Fort Duquesne, the source of all the evil, was left
undisturbed. In vain Washington urged the futility of defensive war, and
the necessity of attacking the enemy in his stronghold. His position,
trying at the best, was made more so by the behavior of Dinwiddie. That
crusty Scotchman had conceived a dislike to him, and sometimes treated
him in a manner that must have been unspeakably galling to the proud and
passionate young man, who nevertheless, unconquerable in his sense of
public duty, curbed himself to patience, or the semblance of it.
Dinwiddie was now gone, and a new governor had taken his place. The
conduct of the war, too, had changed, and in the plans of Pitt the
capture of Fort Duquesne held an important place. Brigadier John Forbes
was charged with it. He was a Scotch veteran, forty-eight years of age,
who had begun life as a student of medicine, and who ended it as an able
and faithful soldier. Though a well-bred man of the world, his tastes
were simple; he detested ceremony, and dealt frankly and plainly with
the colonists, who both respected and liked him. In April he was in
Philadelphia waiting for his army, which as yet had no existence; for
the provincials were not enlisted, and an expected battalion of
Highlanders had not arrived. It was the end of June before they were all
on the march; and meanwhile the General was attacked with a painful and
dangerous malady, which would have totally disabled a less resolute man.
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