The
Old Dominion did not wish to see a highway cut for her rival to those
rich lands of the Ohio which she called her own. Washington, who was
then at Fort Cumberland with a part of his regiment, was earnest for the
old road; and in an interview with Bouquet midway between that place and
Raystown, he spared no effort to bring him to the same opinion. But the
quartermaster-general, Sir John Sinclair, who was supposed to know the
country, had advised the Pennsylvania route; and both Bouquet and Forbes
were resolved to take it. It was shorter, and when once made would
furnish readier and more abundant supplies of food and forage; but to
make it would consume a vast amount of time and labor. Washington
foretold the ruin of the expedition unless it took Braddock's road.
Ardent Virginian as he was, there is no cause to believe that his
decision was based on any but military reasons; but Forbes thought
otherwise, and found great fault with him. Bouquet did him more justice.
"Colonel Washington," he writes to the General, "is filled with a
sincere zeal to aid the expedition, and is ready to march with equal
activity by whatever way you choose."
The fate of Braddock had impressed itself on all the army, and inspired
a caution that was but too much needed; since, except Washington's men
and a few others among the provincials, the whole, from general to
drummer-boy, were total strangers to that insidious warfare of the
forest in which their enemies, red and white, had no rival.
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