideas of the prowess of British regulars had not been well founded.

In their first march, too, from their landing till they got beyond the
settlements, they had plundered and stripped the inhabitants, totally
ruining some poor families, besides insulting, abusing, and confining
the people if they remonstrated.