Be this as it may, there he lay among the bushes, bleeding, gasping,
unable even to curse. He demanded to be left where he was. Captain
Stewart and another provincial bore him between them to the rear.
It was about this time that the mob of soldiers, having been three hours
under fire, and having spent their ammunition, broke away in a blind
frenzy, rushed back towards the ford, "and when," says Washington, "we
endeavored to rally them, it was with as much success as if we had
attempted to stop the wild bears of the mountains." They dashed across,
helter-skelter, plunging through the water to the farther bank, leaving
wounded comrades, cannon, baggage, the military chest, and the General's
papers, a prey to the Indians. About fifty of these followed to the edge
of the river. Dumas and Ligneris, who had now only about twenty
Frenchmen with them, made no attempt to pursue, and went back to the
fort, because, says Contrecoeur, so many of the Canadians had "retired
at the first fire." The field, abandoned to the savages, was a
pandemonium of pillage and murder.[228]
[Footnote 228: "Nous primes le parti de nous retirer en vue de rallier
notre petite armee." _Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1756_.
On the defeat of Braddock, besides authorities already cited,--_Shirley
to Robinson, 5 Nov. 1755_, accompanying the plans of the battle
reproduced in this volume (Public Record Office, _America and West
Indies_, LXXXIL).
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