"[661]
[Footnote 661: _Forbes to Bouquet, 23 Sept. 1758._]
The French pushed their advantage with spirit. Early in October a large
body of them hovered in the woods about the camp at Loyalhannon, drove
back a detachment sent against them, approached under cover of the
trees, and, though beaten off, withdrew deliberately, after burying
their dead and killing great numbers of horses and cattle.[662] But,
with all their courageous energy, their position was desperate. The
militia of Louisiana and the Illinois left the fort in November and went
home; the Indians of Detroit and the Wabash would stay no longer; and,
worse yet, the supplies destined for Fort Duquesne had been destroyed by
Bradstreet at Fort Frontenac. Hence Ligneris was compelled by
prospective starvation to dismiss the greater part of his force, and
await the approach of his enemy with those that remained.
[Footnote 662: _Burd to Bouquet, 12 Oct. 1758. Bouquet a Forbes, 13 Oct.
1758. Forbes to Pitt, 20 Oct. 1758. Letter from Loyalhannon, 14 Oct._,
in _Olden Time_, I. 180. _Letters from camp_, in _Boston News Letter.
Ligneris a Vaudreuil, 18 Oct. 1758. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 Nov.
1758._]
His enemy was in a plight hardly better than his own. Autumnal rains,
uncommonly heavy and persistent, had ruined the newly-cut road. On the
mountains the torrents tore it up, and in the valleys the wheels of the
wagons and cannon churned it into soft mud.
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